Valve has officially revealed all of The Steam Awards winners for 2021
- By Ash
- in News
With the great winter sale and the last round of voting finally concluded, Valve has now officially revealed the 2021 Steam Award winners! You can find the full list, all neatly sorted by category, over at the Steam Awards website.
Despite being a purely community-driven affair and thus liable to become a popularity contest, I'm very happy to say that this year's winners have been well chosen! Nioh 2 got recognized as a difficult but highly enjoyable game, the heavily co-op focused It Takes Two rightly secured the Better With Friends category, while the Labor of Love award went to Terraria and its never-ending stream of quality updates.
It took a while, but Dying Light 2 will finally be launching on February 4, 2022
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Techland has now also revealed their plans for Dying Light 2's post-launch updates and DLC.
[Update]: My review for Dying Light 2 is now up, and I'm happy to say that it's a somewhat misguided yet still highly entertaining bandit-kicking simulator!
After going through a bunch of development trouble and numerous delays, Dying Light 2 is now nearly upon us. So if you're in the mood for parkouring your way through the zombie apocalypse, mark February 4, 2022 on your calendar as that's when Dying Light 2 will be wall-jumping onto PC and consoles.
As for what exactly you can expect to see in terms of gameplay and tone, that you can find out through two of the recent trailers. The first is the fancy cinematic showing off what sort of atmosphere Dying Light 2 is going for, while the second one is a lengthy gameplay preview. Have a gander:
After years of requests, Project Zomboid devs are now working on adding NPCs
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Project Zomboid's Build 42 update is aiming to massively expand the world map.
[Update]: Project Zomboid's Update 41.73 has added scores of small but highly welcome changes.
Despite only just releasing the massive Build 41 update that brought with it online multiplayer, improved visuals and a boatload of gameplay changes, Project Zomboid devs are already setting their sights on the next big feature. As you might guess from the title, it will be the long-awaited addition of NPCs!
While the work on NPCs has already begun, it's important to temper your expectations as the full implementation of the NPC system will require quite a few major updates to complete. In other words, once the NPCs arrive alongside Build 43 they will likely still be unpolished and a bit rudimentary. The good news is that the subsequent major updates will all be focused around them, so the system should get fleshed out sooner rather than later.
After a long wait, Cuphead's The Delicious Last Course expansion will be launching on June 30, 2022
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Cuphead - The Delicious Last Course has arrived with a new character and deviously delightful new bosses.
It has taken far, far longer than originally anticipated, but it seems that Cuphead's The Delicious Last Course expansion is now nearly ready for prime time. As such, you can expect to see Cuphead's very first DLC launch onto PC and consoles on June 30, 2022.
Once it arrives, The Delicious Last Course will add Ms. Chalice as a brand new character with her own moveset and abilities, all of which will be usable in both the DLC and the main campaign. There will also be a previously undiscovered Inkwell Isle to explore, an assortment of new bosses to endlessly slam your head against, as well as plenty of new weapons and magical charms to mix things up with.
The modern Tomb Raider trilogy is entirely free to grab until January 6th
- By Ash
- in News
If you're looking for some games to cuddle up with over the next few weeks, you might be interested to hear that the modern Tomb Raider trilogy is currently free to grab. All you have to do is head on over to the Epic Games Store, grab yourself a copy of each one, and you'll be good to go.
The only catch, as always, is that the giveaway is time limited. So make sure to snag the trilogy before the giveaway ends on January 6, 2022, after which you'll be able to play the games whenever you want and for however long you want.
Dark fantasy action-RPG Weird West has been pushed back to March 31, 2022
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Weird West has now arrived alongside some pretty positive reviews.
[Update]: Weird West devs have now released an extremely lengthy preview showing off talking pigmen and other assorted craziness.
Weird West is an upcoming dark fantasy action-RPG that combines the usual stories about lawmen and gunslingers with fantastical creatures and otherworldly powers. So not only will you be able to engage in shootouts at noon, but also transform into everything from a werewolf to a tornado!
If that kind of nonsense sounds like it's right up your alley, I'm afraid I have somewhat bad news to deliver. Due to the WolfEye Studios team needing a bit more time in order to ensure Weird West is fully polished, the release date has now been pushed back from January 11 to March 31, 2022.
Alan Wake and Control studio Remedy has begun working on a co-operative PvE shooter
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: It took a while for this announcement to arrive, but Remedy Entertainment is now also working on Control 2!
[Update]: Remedy has now also begun work on big-budget remakes of both Max Payne and Max Payne 2!
Despite already working on a numerous new games, including a co-op focused spin-off of Control, Remedy Entertainment has just announced a brand new one. The freshly revealed project Vanguard is still extremely early in development so the details are few and far between, but so far it looks like it's going to be a free-to-play, co-operative PvE shooter.
While Vanguard will be an original IP and take place in its very own universe, it will share the same focus on narrative as some of Remedy's previous games. As for the release platforms, Vanguard will be developed with Unreal Engine and will be launching onto both PC and consoles.