Hi everyone. Croteam is very happy today to announce The Talos Principle 2 is launching on November 2. This is a very special project for us. For one, it allowed us to continue the story of The Talos Principle, a game that shaped us just as much as Serious Sam did. But also, The Talos Principle 2 started a new chapter for us, as we transitioned from developing our own technology to Unreal Engine, which allowed us to put 100% of our focus on creating the best gaming experience we can.

We cannot wait for everyone to hop in The Talos Principle 2 on November 2nd, and experience this new adventure with us. You can pre-purchase The Talos Principle 2 now at 10% off, and if you own the original you can secure an additional discount. Thanks for all your support! The new game is a thought-provoking first-person puzzle experience that greatly expands on the first game's philosophical themes and stunning environments with increasingly mind-bending challenges.

Heya Realmwalkers, Inflexion Games here. We have a new Developer Update for you all that covers Nightingale's August playtest details & challenges, what we're working on post-playtest, Quality of Life (QoL) feature updates, what Early Access means to us and much more. Watch it below. Set out on a journey of survival and adventure, into the mysterious and dangerous Fae Realms of Nightingale! Become an intrepid Realmwalker, and venture forth alone or with friends - as you explore, craft, build and fight across a visually stunning Gaslamp Fantasy world.

Nightingale is a PVE open-world survival crafting game played solo or cooperatively with friends. Build, craft, fight and explore as you venture through mystical portals into a variety of amazing and fantastical realms. You are stranded beyond our world, cut off by the collapse of the arcane portal network. This catastrophe has left you fighting to survive in a labyrinth of beautiful and dangerous Fae realms. Your goal: become a skilled Realmwalker, and navigate the web of transdimensional portals. Only then can you discover your way to the magical city of Nightingale, the last known bastion of humanity.

Inside sources have claimed that Bungie is working on a third project—codename: Gummy Bears—alongside Destiny 2 (their bread and butter IP) and the still mysterious Marathon reboot. Several media outlets keep close tabs on activity at the Sony Interactive Entertainment-owned studio—"Gummy Bears" is believed to be a "light-hearted" and "colorful" alternative to the other multiplayer experiences in Bungie's stable. Paul Tassi (writing for Forbes) believes that Bungie's "Matter" concept is synonymous with "Gummy Bears"—past job adverts have outlined a "team-based action game" that takes: "inspiration from fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, life sims, and frog-type games, wrapped up in a lighthearted, comedic world."

TheGamePost has chosen to follow up on their previously leaked summertime information with another major claim—multiple sources have alleged that Epic's Unreal Engine forms the technical foundation of "Gummy Bears," a team-based combat title with isometric gameplay. Switching to an outside toolset would be quite an unusual move for Bungie—the veteran development house has relied on its (extremely mature) Tiger Engine for more than a decade. One insider placed emphasis on the new IP being built in Unreal Engine 5 for current-gen platforms. PlayStation-specialist site Insider Gaming has contacted Sony for comment on the situation, and conducted a quick investigation: "As far as the accuracy of this report, Insider Game has yet to verify it with its independent sources. However, a quick look at Bungie's career page shows a job listing for an "Unannounced Project" where the required skills include the ability to code in C++. This is the programming language used for Unreal Engine."

Long presumed dead, Anton Sabbados, a veteran returns from a 10-year-long Ottoman slavery. His Carpathian homeland is feebly reigned by the demented prophet-king, its lands ruined by raiders and cursed with a hellish plague. Everything he loved and cherished is either gone or has changed beyond recognition. All he has left is his soldiers' loyalty - and a holy quest to end the plague. Facing hordes of enemies as well as his inner demons, you must help him see it through no matter the cost!

BEAST is a dynamic and brutal gridless tactical turn-based RPG where moral choices during battle influence the gameplay. In a grimdark medieval world, torn by plague and military conflicts, you decide if you should exercise or exorcise your inner beast with dire consequences for you and your allies!

In the weeks leading up to Gamescom 2023 all sorts of Nintendo-related rumors started to spew forth—the boldest being a public unveiling of their much anticipated Switch successor during the conference segment. This did not transpire—of course—with Nintendo choosing to showcase existing games and hardware on the trade fair floor in Germany. Post-event murmurs proposed another highly unlikely circumstance—claims posted to social media and on forums pointed to a top secret demo session of "Switch 2" hardware occurring "behind closed doors" at Gamescom, with an elite set of development teams in attendance. These rumblings were largely dismissed due to unsubstantiated information coming from less than reliable sources.

