GamersHeroes Sunday, May 19, 2024 1:37 PM Previously released for the PC, early 20th-century Russia awaits with the release of Odd Meter Games and 11 bit studios' INDIKA for consoles. The post INDIKA Now Available for Consoles appeared first on GamersHeroes. |
GamersHeroes Sunday, May 19, 2024 11:53 AM The debut title from Purple Brick Games, Still Joking has stepped into the limelight with its release for the PC. The post Still Joking Now Available appeared first on GamersHeroes. |
GamersHeroes Sunday, May 19, 2024 11:19 AM Revealed during the WeGame Event, the latest trailer for Game Science's Black Myth: Wukong serves as a showcase for this title's visuals, cutscenes, and gameplay. The post Black Myth: Wukong WeGame Event Trailer Released appeared first on GamersHeroes. |
Kotaku Sunday, May 19, 2024 9:00 AM  It's the middle of May 2024 and that means we're nearly halfway through the year. What has this year been like in video game news? Tons of layoffs (sad), lots of new games (glad), and some weird outliers, as usual. This week, we saw set photos and official shots from The Last of Us season two, dove back into the… |
PCGamesN Sunday, May 19, 2024 1:31 PM  There are simply not many games that can match The Witcher 3's sharp quality and amount of content. The game originally launched in 2015 and won many Game of the Year awards, but it is still revered to this day as one of the greatest RPGs of all time. Developer CD Projekt RED also released two separate and massive expansions, including Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone. Now, this entire package is on a huge sale that might be too good to pass up for the uninitiated crowd. Continue reading 2015's Game of the Year with all DLC is 75% off MORE FROM PCGAMESN: The Witcher 3 mods, The Witcher 4 news, Witcher 3 system requirements |
PCGamesN Sunday, May 19, 2024 1:08 PM  Probably the best way to describe Ghost of Tsushima is that it's a samurai romance. Rather than dig into the particulars of its historical setting, creator Sucker Punch Productions simultaneously flattens and enhances the semi mythological image of the Japanese warrior to create something that has intoxicated players looking for an open world game that creates a kind of platonic ideal of the samurai game. The success of Ghost of Tsushima, originally launched on PlayStation back in 2022, has continued with its recent PC version, which, just now, has gone on to beat out games like God of War, Horizon Forbidden West, The Last of Us Part 1, and Spider-Man as the most popular single player PlayStation PC game to date. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best RPG games, Best stealth games, Best open-world games |
PCGamesN Sunday, May 19, 2024 12:52 PM  League of Legends is constantly and routinely updated, with significant balance changes hitting live servers roughly every two weeks. On top of the regular schedule of updates came the end of the first split of the season and the launch of the second split, which brought more changes than ever before, including new and altered existing items, champion updates, and changes to the game's bounty system. Riot Games has released a follow-up micro patch for 14.10, which snuck in a significant change to a beloved champion nobody saw coming. Continue reading League of Legends micropatch sneaks in Draven nerf, tanks win rate MORE FROM PCGAMESN: League of Legends ranks explained, League of Legends patch 14.10, League of Legends tier list |
PCGamesN Sunday, May 19, 2024 12:02 PM  World of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria Remix has sparked new life into WoW. For retail players prepping for the next expansion, The War Within, slated for release in Fall 2024, the latest game mode has presented the perfect opportunity to jump back in and blast through the Jade Forrest one more time. Now, players who originally played Mists of Pandaria when it first launched have brought back an old farming trick involving everybody's favorite amphibian: frogs. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: WoW The War Within beta sign up, WoW The War Within release date, The best WoW addons |
PCGamesN Sunday, May 19, 2024 11:12 AM  Tripwire Interactive has been a mainstay in PC gaming since 2006. Over the years, it's put out beloved games like Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45, Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad, Rising Storm, and Maneater. It's also responsible for Killing Floor 2, the multiplayer horror FPS sequel to one of its first games, and a project that's become a modern classic in the genre since it came out in 2016. Last year, though, Tripwire announced that it's making Killing Floor 3, which will likely cause the current iteration's player base to dry up over time. More recently, the company also announced that it would no longer be updating Killing Floor 2 either and, though its servers will remain live, decided to see the classic shooter off in style with a final free weekend. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best FPS games, Best co-op games, Best zombie games |
PCGamesN Sunday, May 19, 2024 10:14 AM  The hockey sim genre of video games has not seen much innovation in quite some time. Many hockey fans have become content with playing EA's annual entry in the NHL franchise or have completely stopped playing hockey games altogether. If you're a hockey fan and have been looking for a game that actually attempts to add modernization to the genre, throw on some pads and a fresh pair of skates because Tape to Tape is precisely what you've been looking for. Continue reading Innovative hockey roguelike slashes price for short period |
PCGamesN Sunday, May 19, 2024 10:06 AM  It's been a while since a major publisher decided to work on a game that competes with Call of Duty. Now, though, Assassin's Creed Shadows, Star Wars Outlaws, and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown creator and publisher Ubisoft is about to put out its multiplayer FPS XDefiant this coming Tuesday, with a fast paced design ethos that resembles Call of Duty. Considering it's also going to be a free to play game, we've been curious to see how it will approach monetization and, with the launch date quickly approaching, Ubisoft has provided details meant to answer just that question. Continue reading Ubisoft CoD rival XDefiant outlines MTX and pay-to-win approach MORE FROM PCGAMESN: XDefiant release date, Best multiplayer games , Best FPS games |
Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Sunday, May 19, 2024 11:00 AM  Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! Did you know that the word 'book' is actually an ancient Sumerian greeting, short for: 'can I have that book back I lent you eight months ago you said you'd have finished in like, two? This is going to be another one of those, isn't it?.' Truly, language's many permutations are a font of limitless wonder. This week, it's Pony Island, The Hex, and Inscryption maker Daniel Mullins! Cheers Daniel! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf? |
Siliconera Sunday, May 19, 2024 1:30 PM
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Angel Heart and the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty, Angel Heart has released a collaboration watch. It costs 16,500 JPY ($106) and you can purchase it from any store offering Angel Heart products, as well as from Angel Heart's online store. [Thanks, PR Times!]
The watch is a light pink with the silhouette of Hello Kitty's head on the face of the watch. There aren't any numbers on the face, though there is a crystal where the 12 should be. The watch also has an apple charm attached to it. This is a reference to how Sanrio officially uses apples as a way to measure how tall and heavy Hello Kitty is. One of Hello Kitty's favorite things in the world is apple pie as well, which is why the Hello Kitty collaboration flavor of Koala's March tastes like apple pie.
When you purchase the watch, you can also get a side bag that looks like Hello Kitty's face with some jewels on it. It's big enough that you can use it as a bag for short outings, as it can probably fit most wallets and phones. You can pair the both of them to show the world how much you like Hello Kitty.
The Angel Heart Hello Kitty anniversary watch is available via the Angel Heart website, as well as stores that offer it. Angel Heart does have international shipping.
The post Angel Heart Hello Kitty Anniversary Watch Has an Apple Charm appeared first on Siliconera. |
Siliconera Sunday, May 19, 2024 12:00 PM
Baladins is a game I really wanted to love. It has a lot going for it: an adorable aesthetic and fun music, co-op multiplayer, and rogue-lite replayability. Despite being quite light, the story is decently fun, given the whole time loop mechanic. But it's let down by the way some of the actual gameplay mechanics just... fail to come together to form a compelling loop. And that's a real shame, because otherwise Baladins is a real charmer.
You play as a one of a group of travelling bards and general do-gooders: the titular Baladins. A time-eating dragon has emerged and you have several weeks (or turns) to gather items of value to feed to it, the more meaningful the better. Fail to satiate it and the dragon will devour time itself, but only up to a few weeks. Essentially trapped in a time loop, your only hope to escape is to travel the land doing odd jobs and searching for trinkets, bringing people together as you do so.
The game itself plays similar to The Yawhg or the Monster Prom series, but with less options to mess with your friends, as this is a more co-op focused game. You have a set of characters with different stat allocations, movement, and action points that you can use each turn to explore the world and perform tasks. Most locations have several activities, from talking to the inhabitants to training skills, or taking on stat and diceroll-based challenges. The solutions to the various quests can be as simple as talking to someone, or they can require gathering several items from vastly different areas within the same 6 week loop, with most quests having different "good" or "bad" endings. At the end of the loop you are summoned back to the dragon, who may grant some little hints or lore tidbits as it devours your array of treasures. Helpfully, each player can keep one item to bring into another run in case you didn't quite finish a quest or just want the stat boost for next time.
It's a fun set up with a lot of room to play within, but I found the structure ended up working against the party-game style it seemed to be going for. Returning to the previous comparison, inMonster Prom orThe Yawhg you are similarly trying to muddle through a short series of rounds, but it's wrapped in this little narrative based on how well you do. Does your character succeed? Survive the storm? Get the girl/boy/sentient calculator? In Baladins, even if you complete whatever quest you set out to finish, the results all go into a pot with the rest and there's not that kind of concrete payoff at the end. This goes for some quests too, as I once spent a good hour or so trying to gather several ingredients within the limit to craft a dragon-slaying crossbow, only for the dragon to deflect it instantly. It didn't even add much to the hunger meter when the beast ate it.
