27th August video games round-up: the future of Clair Obscur, Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fests announced, and Resident Evil Requiem gets extreme
Update: That was the world of video games today on 27th August. A full transcript of everything that occurred today is available below if you wish to digest it all at your leisure.
It's 27th August and as we march inexorably towards the start of September, we're back with another daily report. Another chance for us to collate all of today's news and events while chatting cheerily along with you.
The march towards September takes us tantalisingly close to the fabled release of Hollow Knight: Silksong, and the ripples of its sudden release date announcement continue to be felt across the industry. The latest game to scarper is Bennett Foddy's Baby Steps, which has been pushed back to a later September release (23rd).
One game which won't be kick-flipping out of the way, though, is "skate" - the long-awaited new game in the, um, Skate series of games. (I dislike game names that have no capital letter; they unsettle me.) The early access launch of that new game, that new generation of Skate experience, begins 16th September. It's totally bodacious dude.
To the day's events, then!
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
Key points- 16:04 pm August 27 2025 PS Plus monthly games for September unveiled
- 16:01 pm August 27 2025 From the archive: the anatomy of a scare
- 15:47 pm August 27 2025 Terror, tension, release - Resi Requiem's director schools us on pacing
- 14:52 pm August 27 2025 Hell is Us might look fantastical but its themes are not
- 14:18 pm August 27 2025 Pocket murder - Hitman out now on iOS
- 14:10 pm August 27 2025 No Man's Sky adds fully customisable multi-crew spaceships
- 13:55 pm August 27 2025 Scott Pilgrim is back and better than ever
- 13:46 pm August 27 2025 Streets of Rage 4 dev delivers again in new Shinobi game
- 13:27 pm August 27 2025 Paradox rethinks questionable Vampire Bloodlines 2 DLC
- 10:40 am August 27 2025 Film trailer for Return to Silent Hill reveals release window and Pyramid Head
- 10:12 am August 27 2025 Kirby Air Riders is wild
- 09:52 am August 27 2025 Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is "not the end" of the series
- 09:32 am August 27 2025 Remembering the power of Xbox 360 and Gears of War
- 09:31 am August 27 2025 Final Fantasy 14's next Fan Fest events dated
- 09:05 am August 27 2025 Finally, an early access release date for Skate
- 08:58 am August 27 2025 We play Double Fine's Keeper and speak to Tim Schafer about it
Rogueywon says: Surely dropping the capital letter from your game's name is incontrovertible proof that you are cool, hip, groovy, radical and thoroughly down with the kids. If they'd called it "Skate" with a capital S, I would have assumed that it was about plump men in tweed jackets drinking port in between very short bursts of perfunctory skateboarding.
You see: I would play this game!
Robert Purchese 08:42 am UTCMarcusJ says: Gah! I was thoroughly looking forward to Baby Steps. Curse that bug.
Quite! Me, also.
Robert Purchese 08:58 am UTCWe play Double Fine's Keeper and speak to Tim Schafer about it
Image credit: Double Fine/MicrosoftCan you become emotionally tied to a lighthouse? In the case of Double Fine's new game Keeper, yes you can, as Victora found out when seeing the game at Gamescom. She also talked to industry legend and studio leader Tim Schafer about it.
This excerpt from Schafer captured my attention: "We wanted to make something we probably couldn't have gotten signed with a publisher [when Double Fine was independent]. It's really artistic, and it doesn't make sense at first, but it is really engrossing."
Double Fine is owned by Microsoft, remember, a company that's laid off significant amounts of staff from across its gaming business in recent years. Double Fine seems relatively unscathed, however, and judging by Schafer's comments, may be prospering.
Here's Victoria: This is easily one of my most anticipated games coming out this year. I honestly never expected to become emotionally invested in a lighthouse, but even from just a few short snippets of gameplay and trailers, I am already deeply invested in the wellbeing of Keeper's lighthouse, with its characterful beam illuminating and affecting the surreal but beautiful world it has found itself in. Oh yes, Keeper is definitely one I will be keeping a very close eye on.
- I never expected to become emotionally invested in a lighthouse, but Keeper's surreal artistic direction and dedication to accessibility has done just that
Finally, an early access release date for Skate
Image credit: EAEA has revealed the early access release date for Skate at last! It'll be launching on the 16th September for consoles and PC. Still no word on those iOS or Android versions though.