Eurogamer and Video Games Chronicles (VGC) reached out to their cadre of industry insiders to find out more—newly published articles seem to align with recent leaks. The former understands that: "Developer presentations for Switch 2 took place behind closed doors, with partners shown tech demos of how well the system is designed to run. One Switch 2 demo is a souped up version of Switch launch title Zelda: Breath of the Wild, designed to hit the Switch 2's beefier target specs. (To be clear, though - this is just a tech demo. There's no suggestion the game will be re-released." An insider familiar with the games industry in Spain alleged, a few months ago, that Switch 2 development kits had been delivered to a notable local development partner.

Hello heisters, we hope you're having a wonderful week - and if you're not, we have some cool news for you to dig into when it comes to Payday 3! This is the much anticipated sequel to one of the most popular co-op shooters ever. Since its release, Payday-players have been reveling in the thrill of a perfectly planned and executed heist. That's what makes Payday a high-octane, co-op FPS experience without equal.

Post Launch Plans
We're nearing the launch date on September 21 (Early Access on September 18), but today we wanted to give you a glimpse of what's to come for Year One of Payday 3 and its future content. Besides 4 DLCs, with names yet to be fully determined, we'll also look at seasonal events, playable characters, new enemy, weapons, Unreal Engine 5 upgrade, cosmetics, quality of life improvements, new features and much more. Let us know in the comments which part you're the most excited for!

We're excited to announce that Unreal Engine 5.3 is now available. This release brings numerous wide-ranging improvements as we continue to expand UE5's functionality and potential for game developers and creators across industries. As well as enhancements to core rendering, developer iteration, and virtual production toolsets, we're introducing Experimental new rendering, animation, and simulation features to give you the opportunity to test extended creative workflows inside UE5—reducing the need to round-trip with external applications.

Refinements to core UE5 rendering features
With this release, we've continued to refine all core UE5 rendering features to address our ongoing goal of making it easier for developers to leverage them at higher quality in games running at 60 FPS on next-gen consoles; the improvements also offer higher-quality results and enhanced performance for linear content creators. Specifically, Nanite has faster performance for masked materials, including foliage, and can represent a greater range of surfaces due to the new Explicit Tangents option, while Lumen with Hardware Ray Tracing has expanded capabilities that include multiple reflection bounces, and delivers faster performance on consoles. Other areas with notable advancements include Virtual Shadow Maps (VSM)—which is now Production-Ready—Temporal Super Resolution (TSR), Hair Grooms, Path Tracing, and Substrate.

Hey, all! We hope you're enjoying the game since it launched last week! We wanted to thank you all for the support, feedback and bug reports. Our second patch update that goes live today across PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S brings a lot of key fixes, so please be sure to read over the release notes below.
As always, be sure to follow our social channels for the latest on Immortals of Aveum, including any future updates for the game, as we're going to continue making it better and adding more options and features that you've been requesting.

Immortals of Aveum is a single-player, first-person magic shooter powered by the groundbreaking Unreal Engine 5.1 technology and set in an original fantasy universe. Developed by a new independent AAA studio made up of award-winning industry veterans and published under the EA Originals label, Immortals of Aveum puts players in a visceral and cinematic fantasy universe that combines modern characters and a story-driven campaign with intense magic-based action, world exploration and puzzle-solving. Summon your power, stop the Everwar, and save the realms starting now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via the EA app, Steam and Epic Games Store worldwide.

At PAX West, Paradox Interactive revealed that The Chinese Room (a subsidiary of Sumo Digital) has taken over development of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. The publisher's key note announcement stated that the British studio: "brings their award-winning storytelling to Bloodlines 2, creating a high-quality Vampire: The Masquerade action RPG by talented developers with triple-A experience. Fans eager to sink their teeth into Bloodlines 2 can look forward to the gameplay reveal in January 2024 and its launch in Fall 2024." The original team at Hardsuit Labs was relieved of all development duties back in early 2021, following a year of key staff dismissals. Worried fans were offered the chanced to receive pre-order refunds a few months ago, with Paradox uploading a small batch of alpha screenshots, but not yet unveiling the new dev team.

Industry watchers have noticed that The Chinese Room has undertaken a large recruitment drive lately, so the ambition seems to be there to get into AAA game development leagues, despite a track history of producing critically acclaimed indie hits such as Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. Ed Daly, Studio Director stated: "Vampire: The Masquerade holds a special place in our hearts. The story world's dark setting filled with intricate narratives built on top of modern society perfectly fits our studio's catalog...Bloodlines 2 is our most ambitious project to date. Fans of the franchise have been eagerly awaiting this game, and we are up to the challenge. We are bringing more than 15 years of award-winning (BAFTA & TIGA) experience to the project, creating a game that honors the legacy of its predecessor while bringing its gameplay to the modern era."

