The puzzle-platformer Catherine appears to be getting a PC version
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: The PC version of Catherine has now suddenly arrived on Steam!
After the success of games like Bayonetta, Yakuza and Valkyria Chronicles on Steam, it appears that the puzzle-platformer Catherine will be transitioning from consoles to PC in the near future as well. Mind you, we still have no official confirmation, but given the teasers and leaks so far, it really does seem like it's just a matter of time before the veil of secrecy is lifted.
The first and most important clue is that Catherine's ESRB rating has recently been updated to include a PC version. If that isn't enough, you might also be interested to hear that Valkyria Chronicles 4 and Bayonetta have now posted pictures of sheep onto their Steam pages, which is quite significant given how prominently they feature in Catherine.
Slay the Spire has now added Steam Workshop support and significantly easier access to mods
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
After an extremely successful and productive stay in Early Access, the rogue-like card game Slay the Spire will be officially released this January 23rd. In order to pave the way for the full release, as well as add even more longevity to Slay the Spire, the developers have now made it significantly easier to access mods.
As you might imagine, this means that Slay the Spire now fully supports Steam Workshop. So if you're up for playing around with new characters, cards or even mechanics, simply install a couple of mods and see how it goes for you. Adding or removing mods is both extremely simple, so don't be afraid to experiment until you find a combination you like.
Overwatch is likely getting a balance update next week, as well as a "cool little surprise"
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: The balance update has now arrived, and it is pretty darn impressive! As for the surprise, it is a short story featuring Ana and Soldier 76, with a special guest appearance from Ana's fancy new Bastet skin!
Overwatch has been getting monthly balance updates for quite a long time now, and while there was a little bit of a break during the holiday season, you'll be glad to hear that things will be going back to normal next week. According to Jeff Kaplan on the official forums, the team is hoping to put a brand new patch onto the PTR next week, though there is still a chance things might get delayed if a major issue ends up popping up.
More interestingly, however, Jeff Kaplan has also announced that a "cool little surprise" will be coming next week as well. What exactly this surprise will be, nobody currently knows, but given that it will have patch notes on the PTR, I think it's safe to say it will be something gameplay related.
A brand new Alien game appears to be in the works for the movie's 40th anniversary
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: The game has been revealed as the mobile-only Alien: Blackout.
The classic sci-fi horror movie Alien will be celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear that the official Alien Twitter has now released a brief teaser for some of the upcoming projects. While the details are few and far between, it does appear that there is both a movie and a game currently in the works.
What exactly that game might be, nobody knows, but I can only hope it'll be a sequel to Alien: Isolation as that was a genuinely excellent game. That said, a co-op action game in the vein of Colonial Marines could also be a pretty fun one to mess around with. After all, the concept itself was fine, it's just that the execution was a bit... lacking.
Castlevania inspired Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night will no longer be coming to Linux and Mac
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: The roguelike game mode has now also been canceled, but in its place Ritual of the Night is getting a highly customizable Randomizer mode.
[Update]: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has now been officially released and I'm glad to say it's received good reviews so far! Unfortunately, Mac and Linux versions still remain canceled.
Despite having an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2015, the Castlevania inspired Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has unfortunately ended up running into one problem after another. As such, it might not come as much of a surprise to hear that due to some compatibility issues the Mac and Linux versions have now been canceled.
"We have made this tough decision due to challenges of supporting middleware and online feature support and making sure we deliver on the rest of the scope for the game," reads the developer update. "We will be offering backers who planned to play the game on Mac and Linux the option to change the platform of their order."
Dead Cells update has rebalanced most of the weapons and added a Custom Game mode
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Dead Cells already has pretty high replay value given that it's a rogue-like, but if you're looking to extend those hours even further, you might want to check out the most recent Pimp Your Run update. It has rebalanced the vast majority of items, removed enemy auto-scaling, placed time doors in-between levels, and perhaps most importantly of all, added a new Custom Game mode.
As you might imagine, the Custom Game mode gives you the ability to tweak your experience in a variety of ways. You can unlock all of the loot immediately and just bypass the progression system, mess around with the loot tables in order to create custom challenges, and naturally, pick and choose your starting items. It's a fairly simple concept, but also a pretty darn entertaining one.
Steam has released the list of the most popular and bestselling PC games of 2018
- By Ash
- in News
Back in July Valve shared the list of bestselling games from 2018, and much to my surprise, a good chunk of them were either indie games or games from relatively small studios. Since that list ended up receiving an overwhelmingly positive response, Valve has now gone a step further and released the list of top games across a variety of categories, and once again I am pleased to say that there's quite a few indies up there!
So if you're curious about what the bestselling games of the year are, as well as which new games have been the most successful, you should head on over to Steam. There's also a list of the best received VR games, Early Access releases that have seen the greatest success, and perhaps most importantly of all, a list showing which games have managed to captivate the largest amount of players.