MTG Arena's Dragonstorm set has arrived alongside a barrage of flying lizards
- By Ash
- in News
After a couple of sets that borrowed heavily from our modern day, real world, I'm pleased to say that Magic has now returned to a more fantastical and grounded setting - the plane of Tarkir. As you would expect from a set...uhhhh, set on Tarkir, the freshly launched Dragonstorm is full of all sorts of dragons, a plethora of cards representing each of the five tri-color clans, as well as a surprisingly large chunk of individually powerful cards that will likely remain relevant for a very long time.
With all of that in mind, I'm sure it'll come as a massive shock to hear that Dragonstorm has been a raging success so far! Hopefully this means we'll get more traditional Magic sets in the future rather than ones where popular characters do random cosplay, because after MKM, OTJ and DFT, I must admit I missed some good ol' fashioned fantasy.
Metro 2033 is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a free giveaway
- By Ash
- in News
If you've somehow managed to avoid playing Metro 2033 or its Redux variant all these years, I'm happy to say I bring some good news. The original Metro 2033 is currently celebrating its 15th anniversary, and in order to get everyone in on the action 4A Games are now giving away Metro 2033 Redux on Steam.
The giveaway will end at 5pm on April 16th, so while you do have a little bit of leeway, I'd highly recommend grabbing it sooner rather than later, lest you forget. And once you have added it to your account, it'll be yours to keep for good. Don't worry, you won't have to finish the whole game in a single day!
The Stone of Madness is a highly stylized stealth/tactics game from the Blasphemous team
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
I have to give it to The Game Kitchen, they are not an easy studio to predict! They went from making point & click adventures to grim yet stylish Metroidvanias, and now they're working on what looks like a Commandos inspired real-time, stealth focused tactics game!
Set in an 18th-century Spanish monastery, The Stone of Madness will put you in control of five prisoners, each with their own unique skills and resources. However, unlike games like Commandos where you play with a team of hardened veterans, your characters in The Stone of Madness aren't exactly the most... stable bunch. So not only will you have to navigate obstacles and deal with all sorts of enemies with them, but you'll also have to manage their phobias and their dwindling mental health.
Dredge is a remarkably charming combination of Lovecraftian horror and commercial fishing
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Dredge's Patch 1.1 has now made navigation smoother and added quality-of-life improvements,
[Update]: Good news! Dredge is getting an expansion alongside a couple of quality-of-life focused updates!
Whether we're talking about real life or video games, I must admit I don't like fishing. It's a slow, boring activity that mostly seems like an excuse to crack open a few beers and kick up your feet. Yet despite this, I found myself really enamored with Dredge - a Lovecraftian exploration game that's almost entirely about roaming the isles looking for strange new fish to annoy.
The main reason Dredge got its hooks into me is the simple yet compelling gameplay loop. You need to catch fish and collect various materials in order to upgrade your ship, which then allows you to explore further and catch even bigger fish, which then lets you upgrade your ship with even more fancy toys, and so it goes. Most things take a bit of effort to unlock which makes acquiring new items feel satisfying, yet the process is never too grindy so you get to constantly enjoy a stream of new abilities and enhancements.
Cassette Beasts is a Pokemon inspired RPG that's all about Fusing monsters together
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you're in the mood for roaming the world in search of monsters to catch, and perhaps even creating a couple of your own, you might want to give Cassette Beasts a look. To put it quite simply, Cassette Beasts is a Pokemon inspired turn-based tactics game where you can fuse literally any two monsters together to amplify their abilities and hopefully get an upper hand over your opponents. Best of all, each one is fully animated, so discovering all of the combinations should be a nice bit of fun!
Besides smashing monsters together, Cassette Beasts will also task you with exploring an open world, solving puzzles, and delving trough dungeons. In true Pokemon fashion, certain monster abilities can also be used outside of combat in order to aid with exploration, so you'll definitely want to revisit old areas every once in a while in order to see what new secrets or shortcuts you can uncover.
Risk of Rain Returns is a remastered and refreshed version of the classic roguelike
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
In celebration of Risk of Rain's tenth anniversary, Hopoo Games have unleashed Risk of Rain Returns. This comprehensive remaster brings with it greatly improved visuals, three new Survivors, dozens of new stage variants, a brand new challenge mode, as well as a whole bunch of new items and enemies to mess around with.
Besides all of the new content, Risk of Rain Returns has also freshened up a bunch of the old stuff. You can look forward to a revamped multiplayer mode, alternate abilities for all of the original Survivors, extra lore to uncover, and perhaps most importantly of all, a large array of quality of life changes to make everything just a bit smoother.
The Holy Gosh Darn is humorous and time-bending adventure from the Manual Samuel team
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you're in the mood for a bit of puzzle-solving and general buffoonery, you might want to check out the somewhat recent The Holy Gosh Darn. Much like the team's previous games Helheim Hassle and Manual Samuel, The Holy Gosh Darn is a humorous and narrative-driven adventure that will have you go head to head with a variety of zany characters as you attempt to singlehandedly save the world from complete annihilation.
The big difference this time around, however, is that you have access to a time-traveling watch that allows you to skip to any point during the day in order to manipulate events, solve puzzles and most importantly of all, avoid awkward small talk. But enough of my rambling! Instead, have a look at the launch trailer below. That should give you a pretty good idea of what The Holy Gosh Darn is trying to go for: