Metaphor: ReFantazio Gets October Release Date In New Gameplay Trailer

Publisher Atlus and developer Studio Zero have released a new trailer for the upcoming fantasy RPG, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and it features plenty of new gameplay. It also reveals Metaphor: ReFantazio will hit PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 11. 

Dubbed “The King’s Trial,” this new trailer sets up a bit of the Metaphor: ReFantazio’s world more, highlighting a tournament for the king’s throne at the center of the narrative. It seems our protagonist and the friends and allies they encounter along the way are vying for a crown that others are also after. In order to claim it, players must complete trials across the lands, proving their worth. 

Check it out for yourself in the Metaphor: ReFantazio gameplay trailer below: 

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As you can see, Metaphor: ReFantazio continues to look excellent, with its Persona inspirations on full display. That’s not surprising, though, considering Studio Zero is composed of various leads from Atlus’ popular Persona series, including the latest in the franchise, Persona 5. 

If you’ve played Persona 5 Royal, or even the recently released Persona 3 Reload, then you know we’re likely in for a treat when it comes to a few things: combat, narrative, and art. And if this new look at the game’s menu are any indication, the Persona team has been cooking something special for Metaphor: ReFantazio. 

Metaphor: ReFantazio Gets October Release Date In New Gameplay Trailer

The trailer also reveals Metaphor: ReFantazio will get a special Collector’s Edition for $149.99. The game’s standard release will cost $69.99.

Here’s what the Collector’s Edition looks like: 

Metaphor: ReFantazio hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 11, 2024. 

For more about the game, watch the Metaphor: ReFantazio reveal trailer. Read Game Informer’s Persona 5 Royal review, and then read Game Informer’s Persona 5 Tactica review after that. 

Are you picking up Metaphor: ReFantazio on day one? Let us know in the comments below!

Secure out-of-band console and power management for Check Point security gateways – CyberTalk

Contributed by WTI as part of Check Point’s CPX silver-level partner sponsorship opportunity. WTI is an industry leader in out-of-band network management.

Nobody has time to drive to a site when an ISP drops service or you simply need to reconfigure and/or reboot a switch, router or firewall. Your time is too valuable not to have an out-of-band solution in place. WTI out-of-band solutions comes with a cellular connect and fallback option that gives you secure remote access to console ports as well as control of individual power outlets when your network services are disrupted.Secure out-of-band console and power management for Check Point security gateways – CyberTalk

WTI out-of-band management solutions

WTI engineers and manufactures secure out-of-band management solutions for local and globally deployed networks. WTI out-of-band products are designed to ensure uninterrupted access to network devices and services by providing solutions to quickly and effectively respond to problems at distant or hard to reach equipment sites. When a router, switch or security appliance becomes inaccessible and interrupts network services, WTI out-of-band solutions provide redundant, remote console port management and power switching/reboot control to regain access and restore services in mission critical applications.

Even when the network is down, WTI out-of-band console server solutions can provide secure connectivity over primary and secondary ethernet and cellular LTE connections, allowing remote access to console ports and power control functions.

In addition, WTI DevOps allows administrators to configure, deploy and orchestrate WTI out-of-band management solutions across your entire network for automated provisioning, monitoring and disaster recovery of critical infrastructure. Features such as RESTful API, Ansible Playbooks and Python Scripting are supported.

Check Point Software Technologies and WTI

WTI offers a comprehensive out-of-band management strategy for Check Point Security Gateways, allowing your NOC to deal with equipment outages and resulting interruptions of network communication without the need to dispatch support teams to remote branch offices and data centers.

During network outages, WTI’s console server products allow you to establish remote out-of-band connections to console ports on security gateways via secure, authenticated communication protocols.  If a reboot is needed, WTI Switched PDU products can provide remote out-of-band access to power switching functions at distant equipment sites. WTI also offers a combination console server plus switched PDU unit for applications that require both out-of-band console access and power reboot control.

WTI out-of-band centralized management provides access and control for all of your network devices, allowing for console data from multiple Check Point devices spread over a global network to be monitored, logged and available to administrators, simplifying the challenge of managing a large number of remote devices while minimizing resources.

With multiple connectivity options, WTI console servers including 4G LTE and/or dual Gigabit Ethernet ports can provide secure access to advanced DNS functions when primary and/or secondary ISP connections are switched or disconnected. WTI’s dual ethernet console servers allow you to remotely configure primary and secondary DNS settings and set up IP tables to maximize availability of security gateways during network outages, ensuring seamless transfers between primary and secondary ISPs. The optional 4G LTE internal modem provides a secure additional alternate path for out-of-band connectivity using security protocols such as IPSec and OpenVPN.

About WTI

WTI designs and manufactures Secure Out-of-Band Management Solutions for local and globally deployed networks. WTI provides redundant OOB console access and power control to mission critical infrastructure … even when the network is down.  WTI products can be purchased factory direct and through various channel partners worldwide.  Since 1964, WTI has maintained local in-house manufacturing, engineering and technical support. Learn more at www.wti.com.

About Check Point Software Technologies, Ltd.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (www.checkpoint.com) is a leading AI-powered, cloud-delivered cyber security platform provider protecting over 100,000 organizations worldwide. Check Point leverages the power of AI everywhere to enhance cyber security efficiency and accuracy through its Infinity Platform, with industry-leading catch rates enabling proactive threat anticipation and smarter, faster response times. The comprehensive platform includes cloud-delivered technologies consisting of Check Point Harmony to secure the workspace, Check Point CloudGuard to secure the cloud, Check Point Quantum to secure the network, and Check Point Infinity Core Services for collaborative security operations and services.

WTI out-of-band management solutions provide Check Point security gateways with:

  • In-band and out-of-band console access from anywhere.
  • Remotely reconfigure, revive and restore gateways via SSH.
  • Connect via ethernet or cellular 4G LTE with optional failover.
  • Power cycle and monitoring capabilities.
  • Faster network issue resolution.

Application example

Challenge: Provide secure, authenticated access to configuration parameters on console ports on Check Point security gateways during outages.

Answer: WTI console servers with dual gig ethernet ports ensure secure console port connections via primary and secondary ethernet as well as OOB access via optional LTE cellular modem.

Results: If the primary in-band network fails, admins can initiate secure SSH connections to security gateway console ports via out-of-band, allowing access to configuration parameters and other data used to troubleshoot unresponsive devices and revive network services.

In conclusion, WTI out-of-band management solutions empower your team to regain control quickly and reduce network disruptions. Are you ready to save time, energy and resources? Let’s discuss how WTI can help!

Better Web Security Means Less Convenience – For Now

The web makes our lives more convenient. We can order a T-shirt or a pizza with a few clicks. We can conduct global research without leaving our seats. It has changed the way we do just about everything.

As web designers, we seek to add even more convenience. We employ systems to “remember” users. We store customer information in the cloud. These features make it easier for people to get things done.

A seamless user experience is the goal. It’s both well-intentioned and potentially lucrative. There is often a cost when it comes to security, though.

Malicious actors are taking advantage of this convenience. Methods like stealing session cookies are prevalent. Thus, staying logged into your website is a risk.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, making the web more secure means less convenience. Here are a few examples of what that looks like. In addition, we’ll talk about why these measures may be temporary.

Using Two-Factor Authentication Everywhere

It’s becoming harder to avoid two-factor authentication (2FA). This method is in place just about everywhere – including your WordPress site.

The idea makes perfect sense. The extra layer of authentication means a hacker needs more than a username and password. They can’t access your account without a 2FA code.

However, 2FA is far from perfect. The aforementioned stolen session cookies are proof. A hacker with a valid cookie can bypass other login requirements.

Plus, 2FA is a hassle for users. Think about all the extra time it takes to log into each website you use. It makes people want to stay logged in – and run the risk of a stolen session cookie.

Help may be on the horizon. Passkeys are poised to simplify the login process – while maintaining top security.

