Last December, PUBG Battlegrounds creator Brendan “Playerunknown” Greene announced the debut title of his new indie studio, Prologue: Go Wayback. Billed as an open-world survival game boasting dynamic environments and emergent gameplay, the game is set to debut in PC Early Access, but players can dive in now with the release of its first open beta.

Greene’s studio, Playerunknown Productions, says Prologue: Go Wayback is a survival game “where every journey is unique.” Players explore a procedurally generated wilderness modeled after the Czech Bohemia region to reach a weather tower. Accomplishing this involves using a small suite of tools, such as a map and compass, while learning how to navigate the terrain by utilizing natural landmarks and minimal direct guidance.

The game has no scripted path, quest markers, or instructions, giving players the freedom to explore as they see fit. Players are also challenged to manage fluctuating statuses such as body temperature, hunger, and thirst as they travel from shelter to shelter to reach the tower.

Prologue: Go Wayback leverages machine learning (ML) technology to generate realistically rendered terrain maps in Unreal Engine 5. To avoid pulling from copyrighted materials, Playerunknown Productions states it has trained its ML model to use publicly available open-source data that the studio then vets. 

Check out the game's new screenshots in the gallery below. 

 

Prologue is also the first of a three-game plan to build Project Artemis, a larger project designed to “create and deliver a technology and platform that enables massive-scale creation and emergent play.” These three games, two of which are unannounced, will represent a solution to what the studio refers to as the "three problems of scale: realistic terrain generation, player and NPC interactions, and millions of players sharing the same online space." Prologue is designed to tackle the terrain generation aspect of this initiative. 

The open beta comes after six months of playtests by the game’s Discord community. It will remain available and regularly updated with new features until the game’s Early Access launch on Steam and Epic in the coming months. Green posted a video message stating that planned updates include community-requested features such as a map editor, a world settings menu letting players set the world as they choose, and a save game function. 

Helldivers 2 had quite the 2024 on PlayStation 5 and PC, and it's set to bring its bullet heaven, bug-killing mayhem to Xbox later this month on August 26. Ahead of the game's launch on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox has released a new "Bring the Boom" trailer highlighting the fun (and explosions) of Helldivers 2, and at the end of it, there seems to be a tease for a Halo 3: ODST collaboration or crossover. 

At roughly 1 minute and 11 seconds in, after the meat and potatoes of the trailer have finished, the video fades away to one of Helldiver 2's cities, moody and atmospheric with rain and few lights on the horizon. Then, the smooth jazz of a saxophone as a Helldiver pod drops into the city. Check it out for yourself below: 

As you can see, it's pretty clear what Xbox is trying to do here: that's a Halo 3: ODST tease. Sure, Helldivers do drop into cities, but in the game, it's typically not as moody or as ambient as what's pictured here – what is as moody or as ambient as what's here is the atmosphere of Halo 3: ODST. And then the saxophone seals the deal. As for what it means or when we can expect to learn more, that remains unclear. But given Helldivers 2 has crossed over with PlayStation's Killzone series before, it wouldn't be surprising for the game to feature cosmetics or something from one of Xbox's most beloved games. 

While waiting to learn more, read Game Informer's Helldivers 2 review, and then read Game Informer's Halo 3: ODST review. After that, read Game Informer's ranking of every mainline Halo game. 

What would you want out of a Helldivers 2 x Halo 3: ODST crossover? Let us know in the comments below!

FBC: Firebreak, the three-player first-person shooter from Control developer Remedy Entertainment, launched back in June to middling results. Though available on Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus on day one, Remedy saw players quickly drop off from the game for various reasons. Now, in Remedy's latest financial results, the company has acknowledged the game's "unsuccessful" launch and plans to turn things around. 

"Commercially, we were unsatisfied with the launch-phase consumer sales of FBC: Firebreak," the financial results read. "Thus far, FBC: Firebreak's commercial performance has largely been driven by the Xbox and PlayStation subscription service agreements."

The results go on to explain that FBC: Firebreak was designed to evolve over time and that, despite a rocky launch, Remedy believes it has built a solid foundation. "Players who spent over an hour with the game reviewed the game mostly positive – showing us that the core experience of the game is entertaining. We have already rolled out patches and communicated on how the game will continue to develop." 

