Kotaku Saturday, November 30, 2024 9:30 AM  This may have been a short workweek, but the chaotic world of gaming never rests. Read on for Kotaku's top stories from Thanksgiving week. |
PCGamesN Saturday, November 30, 2024 9:30 AM  The MSI MPG 271QRX is one of the finest OLED gaming monitors around and thanks to this Black Friday deal it just became an absolute bargain to boot. Sitting pretty as our choice for the best gaming monitor for esports/FPS, this MSI display packs in a 27-inch OLED panel with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 that ticks along at a super speedy 360Hz. Combined with the rapid response time of OLED this makes for a fantastic display for competitive gaming. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon AC review, MSI GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio review, Best gaming motherboard |
PCGamesN Saturday, November 30, 2024 9:08 AM  November 30, 2024: We've added the latest new Monopoly Go dice links 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 November 2024 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best board games, Monopoly Go events, Monopoly Go dice |
PCGamesN Saturday, November 30, 2024 7:59 AM  If you've not played it, you've got to try Slime Rancher. Trading crops for creatures and sweet potatoes for slimes, it's one of the best life games on Steam with an astounding user rating and a plethora of free updates over the years. If that isn't already enough, you can grab the game for next to nothing right now thanks to a Steam sale. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best single-player games, Best sandbox games, Best adventure games |
PCGamesN Saturday, November 30, 2024 7:42 AM  I'm always on the hunt for the next best roguelike, and Ants Took My Eyeball has been a real winner for me in 2024. It pulls together elements of some of my favorite games, feeling like you dropped the likes of Terraria, Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, Spelunky, and Noita in a blender and created a sublime side-scrolling smoothie. The action platformer already boasts a fantastic 91% user rating on Steam, and developer Bosmic Forge has just unleashed a new update bringing more than a dozen new items to play with alongside balance changes and tweaks. Plus, it's on sale. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best roguelike games, Best platform games, Best indie games |
PCGamesN Saturday, November 30, 2024 6:37 AM  Path of Exile 2 is so close I can almost taste it, and promises to be something truly special. But until it arrives to prove itself, and despite the many hours of fun Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred has provided, Last Epoch remains the best new ARPG I have played so far this year. Yet, as with any new game, there are always those little frustrations that get in the way, and they start to become more irritating as your relationship with it lengthens. Happily, we live in a world where such issues can be fixed, and developer Eleventh Hour Games shows it's been listening to players in a new blog post announcing some much-needed improvements. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Last Epoch review, Last Epoch builds, Last Epoch tier list |
PCGamesN Saturday, November 30, 2024 6:27 AM  November 30, 2024: We have checked for new Blox Fruits codes. What are the new Blox Fruits codes? We've compiled a regularly updated list of all Roblox Blox Fruits codes to redeem in-game freebies like XP boosts, free Beli, and stat resets for your pirate adventures. Need a boost to take on the increasingly tricky competition? We've got you covered. Blox Fruits is one of the biggest Roblox games ever, thanks to its fun, anime-inspired pirate action. That said, it can be challenging to find new free codes, so we've done the hard work and listed all the active Blox Fruits codes in 2024, including for Update 23, in one handy place below. Once you're up to date on the new Blox Fruits codes, consider checking out our ultimate Blox Fruits guide or our in-depth Blox Fruits tier list for the current meta. Continue reading Blox Fruits codes November 2024 - free XP and money MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best Roblox games, Roblox promo codes, Roblox music codes |
PCGamesN Saturday, November 30, 2024 6:15 AM  There's no escaping cheaters in online shooters. Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, Fortnite, and Valorant are full of people using hacks, and like a cheating hydra it doesn't matter how many heads you cut off, more hackers will quickly grow back. That doesn't mean developers shouldn't take cheaters incredibly seriously, though. That's why Team Jade, the studio behind Battlefield and Tarkov rival Delta Force, is already making huge promises on how it'll deal with the problem, mere days before launch. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Delta Force guns, Delta Force operators, Delta Force loadouts |
PCGamesN Saturday, November 30, 2024 7:30 AM  While there is no official Steam Black Friday sale, the Autumn sale still offers lots of exciting deals over the Black Friday period. Some publishers are now running specific Black Friday sales on the platform too, so there's no shortage of bargains. Remember all those games you wanted to try but were waiting for them to go on offer? Well, chances are they're on sale now - from Silent Hill 2 to Diablo 4 and Dragon's Dogma 2, some fantastic games are going cheap. Continue reading Steam Black Friday sale - the top PC game deals MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Steam FAQ, Steam family sharing, Steam in-home streaming |
