Originally published at: Headlines for December 12th, 2024 - XboxEra
Every day after Headlines airs I’ll give a text-based rundown of the show with links to each of our sources used. For those who prefer to read and to give thanks to all the hard work people around the industry are doing. Here are the video game headlines for December 12th, 2024.
- Hellblade gets 11 nominations at the BAFTAGame awards & the full (massive list)
- You can now stream select games you own on Xbox One and Series consoles
- Starfield has gotten a creator-made DOOM mini-quest
- Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo is coming Day One to Xbox Game Pass
- Xbox partners with darts star Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler for shirt sponsorship
- Ziff Davis essentially kills GI.biz and is “soft laying off” many employees”
- Some Cool New Changes to the Xbox App
- People Can Fly shut down two projects and lay off 120 employees
- The Plucky Squire gets a brand new Streamlined Mode with less ‘hand-holding’
- Everything announced at Day of the Devs: The Game Awards 2024 Edition
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is disabling PSSR
- Balatro wins Apple Arcade’s GotY, hits 3.5 million copies, and gets a Cyberpunk 2077 quest (in email)
- LG discontinues all UHD Blu-ray and Blu-ray players – FlatpanelsHD
Today’s main story was Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II getting 11 nominations at the 2024 BAFTA game awards. We reviewed the title at launch, stating:
Brutal. Relentless. Breath-taking.
These are just some of the words that come to mind as I sit down to try and describe my recent experience in playing through Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.
The team at Ninja Theory have achieved what many considered impossible – combining a level of visual fidelity not seen on console before, paired with a level of immersion and sense of place that is, as of now – unmatched in video games.
You will feel every blow, shudder at every desperate scream and the terrifying sounds of your enemies as you guide Senua on her journey through a familiar but entirely new kind of hell.
Despite the backing of a company as large and as well-funded as Microsoft, Ninja Theory have, in my opinion, nurtured their independent spirit and kept it well and truly alive in every facet of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.
Yes, they can, and have – done far more than any struggling indie developer could likely achieve, but the heart of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II – the sheer ambition of it – is something to be applauded.
It doesn’t waste your time, and it exceeds it’s goals in every conceivable way, delivering the true ‘next-gen’ showcase Xbox fans have been waiting for.
In an age of ballooning budgets, job losses and studio closures, this is the kind of thing I’m here for. I do hope the game is recognised for what it is, rather than for what it isn’t it.
It’s brutal. It’s breath-taking. It’s brilliant. If this is “Independent AAA”?
Sign me up for more.