Vermintide 2 update has added an excellent free new map and a couple of cosmetic hats
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Enchanter's Lair, the grand finale of the Curse of Drachenfels trilogy, has now been released alongside the best boss fight so far.
[Update]: The newly released update has removed Beastmen from the Blood in the Darkness map, as well as slightly nerfed their overall power.
A short while ago, Vermintide 2 developer Fatshark announced that they will be adding three new (and entirely free) maps throughout Season 2. The first of the trio, Old Haunts, released alongside the Season 2 update and was heavily inspired by the original game's Castle Drachenfels DLC. Needless to say, it ended up being a pretty good map.
With that in mind, I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that the second map has not only just arrived, but that it is even better than the first! So if you're in the mood for interrupting yet another dastardly Chaos ritual, do make sure to give the newly added Blood in the Darkness map a try!
Westmark Manor is a newly announced, and puzzle-heavy, Lovecraftian adventure game
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you're in the mood for a good ol' fashioned mystery, you might want to keep an eye on the freshly announced Westmark Manor. To put it simply, it is an upcoming Lovecraftian adventure game with a heavy focus on storytelling and atmosphere, as well as plenty of tricky puzzles to keep you on your toes throughout the journey.
You can get a bit of an idea of what this includes, as well as what the overall story might be about, through the recently posted reveal trailer. Have a gander:
RimWorld's Update 1.1 is bringing in a bunch of new content and improvements
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: RimWorld's very first expansion Royalty has now suddenly been released alongside Update 1.1!
If you're like me and you've already had RimWorld consume a frankly embarrassing amount of your free time over the past few years, I'm afraid I bring some bittersweet news. With almost no warning, Ludeon Studios have now released a whole bunch of new content and improvements as a part of the Update 1.1 beta!
In terms of weaponry and armor, the update has added EMP and smoke launcher weapons, barricades to protect yourself from foolish raiders, as well as a lighter variant of marine armor - recon armor. There's also a bunch of new animals like donkeys, horses, sheep, goats, and most importantly of all, geese. As for the characters themselves, they have received a couple of new traits, reworked versions of previous ones, as well as some new tribal backstories to spice things up even further.
Dungeon-crawling RPG Operencia: The Stolen Sun is coming to Steam, PS4 and Switch in March
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Operencia has now made its way to Steam, GOG, PS4 and Switch alongside generally positive reception.
While it has mostly disappeared as a genre these days, I must admit I have a bit of a soft spot for the first-person, dungeon-crawling RPGs of old. If you share my passion for them, you might be interested to hear that Operencia: The Stolen Sun will be breaking its Xbox One and Epic Game Store exclusivity and hopping over to Steam, GOG, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch this March 31st.
Much like its oldschool predecessors, Operencia will have you control a variety of unique characters, each one with their own special abilities and skills to use and synergize with. Naturally, you'll need all of these abilities to defeat the hordes of enemies you'll encounter throughout the levels, as well as to help solve puzzles and search for the secrets that are likely to be littered throughout each of the thirteen map.
Physics-based sandbox Besiege has now officially released from Steam Early Access
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: If you're craving for even more destruction, Sea of Craft is a Besiege inspired physics-based sandbox where you get to build a variety of wacky ships.
After spending around five years in Steam Early Access, the somewhat medieval, physics-based sandbox game Besiege has now been released in full. So if you're in the mood for creating truly terrifying weapons of mass destruction, only to have them inevitably fail and collapse in on themselves, Besiege is well worth checking out!
Besides an assortment of bug fixes and general quality-of-life changes, the launch version has also brought with it the final chapter of Besiege's singleplayer campaign. As you would expect, this final island is littered with nasty fortresses, a variety of new enemies to mow down, as well as "secret magics to unravel" on your journey to the final battle.
World of Horror is an upcoming roguelite adventure game with a striking 1-bit art style
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: I've now reviewed World of Horror's version 1.0 and I'm happy to say that, despite some issues, it's a highly enjoyable roguelike!
[Update]: After nearly three years in Early Access, the full version of World of Horror will be launching for PC, PlayStation and Switch in Summer 2023.
When games go retro, they usually opt to go for either 8-bit or 16-bit graphics, primarily inspired by the old Nintendo consoles. However, the upcoming World of Horror has decided to take things even further back by utilizing a rather striking 1-bit art style. An unusual choice, but I have to admit, it works really well with the whole horror aesthetic!
As for the actual gameplay, World of Horror is a roguelite adventure game that will have you investigate a variety of unusual and often super-natural occurrences, all in an effort to prevent one of the Old Gods from rising and devouring all of humanity in the process. You'll need to figure out who you can trust, which places to visit and which places to avoid, manage your resources including health and sanity, as well as figure out how to deal with cultists using kitchen utensils when you run out of places to hide.
The Dishonored series and two modern Wolfenstein games are now available DRM-free via GOG
- By Ash
- in News
While I've thankfully never been affected myself, there's quite a negative stigma surrounding DRM in games. Some of it is overblown, as is tradition, but there are legitimate concerns about poorly implemented DRM causing performance issues, crashes, as well as making the game in question potentially problematic to play on the next generation of PCs.
With that in mind, you might be glad to hear that GOG and Bethesda have now partnered up to release a bunch of great games with absolutely no DRM. First and foremost, the entirety of the Dishonored series (Dishonored, Dishonored 2 and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider) now not only has no DRM on GOG, but is also on a rather deep discount. So if you're a fan of sneaking around and you haven't played Dishonored just yet, this would be a pretty good time to give it a try.