And that's compounded by the moment-to-moment play, as the open-ended nature of both the set-up and quests themselves means you'll often just be wandering around exploring rather than making concrete progress. It's only after you've got a good sense of what items you can get and from where that you can start really looking to complete quests, which will take a good number of runs (and likely a notepad to jot down information). It makes the game almost feel like a point and click adventure where the real treasure is the information you learn each run. It's an interesting idea in concept! But it just doesn't really gel with the boardgame style setup and limited turns. While you can take as many loops as you want you still have to complete quests within that same loop. Imagine trying to complete Monkey Island but you only get so many actions before having to start from the beginning.
On top of that, the multiplayer features just aren't that interesting. An ally in the same location as you will provide a bonus to rolls, and you can share items or pull friends to you for a single action point (or jump to their spot for a movement point). Now, these are great quality of life features but they don't necessarily lead to many interesting questions or strategies, just ways to make things a bit easier. Even when the game does directly ask for players to vote on the outcome of a quest, the result is rarely more impactful than locking off a certain area, which will only be reset in the next loop anyway.
I usually far prefer co-operative games and I don't mean to suggest Baladins ought to have been more competitive, but the element of risk does a lot to add an engaging element to other games that I just feel this one lacks. I actually think Baladins would benefit from letting a single player control multiple characters, perhaps in a hotseat mode that would also enable couch co-op. While you can have multiple local players, each of them needed their own controller to join rather than being able to just swap a single one around, which can be limiting even if you have enough players.
If all this sounds very negative, let me re-clarify that I actually really like the game. Again, the paper cut-out art style is adorable and the way the dragon and its effects use a completely different style works excellently. The world of Gatherac is full of funny little guys and, despite the child-friendly nature of the game, it also contains little comments on things like labor, misinformation, and even market regulation. I can even see what I think the developers were going for with the way you explore the world with friends, doing quests and helping each other out, but it all just doesn't come together at the end.
Baladins is available now on PC via Steam.
The post Review: Baladins Runs Itself in Circles appeared first on Siliconera. |
Siliconera Sunday, May 19, 2024 10:30 AM
Anyone who has been a Final Fantasy XIV player for a couple of expansions likely knows Square Enix isn't immune to mistakes. Though the game is nearly MMORPG perfection, its biggest issues come from the strange and often unwarranted job changes. Thankfully for Dawntrail, it looks like the FFXIV job changes could be much more welcome, especially for Sage and Red Mage.
I am personally invested in both the changes to the Red Mage and Sage, as they are both my two main jobs in FFXIV. Red Mage is the one I often use for endgame content when I don't want to be a healer, while Sage is the role I main during story content. Fortunately, it doesn't look like that will be changing in the new expansion.
Back in the day, I used Summoner between launch and for several expansions, until it was ruined by job changes. Fortunately, Red Mage and Sage are seemingly all the better going into FFXIV Dawntrail. Take the Red Mage, which has two key changes. The first is to make Manafication work better for the player. Instead of granting 50 Black and White Mana, it now just lets the player use the three-step enchanted sword combo for free.
This means being able to use the Verholy or Verflare combo for free as always, but not at the cost of mana. In addition, one of the most useless parts of the Red Mage — Enchanted Moulinet — is now viable. It uses 50 mana, so it is more possible to use as an AOE attack. Overall, it seems these changes enhance the Red Mage in FFXIV, all without taking away what makes it great.
I am still curious to see if Manafication comes with its buff, but I am confident nonetheless. The skill rotation for Red Mage should be even smoother now. After all, you don't have to obsess as much about having a perfect 50 and 50 Black and White Mana gauge before using Manafication. In addition, if you're like me, you don't have to ignore Enchanted Moulinet due to its uselessness. This makes Red Mage a much better class at both single targets and mobs alike.
When it comes to Sage, this is my favorite healer job for a reason. It is the perfect blend of DPS and healing, and its FFXIV Dawntrail changes further that idea. For starters, Eukrasia now properly enhances the damage over time Dyskrasia. This new version acts as an AOE damage over time, affecting multiple enemies at once.
If you are like me, you have spent way too much time trying to apply damage over time to multiple enemies and not enough time doing what you're supposed to be. This fixes that issue so us Sages can focus on what really matters. The other key change is a new action that gives Kardion for everyone in the party. It seems to be limited in how it works with likely a long cooldown if I had to guess. That said, it is nice to be able to temporarily extend all of the healing capabilities of Kardion to everyone.
