Jul 29, 12:00


PCGamesN Saturday, July 29, 2023 11:56 AM
     2022's best management sim is briefly a free game on Steam and 50% off

Two Point Campus is one of 2022's most delightful games. This tongue-in-cheek management game is the follow-up to Two Point Hospital, the modern reimagining of Theme Hospital built by developers from Bullfrog Productions and Lionhead Studios who had worked on the original back in the mid-90s. Now, as it prepares to leave PC Game Pass, Two Point Campus is briefly free on Steam for the weekend, with a nice discount if you decide you want to keep playing afterward.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Two Point Campus review, Two Point Campus guide, Two Point Campus grades

PCGamesN Saturday, July 29, 2023 10:55 AM
     How Path of Exile 2's combat learns from Elden Ring

Path of Exile 2 combat is looking really good so far. The Path of Exile 2 reveal at ExileCon shows how developer Grinding Gear Games is making some really interesting decisions to help create the next generation of combat for its beloved loot-chasing RPG game. As part of this, Path of Exile 2 creative director Jonathan Rogers tells PCGamesN how Grinding Gear Games looks at other genres to see what interesting ideas might suit its game well.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best games like Diablo, Path of Exile 2 preview, Best free games

PCGamesN Saturday, July 29, 2023 11:10 AM
     Here's what the Minecraft website looked 14 years ago

The Minecraft website has been around as long as the sandbox game itself and, like the game, it's gone through quite a few iterations. So we decided to take a look at how the website has changed, and it's a fascinating glimpse at how quickly both Minecraft and the internet especially have changed in a short period of time.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Minecraft seeds, Minecraft skins, Minecraft mods

PCGamesN Saturday, July 29, 2023 9:23 AM
     Baldur's Gate 3's rigged dice rolls won't give NPCs 400% extra damage

Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian has revealed that the Karmic Dice feature, which taps into the D&D tabletop design inspirations in the fantasy RPG game, will be fixed for the Baldur's Gate 3 release date after a Reddit post outlining its unfairness made the rounds. With Baldur's Gate 3 right around the corner, this is sure to put a lot of us at ease.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Baldur's Gate 3 release date, Baldur's Gate 3 races, Baldur's Gate 3 classes

PCGamesN Saturday, July 29, 2023 7:42 AM
     Diablo 4's most annoying mount issue is finally no more

Getting around in Diablo 4 should be no trouble once you've unlocked your first Diablo 4 mount, but there's been a few problems with the system since launch. Your Diablo 4 horse is an incredibly fast way to get around the vast open world of the RPG game, but the handling on them is a little clunky, and your travel is frequently impeded by literal roadblocks. Thankfully, all of your mount woes are set to soon be a thing of the past.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Diablo 4 builds, Diablo 4 review, Diablo 4 classes

PCGamesN Saturday, July 29, 2023 7:08 AM
     Starfield's most important mod is gearing up for launch

Starfield is a gargantuan undertaking for Bethesda, as the 1000-planet-sized RPG game from the Skyrim and Fallout maker is set to be the studio's biggest game to date. Like the endless community support for Skyrim, Starfield mods are also going to absolutely change how we all play the game, and now the team behind Starfield's most important launch day mod is gearing up for the impending Starfield release date, just like the rest of us.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Starfield release date, Starfield companions, Starfield system requirements

PCGamesN Saturday, July 29, 2023 6:34 AM
     FFXIV Dawntrail's graphics look stunning, but dyes are the real winner

FFXIV Dawntrail brings the long-awaited Final Fantasy XIV graphics update, making one of the prettiest worlds in gaming even more gorgeous. However, while it's great to see the decade-old MMORPG brought into a more modern era, the overhaul that's really got FFXIV players excited is a much smaller-scale one - the long-teased introduction of a second dye slot on your gear with the release of its next expansion, FFXIV Dawntrail.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: The best MMOs, FFXIV Island Sanctuary guide, FFXIV Island Sanctuary animals list

PCGamesN Saturday, July 29, 2023 5:40 AM
     This FPS is The Matrix meets Titanfall, and it's a free game right now

Stylish movement shooter Severed Steel is a free game for a limited time, and it's the perfect fast-paced first-person corridor shooter if you've always wanted to see what would happen if Titanfall and The Matrix had a baby. You can snag Severed Steel via the Epic Games Store for a limited time, and it's one of the coolest FPS titles I've ever played.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best FPS games, Best single-player games, Best free games

Siliconera Saturday, July 29, 2023 9:00 AM
    

let's school review

Simulation games can either be an idyllic reimagining of real life or an unerringly accurate, for better or for worse, depiction of reality. Let's School combines the two in a game that encapsulates the nightmarish bureaucracy of being a headmaster in an Asian private school with none of the rewards that come with a career in education. Though it's fun and the ideas are solid, issues with the coding and tuning can make this school totally uncool. (Yes, it hurt me to make that joke.)

Let's School is a rags-to-riches story in which you play as the headmaster of a run-down school. Your goal, of course, is to transform it into the best education institution in the region. You can customize things from the students' uniforms to the crest, as well as build your own school from scratch. Most of your rooms will look the same, but the lack of routing means that you don't have to worry about giving your students too much space. The potential for making a Spartan school focused only on stuffing in as many students, teachers, and resources as possible is very high thanks to this. It's quite close to reality in that way.

