Kotaku Saturday, August 17, 2024 12:00 PM  Nothing gave us more to talk about this week than the meaty new trailer for Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Almost ten years after its predecessor was released, The Veilguard will finally be here on October 31, and we've broken down the release date trailer to highlight all the tantalizing details we noticed. Alongside… |
Kotaku Saturday, August 17, 2024 9:30 AM  So you like going fast, huh? Well, unfortunately for you, the law says speeding is illegal, and even on a race track, you'll be lucky to see speeds higher than 150 mph unless you're in something wildly expensive. The easiest way to get your speed fix would be to ride some of the fastest roller coasters in the world,… |
Kotaku Saturday, August 17, 2024 9:00 AM  This week saw Guy "Dr Disrespect" Beahm delete a post from late June in which he'd admitted to "inappropriate" behavior with a minor, and instead post a new tweet teasing a forthcoming return and the statement, "we have lots to talk about." Additionally, we'll fill you in on that new Valve game that thousands of… |
Kotaku Saturday, August 17, 2024 8:30 AM  When hotelier Leona Helmsley left her dog Trouble $12 million, in 2007 – while leaving two of her grandchildren with nothing – the newly wealthy Maltese terrier became the subject of international headlines as well as some anger. |
Kotaku Saturday, August 17, 2024 8:00 AM  Puzzle games can be addictive. Maybe not Randy Orton playing Elden Ring-level addictive (we hope), but most definitely habit-forming. |
PCGamesN Saturday, August 17, 2024 11:47 AM  If you enjoyed Balatro, then there's a good chance you've already tried - or at least have eyes on - new Steam roguelike Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers. The indie deckbuilder has been affectionately described as 'Blackjack Balatro' (although Balatro creator 'LocalThunk' is quick to remind people that DnDG was actually playable first, and that they highly endorse it). While it's a ton of fun and has received mostly positive reviews, the most common complaints at launch center on it feeling a little too tough, with some opponents feeling unfairly strong or having too much potential to scale out of control. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best card games, Upcoming PC games, Best roguelike games |
PCGamesN Saturday, August 17, 2024 11:52 AM  If you've played League of Legends at any point over the last few years, chances are you've run into some matchmaking problems of various intrusiveness. For some players, it's the off-role parity being way off, with multiple teammates playing an auto-filled role. For others, it's the massive LP gap between players in a game, leading to skill imbalance. LoL developers had planned to tackle these issues plus more in the most recent update to the game, but ran into some significant backend issues, leading to them being delayed. Continue reading League of Legends dev delays big matchmaking updates to patch 14.17 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: League of Legends ranks explained, League of Legends Mythic shop rotation, League of Legends tier list |
PCGamesN Saturday, August 17, 2024 10:12 AM  After much waiting, we finally have a date for the next big Ashes of Creation alpha test. Or, rather, three dates. The hugely ambitious new MMORPG, first announced in 2016 and funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign, is preparing to open its doors to supporters once again with a series of expanded test phases beginning in October. If you've been eager to try out the project for yourself, you'll even have another chance to get involved - but you'll have to pay to do so. Continue reading Ambitious MMORPG Ashes of Creation finally dates Alpha 2 launch MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Ashes of Creation interview, Ashes of Creation preview |
PCGamesN Saturday, August 17, 2024 11:52 AM  You may have come across the name Nova Drift at least once in the last few years if you're, like me, always on the hunt for new indie titles in the roguelike genre. Way, way back in 2017 Nova Drift developer Jeffrey Nielson launched a Kickstarter for the game that successfully funded the project, reaching his goal of $6,000. Now, seven years later, the 1.0 version of the game has hit Steam, enjoying incredible reviews and even a lower price for those willing to more than dip their toes in at launch. |
PCGamesN Saturday, August 17, 2024 9:04 AM  For a brief period, stream chats for any game reveal event were flooded with one of two comments: "announce the Elden Ring DLC" or "where's Hollow Knight: Silksong?" Now that Shadow of the Erdtree is out and subsequently wrecked the lot of us, only cries for Silksong remain. Continue reading Who needs Silksong when we're in a Metroidvania renaissance? MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best Indie Games, Hollow Knight Silksong release date, Upcoming PC Games |
