Archived News:

Friday, Dec 06, 2024

Path of Exile 2 Early Access Launch and Issues

The Steam Listing is live for Path of Exile 2, signifying the Early Access launch of the action/RPG sequel from Grinding Gear Games. Early Access is for those who purchased supporter packs, while the full launch will be free-to-play. Unfortunately the Path of Exile Website indicates the game is still down for maintenance, several hours after launch. Early hiccups were not entirely unexpected, as this post warns of problems that may arise from over one million new players trying to join at once. Here's the previous Early Access Gameplay Trailer and the official description:
Path of Exile 2 is a next generation free-to-play Action RPG from Grinding Gear Games, featuring co-op for up to six players. Path of Exile 2 takes place in the land of Wraeclast, a dark continent populated by unique cultures, ancient secrets, and monstrous dangers. A sinister threat, long thought destroyed, has begun creeping back on the edge of civilisation, driving people mad and sickening the land with Corruption.

Path of Exile 2 features a brand new campaign with six acts, 100 distinct environments, 600 monsters and 100 bosses.
Continue here to read the full story.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Early Access

Bethesda announces that Early Access is now underway for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the latest adventure that takes players into the action-packed life of an archaeology professor. This is a perk for those who purchased the Premium or Collector's Edition, and it will come to Standard Edition customers on Monday. Here's the Official Launch Trailer and here's word:
If you aren’t already enjoying early access, you still have time to join! Learn how here.

The legendary archaeologist’s latest adventure will take him from the comforting and familiar halls of Marshall College to locations around the world like the Vatican, Sukhothai, the Himalayas and more. Tackle complex puzzles and avoid hidden traps while exploring stunningly handcrafted, richly detailed environments like a true adventurer. Step into Indy’s shoes and see through his eyes as you use your wits, whip and fists in a race to uncover an ancient and mysterious power before it falls into the wrong hands.
Continue here to read the full story.

Miscellaneous Releases

  • Cave Hikers on Steam (Windows). "Cave Hikers is a relaxing and humorous 2D interactive cartoon mockumentary that follows three characters through a cavernous world, on a quest to find the mystical 'cave with an infinite ceiling'."

Marvel Rivals Launched

Marvel Rivals is now free-to-play for PC and consoles, offering a third-person hero shooter from NetEase featuring a roster of Marvel Comics superheroes and villains. The Windows edition is available on the Epic Games Store and Steam. Word is this kicks off Season 0, titled "Dooms' Rise," and that all 33 heroes are unlocked for all players right from the start. Here's the previously released musical Launch Trailer showing the coat of anime paint this sports. Read on for more:
Marvel Rivals is a Super Hero Team-Based PVP Shooter! Assemble an all-star Marvel squad, devise countless strategies by combining powers to form unique Team-Up skills and fight in destructible, ever-changing battlefields across the continually evolving Marvel universe!

Choose from a vast array of fan-favorite and cult-classic Marvel Super Heroes and Super Villains from across the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men, and many more from across the Marvel Multiverse.
Continue here to read the full story.

Secret Level Games Free on Prime Gaming

The Prime Gaming Blog announces another batch of freebies are now available for Prime Gaming members, which means all Amazon Prime Subscribers. The new giveaways are for keeps as long as you snag them in time. This is to celebrate the imminent debut of Secret Level, a 15-episode animated series centered on videogames launching on Amazon Prime on December 10th. Word is the new giveaways a games featured in the show, so you can consider playing them your homework. Here's word:
To celebrate the upcoming premiere of the new video game anthology series Secret Level, streaming exclusively on Prime Video from December 10, Prime members can claim a variety of games from some of the franchises that feature in the show, and Prime members in the United States can also take advantage of several retail deals associated with games featured in Secret Level.

Starting now, Prime members can claim Spelunky, The Outer Worlds, Space Hulk: Deathwing — Enhanced Edition, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition, Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition and Necromunda: Hired Gun, and they can play Mega Man 11 on Amazon Luna via the Prime Gaming offer wherever Luna is available. Additionally, Prime members can grab Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II on December 12. Prime Gaming also has a surprise in store for New World: Aeternum players when the episode drops on December 10, so be sure to stay tuned for more details on some free in-game items!

