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How many Stardew Valley farms is too much for one person? Well, developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone is daring me to start yet another one as he recently teased some of the new additions coming in the game’s 1.6 update. Barone tweeted today that a new festival, new items, more dialogue, more secrets, and an even more nebulous “???” are coming with Stardew Valley’s next major update. Yep, that’ll do it – my new farm is already watered and I’m ready to fight/fish/romance whatever “???” is.
When I think back on most of the cinematic platformers I’ve played recently, it’s not the latter part of their genre title I remember most, but the former. The lush camera pans of your Planet Of Lanas, the haunting backdrops of your Somervilles and the gooey, malleable monstrosities of your Insides. These dramatic moments linger in the memory much longer than their respective running and jumping, and if it’s a proper platforming challenge I’m after, I usually look elsewhere, swapping cinema for action with your Raymans, Trines and Oris.
Full Void, on the other hand, is a cinematic run and jumper that manages to strike a good balance between both parts of its personality. Following in the Another World school of gorgeous pixel art meets one-foot-wrong-and-you’re-dead-style platforming (albeit with much more generous checkpointing than its 1991 source material), there’s a real athleticism in your teen hero’s journey to bring down a despotic AI, making its intricate leaps and bounds just as memorable as its down-to-the-wire set pieces.
Do you want a PC case for $40 plus shipping? So $53? Yeah, no, yeah? Well, anyway, Fractal Design’s Focus 2 RGB is selling for that much on Newegg, when it normally costs like twice that, plus shipping, so like $93. That’s $40 less, remember.
It’s a pretty cool case too, that supports full-size ATX motherboards, comes with two 140mm RGB fans up front, fits up to 360mm/280mm radiators and looks pretty neat as well. Let me tell you a bit more about it?
The Ryzen 5 7600X processor might be one of AMD’s cheapest options in their Zen 4 lineup, but this chip is still hugely powerful compared to prior Ryzen generations. It takes advantage of its 5nm process and the AM5 socket to hit higher clock speeds, has architectural improvements that raise its single-core prowess, and of course has access to DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0 add-in cards too. That’s made it a strong option for gaming, but a high asking price of $300 at launch – plus expensive motherboards and DDR5 – put it out of reach of most sane budget builds. That’s slowly changing as these chips and other components become cheaper, and today the 7600X has hit a new low price in the US: just $200 at Amazon.com, a full $100 off its MSRP and a great deal for a processor with this kind of performance.
We already knew that Assassin’s Creed Mirage will harken back to the more intimate, focused scope of the older games in Ubisoft’s sneaky-stabby time-hopping series. It looks like that restrained approach will extend to its post-launch content too, with its devs saying that they don’t currently have any plans to extend the game after release with DLC or other expansions.
Long before 2023’s halcyon days of top-notch ports of PlayStation games on PC, there was WipeOut. The sci-fi racing game was a classic on the original PlayStation. Its PC release? Not so much. But now one fan has decided to do right by the almost 30-year-old title by releasing a remastered Phantom Edition that finally brings WipeOut’s original PC release in line with its beloved PlayStation version.
Payday 3 has been back in the spotlight ahead of its September launch, making an appearance in the (Xbox green) limelight at last month’s Xbox Games Showcase – and then in the crosshairs of fans annoyed that you’ll always need to be online to play. There was actually another reveal for the game in recent days, too – but it snuck out so quietly that nobody realised it was there at first.
Microsoft have announced that a new Game Pass tier will replace Xbox Live Gold on consoles. The new Xbox Game Pass Core tier will cost £7/$10 for a monthly subscription and £50/$60 for an annual one. Microsoft haven’t announced plans to bring Game Pass Core to PC players, although the new tier costs almost the same amount as the (frankly much better value) PC Game Pass variant – for now, at least.
Starting on September 14th, Xbox Live Gold subscribers will be automatically converted to Game Pass Core, which allows access to online multiplayer, exclusive discounts, and a compact collection of games. Xbox’s monthly freebie program Games With Gold is also getting axed, although you can still play previously redeemed games as long as you’re subscribed to either the Core or Ultimate tiers.
A new demo invites you to marvel at a mysterious and alarming alien world in The Invincible, a video game adaptation of the 1964 sci-fi novel by Stanisław Lem (the Polish author also known for Solaris). It’s basically Firewatch in space. I’ve not read the book but I did have a pleasant time strolling around shiny 3D space spaces while taking part in a BBC Radio 4 drama.
Developers Fireplace Games have announced that their stylish action game En Garde! is releasing on August 16th. The game’s mixture of improvisational melee combat and swashbuckling humour made it a standout at this year’s Summer Game Fest, and you can (and should) see the graceful action in action below.
