Activision Blizzard Made $1.2 Billion From Microtransactions In Three Months

Activision

Activision (or technically Activision Blizzard) has long been the king of the mountain in the video game industry, at least in the financial sense of things. They have some of the longest running and most profitable franchises under their belt, even if they don't release a lot. Oh, and those lovely microtransactions.

As reported via Gamespot, Activision Blizzard's latest financial report saw them make $1.2 billion USD, and yes that is billion with a "b" there, in just a three month period. While microtransactions are always big business, this is known, this marks a remarkable 69 percent improvement over the same period last year.

Of course, a lot can be contributed to this, particularly that we are still within the COVID pandemic and that is affecting people's spending habits to various degrees. Still, 69% jump is quite something to see. Unfortunately, it's not broken down as to what came from where, whether it's from the massively popular Call of Duty Warzone or spikes in Candy Crush from their King branch. The only thing we can know for sure is that, either way, that's a lot of green.

Twin Mirror Gets Trailer Ahead Of Pre-Orders Going Live

Twin Mirror

The latest game from Dontnod, Twin Mirror, has had quite a journey getting here. The game was originally announced in 2019, but was then delayed and rearranged from an episodic game to a single narrative experience. It'll help round out the year in December, and today we got a new trailer to celebrate and encourage pre-orders.

The trailer is a short affair, only about 30 seconds, to give you a taste of the small town setting as well as the mystery you'll have to solve. While this trailer doesn't show, one of the key aspects of the game will be going into a type of mind space, like seen in the banner above to help solve the town's dark secrets. Much like Dontnod's previous few games, it seems to be very narratively driven and about choice and consequence.

Twin Mirror will release December 1st for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. Pre-orders are now opening up as of writing this, though the PS4 version does not seem to be live just yet, keep your eyes open.

Xbox Series S Reportedly Has 364 GB Of Usable Storage

xbox series s

We are a week away now from Microsoft launching not one, but two, next generation consoles. They will have both their high-end Xbox Series X and the more low-end and affordable Series S. The latter has proven to be something of a controversial tech with developers, some thinking it'll be fine with others having concerns that it could be confusing for a variety of reasons. One thing that's sure to add some fuel to the fire is the amount of usable space it allegedly has.

Reddit poster uspead20 has alleged to have gotten the system a full week early, with a picture to apparently prove it. He says that the system has 364 GB usable for games and apps of the system's installed 512 GB SSD. For comparison, Sony's PS5 will have 664 GB of usable storage while the Series S's big brother, the Series X, will have 802 GB.

For now we have to file this under rumor since this is not official, but the math checks out. We probably won't know from official channels for a little while. It's not much, in the end, especially when you have the Call of Duty titles of the world. We'll see when the Xbox Series S releases on November 10th alongside the Xbox Series X

Watch Dogs: Legion Issue Results in Corrupted Saves, Fix Planned for Next Week

Watch Dogs Legion

Ubisoft's Watch Dogs: Legion launched last week and received a hotfix for consoles and PC to address several issues. Nevertheless, some major ones remain, like an issue that results in one's save data being erased regardless of time played. The issue seems to result from not exiting the game properly.

While one could theoretically wait for it to properly exit, the game itself will take too long, leading to player force-closing via Alt+F4 and corrupting their save. A Ubisoft representative told PC Gamer that it was aware of the issue. "We're aware some players are having difficulties and we're looking to address these issues in an upcoming patch by November 9. We'll have more information on the contents of the patch in the coming days."

Whether this will result in corrupted saves being restored is unknown so we'll have to wait for more information. In the meantime, Reddit user Natanaeltedja offered a solution to avoiding the issue altogether. It involves disabling cloud services, starting the Ubisoft Connect launcher in offline mode and setting the app affinity to single core (which can be done in the task bar) when the game is running. This should lead to a normal quit and progress saved.

For more details on Watch Dogs: Legion, check out our review here. It's available for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Google Stadia but will release for Xbox Series X/S on November 10th and PS5 on November 12th.

Days Gone on PS5 Runs at Dynamic 4K, Up to 60 FPS

days gone

Joining the ranks of PS4 titles receiving enhancements on the PS5, Sony Bend has confirmed support for Days Gone on the next-gen console. It will feature PS4 to PS5 save transfers along with a dynamic 4K resolution and up to 60 FPS performance. Faster loading times thanks to the PS5's SSD also seem a given though the developer didn't specifically outline it.

