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Three League of Legends indie game spinoffs will release in 2023

Riot Forge, Riot Games’ indie publisher focused on making League of Legends spinoffs with smaller teams, unveiled its 2023 lineup today. We learned about The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story, an action RPG from the developers of indie gem Moonlighter, for the first time, and Riot Games revealed more specific release windows for Convergence: A League of Legends Story and Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story.

The first of these games to release will be Digital Sun’s The Mageseeker, which comes out this spring. The game focuses on League of Legends champion Sylas, revolutionary fighting back against the kingdom of Demacia for taking advantage of mages. We only see a little bit of gameplay in Riot Forge’s 2023 lineup trailer, but it definitely looks somewhat similar to Moonlighter with its isometric action centered around Sylas’ change and magical abilities.

Riot Forge Games 2023 | The Year Ahead Trailer

The next Riot Forge game to come out will be Double Stallion Games’ Convergence sometime this summer. The game is a 2D platformer with time-based platforming and combat that follows Ekko, a character you’ll recognize if you watched Arcane. Finally, Song of Nunu will launch this fall. It’s a third-person adventure game from Tequila Works, a developer that’s mastered that formula with titles like Rime and Gylt. It follows a young boy named Nunu and his yeti Willump as they search for Nunu’s mother, so this game is bound to pack an emotional punch. 

While only two games have come from Riot Forge so far, its catalog of games finally seems to be ramping up this year. The Mageseeker, Convergence, and Song of Nunu will all be released for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch over the course of 2023. 

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Tomas Franzese
Gaming Staff Writer
Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
League of Legends’ new Arena mode emphasizes bite-sized, intense action
A screenshot of League of Legends Arena

League of Legends’ 5v5 MOBA mode is one of the most iconic multiplayer setups in gaming. It attracts millions of players every day, and millions of dollars are spent throwing and giving rewards for tournaments based on that formula. That’s why it’s exciting when Riot Games occasionally experiments with new modes that modify the core concept of League of Legends in unique ways. The latest mode to do this is the 2v2v2v2 Arena, which is coming to the game as part of this summer’s Soul Fighter event.

Channeling the energy of modes like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s Gunfight (a personal favorite of mine), Arena is a mode that distills that classics formula into quicker, more intense matches in smaller arenas. As someone who likes the world and lore of League of Legends but is hesitant to put in the hours required to learn and master the 5v5 competitive esport part of League of Legends, I was particularly intrigued when I got to check out what Riot Games has in store with Arena mode ahead of its release.
How Arena works
Arena matches consist of four teams of two players. Those teams will be able to blind ban certain Champions for all players in their match, but players on two different teams can still pick the same Champion. Before they fight, though, there’s a Shop Phase reminiscent of games like Teamfight Tactics or Valorant. Over 45 seconds, players will have the time to purchase Augments that can enhance their Champion and Juices that give round-specific boosts. After every player has bought what they want (or that timer runs out), the Combat Phase begins.

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The best video games of May 2023: Tears of the Kingdom, Humanity, and more
Purah in Tears of the Kingdom.

When the video game industry looks back at May 2023, this month will most likely be remembered for just two things: the failure of Redfall and the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Redfall will serve as a cautionary tale about the industry embracing its worst impulses, while Tears of the Kingdom will likely be considered one of the best games ever made and serve as a North Star for video game design for the next several years, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild before it. Still, this month was about a lot more than that.
With this roundup, we hope to paint a broader picture of all the great games that were released over the course of May 2023; no single game can paint the picture of the entire industry. From Tears of the Kingdom to some of PlayStation VR2's best releases to beautiful indies to a game Nintendo temporarily blocked from release over a TikTok joke, these are the best games of May 2023.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

To get the obvious out of the way: yeah, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a really good game. We already considered Breath of the Wild to be one of the best games ever made, but Tears of the Kingdom's evolution of that game's open world and mechanics make Breath of the Wild feel like a beta. Not only do players have two new open worlds to explore with the Sky Islands and underground Depths, but systems like Fuse and Ultrahand ask players to embrace their creativity to solve puzzles and traverse around the open world.
"So long as you’re willing to meticulously survey Hyrule like an archaeologist digging for fossils, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an engrossing sequel full of mysteries to solve and experiments to conduct," Giovanni Colantonio wrote in his four-and-a-half star review of the game. "It’s a digital laboratory that I imagine will still be producing unbelievable discoveries 10 years from now."
Details big and small impress across Tears of the Kingdom, and at times it feels like this is the closest we'll get to the ultimate video game experience. Its complex controls do take a bit of getting used to, but those who get the hang of it will be able to enjoy one of the most impressive games ever made. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available now for Nintendo Switch, and this is the last time I'm going to mention it in this article. On to some other fantastic games!
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Cal stands beneath the clouds in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor key art.

Typically, April isn't that exciting of a month for video games. Most publishers try to get their biggest games out before the end of the fiscal year in March, so April usually only has one or two notable releases alongside a ton of indies. April 2023 was different, though. Although it wasn't packed to the brim with notable new game releases, a lot of very notable franchises like Star Wars, Minecraft, League of Legends, and Tron had significant new game launches during April 2023.
Meanwhile, series such as Advance Wars and Mega Man saw past games updated for new platforms, while experimental indies like OTXO and Shadows of Doubt also managed to leave an impression. There were quite a few awesome new games to play this month, and you'll definitely want to get some playtime in with all of them before The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom comes out in May. If you're looking for something new to play, consider checking out one of the following eight games the released in April 2023.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Like in April 2022, this month's biggest release is an ambitious Star Wars game. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a sequel to 2019's excellent Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and expands on it in almost every way. The story feels more ambitious and personal at the same time, as all of the worlds players can explore as Cal are more densely packed with content than before, and combat has been refined to be even more fun thanks to new stances and perks players can use.
"Cal’s journey follows the thematic trends established by The Empire Strikes Back and The Last Jedi, but is willing to get even more personal with them in a way only a game can," Digital Trends' Tomas Franzese wrote in a four-star review of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. "This, coupled with its deeper combat and more densely packed worlds, truly put me in the mindset of a Jedi during this dire era."
It's an entirely single-player Star Wars adventure, and a meaty one at that. This game can easily keep you entertained for 20 hours or more and tells the most engaging Star Wars narrative since Andor. This is one of the best Star Wars games ever made, so fans of the franchise shouldn't miss out on it. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is available now for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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