GamersHeroes Sunday, November 3, 2024 11:08 AM Vengeance Hunters pays glorious tribute to the 90s-era of beat-em-ups with fists-a-flying. The post Vengeance Hunters Review appeared first on GamersHeroes. |
Kotaku Sunday, November 3, 2024 11:00 AM  This week, heaps of players are returning to the world of Thedas for the first time in many years thanks to the arrival of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. If you're among them, be sure to look over our tips for helping you get started on the right foot on this epic adventure. We'll also help you tap into a cool mechanic in … |
Kotaku Sunday, November 3, 2024 10:00 AM  Fox's popular animated series "The Simpsons" has been on the air for 36 seasons, which means viewers have plenty of time to analyze and examine the show. Longtime fans have theories on everything from Springfield existing in its own space-time bubble, to Marge's family financially supporting them, to the idea that… |
Kotaku Sunday, November 3, 2024 9:00 AM  It took 10 years to get here, but we finally have Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the fourth entry in BioWare's beloved (but divisive) fantasy RPG series. The sequel is a direct continuation of 2014's Inquisition, and it's made the full shift to action RPG. Your mileage may vary on that, but I loved the game despite a… |
PCGamesN Sunday, November 3, 2024 11:52 AM  GTA 6 cannot come soon enough. Since last year's reveal trailer, the internet has been aflame with analysis, theories, and conjecture. Will social media play a part in the story? Just who are Lucia and Jason? And why on Earth does everyone keep going crazy over phases of the Moon? Until we get our hands on the next Grand Theft Auto I'm afraid a lot of these questions will go unanswered. Still, the wait hasn't stopped fans from yet again going overboard with theories. This time, though, I'm inclined to believe them. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: GTA 6 release date, Best open-world games, GTA 5 cheats |
PCGamesN Sunday, November 3, 2024 11:34 AM  Space roguelike Breachway is very much my type of strategy game. It has all the satisfying ship-building elements I love from games like No Man's Sky and Starfield. But instead of forcing me to pootle around the stars myself, it lets me jump from location to location, engaging in interesting decision making and tactical combat reminiscent of the likes of the fantastic FTL. Launched into early access on Steam in September, user reviews are already positive, and now developer Edgeflow Studio details what's coming during November. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best space games, Best strategy games, Best roguelike games |
PCGamesN Sunday, November 3, 2024 10:30 AM  For me, videogames are about escaping into fantasy. I want to dive into sprawling realms as a pretty elven assassin or prowl the plains of Diablo 4's Sanctuary in search of Prime Evils and demonic entities. While I had a soft spot for life games like The Sims as a kid, I've never really cared for anything set in a recognizable version of our own world. Call of Duty has always fallen into that same category, not helped by my degrees in genocide history and war studies. I've never quite been able to divorce my logical mind from the fact that CoD is, indeed, a fictional videogame with a historical setting, versus a historical videogame with fictionalized elements. So while Black Ops 6's '90s backdrop piqued my interest, I was pretty happy to sit it out. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Black Ops 6 guns, Black Ops 6 missions, Black Ops 6 loadouts |
PCGamesN Sunday, November 3, 2024 10:06 AM  If there's one thing FromSoftware consistently nails, it's hub zones. Firelink Shrine, Roundtable Hold, The Nexus, and Hunter's Dream all ooze atmosphere, and provide brief respite between getting your head stomped. My favorite has always been Dark Souls 2's Majula, though. The quaint village is bathed in calm sunlight, punctuated by sparse piano notes. It's a far cry from the challenges that await you, and becomes more welcoming each time you return. If you wish Elden Ring's Roundtable Hold was more like Majula, have I got just the mod for you. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Elden Ring builds, Elden Ring bosses, Elden Ring weapons |
PCGamesN Sunday, November 3, 2024 10:03 AM  Roguelike city builder Against the Storm is one of my favorite strategy games in recent years. The colorful dark fantasy world is a welcome alternative to the pleasing mundanity of Cities Skylines 2, and despite its post-apocalyptic setting, it feels much more warm and cozy than the harsh brutality of Frostpunk 2. As developer Eremite Games tests a new biome coming with the next update, you can hop into the experimental branch right now to try it out and offer feedback on how it works. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: The best roguelike games, The best city-building games, Against the Storm review |
