As we enter the last full week of April, we're finally back to a busy release schedule again. This week's AAA title apparently had some last minute bugs squashed just this week, so let's hope the released game delivers on its promise. As for the rest of this week you can look forward to a VR horror shooter, a side scrolling action-adventure medtroidvania game, a Robin Hood wannabe game, a dungeon crawler you can play with friends online, a game about a hermit crab, a JRPG and finally a very sandy action RPG.

Manor Lords / This week's AAA release / Friday 26 April / Early Access
Manor Lords is a strategy game that allows you to experience the life of a medieval lord. Grow your starting village into a bustling city, manage resources and production chains, and expand your lands through conquest. Inspired by the art and architecture of late 14th century Franconia, Manor Lords prioritizes historical accuracy wherever possible, using it to inform gameplay mechanics and visuals alike. Common medieval tropes are avoided in favor of historical accuracy, in order to make the world feel more authentic, colorful, and believable. Steam Link

Don't worry, we haven't included any April fools games in this week's new releases, even though we're about to enter the first week of April. However, the month of April doesn't exactly start with a bang when it comes to new games, in fact, it feels a bit like the first week of the year, as there's no major release this week. What we do have on offer includes paws, pixels, rage quitting, beats and a sprinkling of Valhalla.

Pawggle / Monday 1 April
One simple rule: Eliminate all the red pegs from the game board before running out of balls. Pawggle is a casual Peggle/Pachinko style game but, this time, you step away from the visor. Step into a world where you become the guiding hand for your furry companions, aiding them by strategically placing blue pegs. Steam Link

Earlier this month, the world lost a one-of-a-kind creative talent with the news of Akira Toriyama's passing. While Dragon Ball will always be Toriyama-sensei's best-known work, he leaves behind a legacy full of many other imaginative worlds across games, anime, and manga. Before leaving us, he worked with Bandai Namco to flesh out one of his short manga creations further: Sand Land. Alongside a new anime series, Toriyama-sensei gave input on a videogame adaptation of Sand Land that would allow players to explore this unique world for themselves.

The classic manga Sand Land lives on in Bandai Namco's new game, which ventures beyond where the original story concludes. Read on to find out what new adventures await our mech-powered demon hero in the wetlands, caves, and Forest Land. Speaking of Forest Land, we also have a reveal of new gameplay from the woodland biome.

NetEase Games and Marvel Games are excited to announce their latest collaboration: Marvel Rivals, a cooperative, Super Hero team-based PVP shooter! Players can assemble an ever-evolving all-star squad of Super Heroes and Super Villains, while battling with unique super powers across a dynamic lineup of destructible maps from across the Marvel Multiverse. Marvel Rivals is in development for PC by a NetEase team composed of global talent, who previously worked on hit franchises such as Call of Duty and Battlefield.

"We are overjoyed to bring Marvel Rivals to players around the world. We have always loved Marvel's universe and its characters, and we are so excited to be developing this game," said the Marvel Rivals Producer Stephen Wu. "This is the game we want to make, and we feel very lucky to be the team who made all of this come true."

Publisher Wired Productions are proud to share that visionary independent developer Tomas Sala's Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles releases today on PC, and PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox Series S|X and Xbox One.

Once more, gamers have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the tumultuous realm of the Ursee. Marked by years of relentless conflict and scarred by the ravages of war, the world now hosts only a handful of factions struggling to survive amidst its rugged cliffs and tempestuous waters. With intuitive controls at their fingertips, players will wield the power to rebuild this shattered landscape, erecting towering fortresses in a domain uniquely their own.

Lead a nation of your design through a history shaped by your choices in Millennia, a new 4x historical strategy game from C Prompt Games and Paradox Interactive. Guide your people from the stone to a near future, maybe taking detours through historical ages of plague or steampunk technology in Millennia, available now. From us at Paradox Interactive & C Prompt Games, we hope you love the game!

Define history; turn by turn and age by age. In Millennia, you start with a blank slate on which to write a new society and culture. Choose traits and government forms as you accumulate power through a variety of domains (government, war, art, etc.), using these powers to expand and exploit the world around you. Develop a production chain to transform common resources into valuable goods, and then trade the surplus to a distant settlement, boosting its population and production. Define your nation as a land of warriors, explorers or learners as you adopt new traits over time.

The Lee family is reuniting once again to rid the streets of crime as Billy and Jimmy Lee's cousin, Sonny Lee, is joining Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons on April 4. An unconventional fighter, Sonny thrashes his enemies with a flurry of punches and kicks to prove he's just as powerful as his cousins. First appearing in Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone, Sonny Lee joins Double Dragon Gaiden as part of the free Sacred Reunion DLC coming to PC and consoles. Sonny is the lazy, distant cousin of the Lee brothers, but just like Billy and Jimmy, he has practiced the art of Sōsetsuken since he was young. However, Sonny has a hard time keeping up. He opts to give the ancient technique his own creative spin and now wanders the streets to test the might of his new moves.

