Bloober Team is making a Star Trek game, we discovered over the weekend. It will feature badass bajoran Ro Laren, and yes it's a horror game. It's a combination of genre, developer and licence that could only be the product of throwing darts at a board. Maybe a drunken game of Mad Libs.

Sometimes it's nice to be completely surprised. But sometimes that surprise is 'Bloober Team is making a Star Trek horror game'.

It's weird to be protective of brands, but I confess I did feel a genuine spark of annoyance at the news. Star Trek is fertile ground for games, but it's been underutilised, leaving us with only a meagre handful of good adaptations. My knee jerk response was "This is a huge waste." And I haven't really changed my mind.

I've never gotten on with Bloober Team's brand of horror, and I don't think horror is a great fit for Star Trek, but I confess I am fascinated all the same. Videogame adaptations can be—but rarely are—a great way to explore existing TV, movie and literary properties and recontextualise them. There are so many things games can do that other mediums cannot, and that opens the door to all kinds of interesting takes.

So I'm genuinely intrigued to see what a Star Trek horror game looks like, but at the same time I do wonder who this is actually for? With Star Trek's cultural cachet sadly dwindling, who but those already invested in the shows are going to be throwing their cash at it? Shows that hardly ever dabbled in horror.

The exception to this tends to be episodes that feature either the Borg Collective or, much later, the Gorn Hegemony. The Borg Collective is pretty much the perfect Star Trek villain—a cyborg species that takes the principles of the Federation and twists them into something incredibly disturbing. The gorn, meanwhile, are kinda dumb, but Strange New Worlds tried really hard to make them terrifying. Nobody wants to have lizard babies growing inside them.

And yeah, First Contact is definitely horror adjacent, with scenes that wouldn't look out of place in a full-blown horror flick. Its status as arguably the best Star Trek film undermines my argument a bit, granted, but it also cushioned its more horror-inspired moments between classic Trek. It never fully committed to the horror because it still needed to be Star Trek.

The thing is, horror not in Star Trek's DNA. Nor is Bloober Team's usual approach to horror, with games that tend to offer a pessimistic perspective, which flies in the face of Star Trek's unrelenting optimism. That, at least, makes Ro Laren a good choice for the protagonist, as she's one of the least Starfleet characters to ever don the uniform. She's more akin to a lone wolf action hero with a chip on their shoulder.

So that's one choice Bloober Team has made that actually kinda makes sense. But Ro is an outlier. And a focus on just her exploits, this unconventional rebel, doesn't feel very Star Trek. Indeed, that was the whole point of Ro. She was designed to serve as the opposite of Starfleet's ideals. She didn't fit in, until Picard started mentoring her and she eventually put her ego aside—temporarily.

If we go back six years, though, I wouldn't have been particularly optimistic about a Star Trek comedy show—especially after The Orville fumbled the brief, at least initially—and now I'm mourning the end of Star Trek: Lower Decks, one of the all-time best Treks.

The show's writers found a way to celebrate Star Trek and tell new but classic-feeling yarns through the lens of sci-fi absurdity. It still felt Trek, and it still felt properly canon, all while doing something dramatically different. This suggests that Star Trek is actually broad enough to support dipping into wildly different genres—but Lower Decks, just like First Contact, also featured so many of the critical components of a great Trek show.

We got the adventure of the week format, the focus on teamwork, loads of high-concept sci-fi nonsense, quality inter-personal drama—something that took Star Trek a bit of time to figure out, but when it did it went hard—and countless other elements.

So I guess there's no reason the same couldn't be said for horror. Maybe some horror would actually be good for Star Trek. But this specific kind of horror? Ro's flying solo, stranded on a deadly alien world, which just doesn't sound like it's going to leave much room for the things that make Star Trek what it is, rather than just a setting you can slap any old story onto—like Star Wars.

A 45 minute episode? Sure, I could see that. A change in pace, a wee detour, but then back to the Enterprise next week, where the crew is addicted to a rubbish VR game or Picard's belting out some Shakespeare while he's on the phone to a ferengi. Hours and hours of it, though? I'm sceptical.

I think Ro Laren's great. I'm excited for more Ro Laren. And I'm totally here for studios doing deep cuts, delving into specific characters who weren't really part of the main cast. I'm just not convinced Bloober Team is the studio for the job. Despite how well regarded Silent Hill 2 Remake is, without the bones of another game to fall back on, I fear a return to cheap jump scares and trite pschological horror.