Days Gone is one of Sony's more interesting PS4 exclusives. Released last year, the title had its fair share of issues (which you can read more about here) but managed to perform pretty well in sales. Sony Bend also provided strong post-launch support with New Game Plus, new difficulty options and weekly challenges added in updates.

Currently, the studio is working on a new triple-A project. The obvious assumption is that it's Days Gone 2 and will release for PS5 somewhere down the line. Regardless, stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Observer: System Redux PS5 Gameplay Highlights Cyberpunk Horror

observer system redux

Bloober Team may have The Medium coming to Xbox Series X/S and PC this December but PS5 players can still get their hands on Observer: System Redux. This revamped version of the 2017 title sports improved visuals which further accentuate the cyberpunk horror and dystopian aesthetic. Check out the game's first 20 minutes running on PS5 below, courtesy of IGN.

Observer: System Redux features new mechanics, revamped stealth and additional secrets. More neural interrogations have been added along with three new side cases – "Errant Signal", "Her Fearful Symmetry" and "It Runs in the Family." In terms of graphical improvements, there's 4K resolution support, HDR lighting and ray-tracing (though the footage below is from a preview build that didn't have it).

Launching on November 10th for Xbox Series X/S and PS5 players, Observer: System Redux will also be available for PC players. Unfortunately, current-gen players won't receive a free next-gen console upgrade. PC players, on the other hand, can pay $5.99 to upgrade to the Redux version.

Transformers: Battlegrounds Review – Lacking Spark

I can't think of the last turn based tactics game I played that I did not enjoy, so I went into Transformers: Battlegrounds with higher expectations than I had hoped. Though I've occasionally enjoyed the Transformers property now and then, I've never really been a big fan, but the idea of duking it out with robots that can transform into everything from dinosaurs to sports cars in an XCOM style game was an appealing one.

And though I did enjoy my time with Transformers: Battlegrounds, I was also disappointed with some of its issues. This is a game that's specifically geared toward younger audiences, and those who fall in that demographic will probably have a great time with it. At the same time, its bid for accessibility clashes with the strategy genre's inherent need for complexity and challenge, which means anybody who is looking for a layered and nuanced tactical experience is going to be underwhelmed by what's on offer here.

"Transformers: Battlegrounds' bid for accessibility clashes with the strategy genre's inherent need for complexity and challenge, which means anybody who is looking for a layered and nuanced tactical experience is going to be underwhelmed by what's on offer here."

Transformers: Battlegrounds' core gameplay loop will be familiar to anyone who's played XCOM. You control a team of characters across a grid based map in turn based battles, using up your limited number of Action Points to move, use abilities, and make attacks. The usual balancing act of playing offensively while ensuring that you don't get too reckless is present and accounted for here, and, if nothing else, keeps you engaged enough in the moment to moment gameplay.

Every character has a special attack, for instance, but you can choose to spend more than one (or even all) of your available Action Points to use more powerful variants of those abilities for greater damage and even additional effects, such as knocking enemies back into walls or exploding objects to deal additional damage. Doing so, however, would mean that you can no longer move your character, and leaving them out in the open without any cover could prove to be costly in the next turn.

Each character also has an Ultimate ability, using which requires Energon. Your Energon meter, in turn, fills up every time you move or attack, while you can make it fill up faster if you decide not to use some Action Points and end your turn early, which makes for a nice risk/reward mechanic. Meanwhile, there's also new abilities to unlock and equip with the currency known as Spark gained from battles, status effects to consider, and different classes of units to make use of during combat.

On paper, Transformer: Battlegrounds has all the basics you need for a solid turn based tactics game, and for the most part, the execution of these mechanics is good enough. It is let down, however, by a lack of complexity, and an even greater lack of challenge. For instance, accuracy isn't a thing, which means there's no danger of missing your shots, which tends to make things a bit too straightforward.

transformers battlegrounds

"On paper, Transformer: Battlegrounds has all the basics you need for a solid turn based tactics game, and for the most part, the execution of these mechanics is good enough. It is let down, however, by a lack of complexity, and an even greater lack of challenge."

Enemies also have a knack for taking potshots at you and then hightailing it out of the area and getting behind cover out of reach, which means battles often boil down to you cornering them with multiple characters from different directions, lest the whole affair turn into a frustrating game. It doesn't help that the AI isn't particularly smart either, and too often you'll find enemies that seem to be all too happy to miss out on obvious opportunities for attacks, or stand out in the open and leave themselves vulnerable to attacks.

