Like previous events, this scatters new objects across each map that you can interact with to earn event points. Unlike previous events, you can now choose between sneaking up to them to quietly extract a juicy six points, or noisily blowing them up to earn three. They also glow red when enemy hunters are nearby, so I’m hoping they’ll prompt firefights in parts of the map that usually don’t see much action....
Back in the very early days of RPS, a little game called Peggle was released. All 18MB of it. A file size that became peculiarly important to the site for a number of years - for reasons implausible to explain it became the international unit for measuring demo sizes. We all loved Peggle, because we weren’t mad. But there was one of us that preferred another PopCap game at the time, and that handsome chap was me....
Doom 2016 was great, but this is better. Developers Id Software have thrown more creatures into their cyber-menagerie, weaving new ideas into a bulky campaign that eclipses its predecessor. It targets old weaknesses like a charged heavy cannon vaporising an Arachnotron’s turret. Certain levels pack more varied scenery than the whole of Doom 2016 put together, while a new flamethrower tool builds on the last game’s glory kills. For the uninitiated, here’s a snippet from my Doom Eternal review: With the flamethrower in the mix, damaging crowds of burning enemies lets you bathe in dropped armour shards....
Supposedly the new campaign will take 3 to 4 hours, which is generous for a free update. Bugsnax launched in November 2020 as an Epic Games Store exclusive on PC (and on PlayStation). Come April 28th, it’ll launch on Steam and the Microsoft Store, including Game Pass. And it’ll be on Xbox and Switch too. It might have seemed a novelty at first, with that damn song, but Bugsnax mixing feel-good vibes with elements of Ape Escape and Pokémon Snap won over our reviewer....
There are a couple of Animal Crossing adjacent games available on PC. Stardew Valley is one which comes instantly to mind, and other games like Stardew Valley. If you want to truly capture the spirit of Animal Crossing, however, there’s a surprising contender: Red Dead Redemption 2. On the face of it, the two games have very little in common. There’s no bloodshed or bullets in Animal Crossing, no singing octopus neighbours in Red Dead, and no matter how much you may want to, you can’t kill and skin Tom Nook....
Fun times! Since Mystery Steam Reviews began, we’ve been focusing on specific years. This week is no different as we head back to 2013. But, if you watch the full episode of The PC Gaming Weekspot from this week, you’ll see that we’re gonna try something different next week. Rather than confine ourselves to games that were released in a given year, we’re going to pick games based on their setting....
Publishers Bandai Namco today announced an August 28 release date for their beautiful adaptation of the beautiful game, hence the new trailer. Apparently such flashy moves are not new to Captain Tsubasa, which started on paper way back in 1981. Developers Tamsoft are not a studio known for sports games so I don’t expect Fifa-grade footballing from this game but ah, I am excited by those special kicks. Bamco have published some proper great anime games, though the credit for Dragon Ball FighterZ must go to developers Arc System Works and their decades of fighting game experience....
Pétursson is hardly the first person to profess an affection for Paul Verhoeven’s cult military satire. But he is one of the few with command of his own company of science fiction game developers. For well over half of Eve Online’s existence, he has led CCP in an effort to create the perfect spin-off shooter - stubbornly chasing the dream of a playable Starship Troopers, even as those brave young prototypes have been cut down by unimpressed players, one after the other....
As the name might imply, Chernobylite is set in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone, a hazy nuclear wasteland that’s distinctly “bad vibes”. You play as Igor, a physicist and ex-employee of the Chernobyl power plant, who’s investigating the disappearance of his fiancée 30 years before the blast. Crucially, this doesn’t play out as a traditional one-track storyline, but rather through the careful repetition of its roguelite premise. From the off, Chernobylite makes it clear that the key to your fiancée’s disappearance lies in the Chernobyl power plant, and that this’ll be your final mission....
You can read the full patch notes on Steam, but I’ll give you the highlights, which include a new warning that pops up when the Steam Deck’s temperature “goes outside the safe operating range”. When it starts throttling, in other words, a threshold that many Deck owners have been discovering during recent heatwaves. I have an overheating notification feature myself, only it’s just me typing “too hot” in the RPS Slack....