The good news is that this isn't Star Trek's only hope. We showed off Star Trek: Outposts Unknown, a colony builder, during the PC Gaming Show. And we've always got Star Trek Online, which continues to be brilliant (if a bit creaky). The final frontier is still spitting out adventures, even if Ro's excursion to a cursed world ends up being a bit of a stumble.

I've seen more of Gen Atlas, the new game from Ico and Shadow of the Colossus creator Fumito Ueda, than was on display in Friday's trailer. But not much more. In a meeting with Gen Atlas's developers and publisher Epic Games on Sunday, I saw just another minute or so of the game's so-far silent protagonist wandering the desert; more colossal robots; a bit more shooting; and a lot more sand.

It was tantalizing, but the kind of footage that simply created more questions than it did provide answers. But the real purpose of the meeting was speaking with Ueda about the development of his studio's new game—the first in a decade, and the first he's ever released on PC.

Epic's publishing team introduced it as a "whole new sci-fi adventure that has all the hallmarks of a classic Ueda experience," so that's where I started.

What, for you, defines a 'classic Fumito Ueda experience?' When you think about the experience you want to deliver to players, what is that, in Gen Atlas?

Fumito Ueda, director: "For me, the first thing that is important, and what I think defines a Fumito Ueda game, is that it's something different and unlike anything else available in the market. Not that it needs to only be unique, but in totality, the uniqueness also needs to be balanced within the game experience. Secondly, it's important to me, and I hope signifies what is a Fumito Ueda game, is that this experience is something you can only see, and can only be built, because it's a videogame.

In Shadow of the Colossus, I remember the moment it transitioned from cutscene to camera control shocking me. The way it looked and felt—no other game felt that way at the time. You used filmic language in a way that was not common in games then, but is much more common now. You were ahead of the curve, but for you now, what is the secret sauce when other games have caught up to that cinematic presentation?

You just asked me a great question because it's a difficult one for me to answer. I consistently think about how I can bring in something unexpected. It's an element of surprise, but I don't think about it in a way that's just for impact's sake. It has to be unexpected but also at times sort of familiar. Let's say there are default or given standard-ish game mechanics across many games. Because I know that's very familiar and comfortable to a lot of players, I don't just take it as-is. I want to continue to refine it.

And in the end what's entertaining to the player is what I am always in the pursuit of, making sure it's fun to play. So in that sense it might sound like 'okay, we need to think of something to integrate or carry over from things that already exist.' But if it's a copy and paste process anyone can do that. So I'm thinking about what is the fun and entertaining essence that's in there, but to come up with some sort of additive that will make it even more entertaining, but also unexpected at the same time.

The shooting mechanic seems like a specific example of this in Gen Atlas. There are many shooters in videogames, so what's the unique mechanic you tried to bring to the shooting that will surprise players or feel different from other games?

One thing I want to make sure that people don't misunderstand—yes it's new, and probably unexpected from me, but it's not going to be the main mechanic in this game. Simply said, it's really one of the ways that you're going to be able to overcome hurdles in the game.

But it's not 'how many enemies can I shoot down and how many points can I earn.' It's not implemented in that kind of way. It's one of the ways that you're able to progress, and I want to be very selective of the word: I don't know if 'frustration' is the right way to frame it, but whenever you're playing a game you want to be challenged, right? And you start to feel a little bit of frustration because you're not winning in the most simple and easy manner.

For me, you want to give a healthy amount of frustration, but by the time you earn or learn how to use said mechanic, you see the potential of having that sense of achievement once you utilize it. The shooting mechanic in this game I position as such that maybe there's a more effective way to overcome some hurdles, and that's how I see this kind of naturally implemented in the game.

The nuance of "frustration" vs. "challenge" comes up at this point, and Ueda's interpreter elaborates:

It's more being challenged—it's not intentionally giving players frustration, but to be challenged, and then at a certain point you feel like you have on-boarded a new mechanic and you're going to be able to accomplish [your goal], and the sense of achievement once you've done that is what we're looking for here. The shooting mechanic is one of the ways that he thought, in this world's setting, is a way to do that.

That suggests to me, and maybe I'm reading this wrong, that shooting is perhaps a quicker, more direct solution for challenges or puzzles where there might be an alternative way of getting around it.

The short answer is yes.

But to add, it's also for players to feel that your existence matters in the setting. So for example, in Ico it's not that you have to defeat all the enemies that you encounter. That is not what the game is asking you to do. But in the moment, you may feel as if you have to defeat certain enemies, or you can choose not to. So in that sense, it's not to score points, but it's there so that it matters, and you feel that you do exist in that world.

In Shadow of the Colossus, defeating the colossi gave you this feeling of triumph but also mourning, because you'd killed these majestic creatures. Are you trying to evoke that same feeling with the robots in this game, or are they fulfilling a different relationship with the player?

In the trailer you'll see robot vs. robot, and then the main character and the robot. In Shadow of the Colossus and what you experience when you defeat them, feeling a little mourning from killing the creatures, there isn't something that is similar to that internal conflict in that way. But maybe that's all I can say at this point, for that.

Is your character also a robot in this game, or are you a human in a suit?

At this point Ueda checks with the Epic publishing team: Has he previously used the word "humanoid" for the player character?

Yes, so, not a human with a robot suit on, but a humanoid. And the [big, flying] robot head is obviously part of a robot.

"Humanoid" is still ambiguous. Is that intentional?

Ueda asks the publishers how much detail they're giving at this point, who respond "let's keep the mystery"

I just wanted to make sure I understood! You strike me as someone who draws inspiration from many parts of your life, or many places, not just other games. What about Gen Atlas reflects who you are now and where you are in your life compared to prior games?

On inspiration, just at a high level, I think you're spot on. Where I grew up, how I grew up, what I consumed over my lifetime, all of it is a source of my inspiration, and it's really hard to call out any one or two, whether pieces of work or even genre in terms of entertainment or media that I've consumed. But for Gen Atlas, thematically, there are some thoughts that went into it.

First of all, videogames are part of a large space of entertainment, and when I think about entertainment, I want to think about what's going to appeal to the audience. Even for all of my previous work, there's a theme that hopefully is very universally not just appealing, but accepted. In Ico, there's a boy and a girl relationship. With Shadow of the Colossus, anyone would want to go after giant monsters. You want to live out that dream and see what that's like. With The Last Guardian you start with something that's cute and loveable and charming as a pet, and now it's this large creature that you want as your companion.

When you boil it down to the simplicity of these things, they're not that unique, and I want to stay true to what is going to be appealing to a lot of people. What do they want to live out in a videogame fantasy story? Who do you want to be in these game universes?

The next thing I thought about, which is now what you see here in Gen Atlas, is of course I want to go into a giant robot. I want to fight giant robots. That's where it all started.

Even in real life, here we are today talking about whether robots are going to maybe control our next decade. We're going to see more real life stories about humanoids and robots taking over parts of our lives and world. So I felt that this, as a theme in general, would be of interest to a large audience, and from there I started expanding on that idea, building the world, and now it's a sci-fi world. So it didn't start off with deliberately thinking I was going to build a sci-fi world. It started off with the theme of wanting to have robots in this game.

You mentioned the backdrop of AI is influencing our culture now. As a creator, do you have strong feelings against the use of AI in games?

Personally, not just AI, but I'm all about learning new technology. There's so much information, so I just have my antennas up to try to absorb as much information about the very fast-paced way that things are moving. So personally I have a high interest in R&D.

However, when it comes to our actual work at Gen Design studio, we really only use it in a way that is efficient and effective on the project management side—coming up with schedules or looking up how to best use a new tool we haven't had our full onboarding experience with, or summarizing meeting notes. That's the extent we use it in-house. Everything that is considered game development is made by our own people, made by humans.

I imagine there are fans who will probably be relieved to hear that last bit.

Yes, I hope so too.

As a writer for PC Gamer, I'm excited this is a game I'm able to cover. How does it feel for you to be directing a game for the first time that's not exclusive to PlayStation? That's been your life for a very long time.

Obviously all my previous games have only been released on one platform, the PlayStation audience is the only one that's been able to play it. I have nothing but excitement and am happy that this can reach a lot more players just from day one. I'm looking forward to it as much as I think new players are looking forward to experiencing a Fumito Ueda game.

In terms of how I feel about this being the first time it's going to be outside PlayStation, is there something that comes back to me about trying to entertain the PC audience? I don't think there's really a large divide in that sense. Whether you're console-focused or a PC-only player, I think what you're looking for and hope to get out of a game you purchase or download is a new experience. There's something fresh and something new to look forward to. In that sense I'm seeing it as a very similar market, whether it's console or PC. I just want to deliver something that feels new to those players.

A very different question, but can you tell me anything about the sand in Gen Atlas? I'm curious if there are systemic interactions with wind, or if the environment changes a lot.

Ueda gets quite animated about this; apparently no one has asked about sand.