Missions variety is also a bit of an issue in Transformer: Battlegrounds. Most missions either task you with dispatching all foes, or with reaching a particular area, and this bland objective design, coupled with a lack of any real challenge, leads to a feeling of repetition setting in pretty early on in the game. There are some boss encounters, sure, but once again, most of them don't provide much of a challenge, which means they just end up being longer versions of regular fights. That said, the bosses you fight against do have some interesting abilities that they use against you, so fights against them feel at least a little special.

Transformers: Battlegrounds suffers from technical issues as well. Visually, the game is mediocre at best. It uses plenty of colour, so it can at least be sort of pleasant to look at every now and then, and it's never not fun watching large robots transforming into trucks and cars and pummeling each other, but there's a distinct lack of detail, and many environments end up looking a bit too plasticky at times. Bafflingly enough, however, Transformers: Battlegrounds also suffers from frame rate issues, with the game's performance dipping below acceptable levels quite frequently, even when the action on the screen is far from hectic.

From a narrative perspective, the game's central premise will be familiar if you've had any engagement with the Transformers property in the past. The Autobots and Decepticons are at each other's throats again, and locked in a race against each other to get to the AllSpark first. As always, Earth is the backdrop for this war, with the planet and its denizens getting caught up in the crossfire between the two robotic races. Transformers fans will feel at home with the narrative here, which is a good thing, of course- but the shoddy, clumsy writing and bland voice acting are letdowns, which means the story, too, is a bit of a mixed bag.

transformers battlegrounds

"Visually, the game is mediocre at best."

Something that I mentioned earlier in this review is worth keeping in mind though- Transformers: Battlegrounds is very specifically made with younger audiences in mind, who will probably find the story more satisfying than I did, and who will probably not be as bothered by the lack of challenge as I was. If you're in the game's targeted demographic, or if you're looking for a breezy, enjoyable experience, Transformers: Battlegrounds actually has plenty going for it.

The part of me that was looking for an engaging turn based tactics experience is disappointed in what Transformers: Battlegrounds has on offer though. It's too bad the game doesn't deliver a moderately higher level of challenge or complexity, because it does have the basic elements in place that it needed to do just that. In its current state, it's a moderately enjoyable but largely forgettable game.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition Gameplay Showcases Vergil's Moves and Weapons

Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition

New PS5 gameplay footage for Capcom's Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition has begun circulating courtesy of various publications and it's all focused on Vergil. The newest playable character is showcased with his various weapons – including the Beowulf and Miracle Edge (aka Force Edge). Check out Game Informer's coverage below.

Vergil's moves are a thing to behold, especially when unleashing his Devil Trigger to summon a doppelganger to tear through foes. But his core gimmick is the Concentration Bar, which fills when standing still or walking. This will allow for unleashing unique attacks as it fills up – taking damage or running reduces it. As such, you're encouraged to be methodical and precise as Vergil.

Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition is out on November 10th for Xbox Series X/S and November 12th for PS5. Along with Vergil, it offers several unique features like Legendary Dark Knight Mode for upping the number of enemies, 120 FPS support and ray-tracing. Ray-tracing will be exclusive to the PS5 version at launch and arriving later for Xbox Series X.

DiRT 5 Review – Finely-Tuned Chaos

Codemasters has come a long way with the DiRT series. Among the many things that set their games apart from the competition, an unrelenting focus on different surface types, vehicle types, and good old-fashioned dirty rally racing have been what players can expect from them. In that regard, DiRT 5 stays on track with previous entries but still manages to wield the magic that makes these games so great in some interesting new ways.

First off, DiRT 5 has a new selection of ways to play. Where DiRT 4 had an emphasis on procedurally generated tracks, DiRT 5 moves away from that to just having a ton of variety and customization options. With 10 different locales to race in, the variety is certainly there, and each region has their own geographical challenges that couldn't be more fun to overcome. Areas that particularly stood out to me where the canyons of Arizona and the muddy trails of Brazil, but if you prefer your altitude a little higher, the mountains of Greece and Nepal are also outstanding places to race. You really can't go wrong with DiRT 5's locations though, as they're all just as beguiling to admire as they are exhilarating to plow through over and over again, getting a little better each time.

