Xbox is marking its 25th birthday with a big backward-compatibility drop and a first look at Fable, GOG's got two new releases, and Steam's got a new fest and a deal on Bodycam. Eight trailers from PlayStation, Xbox and GameTrailers round out the day.
Deals and sales
Steam's running an Auto-Battler RPG Fest
Steam's hosting a themed fest for auto-battler RPGs, running from Tuesday 17 November at 5am to Tuesday 24 November at 5am, Sydney time.
Source: Steam events
On sale on Steam: Bodycam
Bodycam is 20% off on Steam, now $40.76 (was $50.95), until Saturday 21 November. It's a tactical multiplayer shooter in Unreal Engine 5, played through a body-camera view for close-quarters fights.
Source: Steam specials
News
DERELIKT lands on GOG
DERELIKT is an old-school survival horror game out now on GOG. It's set in the Von Neumann Outpost, a research station built inside a derelict asteroid orbiting Saturn. It takes its cues from System Shock 2, Alien Resurrection and Doom 3, leaning hard into being under-equipped and a long way from help.
Source: GOG
Ward Off Evil is out now on GOG
Ward Off Evil is an open world strategy RPG, also out now on GOG. It's set as a cycle draws to a close, with humanity's last survivors splitting into tribes loyal to old empires, each with its own idea of what comes next. None of them know about the bigger conspiracy that brought them all together.
Source: GOG
Next week on XBOX: new games from 16 to 20 November
XBOX has a run of new games lined up for the week of 16 to 20 November, headlined by Grand Theft Auto VI landing on XBOX Series X|S and XBOX Cloud Gaming on 19 November. Ranger's Path: National Park Simulator and Unicorn Academy: Island of Magic are out on 17 November, Dark Rail and Vice: Magic City Mayhem follow on 18 November, and a run of smaller titles close out the week on 20 November.
Source: Xbox Wire
A new Super Meat Boy remaster is on the way
Team Meat is bringing back Super Meat Boy with a remaster called Super Meat Boy Again+, with over 300 levels total including new ones aimed at players who've already cleared the original. It's got new art, new animations, and a fresh score from original composer Danny B. There's no release date yet, but it's up on Steam to wishlist now.
Source: PCGamesN
25 original XBOX games are now playable on PC
Microsoft has added 21 more original XBOX games to its PC backward-compatibility library, taking the total to 25 as part of XBOX's 25th anniversary. The list includes both Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games, TimeSplitters 2 and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Four of the games, including both KOTOR titles, BLiNX: The Time Sweeper and Conker: Live and Reloaded, are getting achievements for the first time, on PC and on XBOX One and Series consoles too. All the games now support mouse and keyboard, and it needs Windows 11.
Source: Xbox Wire
Path of Exile's 3.30 update lands ahead of PoE 2's launch
Path of Exile's new Covens of Umbra update is live, adding a league where players collect "fates" from enemies to power up zone bosses for bigger risks and rewards. The endgame's had an overhaul too: more than two dozen new boss fights are scattered through the campaign, Scarabs are out in favour of new Threads of Creation map modifiers, and loot's been refreshed. Grinding Gear Games is positioning it as a good time to get back into the original game before Path of Exile 2 hits its full 1.0 release on 11 December, with cosmetic purchases carrying over between the two.
Source: PCGamesN
Overwatch's creative director let a season 6 hero's name slip
Overwatch's creative director let a season 6 hero's name slip early, and in the same breath said the character "got the highest scores of any hero that we've tested" in internal testing. It looks to have come out during an otherwise ordinary comment about the coming season.
Source: PC Gamer
Paradox Interactive is swapping CEOs
Paradox Interactive, the publisher behind Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron, is swapping chief executives early next year. Fredrik Wester is making way for Mattias Lilja, who moves up from deputy CEO. The company says it's "in a strong position at a time when much of the industry is facing major challenges."
Source: Rock Paper Shotgun
Trailers
Stranger Than Heaven's Act 2 story trailer is out
The latest trailer for Stranger Than Heaven covers Act 2: Kure, following protagonist Makoto Daito's story across five eras and five cities from 1915 to 1965. In this act, Daito joins the Iwaki family after an attack on its head, Genzo Iwaki, and starts climbing the yakuza ranks.
Source: GameTrailers, also reported by PlayStation, Xbox
Rob Run launches into early access
Rob Run is a crime sandbox extraction shooter from developer Kefir, now out in early access on Steam. Players can go in as a criminal or as the law trying to stop them, in an open world built around heists and growing a criminal operation.
Source: GameTrailers
Choomby gets a gameplay trailer
Choomby is an online action-adventure game from Cyberstars Entertainment, coming soon to Steam. Players hunt each other as bees and spiders across different maps and modes, with traps scattered around to avoid.
Source: GameTrailers
Guild Saga: Vanished Worlds announced for PS5
Guild Saga: Vanished Worlds is a fantasy RPG coming to PS5 in May 2027. It's built around exploring the Respite Archipelago, building up a party, and mixing skills across ten disciplines in tactical turn-based battles.
Source: PlayStation, also reported by PlayStation Blog
Bombanana lands on XBOX
Bombanana is a co-op bomb disposal game for three players, out now on XBOX. Each player takes a monkey who's either blind, deaf or mute, so each only has part of the information needed to defuse a bomb and the team has to talk it through fast. There's a campaign with 30 handcrafted levels plus other game modes.
Source: Xbox
Bombanana is also out now on PS5
The same three-player bomb disposal game launched on PS5 too, with the same blind, deaf and mute monkey trio working together to defuse bombs before time runs out.
Source: PlayStation
Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker adds a new DLC character
Kabuto Yakushi, in his Sage Mode form, is now playable in Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker through a free update. More on the next planned character, Obito Uchiha (Rampaging), is promised for winter.
Source: PlayStation, also reported by GameTrailers
DOOM: The Dark Ages adds a Slaughter Mode
DOOM: The Dark Ages - Revelations is getting a Slaughter Mode, an endless survival challenge with escalating rounds of randomised enemies, bosses and arenas, built for chasing high scores and cosmetic unlocks with weekly resets. It arrives 16 November.
Source: GameTrailers, also reported by Xbox Wire
Images are used for editorial purposes only and not for profit. If you own an image used here and have any concerns, email contact@playtopia.com.au and we'll happily credit or remove it.