In case you haven't been keeping up, the new Skate is an always online, free-to-play, open-world game where you explore a variety of maps and complete challenges, do tricks, and probably fall off big objects.
- EA finally reveals Skate release date, out in early access next month
2much says: Ahem, I think you'll find it's "skate."
I can't even.
Robert Purchese 09:09 am UTCRogueywon says: @Zombie-Hamster Or would it be sK8. 8?
I'm low-key surprised EA never plumped for Sk8. I bet someone pushed that name in a marketing meeting.
Robert Purchese 09:31 am UTCFinal Fantasy 14's next Fan Fest events dated
The dates and locations for the next round of Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest events have been announced by Square Enix. Typically it's at these regular events the company unveils its next expansion, as well as future updates to the game.
The three events will be in America, Germany, and Japan in 2026, meaning the next expansion likely won't be available until 2027. That would make it the longest wait yet between expansions, which is disappointing for fans eager for the next big arc of the story.
So why such a long wait? I went into it in the article below, but the game's multiplatform support and Dawntrail's graphical overhaul are likely contributing factors, not to mention just how busy director and producer Naoki Yoshida is these days.
Are you looking forward to the next Final Fantasy 14 expansion?
- Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest dates announced, so when is the next expansion due?
Remembering the power of Xbox 360 and Gears of War
Image credit: The CoalitionGears of War has been released on PlayStation - it came out yesterday - which if you've never played the game before, probably doesn't mean a great deal. It might seem like a tonally dated third-person shooter if you experience it for the first time today. All grunts and machismo. But if you were an Xbox 360 owner playing Gears in 2006 for the first time, the experience was wildly different.
Gears of War was muscle car of a release for Microsoft's new Xbox machine - an aggressive, roaring example of what Xbox 360 and Unreal Engine 3 could do. It was a declaration of intent and led an incredible generation of gaming for Microsoft, in which the company gained serious ground on rival console-maker Sony and its PlayStation brand.
Years later, as Tom Orry writes in his recollection of Gears of War, things have changed. "What a difference six Gears of War games, an expansion, a remaster (plus a second sort of remaster of the same game), and a new game in development make. In 2006 it was cool to own an Xbox, in 2025 there's constant chatter about if Xbox consoles even have a reason to exist any more."
- You can take the Gears out of the Xbox, but you can't take the Xbox out of the Gears
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is "not the end" of the series
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director Guillaume Broche has stated the game is "not the end" of the series, so there's definitely more to come from Sandfall Interactive.
Clair Obscur, he explained, is the franchise name, with Expedition 33 being just one story the studio wants to tell. If it's anything like the beloved Final Fantasy series, expect an all-new story for whatever comes next.
But will it still feature the popular turn-based action combat? Do you want to see it return?
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is "not the end" of the franchise, director confirms
Nathan-DTS says: Spent half an hour in the new Skate. You're all right to temper your expectations.
Gah.
Robert Purchese 10:12 am UTCKirby Air Riders is wild
Image credit: NintendoNintendo's big Switch 2 Direct closer recently was Kirby Air Riders, a flourescent racer-slash-party game sequel to GameCube's beloved Kirby Air Ride. But is it any good? Alex played Kirby Air Riders at Gamescom and came away impressed.
It's fun. It's wild. It feels breakable, which you can see as either a good or a bad thing, I suppose. Everything is turned up to eleven, from the deluge of tutorial options for such a simple game to the chaos that can unfold in City Trial. All of this might sound familiar to those who loved the GameCube original - but there's just something different here...
- Kirby Air Riders is a blazing assault on the senses where once you lock in, the magic cuts through
Film trailer for Return to Silent Hill reveals release window and Pyramid Head
There's a new Silent Hill film on the way and now a teaser trailer has revealed its release window, as well as a first look at Pyramid Head.
Return to Silent Hill will be a faithful adaptation of Silent Hill 2, directed by Christophe Gans who's responsible for the 2006 film starring Sean Bean.
The film will be out in January next year. Fancy a watch?
