Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Digital festival LudoNarraCon is back for its fifth year, showcasing games that are all about story-telling and narrative. It kicks off today, May 4th, at 10am PT/6pm BST and runs until next Monday, May 8th. The event is being hosted on Steam where you can sample 36 demos, enjoy discounts on over 140 games, and watch 15 panels through a livestream. Highlights this year include three ‘fireside chats’ with Ron Gilbert of Monkey Island fame, the designer of the OPUS series Scott Chen, and Life Is Strange: True Color’s staff writer Felice Tzehuei, who’s sitting down to chat with our lovely reviews editor Rachel.

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When Nintendo first released their level-building game Super Mario Maker, many fans hoped for a similar set of tools based on The Legend Of Zelda series. The Big N haven’t gotten around to it yet, but indie developers Rokaplay and Firechick have beaten them to the punch with Super Dungeon Maker, which just released out of early access. It’s what the name implies: a game where you can build your own classic Zelda-like dungeons, share them online, and then play through other people’s whacky creations.

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The Pokéverse continues to spread onto the PC route this summer with an updated digital version of the trading card game. The free-to-play Pokémon TCG Live is set to leave open beta and launch fully on June 8th at 10am PT/6pm BST, The Pokémon Company have announced. TCG Live will be replacing the older version of the creature-card-collectathon Pokémon TCG Online, which was first released back in 2011.

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Back in February we posted a deal on Logitech’s K400 Bluetooth keyboard/trackpad combo device, which offered a convenient way to control Steam Deck, media PCs and other gizmos that don’t come with built-in desktop-friendly controls.

Today we’re back with a similar deal on the Logitech Wireless Starter Kit, which bundles a K380 keyboard and M185 mouse for £40 (down from £50). Both elements are surprisingly high-quality for the price, with a nicer-looking and better-feeling scissor switch keyboard with circular keycaps and a compact 2.4GHz mouse that provides better speed and accuracy than a trackpad.

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The Dell Alienware AW2723DF is one of the best 1440p 240Hz monitors on the market, and now this popular model has dropped to £430 after a 20% discount at Dell’s UK store. If you’re a student or your employer’s part of Dell’s discount scheme, the monitor becomes even cheaper – just £408.50.

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Last time, you decided that cool spellcasting gestures are better than seizing control of a rolling boulder trap. I assume you have very cool gestures to conjure a magical meteor or other big rock on command. Maybe a dramatic dragging-down (or up) with two tensed arms and clawed hands? Very cool. As we continue our scientific process, this week I ask you to choose between two things which combine help and hurt. What’s better: heals harming the undead, or voice chat?

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Microsoft had already announced their annual not-E3 Xbox Games Showcase, but now we know when exactly to tune in: June 11th at 10am PT/6pm BST/7pm CEST. Microsoft are promising “new surprises and first-looks” from both Xbox-owned studios and third-party teams, but I’m sure most people will be tuning in for the (also previously announced) Starfield Direct, which is airing immediately after the Xbox show.

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Any premium supporters who’re missing out on a good theme park sim may have cause to rejoice this week, as the good folks at Bandai Namco have given us a blast of codes to give away for fantastical theme park ’em up Park Beyond‘s upcoming closed beta test, starting this Friday, May 5th. Park Beyond is not just a complex theme park management sim, or a physics-ish coaster builder (although it is both of those), it’s also an anti-physics weird-ride expando-game, allowing you to unlock increasingly unrealistic upgrades for rides in a process the developers Limbic Entertainment call “impossification”. Deets on how to get your code for the closed beta below.

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RTS-FPS hybrids aren’t a new thing, but they also haven’t been the most historically successful ventures. Well, Arma 3 developers Bohemia Interactive are taking a punt at blending the two genres with Silica, in the hopes that you can both shoot and command things with equal levels of good. It’s the first project to hatch from Bohemia’s incubator program, which helps indie devs make cool games.

Silica is largely the work of one developer, Martin “Dram” Malicharek, who was previously the lead on Bohemia’s Take On Mars. Having given Silica a whirl for over an hour, I struggle to see whether the RTS, FPS hybrid can truly offer the best of both worlds. It does, however, make being a crab extremely good.

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We’re one episode away from being in the double digits, folks! Whoop! But for now, let’s dive into episode nine of Indiescovery. This time we’re chatting about our biggest Steam sins. That’s right, we’re revealing it all: shamefully ignored indie gems, outrageous playtimes, and games that we promise we’ll return to one day, honest! We also get into what we’ve been recently playing and then end, as always, with our hyperfixations.

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