Each week, we bring you news of the latest DLSS and ray tracing integrations in games and apps. Last week, we unveiled NVIDIA DLSS 3.5, which will make your games even more beautiful, immersive and realistic with the introduction of Ray Reconstruction, a new AI-powered technique that further improves the quality of ray tracing. Alan Wake 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Portal with RTX, Chaos Vantage, D5 Render, and NVIDIA Omniverse will all launch with or be updated to DLSS 3.5 this fall. Additionally, we announced that NVIDIA DLSS 3's AI-powered performance multiplication is coming to this fall's biggest games, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, PAYDAY 3, and Fortnite.

This week, we're celebrating the release of Fort Solis with DLSS 3, and announcing that Delta Force: Hawk Ops and Project Mugen will launch with DLSS 3. Also, Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle, F1 Manager 2023, and SPRAWL are available now with DLSS 2. And there are new trailers from DLSS 3 titles, including Black Myth: Wukong, The First Descendant and Warhaven to watch.

GSC Game World has been busy showing of a preview build of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl at this week's Gamescom trade fair, and non-attendees have been treated to a new trailer—Bolts & Bullets—but the Ukrainian development (now primarily operating out of Prague, Czech Republic) has quietly shifted the release of their highly anticipated survival shooter from December 2023 to some point within the first quarter of next year. This was spotted by a couple of news outlets when perusing the latest press kit—this small detail is buried right at the bottom of the document (under "distribution"). The game's official website has also been revised with a Q1 2024 launch window.

The development team touts the sequel's: "unique combination of first-person shooter, immersive sim, and horror is back. Immerse yourself in the intricately detailed open world, accompanied by next-gen graphics (courtesy of the Unreal 5 engine) and a rich narrative, all enveloped within the intense atmosphere of a deadly adventure." The game seems to be getting a positive reception at Gamescom, although players were limited to only 15-minute long hands-on sessions with the demo. A few folks were already familiar with aspects of this preview version—a hacker group acquired an older build of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 earlier this year, and leaked it onto the internet.

Today, Electronic Arts Inc. and Ascendant Studios launched Immortals of Aveum, a single-player, first-person magic shooter powered by the groundbreaking Unreal Engine 5.1 technology and set in an original fantasy universe. Developed by a new independent AAA studio made up of award-winning industry veterans and published under the EA Originals label, Immortals of Aveum puts players in a visceral and cinematic fantasy universe that combines modern characters and a story-driven campaign with intense magic-based action, world exploration and puzzle-solving. Summon your power, stop the Everwar, and save the realms starting now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via the EA app, Steam and Epic Games Store worldwide.

Immortals of Aveum tells the story of Jak (Darren Barnet), who discovers that he is a magically-imbued 'Unforeseen' and finds himself reluctantly caught in the middle of the raging Everwar. Recruited under the tutelage of the powerful General Kirkan (Gina Torres) and an elite order of battlemages called the Immortals, Jak must master all three colors of magic - blue, green, and red. With powerful magic-wielders and legions of soldiers on both sides of the Everwar, Jak and the Immortals must uncover the mysteries of Aveum's troubled past, if there's any hope for turning the tides of the Everwar and defeating Sandrakk, the powerful warlord of Rasharn and his mysterious lieutenant, simply known as The Hand.

The day is almost here. The release of Immortals of Aveum is just around the corner, and we here at Ascendant Studios are so incredibly excited for players to get to experience what we've been building all this time. As we inch closer to August 22nd, we wanted to take a moment to talk a bit more about the technology that's powering our game, and what that means for PC players in particular.

Earlier this year, we talked about some of the amazing tools we've had at our disposal as one of the first studios to release a AAA game using Unreal Engine 5.1. There's Nanite, for example, which automatically adjusts the details the player sees based on distance, letting us build huge, detailed 3D objects that look every bit as good up close as they do from virtual miles away. The additional surface detail of our objects provide significantly more places for lighting to bounce off of.

NVIDIA DLSS 3 is available now in 40 games, and is coming to more games this year. Today, The First Descendant joins that ever-expanding list of upcoming DLSS 3 games, ensuring GeForce RTX gamers receive the definitive experience the second it launches.

This week, Gord and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre launch with DLSS 2, accelerating frame rates for all GeForce RTX gamers, and Achilles: Legends Untold is available now.

Remnant 2 sold more than one million units in just four days across PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 Gearbox Publishing announced today. Gamers and media around the globe showered praise on Remnant 2 as the breakout hit of 2023. Remnant 2, the follow-up to the best-selling Remnant: From the Ashes, also more than doubled the number of concurrent players at launch, breaking its own franchise record.

