While I’ve always thought the race towards graphical hyperrealism isn’t as pervasive as it's often perceived, Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is definitely one of those games. The kind that probably has twelve artists dedicated to the recreation of visible pores, that sort of thing. It’s so focused on looking pretty that it hasn’t even noticed the title and subtitle got mixed up.
Sure enough, Hellblade 2 is a harsh test for older hardware, with a heavy reliance on DLSS or FSR upscaling to keep performance sweet. That said, it’s no Dragons Dogma 2-style technical horrorshow either. A happy balance of visuals and smoothness is attainable on plush PCs and low-end laptops alike, while DLSS 3 frame generation can deliver an effective kick in the framerate pants on RTX 40 series GPUs.
]]>Three questions before we start:
1) Do you like Robert Eggers' film The Northman? 2) Do you like games that mainly involve pressing 'forward' and not much else? 3) Do you like rocks?]]>Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 was featured in this evening's Xbox Developer Direct. Ninja Theory gave a further glimpse of the things they show when talking about Hellblade: motion capture, graphical fidelity, mental health representation, and stabbing. They also provided a release date: May 21st, 2024.
]]>Today's Xbox Developer Direct stream offered updates on some of 2024's biggest Microsoft games, including MachineGames' Indiana Jones And The Great Circle, Obsidian's Avowed and Ninja Theory's Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2. If you missed the stream and want a quick roundup of all the news, games, release dates and trailers featured, we've gathered it all together in this post.
]]>Today's the day of Xbox Developer Direct 2024, a select showcase of forthcoming Microsoft-published games, from sorcerous RPGs to intricate strategy games, which begins at 12pm PT, 3pm ET and 8pm UK. Wait, stop! Come back here, you silly goose. You don't need to go anywhere. I've embedded the livestream below, together with the key things you need to know about the games in question.
]]>On January 18th, the Xbox Developer Direct will offer updates on games from some of the studios the behemoth have swallowed over the past several years. Most excitingly, that'll include an update from MachineGames on their in-development Indiana Jones game.
]]>Happy New Year, folks! Have you recovered from the all the 100+ hour RPGs that came out last year? Well, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that everyone seems to be taking a bit of a breather in 2024, because (at time of writing at least) the official "big'uns" calendar is looking remarkably slim at the moment. There are still some heavy-hitters coming our way this year, such as Avowed, Star Wars Outlaws and Path Of Exile 2, but 2024 looks like another year where it will be the smaller, independent games that shine the brightest. They certainly make up the bulk of our most anticipated games list for 2024, which the RPS Treehouse has been feverishly putting together over the last few days. The bad news is that there are still loads of great games coming out. So come, join us, and see what's on our personal wishlists for 2024.
]]>It's been a while since we last got a proper good look at Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, but this year's Game Awards hasn't just given us a new trailer for Ninja Theory's long-awaited sequel, but a rough release window as well. Coming in 2024 to PC, Xboxes and Game Pass, it hopefully won't be long now before we can continue Senua's story and maybe slay some cool looking giants.
]]>2017's Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice did well critically and commercially, and it wasn't a huge surprise when Senua's Saga: Hellblade II was revealed three years back. It's been a little while since we heard more from it, but a cinematic trailer cropped up at tonight's Xbox Games Showcase, and wouldn't you know it, but we got a release window for 2024.
]]>Epic Games held their State Of Unreal presentation last night, where they talked about the new tech coming to Unreal Engine 5.2, unveiled Fortnite’s Creative 2.0 mode, and debuted new looks at upcoming UE5-developed games such as Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2. The first hack-and-slashing adventure already had pretty lifelike faces, but the spooky sequel is taking things a step further with some frighteningly realistic tech.
]]>Coinciding with International Women's Day on March 8th, Humble has put together a Humble Heroines bundle that offers eight games with female protagonists for £12.45 (~$15) - including Control, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Dreamscaper and Sable.
Proceeds go in part to the charities Girls Make Games Scholarship Fund and Girls Who Code, and you can adjust the mix between the game publishers, the charities and Humble itself using the 'adjust donation' section of the bundle page.
]]>In the lead-up to the original Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, the team at Ninja Theory released 30 development diaries, delving deep into every aspect of the game: the art inspirations, the myths they were remixing, and more. It was an insightful look at the nuts and bolts of game dev, so I’m glad Ninja Theory are returning to the concept for the spooky action sequel Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga. The first episode takes a look at Iceland - the sequel's setting - and the team's painstaking commitment to recreating it as realistically as possible. The photogrammartry tech on display is seriously impressive, and following the team to Iceland feels like watching a British travel series, without the crude humour.
