Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights20215 factsLive Wire · Binary Haze InteractiveGame page →Protagonist Lily never swings a weapon: the white-haired priestess purifies fallen knights and summons their spirits to fight for her — every 'weapon' is a rescued soul.en.wikipedia.orgThe entire ~50-track score is by Mili — the band behind Deemo and Goblin Slayer's ending themes — an unusual full-band 'get' for a small indie.vgmdb.netIt sprinted from Early Access to 1.0 in exactly five months (Jan 21 → June 22, 2021) — and was publisher Binary Haze Interactive's very first release.middleofnowheregaming.comSales kept climbing for years: 600k in 2022 became 2 million by January 2025 — announced within days of sequel Ender Magnolia's 1.0 launch.vgchartz.comThe healing 'prayer' mechanic works like Dark Souls' Estus Flask — limited charges refilled at rest points — one reason critics filed it under 'Soulsvania'.screenrant.comRead 3 more facts
Until You Fall20207 factsSchell GamesGame page →The game's neon-fantasy look grew out of its music, not the other way around: the team tried orchestral, guitar and ska scores before choosing synthwave, and once locked in, the visuals followed the soundtrack.developers.meta.comSchell Games coined their own micro-genre, 'Sword-wave', for the synthwave combat score, and the engine adaptively resequences the musical motifs in real time.developers.meta.comThe biggest technical challenge was making a high-intensity VR action game that didn't cause motion sickness, solved with 'adaptive combat' locomotion: vignetting, spatial anchoring and turning the dash into a full shoulder-check.developers.meta.comWhole systems were cut to protect the power fantasy: weapon durability, enemy looting, holsters and weapon-throwing were all removed for slowing combat down.en.wikipedia.orgThe credits/outro track 'Aether's Glow' was written by Chris Dudley, keyboardist of the Grammy-nominated metalcore band Underoath.theongaku.comThe game spent about 14 months in Steam Early Access (Aug 2019 to Oct 2020) before its 1.0 launched simultaneously on PC, Meta Quest and PS4/PSVR; reviewers singled out the wireless Quest version for enabling free movement.roadtovr.comDeveloper Schell Games was founded by former Disney Imagineer and Carnegie Mellon professor Jesse Schell, and is best known for VR titles like I Expect You To Die.schellgames.comRead 5 more facts
Caveman World: Mountains of Unga Boonga20163 factsGrabTheGames Studios · GrabTheGamesGame page →Despite its $1.99 budget price, the game ships with 14 Steam achievements, trading cards and leaderboards — the full Steam meta-feature set of far bigger releases.store.steampowered.comIt is one of the few games GrabTheGames actually developed in-house (credited as GrabTheGames Studios) — the label is otherwise known primarily as a prolific budget publisher, including The Deed series.store.steampowered.comThe game came out of the Steam Greenlight era in April 2016, part of the wave of low-cost community-approved indies that preceded Steam Direct.store.steampowered.comRead 1 more fact
Predator: Hunting Grounds202012 factsIllFonicGame page →The game was revealed at PlayStation's State of Play on May 9, 2019 with a cinematic trailer of a Fireteam in a South American jungle and a Predator de-cloaking in the trees.gamespot.comThe PC version launched as an Epic Games Store exclusive and only reached Steam a full year later, on April 29, 2021, alongside the new Airstrip map and full cross-play.destructoid.comArnold Schwarzenegger returned as Dutch, his first time voicing the character since the 1987 film, recording new lines in a single day at the studio.engadget.comThe "Dutch's Tapes" audio drama, Dutch narrating what happened to him after the film, was free, while playable Dutch was a paid DLC that came with his QR5 "Hammerhead" rifle and knife.hypebeast.comThe Predator's clicks and roars are Peter Cullen's original 1987 performance: audio director Steve Whetman tracked down the recording session tapes and used Krotos Reformer Pro to generate new variations from them.krotosaudio.comIt was pitched by lead designer Jordan Mathewson at E3 right after Friday the 13th: The Game shipped, simply asking the team "What about Predator?"gamesradar.comIn a rare move, Sony handed the rights back to the developer: in March 2024 IllFonic acquired publishing from Sony Interactive Entertainment, saying it "had to get Predator: Hunting Grounds back."gematsu.comThe former PS4 console exclusive took four and a half years to reach Xbox: it launched on Xbox Series X|S and native PS5 on October 1, 2024, rebuilt on Unreal Engine 4.27, with a physical PS5 edition on November 12.avpgalaxy.netThe Feral Predator from the 2022 film Prey was day-one DLC for the 2024 relaunch, carrying the film's expandable shield and crossbolt arrows.avpgalaxy.netIt even reaches across the Alien vs. Predator universe: the Wolf Predator from AvP: Requiem is a purchasable class, released March 3, 2021.store.steampowered.comThe ESRB rating summary is unusually memorable, formally warning that some scenes depict "skinned corpses with exposed buttocks."esrb.orgIn mid-2026 publishing passed to Balor Games, a label founded by former Humble Games executives, while IllFonic kept developing new Predator classes such as the Jotun and the Father Predator from Predator: Badlands.capsulecomputers.com.auRead 10 more facts
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker20109 factsKojima Productions · KonamiGame page →It was directed by Hideo Kojima, who considered it the biggest game he had worked on; it was originally conceived as Metal Gear Solid 5, but overseas marketing opposed the numbered title.en.wikipedia.orgSet in 1974 Costa Rica, it stars Big Boss (Naked Snake), who founds the private army Militaires Sans Frontières (MSF) and builds its offshore headquarters, Mother Base.en.wikipedia.orgIt introduced base-building and army management (Mother Base) plus the player-built nuclear Metal Gear ZEKE — mechanics later expanded in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.en.wikipedia.orgIt features cooperative play for up to four players ('Co-Ops'), a first for the mainline Metal Gear series.en.wikipedia.orgIts story sequences use comic-style animated cutscenes illustrated by artist Ashley Wood.en.wikipedia.orgIt was the first PSP title ever to receive a perfect 40/40 score from the Japanese magazine Famitsu — the 14th game overall to do so.en.wikipedia.orgDavid Hayter reprises his role as the English voice of Big Boss/Snake.en.wikipedia.orgThe title 'Peace Walker' refers to an AI-controlled nuclear-deterrent weapon central to the plot.en.wikipedia.orgIt sold 574,957 copies in Japan within its first two weeks and reached roughly 1.99 million PSP copies worldwide by 2014.en.wikipedia.orgRead 7 more facts
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden20248 factsDON'T NOD · Focus EntertainmentGame page →The game has two protagonists and kills one off early: Red mac Raith, a Scottish former soldier, and Antea Duarte, a Cuban-born mystic. Antea dies in the opening hours and becomes a ghost, and the player alternates between the living Red and the spectral Antea for the rest of the game.en.wikipedia.orgEvery haunting resolves through one of three choices — Blame the living, Banish the spirit, or Ascend it to peace — feeding into the overarching decision of whether to resurrect Antea by sacrificing the living or keep the Banisher's oath and let her go.store.steampowered.comIt is set in 1695 in the fictional New England-style colonial settlement of New Eden.store.steampowered.comDON'T NOD admitted in September 2024 that the game had performed well below sales expectations — leading to a EUR 24 million write-down, an October restructuring that cut roughly 70 jobs with the Montreal studio hit hardest, and an employee strike vote that passed with nearly 90% approval in January 2025.80.lvIt runs on Unreal Engine 5.en.wikipedia.orgReviews were solidly positive despite the commercial outcome — Metacritic 81 on Xbox Series X and 78 on both PS5 and PC.metacritic.comIt was nominated for Outstanding Narrative Excellence at the 2025 Pégases Awards and for Games – Action & Adventure at the 2025 Webby Awards.en.wikipedia.orgThe score comes from Trevor Morris, better known for television — Vikings and The Tudors — and for Dragon Age: Inquisition.en.wikipedia.orgRead 6 more facts