- Return to Silent Hill receives teaser trailer for film adaptation, revealing Pyramid Head and release date
Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone, developer of Stardew Valley, has shared a new screenshot on social media of his next project, Haunted Chocolatier. It shows the player character looking out over a river and forest, stood next to some sort of building inside a tree. Intriguing! And the colours are gorgeous too.
Who knows when we'll get a proper look at the game, but for now it's fun to speculate based on a screenshot. What are you hoping to see?
Image credit: ConcernedApe Ed Nightingale 13:27 pm UTCParadox rethinks questionable Vampire Bloodlines 2 DLC
Image credit: Paradox / The Chinese RoomIn brighter news, if that's a phrase we can use when talking about vampire-related things, Paradox has decided to rethink plans to withhold and sell two clans in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2.
This has been causing a considerable stink since being announced last week. The problem arises from clans being not superfluous cosmetic content but a meaningful part of the game experience itself. Which is to say that without access to the two clans, your experience of the game will be objectively worse, or more limited than if you paid for them, and that's not right.
- Good, the grubby paid clan plan for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is being "adjusted"
Streets of Rage 4 dev delivers again in new Shinobi game
Image credit: SegaWas there ever any doubt? Streets of Rage 4 and Wonder Boy 3 studio Lizarcube is on top form in brand new Shinobi game Art of Vengeance. Chris Donlan's been taking a look and has come away impressed, labelling it "a deeply good video game".
But more than that, it just sells the other half of being a Ninja. The icing sugar softness. The ability to dance lightly through absolute carnage. It's a show-stopping piece of dismissiveness which makes you feel completely in control of every situation. A bit like Lizardcube, in other words.
- With Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, Lizardcube gives that pixel-perfect 16-bit Streets of Rage 4 treatment to another Sega classic
Scott Pilgrim is back and better than ever
Image credit: EurogamerHow is the original Scott Pilgrim beat-'em-up 15 years old? Time, Bertie, time - that's how. Don't think about it. A better question to think about is whether Scott Pilgrim still has what it takes in 2025 to vy for a beat-'em-up crown. The answer? Yes, according to Dom, who saw the game at Gamescom.
I think, maybe, that's the driving narrative here: Scott may be trapped in a microcosm of Millennial angst - which is now as nostalgic for Gen Z is as the 80s was for me, terrifyingly - but that doesn't mean he can't grow and change. As his character learns to adapt, so to do the developers. This is a beat-em-up as relevant and adapted for 2025 as the original game was to 2010.
- 15 years later, Scott Pilgrim EX proves that Toronto's most problematic bass player has what it takes to become beat-em-up royalty in 2025
Rogueywon says: If Bloodlines 2 manages a launch that clears the level of "ties its own shoelaces together, falls flat on its face on the starting line and then poos itself in front of a global audience" it'll be a minor miracle. The vibes are just awful around this one.
I hope this isn't the case but I'm worried. Something else that worries me is a feeling The Chinese Room might be getting this out of the way as it goes independent again. I get the impression this game has been a painful project for all involved, what with its endless delays, switch of developers, and near cancellation it had to endure.
I would love to be proven wrong. I would like for Bloodlines 2 to release and shine as a labour of love which Paradox painstakingly took its time - and therefore allowed The Chinese Room time - to get right. But I struggle to level that sentiment with the thinness and lack of nuance in what I played.
Robert Purchese 14:10 pm UTCNo Man's Sky adds fully customisable multi-crew spaceships
Image credit: Hello GamesWell here's another highly requested No Man's Sky feature crossed off the wishlist, courtesy of those scamps over at Hello Games. As part of the ever-expanding exploratory space sim's freshly arrived Voyagers update (AKA its big 6.0 release), players can now get their hands on the new Corvette ship class. These pilotable beauties include fully customisable interiors and exteriors, and - should you like some companionship while exploring the universe - they're multi-crew too. Guess that's my evening sorted then.
- No Man's Sky adds fully customisable multi-crew spaceships you can build and fly with your friends
Pocket murder - Hitman out now on iOS
Image credit: IOII miss the great mobile rush of a few years ago when every gaming series seemed to squeeze itself onto Android or iOS. Mobile technology moved at such a rate anything appeared possible; console games would soon fit in our pockets. Perhaps that's still the case and I've been looking away, but either way, today's announcement of Hitman: World of Assassination being available on iOS has taken me back.