Get Pankapu for Free

The Dear Villagers Publisher Sale 2024 Re-Run on Steam offers a second chance to get in on some discounts, since it takes a village to make a sale. There are a bunch of games up to 90% off. There's also a 100% discount to be had, as everyone is entitled to a free copy of Pankapu, a narrative action-platformer set in a dream-world. This is for keeps as long as you claim it before December 18th. Here's the pitch on the giveaway:
Jump into a neo-retro adventure with Pankapu : a taste of 90’s platformers in an oneiric world. Pankapu is a narrative action-platformer that takes place in the dreams of Djaha’rell, a child troubled by a tragic incident. Upgrade your skills, find new competencies, switch your Aegis in real time in order to get rid of Nightmare's invasion: "Fight for the safety of your land, dear Dreamkeeper"

Told in the manner of a fable read to a child, the game has two levels of reading: the tale of Pankapu, epic and naïve, and the one about Djaha’rell's life, in the real-world, dark and tragic.

Overthrown Early Access

Overthrown is now available in Early Access for Windows on Steam and in Xbox Game Preview and on Xbox Game Pass, offering a city builder that lives up to its "chaotic" description with several unusual game mechanics. Check out the Early Access Launch Trailer for a look at players landscaping by throwing around houses and full-grown trees, running across water, and engaging in a surprising amount of combat. Here's the pitch:
Overthrown invites players to hurl anything and everything – from houses and trees to your very own citizens – to create the kingdom of your wildest dreams in a chaotic, fast-paced race to rule.

Play as Runa, a monarch in possession of an ancient soul-stealing crown with magical abilities. With its power, establish a kingdom in a perilous wilderness and defend it from mutants and bandits roaming the land. Build and manage alone or with friends in up to six-player co-op. Explore varied buildings like the butcher shop, ale house, and sawmill, watch the changing of seasons with beautiful fall and winter foliage, farm your land, and harness the power of your magical crown to do it like a pro!
Continue here to read the full story.

Symphonia Debuts

Symphonia is now available for Windows, Xbox, and PlayStation, and you can pick up the PC edition of this non-violent platformer on Steam with a 10% launch discount. A Switch version is still in the works and is expected early next year. The Launch Trailer is here with an appropriately symphonic look at the games music-themed art and puzzles. Here's more:
In the realm of Symphonia, music is a source of life and energy. But since the Prodigies and their orchestra vanished, the inhabitants are divided, and the world slowly falls silent. What if there was a way to reunite the orchestra? That's the question Philemon, the mysterious musician in Symphonia, will have to answer.

Your violin and bow are both your instrument and a means of transport. Catapult yourself through the world and complete levels by solving exciting platforming challenges while re-activating the machinery that brings life and energy back to this world.
Continue here to read the full story.

Revenge of the Savage Planet in May

Raccoon Logic Studios announces May 2025 is the release window for Revenge of the Savage Planet, the upcoming sequel to Journey to the Savage Planet that demonstrates how the planet earned its savage reputation. It's coming to Windows, PlayStation, and Xbox, and its Steam Listing is live. A new Gameplay Preview Trailer is here with a freaky live-action introduction to some madcap gameplay footage. Here's word:
Bringing back everything players love from their first intergalactic adventure, but bigger and better in every way - Revenge of the Savage Planet has more planets, gear, critters, laughs, and is 1000x more gooier. The second chapter in the Savage Planet universe also welcomes back Kindred Aerospace CEO Martin Tweed, as he sets his sights on knocking fellow CEO, Gunther Harrison, down a few pegs in some interstellar corporate conflict.

Abandoned on an alien planet after your mission to colonize space is deemed too costly by Alta Interglobal, your now former employer, you’ll head out to explore strange new lands, scavenge what you can from the vibrant landscape, and repurpose your salvage in an attempt to return home. Your intergalactic exploration will see you scanning plants, capturing creatures, upgrading gear, and unearthing secrets aplenty as you jump, slide, and shoot your way across alien worlds.
Continue here to read the full story.

Ready or Not: Dark Waters Next Week

VOID Interactive announces Dark Waters will make its splash on Steam on December 10th, adding new DLC to Ready or Not, the first-person shooter based on police SWAT tactics. A new Official Trailer takes a look at the story and its unusual setting on an offshore rig. Here's more on the scenario:
At approx. 0800 hours this morning a critical situation occurred on offshore oil rig “HeavyWell A-101" was responded to via tactical response by LSPD SWAT. The “United Peoples Front,” designated by the US Government as a terror group, claimed responsibility for this hostage incident. The situation is still ongoing, further investigation and situation reports are under the jurisdiction of FISA.

The events on the offshore oil rig comes shortly after the failed assassination attempt of newly elected governor Whitfield. The LSPD is still working closely with the Highway Patrol, Protective Services, and Federal Officials to ensure Governor Whitfield's safety following the failed assassination attempt during a political event at LSPD HQ last month.
Continue here to read the full story.

