Creepy Soviet sandbox The Tomorrow Children gets a beta in January

By Gabe Gurwin December 8, 2015

With so many “alternate history” games taking a very simple approach to a new timeline — usually where either the United States or the Soviet Union launches a nuclear missile at the other nation — Q-Games’ The Tomorrow Children is a breath of non-toxic air, and if you’re eager to get your hands on the eccentric life simulator, a beta will be launching next month.

Beginning on January 21, those who sign up via this link will be eligible for access to the beta for The Tomorrow Children, provided they are 18 or older and have a PSN account in either the United States or Canada. The beta will only run for three days, but it will give you a free extra costume in the final game, which will apparently be exclusive to beta users.

The Tomorrow Children got significant screen time at E3, but if you’re like me, the demonstrations raised more questions than answers. Director Dylan Cuthbert does his best to describe it in the beta announcement, calling it “an online social action adventure” where your goal is to piece together “lost DNA” in order to restore the human race following a failed experiment to unite humanity under one mind … actually, maybe that doesn’t make it any easier to understand.

If the name “Q-Games” rings a bell, it’s most likely because it’s the studio responsible for the PixelJunk series, featuring games like PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate and PixelJunk Monsters. The studio also helped with the excellent Star Fox 64 3D on the Nintendo 3DS, which featured some of the best smoke and explosion effects I’ve ever seen on a handheld system.

There’s no release date yet for The Tomorrow Children, but if you want to defeat the “Izverg” and save humanity, you might need to pick up a new system: the game is exclusive to PlayStation 4.

Editors' Recommendations

PS5 finally gets Dolby Atmos device support in latest system software beta

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

How to get to Monkey Island in Sea of Thieves

An election poster for guybrush in Sea of Thieves.

Over the course of its many years of updates and expansions, Sea of Thieves has had a few notable crossovers with other pirate franchises. The Pirates of the Caribbean crossover let you team up with the legendary Jack Sparrow, but the Monkey Island content felt like it came out of nowhere. For those unaware, Monkey Island is a series of pirate point-and-click games that were as funny as the puzzles were obscure. Thankfully, you don't have to intuit that you need to combine a cat whisker with a mason jar to bypass a skeleton guard to get to this new content, but it is more challenging than you might think.

Gaming

3 Xbox Game Pass games you need to play this weekend (May 3-5)

Senua in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.

Another weekend is upon us, and you're probably looking for some games to kill time with over the course of it. We're in a bit of a lull right now ahead of a flurry of releases starting next week, so it's a great time to dip back into the Xbox Game Pass catalog and check out some games that you may have missed. There are three games in particular that I think you should check out this weekend if you're looking for something to play.

One is an unsettling adventure that's getting an Xbox-exclusive sequel later this month. The next is a finely animated roguelike indie that recently made its way to Microsoft's gaming subscription service. Finally, there's a relaxing adventure that gives players a lot of freedom, yet is short enough to beat in a weekend. If you're having trouble deciding what to play this weekend, give one of these games a shot.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Gaming

3 underrated PS Plus games you should play this weekend (May 3-5)

The main character of Tales of Kenzera: Zau stands with two elemental items.

PlayStation Plus Premium and Extra have been around for almost two years, and during that time the subscription service has established itself as an ample competitor to Xbox Game Pass. That means there is a wealth of great games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 owners to check out if they're looking for something to play this weekend. I think PS Plus subscribers should be looking toward some of the more underrated games in the subscription service this weekend too.

I have three particular picks in mind. The first is an enjoyable Metroidvania that came to PS Plus' game catalog when it launched just a couple of weeks ago and deserves a lot more attention than it's getting. After that, there's an action-platformer that pays homage to series like Ninja Gaiden that you should check out before it leaves the catalog. Finally, there's a PS2-era Star Wars game that fills the niche a recently canceled game would have.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau