- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Instead of going with the usual suspects like vampires, werewolves or even Lovecraftian abominations, Choo-Choo Charles has decided to push things in a bit of a different direction by making the main antagonist a demonic train! In order to make things fair you'll also have control of your very own train, though without any supernatural abilities at your disposal you'll need to go through the process of collecting resources, weapons and upgrades if you want to stand even a chance at surviving the night.
What all of this insanity looks like in action, that you can check out through one of the gameplay trailers below. Have a gander, it's quite an odd one:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: The Legacy of the Moonspell expansion has now arrived, and so far it's looking like another solid content update!
After releasing an absurd amount of extra content through a variety of free updates, the Vampire Survivors team has now decided to take a crack at creating their very first paid expansion. Not to worry, however, as the freshly announced Legacy of the Moonspell DLC is going to be just as dirt cheap as the game itself - $2!
In terms of actual content, the Legacy of the Moonspell expansion will bring with it Mt. Moonspell as a massive (twenty-five times the size) new map with several different environments, eight new characters to unlock and mess around with, as well as thirteen new weapons to help you create even more monstrously overpowered builds. Naturally, there's also going to be a bunch of new music to jam out to - six new tracks to be specific!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
In an effort to make Dwarf Fortress as approachable to new players as possible, the Bay 12 Games team has now unleashed the new and improved Steam version. As you might expect, the Steam version of Dwarf Fortress brings with it greatly enhanced visuals, an overhauled UI and improved controls, a variety of quality-of-life features, and most importantly of all, detailed tutorials that will gently ease you into the madhouse that is Dwarf Fortress' universe.
What some of these improvements look like in action, as well as what Dwarf Fortress is even all about, that you can find out through the launch trailer below. Have a gander:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
At this point I'm absolutely certain that the lovely folks over at Re-Logic simply do not understand what the word "final" even means. I say this because despite the 'final' Journey's End update launching all the way back in May 2020, the Terraria team is still working on creating brand new toys for us to play with!
While the exact details are still shrouded in mystery, what I can tell you is that a portion of the upcoming Update 1.4.5 will be dedicated to a crossover with Dead Cells. If previous crossovers are any judge this means that Update 1.4.5 will likely bring with it some sort of cosmetic item like a pet or costume, one of the more iconic bosses or enemies from Dead Cells, or perhaps even a bit of both!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you're tired of the standard version of Among Us and you're looking for something to help reignite that spark, you might be interested to hear that Among Us VR has now been unleashed for Meta Quest, Rift/Rift S and Steam VR. As the name might suggest, Among Us VR is essentially the same social deduction game as the original, though this time around you're the one personally doing all of the sneaking, vent-crawling and backstabbing, as well as occasionally running away in terror!
Besides a couple of general improvements and extra minigames, the most exciting addition that arrived with Among Us VR is proximity-based voice chat. Only being able to talk with players close to you is a great way to amplify the tension, fan the flames of paranoia, and create all of that delicious chaos that makes a match of Among Us truly enjoyable. So even though it's a relatively simple feature in the grand scheme of things, proximity chat is a real game-changer!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Deep Rock Galactic's Season 4: Critical Corruption is coming June 15th with jetpacks, new enemies and arcade games.
[Update]: Deep Rock Galactic devs have shared an infographic with some truly impressive stats for 2022.
If you ever wanted to give the co-op focused Deep Rock Galactic a try, this would be the perfect time to do so. Not only is it ~67% off on Steam until November 17th, but the freshly released Season 3 - Plaguefall has also brought with it a whole bunch of new toys and objectives to mess around with.
For example, each of the four classes has received a powerful and ridiculously over-the-top grenade, the funniest of which is the Gunner's Tactical Leadburster as it's essentially a small machine gun turret masquerading as a grenade! True to its name, the Plaguefall update has also added new events and mission objectives centered around purging the highly infectious Rockpox plague so you can get back to the all-important business of earning heaps of money for the company.
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Dead Cells' first 2023 expansion will be a rather ambitious crossover with Castlevania.
[Update]: As a small token of gratitude, Terraria will be adding Dead Cells crossover content at some point in 2023!
Continuing with the seemingly endless wave of new content, the Dead Cells team has now released the second and rather chunky indie crossover update. This one brings with it a variety of weapons, skills and cosmetic outfits themed after Terraria, Shovel Knight, Hotline Miami, Katana ZERO, Risk of Rain and Slay the Spire.
Out of the bunch, the Slay the Spire item is by far the most unique as it's essentially four skills in one. Each of the 'cards' comes with passive bonuses and a powerful active ability that will then switch you over to a new combination inspired by a different Slay the Spire class. It takes a little bit of time to get used to the idea of constantly switching your skillset around, but it's definitely a nice bit of fun and a solid new addition for Dead Cells!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Horror games frequently subject our characters to gruesome fates in order to amplify the tension and make the monsters feel more menacing, but the recently released Endoparasitic takes this concept to a whole new level. I say this because the very first thing that happens in Endoparasitic is that shadowy monsters rip off three of your limbs, thus leaving you with only one arm with which you have to do everything!
And when I say everything, I really do mean that as you'll need to use your singular appendage to push yourself along the ground, manipulate objects, and even painstakingly mess around with your own inventory. Things get especially messy in combat as you not only need to stand still in order to shoot, but you also need to manually reload your bullets one by one while the mangled monstrosities shamble towards your defenseless body. Needless to say, this makes Endoparasitic's gameplay incredibly stressful, yet also quite effective at conveying a real sense of dread since you are so frequently helpless.
Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef is an over-the-top, Metal Slug inspired run & gun platformer
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
There are tons of Warhammer 40k games out there these days, though for whatever reason the vast majority of them are centered around the Imperium and feature some flavor of strategy gameplay. However, the recently released Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef is a major exception as it not only forgoes strategy in favor of over-the-top action, but it also ignores the usual Space Marine nonsense in favor of giving the Orks a bit of a spotlight!
As you might imagine from a game starring Orks, Shootas, Blood & Teef is all about blasting your way through a bunch of colorful levels while shouting mostly complete and utter nonsense all throughout the process. What this sort of insanity looks like in action, that you can find out through the launch trailer below. Have a peek:
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Dwarf Fortress' new and improved version has now landed onto Steam, and I'm happy to say that it has done so alongside overwhelmingly positive reviews!.
After a fair bit of time in development, Dwarf Fortress' much-anticipated Steam port has now finally been pinned for a December 6th launch. Rather than be a simple copy of the free version, the Steam port will bring with it an assortment of quality-of-life features and improvements to make the process of learning and playing Dwarf Fortress a lot less overwhelming, especially for new players.
These features include a set of stylish visuals to better help represent what's happening in the world, an overhauled UI focused around usability and readability, Steam Workshop support to make modding easier, as well as a bunch of quality-of-life improvements and additions to help smooth out any rough edges. Most importantly, at least as far as pure beginners are concerned, the Steam version of Dwarf Fortress will also come with a comprehensive tutorial that will (hopefully) instill you with all the knowledge you need to set off on your own.