Jul 22, 12:00

PCGamesN Saturday, July 22, 2023 11:36 AM
     Get cozy for cheap with huge Steam sale on the most relaxing games

The SimFest Steam sale is underway, bringing you plenty of the most relaxing games on PC at a hefty discount. With all manner of satisfying ways to while away the hours on Steam, there's everything from life sims like Disney Dreamlight Valley to strategy games like Xenonauts 2 on offer for cheap. If you're looking to spend some lazy summer afternoons playing some chill games, you won't want to miss out on this Steam sale, so move fast to grab these bargains.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Steam FAQ, Steam family sharing, Steam in-home streaming
PCGamesN Saturday, July 22, 2023 10:06 AM
     Exoprimal details new PvE endgame mode and Alpha Variant Exosuits

An Exoprimal update from the development team at Capcom outlines some of the new features on the way to its dinosaur-demolishing multiplayer game in the coming weeks. Following the game's launch, the team is already planning to roll out a new dedicated endgame PvE mode soon, and also shows off one of the Alpha Variant Exosuits coming in a free Exoprimal update in August.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Exoprimal review, Exoprimal system requirements, Best dinosaur games
PCGamesN Saturday, July 22, 2023 9:22 AM
     The Elder Scrolls Morrowind's biggest mod is about to get even bigger

The Morrowind project that aims to restore the entire province's mainland in the third Elder Scrolls RPG game from Bethesda has just uploaded a colossal update, as five more expansions, hundreds of quests, NPCs, and thousands of interior and exterior spaces are still coming to the mod. So if the wait for the Elder Scrolls 6 release date is too much, this Morrowind project will keep you busy for ages.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Elder Scrolls 6 release date, Best Skyrim mods, Best games like Skyrim
PCGamesN Saturday, July 22, 2023 6:51 AM
     Barbie and Oppenheimer collide in Nuketown-style Fortnite map

A new Barbenheimer Fortnite map sees the most unlikely pairing of the summer collide, as the nuclear trauma of Oppenheimer and the pink-tinged glitz and glamor of Barbie meet in Fortnite. This Fortnite map capitalizes on the internet's current favorite trend, bringing the bizarre movie duo together in Epic's world-topping battle royale game.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Fortnite Chapter 4 map - key locations, Free PC games, All Fortnite Chapter 4 weapons
PCGamesN Saturday, July 22, 2023 6:48 AM
     Celebrate gaming's fishiest trend with a classic free game on Steam

Sega Bass Fishing is a free game on Steam right now, as it joins the likes of Dredge and Dave the Diver as a pretty chill experience. A highlight of the Dreamcast era, here's how to snag Sega Bass Fishing for free right now.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best PC games, Best relaxing games, Best free games
PCGamesN Saturday, July 22, 2023 5:44 AM
     Snag yourself an Elden Ring Turtle Pope before they're gone forever

The Elden Ring Turtle Pope is the perfect example of how FromSoftware's RPG games have mastered the art of taking over the internet. By putting a pope hat on a giant turtle, Miyazaki and crew have made an iconic character in Elden Ring, and you can actually snag your very own Turtle Pope right now - with a catch.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: The best Elden Ring builds, Elden Ring bosses, The best Elden Ring classes
PCGamesN Saturday, July 22, 2023 5:39 AM
     Diablo 4 patch notes – 1.1.0 hotfix boosts Nightmare Dungeon grind

Diablo 4 patch 1.1.0 hotfix 3 has just rolled out to the RPG game, and it'll make your journey through Diablo 4 Nightmare Dungeons smoother than ever. Following its Campfire Chat addressing the response to its nerf-heavy Season 1 patch, the Diablo 4 team at Blizzard releases its first planned hotfix, which makes the most popular endgame content a little smoother to encourage players to tackle higher-level Dungeons.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Diablo 4 builds, Diablo 4 review, Diablo 4 classes
Siliconera Saturday, July 22, 2023 12:00 PM
    

Review: Lakeburg Legacies Lets You Meddle in People's Lives in the Best Ways

Lakeburg Legacies is an unusual approach to the concept of a city builder. You're building up a specific city. However, the most critical element here involves people. Yes, you're still going to collect other resources necessary to keep a kingdom afloat. However, it all depends on getting right people, helping them fall in love with the best suited partners, and then hopefully using their skills to ensure the success of the city.

