Six days from launch, Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 has a new promotional video out that breaks down the story from the first game.

Ninja Theory's silence in recent weeks around one of the biggest upcoming Xbox Series X games of the year was starting to raise some concerns, but fear not, the dam has broken and we now have a big old... story recap. You know, so you're up to speed on what's going on before the sequel comes out. I mean, it's something.

Despite chatter online, it's not as if Ninja Theory hasn't been marketing its game at all. The studio's been drip-feeding little nuggets here and there on its Twitter account every day since May 1, but they've been small nuggets. Like Happy Meal small. For example, two updates were just reposts of influencers promoting the game. Another was an image of Ninja Theory's performance capture studio. Like I said, small nuggets.

There's also been some press interviews and hands-on previews in recent weeks, but otherwise both Xbox and Ninja Theory have been conspicuously quiet. This new story recap is arguably the biggest promotional drop since January's Xbox Developer Direct four months ago. Again, considering we're just days away from launch, eyebrows are rightfully being raised.

For what it's worth, Ninja Theory studio head Dom Matthews spoke to this exact issue on Wednesday's episode of the Kinda Funny podcast (timestamped here), but he pretty much entirely brushed the whole thing off by saying, in so many words, he's just focused on the push to release and hopes the game will speak for itself.

"My focus has just been heads down, let's get this done," Matthews said. "I've always believed that games can be art, and you can take creative risks, and if you make something that's compelling, people are going to want to play it, and people are going to want to enjoy it, and I maintain that fully."

I'm still cautiously optimistic in Ninja Theory's ability to stick the landing here. I'm a fan of the first game and the sequel sounds like a big step forward despite its short runtime (around eight hours). Only time will tell whether it'll land with fans of the first game only or find a wider audience in Xbox's player base.

For now, here are the best Xbox Series X games.

The last seven years of Assassin's Creed games have turned me into the sort of fan I never wanted to become: a withered old grump who wishes things were the way they used to be. Nobody likes that guy—especially not the millions of people who became Assassin's Creed fans through the immaculate worlds of Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla.

I've gotten used to the idea that modern Assassin's Creed is about stepping into the shoes of historical warrior archetypes like a playable episode of Deadliest Warrior and not, well, being an assassin. But Assassin's Creed Shadows, the next mainline game set in feudal Japan, seemingly wants to do both.

Ubisoft is splitting Assassin's Creed's two disciplines into two protagonists: Naoe, an agile shinobi armed with a hidden blade, and Yasuke, the historical Black samurai who faces his enemies head-on. In an interview with IGN, Ubisoft said most missions can be tackled as either character (some are character-specific), leaving it up to the player to decide if they want to approach Shadows like an Odyssey-style action RPG or a traditional stealth game.

I'm resisting the urge to call 'bull' on Ubi's suggestion that stealth and open combat will have an equal focus after how untrue that proved to be in Odyssey and Valhalla. Ubi has made a habit of assuring AC's oldest fans that you can still play the new games like the old ones, just to disappoint in the follow-through. But there's reason to believe Ubi is turning a new leaf. Assassin's Creed Mirage made good on its promise as a stabby game first, which was personally encouraging, and Ubi also shared some specific details about stealth in Shadows that have me leaning in. A few highlights from the same IGN interview:

• Sticking to shadows matters, and Naoe can snuff out light sources to create dark areas
• There's a Splinter Cell-like light meter(!)
• Naoe can go prone, a first for the series and a rare treat in stealth games outside Metal Gear Solid
• Naoe isn't strong in an open fight, similar to Basim in Mirage
• There's a grapple hook (the swinging kind, not the zipline kind) that expands parkour
• Guard patterns are influenced by the weather and seasons: guards will find shelter from rain, for example

If I only judge by what aspects of Shadows Ubisoft chose to focus on for its grand reveal, stealth even sounds like the star of the show. The studio talked about how passing seasons will affect guard patrols and sneaking options.

"As the months go by, the approaching winter kills off these natural hiding spots. Hanging icicles threaten to snap and fall, revealing your rooftop position," IGN wrote. "But at the same time, the worsening weather limits the view of enemies. Howling winds obscure your footsteps. Guard patrols stick to areas of warmth, allowing you to take new, colder paths."