"DiRT 5 stays on track with previous entries but still manages to wield the magic that makes these games so great in some interesting new ways."

Before we get into the nitty gritty though, I must quickly point out that DiRT 5 is one of the most gorgeous racing games ever made. Everything from the sun gleaming from behind mountain tops, and wet mud getting caked in the side of your rollcage are distractingly vivid and realistic. Even more so on the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, which have performance and detail modes, both of which look outstanding, so I just generally recommend the smooth frame-rate mode wherever possible.

That same level of reverence was clearly given to DiRT 5's many vehicle classes, all with plenty of variants within them. Everything from sprint cars and super lites to rock bouncers and cross raid trucks are here, and they all look, sound, and play fantastically. All of them are different enough to make DiRT 5 feel extremely versatile, yet that still feel like they belong in this game. The selection covers such a wide spectrum of performance and speed that you'd be hard pressed to not find at least a couple that any racing fan can fall in love with. Even more than that, the different landscapes and surface types you come across make learning new vehicle types a fun challenge that you willingly partake in, rather than it feeling like the game is just arbitrarily forcing you to leave your comfort zone because it can.

Just when you get used to dry jagged terrain, you'll be speeding through ice and snow, and then trying to master sliding around in mud and gravel in South America. Each type of track feels so different and fun to master, that the excitement of the next one completely overtakes how much you might miss the last. Weather changes how the tracks play as well. Rain, snow, and sandstorms all greatly impact how certain sections of tracks behave dynamically, even continuing to intensify or decline as the race goes on.

dirt 5

"DiRT 5 is one of the most gorgeous racing games ever made."

I first realized how much a track could continue to change due to weather when I drove on a patch of road in the first lap during a snowstorm where the road was a bit slick but the snow wasn't really sticking yet, but on the second lap, the entire road had a thin layer of snow that forced me to slow down a bit, then, on the third lap, I almost entirely lost control at the same location because snow was now several inches deep and much harder to maintain friction on. I was forced to recalibrate my technique as the snow got worse, and it was an intense thrilling experience.

That's not to say the driving is free of quirks though. For a game as fun and freewheeling as DiRT 5 clearly aims to be, I was surprised to see how strict and punishing it often is with small objects and thin, wimpy trees that could instantly stop you dead in your tire tracks, while most other arcade racing games generally let you plough through similar obstacles with little more than a scratch and a loss of a some speed. A punishment that better fits the crime.

DiRT 5 is also fairly harsh about cutting corners. While you can get away with a little bit of it, especially on tighter turns, DiRT 5 will not hesitate to force reset you back on the track, sometimes drastically cutting into your lead whether you meant to cut through the track or not. Punishment for errors is expected, but the trouble is, with a game like this where fast-moving vehicles are bouncing all over the place, you are certain to find yourself in these situations by accident more often than on purpose, yet the game treats you like a cheater. So when you lose your place in the race over it it can take the wind out of your sails a bit. Couple that with how long it can take to catch back up to the pack, you'll often be tempted to just restart races even though you may only be a third of the way through them. That said, when you do well and manage to really pull away from your opponents, maintaining that lead is equally as smooth as catching back up can be challenging. So DiRT 5 certainly knows how to reward as well as it does punish, for what it's worth.

dirt 5

"For a game as fun and freewheeling as DiRT 5 clearly aims to be, I was surprised to see how strict and punishing it often is with small objects and thin, wimpy trees that could instantly stop you dead in your tire tracks."

All of these elements come together in DiRT 5's several ways to play the game. You have a fairly hefty career mode that takes you through its tracks, as well as an arcade mode that currently consists of time trials and custom free races that you can customize to your heart's content. Want to race on pure ice during a snowstorm in a 4-lap race with 9 opponents at night with trucks? You got it. Free racing has you covered with just about any type of race you can imagine. As well as playgrounds, which is a pretty nifty track editor with a surprising amount of depth to it. Playgrounds is a huge step up from the custom track generator from DiRT 4. You can make your own tracks with a system reminiscent of the Tony Hawk games, publish them, and discover other tracks other players have published.