Also joining Sonny in the Sacred Reunion DLC is the secret assassin Ranzou and one additional mystery fighter. Ranzou is a mysterious young ninja from a secret organization, known as The Secret Society of Ninjas. He has no stake in the fate of New York, but he is sent here by his organization as a test of his abilities. Along with the new characters, the Sacred Reunion DLC will include Survival mode, Versus mode and online co-op. As a fighter, Sonny distinguishes himself as a rushdown/offensive warrior. He executes an action attack similar to a quick breakdance maneuver that travels a short distance and covers threats from all directions. Despite his Sōsetsuken roots, we wanted to ensure that Sonny is his own character, and he is designed to play differently from Billy and Jimmy with much more eccentric moves. His role as the familial outcast significantly influences his fighting style, resulting in a blend of showboating and non-traditional stances. Sonny's distinctive approach to combat reflects his individuality within the family dynamic, which gives him more depth and personality, allowing him to shine brighter in the game.

Game Pill, one of Canada's leading and most experienced game development studios with over 100 game credits, is thrilled to announce a new original snack 'n' slash action RPG called Hangry. In this all-new adventure, players take on the role of the titular character, Hangry, on an intergalactic quest to hunt down, carve up, and devour countless delicious beasts spread across a wide assortment of exotic locales.

You can be among the first people in the world to play this upcoming game at The MIX during GDC in San Francisco, CA, and give us valuable feedback in person. We'll also be showcasing the game during the GDC Expo briefly at the Canada booth near the GDC Play area in the North Hall on Wednesday, March 20th, from 12pm - 2pm PT.

Week 12 is really delivering a baker's dozen when it comes to big game releases, as we have both new and old big releases this week, with this week's AAA release being an open world action RPG game. However, if that's not your cup of tea, then we still have a week packed to the brim with big releases, although it starts off with a bug-sized indie game, but its theme carries over to the next release and this game somehow involves robots. This is followed by a game where you might want to have someone's hand to hold, as it can get a bit scary, even if it's a remake. Towards the end of this week we have another major release, which also involves robots and was a big hit on the PlayStation consoles. We end the week on a somewhat similar theme as the first two game releases of the week, even though it's on a much grander scale.

Dragon's Dogma 2 / This week's AAA release / Friday 22 March
Dragon's Dogma is a single player, narrative driven action-RPG series that challenges the players to choose their own experience - from the appearance of their Arisen, their vocation, their party, how to approach different situations and more. Now, in this long-awaited sequel, the deep, explorable fantasy world of Dragon's Dogma 2 awaits. On your journey, you'll be joined by Pawns, mysterious otherworldly beings, in an adventure so unique you will feel as if accompanied by other players while on your own adventure. All of these elements are elevated further through physics technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and the latest in graphics, to create a truly immersive fantasy world in Dragon's Dogma 2. Steam Link

Helldivers 2 has exploded onto the gaming scene in a massive way. This co-operative third-person shooter packed with danger, action, humor, and surprises has already become one of this year's most talked-about games. What some people may be less familiar with though is its progenitor. The original Helldivers, which debuted in 2015 (and is still active) is a co-op, multiplayer overhead twin-stick shooter packed with action, intensity, and plenty of challenging situations that a player might find themselves in.

We asked Johan Pilestedt, CEO & Creative Director at Arrowhead Studios about the process of adapting the original overhead-view gameplay of Helldivers into the third-person format-after first congratulating him for the rip-roaring success of the game. We asked how the team felt about the positive reception. "Overwhelmed and ecstatic! Over the last 15 years, we've seen a keen interest in the types of games we make and it was great to see our work recognized at this scale."

Pixel Chest and Hooded Horse are excited to share that their upcoming action/base-building hybrid Sons of Valhalla will release on PC next month on April 5th, 2024. Pixel Chest Games' unique Viking-themed adventure will set players on a perilous journey as they cut a swathe through England, all in a bid to reclaim what was lost. Sons of Valhalla combines side-scrolling combat with base-building strategy in a beautiful pixel-art Viking Age world. Players assume the guise of Thorald Olavson, a warrior hell-bent on tracking down the Jarl who burned down his home and kidnapped his beloved. Backed by Odin himself, players must build fortresses, gather resources, and lay siege to enemy strongholds, challenging key leaders in single combat as they conquer their way across England.

But Thorald isn't a demi-god, nor is he a one-man army. Players must ensure they build up their position and recruit a large enough warband to tackle the menagerie of foes that await them—each one requiring specific tactics to defeat. Siege engines will be needed to overcome defensive walls, and runes can be collected to further augment Thorald and his warriors' skills. These runes can also be offered up as a sacrifice should players find themselves in front of Odin again…

The characters in a Lovecraft story are susceptible to… mutation. Minds and bodies are forever altered by exposure to the horrors hiding in the darker corners of the world. It's perhaps no surprise, then, that The Sinking City 2—which just got a world premiere in the latest Xbox Partner Preview broadcast—has undergone its own unexpected change. Where the first game was a detective adventure, with horror bubbling up from its flooded world, its sequel has taken on a darker, more aggressive form. The Sinking City 2 is a true horror game now, with more emphasis on combat, while keeping a Lovecraftian narrative close to its twisted heart.

"The Sinking City is one of our most successful titles, because of our stronger horror genre leanings and the setting," Frogwares Head of Publishing, Sergey Oganesyan tells me. "For us, it was kind of a breakthrough, and we are super excited to work on a full-scale horror game. We have created quite a few detective adventures in the past, so now we're going to mix things up to keep doing what people love from us - meaning story-rich experiences - while still being able to evolve."

As we enter the second week of March, we have a packed week of new releases for you and the big release this coming week is an open world third-person action adventure shooter. This is followed by a game in Vegas, a classic style run-'n'-gun side scroller, a trippy llama related game, a classic collection Sci-Fi game and the 25th release of a sports title. Sorry, no strategy game this week either.

Outcast - A New Beginning / This week's major release / Friday 15 March
20 years after the award-winning action adventure hit, Outcast, pioneered the genre of non-linear open-world games, the long-awaited sequel sees Cutter Slade return to the spectacular alien world of Adelpha. Resurrected by the almighty Yods, he has returned to find the Talans enslaved, the world stripped of its natural resources, and his own past intertwining with the invading robot forces. It's up to him to go on a mission and save the planet again. Steam Link

Welcome to the month of March, which we kick off with some American play fighting and although this is the biggest release this week, it's not what we'd call a AAA release. We obviously have a range of other games for you as well, ranging from a morally ambiguous RPG to a muddy driving game followed by a physiological horror title, a very Finnish adventure and nine days of preparation.

WWE 2K24 / This week's major release / Friday 8 March
WWE 2K24 boasts a star-studded roster featuring WWE Legends like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Undertaker, and Andre the Giant, alongside current WWE Superstars like "The American Nightmare" Cody Rhodes, John Cena, Rhea Ripley, and Roman Reigns, whose larger-than-life entrances and signature moves are heightened by ultra-realistic graphics. WrestleMania is the biggest event in sports entertainment, where Superstars become WWE Legends. Experience a gripping retelling of WrestleMania's greatest moments in 2K Showcase of the Immortals, where you can relive a collection of some of the most unforgettable, career-defining matches. Steam Link

As we enter the end of the month of February and transition into March, we have a somewhat slower week, with a pair of remakes of a couple of classics being the headline titles and both are released on the same day. The rest of the games this coming week consists of a rather bizarre mix between a beat 'em up and tower defence game, a bunch of Greek things, a slightly different take on the zombie game genre and finally a rather good side scroller on an alien planet. In other words, no big releases, but hopefully something interesting nonetheless.

STAR WARS: Dark Forces Remaster / This week's first remake / Wednesday 28 February
The evil Empire is currently creating a doomsday army behind a veil of secrecy. However, they are no match for the Rebel Alliance's covert operations division. Your mission is to infiltrate the Empire and put an end to their plans for terror and domination.

Indie games are known for their daring and often groundbreaking approaches to visuals and storytelling. Ultros is a new indie title coming to PS4, PS5, PC and Mac on February 13 (tomorrow!). The game is a twisted, time-looping sci-fi adventure. It's packed with high-stakes action, clever twists on classic game design ideas, intriguing, and often unsettling environmental storytelling, and crazy-colorful pop-psychedelic visuals that makes you wonder if the game came with its own built-in blacklight. This eye- and mind-dazzling adventure comes to PlayStation courtesy of Sweden-based developer Hadoque. It tells the story of a spacefarer trapped in a nightmare time-cycle within a bizarre, seemingly demonic black-hole acting as a womb for an unspeakable cosmic horror-the titular Ultros. In the words of game director Mårten Brüggeman, "It's a psychedelic sci-fi platforming adventure, a combat- and gardening-driven experience. It also asks a lot of existential questions if you dive into it, as you explore the sarcophagus spaceship and try to understand what it is a metaphor for and what is dwelling inside."