Each run of Lakeburg Legacies can run a bit differently, as it all varies based on who shows up and how their relationships go. You start with a single villager who will be tasks with becoming a lumberjack. You then need to get wood, the initial most critical resource, to build a home for them and begin to build other resource-generating facilities. You then marry this person off, which brings in another resident, gives you a chance for the new couple to raise a family, and gets the village population growing. This cycle increases on a growing scale, with opportunities for relationship-related events coming up as people spend more time together and Lakeburg grows, until the period of time set at the outset of the game appears.
[caption id="attachment_973153" align="alignnone" width="1200"]Review: Lakeburg Legacies Lets You Meddle in People's Lives in the Best Ways Screenshot by Siliconera[/caption]
This means that Lakeburg Legacy is more about building a community than an actual settlement. However, the actual settlement starting segments are equally important! You can't keep people alive without things like food and natural resources. But the goal is to get you invested in your citizens' lives, and it's pretty good at that. Especially early on or once you get to the point where you have a royal family. For my first 10 in-game years in both of the runs I did, I was incredibly focused on my initial families. Especially during my initial trial, which I set as a look at the town over a 75 year period, and my last one, which involved more challenging difficulty modifiers and a 100-year period. (You can choose 30, 75, or 100 years, then either directly customize all difficulty or choose from Economy or Service Building & Illicit Trade preset difficulty modifiers to make it harder or easier.)

During early days, I'd want my families to succeed! In the first run, it was because I wanted to be certain I was doing things right. I wanted Albrecht and his husband Roland, who Tindra said was a "good" match due to how many commonalities they shared, to be happy together with a big family. They only ended up adopting one child, but they were one of my happiest couples and worked together peacefully as lumberjacks. However, my farmer Wolfgang and his "excellent" match wife and huntress Calanthe broke up shortly after they had their first child. However, a random event after did lead to them getting back together after she kissed a sentient frog, passed out, and woke up in his house again after he found her unconscious on the side of the road.
[caption id="attachment_973152" align="alignnone" width="1200"]Review: Lakeburg Legacies Lets You Meddle in People's Lives in the Best Ways Screenshot by Siliconera[/caption]
While getting the items needed to support life, like food, and increase the range of service buildings and how many people can work at each one, are critical, people are the most important resource in Lakeburg Legacies. The game handles this function quite well. When either recruiting a neighbor by paying money or matching up a single villager with hearts, you'll be able to see what someone's specialties are. Stats like strength and intelligence are considered, and they'll have their own aptitudes and aspirations. So starting out, one candidate the matchmaker psychic (and narrator) Tindra pointed out for my villager Martine was an excellent match, but he was only good at being a royal or an actor. However, she then suggested Josephine, who was a "good" match and had rat tamer as an aspiration. I needed a rat tamer, so that's the match I made.

This also means balancing who works where throughout town. A rating of up to five stars shows how well-suited someone is for a role. If it is a higher mark and it's their aspiration, then you might get bonuses like faster or increased outputs of resources. However, you also need to watch the ambiance levels once two or more employees are there. Neutral and good vibes are fine, as people will work well, and you may even see greater gains. But if there are conflicting personalities or people have negative connotations, perhaps because a woman is forced to work with her former spouse's affair partner, then it just ruins everything. You can also expend hearts to "force" things like greetings, breakups, and larger families, if you have enough resources, but I found it was more fun to go with the flow.
[caption id="attachment_973154" align="alignnone" width="1200"]Review: Lakeburg Legacies Lets You Meddle in People's Lives in the Best Ways Screenshot by Siliconera[/caption]
What I'm saying is, it is easy to get invested.

While I could see the relationship and social elements of Lakeburg Legacies being different each time you play, I feel like the city building and societal management will always feel the same. As such, it might get a bit tedious. For example, you're always going to see the town begin to grow in the same way, with things like the lumber mill, farm, hunting tent, mine, and such showing up first. You'll need to prioritize diversification of resources, ensuring the farm is also giving you wheat and the hunters are bringing in both hides and meat, for a while. This isn't bad. A lot of civilization management games proceed in this fashion. But it isn't going to be like an actual game of Civilization, during which you can start to diversify and prioritize different paths of development each time you hop into a new game. With Lakeburg Legacies, growing the town itself will tend to follow the same general paths each time.