This by itself brings a lot of value and longevity to the game and I look forward to seeing what the DiRT 5 community does with this over the coming months and years. The game's intended centerpiece is surely its career mode though. The campaign takes you through all the isolated tracks and vehicle types with logical combinations as you watch a rivalry unfold between characters voiced by none other than Troy Baker and Nolan North, who, as you might expect, inject way more life into the story than any racing game campaign has any right to have. Also, events are introduced by a couple of podcasters instead of the standard racing game broadcasters. The dialog here takes a lot of swings at jokes, and misses most of them, but it's certainly nothing cringe-inducing.

Overall, the campaign is pretty interesting for a racing game, with paths that you choose and developments that you can affect. There's also off and online multiplayer, the online portion of which I was unable to test out on this pre-launch build. On top of those racing modes you also have your standard garage and profile areas to look at what you own, customize your vehicles, player icons, and all that good stuff. This area certainly doesn't reinvent the wheel, but I suppose there's no need to, either. I would have liked to see a little more customization of vehicles here, though. Perhaps something more along the lines of what 2019's Need for Speed Heat brought to the table. But what's here is serviceable, albeit standard.

dirt 5

"Overall, the campaign is pretty interesting for a racing game, with paths that you choose and developments that you can affect."

You progress in a few different ways in DiRT 5, but what you'll be paying the most attention to is your XP, Rep, and DiRT dollars. All of which ultimately give you access to more cars, parts, and sponsors, which of course, serve as nice excuses to work on sub-goals like staying in first place for 10 seconds. It's a familiar progress flow to anyone who has played a racing game within the last ten years, but still feels fresh because of DiRT 5's variety in unlockables and vehicles.

DiRT 5 is a true step forward for its genre in many ways. It leans on the fundamentals that have been hammered out by racing games before, but takes them to new levels with an actually entertaining campaign, a deep custom track editor, and intensely dynamic and consequential weather systems. While it's only available on current gen consoles at launch, I fully expect DiRT 5 to ultimately be known as the first big standard-bearer for ninth generation racing games… Once the dust settles.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope Review – Optimistic

The Dark Pictures anthology series is one of the few examples of a game studio carving out its own niche in the gaming landscape. The success of Until Dawn allowed Supermassive Games to double down on the branching path survival horror games that they have been making ever since. Little Hope, the second entry into the anthology after 2019's Man of Medan, fits perfectly into the unique slot that Supermassive has created, straying very little from the ideas that characterized its past two games. It doesn't try to do anything new, and it doesn't make any new mistakes. It's the quintessential example of a game you will like if you enjoy the series, but it never outdoes the highest highs that Supermassive has hit in its past games.

Set across three unique time periods, Little Hope has easily the most intricate plot of any game Supermassive has released, intertwining three distinct time periods. For the most part, you control five present-day college students or professors whose bus crashes in the town of Little Hope, a town haunted by its past, specifically the late seventeenth century during its witch trials akin to those in Salem and the 1970's during which a family was killed in a house fire. The present-day cohort realizes that they are trapped within Little Hope for the night and attempt to find their way out by traversing the city. Not far in, they realize that the time periods are even more directly linked. The present-day people are intermittently pulled back into the time of the witch trials to reveal that each of them has a so-called double. These doubles look the same – understandably, as they are played by the same actors – and are generally moral equals.

"Little Hope is the quintessential example of a game you will like if you enjoy the series, but it never outdoes the highest highs that Supermassive has hit in its past games."

To explain in more detail would spoil much of what makes the story interesting, but it's certainly not the type of plot that will make full sense immediately. Even the Curator, the eerie man who interrupts every little while to give you an update on your progress and serves as the sole link among the anthology, confirms how confused you should be just a couple hours in. It's only evident that the group is in danger; not until much later is it explained why or how the events are linked. In this way, the game increasingly builds tension over the course of its 4-hour runtime, as its mystery runs deeper, but it also feels too slow at the beginning for its fast-paced final hour. With such a twisted plot, it takes a long time to set up before it pays off, and it doesn't quite stick the landing. There are stretches where very little happens, but it all speeds together with the final few scenes. Luckily, if you've been able to keep most or all characters alive, the ending is satisfying enough to make you understand the smaller moments, and everything makes sense in a way that feels understandable without ever being completely obvious.

Making up for the slow plot development in the first act is Little Hope's survival-horror aspects, specifically its tension building and outright jump scares. While Little Hope is atmospherically more similar to Until Dawn with its abandoned town setting, its tension level is much more similar to Man of Medan and never reaches the heights of Until Dawn because it never quite matches its stakes. Part of this comes as a natural consequence of releasing a handful of games following a similar formula. Knowing the ways in which characters can die makes it a lot less frightening to encounter such a circumstance, and because Little Hope doesn't stray from its predecessors, I could usually deduce when a character was actually in danger of death and when it was a fake out, especially early on. Because the stakes hinge on character deaths, having a good idea of when those deaths can occur makes potential scares less impactful.