I think what I can say, and maybe it's a hint, but the two real central themes of this game are we wanted to feature robots, that's one very apparent obvious thing, and there's going to be a vast sort of span of time that is also a key element in the storytelling, and so the environment—there are changes that happen over these large amounts of time. Perhaps that has something to do with how you see the environment, and how the changes are going to be apparent.

With a definition regulated entirely by vibes, cozy games might be one of the biggest categories to keep track of in gaming right now. Thanks to the big weekend of showcases we just gauntleted through, what was already a full time job kicked into overtime for me. I lost count of how many cozy games I saw between the Wholesome Games Showcase and all the other many publisher shows.

I did count the cozy game demos that dropped during the showcases and came up with a whole 37 that we can play right now. That's before the Steam Next Fest demo event kicks off next week, even, whew! I've got a full list of all 37 demos I spotted down below, but to help you cut through the noise I'm also telling you which five I'm personally downloading right now.

5 cozy game demos I'm downloading right now

Every other cozy game demo dropped during the showcase weekend:

It's a tale of two immersive sim remasters: Over the weekend, we shared the first trailer for Nightdive's take on Thief: The Dark Project in the PC Gaming Show, and the vibes couldn't be better. Nightdive has already shown a strong grasp of Looking Glass' Dark Engine and visual style in the System Shock 2 remaster.

The screenshots and trailer are extremely promising, showing a "how you remember it" treatment of Thief, lightly touching up its timeless medieval environments while overhauling its infamously low-poly, origami-looking NPCs. There's also the promise of Nightdive's customary DVD extras menu of art, preserved prototypes, and development footage.

Thief Remastered makes for a shocking contrast with Aspyr's upcoming Deus Ex Remastered, a game of a similar vintage and development lineage to Thief: The late '90s ferment of Austin, Boston, Ion Storm, and Looking Glass. Aspyr's first reveal of the project was met with skepticism for its confounding overhaul of Deus Ex's visuals⁠⁠.

It looks like Deus Ex for the original Xbox, a half-generation's advancement with a focus on now-dated graphical effects. Deus Ex, but hybridized with its own bloom-y, normal mapped sequel, Invisible War. That'd be an interesting conceit for a visual overhaul mod, but Aspyr explicitly presents Deus Ex Remastered as "the definitive version of Ion Storm's legendary cyberpunk immersive sim." We don't have it in hand, but I would hardly call it "definitive" as a die-hard fan who habitually replays the original.

Nightdive's work on 'Shock 2 and Thief are a cut above any HD texture or model pack I've ever seen for the games, while retaining full mod compatibility. So far, there's no word on mod compatibility in Deus Ex Remastered, but Aspyr has a decent record on that front with its Steam ports of classic Star Wars games, as well as its Neverwinter Nights 2 remaster, which I liked and nobody else seems to.

Aspyr's work on the Neverwinter Nights 2 remaster struck the right balance: It was largely light touch with the visuals, but it added Steam Deck and controller support, was only $10 more expensive than the $20 version already available on GOG, and, most crucially, made a game with longstanding bugs, performance hitches, and resolution issues run perfectly on modern hardware.

What Aspyr showcased for a remaster of Deus Ex isn't even close to the same value proposition, though. The original Deus Ex already goes for less than a dollar in Steam sales quite often, and unlike Neverwinter Nights 2 Gold on GOG, Deus Ex largely runs well on modern hardware. Absent some kind of visual overhaul or Nightdive's DVD extras, Deus Ex Remastered is left begging for a reason to exist.

The Golden Path

What's most confounding of all is that The Embracer Group owns the rights to both games, and it has effectively A/B tested the response to these projects. Thief Remastered has been getting unanimous praise and buzz on social media⁠—it's a real love fest in the comments of its trailer on YouTube. Deus Ex Remastered's own first trailer has a comment section that feels like a funeral, with multiple users explicitly wishing the project had been given to Nightdive.

It's not too late. I don't mean to pick on Aspyr here: I've enjoyed its prior work like the modern ports of classic Star Wars games or the aforementioned Neverwinter Nights 2 remaster, and the studio's had a rough couple years. It had the Knights of the Old Republic remake taken away, and was also blocked by Disney from including The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod in its console ports of KotOR 2, leading to a multi-year court case.

But Deus Ex is too important to have a remaster fumbled like this, particularly if there's any risk of the original game being delisted from storefronts as a result. I want to see this project either canceled or rebooted, ideally with Nightdive taking over or co-developing. It feels like a slim possibility, but Deus Ex Remastered has been indefinitely delayed since that initial reveal, and I choose to believe this world still has the capacity for pleasant surprise.