...

Gameforge announced in July that after a decade of waiting, the MMOARTS Kingdom Under Fire 2 would finally be coming to North America. Doubts would be understandable—it was supposed to arrive in 2009, after all—but today the publisher kicked off preorders and dropped a new trailer committing to a November release.

Ever since Stardew Valley exploded in 2016, we've been treated to a number of other indie developers creating small farming, crafting, and life sims. They've yet to reach the cultural dominance of Battle Royales, but if they did I'd be a happy camper. All that to say, I've been quietly following Garden Story since it first came across my Twitter feed last year. Yesterday, developer Picogram announced that it had landed a publisher (two, in fact) and a release window for the spring of 2020.

...

The Sims 4 is going a little bit Harry Potter in its latest, and distinctly wizardy, expansion Realm of Magic, which is coming to PC and Mac on 10th September, with a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One release scheduled for 15th October.

Realm of Magic introduces the sleepy town of Glimmerbrook as a new neighbourhood, largely unremarkable save for the fact that it hides a portal to another, rather less mundane world.

Sims that step on in can earn their magical stripes through questing, magical study, and from fellow spellcasters. Spells, once learned, can affect the world in a variety ways, from conjuring food out of thin air to making Sims quarrel, and it's even possible to do a spot of transmogrification should anyone get on your wrong side.

Fans of Sir Daniel Fortesque had a lot to be excited for when Sony revealed earlier this year that it had a remake of the first MediEvil in the works. Flash forward to Gamescom 2019 and we've finally gotten some hands-on time with this nostalgic return to Gallowmere. And from what we played, those looking for a more scenic trip down memory lane are going to be very happy.

Like the recent Crash and Spyro remakes, MediEvil is a gorgeous and (obviously) massive upgrade over the original game when it comes to visuals. The first game was inspired by Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and the remake does an excellent job of making everything look more akin to that stop motion class. The textures are smooth, the models more realistic than oddly shaped polygonal models, and the moon-adorned skybox is enchanting.

The simple gameplay from the original is more or less retained. Weapon impacts land with a heavy thud and you can feel the weight behind your sword every time.  You can attack foes with a close encounters weapons like sword or Daniel's arm, which he can pop out of his socket. Long-range weapons like throwing knives help to whittle zombies and other foes down before you run in for the kill. 

The odds are very good that at some point during your adventures in Cyberpunk 2077, you'll run into trouble with the law. Hey, it happens—everybody runs into a little bit of bad luck that's totally not their fault now and then, right? But producer Richard Borzymowski told USgamer that there are ways you can mitigate your risk factors—beginning with knowing where it's good to be bad.

There aren't many compact and immersive VR foot controllers on the market, but Cybershoes GmbH is looking to change the way we move in VR games. The company attended Gamescom last year with a prototype, but this year it returned with a third and final design, plus a 360-degree swivel chair and matching carpet. 

Want to watch a half-hour of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 gameplay? Since you're here, I'll assume that the answer is yes, and so courtesy of IGN here's a 28-minute clip of gameplay from a demo being shown at Gamescom.

There’s little doubt among fans that Need For Speed is also in need of some new life. The series' past few entries have been bogged down by intrusive microtransactions, poor storytelling, and lackluster settings. However, a beautiful new Miami-inspired metropolis called Palm City – as well as a particularly chaotic implementation of NFS’s classic boogeyman, the street-racer hating police force – might do just enough to propel the series back to the top.

During Gamescom 2019, we got to spend 30 minutes fiddling with customizaton options and playing out two street races. There is a large array of customization options for those who want to deck out their rides. We were given a sleek looking Mercedes AMG to play with in a garage before the first race, and I spent a few minutes switching out various models of canards, wheels, splitters, skirts just to see how it would change the car’s look. Stance tuning, paint and decal options, and even modifying the sound of your exhaust are also options you can tweak. Alongside your car, you can customize your driver's hair, clothes, and shoes. There weren’t that many options in the demo, but they did run the gamut from mundane, like curly hair, to wacky, with you being able to don serial killer masks.