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince20093 factsEA Bright Light · Electronic ArtsGame page →The game was hostage to Hollywood: when Warner Bros. delayed the film from November 2008 to July 2009, EA shelved the essentially-finished game for eight months to launch alongside the movie.harrypotter.fandom.comJames and Oliver Phelps — the films' Weasley twins — voiced Fred and George in the game, part of EA's tradition of pulling supporting film cast into the tie-ins.harrypotter.fandom.comComposer James Hannigan's Potter game scores earned genuine acclaim of their own — his EA Potter work was IFMCA-nominated, rare prestige for movie-licensed game music.harrypotter.fandom.comRead 1 more fact
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two20123 factsJunction Point Studios · Disney Interactive StudiosGame page →It was marketed as the 'first video game musical' — characters advance the plot by breaking into original song, atop the series' first full voice acting.businesswire.comWarren Spector said over 700 people worked on it, and the team made more than 1,000 specific camera fixes to address the original's biggest complaint.en.wikipedia.orgJunction Point Studios was shut down roughly two months after release — ending Warren Spector's Disney era and the Epic Mickey console series with it.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Assassin's Creed Shadows202514 factsUbisoft Québec · Ubisoft EntertainmentGame page →Shadows is the first mainline Assassin's Creed to feature two distinct playable protagonists with fully different playstyles: Naoe, a kunoichi (female shinobi) built for stealth, and Yasuke, a samurai built for open combat.news.ubisoft.comYasuke is based on a real historical figure — an African man who served warlord Oda Nobunaga as a samurai in 16th-century Japan — making him a rare real-life playable AC protagonist.assassinscreed.fandom.comBefore its reveal the game was known by the working title 'Assassin's Creed Codename Red.'en.wikipedia.orgFeudal Japan had been the franchise's most-requested setting for well over a decade — as far back as 2012 the studio acknowledged fans kept asking for it.screenrant.comThe game was delayed twice — from an original November 15, 2024 date to February 14, 2025, then to its final March 20, 2025 release.en.wikipedia.orgDynamic seasons and a reactive light-and-shadow system affect gameplay — Naoe can hide in darkness and shoot out lanterns with shuriken to create it.news.ubisoft.comA new optional 'Canon Mode' removes dialogue choices and locks players into the story's canonical path for a more cinematic experience.pcgamer.comCEO Yves Guillemot confirmed development cost more than €100 million, driven partly by investment in the Anvil engine, making it one of the priciest AC games.gamesradar.comAt launch it posted the second-highest day-one revenue in Assassin's Creed history (behind Valhalla), a franchise record for day-one PlayStation Store digital revenue, and the highest concurrent AC player count ever on Steam.pcgamer.comIt reached 1 million players on day one, 3 million in the first week, and over 5 million players by July 2025.wolfsgamingblog.comThe game drew heavy pre-launch controversy over Yasuke; historian Thomas Lockley defended his historicity, Ubisoft rebuked critics for 'feeding hatred,' and some developers were harassed.en.wikipedia.orgAfter objections from Japanese shrine officials, Ubisoft patched the game to reduce destruction of temples and shrines and toned down blood in sacred spaces.en.wikipedia.orgThe score was written by The Flight (Joe Henson & Alexis Smith), the duo behind Assassin's Creed Odyssey, with the soundtrack album released March 14, 2025 — six days before the game.kinetophone.comShadows launched March 20, 2025 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Windows and macOS, with a Nintendo Switch 2 version following on December 2, 2025.en.wikipedia.orgRead 12 more facts
Soda Dungeon 220203 factsAN Productions · Armor Games StudiosGame page →It is a direct sequel to Soda Dungeon (2015), launching simultaneously free-to-play on Steam, iOS and Android on 9 July 2020.presskits.armorgames.comIts core loop earns loot idle/AFK with AI party scripting and cross-save across platforms.store.steampowered.comIt is monetized only via optional in-game currency, with the developers pledging no loot boxes.store.steampowered.comRead 1 more fact
Buckshot Roulette202318 factsMike Klubnika · Critical ReflexGame page →Buckshot Roulette was made by one person — Mike Klubnika — who did the code, art and soundtrack himself.buckshot-roulette.fandom.comIt was built in the Godot engine and is featured in Godot's official showcase.godotengine.orgKlubnika switched from Unity to Godot after Unity's September 2023 runtime-fee controversy, then shipped Buckshot Roulette that December.80.lvThe game was reportedly made in about two months.gamesradar.comIt launched on itch.io on December 28, 2023, months before the paid Steam release on April 4, 2024.en.wikipedia.orgIt went viral through Twitch, TikTok and YouTube in early 2024.en.wikipedia.orgThe Steam version sold about 1 million copies in roughly two weeks.wnhub.ioIt surpassed 8 million copies sold on PC by December 2025.kitguru.netInstead of a revolver it uses a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun loaded with a mix of live and blank shells, emphasizing tactile handling.store.steampowered.comThe antagonist is a sinister AI 'Dealer' who never speaks — all of its menace is conveyed non-verbally.en.wikipedia.orgBeating the Dealer unlocks an endless 'Double or Nothing' mode.en.wikipedia.orgA free multiplayer update for up to four players arrived on October 31, 2024.en.wikipedia.orgThat multiplayer update added a second soundtrack volume composed by Alex Peipman.alexpeipman.bandcamp.comThe soundtrack ships free inside the Steam build's local files and is also available on Bandcamp and Spotify.steamcommunity.comDeveloper Mike Klubnika is Estonian, based in Tallinn, and the game is listed on GameDev Estonia.gamedevestonia.eeIt was nominated for 'Bite-Sized Game' at the 2024 Indie Game Awards, losing to Animal Well.digitaltrends.comCritics widely compare it to Inscryption; the developer confirms Inscryption inspired the camera and table presentation specifically.en.wikipedia.orgA popular fan short film, 'TASTE YOUR LUCK' (2025), adapted the game, though no official movie has been announced.boingboing.netRead 16 more facts
Counter-Strike 2202313 factsValveGame page →Valve announced Counter-Strike 2 on March 22, 2023, calling it "the largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike's history" — a free upgrade to CS:GO built on the Source 2 engine.dexerto.comIts headline change is the "sub-tick" update system: the server records the exact instant a shot is fired, movement starts, or a grenade is thrown, rather than only at discrete server ticks — Valve calls sub-tick "the heart of Counter-Strike 2."pcgamesn.comSmoke grenades became dynamic volumetric objects that fill space naturally, react to lighting, and can be temporarily blown open by gunfire and HE grenades — nicknamed "responsive smokes."escorenews.comCS2 first launched as an invite-only "Limited Test" closed beta starting March 22, 2023 — initially only Deathmatch and Unranked on Dust II, with testers chosen by recent official-server playtime, Trust Factor, and account standing.liquipedia.netOn September 27, 2023, CS2 didn't ship as a separate product — it replaced CS:GO on the same Steam app, ending CS:GO's matchmaking and updates. macOS support was dropped, leaving Windows and Linux only.en.wikipedia.orgPlayers kept everything: the entire CS:GO inventory carried straight into CS2, with all skins re-rendered under Source 2 lighting and materials — no repurchase required.help.steampowered.comMaps were sorted into three tiers — "Touchstone" (lighting tweaks only), "Upgrade" (Source 2 physically-based lighting) and "Overhaul" (rebuilt from scratch) — with Overpass the first fully rebuilt Overhaul map.hltv.orgThe competitive format switched from MR15 (first to 16, up to 30 rounds) to MR12 (first to 13, up to 24 rounds) to shorten matches.hltv.orgThe game's score is by longtime Valve composer Mike Morasky, performed by the Valve Studio Orchestra; the soundtrack album was released to digital platforms by Ipecac Recordings on November 1, 2023.en.wikipedia.orgAnti-cheat gained "VAC Live": a match can be cancelled and a confirmed cheater removed mid-game, rather than waiting for a delayed signature ban.esportsinsider.comThe skin and case economy is enormous: Valve earned an estimated $980 million to $1 billion from Counter-Strike cases in 2023 alone, with more than 400 million cases opened.dexerto.comCS2 set a Steam all-time concurrent-player record of 1,862,531 players on April 12, 2025.tweaktown.comThe name "Counter-Strike 2" was first used back in 2003 for a planned sequel that became Condition Zero — Valve was reportedly "running on fumes," and Gabe Newell was said to be so happy about the deal that he hand-made a celebratory knife.pcgamer.comRead 11 more facts