PCGamesN Sunday, November 3, 2024 7:58 AM  With Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred in the rear-view mirror and Path of Exile 2 imminent, my mind is always on the next great ARPG, and Titan Quest 2 is high up my most-anticipated list. The 2006 original remains a classic of the genre, and one of the reasons it still stands out today is its distinctive class system, as you fuse two 'masteries' to create a huge number of potential combinations. Grimlore Games is building on this system for the sequel, and in a new blog post it explains exactly what to expect from Titan Quest 2 masteries when the early access launch arrives. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best fantasy games, Best games like Diablo, Best co-op games |
PCGamesN Sunday, November 3, 2024 7:56 AM  We're mere days away from Half-Life 2's 20th anniversary, and the fabled sequel is still nowhere in sight. Two decades ago the G-Man left us with one of the biggest cliffhangers of all time, and we've been waiting for what comes next ever since. Sure, Half-Life Alyx played with our expectations, but the third game is still seemingly a twinkle in the corner of Valve's eye. Since Gordon Freeman's last adventure, the Steam maker has given us Counter-Strike 2, Deadlock, and even some huge Team Fortress 2 updates. Half-Life 3, by comparison, couldn't be more distant. That's until Project Borealis. This fan-made interpretation of what the Valve sequel could be recently showed new signs of life, and now it's closer than ever before. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: What happened to Half-Life 3?, Best FPS games, Best upcoming PC games |
PCGamesN Sunday, November 3, 2024 6:28 AM  If you've been enjoying the Black Ops 6 Nuketown 24/7 playlist and double XP weekend, you've now got even more cause to celebrate. After a glitch "occasionally limited" the amount of double XP awarded to some players, Treyarch has extended the 2XP offering. This means you've got longer to farm double XP in multiplayer, and even the double Gobblegum earn rate in Zombies too. With BO6's first season right around the corner, an extra day of bonus XP earnings is nothing to sneeze at. Continue reading Black Ops 6 double XP weekend extended for all thanks to a glitch MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Black Ops 6 guns, Black Ops 6 missions, Black Ops 6 loadouts |
PCGamesN Sunday, November 3, 2024 6:27 AM  Take the Fallout games' ramshackle survival in a broken-down apocalypse, fuse it with the cozy farming and lifestyle sim elements of Stardew Valley, and set the whole thing in a stunningly rendered 2D pixel-art world with the exploration and combat style of Terraria. What you've got is Doloc Town, a beautiful new sandbox game that tasks you with surviving in a forgotten wasteland, doing your best to stay alive and rebuild as you uncover the secrets of the world and take on its deadliest inhabitants. This delightful indie game is one to watch, and best of all you can try it right now thanks to a Steam demo. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best sandbox games, Best RPGs, Best survival games |
PCGamesN Sunday, November 3, 2024 7:24 AM  Arcane Season 2 is almost here. We've been waiting for it since 2021, champing at the bit to see what happens to Piltover as Jinx's Super Mega Death Rocket crashes into the council's chambers. Does Mel survive? Does Yasuo arrive and Wind Wall it at the last second and save the world? While that latter one is never going to happen in the series, Teamfight Tactics: Into the Arcane promises to let me live out my bizarre, memey fan fiction, and I can't wait. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: LoL tier list, Best auto battlers, LoL ranking system explained |
Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Sunday, November 3, 2024 11:00 AM |
Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Sunday, November 3, 2024 6:00 AM  It's official: I am once again the Sunday correspondent around here. That means it falls to me to round up (mostly) good (mostly) writing about (mostly) video games. I will otherwise be spending my Sunday continuing the fight against my dog's fleas, which rebound every three weeks no matter how much I spray, scrub or throw things away. On, the independent video game magazine which I linked to last week, has run a series of brief interviews with each of the contributors to its launch issue. I recommend Christian Donlan's for the puzzle game recommendations and Margaret Robertson's which expands on her fascination with Japanese paper games. |
Siliconera Sunday, November 3, 2024 9:00 AM
I love it when a game heads to a new platform and it turns out that's the best version you can get. That's the situation with Potionomics: Masterwork Edition, and I'm so glad the Switch version is the one I ended up beating. The experience feels more stronger, and choosing the new difficulty helps eliminate stress associated with the balancing and scheduling decisions in the original game if someone felt that got in the way of anyone's initial enjoyment.