Passkeys rely on a user’s device to replace a username and password. Users authenticate using the same method they use to unlock their devices. PINs and biometrics are examples.

That may ease the burden. But we’re likely to be stuck with current methods a while longer.

Better Web Security Means Less Convenience – For Now

Locked down WordPress Files

The theme and plugin ecosystem are a big part of WordPress. You can add new items or update existing ones. It’s all done within a single dashboard. Once again, it’s a very convenient feature.

The problems start when a user account is compromised. A malicious actor can add all manner of malware. And they don’t have to be an administrator. Some vulnerabilities allow a lesser user to bypass WordPress permissions.

The answer appears to be locking down your WordPress install. For example, a site may allow its staging environment to write to files. That would allow you to add or update software. But it would also be protected by an HTTP login.

The production site would allow for uploading media files – but nothing else. That means any theme or plugin installations must come from staging first. The same goes for updates.

Yes, it’s an extra step. But it’s one worth taking. This method not only increases security. It is also a best practice for testing. It could prevent issues for mission-critical sites.

Not every web host offers staging, though. Or an easy way to lock down an install. But this may be the best option until something better comes along.

Speaking of that, security providers are devising new strategies. That could provide a balance between security and ease of use.

Hackers are taking advantage of writable file systems.

Limiting Code Execution within Site Content

Sometimes, we need to execute code within a site’s content. For example, we might embed JavaScript from an advertising network into a blog post.

WordPress facilitates this via its Custom HTML block. Some plugins enable adding code snippets as well.

It’s a handy feature. You can add all sorts of third-party widgets that engage users. They might also produce revenue.

It’s also an easy way to introduce malicious code. WordPress tries to sanitize input. However, not all themes and plugins follow best practices. Unsanitized code could infect your site – and impact users.

Limiting code execution is one way to prevent security issues. You might disable the Custom HTML block, for instance. You could also create HTTP security headers at the server level.

Artificial intelligence (AI) could soon be a factor. A tool that can detect malicious code in real-time might prevent a successful attack. That would empower users without creating as many security concerns.

Allowing users to embed code into content is risky.

A Secure Website Requires Sacrifice

Security puts web designers in a difficult position. We strive to build great user experiences. We want to help our clients to do their jobs with ease.

But we also want our websites to be secure. That requires us to make some difficult decisions. Do we sacrifice convenience for safety?

The answer appears to be “yes” for now. Insecure login methods and writeable folders are risky. So is allowing users to execute code within their content. And it seems that malware continues to thrive in these environments.

As such, closing these avenues of attack makes sense. Even if it creates extra hurdles for users.

We can still hope for a better future, though. The advent of passkeys and AI-driven security might be just what we need. Their time can’t come soon enough.

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ID@Xbox Digital Showcase Announced For Next Week

ID@Xbox Digital Showcase Announced For Next Week

Summer Game Fest is just a few months away, but that’s not stopping Xbox from hosting its own indie event next week. Partnering with IGN, the ID@Xbox Digital Showcase will air live next Monday, April 29, at 10 AM PT/ 1 PM ET. The event will feature “epic trailers, fresh gameplay, and new reveals,” according to the announcement blog.

They’ve also given a heads-up on some games we can expect to see. Vampire Survivors, which cracked our top ten games of the year back in 2022, has been on the platform for some time now, but recently announced a new expansion featuring weapons and characters from the Contra series. Dungeons of Hinterberg is an action-adventure title announced at SGF last year that we got a chance to preview. The showcase will also spotlight co-op roguelike 33 Immortals and Don’t Nod’s upcoming adventure title, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage.

For more context, last year’s version of this event included over 20 games, including Sea of Stars, Karateka, and Vampire Survivors again, somehow. Regardless of whether or not it appears, you can bet the comment section will be flooded with Hollow Knight: Silksong fans clamoring for the game, which we haven’t seen since the Xbox summer showcase in 2022 when it was announced the game would come to Game Pass on day one.

You can watch the showcase next week on IGN’s YouTube channel. The showcase will also be available in American Sign Language.

What are you hoping to see from the showcase? Let us know in the comments!

Tales Of The Shire’s First Trailer Reveals It Is Middle-Earth Animal Crossing With Hobbits

Tales Of The Shire’s First Trailer Reveals It Is Middle-Earth Animal Crossing With Hobbits

Developer Wētā Workshop and publisher Private Division have released the first trailer for Tales of the Shire, and it showcases what looks like a Middle-earth Animal Crossing game with hobbits and a cozy place to call home. This trailer arrives after the companies teased releasing the first Tales of the Shire trailer this month, following the game’s reveal last year. 

In Tales of the Shire, players will create their own Hobbit before setting forth into Bywater, the shire setting of the game. Here, players can forage fruits and herbs, tend to gardens, fish, trade with townsfolk, and more, all while working to help Bywater, which has not yet been established as an official village in Hobbiton, flourish. 

“Greet comfort at the door as you deocrate your own Hobbit hole, tend to your garden, fish at the clear ponds, forage wild fruits and herbs, or trade with townsfolk, ” a press release reads. “Prepare homemade meals to share with fellow Hobbits and foster relationships. With much to see and lots more to eat, enjoy days of splendor in the picturesque forests, lakes, and pastures.”

Check out the first official Tales of the Shire trailer for yourself below: 

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Tales of the Shire’s Hobbit hole customization features grid-free placement, allowing players to put furniture and home decor anywhere they want, however they want. You can harvest seasonal crops and flowers as time passes in your homestead, and stock your Hobbit hole pantry afterward. Plus, you can cook using unique recipes, partake in second breakfast, and even host dinner parties with other Hobbits in Bywater. Sharing meals with guests will create new relationships to cultivate as the seasons go by. 

Wētā Workshop says ever-changing weather will affect daily routines and bring seasonal surprises to Bywater. You can obtain rewards through story progression all while meeting familiar and iconic characters, too. You can trade with them for upgrades to skills, clothes, your home, and more, and joining clubs and completing missions and daily activities will further Bywater’s status as an official village. 

Here are some screenshots from Tales of the Shire: 

For more about the game, head to Game Informer’s Tales of the Shire hub. 

Are you excited for Tales of the Shire? Let us know in the comments below!

Embracer Group To Split Into Three Companies, Including One Called ‘Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends’

Embracer Group To Split Into Three Companies, Including One Called ‘Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends’

Embracer Group, the company that recently sold Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake developer Saber Interactive for $500 million, has announced its plans to split into three individual, publicly traded companies. As such, Embracer Group as we know it will be no more; instead, it will largely consist of Asmodee, Coffee Stain & Friends, and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends. 

Each of these companies will be run individually and traded publicly in the market, with IP and franchises under the Embracer Group umbrella spread across them. This separation follows a rocky period for Embracer Group, which is behind layoffs at companies like Black Forest Games and Eidos-Montréal after a planned $2 billion deal with Saudi Arabia-backed Savvy Games Group fell through in 2023. 

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“During the past years, the Group has made significant investments in acquisitions and into a strategy of accelerated organic growth. To further realize the untapped potential in Embracer Group and better optimize the use of its resources, Embracer Group announced a restructuring program in June 2023 divided into different phases lasting until March 2024,” the company writes in a press release. “Focus of the program has been cost savings, capital allocation, efficiency and consolidation, while also divesting selected studios.

Following a careful and thorough review, it is the assessment of the Board of Directors that the current Group structure does not create optimal conditions for future value creation both for Embracer Group’s shareholders and other stakeholders. To continue the transformation of Embracer Group into the future for the benefit of all employees, gamers and shareholders, the Board of Directors and the executive management have therefore decided to propose a separation of Embracer Group, creating three separate publicly listed entities: ‘Asmodee,’ ‘Coffee Stain & Friends,’ and ‘Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends.'”

Embracer Group says each of these entities will have its own balance sheet, financial targets and structure, and allocation strategy. In short, each of these companies will be essentially independent of each other, even if they’re formed from the same umbrella. 

Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends

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After this new split, Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends is “intended to remain a creative powerhouse in AAA game development and publishing for PC/console,” a press release reads. It will remain the stewards of The Lord of the Rings and Tomb Raider IPs, with its main focus being the former.

It will consist of studios like Crystal Dynamics, Dambuster Studios, Eidos-Montréal, Flying Wild Hog Studios, Tripwire, Vertigo Games, Warhorse Studios, 4A Games, and more, with IPs including Dead Island, Killing Floor, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, The Lord of the Rings, Metro, and Tomb Raider.

Coffee Stain & Friends

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Embracer Group says this company “is intended to consist of leading publishers and developers focused on a variety of games for PC, console, and mobile, including community-driven free-to-play games, LiveOps games, and indie/AA games.” It will operate under two segments, according to the company: Premium and Free-To-Play. 

Its “Premium” operations include studios like Coffee Stain, Ghost Ship, Tarsier, Tuxedo Labs, THQ Nordic, and Amplifier Game Invest. Its IPs include Deep Rock Galactic, Goat Simulator, Satisfactory, Wreckfest, Teardown, Valheim, and more than 200 others. 

Its “Free-To-Play” operations include studios like Easybrain, Deca, CrazyLabs, and Cryptic, with IPs in its wheelhouse including Soduku.com, Blockudoku, Jigsaw Puzzle, Star Trek Online, D&D Neverwinter Online, and more. 

Asmodee

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Asmodee consists of 23 fully owned studios and more than 300 IPs and consists of the tabletop games section of Embracer Group. It will continue focusing on tabletop properties while collaborating in transmedia partnerships for IPs like The Lord of the Rings and others in the Embracer wheelhouse. “As a global leader in board and trading card games, with a proven track-record of profitable growth, Asmodee is well-positioned to build on its strategy and continue to prosper as a standalone entity.” 

Its IPs include Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders, Azul, Catan, Dobble, Exploding Kittens, and other board games based on The Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Game of Thrones, Netflix, Lego, and Star Wars. 

“This transformation is an important step in unlocking shareholder value,” chair of the Embracer Group board Kicki Wallje-Lund writes in a press release. “With this new structure, the three entities will be able to focus on executing their core strategies and leveraging their own strengths, providing more differentiated and distinct equity stories to both existing and new shareholders.” 

Embracer Group co-founder and CEO Lars Wingefors adds, “This is the start of a new chapter, a chapter that I intend to remain part of as an active, committed, and supportive shareholder of all three new entities, with an evergreen horizon. This move toward three independent companies reinforces Embracer’s vision of backing entrepreneurs and creators with a long-term mindset, allowing them to continue to deliver unforgettable experiences for gamers and fans across the globe.” 

Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends will remain within the current publicly listed Embracer Group, which itself will eventually be renamed. Asmodee and Coffee Stain & Friends will hit the market as separate companies within 12 months, during the 2025 calendar year. 

How do you feel about this split in Embracer Group? Let us know in the comments below!

Tales of Kenzera: Zau Review – Spirit Over Substance – Game Informer

In Tales of Kenzera: Zau, the debut game from Surgent Studios, the use of the word “Tales” is more literal than it initially seems. To kick off the events of the game, protagonist Zuberi reads a book written by his late father about a place called Kenzera. He uses fiction to cope with his grief, just as the player might do with the plot of the game, and as the studio founder, who lost his father as well, did when creating the story to begin with. While combat and map design in Tales of Kenzera falters at times, this strong, emotional core was what pulled me through to the credits.

Zau is the protagonist of Zuberi’s book, and he’s who the player controls for the vast majority of the roughly eight-hour game. After his father’s passing, he goes to Kalunga, the god of death, to perform a risky exchange: defeating three great spirits to bring his father back to life. Kalunga, who simply appears as an older human man, accompanies Zau throughout his journey, providing wisdom and guidance to level Zau’s often reckless behavior. It is a stellar dynamic, and I enjoyed watching them butt heads as they struggled to deal with the other grieving characters of the game.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau Review – Spirit Over Substance – Game Informer

Zau battles his way through the world of Kenzera using the Masks of the Sun and Moon, relics gifted to him when his father passed. The Mask of the Moon has more ranged options with ice abilities, while the Mask of the Sun is melee-focused with fire abilities, and both are fun to use. Because you can flip between them at the drop of a hat, combat feels creative, giving the player the opportunity to flip to whichever stance fits them best at that moment. That said, later encounters with large crowds of enemies with regenerating health bars sometimes tested my love of the combat, with late-game combat encounters feeling like a chore purely based on how long they took.  

The game is also rife with platforming challenges that make use of all your abilities gained up until that point in the story, but since you start with a double jump and a mid-air dash, movement is a blast from the start. Many challenges involve instant-kill spikes, which can be irritating, but quick respawn times generally keep me from pulling my hair out. This is not the case in certain challenge sections and some chase sequences in story missions, which require you to make it all the way through with only a handful of checkpoints. They’re not insurmountable, though, and allow the game to test player platforming skills as well as combat skills during boss sequences.

Tales of Kenzera’s main flaw is its map and world designs, which turn a pretty good game into one that’s uninteresting and unintuitive to explore. While most games obscure sections of the map until players explore them, Tales of Kenzera opens up an entire zone as soon as you enter a biome. It’s a minor convenience for navigating through the main plot but a nightmare for figuring out where you have and haven’t been. There’s no way to mark the map or see where you’ve previously visited, save for icons that mark collected items, so in some cases, it’s actually more difficult to backtrack to find secrets.

Even then, areas are pretty linear, thanks to objective markers making sure the player always knows where to go, so most secrets are just a quick little branch into a room to the left or an alternate path to the right. On top of that, most secrets only reward a small chunk of experience points, which is useful but not particularly exciting to discover and doesn’t do much to incentivize further exploration. However, there are also meditation trees that increase your maximum health and platforming challenges to unlock stat-boosting trinkets, so it’s still worth heading down the occasional side path.

However, the most frustrating element here is a specific set of secrets: Spirit Trials. Unlike most hidden elements, these combat challenges require the player to backtrack significantly and open an ability-gated area to proceed. I enjoy secrets, but there are only three Spirit Trials in the whole game, and they are the only way to upgrade your spirit bar and trinket slots, which are vital to Zau’s abilities. It’s a baffling choice to funnel both upgrades into one area and even more puzzling to hide them away like this, especially when their existence is not mentioned until you find one. If the map allowed you to mark certain areas to revisit or had a traditional un-fogging system to see where you haven’t explored, it would be one thing, and if it were the norm for other secrets to require a little more work to find, it would be another. But when the player is neither implicitly nor explicitly incentivized to search for major upgrades, it creates a balance issue.

Despite my gripes with Spirit Trials and the map, I have a lot of respect for Tales of Kenzera: Zau, particularly in how it handles grief and self-reflection – it is one of the most thematically cohesive games I’ve ever played. Every element of gameplay and story is tied back into the dual struggle Zau and Zuberi face in coping with the loss of their respective fathers. Health upgrades come from points of meditation and the processing of emotion. Each character you encounter deals with loss in their own way, which grants perspective to Zau’s situation. Even combat upgrades represent Zau’s path to get closer to his father – if he can’t spend time with the man himself, he’ll spend time with the legacy his father left behind.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau conveys its somber themes with nuance and passion. It’s just a shame the gameplay doesn’t always match those highs, especially in a genre flooded with quality indies, because Zau’s journey – and Zuberi’s parallel journey – are stories I’ll be thinking about for quite some time

Separation of Concerns: Achieving Breakthrough Synergy in Decision Management

At its core, software is written to automate functions – fundamentally that is through workflow that orchestrates over actions. The most essential action within software that affects business outcomes are business decisions. But oftentimes, the employee who initially established the guiding rules for a software decision…