Dark Forces was released in 1995, and used the Jedi engine. Its 21st century replacement lets players do fancy things such as play the game on an ultrawide monitor, and has quality of life improvements including an aiming reticle, autorun, and better AI for Boba Fett. The Force Engine also lets you bump that original 320x200 resolution all the way up to 4K, and there’s even controller support, if you like....
We don’t have defined roles for the team of mercs yet. There’s ‘The Handsome One’, who charges around with a mini-gun and can deploy a decoy. A talking pig-man is ‘The Crazy One’, who dual wields his guns and has a dash attack. ‘The Smart One’ is a robot mantis thing with explosive caltrops and teleporting. Finally, ‘The Scary One’ is a tentacled melee fighter. Her extra limbs mean she can melee everywhere....
But when I actually give action a go in the game, I’m mostly left dead in seconds. Either that, or I meekly duck behind some cover and regret not trying the stealthy approach. And the problem is that sometimes I have no option but to go all guns blazing, and I think, “Colt isn’t built for this. He’s only a squishy lad.” I just think he’s a stealth character being forced to break cover when he’s clearly uncomfortable doing so....
You’ll need to have an active Humble Choice subscription to take advantage of the bundle (you can sign up here or use the link below if you don’t), but it’s probably worth doing for Control alone if you haven’t got round to playing it yet, as this is definitely the lowest price I’ve seen for it since it first came out in 2019. After all, the beauty of Humble Choice is that you’re not locked in for a set amount of time, and you can cancel your subscription straight away if you just want to sign up for a month to get a particular set of games....
As before, the game is based on part of the 2004’s Second Battle Of Fallujah, with today’s announcement saying it “recreates true stories of Marines, Soldiers, and Iraqi civilians who fought Al Qaeda”. It says players will “lead a fireteam through real-life encounters enabled by unique technology that simulates the uncertainty and tactics of urban combat.” It adds, “Over 100 Marines, Soldiers, and Iraqi civilians who were present during the Second Battle for Fallujah have shared their personal stories, photographs, and video recordings with the development team....
Cook Serve Forever looks more ambitious again. It’s a new game from the same developers with similar combo-tapping food prep at its core, but set in a new solarpunk city. As of today, there’s a demo you can play and an early access release date set for April. Cook Serve Forever casts you as Nori Kaga, an owner of a food cart who dreams of one day being as successful as her idol, Chef Rhubarb....
I went through that stage where all your mental tension explodes into the world via a nightmarish extended metaphor about fighting a clown to the death. So forgive me, then, if I forsake anything clever, and just list the reasons why I really like the new copper blocks in Minecraft. They make a lovely sound. One of the most subtle, simple pleasures in Minecraft is the little sounds the various blocks make as you break them or place them....
RimWorld is the more direct influence, really. Instead of a planet’s surface, your little blobby torso people are stuck on a spaceship, which you need to rebuild around them using a fleet of robots as they gradually wake up from stasis. If you know the genre well, it will be reminiscent of several games, but its balance of survival, management, and creative building makes for a refreshingly forgiving experience at the current default settings....
Choosing a Lifestyle in CK3 is basically like deciding what your ruler’s personality is going to be like. I am surprised by how much these Lifestyles seem to have an effect on the game (and players’ enjoyment thereof). “In Crusader Kings 3, it seems, there’s never a good reason not to do exactly what you feel like doing – and that’s what being a king is all about,” wrote Nate in a piece all about how important character is for the game....
Yes, there’s a quality setting called “Can It Run Crysis?” in Crysis Remastered, referencing the age-old joke about the original’s steep PC requirements - but more on that in a minute. As you can see in the trailer below, Crysis Remastered brings a number of visual upgrades to Crytek’s 2007 classic, including a fancy new global illumination system for more realistic lighting, enhanced explosions and particle effects, rippling caustics for the game’s lovely oceans, and loads more....
