Another day, another Eastern MMO picked up by Amazon Games and repackaged for a Western audience. What’s the grind this time? Blue Protocol, an anime MMO developed by Bandai Namco that’s already out in Japan, and is due out in the West sometime in 2024. I played it for an hour and I’ve come away thinking it’s a slick operation, with some slight Monster Hunter edge to its combat. While the future sounds promising, questions remain around a world which seems a bit eh, and the ever looming march of the microtransactions.
One eagle-eyed Starfield fan has apparently spent around 200 hours stitching together what could be the game’s entire skill tree using previously released footage of Bethesda’s epic space RPG. I’m not actually sure whether you can be a “Starfield fan” before the game releases, but this budding detective is at least a fan of the trailers, featurettes, and the Starfield Direct. Come and see what they’ve come up with.
Publisher THQ Nordic have announced that Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy is coming out in the middle of a big game tempest on August 31st. The co-op puzzle game promises to be the longest and most challenging entry in the series’ history and reunites our three lovable heroes: Zoya the thief, Amadeus the wizard, and Pontius the knight. Developers Frozenbyte marked the news with a character trailer, reintroducing the famous knight and his refreshed abilities. (Re)connect with Pontius below.
As a republican it pains me to suggest you install a castle and a royal family as soon as possible, because they’re very useful, but in fariness to me that suggestion is only in the specific circumstance that you’re playing Lakeburg Legacies. It’s an almost experimental little town management game where you have no control over building placement, your citizens all look like they were made in Picrew, and love is a plentiful yet almost useless resource. I quite like it, but I wish I liked it more.
What’s the cheapest graphics card that includes a free copy of Starfield? That would be this AsRock RX 6600 8GB, available for just £186 shipped on Overclockers. This card is an ideal choice for 1080p gaming and has dropped in price consistently over the last few months, making it an even better value than it was in 2022.
Invincible, the comic book-turned-animated TV series from Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman, is being turned into a fully-fledged visual novel. Attached to Invincible Presents: Atom Eve are Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Mothergunship and Assassin’s Creed devs, who will centre the single-player game around the superhero from the original series.
Steam has snuck out its latest week-long sales event. This time, it’s a celebration of all things silent and potentially deadly worth making some noise about in the Steam Stealth Fest. Among the highlights are some pretty steep savings on Hitman, Assassin’s Creed, A Plague Tale and Sniper Elite, along with some indie stealth game gems to boot.
Final Fantasy 14 has dozens of mounts, ranging from familiar Final Fantasy chocobos and monsters to some incredible elemental horses, birds and robots. Then there’s the even wilder rides available, from space whales, sentient vegetables and flying beds to witches’ brooms, ghosts and a literal disembodied head. Even so, its latest mount might somehow be one of its best yet.
Media conglomerate Tencent are throwing more money at game studios as part of their never-ending shopping spree. Today the studio behind zombie-smasher Dying Light, Techland, announced that Tencent will become the developer’s majority shareholder.
“Whenever I think about the future of Techland, I want the best for our games, the team, and you,” said Techland’s CEO Paweł Marchewka in today’s blog post. “And while I am very proud of our achievements as an independent studio over all these years, I believe the best is yet to come.”
Marchewka continued to say that “teaming up with Tencent” would allow the team to “move full speed ahead” with future plans for the Dying Light series and their in-development fantasy RPG. Marchewka emphasised that the studio will retain “full ownership” of their intellectual property and “maintain creative freedom.” Marchewka will also continue to serve as Techland’s CEO.
Three decades have gone by since the original Myst graced the world, providing endless online debates about whether it’s smart or just pretentious. Magical or plain bad. Some indie developers chose the latter with a Myst FPS remix that spoofed the senior adventure game. The RPS readership seemed split on the subject when we asked “Have You Played Myst?” years ago. But Humble Games leans toward the former as it’s choosing to celebrate the classic’s whopping 30th birthday with a returning charity bundle, available now until August 3rd.
The Humble Myst & More Bundle packages the titular point-and-clicker, alongside several other sequels, spiritual successors, and odd offshoots from developer Cyan Worlds. You can pay anything over £7.80/$10 for the 11-game bundle, or you can pay at least £15.60/$20 to also grab the Myst remake from 2021.
Cyan Worlds loves a good re-release, and this latest bundle is a reminder of how many Mysts have Mysted over the years. There’s Myst: Masterpiece Edition which remasters the music and imagery, and is otherwise as close to the original as you can get. Then there’s realMyst: Masterpiece Edition which added changing weather, day-night cycles, free roam movement, and a bonus epilogue. And finally, there’s the most recent pretty remake that’s also compatible with VR.