"To everyone who helped us achieve this amazing milestone, thank you for your unwavering support," said David Adams of Gunfire Games. "This was a multi-year journey for us and we couldn't be happier to see fans having such a great time with a game we put our heart and soul into."

Each week, we bring you news of the latest DLSS and ray tracing integrations in games and apps. Last week, Remnant II launched with DLSS 2, new DLSS 3 integrations were revealed, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart launched with NVIDIA DLSS 3, NVIDIA DLAA, NVIDIA Reflex, and NVIDIA RTX IO. August looks to be another great month for DLSS and RTX, headlined by the official launch of Baldur's Gate 3, enhanced with DLSS 2 and DLAA.

Additionally, DLSS 3 has been added to DESORDRE: A Puzzle Game Adventure and Remnant II, and will be available at the launch of Lost Soul Aside. And as for DLSS 2, Grand Emprise: Time Travel Survival has just launched with support for frame rate accelerating technology. For gamers with GeForce RTX GPUs, DLSS ensures you receive the definitive experience in each title, and thanks to GeForce RTX Ray Tracing Cores, you'll enjoy the highest possible frame rates when enabling ray-traced effects in DESORDRE: A Puzzle Game Adventure and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.

As we enter the month of August, July still has a couple of new gaming titles to offer of which both obviously are launching on the same day. That said, August starts with a bang and brings a highly anticipated AAA title. The rest of this week's releases is as always a mix of games that will hopefully appeal to at least one of you, since the past polls suggest that the TPU readership is a picky crowd to please when it comes to games.

Baldur's Gate 3 / This week's AAA title / Thursday 3 August
Gather your party and return to the Forgotten Realms in a tale of fellowship and betrayal, sacrifice and survival, and the lure of absolute power. Mysterious abilities are awakening inside you, drawn from a mind flayer parasite planted in your brain. Resist, and turn darkness against itself. Or embrace corruption, and become ultimate evil. From the creators of Divinity: Original Sin 2 comes a next-generation RPG, set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons.

It's been ten… long… years…We are thrilled to announce that Slender: The Arrival, the spine-chilling horror game that has captivated millions of players, is about to become even more terrifyingly immersive. Brace yourselves for a huge update coming this October as we introduce a complete visual overhaul utilizing the latest and greatest technologies within Unreal Engine 5.2.

Every shadow, every material, every model and every hair-raising encounter with the mysterious Slender Man will be rendered in stunning detail. This new update not only enhances the graphics but also elevates the overall gameplay experience. Mark your calendars because this October, Slender Man is back.

Lords of the Fallen beckons with an all-new 18-minute Extended Gameplay Presentation. Witness exhilarating combat in vast sprawling lands, calamitous boss fights that call for the utmost of nerves, and the ever-looming threat that spills darkness into this world. Set your gaze below..."The team at Hexworks is thrilled to finally share an extended gameplay presentation and reveal numerous new details of our dark fantasy action-RPG," said Saul Gascon, Head of Studio. "We have passionately carved our own path in this increasingly popular genre, and we are particularly excited to see how players will approach the game's unique dual-world mechanic when it releases this October."

Explore two, vast interconnected worlds
Mournstead stands ever parallel, luring all would-be adventurers who seek righteous glory. This vast and sprawling world of Lords of the Fallen beckons for exploration, from the ascending cliff face of Pilgrim's Perch, to the ever-burning city of Calrath. As you venture into the rich world of Lords of the Fallen, you will uncover that each major environment is interconnected with at least two others, offering freedom to forge your own path, that aligns with your story. Be warned As the lamp-bearer, take great caution when you embark on your journey, for it will be perilous, fraught with unspeakable dangers, however, those who bargain with their life can uncover a realm teeming with untold treasures.

Yesterday, Epic Games released a preview version of Unreal Engine 5.3—users can now try out the latest batch of improvements, as well as some new features. Epic's blurb Lumen boasts that their software engineers have refined "the workflows and capabilities of core features"—namely Nanite, and Path Tracing. Optimizations have resulted in "more control over performance" and overall better-looking visuals. Epic's own Fortnite, Layers of Fear (Bloober Team) and Remnant 2 (Gunfire Games) are the only currently released games running on Unreal Engine 5. Epic first showcased this technology back in 2020, with plenty of game development studios signing up to use it—but they have been slow in adapting to the feature-rich engine. In Remnant 2's case, Gunfire chose to not implement Lumen at launch.