PCGamesN Saturday, August 17, 2024 7:11 AM  It's fair to say the response to Hunt Showdown 1896 has been a mixed one. Five years after it first launched, the backwater extraction shooter from legendary PC developer Crytek - who previously brought us Crysis and the original Far Cry - has kicked off a brand new era acting as a soft relaunch for the FPS game. Combined with a free weekend to celebrate, the change has seen Hunt Showdown reach all-new Steam player count highs, but it's also been met with a 'mostly negative' user review score. In response, Crytek delivers a special developer update. Continue reading Hunt Showdown 1896 dev delivers emergency response to review bomb MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Hunt: Showdown review |
PCGamesN Saturday, August 17, 2024 6:05 AM  Hot off its latest hotfix, Blizzard has a new Diablo 4 Season 5 update on the way, and it's targeting the new Infernal Hordes mode. Already one of the best ways to level to 100 and farm the best legendary and unique items in Diablo 4, the endgame activity is about to get even better. On top of that, there are a whole wealth of bug fixes and some handy user interface improvements, and Blizzard even has a special free gift of some rather delicious-sounding endgame legendary items for you. Continue reading Diablo 4 update buffs Infernal Hordes and hands you free legendaries MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Diablo 4 builds, Diablo 4 review, Diablo 4 classes |
PCGamesN Saturday, August 17, 2024 6:05 AM  August 17, 2024: We've added another new Monopoly Go dice link for free dice rolls. How can I get Monopoly Go free dice links? The household favorite board game has been reimagined as a free-to-play app on smartphones, allowing everyone to experience the thrills of Monopoly on practically any device. Everything that makes the board game special is here in Monopoly Go, so you'll be collecting properties and building hotels as you go around the board, and there are a variety of multiplayer minigames to get through along the way. You're going to need to get your hands on Monopoly dice rolls, but they are difficult to come by no matter how far you are into the board game. There are ways to earn additional dice rolls, including logging into the game every day to collect daily bonuses, progressing further in the game, and inviting friends to try Monopoly Go. While you can also spend real money to unlock more dice rolls, you may want to give our list of Monopoly Go dice links a try instead, especially if you're waiting for the next Monopoly Go Golden Blitz event. Take a look at all the currently active Monopoly Go free dice links for today. Continue reading Free Monopoly Go dice links August 2024 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best board games, Monopoly Go events, Monopoly Go dice |
Siliconera Saturday, August 17, 2024 10:30 AM
Bokeh Game Studio has released a new trailer for Slitterhead, its upcoming horror action game. This time, the trailer gives more information on what the story will be like.
You can watch the Slitterhead trailer here:
The story seems to be set in Hong Kong, or a similar location. Enemies are monstrous parasitic monsters that attach themselves onto people. We can also see some of the key characters who have appeared in previous trailers. This includes a character with white hair, a character wearing a hood, and a character with a helmet. They may be the same character, considering part of the mechanic of Sliterrhead revolves around entering other people's bodies and controlling them.
Slitterhead is the first game from Bokeh Game Studio, and it will be an action-adventure game with horror elements. Though it's Bokeh Game Studio's first, the executives and founders of Bokeh Game Studio aren't new to the craft. Keiichiro Toyama, Junya Okura, and Kazunobu Sato worked together on the Siren series, Silent Hill series, and Gravity Rush series. According to interviews from them, they stated that they used seinen manga like Tokyo Ghoul as inspiration for the game.
Slitterhead is in development for the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Windows PC. It'll come out on November 8, 2024.
The post Slitterhead Story Trailer Shows Action in Gritty Streets appeared first on Siliconera. |
Siliconera Saturday, August 17, 2024 9:00 AM
Cat Quest 3 is the latest in a series of adorable little action RPGs that have attracted a small but loyal audience. For the third game, the typical medieval setting has been ditched in favor of one based on pirates. And this high seas swashbuckler is one that you'll want to get your paws on.
In Cat Quest 3, you play as an unnamed young cat pirate heading out on his first adventure with the ghost of veteran pirate Captain Cappey. Your adventure starts on a small island in the Purribean where you steal a ship and set off to find the mysterious North Star Treasure. Along the way, you have to deal with rival pirate captains all with their own plans for the booty.
This start sets a great impression. You're immediately introduced to the various aspects of combat, which mainly consists of a melee weapon, a ranged weapon and a spell. Then you get a ship and can head off into the world after breaking the flimsy barrier between you and freedom. And I do mean freedom, as the world is fully explorable from the start of the game, although certain corners of the map will likely stomp you into a fur rug without a little levelling.