Injustice: Gods Among Us20133 factsNetherRealm Studios · WB GamesGame page →The tie-in flow ran backwards: the game spawned Tom Taylor's long-running, award-winning Injustice digital-first comic series — the comic expanded the game's universe, not the other way around.en.wikipedia.orgDC comic writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti were hired as story consultants specifically to keep the heroes sounding like themselves while NetherRealm made Superman a tyrant.dreadcentral.comIts 240 S.T.A.R. Labs missions turn a 6-hour story into a 50+ hour completionist grind — one of the deepest single-player packages any fighting game had shipped.trueachievements.comRead 1 more fact
P.T.201412 factsKojima Productions · KonamiGame page →P.T. stands for "playable teaser" and was released under the fake developer name "7780s Studio" — 7,780 km² is the area of Shizuoka Prefecture, whose name reads as "quiet hills".en.wikipedia.orgIt was announced at Gamescom 2014 and released for free on PSN on August 12, 2014; solving the final puzzle revealed Silent Hills with Hideo Kojima, Guillermo del Toro and Norman Reedus.en.wikipedia.orgKojima expected the final puzzle to take players at least a week, but some cracked it within hours of release.en.wikipedia.orgIt was delisted on April 29, 2015 after Silent Hills was cancelled, and re-downloads were blocked soon after.en.wikipedia.orgPS4 consoles with P.T. installed were listed on eBay for more than $1,000 before eBay removed the auctions.en.wikipedia.orgA camera hack revealed that Lisa's model is always right behind the player once the flashlight is obtained.en.wikipedia.orgThe in-game radio plays a Swedish message referencing the 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast.en.wikipedia.orgThe graphics were deliberately toned down and capped at 30 fps so the game could pass as an indie title.ja.wikipedia.orgMetal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain reuses P.T.'s radio dialogue and sounds, and Death Stranding Director's Cut hides a P.T. Easter egg.en.wikipedia.orgKonami shut down fan remakes, including a 2018 PC recreation whose creator was then offered an internship at Konami.en.wikipedia.orgIt influenced later horror games such as Allison Road, Layers of Fear and Visage.en.wikipedia.orgThe number 204863 that recurs in the game is Hideo Kojima's birthday (24 August 1963).silenthillmemories.netRead 10 more facts
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King20039 factsEA Redwood Shores · Aspyr MediaGame page →The film cast turned out in force: Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, John Rhys-Davies, Christopher Lee, Andy Serkis, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd all reprised their roles.en.wikipedia.orgBut not everyone came back. Unlike in The Two Towers, Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom did NOT return — Aragorn was voiced by Chris Edgerly and Legolas by Andrew Chaikin, both soundalikes. Éowyn was played by Lorri Holt rather than Miranda Otto.en.wikipedia.orgThe team spent about a year building a new engine from scratch before giving up and rebuilding the game on the engine from EA Sports' Tiger Woods PGA Tour series.en.wikipedia.orgEA Redwood Shores used roughly a quarter of a million assets from the film production and hired the films' own stunt doubles to capture the movement.en.wikipedia.orgIt won two categories at the 7th Interactive Achievement Awards — Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance (Male) for Elijah Wood as Frodo, and Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design — from three nominations.en.wikipedia.orgAt the 2003 Spike Video Game Awards it was nominated for Best Animation and Best Game Based on a Movie and lost both, the latter to Enter the Matrix. IGN did name its mobile version Wireless Game of the Year.en.wikipedia.orgEA Redwood Shores, the studio that built it, was later renamed Visceral Games — the developer of Dead Space.en.wikipedia.orgIt was widely called the high-water mark for film-to-game adaptations at the time, with GameZone calling it "the best movie to game conversion that has come out in a long time." Metacritic landed at 85 on PS2, 84 on GameCube and Xbox, 78 on PC and 77 on Game Boy Advance.metacritic.comThe criticisms were consistent too — awkward camera placement, limited save points, unskippable cutscenes and a short campaign.en.wikipedia.orgRead 7 more facts
Badland20134 factsFrogmindGame page →Frogmind was just two ex-RedLynx (Trials) developers — Johannes Vuorinen programming and designing, Juhana Myllys drawing and designing — when Badland won the Apple Design Award and Apple's iPad Game of the Year 2013.en.wikipedia.orgOne free-for-a-week promotion drove 7 MILLION iOS downloads in seven days — numbers Vuorinen laid bare in an unusually transparent GDC 2014 sales talk.gamedeveloper.comClash of Clans maker Supercell bought 51% of Frogmind in 2016 for $7.8 million — a farming-club deal that kept the tiny studio independent while bankrolling the Badland franchise.venturebeat.comMyllys' art style wasn't inspired by other games but by the Hudson River School — the 19th-century American landscape painters famous for luminous wilderness scenes.jmyllys.comRead 2 more facts
Transport Fever20168 factsUrban Games · Good Shepherd EntertainmentGame page →Transport Fever is the sequel to Urban Games' Train Fever (2014) and reuses an overhauled version of the same in-house engine, broadening the scope from rail-focused play to full multimodal transport (buses, trucks, trains, ships and aircraft).en.wikipedia.orgThe game ships with two full historical campaigns — American and European — each a series of increasingly difficult missions framed around 19th- and 20th-century transport history.store.steampowered.comA single game spans roughly 150 years of transport history, running from 1850 to around 2014, with vehicles unlocking progressively across the eras.en.wikipedia.orgPredecessor Train Fever was crowd-financed not on Kickstarter but via the Gambitious crowd-investing platform, hitting its EUR 250,000 target in March 2013 with 651 investors; that same publisher (Gambitious, later Good Shepherd) went on to publish Transport Fever.en.wikipedia.orgUrban Games built extensive Steam Workshop mod support from day one, letting players add new vehicles, stations, assets, script mods and even missions with one-click install and sharing.transportfever.comTransport Fever was made by a tiny Swiss studio: Urban Games began as brothers Urban and Basil Weber plus two artists and was still only about a dozen people, based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.transportfever.comThe soundtrack is the work of Swiss solo artist Admiral James T. (David Langhard), who scored the entire Train/Transport Fever series and released the music independently, e.g. as 'The Transport Fever Sessions'.admiraljamest.bandcamp.comTransport Fever launched to a 'generally favorable' Metacritic score of 71/100, with strong German-press reviews (GameStar 83, PC Games 8/10) praising its deeper cargo economy over Train Fever while criticising the controls and compressed in-game time.en.wikipedia.orgRead 6 more facts
