Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the most iconic characters in all of video games, but not all of his games were hits. Sonic and the Black Knight is allegedly one of those games, but associate editor Charles Harte remembers playing it as a nine-year-old and feeling like it might be the coolest game of all time. Nearly 17 years later, we're revisiting this medieval adventure to see whether or not he was correct.

Originally released on March 13, 2009, Sonic and the Black Knight is the second and final game in the now-abandoned Sonic Storybook Series, which began in 2007 with Sonic and the Secret Rings. Both games see Sonic get sucked into the worlds of classic folklore, with Black Knight whisking him into the world of Arthurian legend. Armed with the legendary blade Caliburn, he embarks on a quest to save the kingdom. Critics at the time of release were less than enthusiastic about the outing; Sonic and the Black Knight was released to mostly poor reviews, including a 5/10 on page 87 of issue 193 of Game Informer.

Join Charles Harte and Marcus Stewart as they wield a Wii remote and travel back in time to the mythical days of 2009. You can catch up on the full series below.

Part 1 - Starting a Medieval Marathon

Part 2 - Attempted Regicide

Part 3 – Merlina The Mastermind

Part 4 – Defeating The Dragon

For the past several weeks, I've been hacking away at Mewgenics, the latest game from The End is Nigh Duo Tyler Glaiel and Edmund McMillen, the latter of which is also known for creating The Binding of Issac. That said, Mewgenics is absolutely massive, and while I'm not finished with it yet, there's plenty to talk about already. My dozens of hours so far have been quite enjoyable, thanks to incredibly varied and engaging combat and an all-timer soundtrack. Though it's frustrating at times and the humor doesn't always hit, Mewgenics, which has been in the works in some form for over a decade, has been worth the wait so far.

The adventure puts the player in charge of an ever-changing house full of cats, and you command up to four of them during roguelike runs. Combat is turn-based and grid-based (like Fire Emblem or Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy), and you assign each cat a classic RPG class to determine their pool of stats and abilities. Some are straightforward, like the defensive Tank or the ranged Hunter, but others are more unique, like the weapon-crafting Tinkerer or animal-summoning Druid. Each starting ability set is randomly generated, so with my current set of ten classes (and there are more to unlock), every run feels truly unique.

Combat keeps you on your toes (and your cats on their toe beans). Cats usually heal a little at the end of each fight, but heals are otherwise inconsistently found, so it's crucial to battle as carefully as possible. Most of my failed runs come from fights that fall apart in just one or two rounds of combat against especially dangerous foes I've underestimated. Since your cats' starting abilities are randomized, each run also introduces variables to keep track of on the player's end, too. Passive abilities can make enemies' difficulties fluctuate, and sometimes two cats in your party have abilities that can hinder you if you're not paying attention. Every run has unique, often silly specifics that you're unlikely to run into twice. Some are helpful, some are not, but they're always entertaining.

Partly because of that randomness, Mewgenics is very challenging and unforgiving. There's no undo button to avoid misclicks or moves gone horribly wrong, and while you can quit the game without saving to restart a battle, a Mr. Resetti-like character only lets you do so once per run. Dying means you permanently lose your current party of cats and all the items in your inventory at the time. This makes a huge difference in subsequent runs. Good cats from past runs give birth to high-stat kittens for future attempts. Meanwhile, items give cats new abilities or improve their stats, and starting a run with a full inventory of equipment from past encounters sets you up for success.  Losing doesn't just prevent you from progressing – it sometimes even sets you back.

This stands in stark contrast to other modern roguelike conventions, where each failure is a step forward in some way, either because you're leveling up some stat, collecting resources, or progressing a story. Mewgenics has macro-progression, but it moves more slowly, especially on a loss. This is not an inherently bad system, and I like knowing each fight has life-or-death stakes. Still, it is frustrating to get stuck in a losing cycle, especially if you're expecting a more relaxed experience.

Before you embark on a run, however, you have to assemble your team of cats, either by adopting strays or by breeding existing cats. Your home base, a customizable house, is decorated with furniture that alters its stats, which factor into how often cats breed and what the kittens' base attributes will be. So far, I'm fine with this system, but not really in love with it. Decorations and furniture are expensive enough that you can typically only buy one item each time you come home, and interior design is strategically irrelevant – an effective room is crammed full of as many items that boost a house's stats as possible.

The breeding itself is mostly a passive system, where you place compatible cats in a room together and hope they mate and make a new kitten that shares some of their traits. Fair warning, though – with the default settings, you're going to have to watch a lot of cat humping animations. You can thankfully turn these off, and the game is a lot better for it, because they're replaced with varied, creative, goofy ways the cats have children, like by summoning them from a pentagram or having them delivered by a stork.

Mewgenics' crude humor is one of the biggest obstacles keeping me from truly loving the game, especially its emphasis on fecal humor. If it were rarer or used more sparingly, I would find it more tolerable – funny even – but it all comes across as juvenile and gross. Still, there's plenty here that is funny, including the randomly generated cat names (you're just as likely to find one named "Jake" as you are "Ethernet") and each cat's distinct meow sound (one of my favorites has auto tune; the other swears in English when taking damage and goes "oh, I meant, 'meow'").

Most of my criticisms of Mewgenics are admittedly minor because you spend the vast majority of playtime in combat, and combat is absolutely stellar. There's plenty more for me to experience before coming to a final verdict, but the fact that I'm itching to hop back into the game dozens of hours in is a great omen.

HBO and Craig Mazin, who is currently working on Season 3 of The Last of Us, are adapting Baldur's Gate 3 for TV. According to a report from Deadline, HBO's Baldur's Gate 3 adaptation will be a continuation of the game, which developer Larian Studios released in 2023 to widespread acclaim, and take place immediately after the event of the game's finale. 

Deadline says characters "old and new" will be dealing with the ramifications of the events of Baldur's Gate 3 in this adaptation, which The Last of Us showrunner and co-creator Mazin will write, executive produce, and showrun. Jacqueline Lesko and Cecil O'Connor will also serve as executive producers alongside Hasbro Entertainment's Gabriel Marano, with Chris Perkins, former Head of Story at Hasbro's Wizards of the Coast subsidiary, serving as a consultant. Hasbro, by way of Wizards of the Coast (which own D&D), owns the Baldur's Gate IP. 

"After putting nearly 1000 hours into the incredible world of Baldur's Gate 3, it is a dream come true to be able to continue the story that Larian and Wizards of the Coast created," Mazin said to Deadline. "I am a devoted fan of D&D and the brilliant way that Swen Vincke and his gifted team adapted it. I can't wait to help bring Baldur's Gate and all of its incredible characters to life with as much respect and love as we can, and I'm deeply grateful to Gabe Marano and his team at Hasbro for entrusting me with this incredibly important property." 

Deadline reports that Mazin plans to reach out to the voice cast of Baldur's Gate 3 "with ideas for them to participate in the TV adaptation, if possible," which is something he and The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann (who is also a co-creator of The Last of Us games) did in its adaptation. HBO head of drama programming and executive vice president Francesca Orsi told Deadline, "We're thrilled to continue our partnership with Craig Mazin on Baldur's Gate," while Marano told the publication, "The fans have been eagerly awaiting an adaptation of Baldur's Gate, and we could not ask for better partners than HBO and the incomparable Craig Mazin to build this world with." 

Game Informer has reached out to Larian Studios for official word about its lack of involvement and will update this story if it learns more, but on X, Larian CEO and Baldur's Gate 3 director Swen Vincke replied, "Not to my knowledge," when asked whether any of the studio's writers are consulting on the show. He also added, "But [Craig Mazin] did reach out to ask if he could come over to the studio to speak with us. From the conversation we had, I think he truly is a big fan, which gives me hope." 

Before that, though, Vincke posted the following to X as a quote-tweet to Deadline's report: 

"Crazy that a story that started out in a small hotel conference room eventually evolved into a narrative inspiring enough for it to become a HBO series. We worked incredibly hard on making Baldur's Gate 3 worthy of its legacy. Its characters and narratives are the result of many teams working together and I think I can speak for them all in saying that they'll think this is cool and hope that what comes next will enjoy the same level of passion. The endings of BG3 were created so they could serve as narrative soil for new adventures. There's plenty of directions they could go. I'm eager to find out which ones Craig and his team will pick. He's reached out for a chat so we'll have the opportunity to tell him our thoughts. Crossing fingers that the story we're cooking up for Divinity will eventually grow to the same heights. Certainly putting in the hours."