PCGamesN Saturday, November 30, 2024 7:18 AM  Black Friday PC gaming deals are now available across most online retailers. Whether you want to expand your Steam library with a few games at a discount price, or you're keen to revamp your setup with some shiny new gear, there are loads of bargains that will be available throughout the Black Friday weekend. Continue reading Best Black Friday PC gaming deals for 2024 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming |
PCGamesN Saturday, November 30, 2024 5:11 AM  For many, H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds would have been the first time the concept of alien races and interplanetary invasions would have ever entered their heads. The classic late 19th century novel was so ahead of its time, going on to inspire so much other media and being spun off into several movies and TV shows. However, as far as War of the Worlds games go, we haven't seen one since 1999. Well, The War of the Worlds Siberia is looking to change that, and the third-person action adventure game has just given us our first glimpse at some gameplay - and boy, does it look good. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best action games, Best single player games, Best PC games |
PCGamesN Saturday, November 30, 2024 5:10 AM  There's a jump button in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Press it, and the game's custom-made protagonist, Rook, leaps upward. The same button lets Rook vault across waist-high barriers and clamber up ledges, traversing the fantasy world of Thedas with acrobatic ease. It's a small detail, this jump button, but combined with dozens of other design choices, it makes The Veilguard feel distinct from more traditional RPGs. The latest from BioWare, a studio responsible for classics of the genre ranging from the original Baldur's Gate games through to the Mass Effect series and first trio of Dragon Age entries, is a significant departure from the team's house style. Continue reading Dragon Age The Veilguard is just as much an RPG as its predecessors MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best Dragon Age The Veilguard class, Dragon Age The Veilguard review, Dragon Age The Veilguard builds |
PCGamesN Saturday, November 30, 2024 4:58 AM  For those that have been waiting for Black Friday to bag a serious deal on a high-end gaming monitor, this might be the deal you've been waiting for. Asus has dropped the price of the Asus ROG Swift PG32UCDM OLED gaming monitor to a new low, bringing this ultra capable display to a more sensible price. With specs easily able to to put this monitor right near the top of our best gaming monitor recommendations, this Asus display aims to deliver stunning image quality and fantastic gaming performance. Whether you're after pin-sharp 4K visuals or just want to take advantage of that blazing 240Hz refresh rate, it can turn its hand to all sorts. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ review, Asus ROG Raikiri review, Best gaming motherboard |
Siliconera Saturday, November 30, 2024 9:00 AM
On paper, Towers of Aghasba sounds like a dream game. It's an open-world sandbox game that lets you explore and shape your island to your liking, all while fighting off threatening monsters and restoring balance to nature with magical powers. However, in practice there are so many issues, both major and minor, that you're in for a rude awakening soon after you start.
Towers of Aghasba follows the Shimu people, who find themselves shipwrecked on the shores of Aghasba, which once served as their home. However, the vibrant ecosystems of Aghasba are no more due to the Withered. It turned the continent into a dead wasteland. Though the player character is only an apprentice, she's capable of using and collecting Amity. Amity is basically life energy, and you can use it in various ways throughout the game to restore Aghasba. With the help of the gods, native lifeforms, and the other members of the Shimu tribe, you have to work together to thrive on Aghasba and transform it back into the paradise it once was.
This is a pretty ambitious game, and it's still in early access. It's pretty unpolished in the state that it's currently in, but Dreamlit has a really strong foundation right now. I'm fairly excited to see how development will continue down the line. But for now, I have to say that for every one thing that Towers of Aghasba does well, there are about two other things that make the experience far more difficult than it needs to be.
To start with, I actually quite like the plot of the game and how story-driven it is. It's not as open a sandbox as you might think, since you're locked behind quest lines and Withered Haze areas. Withered Haze areas are places that are full of the Withered, and staying in them for too long will rapidly drain your HP. While the Withered Haze area is in effect, you can't do things like ride your mount or create a new ecosystem. There are ways to clear it, of course, but it can be a hassle to do so thanks to the crafting system, which I will get into later.
Anyway, back to what I was saying. I sometimes fall into the rabbit hole of open world exploration where I get so interested in unlocking and seeing everything on the map that by the time I want to start the story again, I'm way too overleveled or I've already lost interest. With Towers of Aghasba actively preventing me from doing that and forcing me to take it slow, it's a lot easier to control my progress and I never end up at a loss of what to do. Though some of the designs for the creatures can start to look like they're Spore creations, I quite like how the animals and Withered look as well.
