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Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter’s #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This week, my eye has been caught by an android demon (not to be confused with that hellish Android mascot), chill snowboarding, a golf game played on an actual physical pop-up book, and more. Check out all these attractive and interesting indie games!
Over the weekend, DDoS attacks on Blizzard caused a bunch of issues for Diablo IV and other Battle.net games such as Overwatch 2. The cyber attacks prevented many players from logging into Diablo IV, and the hack-and-slashers that managed to log in were at risk of “high latency and disconnections” in the always-online RPG. That tragically forced many gamers to step outside during the hottest weekend in recent memory. Thankfully, Blizzard now states the DDoS attacks have ended, meaning everything should be working as normal.
My purchase last year of a Steam Deck rekindled my long-dormant love for arcade racers. High quality and modern entries in the genre are few and far between, though.
Enter New Star GP, which looks like it might fill the whole in my heart that’s been there since I played F1 Pole Position on the SNES in 1993.
FlightSimExpo is underway in Houston, Texas, and yesterday Microsoft and Asobo delivered a lot of new detail regarding the recently announced Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, its new aviation activities, and changes to its physics simulation and performance.
During an appearance on Kinda Funny Xcast, Starfield director Todd Howard was asked whether the upcoming interstellar ball-pit RPG would support the Steam Deck. “We’ll talk about that later down the road,” said Howard.
Best Way have announced the release date for their WW2 RTS Men Of War 2, and it’s coming in one of the busiest months of the year so far for big PC releases. Arriving on September 20th on Steam and the Epic Games Store, Men Of War 2 joins the likes of Lies Of P, Cyberpunk 2077‘s Phantom Liberty expansion, Pay Day 3, Mortal Kombat 1 and Life By You in the fight for your attention in the wake of Bethesda’s epic space RPG Starfield, which launches just two weeks beforehand on September 6th.
As Steam Next Fests go, I think the one this June has easily been one of the best Next Fests in a little while. Seeing all the great demos this week has made me far more excited about the future of video games than any of the notE3 streams did the other week, and I’m not gonna lie, a large part of my excitement stems from the brilliant Let’s! Revolution!, a beautifully animated tile-based roguelite that has a touch of Minesweeper about it. I highlighted it in our big demo rec list at the start of the week, but 150-odd words simply wasn’t enough to really get across just how excellent this is. So indulge me a bit while I tell you more about it.
You know when the look of a game instantly captures your attention, and then you play a demo for it and it’s even better? That’s the journey I’ve been on with deckbuilding RPG Cross Blitz this week. I first heard about it last month back when word hit that it was coming to early access this year, and I was instantly taken with its chunky animal character sprites. There was something a bit Advance Wars about the look and style about its burly lion pirate captain, but just, you know, in a high seas card battle kind of setting instead of dealing with sergeants, tanks and air support. But its Steam Next Fest demo has really sunk its teeth into me this week, offering up turn-based card duels that scratch exactly the same kind of itch as Inscryption did for me a couple of years ago.
I am having an absolute riot playing Killer Frequency. It’s a first-person puzzle horror where you’re trying to help folks escape a rampaging murderer. Usually, when I read a game description like that, I’m already grabbing my cushion to hide behind and readying my cute puppy compilation video on a second screen, but Team17 have heavily leaned into the campy side of slasher horror with humour serving as the perfect buffer. No safety cushion or puppies needed here, folks.
Here’s the set-up: You’re playing as Forrest Nash, a big-time radio DJ who has found himself stuck in Small Town, Nowhere, USA. While you’re working as the host for the town’s local station, it turns out the police chief has only gone and gotten themselves stabbed by a serial killer. With them out of action, you’re roped into acting as a stand-in 911 operator – and with the murderer still on the loose and ready to strike again, that line is going to be pretty busy.
Yesterday marked the first day of proceedings in the legal battle between Microsoft and the US Federal Trade Commission as the FTC seeks a preliminary injunction on Microsoft and Activision Blizzard. The injunction would further prevent Microsoft’s acquisition deal of Activision Blizzard from going through.
Several of Xbox’s high profile figures testified at the first day of trial, including the likes of Sarah Bond, corporate vice president of gaming partnerships and business development at Microsoft, Bethesda head of publishing Pete Hines, and Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty. They were questioned on a range of things including cloud gaming, Call Of Duty exclusivity, and Bobby Kotick’s revenue share demands.