Fight or foster
Ultros is fundamentally a search-action game where you explore an ever-expanding map that opens up further and further as you acquire more abilities for navigation and combat. It's a popular indie game genre, and Ultros expands on it with some unique gameplay twists centered around the ideas of karmic cycles: creation and destruction, nurture and killing. "It's a game about choices," explains Brüggeman, "where you can choose to play in a destructive or constructive way, and the choices you make change your interpretation of your in-game actions." The environment oozes with otherworldly threats, requiring skillful combat to neutralize the assorted hostile lifeforms. Variety is a big emphasis here. Ultros encourages you to use a diverse arsenal of moves in fun and creative ways to dispatch foes: dodge-and-strike attacks, jumping strikes, and even launching foes into the air to turn them into a living projectile weapon. "We want to combat to feel intimate and visceral to emphasize destruction, ruining the balance of disruption and construction within the current cycle. We focused on movements, forcing you to be near them to fight them are integral to what we wanted to do, the intensity and intimacy of one-on-one combat."

War Games mode fuses Homeworld's RTS gameplay with roguelike inspiration, charging commanders to take on a randomized series of fleet combat challenges. Claim powerful Artifacts that augment your ships with more power, speed, and, of course, weapons. Based on your results, you'll unlock new fleets to shake up your strategy. This demo, available to all Steam players starting February 5 at 10am PT until February 12 at 10am PT, supports up to three players as they engage waves of hostiles in a series of increasingly challenging encounters. Players can find teammates through Quick Match or create a lobby to team up with friends online.

It's important to note that any Fleets or Artifacts you unlock in the War Games demo will carry over when Homeworld 3 launches. For players not using Steam Cloud Saves, make sure you don't delete your demo files as we'll be sharing info on the exact transfer process later. Each level presents a greater challenge and new modifiers to your next War Games run. This demo will feature four different maps and a slew of things to unlock as you continue to play, including different starting fleets (maybe even an extra special one!) plus new Artifacts and more.

Ken Mendoza, Promotion Producer at Capcom, said: "Hi PlayStation Blog readers! We are very excited to share the newest trailer for Dragon's Dogma 2 revealed today during State of Play. In this article we will be diving deeper into some of the information revealed in it: the brand new Warfarer vocation, the vocation maisters, and the mysterious dragonsplague."

Introducing the Warfarer vocation
Wield a greatsword, chant high-level magick, and deceive enemies with illusions. The Warfarer is a vocation that allows you to engage in combat while switching between the weapons of other vocations. The Warfarer is a vocation exclusive to the main character, the Arisen. Warfarers can use all weapon types and learn the core skills of all vocations. It is the "ultimate vocation," so to speak. Some vocations excel at close combat, or are skilled at support, and the Warfarer can utilize the strengths of each vocation as the situation demands. The Warfarer has the potential to release powerful combos, such as using Trickster skills to deceive enemies and open opportunities to chant powerful attack magick. However, the Warfarer is not an all-mighty vocation. Their basic stats are not high, and they must carry many weapons in order to use their various skills. They will require the player's skill to exploit strengths in different situations, or else the vocation will remain a lesser version of each of the respective vocations. Only those who have honed their skills and adaptability will be able to bring out the full potential of this vocation.

As we're about to enter February, there are a bunch of new releases to look forward to this coming week, oddly enough many of them Japanese, just like this past week. This week's major release is based on a DC comics movie, which may or may not be appealing. As for the rest of this coming week's releases, we got a turn-based roguelike, some corsairs, punching, but only once, a fantasy action RPG, an anime 3D fighter and a JRPG. Hopefully there's something here for almost everyone.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League / This week's major release / Friday 2 February
From Rocksteady Studios, the creators of the Batman: Arkham series, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a genre-defying third-person action shooter where the ultimate band of misfits must do the impossible to save the world: Kill the Justice League. Join the newly "recruited" members of Amanda Waller's infamous Task Force X (aka the Suicide Squad), Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang and King Shark, as they set out on an impossible mission to Kill the Justice League. Drop into an expansive and dynamic open-world Metropolis ravaged by Brainiac's invasion and terrorized by the heroes who once protected it.

In dev diary #1, Alex Skidmore, Project Creative Director at The Chinese Room (TCR) wrote about the first game pillar "Feel like a Vampire," which sets the player fantasy as a guiding light for creative decisions. We've shown a lot of combat so far to give you a taste of the power and flow. What you've seen is influenced by the second game pillar: "Visceral, Immersive Combat" which directs the action gameplay. Today, Alex is back to share his thoughts on this important part of the Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2.