Lakeburg Legacies is an unconventional approach to a city management simulation, and it's one that works quite well if you're the sort who can get invested in virtual characters' lives. What matters here is keeping an eye on characters, pairing them up, finding the perfect jobs for them, and essentially being an incredibly nosy neighbor. The actual simulation element isn't as taxing, unless you choose high difficulty modifiers, with resources arriving at a steady pace. Instead, the fun comes from seeing how these people interact with each other and watching how the matches you make and townsfolk you select for certain relationships or responsibilities end up.

Lakeburg Legacies will come to the PC on July 20, 2023.

The post Review: Lakeburg Legacies Lets You Meddle in People's Lives in the Best Ways appeared first on Siliconera.

Siliconera Saturday, July 22, 2023 9:00 AM
    

It's Easy to Identify with A Reincarnated Witch Spells Doom's Heroine

It's easy to look down on yourself. Likewise, we all have periods of time when we all get depressed to various degrees. In the case of A Reincarnated Witch Spells Doom, the first volume of one of Yen Press' latest manga series, the heroine Sena finds herself facing crippling issues that result in her locking herself away not only in her original life, but her reincarnated, fantasy world one. What makes this first volume of the series so satisfying is seeing how she deals with the situations and then seizes opportunities to step outside her comfort zone.

Things begin with a peek at Sena's new life in the fantasy world, which essentially explains the whole title "A Reincarnated Witch Spells Doom. This new world is filled with people who can and can't use magic. It seems like Sena can! However, she doesn't cast spells in the traditional way and is more spitting out curses. She only knows two specifically: Explode and Perish. As a result, she's isolated in a cabin in the forest following some incidents in her youth when said skills were used with good intentions, but caused Situations. Now that her mother died, she's all alone.

To juxtapose this, we see how Sena went through something similar. In her real-world life, before she met Truck-kun, she couldn't bring herself to go to school. There was essentially this mental block. When she did muster the strength to do so, she got hit by a truck because her guardian angel didn't expect her to ever leave the house. (This, in turn, led to her second chance.) She talked about the school exploding, so she wouldn't need to go or have that anxiety surrounding it, and being okay with things perishing.
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What makes this first volume of the A Reincarnated Witch Spells Doom manga so compelling is that Sena is easy to root for. When she got hit by the truck, it was after she got enough courage to actually go to school again. After she arrived in the other world, she wanted to consider a different kind of life in which she'd connect with people and go outside of her comfort zone. For much of the first part, we see how she's gotten by on her own, until a meeting with a young man named Keith provides the impetus to actually take action. This meeting gives her someone who expresses such a curiosity and offers such potential for insight that she's tempted into actually venturing beyond her isolated home.

I also appreciate how Sora shows what Sena's first steps into the outside world go in these early chapters. Yes, there's a bit of a push to move along the plot. But the execution from there allows us to see the situations from different sides. It also shows opportunities for Sena to still set new goals and grow.

In general, A Reincarnated Witch Spells Doom's start to the manga is fantastic at making sure we can see elements of ourselves in Sena. We can get feeling so overwhelmed and bogged down that we'd want to stay inside. Her situation ensures we understand why she isolated herself in her new life. More importantly, it provides ample reasons why we should root for her to grow as a person and find happiness.

Volume 1 of A Reincarnated Witch Spells Doom is available now, and volume 2 of the manga will launch on September 19, 2023.

The post It's Easy to Identify with A Reincarnated Witch Spells Doom's Heroine appeared first on Siliconera.

Siliconera Saturday, July 22, 2023 9:00 AM
    

Higurashi When They Cry: Gou Manga Doesn't Hold Back

The Higurashi When They Cry experience is a powerful one. From its sound novel roots and anime adaptation to now the Higurashi When They Cry: Gou manga localization, it forces people to reconcile cute characters and quiet country life with the mysteries and events before them. The first volume essentially offers its takes on the Onidamashi and Watanagashi "question" arcs, and it doesn't hold back in its retelling of the events.

Editor's Note: There will be mild spoilers for volume 1 of the Higurashi When They Cry: Gou manga below.

Volume 1 of the Higurashi When They Cry: Gou manga sets the tone with three color pages that allude back to the original Onikakushi ending. So even though someone could maybe go into the game or anime blind and have no idea about the nature of the story, there's no ambiguity here. The fact that Yen Press also used color pages for this portion hammers it home. No matter how cute the characters may be in the ensuing pages and how calm rural Hinamizawa may be, it isn't. Something's coming.