[caption id="attachment_974487" align="alignnone" width="1200"]let's school playground Screenshot by Siliconera[/caption]

You can choose to accept students from a variety of districts, all with their own aspirations and traits. For example, the kids from Theater Boulevard are more prone to fighting and bullying. Meanwhile, kids from the Wealthy Suburbs have the Bad At Everything trait, which makes them slower in classes. But because their parents are rich, it's advantageous to accept them into the school so that you can earn more money. The more districts you unlock, the more students want to get in at once. It can be a headache to organize the classes and timetables so that everyone learns what they need to get into their schools, but that's honestly the best part of Let's School.

[caption id="attachment_974488" align="alignnone" width="1200"]let's school timetables Screenshot by Siliconera[/caption]

I would like to emphasize that it's not the idea of the kids getting into their school of choice that's the best part. It's in the micromanaging and min-maxing. Yes, it's great to see the kids succeed. Yes, it feels nice to train a bad teacher into a more useful one. But it's hard to feel any attachment to anybody, including your own player character. The only times you really have to interact with students is when they're being naughty and you send someone to deal with them. I know that you're supposed to be the headmaster and not the teacher. Even in real life, I don't think most headmasters or principals are that close to the students. But it does make the little "cute" mechanics like giving speeches or taking graduation photos feel like chores rather than a touching or meaningful moment.

[caption id="attachment_974491" align="alignnone" width="1200"]let's school speech Screenshot by Siliconera[/caption]

If there is one thing that really breaks the game for me, it's in the coding and bugs. There are a few issues such as the game not recognizing you dismissed a teacher until you save, exit to main menu, and then open your save again. The tuning and RNG in the game can be awful. I spent an entire in-game year and even headhunted, for a Humanities teacher. I literally found no one, causing my kids' grades to plummet. Some lines are still in Chinese, which is fine for me because I can read it. But it makes the game look incomplete. However, the most glaring issue for me is in how the game automatically ages up my entire classroom instead of either moving my students to the year above, or letting me organize everyone myself.

Let me explain what I mean. I organized my school so that all the first years are on the first floor, the second years on the second, and the third years on the third. However, every time the game moves my kids up a year, they remain in the same classroom. So all the new second years are still on the first floor and all the first years coming in will be on the third floor, since they take over the old third years' classrooms. This really bothers me, because it messes up the layout I have of the school. The game automatically naming my classes is irritating too because depending on where I am in fixing the students' classes, I might end up with a Class 2-8 even though I don't have that many second-year classrooms.

[gallery columns="2" ids="974485,974486" link="file"]

I'm not exactly a control freak kind of person in these games. I play with Free Will on in The Sims, for example. So I'm alright with a certain level of agency from whatever I'm the god of. But the lack of agency when it comes to basic things like naming my classrooms had me ripping my hair out every new semester. How I organized my school feels like a really stereotypical way to do so. So it's unfathomable to me that a simulation game that's supposed to let me experience life as a headmaster isn't able to re-enact one of the most basic functions of a school.

While Let's School is a lot of fun and has a lot of cute ideas, its implementation can sometimes be rough. It definitely feels more for people who want to play a business simulator, rather than a more hands-on one. Though easy to pick up, it can turn monotonous fairly quickly, even after you unlock new mechanics such as talking to other schools or exploring the regions around you. There are victory conditions you can work towards. However, you can go about it passively since all three of them are so linked to the way the game naturally encourages you to play. Let's School does not feel like a game you can enjoy for hours on end, but you'll certainly have a good time while you're in the early stages. In that sense, it feels more like being a student than being a headmaster.

Let's School is available for Windows PC via Steam.

The post Review: Education Is a Business in Let's School appeared first on Siliconera.


Gamer Empire Saturday, July 29, 2023 8:41 AM
     Ascension perks can be the greatest upgrades your empire will receive. Whether you want to buff your empire's resource production or start interspecies breeding; ascension perks can do it. Some of these perks can elevate your empire to power levels beyond reckoning. Others can flat-out suck. Selecting the best ascension perks isn't an easy choice […]

Gamer Empire Saturday, July 29, 2023 8:07 AM
     Without a shadow of a doubt, the Mega-Engineering technology is one of the most important research techs you will unlock in Stellaris. Without it, your empire will lack the key to the next level of power. Unlocking this tech is not as simple as it seems. Due to the game dubbing it as rare; you […]

Gamer Empire Saturday, July 29, 2023 4:24 AM
     Stardew Valley offers players the chance to experiment with all kinds of crops and seeds to discover which ones are the most profitable or convenient. One of the challenges that most players will face is deciding which type of Fruit Tree they want to plant on their farm. Well, first of all, never plant Fruit […]

Gamer Empire Saturday, July 29, 2023 4:07 AM
     As you journey through the MSQ of Final Fantasy XIV, you'll be asked to join a Grand Company. When you do, it feels like a life-changing decision. But the truth is, you can change Grand Companies later on.  The method to do this isn't precisely outlined in FFXIV; maybe it's something "they" don't want you […]