When designing Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 combat the goal was to create an action experience that can compete with modern titles. We think of it in three main gameplay styles we want to offer to you all - existing Bloodlines fans, and players who are new to the World of Darkness. The 1st playstyle we at TCR call the Strategic Stalker: as the name reflects, fans of more strategic combat experiences where staying hidden and using the element of surprise is key will get their vampire predator fantasy. Did you enjoy the Dishonored series, or playing stealth-focused builds in Fallout or Elder Scrolls games? Me too! It gives you time to prepare what Discipline power you'd like to use and when. Once your plan is ready, summoning the powers of the blood, sneaking up on an enemy, distracting them, feeding on them before a fight breaks out or hit and run tactics are options for people who love to play this way.

If you like Japanese games, then the fourth week of the new year is for you, as we have no less than four new Japanese games being released this week, which almost has to be something of a record for simultaneous releases in a week. The AA title this week is one of the famous 3D fighting titles and if that's not your cup of matcha, then we have plenty of other games on offer for you. As for the rest of this week, we have some pirates, gates to other worlds, an open world co-op RPG and the aforementionedJapanese games.

Tekken 8 / This week's AA Title / Friday 26 January
Get ready for the next chapter in the legendary fighting game franchise, Tekken 8.
Completely redesigned character visuals. Elaborate, highly-detailed models built from the ground and high-fidelity graphics break the limits of new-generation hardware by adding a new weight and atmosphere to Tekken's signature battles. Vivid environments and destructible stages combine to create an overwhelming sense of immersion, creating the ultimate play experience.

MintRocket's Project TB unveiled as Wakerunners! This is a post-apocalyptic team-based action game set on a future Earth, offering a unique blend of fast-paced combat, diverse characters, and engaging game modes in a Top-Down PVP setting. The official name 'Wakerunners' combines 'Waker', for the human species enhanced with biometric abilities, and 'Runners', for the ability to accelerate and decelerate, which is a key setting in the game's universe.

Game Worldview
In the technologically advanced world of Wakerunners, biometric data chips have granted special abilities to human 'Wakers.' After a global virus outbreak and the fall of lunar debris - Earth lies in ruins, revealing gravitational anomalies and the new energy source, 'Lunium.' Survivors have formed alliances, competing to secure this precious resource and claim rulership of the new world.

Beelzebub and company are rolling out onto PlayStation 5 & 4, Xbox Series X|S and PC on April 26! In this action-RPG players will be able to explore a vast map with a wide array of vehicles in a world developed by the creator of Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama. Become the main character, Beelzebub, and lead your company of heroic misfits on an extraordinary adventure in search of the Legendary Spring hidden in the desert. Between bandits, fierce wildlife, and the Royal Army, reaching the spring won't be easy! The latest trailer shows new story elements and exciting vehicular gameplay. Watch the release date trailer below along with PS Blog exclusive info on the newest revealed vehicles in SAND LAND!

Hovercar
As its namesake would imply, the Hovercar is a medium sized vehicle with the ability to hover, allowing it to easily traverse over wetlands and rough terrain. It can also use its boost to float to a greater height to elevate over ledges and cross gaps. When you find an area which seems to be difficult to drive through, like a quicksand biome, try the Hovercar to get out of a tough situation.

As we enter the last week of the year, as well as the Christmas and New Years period, we also have the slowest week of new game releases of the entire year. That said, there are still some new games being released, whether they're worth your Christmas money or not, is an entirely different story. Here's looking forward to many new, great game releases in 2024.

Sealed Gate / Monday 25 December
Sealed Gate is a medieval fantasy game where players are immersed in a huge and interesting world full of dangers and mysteries. The game has various systems such as combat system, crafting, professions, magic system, resource extraction system and much more. The combat system is based on dynamic real-time battles where players can choose between different fighting styles using weapons and magic in combination with each other. Crafting allows players to create various items using resources found during the exploration of the world, such as weapons, armor and tools.

As we enter the second full week of December, it's pretty clear that we don't have any more AAA releases to look forward to this year, but at the same time, it doesn't mean that there aren't any interesting game releases. This week's biggest release is a colony sim type game which we covered in the news a few months ago. The rest of this week's releases involves robot detectives, gates to other worlds, prisoners that can't die, mechs and a touch of paranoia.

Pioneers of Pagonia / This week's major release / Wednesday 13 December
In a world of countless islands populated with scattered tribes, you travel and lead your people as a visionary to forge alliances with the inhabitants, after helping each other and gaining their trust. Send out your pioneers to discover untouched soil, find hidden resources and explore secret places.