Potionomics: Masterwork Edition begins with Sylvia inheriting her dilapidated and in-debt uncle's potion shop in Rafta. That and a suspicious owl that happens to be living there that was allegedly Oswald's partner. Though she doesn't have her potion license yet, she's quickly thrust into the responsibilities of running the shop and entering tournaments to repair the owed money so she can stay in Rafta running the business. Oh, and maybe she also gets to romance the other people living there.
I will say that while I appreciate the concept behind Potionomics: Masterwork Edition's story and like the character designs a lot, I'm not a big fan of the personalities. At least, initially. While there is depth to some of these characters, a lot of them involve these overly exaggerated personality traits that are very in-your-face. Considering a big part of the game is tied to the relationship building, I found the over-the-top nature of many of these folks to be a turn-off. But this is a very personal opinion, and some people might be okay with it given the general tone of the narrative.
Though tone is an important point in general for Potionomics: Masterwork Edition, because going with the standard difficulty or harder one does bring up the dissonance again. This is an entertaining deckbuilder and potion-crafting simulator. Things start off fairly manageable. You need to brew potions, with certain specific ones needed for regular competitions to repay the loan your uncle took. That means getting ingredients from individuals in town, which you can also befriend and romance.
You place those potions in the shop, then open to engage in the haggling battles with cards to get customers interested and drive up the price. However, customers' actions during these phases can stress you out, which can carry over and negatively affect future negotiations. So as you meet and get to know people, as well as progress the campaign, you earn cards. These can be added to your deck to shape your tactics and approach. So when you play three each turn, you can focus on buffs, debuffs, immediate assaults, or defense to ensure you maintain customer patience and maximize encounters. Since each day has multiple time period opportunities for brewing and vending, so you can have up to three packed into a single day.
The thing is that someone's opinion on said difficulty and pacing can vary. On the standard difficulty or higher, it very quickly gets stressful. There are so many materials you need, so little time between tournaments, and the types of demands that make the game feel downright stressful. People also might get put off by the difficulty spikes that come up when the tournaments happen, as the contents involving specific potions are quite demanding. So going as-is, with the experience Voracious Games intended it to be, might be a lot.
The good news is, Voracious Games took player feedback from the PC version of the game into account for Potionomics: Masterwork Edition. There are two notable changes for this release, and one addresses that disparity between the often bright, jovial, and optimistic tone and time-sensitive, sometimes punishing schedule. One pertains to difficulty. As I established, that can ramp up at certain points over the course of the game. When you start out, you can select a new "Cozy" option.
"Cozy" means you can visit people without wasting your in-game time, which is really efficient for shop management. The boss fights are easier (in a good and rebalanced way) as well. To be honest, I usually didn't mind the tournaments in the original game, but the timing is a real game-changer here. So I ended up going with that difficulty and not looking back, because it does make it easier to enjoy the relationship-building elements here. I would suggest trying normal difficulty first, then rolling back to Cozy if that doesn't work for you.
There is also an endless mode in Potionomics: Masterwork Edition. Which, again, is appreciated. I honestly enjoyed the deck-building and haggling card game most out of all the gameplay mechanics at work here. So… that basically let me do more of that? I really appreciated getting to change up and experiment with strategies in a way I couldn't when I was more focused on completing goals in the campaign. It really allows you to appreciate the good parts of the game in a relaxed way.
Potionomics: Masterwork Edition makes me feel like someone coming to the Switch version is immediately getting access to the best version of the game. While there are some minor balancing issues remaining and someone might be as hit-or-miss on characters as I was, the changes and additions based on player feedback result in a markedly improved experience. It really makes it easier to appreciate Sylvia's adventures in capitalism.
Potionomics: Masterwork Edition is available on the Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X, and the original version with new updates is on the PC.
The post Review: Potionomics: Masterwork Edition Feels Like a Better Deal appeared first on Siliconera. |