]]>Two months after announcing they're buying Weta Digital, the CGI studio behind King Of The Hoops and that, Unity are now buying virtual skin. Today the makers of the Unity engine announced the acquisition of Ziva Dynamics, a company whose tech specialises in simulating skin and meat to make fancy facial animations and meaty muscle and such. Their tech powered the flappy flesh of the troll in a recent Hellblade 2 trailer, and has been seen on PlayStations in Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
]]>The follow-up to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, was first announced at The Game Awards back in 2019, and we haven't heard much about it since then. But it was back at The Game Awards again this year, showing some brand new footage of Senua leading a group of fighters through a rather wet cave to face a giant. It looks fantastic, and incredibly eerie.
]]>Valheim, which is Old Norse for "Valerie is home", came out in early access last month to the roars of Viking-likers everywhere. It is a survival game about building a hut in the woods and then protecting that hut from friends who want to erect a gaudy temple next door, totally ruining the rustic ambience of the whole glade. I guess there's some monsters to fight too. But will any of this matter if you do not make it through cold nights full of dangers, and lean days without food? Just where does your Valheim viking fall on the bar chart of survivability? Here are the 8 toughest Vikings in PC games, a healthy exercise in comparison and shame.
]]>After watching the trailer a bajillion more times, I am extremely excited for Assassin's Creed Valhalla. It's been around 48 hours since the announcement and I cannot possibly retain this state for much longer. By the time the Christmas-ish release date rolls around I will either have exploded like a poor little meat balloon, or gone full circle and lapsed into a coma. Like the engines of the Enterprise, she cannae hold - definitely not for around six more months, anyway.
Thank god that Vikings are an enduring and popular theme for games, then! I can inoculate myself against disaster by playing a few of these existing ones while I wait. Such is the versatility of Vikings that they pop up in almost every genre imaginable, too. So if, like me, you are already on the edge of your seat (and that seat is in a longship), here are some recommendations for varied and quality video games that will get you prepared for Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
]]>Like a heavily-sponsored Santa Claus, the Game Awards swept in last night and left us a pile of presents to unwrap. If you did the smart thing and slept through the event, you'll have missed a bunch of new announcements. Alice O and Graham did some amazing work in writing up as much as they could as it happened, but a few sly games snuck past 'em. Plus, sometimes it's just nice to have everything all in once place. Here's everything that was announced.
]]>Microsoft tonight announced Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, a sequel to 2017's striking and spooky Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. The trailer looks real chuffing spiffy, which is probably because it's running on Microsoft's next console, the ha-ha-hilariously-named Xbox Series X. Apparently Senua is a big enough deal for Microsoft to make it the game announced alongside their next system's (daft) name. Neat. Here, have a look in the trailer below.
]]>I’m sceptical of big, commercially-endorsed mental health initiatives with names like “The Insight Project”, which Hellblade developers Ninja Theory announced yesterday. This research program will see them collaborate with Paul Fletcher, a psychiatrist and professor of health neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, to study (and hopefully implement) ways videogames can help people with their mental health issues. Sure enough, their announcement video is largely jargon-laden PR soup that glosses over how this idea is not a new one, and makes the project seem more exciting and useful than it will probably ever be.
I also still think there's a good chance they're on to something, and further reading around their website is more encouraging.
]]>HDR on PC hasn't improved much in 2019. Despite there being more HDR gaming monitors than ever before, the very best gaming monitors for HDR continue to be quite expensive compared to non-HDR monitors, and the situation around Windows 10 support for it is still a bit of a mess. However, provided you're willing to fight through all that, then the next step on your path to high dynamic range glory is to get an HDR compatible graphics card.
Below, you'll find a complete list of all the Nvidia and AMD graphics cards that have built-in support for HDR, as well as everything you need to know about getting one that also supports Nvidia and AMD's own HDR standards, G-Sync Ultimate and FreeSync 2. I've also put together a list of all the PC games that support HDR as well, so you know exactly which PC games you can start playing in high dynamic range.
]]>I finally played Hellblade a lot later than I anticipated considering as soon as I saw the trailer I was very much into it. Norse mythology, female protagonist, mental health representation AND puzzles, what more could I want?
Well, as it turns out, I wanted a lot less.
]]>Hellblade developers Ninja Theory are apparently trying their hand at four-on-four multiplayer next, if a leaked trailer for their next game Bleeding Edge is accurate. Blurrily captured at a Microsoft keynote at the weekend by Xboxer (they're Slovakian, so you may need Google Translate), it shows us a cast of brightly coloured cyborg weirdos gearing up for a rumble. One's part unicycle with buzzsaws for hands, another's a weird skeleton-faced guy full of guns. It all reminds me a bit of Platinum's underrated Anarchy Reigns by way of Sunset Overdrive, and is apparently due to begin technical alpha testing on June 27th.
]]>“Truth is the first casualty of first-person shooters,” said the philosopher Ian Videogames. Time has proven him correct. Not a game is developed without some use of smoke and/or mirror. But this week on the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, we shall not be lying to you. We are journalists and we stand for the Truth with a big 'T'. No more tricksy use of code and polygon, we say. No more lying!
Unless it makes us go really, really fast.
]]>The Vikings have long ago invaded the coasts of pop culture on their dragon-headed longships and carved out their own Danelaw in the realm of video games. In recent years, they’ve grown even bolder, taking over most genres from RTS to RPG, classic point and click adventure to action, with an utter disregard towards distinctions between AAA and indie. They’ve settled in Hellblade and Frostrune, Dead in Vinland and The Witcher 3, God of War and Crusader Kings 2, and of course, The Banner Saga trilogy. Luckily, it’s easy to spot a Viking. Horned helmets, mead-filled drinking horns, bloody battle axes and grim miens are a dead giveaway. When in doubt, tempt the suspected Viking with loot, then wait and see whether or not they can resist the urge to pillage.
]]>"More than once during Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice I had to fight the urge to rip the headphones from my ears," Samuel Horti wrote in his Hellblade review, noting that "as a portrayal of how harrowing it is to live with psychosis it undoubtedly succeeds." Yeah yeah, but what if you could jam your eyeballs inside psychosis too? Now you may, as developers Ninja Theory today added official support for VR goggles for free. Even if cybergoggs did work with my peepers, I think I might steer clear of jacking into Celtic hallucinations. Though I spent much of last night hugging the toilet while drifting in and out of sleep, so perhaps I've already lived it.
]]>The old quote is wrong: neither death nor taxes are, it seems to me, as terrifyingly certain as the Steam Summer Sale. Yes, once more we can add to the heap that is our backlog by buying games for, what, five quid, on average? But there are so many to choose from that it's easy to get flustered, so who better than the staff of RPS to hand-pick the best ones for your consideration (rhetorical question; do not answer)?
Check out the full list below for a mix of games that should suit all pockets and tastes.
]]>There's something about the very concept of 'a million' that sticks in the mind. It's one of those nice, round numbers that still remains hard to visualise due to its sheer enormity. For instance, if you were to print DVD cases for all one million copies sold (across PC, PS4 & Xbox One) of Ninja Theory's Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, you'd have a million DVD cases, and I cannot even begin to parse how much space that'd take up. Still, it's a hell of a success, considering that the game itself was a gamble, both business-wise (making 'AAA Indie' a thing) and thematically.
]]>A pleasingly fresh collection of games dominating the top ten Steam moneymakers this week, along with the shock absence of Counter-Strike: GO! No shocks at the #1 spot, but a couple of surprising appearances in the top 5.
]]>The 14th British Academy Games Awards were handed out this week and, while the awards themselves may be a bit disconnected from where the rest of us in Games Proper see the industry, they are a good measurement of how The Establishment sees interactive entertainment at this point. To that end, it is both shocking and a bit exciting to see the awards highlight a game that was overwhelmingly overlooked this year, and which deserved more celebration than it has received to this point. I'm speaking about Ninja Theory's dark adventure fantasy game Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, and its five BAFTA wins: Artistic Achievement, Audio Achievement, British Game, Games Beyond Entertainment and Melina Juergens took the Performance category for her role as Senua.
]]>Sit down at the boiling pot, stranger. Let me tell you a tale. A sordid tale, full of fascinating lands and captivating characters. A story of wonder and flame, strangeness and warmth. Would you like to hear it? Great. Just play this rubbish cover shooter for a half hour. I’ll start the introduction when you hit the first checkpoint.
Welcome to the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. This week we’re discussing some great stories that come packaged with terrible games.
]]>We've already seen which games sold best on Steam last year, but a perhaps more meaningful insight into movin' and a-shakin' in PC-land is the games that people feel warmest and snuggliest about. To that end, Valve have announced the winners of the 2017 Steam Awards, a fully community-voted affair which names the most-loved games across categories including best post-launch support, most player agency, exceeding pre-release expectations and most head-messing-with. Vintage cartoon-themed reflex-tester Cuphead leads the charge with two gongs, but ol' Plunkbat and The Witcher series also do rather well - as do a host of other games from 2017's great and good.
Full winners and runners-up below, with links to our previous coverage of each game if you're so-minded. Plus: I reveal which game I'd have gone for in each category.