Tempest Rising in April

Slipgate Ironworks and 3D Realms announce Tempest Rising will rise on April 24th, kicking off this "classic" real-time strategy game set in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear war. The news comes along with a new Release Date Trailer with a look at the game in action. Here's a bit:
Tempest Rising transports you to a battle-scarred 1997 in an alternate timeline where the Cuban Missile Crisis went nuclear. In the fallout from the war, a strange, red, electrical vine known as Tempest spread across the planet and changed the course of history, awakening an ancient race lying dormant known as the Veti, as teased in today’s new trailer.

Experience the gripping story of two unique factions across two epic campaigns with deep and rewarding gameplay that keeps the focus on strategy and skill, with built-in customization options that let you take on challenges your own way plus original music from legendary Command & Conquer composer Frank Klepacki.
Continue here to read the full story.

Total Chaos Announced

Trigger Happy Interactive and Apogee Entertainment announce Total Chaos, a survival/horror shooter coming to PC in Q2 of next year from the folks behind Turbo Overkill. The Announcement Trailer shows off horror-themed environments, but it's a slow burn, holding back on the titular total chaos. But word is a playable demo will precede the launch, so there will be a chance to check it out firsthand. Here's a bit introducing the game's mysterious setting:
Descend into the depths of uncertainty as a Coast Guardsman washed ashore upon the jagged coast of Fort Oasis — an abandoned mining outpost shrouded in mystery. A lone voice calls out over the radio: “Get to the mines.” Can the voice be trusted? What lies beneath the island? And wait…doesn’t Fort Oasis seem…familiar?

Total Chaos abandons the player within a world of dread across nine inescapable chapters. Stranded on the desolate island of Fort Oasis, players rely on scattered but unreliable clues, along with scavenged and improvised weapons to survive.
Continue here to read the full story.

CHAINS OF FREEDOM Announced

Nordcurrent Labs announces CHAINS OF FREEDOM, a paradoxically titled adventure coming to PC and consoles next year. The Official Game Reveal trailer is here, showing off turn-based combat with a little fascist flair in another look at life after a multifaceted apocalypse. Here's word:
Chains of Freedom deploys players into a grim Eastern European state ravaged by a biocrystal known as EDEN. Facing supernatural mutations that prowl a wasteland of infected villages, military installations, and run-down factories, players will need to command an elite military squad of Peacekeepers seeking to regroup after their helicopter crashes.

Free to explore the game world, Chains of Freedom allows players to discover items, craft equipment, and arm their team with the weapons and tools they’ll need to survive. As they face ever-changing challenges, players will uncover a plot filled with conspiracy and betrayal as they navigate story-driven missions.
Continue here to read the full story.

Demos & Freebies

  • Bloom Thrice Demo on Steam (Windows). "Embark on a journey through the gamified 'Beautiful World', play (fight) with residents until you are satisfied, and explore to the end of the world. 'Bloom Thrice' is a 2D action adventure game where you join the world full of brightness and kindness."
  • The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily on Steam (Windows). "The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily is a turn-based stratergy game. The villainess Scarlet, deceived and falsely accused of killing of the King, becomes the first streamer. Through this, she uses manipulates and diversion to rebel against the vast military force of the Imperial Kingdom."
  • Let's Build a Dungeon on Steam (Windows). "Manage a game studio making the world’s greatest MMORPG. Hire designers, coders, and testers, create a fantasy world, then welcome hundreds of virtual players. If they get bored they will cancel their subscription and your investors will have your head. You can even play the game you create."
  • Marisa of Liartop Mountain on Steam (Windows). "'Marisa of Liartop Mountain' is an adventure-roleplaying game, where you, the player, will play as Reimu and explore a mountain of books filled with mysteries and lies in search of the whereabouts of the missing Marisa."
  • Squeakross: Home Squeak Home on Steam (No platforms listed). "In Squeakross: Home Squeak Home, solve and transform puzzles into furniture to decorate the perfect home for your rodent friend. Collect hundreds of decorations, accessories and stickers in this cozy game full of charm!"

Rumor Mill

Out of the Blue

After commenting on how cool it was to hear the wind whistling through the trees around here lately, it finally dawned on me that this sound wasn't coming from the trees, but rather one of the patio sliding doors we recently replaced. Seems there's a small gap between the doors, so while three of the four sets of sliders make perfect seals, there is actually a significant draft coming from the fourth set. We're generally happy with the work, but at this point we've had the contractors back repeatedly. They needed to re-replace our front door after the first crew damaged it, adjust the lock on one of the sliders, and re-set the storm door to open fully. But rather than being angry we needed to follow-up again we were almost sheepish about calling with another problem. The discussion went fine, though, and someone's coming on Monday to take a look at it, so hopefully we can clear it up before the nasty weather arrives.

Drafty Round-up
Thanks Ant, Neutronbeam, and Max.

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