Camina Drummer has a few problems: Her spaceship is running out of fuel. Her medic is hiding a dark secret. And there's an asteroid headed their way. But that's just another day on The Artemis. In The Expanse: A Telltale Series, Drummer's problems are your problems. If you know her from the television show of the same name, you know she's strong-willed and loyal, with the kind of fierce temperament suited to space exploration. But here, in Telltale's first new game in five years, you get to make the decisions. And your crew—and the game—is paying attention. Episodic narratives are making a comeback. With them returns a style of game that is uniquely suited both to the video game medium and our present moment.

Today's release is the first of five to be rolled out over the next two months. The planned schedule is very much in line with prestige TV: Each episode will be between sixty and ninety minutes, and by the end you'll have witnessed a full narrative arc for this "eccentric crew," as Game Director Stephan Frost describes Drummer and her cohorts. But what makes episodic games so exciting and different from episodic television is the obvious fact that you don't just get one narrative, of course. You get yours, as you decide how and when to make certain decisions, with each plotline breaking off down multiple paths and crisscrossing across many story nodes. Sometimes this means you get to take down the leader of a doomsday cult with either force or subterfuge, as in HITMAN: World of Assassination; sometimes this means running into a burning building and risking the life of a trusted friend who runs in after you, as in The Walking Dead: Michonne.

The Walking Dead: Betrayal is a third-person action game of cooperation and deception for up to 8 players. Out of resources, with a herd of walkers fast approaching, players must work together to complete objectives and make their escape. They'll need to work fast, as walkers aren't the only threat.

Incognito "traitors" lurk among them, plotting to do everything in their power to delay repairs and prevent anyone from leaving. With so many creative ways to sabotage the team, the walkers are the most predictable threat. As evidence of their sabotage becomes apparent, paranoia and accusations threaten to tear the survivors apart as they desperately work towards escaping. Can you make it out alive?

This coming week's games have something of a horror theme with a remake of a horror game from 2005, which is also this week's AAA title. Two of the games are even in VR, which could cause some further excitement compared to a regular horror game. Overall it's not a super exciting week for new game releases, unless you're into horror themed games that is.

Resident Evil 4 / This week's Remake & AAA title / Thursday 24 March
Survival is just the beginning. Six years have passed since the biological disaster in Raccoon City. Leon S. Kennedy, one of the survivors, tracks the president's kidnapped daughter to a secluded European village, where there is something terribly wrong with the locals. And the curtain rises on this story of daring rescue and gruelling horror where life and death, terror and catharsis intersect.

Skybound Games, who have acquired rights to develop and finish Telltale Games' The Walking Dead game series, have announced the release date for their first in-house episode in the game series. Titled "Broken Toys", the third episode in the season of four will showcase Skybound's ability to execute on the tale started and guided by Telltale. It won't be the time to finally finish our companionship with Clementine, but the second-to-last step will be available come January 15th.

It seems we've reached a final chapter (with two parts still missing) from the odyssey of The Walking Dead's final season. Born of a troubled studio with decreasing revenue even as it increased its staff and IPs, Telltale games has given the reins to the final two episodes in the final season to Skybound Games, a division of Skybound Entertainment - helmed by none other than Robert Kirkman, the original creator of the The Walking Dead franchise.

Skybound Games announced the news via Twitter, right after word of Telltale Games' severance with almost all remaining employees - without any sort of actual severance, as is being reported by numerous outlets. At least Clementine's story will get to a conclusion of sorts - whether proper or as envisioned by the original studio remains to be seen - and perhaps we'll never know. However, Skybound Games has more of a reason to deliver than any other studio that could pick up the game, and as it is, that's more than anyone expected. I'm crying for the second season of The Wolf Among Us, though, titled "The One that Will Never Be".

When news broke late last week on Telltale Games entering majority closure, many feared that the final season of The Walking Dead game series would be cancelled without a resolution to Clementine's story. News then came out as to how the now-former employees of the studio were not being given severance pay and had to go about without compensation for a lot of their time on this game, and others. In retrospect, there were definitely larger issues to tackle first as many of their peers in the industry pointed out- especially when those former employees have filed a class action lawsuit in a federal court citing violation of labor laws.

It was interesting then that Telltale announced on Twitter that they were actively working to wrap up the pending two episodes for the season, with episode 2 having being released a few hours prior to when this post goes up. There are apparently multiple outside partners willing to help out, and they hope to get episodes 3 and 4 out "in some form". There are no promises or guarantees made, but between long-term fans wanting them to make the game season complete and others admonishing them for prioritizing this over pending payment of employees, Telltale Games is caught between a rock and a hard place. Whatever happens in the future, well, let's just say that we will all remember that.

In what will likely hit more than a few PC gamers hard, Telltale Games- the studio behind The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, Tales From The Borderlands and more- will be closing. The studio currently maintains only a skeleton crew of 25 out of what once was an estimated 250 employees at peak. Sadly, the employees that were let go received no severance pay, while those remaining have been tasked with completing a single final project. Reports as to the final project are conflicting, but it appears to be the Minecraft Story Mode project for Netflix. Either way, it is the studio's last gasp as it attempts to fulfill various obligations. Meanwhile, projects like The Walking Dead final season, The Wolf Among Us 2 and others have been outright canceled.

With the whirlwind of activity surrounding the closure is still ongoing, the hashtag #TelltaleJobs on Twitter has currently begun to take off with offers from various studios letting former Telltale staff know they should apply. These studios include, but are not limited to ZeniMax Online Studios, Sony Santa Monica, PUBG corp, Gearbox and many more. While Telltale Games have been experiencing some troubles over the last year or so, its closing was still unexpected. More pressing is, what happens next for those that purchased the entire final season of The Walking Dead- with only one episode out, there is no word yet on what will happen to those that purchased it.

Update:One of the major reasons behind the closure can likely be traced to falling sales, likely leaving the company in a tough position.

Telltale Games has hit on hard times lately, following on the restructuring of its staff, which saw some 90 staff members (25% of the studios' workforce) being cut. It may be a case of too fast a growth, with the company branching out in numerous ways, with numerous franchises - with quality arguably having suffered in the process. But the studio is able to deliver memorable, fantastic single-player, narrative-driven experiences, even if they've sometimes stretched a little far off the perfect mark. The first and second season of the studios' take on The Walking Dead series, however, was dead-on.

Telltale has now announced that they'll be giving gamers the chance to "finish Clementine's story". I don't know if I want to know how literal that sentence may be, however; I still remember all the feels from Lee Everett. The company seems to have its thematic circles well though-off, though, and the teaser image is enough to give e some semblance of confidence in their delivery of the game. The axe, the lighting, the thematic resonance in these two teasers is a beautiful thing. here's hoping they hide similarly well-crafted stories. The Walking Dead - The Final Season will be available later this year for gamers in the usual platforms.