As lead systems designer Kyle Koenig told IGN First, “We’ve significantly increased the number of Perks with over 90 of them – each requiring various Skills to unlock. As you invest in Skills, it changes how you can invest in Perks and leads you down many different paths.” For example, Run and Gun allows one to fire a shotgun, SMG and assault rifle while sprinting and sliding. Pretty potent, but it shines even more with the bullet-time-esque Tactical Time Dilation.

Space Ranger, on the other hand, buffs damage based on Speech and opens up new dialogue options. “The way we looked at them when designing them was to look at all the different modes of gameplay the player has, and what are all the actions they can take and how can we modify them.”

It’s also possible to build around different types of elemental damage. As Koenig notes, “Even if you want to mix and match them, you can be a character that’s all about plasma and burning things alive while getting healing from it – or using shock damage to scramble automechs and have them fight for you temporarily while paralyzing creatures and humans – or using corrosive damage to take away all their armor and make it so all your attacks against them are critical hits that deal insane amounts of damage.”

If you’re someone who thrives off slaying NPCs, Psychopath and Serial Killer are the ticket, permanently increasing your max health. “Especially in an Obsidian game where we allow you to kill anybody – the game’s going to respond, it’s going to roll with it, and you’re going to still be able to complete the game. It’s actually a really fun way to play in a second or third playthrough to see how far you can take it,” said design director Matt Singh.

Launching later this year, The Outer Worlds 2 sees players controlling an Earth Directorate agent who ventures to Arcadia to stop an outbreak of rifts. It’s coming to Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC (including Battle.net), with a Direct scheduled for June 8th.

Doom: The Dark Ages

Id Software has brought DOOM back into the limelight with its modern reimagining, and DOOM: The Dark Ages is looking like a bigger, badder, and better version of DOOM 2016 and DOOM Eternal in so many different ways. The combat loop has been reworked in new and clever ways, making it feel more grounded yet nimble. Add to that new tools like the shield, companion mech, and dragon – and DOOM: The Dark Ages becomes a game that you don’t want to miss at any cost. It comes out for PC, Xbox Series X/S on 13 May, 2025.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Finally capitalising on the appetite for games set in feudal Japan, the latest Assassin’s Creed whisks players back to 16^th century Iga province plus Kyoto, Kobe, and Osaka. In Shadows, you’ll be switching your time between night-loving shinobi Naoe and brute force swordsman Yasuke, the real-life first non-Japanese samurai. A brutal civil war’s culminating phase leaves chaos reigning over the land, yet our two protagonists share common destinies as a new era ushers in.

Lost Soul Aside

Lost Soul Aside is currently in development at UtilZeroGames, and it revolves around saving your family and the larger world from the clutches of evil. With its fast-paced combat that revolves around stringing together a flurry of attacks and popping art direction, Lost Soul Aside is a game that definitely demands your attention. It’s scheduled to come out sometime this year for PC and PS5.

Thus far, Microsoft has Fable, Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, South of Midnight, DOOM: The Dark Ages, and the full release of Towerborne officially scheduled for 2025. Taking to BlueSky, Warren has claimed that in addition to those titles, the company also has additional games coming in 2025 that we don’t yet officially know about. 

Leaks have claimed that an Xbox Developer Direct presentation is planned for January, where the rumoured remake of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion will be unveiled ahead of a 2025 release. Meanwhile, previously leaks have also suggested that Gears of War: E-Day could be targeting a 2025 launch.

As per Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb, part of that is down to a major Xbox title that was previously planned for 2025 being hit with a delay, with Grubb speculating that the delayed game in question could be either Perfect Dark (which doesn’t have an official launch date or window) or Fable (which is officially due out in 2025).

However, it seems we can at least rule the latter out, based on what prominent leaker NateTheHate says. In a post on ResetEra, the insider has, for starters, refuted claims that The Outer Worlds 2 was given a 2025 launch window due to another game getting delayed, and that that’s actually been the plan since last year. Additionally, the leaker claimed that Microsoft hasn’t internally delayed any game that has been publicly given a 2025 launch window.

