Beating Hades II’s Second Area And Boss Fight | New Gameplay Today

Beating Hades II’s Second Area And Boss Fight | New Gameplay Today

Hades II, the much-anticipated sequel to Supergian’s excellent roguelike, is entering Early Access today and is on the cover of Game Informer Magazine with incredible original art by acclaimed artist Jen Zee. Join Alex Van Aken – who visited Supergiant for the cover story and has played Hades II extensively – and myself for a look at the game’s second area and boss fight. Spoilers ahead if you want to experience the locations and enemies for yourself, but otherwise, enjoy this New Gameplay Today episode!

This second area in Hades II is called Oceanus, an underwater realm Melinoë uses to bypass the armies of Chronos, the game’s antagonist and Titan of Time. Oceanus is generally more difficult to navigate than Erebus, the first area, due to explosive hazards, more powerful ranged enemies, and darting schools of swordfish. The level culminates in a musical boss fight against a rock band of sirens led by Scylla, a well-known sea monster from Greek myth. Scylla sings while her keyboardist and drummer back her up. Despite sharing one health bar, the individual monsters can be stunned and knocked out of the fight, muting the appropriate instruments in the active music track.

See Oceanus And The Scylla Boss Fight In Action:

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Head to Game Informer’s YouTube channel for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games. Watch other episodes of New Gameplay Today right here.

Hades II Is Now Available In Early Access On PC

Hades II Is Now Available In Early Access On PC

Hades II now available in Early Access. Yes, for real. Like right now. Why are you still reading this? Go play it, you’ve got some gods to kill/flirt with/buy things from/etc!

However, while you’re waiting for it to download on PC, why not check out Game Informer’s slew of exclusive Hades II content available right now because Supergiant’s first sequel is gracing the next cover of our magazine:

If you’re hopping into Hades II today, which is now in Early Access after a quick bout of recent technical tests, you can purchase it on Steam or Epic Games Store for $29.99. 

Are you hopping into Hades II today? Let us know in the comments below!

Exclusive Interview: Inside Star Wars Outlaws’ Reputation System

Exclusive Interview: Inside Star Wars Outlaws’ Reputation System

To wrap up our exclusive Star Wars Outlaws cover story, we’re publishing a 15-minute video interview with Massive Entertainment’s Alice Rendell, senior narrative systems designer on Outlaws, and Lead Systems Designer Matthieu Delisle, wherein we learn about the sorts of encounters players can expect to experience while interacting with the game’s Reputation and Wanted Systems. Please enjoy the video, which you can watch below.

Exclusive Interview: Inside Star Wars Outlaws’ Reputation System

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Subscribe to our YouTube channel if you enjoy this interview and want to see more like it! Lastly, visit Game Informer’s exclusive coverage HUB to learn more about the making of Star Wars Outlaws.

Sonic Rumble Is A 32-Player Mobile Platforming Battle Royale Coming This Winter

Sonic Rumble Is A 32-Player Mobile Platforming Battle Royale Coming This Winter

Sega has revealed Sonic Rumble, a 32-player mobile platforming battle royale, and it’s coming this winter. As is par for the course of battle royale-type games, Sonic Rumble puts 32 players against each other competing on various levels and obstacle courses to remain the last person standing. 

In the reveal trailer, it’s clear players control various characters from the universe of Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog series, including Sonic, of course, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy, Dr. Eggman, and presumably more. As you play, you collect rings and these are used to customize your characters in special outfits and more. 

Check it out for yourself in the Sonic Rumble announce trailer below: 

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There’s no release date for Sonic Rumble yet, but Sega says it’s releasing this Winter. Given it’s a mobile game, it’s expected to hit iOS and Android. If you’re interested in trying the game out, you can sign up for beta tests right now. 

For more about everyone’s favorite blue blur, read Game Informer’s Sonic Frontiers review, and then read Game Informer’s Sonic Superstars review. After that, watch Game Informer’s exclusive video interview with Sonic’s Takashi Iizuka about Sega’s road to the Dreamcast. 

Are you going to play Sonic Rumble later this year? Let us know in the comments below!

Cloudways Review: The Best Managed Cloud Provider in 2024?