Now, again, I'd like to reiterate that Towers of Aghasba isn't bad. There are just a lot of little QoL issues in the game that can really start to build up. For one thing, there's practically no music in the game, which means you might need to play your own. This can serve as a handicap though, as you won't be able to hear the combat music when you suddenly and unexpectedly aggro something. Climbing in the game isn't very fun, and the mount is a lot less easy to handle than you'd imagine due to the difficult terrain. While trailers for the game show off luxuriant greenery and beautiful landscapes, most of the time, you're going to be looking at a washed out wasteland.
On the far end of the scale, ecosystems have so much going on, it's impossible to see anything on the ground. Feeding animals is a task that you need to do to level up the King Tree and such as well, but the AI for the animals is pretty bad. I've thrown food directly in the path of some, to no avail, only for one on the other side of the mountain to slowly amble towards it. Since so much of the game focuses on restoring nature and all, I would like to see something done with the animals in the future. Even being able to see how different species interact with each other would be nice.
In the grand scheme of things, all of those above complains are pretty minor. The biggest issue for me is how annoying the map is to use. If you play with a mouse and keyboard, you can simply press M to open up the map. However, if you're playing on controller (like I was), you have to hit select and then tab open the map. You can't set custom markers, and some of the map marks are missing their text. The landscape also looks more or less the same. This means I have to rely on the world map rather than the miniature one. So having to manually open up the menu and select it all the time just to make sure I'm heading in the right direction got aggravating very fast. I highly recommend just playing with a mouse and controller to avoid this.
Something else that bothered me just a little bit is how annoying it could be to collect materials for crafting. For a mechanic that's basically 80% of the game, collecting materials was pretty exhausting. First off, Aghasba is so large even with portals and a mount that traversing it to collect the large amounts you need got old, especially since the game is so silent unless you play your own music. Secondly, some items felt impossible to find. Fish, for example, took me a while because the water reflection made them impossible to see at first, especially in the tutorial area.
At least I know that fish are in the water. I sometimes had no clue where to even start looking. I needed a guide to figure out how to get items like Cob and Hardwood. The map isn't very helpful, since it only shows the most basic landmarks, and you can't look up item descriptions for a clue. I found it odd that I got annoyed, since I played Don't Starve without issue, but I think it's because of a fundamental difference between the two. Back when I first started Don't Starve, there were items that I didn't know how to get since I hadn't encountered them yet. But because there are so many things to do on a daily basis in Don't Starve, there were enough tasks to occupy my attention when I wasn't looking for the necessary materials.
In the case of Towers of Aghasba, the aforementioned story-driven nature of the game means that there actually aren't that many things to do outside of simply collecting materials, crafting items, and fighting. So if you're not sure where to get an item and you're running all around the map searching for it (while needing to manually open up the map instead of simply hitting a shortcut), it can really eat away at your patience. Thankfully, I started playing the early access a little later than others, which means that I was able to consult other players' posts or guides.
As a note, if you wanted to play this with your friends or other players, I recommend you wait until a bit later. In order to start multiplayer, you need to first unlock the Multiplayer Gate on Midhaven. Then, you need to input a code. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, I don't have friends who play, meaning I had no one to exchange codes with. But according to very recent Steam reviews, you can't play in multiplayer anyway.
Multiplayer isn't the only thing broken in the game. There are some minor visual bugs and glitches, such as floating rocks. However, I once encountered an absolutely game-breaking bug. At first, the game stopped letting me aim things, which meant I could no longer throw objects or shoot arrows. Since I was close to completing a quest, I pushed on. Like someone slowly succumbing to poison, my game continued to break down. The color became even more washed out. My health and stamina bars disappeared into the aether. For the cherry on top, my on-screen mini-map vanished as well. So far I haven't been able to recreate this to see what could've triggered it.
While this preview ended up fairly negative, I do think that Towers of Aghasba is fun. I already mentioned in my Tokyo Jungle retrospective that I'm the type of person who enjoys completing lots of minor tasks for a greater reward at the end, and that's exactly the type of game this is. It's just difficult to recommend this game in the current state it's in. Dreamlit is cooking up something really interesting though, and I look forward to the day they can fully realize their vision.
Towers of Aghasba is available on Windows PC via Steam, and it's still in early access.
The post Preview: Towers of Aghasba Can Use Lots and Lots of Polish appeared first on Siliconera. |