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth20049 factsEA Los Angeles · Electronic ArtsGame page →It holds a rare double licence — EA had rights to both Tolkien's books and New Line's films, which is why it can use Howard Shore's score and the actors' voices while also drawing on material the films never covered.en.wikipedia.orgEight of Peter Jackson's cast reprised their roles — Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, John Rhys-Davies and Andy Serkis. Aragorn, Legolas, Boromir and Éowyn were played by soundalikes.behindthevoiceactors.comYou cannot legally buy it today. EA's Middle-earth licence lapsed, and the game has never appeared on Steam, GOG or the EA App — EA is barred from republishing it.thesixthaxis.comIts online servers were shut down on 31 December 2010, with EA stating plainly: "Our licensing deal with Middle-earth Enterprises has expired, forcing us to shutdown the online services for The Lord of the Rings games."eurogamer.netDevelopment at EA Los Angeles is cited in connection with the "EA Spouse" affair — the 2004 blog post about extreme crunch that triggered a class action against EA, ultimately settled for $14.9 million.en.wikipedia.orgEA Los Angeles inherited staff from the shuttered Westwood Studios, the creators of Command & Conquer — and development director Dustin Browder went straight from this game to Command & Conquer 3.en.wikipedia.orgWeta Workshop's Richard Taylor — the effects house behind the films — served as cinematic director.en.wikipedia.orgIt won Best Strategy Game at the E3 2004 Game Critics Awards but lost every major year-end strategy award to Rome: Total War.en.wikipedia.orgIt landed at Metacritic 82 from 42 critic reviews, with a user score of 8.8 — an unusually durable reputation for a licensed RTS.metacritic.comRead 7 more facts
Anno: Mutationem202210 factsThinkingStars · Lightning GamesGame page →It was revealed in March 2019 as one of seven titles in Phase 2 of Sony's China Hero Project, a developer-support programme, and took roughly three more years to reach release in March 2022.siliconera.comIts signature trick is a hybrid presentation: hand-drawn 2D sprite characters layered over fully modelled 3D environments, switching between 2D action-platforming and 3D exploration.store.steampowered.comThe game's lore borrows directly from the crowdsourced SCP Foundation fiction — a boss based on SCP-682 was shown in a 2020 demo.siliconera.comThe release-date trailer's key art was drawn by Ilya Kuvshinov, character designer of Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045.siliconera.comAnn Flores is voiced in English by Suzie Yeung, who announced the role on the game's PlayStation launch day in March 2022.en.wikipedia.orgThe 46-track, three-hour score is credited to Haloweakm and the Vanguard Sound collective, with Moto, GhostFinal, CoyDe and RabbitJ contributing and GhostFinal leading sound design.store.steampowered.comThe Nintendo Switch version arrived six months after the PC and PlayStation release, in September 2022.siliconera.comCritical reception split oddly by platform on Metacritic — 78 on Switch against 71 on both PC and PS5.metacritic.comPlayable retro arcade cabinets, including a Pong-style clone, are scattered through the world as an in-fiction side activity.godisageek.comIt has nothing to do with Ubisoft's Anno city-builder series despite the shared word — the confusion is common enough that searches for the title routinely surface the strategy franchise instead.store.steampowered.comRead 8 more facts
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II20069 factsEA Los Angeles · Electronic ArtsGame page →Hugo Weaving reprised Elrond and served as the game's lead voice talent and narrator. On voice work he said: "I always find voice work really fascinating because you are working on one element of your make up as an actor."en.wikipedia.orgChristopher Lee returned as Saruman, but most of the Fellowship do not appear — the campaign moves north and east to lands the films never visited.behindthevoiceactors.comThe Smithsonian American Art Museum selected it as one of 80 games for its 2012 exhibition The Art of Video Games.en.wikipedia.orgComputer Games Magazine named it the third best computer game of 2006, and it took an IGN Editors' Choice award.en.wikipedia.orgThe servers died in two stages: PC on 31 December 2010, then the Xbox 360 servers for this game and Rise of the Witch-king on 11 January 2011, when EA's licence with Middle-earth Enterprises expired.eurogamer.netThe community kept it alive anyway. Multiplayer moved to GameRanger on the unofficial 2.01 patch, and the German-made Edain Mod — a total conversion that restores the first game's base-building and adds nine factions — has passed 626,000 downloads and won ModDB's Players' Choice Mod of the Year in 2015.moddb.comIt has never been sold digitally. No Steam, GOG or EA App listing has ever existed, because EA lost the rights to republish it.thesixthaxis.comIt was the only Battle for Middle-earth game to reach consoles, arriving on Xbox 360 in July 2006 — four months after the PC version.en.wikipedia.orgCritics preferred the PC version by a clear margin — Metacritic 84 on PC against 79 on Xbox 360.metacritic.comRead 7 more facts
Mortal Kombat20116 factsNetherRealm Studios · WB GamesGame page →It is a series reboot that retells the events of the first three Mortal Kombat games via a time-travel story, as Raiden sends visions to his past self to avert Armageddon.en.wikipedia.orgIt was NetherRealm Studios' debut title — the studio was formed from the ex-Midway Chicago team after Midway's bankruptcy, with Warner Bros. acquiring the Mortal Kombat assets and co-creator Ed Boon staying on.en.wikipedia.orgIt returned the series to a 2D fighting plane after the 3D-era entries, introducing the X-ray move system and reinstating gory Fatalities.en.wikipedia.orgIt was Refused Classification (banned) in Australia in February 2011 and released there only in 2013, after the R18+ rating was introduced.en.wikipedia.orgIt featured a full cinematic Story Mode of 16 character-driven chapters spanning the MK1-3 timeline.en.wikipedia.orgThe PlayStation 3 version included Kratos from God of War as a platform-exclusive guest fighter.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest20093 factsPandemic Studios · Electronic ArtsGame page →Conquest (January 2009) let players fight AS the villains: the Rise of Sauron campaign is a what-if where Frodo failed — storming Rivendell, the Shire and Minas Tirith as the Witch-king, Balrog and Sauron.lotr.fandom.comIt was Battlefront by blood: Pandemic reused the class-based large-battle design of its own Star Wars: Battlefront series, with Hugo Weaving narrating and the films' license, music and likenesses.lotr.fandom.comIt became a farewell twice over: Pandemic Studios was shut down by EA in November 2009, months after release — and the multiplayer servers were switched off as early as 2010, barely a year after launch.lotr.fandom.comRead 1 more fact
Death and Taxes20205 factsPlaceholder Gameworks · Pineapple WorksGame page →The game's source code was released under the MIT License on GitHub on 18 March 2020.en.wikipedia.orgIt won 'Best Estonian Game of 2020.'store.steampowered.comIt was built largely solo by Estonian artist and developer Leene Künnap under the studio Placeholder Gameworks.en.wikipedia.orgIt aligns with the 'death-positivity' movement, aiming to open light-hearted discussion of death and mortality.en.wikipedia.orgThe game spans 28 in-game 'days' as a Grim Reaper's office worker, with multiple branching endings.ladiesgamers.comRead 3 more facts
BlackSmith HIT20163 factsENTERi · Forever Entertainment S.A.Game page →The entire game is a literal implementation of the proverb "strike while the iron is hot": hammer the glowing bars, toss the cold ones with pliers before your anvil cools.store.steampowered.comDespite being a $0.99 micro-arcade title, it packs 13 unlockable characters, themed scenes and four-player cross-platform PvP with global leaderboards.store.steampowered.comIt was developed by Korean studio ENTERi but published by Poland's Forever Entertainment — the publisher later known for the Panzer Dragoon and The House of the Dead remakes — which also brought it to Nintendo Switch.nintendo.comRead 1 more fact
Five Dates20205 factsGood Gate Media · Wales InteractiveGame page →Five Dates was conceptualized, shot and developed entirely during the UK's 2020 COVID lockdown: iPhones and sound kits were shipped to each actor, who self-filmed at home under Paul Raschid's remote direction.thegamer.comThe developer claims it contains the most FMV footage of any game — over 7 hours of filmed video.walesinteractive.comThe cast is headlined by TV names: Mandip Gill (Doctor Who), Georgia Hirst (Vikings) and Marisa Abela, who later starred in Industry and played Amy Winehouse in Back to Black.deadline.comThe branching story offers five dating routes and ten different outcomes depending on the player's choices.walesinteractive.comIts success led to a sequel, Ten Dates, released on Valentine's Day 2023 with the same director and a new speed-dating premise.walesinteractive.comRead 3 more facts
Transport Fever 220197 factsUrban Games · Good Shepherd EntertainmentGame page →Transport Fever 2 features a three-era campaign spread across three continents, covering more than 150 years of transport history (roughly 1850 to the present) with voiced narration and cutscenes.wiki.transportfever2.comThe game models around 200 vehicles — trains, trams, buses, trucks, aircraft and ships — based on real-world types.en.wikipedia.orgIt has a huge modding scene, with more than 10,000 Steam Workshop mods supported by official mod tools.cosmocover.comTransport Fever 2 runs on Urban Games' own custom engine, whose lineage traces back to Train Fever (2014) and predates Cities: Skylines, rather than a commercial engine.urbangames.comThe game passed 500,000 copies by February 2021 and surpassed 1 million copies by June 2023.cosmocover.comThe soundtrack — over 10 hours of original music — was composed by Swiss musician Admiral James T. (David Langhard), with the music copyright held jointly by the composer and Urban Games.admiraljamest.bandcamp.comA Console Edition (published by NACON) arrived in March 2023, and the game received continuous free content updates well after launch.cosmocover.comRead 5 more facts
Ghost of Yotei20259 factsSucker Punch Productions · Sony Interactive EntertainmentGame page →The game is set in 1603, roughly 329 years after Ghost of Tsushima, and moves from Tsushima to Ezo — modern-day Hokkaido — with a new protagonist, the mercenary Atsu, replacing Jin Sakai.en.wikipedia.orgSucker Punch said a female lead was essential to the game's theme of an underdog defying society's expectations.en.wikipedia.orgAlongside the returning black-and-white Kurosawa Mode, the game adds two new director-tribute presentation modes inspired by Shinichirō Watanabe and Takashi Miike, each altering colour grading, framing and audio.en.wikipedia.orgAtsu can play a shamisen to mark objectives and guide the player, and can summon a wolf companion to help in combat and stealth — both new to the series.en.wikipedia.orgErika Ishii was cast as both the voice and motion-capture performer for Atsu.blog.playstation.comIt picked up seven nominations at The Game Awards 2025 — Game Direction, Narrative, Art Direction, Score and Music, Audio Design, Action/Adventure Game and Performance for Erika Ishii — and won none of them.en.wikipedia.orgIt won plenty elsewhere though: Console Game of the Year and Best Audio Design at the Golden Joystick Awards 2025, three D.I.C.E. Awards in 2026 including Adventure Game of the Year, and BAFTA awards for Music and Technical Achievement.en.wikipedia.orgA free multiplayer mode, Ghost of Yōtei: Legends, launched on 10 March 2026 with two-player story missions and four-player survival matches against mythologically inspired enemies — mirroring the original Tsushima's post-launch Legends mode.en.wikipedia.orgThere is no PC version: Sony was reported in March 2026 to have shelved the in-progress PC port as part of a broader reversal away from bringing first-party single-player games to PC.pushsquare.comRead 7 more facts
Donkey Kong Country Returns20108 factsRetro Studios · NintendoGame page →It is the first Donkey Kong Country game since 1996's Donkey Kong Country 3, ending a 14-year gap in the series.en.wikipedia.orgIt is the first Donkey Kong Country title not developed by Rare; after Microsoft acquired Rare in 2002, Nintendo handed the franchise to Retro Studios, the Metroid Prime developer.en.wikipedia.orgThe recurring Kremling villains were dropped in favor of a new group of antagonists, the Tiki Tak Tribe.en.wikipedia.orgThe Wii version was built on the same in-house engine Retro Studios created for the Metroid Prime series.en.wikipedia.orgIts mandatory motion controls — shaking the Wii Remote to roll and ground-pound — were a common point of criticism in reviews.metacritic.comA Nintendo 3DS port arrived in 2013, followed by a Nintendo Switch remaster, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, in January 2025.en.wikipedia.orgIt sold over 6.53 million copies worldwide, ranking among the best-selling Wii games.en.wikipedia.orgLead composer Kenji Yamamoto built the score largely from rearrangements of David Wise's original SNES themes, at the request of Miyamoto and Iwata, who did not want the music changed.en.wikipedia.orgRead 6 more facts
Star Wars Outlaws202412 factsMassive Entertainment · Ubisoft EntertainmentGame page →It is the first fully open-world game ever set in the Star Wars universe — Lucasfilm said the scale was the reason it took so long, as "there are only so many studios in the world who build games of this scale."gamesradar.comMassive's partnership with Lucasfilm Games was announced in January 2021 under the codename "Project Helix" — the actual title stayed secret until the Xbox Games Showcase in June 2023, followed by a gameplay reveal at Ubisoft Forward.bespinbulletin.comHumberly González, who plays Kay Vess and performed her full-body motion capture, is the first Latina lead of a Star Wars game.variety.comNix was not purely digital on set: a googly-eyed, four-legged puppet with fake gills was built and puppeteered by Camille Loiselle-D'Aragon so González had something real to look at, react to and pet during motion capture.gamedeveloper.comIt runs on Massive's own Snowdrop engine — the technology behind The Division and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora — extended here to handle dense cities, open landscapes and space flight in one continuous game.gamerant.comThe score was recorded with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Glasgow and the Nashville Scoring Orchestra; rather than license John Williams' cues, composer Wilbert Roget II transcribed parts of the A New Hope score by hand "so that I could get that sound into my subconscious brain" and wrote new material in that idiom.news.ubisoft.comEach crime syndicate got its own composer and musical palette: Jon Everist scored Akiva and Crimson Dawn with tropical, South-American-inspired textures, while Kazuma Jinnouchi scored Kijimi and the Ashiga Clan using Japanese shakuhachi and shinobue flutes.news.ubisoft.comA pre-launch backlash erupted in April 2024 when the "Jabba's Gambit" mission turned out to be Season Pass-exclusive despite Jabba's prominence in marketing; Ubisoft answered that Jabba and the Hutt Cartel "will be part of the experience for everyone who purchases the game, regardless of edition" and only that one bonus mission was paid.gamespot.comThe PC version launched only on Ubisoft Connect and the Epic Games Store on 30 August 2024; Ubisoft reversed course and put it on Steam on 21 November 2024, announcing the move in the same breath as admitting sales had been "softer than expected."pcgamer.comTitle Update 1.4, shipped alongside the Steam launch, quietly rebuilt the game: forced-stealth failure states were stripped out of nearly every quest objective, enemies gained weak points, detection and damage pacing were retuned, and the film-grain "cinematic lens" could finally be switched off.ubisoft.comUbisoft CEO Yves Guillemot attributed the shortfall partly to the brand rather than the game, saying it "was released at a time when the brand that it belonged to was in a bit of choppy waters" — while conceding "the game itself wasn't perfect."gamesradar.comA Nintendo Switch 2 port arrived on 4 September 2025, more than a year after launch, and was widely called one of the system's best third-party conversions — hardware ray tracing and DLSS at a locked 30fps.thesixthaxis.comRead 10 more facts
Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 220216 factsCI GamesGame page →The headline feature is a franchise first: dedicated 'long-distance' contracts demanding kills from beyond 1,000 meters — over 3,300 feet — with wind, drop and breath all in play.en.wikipedia.orgThe PS5 version alone was delayed 11 weeks (to Aug 24, 2021) over late-discovered technical issues — arriving with per-weapon DualSense adaptive-trigger resistance and 60fps/2K or 30fps/4K modes.gamesradar.comThe 'Butcher's Banquet' expansion — a full new oasis-and-temples region with new targets including Mahmoud 'The Butcher' Zarza — was given away free to every owner in July 2021.cigames.comIt was so pivotal for CI Games that the internal dev team was rebranded 'Underdog Studio' in December 2021 on the back of its success — the game broke even in under two months.cigames.comComposer duty changed hands: Gustavo Coutinho (PAYDAY 2) scored this entry — not Mikolai Stroinski, who had scored SGW3 and the first Contracts.store.steampowered.comCritics split by platform: the later PS5 version scored ~81 on Metacritic ('generally favorable') while the launch platforms sat in the 68-74 'mixed' band.metacritic.comRead 4 more facts
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories200912 factsClimax Studios · KonamiGame page →Shattered Memories reimagines the first Silent Hill for the series' 10th anniversary rather than remaking it.en.wikipedia.orgIt was Akira Yamaoka's last Silent Hill score before he left Konami after 16 years.en.wikipedia.orgThere is no combat at all — Harry can only run, hide, knock over obstacles or use flares.en.wikipedia.orgA psychological profile built from therapy sessions and in-game behaviour changes characters, locations and monster appearance.en.wikipedia.orgIt was the first Silent Hill to rely heavily on dynamic music that fades in and out based on the player's actions.en.wikipedia.orgLoading screens were removed entirely to keep players immersed.en.wikipedia.orgSome team members visited a psychiatrist for research early in development.en.wikipedia.orgThe game combined elements of two earlier Climax pitches, "Brahms PD" and "Silent Hill: Cold Heart".en.wikipedia.orgIts UFO joke ending reveals Cheryl as a Shiba Inu and Dr. Kaufmann as an alien, with a cameo by James Sunderland.en.wikipedia.orgThe Australian release was delayed by supply problems caused by the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption.en.wikipedia.orgDialling 573 on the in-game phone calls Konami — Japanese number wordplay for "Ko-na-mi".silenthillmemories.netThe town is visually based on Grand Rapids, Michigan; Cheryl's school records use its ZIP code 49504.silenthillmemories.netRead 10 more facts
Lacuna20215 factsDigiTales Interactive · Assemble EntertainmentGame page →Lacuna refuses save-scumming by design: the game auto-saves over your slot after every level, so decisions — including botched deductions — are permanent. There is no going back.digitales.gamesConclusions are submitted through a case/deduction sheet rather than dialogue picks — wrong deductions don't show a fail screen, they silently cascade into consequences and one of the multiple endings.digitales.gamesProtagonist Neil Conrad was directly inspired by detective Miller from The Expanse — the developers even named an in-game moon 'Milon' after him.podcampmedia.comThe studio was founded by a couple who both studied literature; lead writer Jasmin Pfeiffer holds a doctorate. The Lacuna prototype's Game Award Saar wins got them their publishing deal with Assemble Entertainment.sassygamers.comFor the game's third anniversary the composer released a free 5-track EP by 'Romp House' — the fictional in-universe band heard in the game.juliancolbus.bandcamp.comRead 3 more facts
Final Fantasy XIV Online20107 factsSquare Enix Product Development Division 3 · Square EnixGame page →The original 2010 launch was a critical disaster, holding a Metacritic score of just 49/100 — one of the lowest ever for a mainline Final Fantasy title.metacritic.comThe reception was so poor that Square Enix issued a public apology and indefinitely suspended the game's monthly subscription fees, letting players continue free of charge.en.wikipedia.orgIn December 2010 Square Enix replaced the leadership and put Naoki Yoshida in charge, tasking him with completely rebuilding the game.en.wikipedia.orgThe 1.0 servers were shut down on 11 November 2012, ending with an in-story apocalypse — the 'Calamity', in which the lesser moon Dalamud fell and released the dragon Bahamut, devastating Eorzea.en.wikipedia.orgThe game was relaunched from scratch as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn in 2013, widely regarded as one of the greatest turnarounds in gaming history.en.wikipedia.orgThe planned PlayStation 3 version of 1.0 was never released; it was indefinitely delayed after the poor PC launch and folded into the later relaunch.en.wikipedia.orgThe 1.0 score was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, the legendary longtime Final Fantasy composer.en.wikipedia.orgRead 5 more facts
Nobody Wants to Die20248 factsCritical Hit Games · PLAIONGame page →It is the debut game of Critical Hit Games, a roughly 20-person studio founded in 2020 in Wroclaw, Poland.presse.plaion.comIt is set in New York in 2329, where consciousness-transfer technology grants the wealthy effective immortality by swapping into new host bodies; detective James Karra investigates murders among that immortal elite while being pressured to bury the truth.en.wikipedia.orgThe central detective mechanic is the "Reconstructor" — a device that lets players rewind and scrub recorded crime-scene footage to reconstruct events, paired with an evidence board and deduction challenges.en.wikipedia.orgIt was built in Unreal Engine 5 after migrating mid-development from UE4, and its path-traced lighting made it a go-to graphics and DLSS benchmark title for tech coverage.en.wikipedia.orgThe main story runs only about five to six hours — up to eight for full completion — which became a genuine point of critical debate at a $24.99 price, with some reviewers calling it closer to an interactive movie than a game.sirusgaming.comReception was solid: Metacritic 75, OpenCritic 77 with 67% of critics recommending it, ranging from a 9/10 at PC Games Germany down to IGN's 7/10.opencritic.comIt won two Digital Dragons Awards — Best Polish Game Narrative and Best Polish Game Visual Art — announced by the studio itself.facebook.comThe score by Mikołaj Stroiński — known for his work on The Witcher 3 and Dying Light 2 — got a 180g vinyl pressing, unusual for a debut indie title.mikolaistroinski.bandcamp.comRead 6 more facts
Garden Story20215 factsPicogram · Rose City GamesGame page →You play Concord, a young grape appointed Guardian of The Grove — rebuilding the village, answering neighbors' daily requests and clearing dungeons infested by the Rot.store.steampowered.comSolo developer Picogram — a Filipino-American pixel artist in Portland who deliberately goes only by that name — drew on years of graveyard-shift care-home work; the game reads as an ode to community care.wweek.comIt was built in GameMaker Studio 2 with sprites drawn in PyxelEdit — confirmed by the publisher on the Steam forums.steamcommunity.comAn accessibility-minded 'perish prevention' option lets players progress without combat-death stress — sessions can be as short as ~12 minutes by design.store.steampowered.comThe 33-track OST by Grahm Nesbitt (Floppy Knights) got a 2023 vinyl pressing — and the game racked up eleven festival showcase selections including Day of the Devs and Wholesome Direct.grahmnesbitt.bandcamp.comRead 3 more facts
Silent Hill f202515 factsNeoBards Entertainment · KonamiGame page →Silent Hill f is the first game in the series set in Japan.famitsu.comThe fictional town of Ebisugaoka is modelled on Kanayama in Gero, Gifu Prefecture, which writer Ryukishi07 chose for its unique townscape; the team visited to photograph the area.famitsu.comIt is the first Silent Hill title rated CERO Z in Japan; the numbered entries 1–4 were rated CERO C.automaton-media.comThere are no firearms: combat is melee-only, built around perfect dodges, counters and separate health, stamina and sanity meters.news.denfaminicogamer.jpProducer Motoi Okamoto has deliberately left the meaning of the "f" unexplained, saying several words are packed into the single letter.news.denfaminicogamer.jpDeveloper NeoBards Entertainment is based in Taiwan.news.denfaminicogamer.jpHinako is the first playable lead since Silent Hill 4's Henry Townshend to carry neither a flashlight nor a monster-detecting radio.en.wikipedia.orgOf its five endings, one is the series' traditional UFO joke ending, "The Great Space Invasion!", presented as a motion manga.en.wikipedia.orgAustralia's IARC tool initially listed the game as Refused Classification in March 2025; it was later rated MA15+.press-start.com.auIt sold one million copies within four days of launch — faster than the Silent Hill 2 remake — and reached two million by May 2026.konami.comIt launched DRM-free on GOG on October 7, 2025, as the closing surprise of GOG's 17th-anniversary event.gog.comA novelization by Shiro Kuro was published by Kadokawa on October 30, 2025.siliconera.comA manga adaptation announced in March 2026 features a new ending written by Ryukishi07.fangoria.comThe planned physical soundtrack and vinyl release was cancelled in October 2025 and pre-orders were refunded.noisypixel.netAt the Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards 2025 it won Game of the Year, Best Development Team and Best Voice Actor (Konatsu Kato).famitsu.comRead 13 more facts