]]>Another year over, a new one just begun, which means, impossibly, even more games. But what about last year? Which were the games that most people were buying and, more importantly, playing? As is now something of a tradition, Valve have let slip a big ol' breakdown of the most successful titles released on Steam over the past twelve months.
Below is the full, hundred-strong roster, complete with links to our coverage if you want to find out more about any of the games, or simply to marvel at how much seemed to happen in the space of 52 short weeks.
]]>Let us podcast, lest we forget. The squad of the Electronic Wireless Show chat about some of the most overlooked and underappreciated games of this year. Katharine thinks head-in-a-sack trip to the underworld Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice might qualify, while Adam praises the unsettling tales of Stories Untold. Brendan just wants more people to slap in skinny-person biffing game Absolver. But we've also been playing some other good 'uns, including the magical realist family chronicle What Remains of Edith Finch and naval tactical battler Mare Nostrvm.
]]>Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice has, after three months, become profitable for developer Ninja Theory. Since launching in August, the third-person action game has sold 500,000 copies and garnered a great deal of praise for the way it approaches the challenging subject of mental illness. This is great news for Ninja Theory, of course, but its success will also no doubt be welcomed by those hoping that Hellblade will herald the arrival of AAA-quality games designed by indie studios. I don’t think it will.
]]>Accolade trailers are usually a bit rubbish, so I don’t typically write about them, but Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice [official site] developers Ninja Theory have put together a slightly special one, made up of screenshots taken by players using photo mode, while the ‘accolades’ are, instead of being press quotes, taken from fans who were helped by the way the game tackles mental health.
With that in mind, Ninja Theory will also donate all proceeds they receive from the game generated on World Mental Health Day to charity, which takes place tomorrow, October 10.
]]>You want to know which are the top ten selling games on Steam this week, but you also still don't know the capital city of Turkmenistan. What is a person to do? Well worry not, because here at Steam Charts HQ, we've got you covered! All the games that are in the top ten games in the Steam top ten games chart, and all the facts you need for that surprise government test!
Join us today as we laugh and learn.
]]>The Steam Charts is the only place on the internet to find out the most up-to-date information about the games you care about the most, the latest rumours of upcoming changes to early access hits, and secrets that can see your way to coming top of the gaming high score tables!
]]>The voices won’t stop. They’re whispering in my ear, gnawing at my skull from all angles. “Turn back”, one says. “They’re watching you”. “She falls for their tricks every time,” says another, cackling while Senua screams. More than once during Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice [official site] I had to fight the urge to rip the headphones from my ears. As a portrayal of how harrowing it is to live with psychosis it undoubtedly succeeds, and it uses Senua’s illness as a route into an excellent eight-hour story about love and loss. But, sometimes, especially in its combat segments, it’s also difficult to play for the wrong reasons.
]]>Ninja Theory, the gang behind Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and DmC: Devil May Cry, today launched their new story-driven stabber Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice [official site]. This one's a bit slower and moodier than those two, starring a Celtic warrior who grapples with her own mental health as she goes on a vision quest into the Viking underworld. Ooh it's worse than a garden centre on a Bank Holiday Monday.
]]>Developer Ninja Theory has a lofty goal for Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice [official site]: to make a hack-and-slash game that's all about mental health. They're the folk that made DmC: Devil May Cry and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (they like a colon, eh?), so you can expect an inordinate amount of stabbing. But the real focus is main character Senua's struggle with psychosis, depression, and hallucinations.
That focus is clear from the latest trailer. Senua's facial expressions are genuinely harrowing and the deep voiceover narrating Senua's torment is chilling (although I had to jack my speakers right up to figure out what it was saying). The trailer also draws clear parallels between the overarching story of Senua searching for the soul of a dead lover and her inner plight – as in, she's fighting both inner and external demons.
]]>As Old Father Time grabs his sickle and prepares to take ailing 2016 around the back of the barn for a big sleep, we're looking to the future. The mewling pup that goes by the name 2017 will come into the world soon and we must prepare ourselves for its arrival. Here at RPS, our preparations come in the form of this enormous preview feature, which contains details on more than a hundred of the exciting games that are coming our way over the next twelve months. 2016 was a good one - in the world of games at least - but, ever the optimists, we're hoping next year will be even better.
]]>Ninja Theory must have thought the old title really wasn't cutting it, and I can't really blame them for it. Hellblade does sound like a Ninja Theory game, but it didn't reflect the new direction they were going for with this one.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice [official site] should more accurately reflect the two souls of their work-in-progress, pairing their typical hack-and-slash action with an uncommon attention spent on accurate portrayal and characterization of mental health issues. The new trailers lets us listen in on Senua's inner monologue.
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