Less was said about Yosuke's combat-forward playstyle. He'll be able to cut through just about anything in the world that's not nailed down (neat), and he can parry/counterattack enemies for quick kills. Enemy armor can be worn down and broken by repeated strikes. I don't have high hopes for Shadows' swordplay if it's gonna feel anything like Valhalla's or Odyssey's button-mashy brawls, especially after enjoying two playthroughs of the game that beat Ubi to the punch of "Assassin's Creed in Japan," Ghost of Tsushima.

But that's the rub of speculating about a game without the benefit of gameplay. This all sounds promising, but a 10-minute demo could change everything. We classic AC enjoyers are a persnickety bunch who know how little missteps can spoil the assassin fantasy—weak stealth kills, messy parkour, dumb-as-bricks NPCs. The Assassin's Creed Shadows in my head is extremely promising. Fingers crossed the actual game will be similar.

Dan Houser, one of Rockstar's co-founders and the former lead writer (among other roles) on both Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, announced a new studio called Absurd Ventures last year. We now know at least one concrete thing that the studio, proudly dedicated to making "weird shit from desperate people," is working on, and yes, it's a game that sounds a bit like GTA on paper.

Recent job listings at Absurd Ventures, like this lead gameplay designer position, specify "an open world action-adventure game" in the works. This is a pretty broad description for the genre, but the clearly video game-y nature is especially relevant because Absurd Ventures itself is even broader. 

Per the blurb at the bottom of the above job listing: "Absurd Ventures is building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories for a variety of genres, without regard to medium, to be produced for live-action and animation; video games and other interactive content; books, graphic novels, and scripted podcasts." In other words, it's not all games. Last November, the studio revealed American Caper and A Better Paradise, "two universes" with their first stories coming in 2024. It's unclear whether this open-world game is connected to either, but it's definitely not coming in 2024. 

That said, the studio is clearly staffing up for a true-blue video game. Interestingly, that lead gameplay designer listing seems to be the only one that clearly spells out "an open-world action-adventure game." The rest, like this listing for senior art director, are more general with their language, pointing to "the overall visual direction of our projects" and "visually stunning and cohesive game worlds that captivate players." 

That lead gameplay designer listing also notes that "the person in this role will lead a team of multi-disciplinary specialists to deliver best-in-class combat and third-person action across multiple game modes." Other details are thin on the ground, but this mystery project definitely sounds like something in Houser's wheelhouse and, even if it is undoubtedly many years away, like something that GTA and Red Dead fans may want to put a pin in. 

As for the "weird shit from desperate people," well, this is what the studio's been up to on social media: 

GTA 3 dev says that the open-world game's "hardest technical challenge" was partially solved with careful city planning and some extra windy weather.

Assassin's Creed Shadows has the one tool every video game needs: a grappling hook. But only one of its two protagonists can make use of the item to reach new areas.

The game's two protagonists each have some "clear advantages" - samurai Yasuke is great at fighting, while shinobi Naoe is better at stealth and parkour. "We developed quite a bit of new tools for Naoe and stealth, and one of them is the grappling hook," creative director Jonathan Dumont explains in a breakdown of the new cinematic trailer. "And the grappling hook allows you to climb over walls that you cannot climb with Yasuke, or without the hook, which opens different paths for Naoe."

Dumont says "there's quite a bit of hook points in the game, so within every layout that you're going to see and sometimes to come in from a different entry point. So it's an integral part of her stealth arsenal, as she can navigate much faster into the open world."

Akim Milne, assistant director of cinematic design adds that Naoe can "take a much more vertical approach, and a lot of our locations are big castles, big tenshus with these giant walls. And it offers her a whole new vantage point for a lot of these missions where Yasuke doesn't have necessarily the same opportunity."

The notion that one character can reach places the other can't suggests that Shadows might be putting more of a limit on your parkour abilities than other recent entries in the series, which have generally let you find a way to climb up just about everything. The idea of "hook points" might suggest that the grappling hook is a pretty static tool to get to predetermined locations, but it's apparently a bit more free-wheeling than that.

"It's all physics-based, so there's a little bit of improbability sometimes when using it," Dumont tells IGN. "There's a danger to using it, but you could also perform assassinations from it."

A grappling hook previously appeared in Assassin's Creed Syndicate, which was a game that also notably featured dual protagonists. It seems the spirit of that game is alive and well, even when swapping the setting from Victorian London to feudal Japan.

There are a lot more upcoming Assassin's Creed games on the horizon.