Amazingly, this seems to be the full World of Assassination experience, with a very full-fat Hitman price of £70 - has there ever been a £70 iOS game? But there's also a free trial experience to get you cosy before you pay out, and you can pay per mission. You'll need a fairly new iPad or iPhone device to power it.
- Hitman World of Assassination arrives on iPhone and iPad
Hell is Us might look fantastical but its themes are not
Image credit: Rogue FactorUpcoming action-adventure game Hell is Us presents a fascinating landscape to explore - a dark and twisted supernatural world. But while it looks distant and strange, the themes that underpin it are not. Civil war, neighbouring conflict: these are as relevant to us in our own world as in the game.
In fact, a trailer for Hell is Us - in which a female civilian executed a kneeling soldier - coincidentally aired as Russian troops invaded Ukraine, in 2022.
"The studio wanted to create this fictional story," technical director Simon Girard told Victoria at Gamescom. "It had no basis in modern history, had no pretence in being a mirror-like reality. It's a fictional story in a fictional country. But then this happens, right? So, again, we find a big echo in our own reality."
- "History is repeating itself" The real-world inspirations of Hell is Us are as relevant today as they were 30 years ago
Terror, tension, release - Resi Requiem's director schools us on pacing
Image credit: CapcomAlex Donaldson believes Resident Evil 7 is one of the best-paced video games around. Happily for him, Resident Evil 9: Requiem director Kōshi Nakanishi seems to feel the same, which is why he's going back to that approach with this game. But that careful balance of tension and release? It's an art form.
"There's really this graph of tension and release throughout the game, building up to a climax," Nakanishi told Donaldson at Gamescom. "That's something that I think Resident Evil is really unique with among horror games. We don't just scare you - we offer you a chance to release that tension by overcoming it all."
- Resident Evil 9: Requiem's director explains how in one crucial way, it is the "most extreme" title in the series yet
FTJT says: I think f2p with cosmetics and seasonal content is actually a perfect fit for a skating game. It's the sort of thing a lot people want to play intermittently to scratch an itch, in shortish sessions, often as a vibes/background game. Seeing what's changed every few months would be nice, the price point works, and the occasional impulse to buy a nice hat even exists - but the appeal is always going to be much more limited for the fortnite tweens so the ethical swamp aspect is at least *partly* sidestepped. The thing I'm most confused by is the lack of Switch 2 support. Seems like an absolutely perfect fit
Just pulling this up from earlier because it's a good point. Switch 2 does seem like a perfect fit. It also reminds me that OlliOlli World is on Switch and that it's perfect. Just in case, you know, you're looking there for a skating game.
Robert Purchese 16:01 pm UTCFrom the archive: the anatomy of a scare
Image credit: New Blood InteractiveSharing that Resi 9 Requiem interview got me thinking about fear. I've just been watching the Endfield Poltergeist on Netflix as well and it's fascinating stuff. But fear is something that preoccupies me, the chemistry of it, the triggers for it. And it preoccupies me enough that last year I decided to ask makers of well known horror games about it. "How do you scare people?" I asked. "What is the anatomy of a scare?"
"In short, I would call it the 'stimulation of imagination'," Silent Hill creator Keiichirō Toyama told me - his answer being one among many. "The psychological appeal of horror, I believe, lies in a fundamental desire to collectively identify and overcome threats that surprise and challenge life (and species). Therefore, once something is understood, it may still be a threat, but it no longer evokes fear (as with plagues, for instance)."
- The anatomy of a scare: how do games frighten you?
PS Plus monthly games for September unveiled
The PS Plus monthly games for September have been revealed - and it's a good bunch!
Farming sim Stardew Valley is perhaps the headliner here, especially for anyone who's been meaning to play it for years (hi, that's me), but Psychonauts 2 is a great addition and Viewfinder is a smart little puzzle game to add to your collection.
All three games will be available via the subscription service from 2nd September!
- Here are our PS Plus Monthly games for September
And that was the daily video game news for 27th August - I have to say, I'm very excited about Resident Evil Requiem after reading that new interview. See you tomorrow to find out what's new in the world of gaming!
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