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It would appear that the success of the Lara Croft and Final Fantasy VII crossovers has really encouraged the PowerWash Simulator team to try to go for bigger and more ambitious additions. As such, not only is PowerWash Simulator getting the previously announced SpongeBob SquarePants crossover at some point this year, but also a Warhammer 40,000 themed update!
Whether this is going to be a free update like the first two crossovers or a paid DLC like SpongeBob, I'm afraid nobody outside of FuturLab currently knows. That said, since the crossover was announced during the Skulls 2023 event celebrating 40 years of Warhammer, I'm definitely expecting the whole thing to be a bit more bombastic than the usual update, so it's quite likely it'll be a piece of paid content. That is purely speculation on my part, however, so it's still entirely possible we'll be able to spray down an Imperial Knight without reaching for our wallets.
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Following in the footsteps of games like Risk of Rain 2, Arrowhead Game Studios have decided to really shake things up for the sequel to their 2015 co-op shooter Helldivers. As such, not only is Helldivers 2 going to be bigger, better and more polished than its predecessor, but it'll also forgo the restricting top-down view in favor of a more personal and higher fidelity third-person one.
When it comes to the actual gameplay, it should come as little surprise to hear that Helldivers 2 will equip you with an assortment of absurdly overpowered weaponry and throw you into the meatgrinder against equally absurd numbers of enemies. Add to that a plethora of toys that all cause copious amounts of friendly fire, a constant stream of chaos and nonsense, as well as overly patriotic, Starship Troopers flavored dialogue, and you've got yourself the building blocks of a (hopefully) highly entertaining co-op game.
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Doom is all about a ridiculously angry space marine carving his way through hordes upon hordes of demons. Warhammer 40,000 also happens to heavily feature superhuman Space Marines fighting an endless war against demonkind. So what happens when you combine the two?
Well, the answer is a sprite-based boomer shooter by the name of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun! As you would expect from that description alone, Boltgun is all about shooting, melting, exploding or simply chainswordin' your way through legions of pixely and surprisingly adorable enemies spanning everything from the lowly Chaos cultists to more impressive beasties like the Plague Toads of Nurgle or Tzeentch's Lords of Change!
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[Update]: PowerWash Simulator is getting a VR version and Warhammer 40k crossover in 2023.
After getting their feet wet with the Lara Croft and Final Fantasy VII themed crossover updates, it looks like the PowerWash Simulator team has now decided they're finally ready to try out a proper DLC. And naturally, what better place to start than at the bottom of the ocean in Bikini Bottom!
The overly wordy "PowerWash Simulator SpongeBob SquarePants Special Pack" will bring with it a mini-campaign consisting of six levels featuring iconic locations and objects like: Conch Street, The Bikini Bottom Bus, The Krusty Krab; The Patty Wagon; The Invisible Boatmobile and The Mermalair. Unlike the previous few updates, the SpongeBob crossover will also come with a redesigned player character and equally thematic powerwashing gear. After all, what would a DLC set deep underwater be without immersion?
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After a lengthy series of cryptic teasers, the Deep Rock Galactic team has now finally revealed the first bit of concrete information about Season 4: Critical Corruption - the release date! You can expect to see the PC version arrive on June 15th, while the console players will be able to dive in a week later, on June 22nd.
While the exact list of new features and additions has not been announced just yet, allow me to give you a brief rundown of everything that has been teased so far, as well as what I think it might actually be. Without further ado, let's dive in:
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- in Indie Games
After spending a bit over two years in Early Access, the Quake inspired and Soviet-era oppression flavored boomer shooter HROT is now almost ready to be unleashed. You can expect to see it launch in full on May 16th alongside the third and final episode, which will bring the total level count to 26 plus an additional 4 endless arenas.
There is unfortunately no launch trailer just yet, but you can get a pretty good idea of what kind of gameplay and atmosphere HROT is going for through the original Early Access one. Have a peek, it's quite a unique style:
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According to the recently released roadmap, Black Salt Games are planning to release a series of quality-of-life focused updates for their Lovecraftian fishing game Dredge before finally unleashing a chunky paid expansion in the latter part of the year. While the DLC is still shrouded in mystery, I'm pleased to say that the first of the planned updates has now arrived with some nifty tweaks!
First and foremost, Update 1.1 has given the in-game map a couple of often-requested features: the ability to zoom and scroll, as well as the ability to place a variety of markers! Best of all, these markers can be seen through the Spyglass item, so if you're returning to an area in order to finish off any outstanding quests you should be able to easily get through it all without having to keep opening and closing your map.
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- in Indie Games
Over seven years have gone by since the original Darkest Dungeon arrived, and if you're itching for more of that stylish, turn-based roguelike action, you'll be happy to hear that Red Hook Studios have now returned with a fancy new sequel! While the two games are very similar in spirit, and especially when it comes to the punishing difficulty that will see many of your favorite characters unceremoniously kick the bucket, Darkest Dungeon 2 is by no means a simple copy.
The sequel brings with it 3D visuals, a much greater focus on launching lengthy expeditions that will see you make plenty of potentially fatal decisions, characters that can form friendships and rivalries, along with a whole bunch of tweaks and changes to the underlying gameplay mechanics in order to make things feel fresh and interesting. What some of this looks like in action, that you can check out through the launch trailer below:
Story-focused cooking sim Cook Serve Forever has now been delayed, though thankfully only for a week
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- in Indie Games
[Update]: Cook Serve Forever has now launched into Early Access, though unfortunately alongside some fairly mixed reviews.
Cook Serve Forever, the story-focused spin-off of the cooking and restaurant management series "Cook, Serve, Delicious!", was originally supposed to land into Steam Early Access on May 8th. Unfortunately, due to some sort of technical trouble, the Vertigo Gaming team have now been forced to postpone the big launch. Thankfully, it's not going to be a long delay as Cook Serve Forever will be launching a mere week later - on May 15th!
"Hey folks! David (aka chubigans) here, the Creative Lead on Cook Serve Forever/Cook Serve Delicious," reads the brief announcement. "We have been working extremely hard to get the game ready for launch on May 8th, however we ran into some severe technical issues a few days prior and have been working feverishly to fix it."
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[Update]: Dredge's Patch 1.1 has now made navigation smoother and added quality-of-life improvements,
Despite being a bit on the simpler side of things, Dredge is a remarkably charming fishing and exploration game with a Lovecraftian twist. It's all about catching fish and collecting various materials in order to upgrade your ship, using those upgrades to venture further and catch even bigger fish, slowly unlocking more and more fancy toys to make your life easier, and so the cycle goes. Oh, and occasionally you'll get attacked by a gigantic sea monster that wants nothing more than to chow down on your ship, but it's mostly about earning fat stacks of cash and creating the best fishing boat the world has ever seen!
If that sort of thing sounds like it's right up your alley, you'll be pleased to hear that Black Salt Games have announced that they're not done with Dredge just yet! Instead, according to the freshly released roadmap they're planning to launch a couple of free updates over the next few months, and then later this year follow that up with a chunky paid DLC!