Silent Hill: Origins200711 factsClimax LA · Konami Digital EntertainmentGame page →Silent Hill: Origins is a prequel to the first game, released in Japan as Silent Hill Zero.en.wikipedia.orgIt was announced at E3 2006 by Climax's Los Angeles studio, whose early build used a Resident Evil 4-style over-the-shoulder camera.en.wikipedia.orgEngine problems and a confused creative vision led Climax to close the LA studio and move the project to its UK team.en.wikipedia.orgThe version the UK team inherited was pitched as a dark comedy inspired by the TV series Scrubs.en.wikipedia.orgSam Barlow reworked the script, level design and monsters within a week after the move to the UK.en.wikipedia.orgMonsters were made more aggressive as a deliberate throwback to the first Silent Hill.en.wikipedia.orgA demo of the game leaked online on August 19, 2007.en.wikipedia.orgKonami confirmed a PS2 port in January 2008, and the game arrived on the European PlayStation Network in April 2014.en.wikipedia.orgMary Elizabeth McGlynn sang four tracks with lyrics by Joe Romersa, reuniting the trio from Silent Hill 4.en.wikipedia.orgThe original US build cast Pyramid Head as a cannibal cook; the UK team replaced him with the Butcher.silenthillmemories.netThe Artaud Theater is named after Antonin Artaud, creator of the "Theatre of Cruelty".silenthillmemories.netRead 9 more facts
Bloons TD 520112 factsNinja KiwiGame page →BTD5 marked the point where Ninja Kiwi began commissioning original music (by Tim Haywood) instead of stock tracks — the start of the series' now-recognizable sound.bloonswiki.comBorn as a 2011 browser Flash game, it only reached Steam in November 2014 — and the Bloons TD series' success helped Ninja Kiwi sell to Modern Times Group for ~$186M in 2021.en.wikipedia.org
Astro Bot202417 factsTeam Asobi · Sony Interactive EntertainmentGame page →Astro Bot is the most awarded platform game ever made. By April 2025 it had accumulated 195 Game of the Year nominations and wins, overtaking It Takes Two for the record.en.wikipedia.orgIt finished as the highest-rated game of 2024 on Metacritic at 94, with 99% of critics recommending it on OpenCritic. Edge, Eurogamer, Push Square, GamesRadar+ and Game Informer all gave it full marks.en.wikipedia.orgThere are 194 V.I.P. Bots modelled on PlayStation characters, and 332 bots to rescue in total: 301 in the base game, 27 across the free DLC levels, and 4 carried over from the free predecessor Astro's Playroom.en.wikipedia.orgThe cameos reach well beyond Sony. Bots reference characters owned by Activision, Arc System Works, Argonaut Software, Atlus, Bandai Namco, BlueTwelve Studio, Capcom, Crystal Dynamics, Ember Lab, Koei Tecmo, Konami, Mediatonic, Oddworld Inhabitants, Polyarc, SHIFT UP, Sega, THA LTD, Team17, Ubisoft and Young Horses.en.wikipedia.orgFive levels each stand in for a PlayStation generation: Ape Escape for PS1, God of War for PS2, Uncharted for PS3, LocoRoco for PSP and Horizon for PS4 — and each hands you that hero's signature tool, from Spike's Monkey Net to Kratos' Leviathan Axe.en.wikipedia.orgDevelopment ran roughly three years with a team of about 60 people, making it the largest game Team Asobi has built — and the studio's first release after separating from Japan Studio.gamesindustry.bizComposer Kenneth C. M. Young was handed a dev kit so he could play early builds before scoring them, which is unusual for a game composer. He called it "really important, particularly for those levels where it's not clear exactly what it needs."en.wikipedia.orgBear McCreary heard his own God of War theme rebuilt as robo-electro-pop and loved it: "When you hear those three notes, it doesn't matter that they were completely recontextualized, it didn't matter that they had been redone in this fun, robo-electro-pop style. When you hear those three notes, that's God of War."en.wikipedia.orgA chainsaw prototype cut from Astro's Playroom for feeling too much like the real world came back here. The team reskinned the DIY DualSense interactions with a sci-fi finish so they fit Astro's friendlier tone.en.wikipedia.orgDespite Astro's history in VR — The Playroom VR and Astro Bot Rescue Mission both required a headset — there is no PlayStation VR2 version. Doucet argued a VR Astro would have to be designed for VR from the ground up, which would make it a different game entirely.en.wikipedia.orgEdge's 400th issue shipped with ten different covers, each showcasing a different V.I.P. Bot.en.wikipedia.orgMasahiro Sakurai, creator of Kirby and Super Smash Bros., publicly praised the game after release.en.wikipedia.orgNot every developer was flattered. John Garvin, creative director of Days Gone, objected to Deacon St. John's cameo, complaining that it reduced his character to a cartoon promoting someone else's game.en.wikipedia.orgThe level "PlaySquadron Go!" is scored with "Rising Blue Lightning" from the 1998 shooter Thunder Force V: Perfect System, composed by Hyakutaro Tsukumo.en.wikipedia.orgCollect every puzzle piece and 300 bots and the Great Master Challenge unlocks. Beating it rewards a Chop Chop Master Onion bot from PaRappa the Rapper and a deliberately low-polygon "Throwback Outfit" that mimics how 3D models looked on the original PlayStation.en.wikipedia.orgThe overhauled engine packed over 70 unique wildlife species into the level backgrounds, from polar bears and elephants down to insects.en.wikipedia.orgTeam Asobi's proprietary PS5 engine won Best Technology at the 2025 Game Developers Choice Awards, and the studio presented "Advanced Physics in ASTRO BOT" at GDC 2025 covering fluids, soft bodies, cloth and real-time destruction.schedule.gdconf.comRead 15 more facts
Summer in Mara20204 factsChibigGame page →It was funded on Kickstarter in February 2019, raising €233,919 from 9,523 backers — over 900% of its goal.kickstarter.comIt is set in the shared 'Chibig Universe' alongside Deiland, and contains Deiland easter eggs.store.steampowered.comIts original soundtrack was composed by Adrián Berenguer and released on Kitty on Fire Records.kittyonfirerecords.comIt features more than 20 islands, 25+ characters and 300+ quests, following the young protagonist Koa.mobygames.comRead 2 more facts
SimCity 2000199319 factsMaxis · DSI GamesGame page →The view is dimetric, not isometric: two sides of an object sit at the same angle while the third does not. Maxis adopted it after being contracted to work on Artdink's A-Train.en.wikipedia.orgWill Wright did not want to make it. He had spent five years on the original SimCity and handed the sequel to Fred Haslam, only joining the team about a year into development.en.wikipedia.orgThe city newspaper replaced the original game's score. Haslam wrote the code that assembles headlines from variable term lists, and Debra Larson wrote the actual articles.en.wikipedia.orgNeil Gaiman is hidden in the game. Querying a library and choosing "Ruminate" displays an essay he wrote — something he later confirmed himself.neil-gaiman.tumblr.comBuild enough Launch Arcologies after 2051 and your citizens leave: the arcologies lift off to found new civilisations on distant worlds.en.wikipedia.orgThe money cheat is a joke about the strategy-guide business — typing "porntipsguzzardo" grants cash, with the spelling changing slightly between versions.eeggs.comTrees breed. Leave the game running at top speed for long enough and forests spread on their own, until environmentalists start objecting to new construction.mobygames.comIt offers nine kinds of power plant — coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, wind, hydroelectric, solar, fusion and satellite microwave — each with its own lifespan and pollution profile.en.wikipedia.orgMining, farming and lumber zones, one-way streets and tidal waves were all designed and then cut during production.en.wikipedia.orgThe art was drawn in Deluxe Paint on 486 PCs by a team of five over four months. Buildings were designed at three tiles square, then cut down to two and one.en.wikipedia.orgThe music brief was "moody and dark, like in Blade Runner", but sound cards of the era could not sustain the long notes that would have needed.en.wikipedia.orgIn the Japanese Saturn version, published by Sega itself, the statue you are awarded at 30,000 population is a statue of Sonic the Hedgehog.tcrf.netThe Japan-only Nintendo 64 port is almost a different game: it added mini-games, horse racing, monster breeding, a dating sim and a TV station in place of the newspaper.en.wikipedia.orgIt was ported almost everywhere: Macintosh, DOS, Amiga, RISC OS, PC-98, FM Towns, Windows, OS/2 Warp, SNES, Saturn, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance and Pocket PC.mobygames.comSCURK, the SimCity Urban Renewal Kit, let players repaint the game's own building bitmaps and drop their creations back into the city.en.wikipedia.orgA 1996 Network Edition added four-player multiplayer where mayors had to buy land before building, and replaced the toolbar with cascading menus.en.wikipedia.orgEA gave the Special Edition away free through Origin in December 2014 as part of its On the House programme.slate.comIt is in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection in New York, object 930.2012, a gift of Electronic Arts.moma.orgPC Gamer UK named it the best computer game of all time in April 1994, months after release.en.wikipedia.orgRead 17 more facts
MotoGP 1320133 factsMilestone · Plug In DigitalGame page →MotoGP 13 marked Milestone taking over the MotoGP license — beginning an exclusive run as the championship's only game developer that has now lasted more than a decade.en.wikipedia.orgCritics welcomed it as an authentic-but-rough sim comeback — the demanding physics earned respect while the presentation showed the gap between Milestone's budget and the big car-racing franchises.metacritic.comIt shipped with full voice audio in five languages (EN/DE/FR/IT/ES) — unusually complete localization for a mid-budget 2013 sports sim.store.steampowered.comRead 1 more fact
Old World20215 factsmohawk games · Hooded HorseGame page →The Orders system is its signature 4X heresy: instead of moving every unit every turn, you spend from a finite pool of Orders — movement itself becomes a strategic resource.designer-notes.comLeaders are mortal: they age, die, and pass rule to heirs whose traits are shaped by education and event choices — a Crusader Kings-style dynasty layer over a Civilization-style map.en.wikipedia.orgIts working title was '10 Crowns' — a number chosen partly so the game would sort FIRST alphabetically in libraries; rights originally sat with Starbreeze before reverting during that company's restructuring.pcgamer.comOver 3,000 narrative events run on a 'virtual deck' of trigger/requirement/effect cards — the same engine powers tutorials, missions and diplomacy.designer-notes.comThe score is by two-time Grammy winner Christopher Tin — who wrote Civilization IV's 'Baba Yetu', the first video-game music ever to win a Grammy — and his Old World score earned a 2023 Grammy nomination, recorded with the Budapest Scoring Orchestra.mohawkgames.comRead 3 more facts
Riptide GP: Renegade20163 factsVector UnitGame page →Developer Vector Unit was founded by veterans of Hydro Thunder Hurricane, and Riptide GP: Renegade is the third Riptide GP — but the first designed for modern consoles rather than ported up from mobile.vectorunit.comIt was part of the first wave of Xbox Play Anywhere titles in 2016 — buy once, play on both Xbox One and Windows 10 with shared progress.vectorunit.comThe career casts you as a disgraced hydro-jet racer working back up through an illegal underground racing circuit — complete with police chases mid-race.store.steampowered.comRead 1 more fact
Plague Inc.20123 factsNdemic CreationsGame page →In March 2013 the US CDC invited creator James Vaughan to speak about how Plague Inc. models disease spread and could help educate the public — a first for a mobile game.en.wikipedia.orgDuring the COVID-19 outbreak it surged past Minecraft to become the top-paid iOS app — then on 27 February 2020 China forced its removal from the App Store for 'illegal content'.en.wikipedia.orgJames Vaughan built the game essentially alone, in afternoons and evenings, before founding Ndemic Creations — it went on to 160M+ downloads and spawned Rebel Inc.ndemiccreations.comRead 1 more fact
Sky Force Reloaded20163 factsInfinite DreamsGame page →The Sky Force series is mobile-gaming royalty: Polish studio Infinite Dreams launched the original back in 2004 on Pocket PC and Symbian, years before smartphones — Reloaded is the follow-up to the acclaimed Sky Force 2014.idreams.plThe 2016 release date marks the mobile launch; the enhanced PC and console versions followed in late 2017, adding the game to Xbox Game Pass for a stretch.store.steampowered.comBeyond shooting, runs are scored on saving people: rescuing stranded civilians mid-battle and collecting hidden buff cards are as central to mastery as dodging bullets.store.steampowered.comRead 1 more fact
Bravely Default20134 factsSilicon Studio · NintendoGame page →The subtitle 'Flying Fairy' exists so the title abbreviates to 'FF' — a deliberate wink at the Final Fantasy lineage it quietly spun off from.en.wikipedia.orgComposer Revo's identity was kept secret from the 2011 TGS reveal until 2012 — and the Sound Horizon frontman launched his entire Linked Horizon project (later famous for the Attack on Titan openings) with this score.siliconera.comProducer Tomoya Asano explained the odd title as a thesis: 'Bravely Default' means having the courage to renounce what's expected of you and act on your own will.en.wikipedia.orgThe standalone demo fed the full game: demo progress transferred up to ~20 villagers into Norende, the town-rebuilding minigame.bravelydefault.fandom.comRead 2 more facts
Rise of the Ronin20249 factsTeam NINJA · Sony Interactive EntertainmentGame page →It is set in the real Bakumatsu period (1853-1868), depicting the Perry Expedition, the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Boshin War, with real historical figures including Ryoma Sakamoto, Naosuke Ii, Yoshinobu Tokugawa and Katsu Kaishu appearing as characters.en.wikipedia.orgA branching allegiance system lets the player side with the pro-Shogunate or pro-Imperial factions, changing quests, allies and story routes — including whether to spare or kill Naosuke Ii.en.wikipedia.orgIt is Team Ninja's first open-world game after years of linear mission-based action titles; director Fumihiko Yasuda called it "the most ambitious project Team Ninja has developed."en.wikipedia.orgThe game was cancelled for release in South Korea, reportedly linked to past comments by director Yasuda comparing the historical figure Shoin Yoshida to Socrates; Sony gave no official public reason.ign.comReception was unusually divisive — Metacritic 76 on PS5, but Famitsu gave it 37/40 and a Platinum Hall of Fame award, while Western scores ranged from Shacknews' 9/10 down to VG247's 3/5.en.wikipedia.orgTraversal mixes horses, a grappling hook and a glider — letting players grapple to a rooftop, leap from its highest point and glide down onto an enemy for an assassination.dappertux.comComposer Inon Zur studied Japanese music for the score and built it around cello and shakuhachi, winning the Traditional Sound Award at the 2024 PlayStation Game Music Awards.en.wikipedia.orgThe PC port, released in March 2025, launched with significant performance problems; Team Ninja publicly apologised on 10 April 2025, though issues reportedly persisted after patches.en.wikipedia.orgIt is the third collaboration between Sony Interactive Entertainment and Koei Tecmo, following Nioh and Nioh 2 — but a brand-new IP rather than a Nioh sequel.en.wikipedia.orgRead 7 more facts