- By Ash
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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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[Update #2]: Deep Rock Galactic's Space Beach Party 2023 event has arrived with festive decorations, silly hats and doubled Battle Pass experience.
[Update]: Deep Rock Galactic's Season 4 has arrived with new enemies, boss, jet boots, and an arcade cabinet.
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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- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Dredge's third update has added the often requested boat customization and 'craberrations'.
[Update]: Dredge's second update has added photography, new events and a passive difficulty mode.
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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[Update]: Darkest Dungeon 2's first post-launch update has added new enemies and full Steam Deck support.
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 #2]: Dredge's second update has added photography, new events and a passive difficulty mode.
[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!
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[Update]: Vampire Survivors will be adding local co-op and fully switching to a new engine on August 17th.
In an announcement that I must admit comes as a massive surprise, the Vampire Survivors team has just revealed that they have partnered with Story Kitchen (who is also working on a Sifu adaptation) to create an animated series. I'd love to give you more information, but the show is still early in development so the exact details are pretty much nonexistent, and the same goes for the expected release date.
As for how exactly the animated show is going to work given that the usual Vampire Survivors run turns into nearly incomprehensible noise towards the end, I have no idea, but I can only hope the animation will be just as stylish as the stuff we've seen in the DLC trailers. And if you haven't seen any of them so far, allow me to share with you the one for the recently released Tides of the Foscari expansion:
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After spending about a year in Early Access, Haemimont Games' survival-focused colony sim Stranded: Alien Dawn has now been unleashed. As you might imagine from the name alone, Stranded: Alien Dawn will task you with caring for a wide array of colonists, creating and evolving your base to deal with both environmental threats and the aggressive fauna, researching new technology to make life easier, and with a bit of luck, carving out a nice little slice of happiness on a hostile world.
If you've played RimWorld, chances are Stranded: Alien Dawn should feel quite familiar as the two games share a lot of the same DNA. Stranded: Alien Dawn is a fair bit simpler and less reliant on outside knowledge to really get into the swing of things, though obviously it pays for that by having less overall complexity.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Deep Rock Galactic's Season 4 has arrived with new enemies, boss, jet boots, and an arcade cabinet.
In order to get everyone excited for the upcoming Season 4, Ghost Ship Games have started releasing small teasers showing off some of the new additions. While they may be brief and lacking in detail, the stuff shown so far does look quite intriguing!
The first teaser is a fairly lighthearted one as it shows the Space Rig getting an arcade machine! What exactly we'll be able to play on it, I have no idea, but I can only imagine it has something to do with copious amounts of drinking and/or mining.