Remedy says looking ahead, a larger "Major Update" late September will be the next key step for FBC: Firebreak, supported by "targeted marketing activities, which we expect will drive interest in the title." 

"We are committed to continuing to work on FBC: Firebreak, engaging with the community, and expanding the game," Remedy's comments on FBC: Firebreak end. 

Elsewhere in the financial results, Remedy says Control 2's development is on track to hit its next milestones, with the focus now on "the gameplay, environments, and missions." Remedy's Max Payne 1 & 2 remake project remains in full production, the studio says, and "collaboration with Rockstar Games remains close and productive, ensuring alignment as the project advances toward its next major phase." 

For more, read Game Informer's Control review, and then read Game Informer's Alan Wake 2 review. After that, check our thoughts on FBC: Firebreak. 

Did you try FBC: Firebreak? Let us know what you think of it in the comments below!

Nexon just released Season 3 for its live-service multiplayer shooter, The First Descendant, last week, and now, the company has unveiled a brand new game. Dubbed Woochi the Wayfarer, Nexon describes this game as a new "high-end PC and console action-adventure game set in traditional Korean culture and mythology." 

The Korean "blockbuster" game will depict the adventures of the Dosa, Jeon Woochi, of "The Mage of the Way" fame, and will release on PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam when it's ready to launch. It is being developed in Unreal Engine 5. 

If its roughly two-and-a-half-minute cinematic reveal trailer is any indication, it looks to be a terrifying Joseon-era game action fans should keep an eye on. 

Check out the Woochi the Wayfarer reveal trailer for yourself below: 

Woochi the Wayfarer is inspired by "The Tale of Jeon Woochi," a classic Korean novel that follows the adventures of the titular Jeon Woochi, "who uses his powers to fight injustice and trick the corrupt," according to a press release. The game will be a single-player narrative-driven adventure that fuses magical settings with traditional Korean monsters and music. 

Speaking of music, Parasite and Squid Game composer Jung Jae-il is handling the game's score. Nexon is publishing it, and LoreVault Studio is developing the game. 

There's no word on when Woochi the Wayfarer will launch. 

 

For more, read about Nexon's push to bring its Korean-developed games to global audiences in this behind-the-scenes feature. 

What do you think about this reveal trailer? Let us know in the comments below!

Dragon Age: The Veilguard launched last October, and though it fared decently amongst fans, publisher EA said it missed sales expectations by 50%, bringing in roughly 1.5 million players instead of the anticipated 3 million it had hoped. Those missed expectations have left fans wondering what the future of the series looks like while BioWare works on the next Mass Effect game. 

Looking back on the franchise, however, we've recently learned BioWare, at one point, softly pitched a trilogy remaster of the first three Dragon Age games, but it was turned down by EA. That's according to Mark Darrah, former Dragon Age series producer and BioWare executive, in a new interview with MrMattyPlays on YouTube, as reported by IGN. 

"I honestly think they should do – I don't think they will, but they should do – a remaster of the first three [Dragon Age games]," Darrah, who left BioWare in 2020 but consulted on last year's Dragon Age: The Veilguard, said to MrMattyPlays. "One of the things we pitched at one point – pretty softly, so pitched is a massive overstatement – was to retroactively rebrand the first games as if they were a trilogy, call it the Champions Trilogy, so you have these larger-than-life heroes... maybe you do that as a first step."

As for why this trilogy remaster, which would consist of Dragon Age: Origins (2009), Dragon Age II (2011), and Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014), never came to light, Darrah places the blame on EA. 

"EA's historically been – and I don't know why, but they've even said this publicly – they're kind of against remasters," he told MrMattyPlays. "I don't really know why, and it's strange for a publicly traded company to seemingly be against free money, but they seem to be against it. So that's part of it." 

Darrah later posits that a Dragon Age trilogy is a more challenging task than, say, a Mass Effect trilogy (which EA and BioWare did in the form of Mass Effect Legendary Edition in 2021), because of the series' storied development history and the engines used to create the games. 

For more, read Game Informer's Dragon Age: The Veilguard review, and then check out Game Informer's Dragon Age: The Veilguard cover story hub for exclusive details and interviews about the game's development and more. 

[Source: MrMattyPlays via IGN]

Do you want a Dragon Age trilogy remaster? Let us know in the comments below!