In response to news of this adaptation, reception online has been... not great. Fans of the series seem disappointed that Mazin is behind the project, likely an alignment of online reception to Season 2 of The Last of Us, and upset that the adaptation aims to pick up after the events of Baldur's Gate 3. Notably, there are multiple dozen endings to the game, meaning HBO will likely canonize an ending (or aspects of various endings) to move forward with its storytelling goals; that's somewhat antithetical to the spirit of player freedom and storytelling choices present in the Larian-developed RPG. All that to say, Mazin and HBO have a big lift on their shoulders adapting what is easily one of the most popular games of the last decade, if not all time. 

 

There's no word on when production of this Baldur's Gate 3 adaptation will begin, but Mazin currently has at least one more season of The Last of Us to get out (and it could be the series' last). In the meantime, read Game Informer's review of Baldur's Gate 3, and then check out the brutal and gory trailer for Larian Studios' next game, Divinity. After that, read why visiting the set of The Last of Us was equally boring and intense, and then read this update about why Baldur's Gate 3 won't be ported to Nintendo Switch 2. 

[Source: Deadline]

What are your thoughts on this announcement? Let us know in the comments below!

Guerrilla Games has revealed its long-simmering multiplayer title set within the world of Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West. The game is called Horizon Hunters Gathering, and it’s coming to PlayStation 5 and PC.

Horizon Hunters Gathering is a co-op action game set in the American West, where up to three players assume the roles of Hunters who must protect the world from deadly machines. This involves going out on hunts to track and dismantle machines in combat that Guerrilla describes as “tactical, reactive, and deeply skill-based.” The game also sports a more stylized art direction, more akin to an animated film.

The roster consists of three Hunters (though this roster will grow over time) with distinct playstyles and weapons, both melee and ranged. One character wields a giant rocket-powered hammer, another Hunter slays foes with a spear, while the third uses a bow. Combat still involves targeting a machine’s specific body parts to dismantle it, and players can combine abilities to strategically coordinate their assaults. Think Horizon mixed with the cooperative dynamic of Monster Hunter, though the combat is much faster-paced and over-the-top than in a traditional Horizon title.

Hunters can be assigned classes such as healer or damage dealer, which changes their playstyles to favor either support, tank, or tactician. A roguelite build system allows players to assign one of several randomly earned perks while playing. Surviving a run will mean finding the best combination of perks and upgrades.

Players will get to know these personalities in a narrative campaign. This story mode can be played solo with NPCs or alongside friends, and it is fully canon to the universe. Expect to meet new characters and unravel new mysteries, and Guerrilla promises this story will be expanded over time with new adventures and narrative beats.

Four large maps will be available at launch. At the center is a social hub called Hunters Gathering. Here, you can connect with friends, customize characters, visit shops, and upgrade gear.

In addition to the campaign, two multiplayer modes have been revealed: Machine Incursion and Cauldron Descent. Machine Incursion sees players battle waves of machines led by a powerful boss as a ring slowly closes in to tighten the playfield. Cauldron Descent is a multi-stage challenge set within the series’ dungeon-like Cauldrons. Players choose which paths to take to explore deeper underground, which can pit them against enemies, take them on a platforming-focused obstacle course, or lead them to hidden doors with secret rewards.

Horizon Hunters Gathering supports cross-play between PS5 and PC as well as cross-progression, provided you’re playing using the same PlayStation account. Players can get their first sample of the game in an upcoming closed playtest. This small-scale test will be available on PS5 and PC and begins at the end of this month. You can sign up via the PlayStation Beta Program.

For fans wondering about how this new game affects the status of a presumably in-development third mainline Horizon game, Guerrilla studio director Jan-Bart Van Beek made it clear at the start of the announcement video that Horizon Hunters Gathering does not signal a shift away from creating single-player experiences:

“...I want to be clear about one thing. We absolutely love making single-player games, and we’re going to keep making them. They’re a huge part of who we are as a studio. But next to that, we have this long-standing dream to try to do something different: our own take on how to explore the world of Horizon together as a team of machine hunters.”

Today’s news should not be confused with Horizon Steel Frontiers, a recently announced MMORPG set within the Horizon universe and being developed by NCSoft for PC and mobile. That game also has no release window.

We've been hearing murmurs about Horizon Hunters Gathering for years now, so it's nice to finally see this project come to light. It will be interesting to see if Guerrilla can successfully translate its single-player open-world series into a successful multiplayer title, the way that Elden Ring Nightreign managed to last year. What do you think of Horizon Hunters Gathering? Let us know in the comments.