These FFXIV Sage job changes in Dawntrail will ensure it is the most flexible healer around. You can focus purely on DPS at times since the new action will heal everyone for all the damage you do. In addition, the new AOE damage over time skill means you deal damage more often and much faster.
While there are other great job changes for the new expansion, I am comfortable in saying Red Mage and Sage got some of the best ones. These FFXIV Red Mage and Sage changes in Dawntrail may not be as drastic as others. However, they don't have to be. They enhance the existing strengths of both jobs while fixing their few weaknesses. If you're looking for a DPS or healer to main in Dawntrail, I certainly suggest Red Mage and Sage.
Final Fantasy XIV is available right now for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Dawntrail will release on July 2, 2024.
The post FFXIV Red Mage and Sage Dawntrail Changes Are Exceptional appeared first on Siliconera. |
Siliconera Sunday, May 19, 2024 9:00 AM
The Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) series inspired many offshoots like games, coloring books, and other activities for fans to check out, but Sweep the Board is by far the most unique one. This particular video game adaptation involves a board game-like experience, with a twists on the Mario Party formula.
Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board is a game any fan of the Kimetsu no Yaiba series and video games should check out, especially if you have friends or family to play with. It is essentially a board game with various minigames, similar to Mario Party, but with a ton of different demon-themed twists. For one, there are multiple boards to pick from, including iconic locations from the series like Mugen Train and the Entertainment District in Tokyo. What I love about this is that the different boards have so much more to them than a simple swap of scenery. Like Mario Party, some boards have unique mechanics, such as a boat you can pay to fast travel to spots around the map with ease. Other boards have different demons to battle, including ones themed around those specific spots.
Regardless, the basics of this board game boil down to four players competing against one another. You pick which slayer to play as, then roll dice to move around the map of your choosing. Each space, as you might expect, does different things, such as causing a short minigame, granting a player some money, or even causing a negative effect that will make it more difficult for you to succeed.
While players roll the dice and move across the board, there are goals for the each one to complete. What I like about Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board is it doesn't follow the usual linear pattern of similar board games like Mario Party. There is no usual "end" or "goal" to reach. Instead, the map picks random spots for players to reach on the board as their current mission. The first person to reach that spot gets rank points, which helps the player to rank up through the Slayer Corps.
Once a mission is complete, Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board usually shifts from daytime to night. This is when the demons come out to play. The board becomes filled with much more negative effects. A new mission will appear, which involves scouting out and defeating a specific demon located somewhere randomly on the board.
This is when the bulk of the minigames happen in Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board. Battles with the demons are often lengthy affairs with multiple stages to them. Players might hold down the button to dodge for one turn. Then in the next minigame, they might mash the button over and over to slice away at the foe. The better the players do in the minigames, the more points they earn in the results. While I preferred the button inputs, there are motion controls for the minigames as well. These involve swinging the joy-cons in certain manners. They are mostly novel, but fun enough to make the minigames enjoyable for those who like this style of control scheme.
In the end, the goal to win in Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board is to earn the highest rank and have money by the end of the allotted turns. If two players have the same rank, the winner is based on how much money they have. This is intriguing, since you can spend money on items like more dice or fast travel to influence things
Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board thrives on this fascinating cycle of daily missions per turn. So, it creates two main goals. One is trying to reach each mission point first, and the other is to do the best in the minigames. The only issue is each mission point is random and can appear anywhere on the map. For instance, there was one game where I was in dead last because of the poor dice rolls. But then a mission appeared near me, and I was able to reach it first. Within the span of two turns, I went from last to first place right near the end of the game.
What I also appreciated about Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board is it works extremely well both alone and with others. Most of the time, board games like these are only solid with friends or family. However, I found it works surprisingly well with just the AI. I played quite a few rounds with three CPU players and never had a bad time. The AI characters work well and keep the challenge high enough.
If there is anything that holds Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board back, it is mainly the presentation. I played this on Nintendo Switch OLED, and the character models look awful. The general environments are fine, but there is a severe lack of detail for the characters. They look worse than some mediocre mobile games I've seen. There is no excusing how bad these fan-favorite slayers and demons look. Especiall when compared to how Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles looks on the Switch.
Overall, Demon Slayer Sweep the Board is the prime board game iteration of the series for fans. While it won't be as welcome an experience for newcomers, it is an excellent departure from the core series. The boards are varied in stellar ways, while the minigames have great controls. The non-linear nature of the missions mean it works well no matter how you play. Whether you have a party of friends to play with or just want to compete against the CPU, it all works better than I expected. It's just a shame the characters lack so much detail visually.
Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba Sweep the Board is available right now for Nintendo Switch. PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC versions are on the way.
The post Review: Demon Slayer Sweep the Board Is Solid Fun appeared first on Siliconera. |
