After five years of quality updates, Dead Cells is soon getting its final one
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
To say that Dead Cells has had a lot of support over the years would be quite an understatement. Between the crossover updates, paid DLC and numerous free additions, the number of weapons, locations and potential builds increased significantly since launch, and the game is much better for it.
Alas, all good things must eventually come to an end, and the same goes for Dead Cells. So after five years of updates, it looks like the upcoming Patch 35 will be the very last one. A real shame since I truly believe Dead Cells could've easily sustained many more updates and DLCs given how fun the core gameplay is, but I certainly won't fault the Evil Empire team for wanting to move onto something new after all this time.
Elden Ring Retrospective - Seven major issues I'd love to see fixed in the DLC or beyond
- By Ash
- in Reviews
With the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion fast approaching, I figured this would be a pretty good time to play through Elden Ring for the umpteenth time and do a bit of a retrospective. However, instead of just gushing about how awesome the game is, I'd instead like to talk about some of its major shortcomings and how they could be fixed - either in the DLC or whatever the next Souls game might be.
This is obviously going to be very subjective as what one person finds annoying another might find utterly captivating. So before you get mad at me, just remember that all of this comes from a place of love. After all if I wasn't a massive fan of Elden Ring, and Souls games in general, I wouldn't have spent the past couple of weeks redoing the entire game in order to get into a proper mood for the new DLC.
Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion is launching on June 21st with a rather large price tag
- By Ash
- in News
It has taken an entire year for us to get here, but I'm happy to say that FromSoftware has now finally announced that Elden Ring's first (and hopefully not last) expansion Shadow of the Erdtree will be launching on June 21st. As you would expect, the expansion will bring with it a sizable new world to explore, a whole host of bosses and deformed monstrosities to fight against, a new storyline that is likely to bring up more questions than it answers, and naturally, a wide variety of new weapons, spells and equipment to mess around with.
The one bit of bad news is that the price tag is going to be a fair bit larger than any previous Souls DLC. To be more specific, even the basic version of Shadow of the Erdtree will set you back 40€, which is almost as much as the base game itself. Whether this is a simple price hike or if the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion will contain an absurdly large amount of content, that still remains to be seen. Personally, I really hope it's the latter as I certainly wouldn't mind losing another 100 hours or so to Elden Ring!
Broken Roads Review - A Philosophy driven cRPG that's both Fascinating and Frustrating
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Broken Roads, more so than many other games I've reviewed, made me upset. Not upset because it's bad, mind you, but rather because it managed to get me completely hooked on its world and premise, only to then pull the rug right from under me just as things got interesting. There is a core of an amazing game here, but whether due to a lack of resources or time, that idea just wasn't carried through all the way to the end. So despite having a blast with it, I just can't help the feeling that Broken Roads is actually the first half of a much grander storyline that simply doesn't exist.
If you're curious what exactly makes me say that, as well as how Broken Roads managed to get me so invested in it, allow me to share with you my thoughts after spending the past few weeks desperately scrounging for scrap in a post-apocalyptic Australia that, for once, isn't just ripping off Mad Max!
Vermintide 2 has added a brand new map alongside a chonky, shield-bearing Chaos Warrior variant
- By Ash
- in News
While Darktide is still struggling with regular content patches, the Vermintide 2 team continues to impress. Despite being hard at work on the long-awaited addition of PvP multiplayer, they've somehow managed to find the time to release the "A Parting of the Waves" update!
The recent update brings with it a conclusion of the recent Karak Azgaraz storyline, as well as a huge and elaborate new map to explore. It's also worth mentioning that despite the map being directly connected to the Vermintide 1 remasters, it's an entirely new creation, and quite a solid one at that!
Harvest Hunt Review - A highly intense, albeit disappointingly short-lived Horror Roguelike
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Harvest Hunt, as a concept, is amazing. You and an eldritch fiend are stuck playing a game of cat and mouse in a world where the rules constantly change. Sometimes lady luck will favor you and you'll be chasing it with an axe while laughing maniacally, and other times you'll be forced to trudge through a poisonous swamp of sadness and suffering. Usually you'll find yourself somewhere in the middle, but the extremes are definitely where the concept truly shines.
Unfortunately, a concept is all that Harvest Hunt really is. With only one monster, one location and one objective, it takes only a couple of hours to thoroughly explore everything it has to offer. The various roguelike elements do their best to keep things fresh, but there's only so many ways you can remix the duel against Blobbimus Bloo, the Amorphous Blob of Evil before the tension goes away and you start thinking up stupid names for the thing you're supposed to be running away from.
So if you're curious about where Harvest Hunt succeeds, as well as where it stumbles and falls flat on its face, allow me to share with you my thoughts after spending so much time running through an accursed swamp that I now consider Blighttown a vacation destination.
Harvest Hunt is an upcoming and rather intriguing combination of roguelike and survival horror
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: My review for Harvest Hunt is now live, so if you're curious how well a survival-horror and a roguelike mesh together, I welcome you to give it a look.
In a bit of an interesting twist on the usual survival horror formula, the upcoming Harvest Hunt has decided to mix in a bunch of different roguelike elements in order to hopefully keep things tense and interesting for a long time to come. As such, not only will you have to contend with an eldritch horror stalking you through a fetid swamp, but also a variety of random modifiers that can drastically shift the balance in either direction and prevent you from getting too comfortable.
Personally, I really like this idea. Fear of the unknown can be a remarkably strong factor in horror games, and what better way to make the monster unknowable than by constantly changing the rules!