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Dwarf Fortress is best known as a colony sim, but the wonderfully detailed fantasy world’s it generates can be played in different ways. Adventure mode is a procedurally generated RPG campaign in which you control just a single character, and it’s now on its way to Kitfox’s DF-with-graphics Steam release in April 2024.
I am late to walk the Path of Exile. Very late: the evergreen free-to-play dark fantasy action-RPG launched literal generations ago in 2013, the heyday of Bioshock Infinite and GTA 5. (It’s still arguably the heyday of GTA 5. Bioshock Infinite, not so much.) It’s my understanding that New Zealand-based developer Grinding Gears have released approximately one bazillion Path of Exile updates and expansions in the decade since, the latest of which, Affliction, is briefly detailed in a boxout down the page.
I am not your guy for blow-by-blow descriptions of what Affliction adds to Path of Exile. My cautious summary would be: lots of terrifying trees, and lots of modifiers. I am, however, your guy for a newcomer’s snapshot verdict on the sequel ahead of the closed Path of Exile 2 beta on 7th June 2024. In a twist so far-fetched they might just pull it off, the new game is designed both for returning players and newcomers, and I think a lot of that is epitomised by the just-announced Mercenary class, which reflects game director Jonathan Rogers’s desire to create combat mechanics that are at once more involved and more inviting.
Tonight’s PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted stream may have been mostly focused on games we already knew about, but there were a couple of surprises hidden away in there, too. One of them was Spine, an upcoming action game that asks the question: what if Sifu also had guns? The new gameplay trailer shows street artist heroine Redline punching, kicking and shooting her way through a cyberpunk-themed world of thugs and armoured guards, and her fancy footwork and the equally agile camera framing looks like it could be quite the combo when it eventually comes out in 2025. Alas, the trailer doesn’t give away much else, but I spoke to developers Nekki ahead of tonight’s showcase to find more about it, and how it’s taking direct inspiration from Sifu and John Wick to become the next big cinematic beat ’em up.
Larian have released Baldur’s Gate 3 patch 5, which they’re calling the fantasy RPG‘s “most feature-filled” update so far, and glancing over the patch notes, it’s hard to disagree. It’s not just about shaving the cats, this time: the standout additions and fixes include a new story epilogue, two new modes, and some performance boosts aimed specifically at the game’s ever-divisive third act.
This week on The Electronic Wireless Show podcast, we get a little bit removed from the rails, as it were. Things aren’t looking great for Starfield – or at least, they’re looking mixed, as in the Steam reviews, and verified but nameless devs are responding to negative reviews with comments that are basically like “no, our space game is fun and you’re playing it wrong”. We laugh about this (but also discuss the role of Steam reviews and devs replying to them). As well as that, the lads have been playing, well, the same sort of stuff this week, James brings us talk of mini PCs, and Nate makes us play Dracula or Russell Crowe. Extremely normal.
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Capcom’s fantasy action-RPG Dragon’s Dogma 2 will sell for $69.99 – $70, if you disregard the usual “deduct one cent to fool silly left-to-right readers into thinking it’s significantly cheaper” gambit – when it releases in March 2024. If you’re in the UK, the figure is currently £53.98 on Steam. It’s the first time Capcom have sold the base edition of a game for $70 in the US of A, and follows comments this September from a Capcom executive that videogames are priced “too low” these days, based on how much games cost to make.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, but in sci-fi strategy game Stellaris Nexus, you can found, expand and fritter away a whole intergalactic empire in around an hour. In the case of my multiplayer hands-on, that empire was the Ix’Idar, a race of burrowing insect critters with a unique resource – pheromones. Boldly disregarding the PR’s gentle advice that I start with an easier-to-master race, I set out to swarm the galaxy and immediately found myself at the bottom of the victory or “Succession” point scoreboard, with one player picking off my planets by means of espionage, while others stomped my fleets of stargrubs flat in no-nonsense space combat.
I did manage to briefly take possession of the titular Nexus, a throneworld which awards beaucoup Succession points to its owner, but it turns out fixating on the Nexus is a great way to set yourself up for a midgame dogpile – you pour resources into capturing it, sacrifice half your fleet to the first invader, then lose it all to the second. With my initially bountiful dominions rudely shrunk to a smattering of isolated planets, I took the coward’s way out of the press event and said I had to be going because I had other work to attend to. I didn’t at all! I just wanted to go and cry in the toilet. Alas for the Ix’Idar – not so much “lions led by donkeys” as an antfarm in the hands of a wilful toddler.
TimeSplitters studio Free Radical could be closed before Christmas, megacorp owner Embracer has reportedly told staff, as dozens of staff at the UK studio are said to be looking for new roles.
Cult of the Lamb devs Massive Monster seem to be staying true to their promise to bring a ‘sex update’ to the cutesy cultist roguelite next year, after their promise to satisfy thirsty fans ended up exploding more quickly than expected.
It’s official: a new Beyond Good & Evil game is coming out. No, wait, come back: we really mean it this time. While Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still a no-show for the foreseeable, Ubisoft has confirmed that the original game will see a remaster next year for its 20th anniversary. And unlike BGE2, we know we’ll almost definitely be able to play it in the next 12 months, let alone the next decade, because some people are already playing it.