That's not to say, however, that Little Hope is devoid of scares. On the contrary, the town of Little Hope is dark and dreary and filled with unsettling beings and suspicious buildings, and the jump scares caught me off guard more often than not. While the game does fall back on many of the same jumps a few times, it's never too many to make them lose their impact altogether. These are especially more noticeable as the game gets further along. When the stakes do become more tangible, every floor creak, unexplained noise, and camera shift leaves you a little anxious, and when there is actual danger, it usually packs a hard punch. While I didn't find Little Hope's version of enemies as frightening as Until Dawn's wendigos, I came to appreciate them more because of the explanations behind them.

the dark pictures little hope

"While Little Hope is atmospherically more similar to Until Dawn with its abandoned town setting, its tension level is much more similar to Man of Medan and never reaches the heights of Until Dawn because it never quite matches its stakes."

On a character level, each of the five present-day leads are as diverse as Supermassive has created thus far. Played by some recognizable faces, they still follow high-level archetypes, but they're all noticeably deeper than characters in previous games. Daniel, for instance, has traits of a college tough guy, but reveals his softer side later on. John, a college professor, puts on a façade of leadership and arrogance only to find more pressing internal issues. Each of the five has these types of internal dichotomies, and they're all explored, some more so than others. The writing can be a little clunky, especially when it has to accommodate for your particular scenario, but it's strong enough to convey character growth. Actions and dialogue choices have tangible impacts on relationships and character statuses, and they have legitimate consequences on late-game decisions and outcomes depending on which way you've played each character.

As has become the staple of this genre, Little Hope features ample opportunities for choosing your own path, and no two playthroughs will be exactly alike. Any character can live or die, and different choices beget different outcomes in the plot. Regarding character deaths, there are the usual deaths that come as a result of failed quick time events, but there are more that result directly from individual decisions, which is an appreciated addition that makes it more about the choices you make than about your button-pressing skills.

Other decisions run the gamut from dialogue choices to deciding between running and hiding from a monster or deciding between which of two people to help in an emergency. There seemed to be as many choices as ever in dialogue, and it actually feels like each choice has an impact on the story, rather than having just a handful of clear branching points like in past games. Some choices are obvious when they're being made, such as those regarding who takes a certain path and who carries a weapon, but others are much more subtle, only understandable in impact when the consequences hit. While I would've liked to see a little more freedom in a few specific spots and there are some clear points where the game forces some circumstances to allow the plot to progress, there's more replayability here than in Man of Medan, and I'm intrigued to continue trying to see every outcome.

the dark pictures little hope

"As has become the staple of this genre, Little Hope features ample opportunities for choosing your own path, and no two playthroughs will be exactly alike. Any character can live or die, and different choices beget different outcomes in the plot."

While the decision-making takes up the majority of the gameplay, the rest is almost identical to that of Little Hope's predecessors. Between cutscenes, you explore designated areas to find everything from details about the town itself to pictures that give premonitions for potential future events. The most action-packed moments are those that involve the quick time events. Failing these is usually what leads to a character's death, though it commonly takes multiple consecutive failures to get there. A couple of tweaks don't separate this in any capacity from past games, though, as the actual experience of playing Little Hope is very similar to that of Man of Medan and Until Dawn.

I came out of my time with Little Hope further understanding what Supermassive Games is trying to do with its The Dark Pictures anthology. These games aren't sequels, nor are they trying to build on each other from either a story or gameplay perspective. Like anthologies in literature or film, you don't need to play the entire series to grasp what it's going for, and if you don't like the mechanics of one game, you won't like them for any entry. However, as part of the anthology, Little Hope is another successful survival-horror experience. It's clear that the formula for these games is starting to settle, and, while that may diminish some of the impact of future games' reveals and scares, there are many things that work about it. Add onto that the interesting yet convoluted time-twisting plot and Little Hope is a positive experience for anyone who likes the genre. There's a clear path that Supermassive Games is paving with Little Hope, but this entry is effectively scary and satisfyingly differentiated to be a worthwhile standalone experience.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.