That, of course, would imply that Fable is still targeting a 2025 release. Beyond the Playground Games-developed action RPG, other titles that Microsoft has officially dated for next year are DOOM: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight, and of course, the aforementioned Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2.

Tim Cain co-created Fallout alongside Leonard Boyarsky during his time at Interplay Entertainment, before going on to co-direct The Outer Worlds with him much later at Obsidian Entertainment. In 2020, however, Cain left the studio- though it turns out he’s still serving as a consultant on the upcoming sequel’s development.

The same was spotted by Rock Paper Shotgun in videos that Cain has recently been posting on his personal YouTube channel, where he revealed that though he is “semi-retired”, he is still consulting on The Outer Worlds 2, with his role being focused on playing through levels and providing feedback, in particular for the game’s humour and lore.

“There’s stuff they’re trying to do in the sequel, that of course I can’t talk about, that I get pulled in on because it’s similar to stuff I’ve done in the past,” Cain said in a video. “Sometimes it’s just me saying, ‘I’m not gonna tell you what to do, but here are the pitfalls. Here are some of the huge, huge chasms that lie in your way, that you’re gonna have to wend around.'”

As previously mentioned, details on The Outer Worlds 2 have been scant since its announcement. It’s apparently been in the works since 2019, though at the time of its announcement, Obsidian made it abundantly clear that the game was in the early stages of development. Meanwhile, job ads have also suggested that the project is being made using Unreal Engine 5.

While Booty said that Bethesda committed to Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo before its acquisition by Microsoft, he was asked whether The Outer Worlds 2 would be an Xbox exclusive. According to Booty, a “decision has not been made”, but Microsoft tends to support established communities for franchises on other platforms (as seen with Minecraft and The Elder Scrolls Online).

Announced at E3 2021 for Xbox Series X/S and PC, the sequel hasn’t received any official updates. Booty’s statement doesn’t confirm a PlayStation version, but it could release later with Microsoft’s platforms receiving priority. As such, with reports that it allegedly started development in 2019, it may have been planned for PlayStation before the acquisition of Bethesda in 2020.

The concern comes after the FTC pointed to Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda and making several titles, like Starfield, exclusive to Xbox as “powerful evidence” to oppose its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Stay tuned for more updates as the trial rolls on.

Asspotted by @klobrille on Twitter, a job ad published by the studio for the position of Houdini Technical Artist includes mention of Unreal Engine 5, with one of the bullet points under the “pluses” section reading: “An understanding of the material editor in Unreal Engine, as well as an understanding of new features coming in UE5.” Meanwhile, the engine is also mentioned under the responsibilities section.

Obsidian Entertainment is currently working on two large-scale RPGs (that we know of), but of the two, it’s likely that The Outer Worlds 2 is the one that’s going to use the new engine. Development on Avowed is in full swing and has been going on for a while, so it’s unlikely that Obsidian will switch engines in the middle of production. The Outer Worlds 2, on the other hand, is clearly just beginning development.

A number of other Microsoft first party studios are using Unreal Engine 5 for their next games, including the likes of The Coalition, inXile Entertainment, Ninja Theory, and Undead Labs.

Obsidian is joining the Unreal Engine 5 train. A Houdini Technical Artist position description mentions "An understanding of the material editor in UE, as well as an understanding of new features coming in UE5".

I guess this is for The Outer Worlds 2.https://t.co/JlA3Vrmn7j pic.twitter.com/v5HXnA3GNk

— Klobrille (@klobrille) August 2, 2021

Unlike the previous game, The Outer Worlds 2 will be exclusive to PC and Xbox Series X/S (which makes sense given that Microsoft owns the studio and publishing rights for the title). It will also be a day one launch on Xbox Game Pass like almost everything announced during the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase.

In the meantime, The Outer Worlds is available for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch. Check out our review for the same here. The space-faring RPG is also playable on Xbox Game Pass and has two paid expansions, Peril on Gorgon and Murder on Eridanos.