Horizon Forbidden West gets an expansion in the form of Burning Shores, Tunic wins big at the Canadian Game Awards, biz moves at Sega and Netflix, and the launch of Honkai Star Rail.

Burning Shores expands Aloy’s Forbidden West quest

I relish the opportunity go return to the world Guerrilla has created in Horizon. In Burning Shores, Aloy’s explorations and adventures in Forbidden West take her to what used to be Los Angeles.

While there, Aloy meets new people and discovers new machine creatures and unravels even more of the story of what happened to Earth.

While Forbidden West was available for owners of PS4 and PS5 consoles, this expansion has been released only on PS5. On my system connected to an LG 4K OLED, the visuals are breathtaking.

Meanwhile, Guerrilla has confirmed that a third game in the Horizon franchise is in development, along with an “online project” set in the same universe.

Tunic, Cuphead expansion among Canadian Game Awards winners

Last weekend, the 2023 edition of the Canadian Game Awards were handed out in Toronto.

Tunic, designed by Halifax’s Andrew Shouldice, won the lions share of accolades, taking the awards for Best Game Design, Best Audio Design, Best PC Game, and Best Console Game, and Shouldice’s development team was recognized as Studio of the Year.

The Delicious Last Course, an expansion of the acclaimed platformer, Cuphead from Studio MDHR, won for Best Art Direction and Best Score/Soundtrack.

And Kari Wahlgren, who plays Harley Quinn in Gotham Knights, the action role-playing game from WB Games Montreal, was recognized for Best Performance.

The business side of video games: Sega and Netflix make moves

• Sega has plans to acquire Rovio, the developer of Angry Birds.
• Joseph Staten, who has been working on Halo for nearly a decade and the head of creative on Halo Infinite, the latest game in the franchise, has been hired by Netflix as a creative director leading the development of a new, “AAA” multiplatform game.

So today, I'm thrilled to announce that I've joined Netflix</a> Games as Creative Director for a brand-new AAA multiplatform game and original IP. Let&#39;s go! 2/2</p>&mdash; Joseph Staten (joestaten) April 17, 2023

Honkai: Star Rail is the new free-to-play game from the developers of Genshin Impact

One of the biggest games of the last few years is Genshin Impact, developed and published by Chinese outfit miHoYo in 2020. That free-to-play action role-playing game with turn-based combat that was set in a fantasy world of magic.

Honkai: Star Rail is cut from the same cloth. It’s free-to-play, it’s a role-playing game, it’s got turn-based combat. But this is a space opera which gives its protagonist cosmic power and amnesia as a starting place for an epic story that is inspired by anime and Final Fantasy.

Another difference with Star Rail is that it’s not an open world, instead having you move through the maps by selecting destinations where you can then explore.

Honkai Star Rail is available now on Android, iOS, and Windows, and is coming to PS4 and PS5.