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Mere spec sheets? Old news, friend. This Steam Deck vs Asus ROG Ally comparison is new and improved with actual testing results, both hard data (I may even borrow some benchmark graphs from the ROG Ally review) and those of the observational/anecdotal/downright take-y variety. Hopefully, by the end of it, these will give you a far better idea of which handheld gaming PC will suit your travelling needs, performance preferences, or even specific games to play on the go.
Despite all the fun that could obviously be had unleashing rampaging sphynxs and hippo-headed warriors on the battlefields of Total War: Pharaoh, Creative Assembly Sofia are currently steadfast in keeping their latest historical release firmly in the realm of history, with “absolutely no plans” to release a similar expansion to Troy’s Mythos, which added magic and minotaurs to the otherwise relatively grounded Aegean setting.
Somehow it’s June already, which means it’s time for the Indiescovery crew to suppress our existential dread at the fleetingness of existence and take a look at our favourite indie games from the first (almost) half of 2023! Don’t worry, we very quickly realise that June has such a slammed line-up we can probably give it a best-games episode all of its own to make up for the fact that we tackled this topic a bit early.
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Arcade racer Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged is speeding our way on October 19th, developer Milestone have announced. Like the first surprisingly great game, you’ll race over 130 toy cars through real-world locations, zooming past dinner tables, out of windows, and across gardens. Seems like more good fun, whether you’re a five-year-old or a five-year-old stuck in an adult’s body.
I put olives in my bolognese. Olives, objectively, do not belong in a bolognese. But without fail, I’ll dunk half a jar of those salty little bad boys into my bubbling wok without hesitation. Peppers? Why not. Carrot? Absolutely. Spinach? Don’t mind if I do. My bolognese is about as authentically Italian as Super Mario, but it doesn’t matter. I’m not trying to make Massimo Bottura cry by reminding him of his nonna’s cooking. It’s a dreary Tuesday night and I’m craving my olive-laden concoction. I’m making this bolognese just for me.
Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer reminded me a lot of my bolognese. It’s a game created for particular tastes, a unique proposition that sort of defies conventional thinking. A big, bold swing that – if you have the palette for it – is absolutely brilliant.
Last time, you decided that a silent protagonist is better than combat style ratings. Not by much! It was a 60/40 split, and I’m surprised/glad it was this close. We are now one decision closer to knowing the best thing. This week, I ask you to choose between a matter concerning movement, and what an enemy does in response to when and how you move. What’s better: an enemy which can’t see you but can sense you, or it only moves when you’re not looking?
As AMD’s (underwhelming) mid-range RX 7000 graphics cards are being released, we’re seeing extremely good discounts on their past-gen offerings, making them significantly better value. Case in point is this deal on the MSI RX 6800, which is a great card for 1440p to 4K gaming and now costs just £430. That’s £260 cheaper than the same card cost at the end of April, reflecting a heck of a savings!
If you woke up in a mysterious mansion, with no memory of how you got there and only a walkie-talkie and a bunch of security cameras for company, how d’you reckon you’d handle it? Personally I know, sure as eggs is eggs, that I would absolutely go to pieces. I’m not hitting the end credits of The Tartarus Key in real life, but fortunately, it’s a nails thriller puzzle game that fuses PS1-style retro graphics with Saw-esque murder traps. Plus, you know, it’s only about six hours end to end, which isn’t bad for a semi-magical kidnap plot.
In this situation I am not me, of course, but Alex Young, and Alex upon escaping a locked study (an easy warm-up puzzle involving postcards) she finds and frees Torres, an ex-cop turned private detective, who sets up a base of operations around the mysterious mansions main fireplace. From there game’s rhythm is clearing the different wings of the house by completing increasingly difficult puzzle rooms, each eventually culminating in finding a new person to save from a new death trap – concocting the antidote for poison or following the instructions to get through an electrocuted floor maze.
It’s an odd group, but if you rescue everyone you start to see the edges of a wider story. There’s a nice layering of paranoia, because most of the puzzles have an element of, for want of a better word, magic to them. One of the very first sees you tasked with getting an academic out of a living flesh-blob, and failure results in it and him vanishing into nowhere. You also find an underground lab with notes on scientific experiments, and a holding cell slash testing chamber – but given that next door is a giant meat freezer sokoban, is it not the case that the lab is just another puzzle room set? The low-poly, low-draw distance style of everything really adds to this, and you keep suspecting that some new puzzle or trap or maybe a weird murderer is going to suddenly loom out of the darkness in front of you. It’s the kind of head melting I haven’t had since playing Old Gods Rising.
Poly Bridge 3 offers up more puzzles about building bridges with goofy physics, and it’s out now. The third entry follows a similar formula to the previous ones, asking you to help vehicles cross gaps from one side of the map to the other, all while constructing normal bridges, loop-de-loop bridges, drawbridges, and bridges that break everything I thought I knew about physics. All sorts of bridges; it’s in the name.
Xbox’s official social media channels seem to be teasing something to do with Fable. The main Xbox channel posted a clip to Twitter that moves through a house, following a glittery trail from a controller to a monitor displaying the Xbox Games Showcase art. The Fable games used sparkly breadcrumb trails as a waypoint of sorts and the clip also had some jolly fairytale music on top, leading many to guess that the long-dormant series would finally rear its head again.