The Purribean Sea of Cat Quest 3 is small but dense. It's an assortment of islands dotted around the ocean, all containing their own secrets and treasures. The ability to sail around all these places right out the gate offers a huge amount of freedom. Even within the story, you never fully feel like you're being funneled into a specific direction. While there is a direct line of events that need to be followed, many of your objectives branch off into multiple locations that can tackled in any order, whether that's collecting keys for a tower or defeating different pirate captains.
Tucked away between these main objectives are a ton of additional side stories, such as a lovelorn rat whose ghost still haunts his castle or a convoluted mail delivery chain that involves a wedding and a deep-seated rivalry. These side stories make exploring the world of Cat Quest 3 a joy. While you're journeying to find where the game wants you to go, you'll trip over countless side activities along the way. There is never a dull moment here.
The game is also determined to immerse you in its map, avoiding a lot of the tedium and bloat that can sometimes infect the open world genre. While your objectives will be marked on your map in the menu, the main game has no non-diegetic markers aside from an optional one you can place yourself. This forces you to use the environment around you to navigate, which I'm always a fan of. It helps that the map is small enough to become familiar without feeling too limited.
It manages to introduce the world to you without holding your hand too much. Your initial guides around the world are star towers that point vaguely where you need to go, but you have to triangulate with multiple towers to find your objective. In the process, you quickly become aware of which islands are where, and soon navigating this map becomes second nature. It happens to organically that I didn't notice how little I was using the map for navigation until about halfway through the game. I simply headed off in whatever felt the natural direction at the time.
Combat in Cat Quest 3 is something you'll find yourself spending a lot of time doing. It's simple action-adventure fare, with a single attack button, a weapon switch and some optional spells, but the way these elements are brought together is surprisingly deep. There are multiple types of melee and ranged weapon, creating a range of combinations. You can attack with a sword, a shield or claws. The shield is slow and heavy, but offers more defense, while the claws are risky but speedy.
Meanwhile, ranged weapons include guns and wands, which offer different combat styles. Equipping the Meowchine Gun will give you weaker damage per shot but a massive clip, while the blunderbuss type weapons are powerful but can only fire a couple of shots before needing to be reloaded. Clothing and other equipment also adds a wide range of additional abilities, such as the ability to heal while attacking. The result of this is a combat system with a heavy amount of customization, making it suitable for anyone's play style.
Combat also offers plenty of challenge. It's not Dark Souls by any means, but there will be times where boss encounters will cause you some difficulties. Some fights might crush you unless you swap out your equipment to combat elemental damage, while others require alertness and liberal use of the dodge mechanic. This goes for ship combat too, especially as you get to more unique ships within the Meowtallica and Captain Takomeowki fleets. Ship combat against the captains' flagships is especially stressful, as some of them can become slow-moving bullet hells. And every single one of these fights is a lot of fun, even when you're beaten.
The story adds to the fun too. Cat Quest 3 has a simple plot, where you are racing against other pirates for a vague treasure that hides secrets, but the execution is fantastic. This is not a game that takes itself too seriously, most obvious in how many puns are baked into the game's writing. Your enemies are actually called "pi-rats" and "meow" and "purr" are tossed liberally into any sentence that will fit them (and even a few that don't). Every character you meet is goofy and charming, often with absurd quirks. But there's also heart here too, as your protagonist and Captain Cappey develop a close friendship. You'll fall in love with every single member of this cast.
Visually, Cat Quest 3 has a lot going for it too. It's reminiscent of Square Enix's HD-2D style, with layered 2D sprites mixed with 3D models in a diorama-style view. The characters sprites are adorable, especially the main character. He's got a happy little face on him and seems to be having the time of his life in every animation. Even the save animation, where he hops into an immediate nap for recovery, is aggressively cute.
Cat Quest 3 is an excellent game, so much so that I'm scrambling to find criticism of it. It could maybe benefit from a fast travel system or a method to improve the speed of your ship. It could be seen as a little too short, clocking in at around ten hours if you really explore the world. The cat puns may become a little excessive at times. And that's really all I can find to criticise it. Even then, many of these aren't an issue for me, as the game's density of content makes up for the length, the lack of fast travel may contribute to how intuitive the world is and the cat puns were all part of the charm.
I loved my time with Cat Quest 3. Exploration is joyful, combat is a lot of fun and the story is silly and charming in all the right ways. If you want a small but dense pirate adventure full of good humor, Cat Quest 3 is for you.
Cat Quest 3 is out now for PC, PS5, PS4, Switch, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One.
The post Review: Cat Quest 3 is a Purr-Fect Pirate Adventure appeared first on Siliconera. |
