Top-down pixel art action title Elden: Path of the Forgotten is scheduled to launch on Nintendo Switch in 2019, it has been confirmed.

Elden: Path of the Forgotten is a medieval cosmic horror game with a focus on “storytelling through nontraditional methods” and environmental storytelling. It has been in development since late 2015 by the one-man team at Onerat Games, being picked up by publisher Another Indie for the Switch release coming later this year.

This handy feature list should give you a little more info:

KEY FEATURES:
– Explore a stunning and encapsulating dark world containing assorted, challenging, and narrative layered lands.
– Immerse yourself in epic battles against abhorrent Lovecraftian enemies and bosses.
– Play your style by experimenting with a wide variety of unique weapons and powerful spells.
– Be haunted by a gorgeous and minimalistic soundtrack.

We don’t have a specific release date for this one just yet, but we’ll keep an eye out for more news as it comes.

What do you think? Are you looking forward to seeing the game launch on Switch? Tell us below.

#Firestorm is live for all players. Get #Battlefield V for up to 50% off, and let us know where you will drop first. https://t.co/bjTdIif0sk pic.twitter.com/BetzV8y0a8

— #Battlefield V (@Battlefield) March 25, 2019

We’re getting a new Lord of the Rings game, and it’s one that will focus on perhaps the most interesting character across all of Tolkien’s works: Gollum.

Twisted and tortured by his desire for The One Ring, Gollum is a key figure in both The Hobbit and its sequel, and would make a great central character for any game. That’s clearly what publisher Daedalic Entertainment thinks, as it is creating a point-and-click adventure with The Artist Formerly Known As Sméagol in the lead role.

Created with the assistance of Middle-earth Enterprises, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will take place between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. After being tricked out of ownership of The One Ring to Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, Gollum is torn apart by rage and is eventually captured by a resurgent Sauron, who tortures Gollum to discover the powerful trinket’s latest whereabouts – setting in motion the events of The Lord of the Rings. Given the large space of time between both books, there’s plenty of ground to cover in the game, much of which was never fully fleshed-out by Tolkien himself.

Daedalic CEO Carsten Fichtelmann had this to say:

We tell Gollum’s story from a perspective never seen before, in any storytelling medium, all the while staying true to the legendary books of J.R.R. Tolkien. At a time when the games industry is undergoing structural changes and seeing new business models evolve, we are excited to realize a huge new production based on a story that has stayed fresh and relevant for more than 60 years.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is seen as the first in a new wave of officially-licenced games based on Tolkien’s epic high fantasy world, and will launch on 2021 on “all relevant console platforms at that time”. We’d imagine that includes Switch, but we obviously can’t be sure at this moment in time. There’s also little to report on the game itself, which is understandable given how far away it is.

What we do know is that this won’t be based on Peter Jackson’s acclaimed movie series, so don’t expect familiar faces (or indeed voices) to appear – we’ll have an all-new cast with different designs, and the world of Middle-earth will no doubt look a lot different, too.

Telltale’s The Walking Dead: The Final Season has finally reached its end today, with its final episode ‘Take Us Back’ now available on Nintendo Switch and other platforms.

As you may well be aware, Skybound Games picked up development of the Walking Dead series after its original developer, Telltale, closed its doors last year. Some members of the original Telltale team joined forces with Skybound to complete the game and the final result of this collaboration can now be fully experienced by players.

Skybound Games CEO Ian Howe has shared the following in a press release today:

“It’s been an amazing experience working with the Still Not Bitten team to finish the final two episodes of TELLTALE’S THE WALKING DEAD for fans. I’d like to thank the team for their dedication to completing Clementine’s story, and the fans for embracing Skybound Games as we worked to help bring closure to a story near-and-dear to so many.”

If you’re yet to play any of the final season, here’s a quick overview:

After years on the road facing threats both living and dead, a secluded school might finally be Clementine’s chance for a home in THE WALKING DEAD: THE FINAL SEASON. Clementine has become a leader while watching over AJ, an orphaned boy and the closest thing to family she has left. In the aftermath of an explosive plan to save her friends, Clementine must now lead her flock of lost children back home. A herd of walkers, the vengeful raiders, and AJ’s troubled mind all stand in her way. Can she be the savior they need her to be?

As with past seasons, the final season is available from the Nintendo eShop in the form of a season pass which gives you access to all episodes as they are released. Those who have already purchased a pass can get their hands on the new episode today, and buying the pass from today onwards will automatically grant you access to all four episodes, including today’s release.

Have you been playing through Clementine’s story? Will you be checking out the series’ conclusion today? Let us know in the comments.

Starting today, the ever-growing State of Decay 2 community can take the ultimate zombie survival game to its deadliest level with the launch of the Choose Your Own Apocalypse Update. This update introduces the Dread Zones and Nightmare Zones as two new difficulty modes that challenge players with deadlier zombies, more aggressive and resilient humans, a faster-acting blood plague and fewer resources to scavenge. Along with these two new modes are 16 new Achievements for 275 additional Gamerscore.

Available at no cost for all owners of State of Decay 2 and Xbox Game Pass members, the Choose Your Own Apocalypse Update presents more options for players to define what it means to survive. New players can start their community in Standard Zones (the game’s base difficulty level), and Dread Zones are great place for players who want a challenge with additions like armored zombies, more hordes and a faster acting blood plague infection (from about 3 hours to just about 30 minutes). Nightmare Zones are intended for hardcore players who are ready to test themselves against freak packs like screamer choirs and bloater pods along with NPCs who can headshot you right back.

Earlier this month we gave a sneak peek at what to expect with the Choose Your Own Apocalypse Update, and we’re excited to additionally share that based on community feedback, you can now choose your map when establishing a new community. The team has also continued to make other improvements to the core game based on feedback, which includes an all-new Character Manager, larger loot drops at plague hearts and more. The full list of patch notes is available at stateofdecay.com.

