Life is Strange devs have now released their next game - a vampire themed RPG called Vampyr
- By Ash
- in News
Vampyr is a newly released and vampire themed RPG from Dontnod, the studio behind Life is Strange and the unfortunately rarely remembered Remember Me. It tells the story of a doctor trying to prevent a deadly plague from spreading throughout all of London, all the while wrestling with his vampiric curse that forces him to feed on those he's trying to save. A fairly solid premise for an RPG, I'm sure you'll agree.
If you're curious about what all of this might look like in gameplay terms, however, allow me to share with you the recently posted launch trailer. It's not very long, but it'll give you a decent idea of the sort of atmosphere and tone Vampyr is going for. Have a gander:
Dark Souls Remastered Review - A solid step forward for an already excellent game
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Dark Souls is without a single doubt my favorite game of all time, and one that I've played through more than a dozen times by this point. It may have inspired many sequels and similar games, but it's level design, characters and combat style remain as unique and refreshing as they were when it first launched.
All of this applies to Dark Souls Remastered as well, though it also comes with the added benefit of greatly improved performance, consistent 60 FPS, better online connectivity, and a variety of minor quality of life changes. While I'm saddened that some of Dark Souls' least interesting locations have not been enhanced, locations like Lost Izalith or the Valley of Drakes, Dark Souls Remastered still manages to stand proudly as a more polished and stable version of the original.
So if you're curious about what exactly has changed and whether the Remastered version brings enough to the table to be worth the asking price, allow me to share my thoughts now I've explored everything it has to offer. Oh, and if you've never played Dark Souls and you're wondering what all of the fuss is about, I'll do my best to answer that question after the Remastered edition review.
Slay the Spire's third character "The Defect" has now arrived to the live version
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Slay the Spire devs are working on a fourth and entirely free DLC character!
After spending a rather considerable amount of time on the beta servers, Slay the Spire's third character "The Defect" has now finally made its way to the live version as well. Since this is Slay the Spire we're talking about, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear that The Defect is not your standard mage character, but rather more of a robot wizard that needs to juggle orbs in order to unleash his spells!
There is a bit of a difficulty curve to learning The Defect's mechanics given that you can cycle through your orbs in order to change up your tactics, but also maintain only a limited amount of them at the same time. Furthermore, each of the orbs provides both passive and active bonuses, so careful planning is greatly encouraged if you want to get the most mileage out of your cards. Most importantly though, The Defect is a whole bunch of fun to mess around with, so I'd definitely recommend spending a bit of time getting familiar with its mechanics.
The Warhammer themed Steam sale "Skulls for the Skull Throne" is set to end in 24 hours
- By Ash
- in News
If you ever wanted to give the Warhammer or Warhammer 40k universe a closer look, or if you're like me and you're itching to pick up the rare few games you don't already own, you might want to head on over to Steam. There is currently a massive Skulls for the Skull Throne sale going on, and as you might imagine from the name alone, it's filled with all sorts of Warhammer games on deep discounts, both new and old.
The one catch is that the whole sale will only last for another ~24 hours, so if you're interested you might want to dive in as soon as possible. If you're not sure what to grab, however, allow me to give you a couple recommendations, each one from a different genre:
Total War: Warhammer 2's second DLC has arrived alongside Norsca and a massive free update
- By Ash
- in News
After being delayed for around half a year now, the savage Norsca has finally made its way to Total War: Warhammer 2 as a playable faction in both the Vortex and Mortal Empires campaign. The patch has also brought with it Total War: Warhammer 2's second piece of paid DLC, The Queen and the Crone, as well as an absolutely massive list of changes for both the new and old races alike.
First things first, The Queen and The Crone DLC brings with it two new Legendary Lords with unique campaign mechanics, Alarielle the Everqueen and Crone Hellebron, as well as a new Hero type for the High Elves and a new Lord type for the Dark Elves. There's also a new and rather powerful campaign 'resource' to fight over in the form of the Sword of Khaine, a variety of new units for both the Dark Elves and High Elves, and naturally, a whole host of new Regiments of Renown. You can get a brief glimpse of all of them in action through the recently posted trailer. Have a look:
Vermintide 2 update has added more than 100 new cosmetics, daily quests, and mod support
- By Ash
- in News
If you're looking to make your Vermintide 2 heroes as fancy as possible, now would be the time to crack open all of your chests because the massive cosmetics update has just arrived. The rather plainly named Patch 1.1.0.1 brings with it more than 100 new cosmetics, a new quests and challenges system that rewards both chests and unique cosmetics, the Green dust fix, as well as the long-awaited mod support and Steam Workshop integration!
While the recently posted trailer does not showcase some of the most interesting cosmetics out there, it should still give you a bit of an idea of what to expect from this patch as a whole. Have a gander, it's a fairly short video:
Pillars of Eternity 2 Review - A worthy sequel and a highly enjoyable RPG in its own right [Spoiler-free]
- By Ash
- in Reviews
I realized Pillars of Eternity 2 was going to be right up my alley when I recruited one of my most useful companions at the furthest, least-interesting corner of a local tavern. He wasn't any sort of powerful mage or mighty warrior boasting of his conquests, not even an important character to the story, but rather a simple masseur with dreams of adventure.
There was no sidequest pointing me to where he's located, or a even rumor telling me he might be willing to join my cause. Instead, to find him I had to explore the world and talk to all of the interesting people I saw along the way. Sometimes these people would have relevance to the main storyline, and other times they would just be random individuals that are completely oblivious to what's happening in the world at large, but just about every single one of them was well worth talking to.
All of this helps create a world that is truly a wonder to explore, and one that I've spent more than 50 hours in without feeling like I've experiencing everything it has to offer. So if you're interested in seeing what Pillars of Eternity 2 does right, as well as what sort of problems lie hidden beneath the surface, allow me to share my thoughts after a rather eventful playthrough.