But initially, this setup seems great! Keiichi is happy with small town life. It seems like there's a chance for love with the girl-next-door Rena. There's a small community of people in Hinamizawa, but they get along well with their friends Mion, Satoko, and Rika. All of the Higurashi When They Cry: Gou characters look adorable, and it practically feels like a slice of life comedy with Satoko's pranks, the group picnic, and Rena's excitement of finding the Colonel Sanders KFC mascot statue at the dump. (Kenta-kun!)
[caption id="attachment_973101" align="alignnone" width="408"]Higurashi When They Cry: Gou Manga Doesn't Hold Back Image via Yen Press[/caption]
However, it's when they meet Kenta-kun that Keiichi also meets the photographer Tomitake mentions a murder. Keiichi learns a brutal assault happened when the government attempted to build a dam there. He tries to ask Rena and Mion about it. That's when we see the perfect execution of Tomato Akase's art, as it shows how these characters that were previously adorable a few pages ago suddenly take on this horrifying slant. It's so much so that it's otherworldly, and especially evocative due to the fact that these depictions can shift so swiftly. Especially in the case of Rena, who's set up as the "cutest" character for this first part of the story.

In the second part of volume 1 of the Higurashi When They Cry: Gou manga, the story shifts to Mion. We get to see another side of her, following a chapter dedicated to Rika and her perspective on current events. What's fascinating is that this one focuses on how well Keiichi and her also fit together. However, we're also abruptly introduced to Mion's twin, Shion. But due to the nature of the story and the execution of the art, it leaves us with a whole other sort of mystery. Who is Keiichi spending time with? How are they connected? What is going on with Mion and Shion?

It's intriguing in that it's presented as an entirely different type of horror. We're still seeing how unsettling things are. The situation in Hinamizawa is still uncomfortable, even as much of the story is focusing on Keiichi's growing relationship with the twins. Again, it not only offers a fascinating comparison in terms of art, but when juxtaposed against what we just experienced in the Onidamashi storyline.

With the Higurashi When They Cry: Gou manga, we get a whole new retelling of the story. It's one that captures what matters about the story, and all of the situations and mysteries they face. It maintains an atmosphere that can sometimes feel so normal, then drastically shift in tone. It does so in such a way that the artistic direction feels perfect either way. As a result, no punches are pulled and the story remains as powerful as ever.

Volume 1 of the Higurashi When They Cry: Gou manga is available now, and volume 2 will be out on October 17, 2023.

The post Higurashi When They Cry: Gou Manga Doesn't Hold Back appeared first on Siliconera.

Gamer Empire Saturday, July 22, 2023 10:50 AM
     If you are new to Stellaris, I wouldn't blame you for thinking that games have no end. While that is technically true, it is also possible to "win" a game of Stellaris. It is unfortunate that the game fails to teach this to new players effectively. You and every other empire in the galaxy are […]
WGB, Home of AWESOME Reviews Saturday, July 22, 2023 9:08 AM
     The GSD has released a huge bunch of data covering the last six months of game and hardware sales. The data covers all the big European countries and most of the major publishers, and includes both physical and digital sales with Nintendo and 505 Games being the exceptions.
WGB, Home of AWESOME Reviews Saturday, July 22, 2023 8:23 AM
     Netherealm has dropped a brand new trailer for the upcoming Mortal Kombat 1 and it confirms three classic characters are returning: Baraka, Tanya and Li Mei.
Pivotal Gamers Saturday, July 22, 2023 9:59 AM
     Hello fellow gamers. GrabTheGames is giving everyone the chance to win on Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp. Let's hear them out. Get Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp for FREE! A few words about Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp "Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp" brings you more of the world's best (and maybe only?) multiplayer dating sim; but in a way you've never expected! http://cdn.a...
Pivotal Gamers Saturday, July 22, 2023 4:21 AM
     Hello folks. Giveaway Of The Day holds a new giveaway for Adventure Mosaics: Granny's Farm. This is what they say. Adventure Mosaics: Granny's Farm is available as a Giveaway of the day!You have limited time to download, install and register it. A few words about Adventure Mosaics: Granny's Farm Exclusive offer from Giveaway of the Day and ToomkyGames! No third-party advertising ...