As a web hosting review expert who has set up and managed many websites, I had been hearing about Cloudways and decided to try out their services. As one of the youngest hosts on the market, Cloudways has sure made a name for itself quickly. In…

Alexandr Yarats, Head of Search at Perplexity – Interview Series

Alexandr Yarats is the Head of Search at Perplexity AI. He began his career at Yandex in 2017, concurrently studying at the Yandex School of Data Analysis. The initial years were intense yet rewarding, propelling his growth to become an Engineering Team Lead. Driven by his…

Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition Hits Switch In July With 150 Speedrun Challenges In 13 Games

Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition Hits Switch In July With 150 Speedrun Challenges In 13 Games

Nintendo has revealed Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition, a game designed around speedrunning challenges and more across 13 classic NES games. Set to hit Switch on July 18, Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition features more than 150 challenges to complete, and you can compete for top spots on global online leaderboards or with friends. 

Nintendo revealed this compilation title with a trailer that pulls heavy on the Nintendo World Championship nostalgia, with previous winners appearing, footage from old competitions, and more throughout. 

Check out the Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition announcement trailer for yourself below: 

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As you can see, challenges in the game include reaching the Super Mushroom as fast as you can in Super Mario Bros., defeating the Octorocks the fastest in The Legend of Zelda, and reaching a specified gate as quickly as possible in Metroid. And those are just three of the 150+ challenges available in the game, spread across 13 NES games. 

Each week, you can compete for the top spot in the World Championships Weekly  Global Online leaderboards, or you can compete against up to seven friends in the local eight-player Party Mode. 

“With ‘byte-sized’ challenges and an automatic rewind feature, you don’t need to master entire games to feel like a Nintendo World Champion,” the trailer’s description reads. 

Alongside today’s reveal, Nintendo has also unveiled a Deluxe Set for Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition. It includes collectible items, like art cards, a golden NES cartridge, and a physical game card.  

Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition hits Switch on July 18, 2024. The Deluxe Set will cost $59.99, and the digital eShop version will cost $29.99. 

Are you going to pick this game up? Let us know in the comments below!

OpenAI takes steps to boost AI-generated content transparency

OpenAI is joining the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) steering committee and will integrate the open standard’s metadata into its generative AI models to increase transparency around generated content. The C2PA standard allows digital content to be certified with metadata proving its origins, whether…

Redfall Was Reportedly Set To Receive A Big Offline Play Update This Month Before Arkane Austin Shutdown

Redfall Was Reportedly Set To Receive A Big Offline Play Update This Month Before Arkane Austin Shutdown

Arkane Austin was reportedly set to release a big Redfall update this month that would have added offline play to the always-online game before Microsoft suddenly shut the studio down, according to IGN. This follows yesterday’s news that Microsoft was shutting down Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, Mighty Doom studio Alpha Dog Games, and absorbing Roundhouse Games into ZeniMax Online Studios.

This offline play update would have addressed one of players’ biggest complaints with the game – that Redfall always requires a connection to the internet – but now that update will never see the light of day. It’s an especially concerning detail considering now that Arkane Austin is closed, the day when Redfall servers are no longer live, rendering the game unplayable, seems closer than ever before. 

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IGN also reports that it was told the now-canceled Hero Pass, which would have added two additional playable characters to Redfall, was scheduled for release around Halloween. It obviously won’t be released now – Bethesda says those who purchased the Hero Pass will be eligible “to receive the value of the upgrade” – but if it had hit the game around Halloween, that would have been roughly 18 months after Redfall’s launch. 

Redfall hit Xbox Series X/S and PC on May 2 to poor reviews from critics – read Game Informer’s review here – and players alike, and the first-person multiplayer vampire shooter failed to recover, with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer saying, “I’m upset with myself,” when asked about its launch.

According to reports, some of Arkane Austin’s staff hoped Microsoft might cancel Redfall or reboot it as a single player game, following the former’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media in 2020 for $7.5 billion. Arkane Austin director Harvey Smith said Microsoft canceled a PlayStation 5 version of Redfall following this acquisition. 

[Source: IGN]

How do you feel about Microsoft shutting down Arkane Austin? Let us know in the comments below!