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There are a lot of video game awards and most of them are simply popularity contests, and therefore also stinky borefests. The one that isn’t, in my eyes, is the yearly Independent Games Festival awards – the IGFs.
The IGF Celebration Days Steam sale provides plenty of examples as to why, with discounts from now until July 20th on winners and finalists from throughout the IGF awards’ history.
The Concord beta is now underway for folks who pre-ordered Sony’s upcoming hero shooter or who are subscribed to PlayStation Plus. If that’s you, you should be able to grab the PC version from Steam and play from now until July 14th.
Mithril Interactive have announced that their (deep, rasping breath) first-person player-versus-player-versus-enemy dungeon crawler extraction sim (FPPvPvEDCES) Dungeonborne will launch into early access on Thursday July 18th. Here are some more intuitive, albeit no more elegant, ways of summarising what you do in Dungeonborne than “FPPvPvEDCES”: sword go clang, goblin go eek, treasure chest go jingle-jangle, other player go stab-in-the-back.
In theory I’m down to review Breachway, a roguelike deck-building space sim which is sort of FTL but 3D and with cards. The second I wrested this privilege from Ed Thorn’s resentful fingers, however, developers Edgeflow Studio and publishers Hooded Horse delayed the early access release. Perhaps this reflects Hooded Horse’s atypically forgiving, when-it’s-ready approach to game publishing. Or perhaps they just hate me and wish to deny me things that might bring me pleasure. It matters not, because the game now has a new early access release date – 30th August 2024 via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store. Catch a celebratory trailer below.
Free-to-play open world survival shooter Once Human has spent its first week in the wilds weathering a series of complaints about its data collection practices, much of it orbiting a line from publisher NetEase’s privacy policy in which they state that personal information they receive from you may include “government-issued ID, such as passport information, as required by applicable laws for age verification and correction of personal information”.
Following a backlash in the user reviews (the game was Mostly Negative on Steam at launch, but has since risen to Mixed) and on social media, the game’s developers Starry Studio have published a blog insisting that they harbour no dark intentions for your personal details, or at least, that they harbour intentions no darker than any of the large number of video games that collect your personal information.
Gotcha Gotcha Games, creators of the RPG Maker series, have announced Action Game Maker. Much like its predecessors, it aims to allow users to create games in its chosen genre without any programming experience, using a “node-based visual scripting system” (draggable arrows and concepts, basically). Could this finally be the opportunity to create the legally distinct Little Shop Of Horrors management sim of my dreams? No, of course not. The technology does not yet exist powerful enough to manifest it. Also, it’s not an action game. Also, I don’t know how to make games. Also it’s Friday and I’m tired. Also, AGM isn’t out yet. Still, I’m intrigued!
Kain is merchandised. The clans sell tales of him. Few know the truth. He was a character in a dead franchise once, as we were we all. However, his contempt for anonymity drove him to inspire the creation of an upcoming (crowdfunding allowing) graphic novel. The book stars Raziel, the first-born of his lieutenants, and It’s a canonical prequel story to the original Soul Reaver. I have waited a millennium. Over time, I became less human and more…games blogger. I have had the chance to write about Legacy Of Kain precisely once. You’re goddamn right I’m going to froth at the mouth at even the vague promise of more Shakespearean monologues and time-travelling vampires.
You ever do that thing on a fairground ride or rollercoaster where you sort of pull your neck and face back in preparation for extreme motion? Welcome to kick-exalting FPS Anger Foot. Violence is brutal and cartoonish. Slight mistakes kill you instantly. The soundtrack slaps. There’s an easy Devolver labelmate orientation point here, but if Hotline Miami was a cocktail of chemical euphoria and gut guilt, like realising you’ve accidentally pocketed someone’s lighter at a festival, Anger Foot is doing whippits out of balloon animals then having a great time rhythmically headbutting a portaloo for a few hours. Similarly, it’s also a bit of a masochistic ordeal to put yourself through. But, man. What a buzz.
In hindsight, I feel like I wronged Neva – the upcoming action-platformer from Gris devs Nomada Studio – by allowing my first thoughts on its reveal trailer to be “I bet the dog dies at the end.” A new, obviously gorgeous adventure with serious platforming pedigree and that’s your response? Grow up, me.
“It’s going to be a good, good, good, good day,” sings Frontier’s announcement trailer for just-announced theme park simulator Planet Coaster 2. Not for me it isn’t, because now I have to compare my shabby flat, in which there are exactly zero waterslides at the time of publication, with Planet Coaster 2, in which you can expect such aquatic attractions as “meandering lazy rivers”, “adrenaline-pumping wave pools”, “looping flumes” and “exhilarating water coasters”. Please watch the trailer while I yet again revisit the possibility of sneaking into Stoke-On-Trent’s Waterworld and trying to pass myself off as the resident ghost.