To celebrate the launch of the Choose Your Own Apocalypse Update, we’re also running a MixPot giveaway at mixer.com/undeadlabs from March 26 at 9:00 a.m. PDT until April 2 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.  Viewers who are logged into Mixer and watching the official Undead Labs Mixer channel will be automatically entered to win all five of the pre-order content packs.

With today’s update, now is the perfect time for new and existing fans to jump into the apocalypse. For those new to State of Decay 2, get started with Xbox Game Pass (whether as a current member or by joining today and get your first month for $1), or by purchasing either the Standard Edition or the Ultimate Edition. We’re excited for players to enjoy today’s release and look forward to continuing supporting the State of Decay 2 community with content like the upcoming return to Trumbull Valley later this year.

Until then, you can Choose Your Own Apocalypse and answer the question: how will you survive?

Pocket Tactics favourites Playdek seem to be recovering from whatever it was that was affecting them a year or so ago, when all was quiet and we were genuinely concerned for their future. Case in point: they’ve just announced another project as part of their long-standing strategic partnership with physical war game publisher GMT Games.

We already knew they were working on a port of Labyrinth: War on Terror 2001 – ?, but today they’ve announced they’re also working on a digital port of Fort Sumter for PC & mobile devices. Fort Sumter is a fast-paced card driven game based around the historical events that led to the start of the American Civil War. It’s not a war game – there are no troops to command and the game doesn’t even technically cover the ACW itself.

Instead, it attempts to model the political struggle in the days and weeks leading up to the initial siege of the fort by the Confederate force (which kicked off the Civil War). It’s a card driven strategy game with very limited actions, and a lot of tough choices to make. You can read what our very own Matt Thrower thought of the physical game in his article over at Wargamer.com:

Your goal is to have more cubes than your opponent in all three spaces of the same aspect, earning you a point. But there are catches to keep the game interesting. Most notably, it penalises players for adding too many cubes too fast. Historically this models the way that taking up extreme positions both attracts and repels aspects of public opinion. But it’s also a clever route to game balance, like Twilight Struggle’s “Defcon” track.

Shuffling cubes among board spaces doesn’t sound like a historical game. And the first time you play, it’s unlikely to feel like one. You’ll read the cards, match some symbols on the board, and ride out the half-hour play time like a fanciful abstract. But you’ll have a good time, because like any good abstract, Fort Sumter is full of fun decisions.

We don’t really know anything more at this point – Playdek have confirmed it’s coming to PC, iOS & Android, but no word on timings yet. We’ll keep you updated as we find out more.

KO_OP and ustwo games will be releasing their new titles Winding Worlds and Repair, respectively, as Apple Arcade exclusives.

This news comes shortly after Apple announced its own game subscription service, Apple Arcade, as a pay-for-access library of premium games for Apple platforms.

In addition to KO_OP and ustwo games, Hironobu Sakaguchi’s (creator of the Final Fantasy series) studio Mistwalker is working on an Apple Arcade exclusive game called Fantasian. 

A handful of developers are already working with Apple to bring their games to the service, including Konami, PlatinumGames, Sega, Annapurna Interactive, Gameloft, Devolver Digital and several others.

While Apple has yet to announce anything on pricing yet, the service is due out this fall in more than 150 countries and regions and the full list of games slated to be released on the platform can be viewed here.

In this 2017 GDC talk, visual effects (VFX) veterans Keith Guerrette and Drew Skillman share their perspectives on why it’s important to foster a culture of knowledge sharing and collaboration within the VFX community.

With that philosophy in mind, Guerrette and Skillman offer their knowledge of VFX, and the session concludes with a look into the future and the role VFX will play in a world driven by realtime rendering.

It was an insightful talk that’s definitely still worth watching, so developers shouldn’t miss the opportunity to do so now that it’s freely available on the official GDC YouTube channel!

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Here in the Xbox Insider section of the Wire, we make a point of calling out Xbox Insider participation as an important part of successfully launching features, updates, and games on Xbox and PC.  Xbox Ideas is a part of this success, enabling our community to make contributions that improve all aspects of the Xbox experience by sharing their ideas.  In the spirit of building a better Xbox experience together, we’re inviting you to help test an additional space for Xbox Idea Drives.

We’ve recently created a space within the r/XboxInsiders subreddit called the Xbox Idea Hub.  The Xbox Idea Hub is a standalone page housed within the Xbox Insider Subreddit where we can offer Idea Drives similar to what you may have seen previously on Xbox Ideas. Many users of the existing Xbox Ideas platform have shared feedback that they’d like to see some aspects of our Idea Drives changed, and we believe the Xbox Insider Subreddit can offer those desired changes, including:

• No-wait moderation: When you post your idea, it shows up immediately
• In-thread discussion: Within a comment thread, you can help develop any idea to its fullest potential
• Better voting and sorting options: More control over how topics show up for you

As a member of the Xbox Insider Program, we’d like you to lead the way by testing this site before we expand it to the broader Xbox community.  To get started, check out the new Xbox Idea Hub.  Then, contribute to our first Idea Drive in this space – it’s focused on renaming “Feature Friday,” like we said in the title. (Note: If you’re a regular reader of the subreddit, you probably already know about “Feature Friday.” If not, you can read about it in the Idea Drive post and then give us your ideas.)

Once you’ve provided your ideas and upvoted the ones you like, please be sure to read the latest subreddit update post and leave your comments and feedback about the Xbox Idea Hub in the thread.

Thanks in advance, Xbox Insiders!  Your feedback here will help us as we prepare to share the Xbox Idea Hub with the world. Keep watching the blog here, or @XboxInsider on Twitter, for future announcements when we fully open the doors.