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Written by Richard WarrenAlto's Odyssey Gets First Major Expansion Next Week
Written by Blake Hester 
Sandboarding game Alto's Odyssey is getting its first major expansion next week in the form of The Lost City, publisher Snowman announced today. The expansion will be available exclusively through the Apple Arcade subscription service on July 16 and will add a new biome, gameplay challenges, and music.
You can see a trailer for The Lost City below:
Click here to watch embedded mediaOne interesting thing to note about The Lost City – while it's a new expansion for Alto's Odyssey, according to the developer, it actually makes use of scrapped ideas from the original launch of the game. While the base game largely remains intact, players are invited to explore the Lost City, an entirely new biome that expands the visual palette, soundscape, and challenges of Odyssey, all seamlessly integrated into the game's core experience.
"Being able to pick some of those ideas back up and bring them to life, in a way that wasn’t possible during the original development process, feels like realising the truest vision of the project today," producer Jair McBain tells Game Informer in a statement about the project.
Alongside the announcement for The Lost City, the team also announced Land & Sea, which serves as the formalization of the until-now unnamed development team behind the Alto games. Land & Sea is founded by the game series' co-creator Harry Nesbitt and is made up of a team of various contributors. Alongside continuing support for its Alto series, Land & Sea also has plans to introduce new IP sometime in the future. The Lost City serves as Land & Sea's first major project, which according to Nesbitt, is also the first time it's expanded one of its existing games in a major way.
"We wanted to strike a careful balance between adding new elements to the game, while preserving the original flow," Nesbitt says. "In many ways we think of this as the definitive version of the game, so there’s plenty for new and experienced players to enjoy."
Thanks in no small part to the Alto series' critical and commercial success – which netted it an Apple Design Award and BAFTA nomination – the once mobile-only Snowman has become something of a publishing powerhouse within the indie space lately. On top of bundling the Alto series for consoles in the form of The Alto Collection, it also published Where Cards Fall, developed by Blaseball-maker The Game Band, and Skate City, the latter of which also recently made the jump to other platforms.
Arkane Confirms You Can Play Deathloop Without Snapping Any Necks
Written by Liana Ruppert 
Deathloop is a stylistic shooter from Arkane Lyon that blends a wild tale peppered with western and cyberpunk flair. The studio has shown us a lot about the game ahead of its launch later this year, including the most recent gameplay walkthrough during this week's PlayStation State of Play. One thing that every trailer and gameplay session has had in common that there are no shortages of neck snaps. As such a prominent combat style, a question emerges: can you play as Colt to end the time loops without snapping anyone's neck? The answer? Yes!
I had been trying to confirm this for a little bit now but never could get a real answer until this week. When I just went the public route and asked the studio via Twitter, Deathloop game director Dinga Bakaba kindly responded with the confirmation that neck-snapping as a means of submission is not mandatory. However, he later clarified that this does not mean that a passive run is possible.
No necksnap is mandatory @DirtyEffinHippy :)
— Dinga Bakaba (@DBakaba) July 8, 2021
Given that the story centers around the need to kill the leaders of the world that have entrapped people in an endless time loop as a means of an inescapable prison, the confirmation that a passive run isn't possible isn't too surprising. The neck snap option, however, is a nice surprise.
As silly as it sounds, I'm relieved to hear about this not being forced. In no way do I feel that games should adjust or change their vision for my comfort (not to be confused with my work with epileptic triggers, which can impact even non-epileptics and can be fatal), but I do like to get a heads up about this particular stylization before enjoying any game, movie, or TV show. The reason is personal, tied to a car wreck that happened many years ago that resulted in the loss of my best friend, and so seeking answers about this is purely from an informative place, not some goal to get the game's style changed.
It is interesting to see how certain experiences can impact how we go into a new entertainment experience. It begs the question: do you have any "odd" quirks that can make you uncomfortable or would cause you to pause before diving into a new adventure? Any words, sounds, acts that you try to steer away from? This is a judgment-free zone; shout out your nitpicks in the comment section below! No harm in conversation.