Newly introduced experimental features include an upgraded particle rendering system—users are granted access to tool that can "create volumetrics such as smoke and fire directly inside Unreal." Epic's notes also mention that a Skeletal Editor has been added, for in-engine character weight and skinning work. Preview version 5.3 grants full support for Orthographic Rendering—useful in the fields of "architecture plus manufacturing visualizations, and stylistic games projects." Users will also see improvements in the Panel Cloth Editor and ML Cloth simulation system.

We're excited to announce Remnant 2 is now available! The sequel to the best-selling game Remnant: From the Ashes, Remnant 2 is a third-person action-survival shooter that pits the last remnants of humanity against the harrowing forces of evil. The title evolves the co-op survival shooter with new unseen worlds filled with deadly surprises and encounters. Join the battle to save humanity in a dynamically generated world filled with branching quest lines, unique loot, and overwhelming odds that encourage exploration and replayability either alone or in three-person co-op. Players will define their own playstyle with an expanded Archetype class system and a wide assortment of guns, armor, and special augmentations as they overcome hard-fought challenges to stave off humanity's extinction.

A mix of methodical and frenetic ranged/melee combat returns with cunning enemies and large scale boss battles. Choose specific gear and weapons to optimize for the different biomes and battles ahead. Bosses will bring high-level players to team up to overcome the challenge and try to obtain the biggest rewards. Players can travel alone or with friends as a team through strange new worlds and beyond, overrun by mythical creatures and deadly foes while trying to stay alive. There are multiple worlds to explore with different types of creatures, weapons, and items. Utilize and upgrade discovered items to take on tougher challenges.

Update 21:05 UTC: TPU's W1zzard has published his "Remnant II Benchmark Test & Performance Analysis" article. Do check it out.

Today, Focus Entertainment and its studio Deck13 Interactive unleashed a dangerously gripping Combat Trailer for their upcoming game Atlas Fallen, the epic fantasy action-RPG where you battle legendary creatures in superpowered combat. Releasing on August 10 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, pre-orders are open on all platforms. Watch the Combat Trailer now for a 5-minute deep-dive into the exhilarating action of Atlas Fallen.

Rise as the ultimate champion and shape your playstyle
In a devastated, sand-covered world, seize the divine power of a mysterious Gauntlet and wield heroic abilities to defeat a tyrannic, almighty god. Tame the sands to shape them into three powerful weapons and move through the air with incredible speed and agility. Pick an implacable duo of weapons to go into battle and use the deadliest combos in a seamless flow between them. Watch your weapon grow larger as you build Momentum to unleash the full, irrepressible power of the Gauntlet.

Ever since we announced Firewall Ultra, the next evolution of the Firewall franchise, last year on the PlayStation Blog, the outpour of encouragement from the community has been nothing short of amazing. The pure excitement in all your comments, messages, tweets, and posts have us all even more motivated to make the game as great as it can be. Which is why we're so excited to debut our new gameplay trailer featuring fresh PvP gameplay footage!

To cap off that excitement, today we're thrilled to announce that pre-orders are officially live for Firewall Ultra starting today with a launch date of August 24, 2023! Firewall Ultra puts the next-gen VR features embedded in the PS VR2 front and center to deliver a compelling and immersive first-person shooter experience. This includes eye-tracking for innovative use cases like closing your eyes to avoid the effects of a flashbang, incredible haptic feedback in the PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers for realistic weapon feedback, headset feedback when you take damage or toggle on night vision goggles, and so much more.

In Immortals of Aveum, you play as Jak—an unlikely Magnus whose newfound potential has found him in the midst of the Everwar, human kind's endless conflict over the control of magic. Now, it's time for you to learn about everything he can do. Wield your magic with sigils and spells, build your loadout with gear and skill trees, and fight to uncover the secrets of Aveum and save the realms.

MAGIC
All magic in Aveum can be distilled into three forms: Blue force magic, Red chaos magic, and Green life magic. Each is used in its own ways and functions differently. Though most Magni are only able to control one color of magic, Triarchs are able to harness all three, though they are much rarer because of that. Jak is one such Magnus, allowing him to tap into all three types of magic.

Each week, we're bringing you news of the latest DLSS and ray tracing integrations in games and apps. Last week, Forever Skies and Trepang2 launched with DLSS 2, and our Unreal Engine 5.2 DLSS 3 plugin was released, making it even easier for gamers to multiply frame rates.

This week, the highly rated Stranded: Alien Dawn is adding support for DLSS 2, and the new GeForce RTX 4060 goes on sale, giving 1080p gamers high frame rates and detail levels, and up to 100 FPS in the most demanding games courtesy of DLSS 3.