I like that Grapple Dog doesn’t seem to be resting on its grappling laurels. Alongside the by-now standard walljumping, Pablo, the dog at the centre of the game, also seems to be able to roll up like a ball and bounce really high. There’s plenty going on in the level design, too, including floating bubbles of water to swim through and jump between, as well as chase sequences and boss fights....
There have been a lot of these kinds of games over the past few years, but I’ve found a lot of them quite unsatisfying to play in practice. I spent a happy 15 minutes with Grapple Hoops five level demo though, which you can download from Itch. I made clear my allegiance to the grapple hook up top, but it might be the double-footed window smashes and accelerating door pounds I enjoy even more....
While GTA Online started out technically as a prequel to GTAV’s campaign, it continued in real time, and is now set after. Rockstar’s announcement explains that Franklin Clinton has teamed up with his old pal Lamar to run a “celebrity solutions agency”, solving problems for the rich and famous. Yeah, but it’ll doubltess be us doing the actual work, won’t it? His first big client is Dr. Dre, who briefly appeared in a cutscene for the Cayo Perico heist....
Of course, testing a VR game’s performance can be a bit tricky. There’s no frame rate counter visible from inside a VR headset, for example, and much of your experience will depend on exactly which type of VR headset you have, as their respective displays all have different refresh rates. The Valve Index, for example, can currently go all the way up to 144Hz, while the Oculus Rift S is limited to 80Hz....
Lynx Corp, the fictional company that has your head for a terrifying amount of debt, cautions that these newly-discovered ships are dangerous. “These vessels traveled into the Frontier, only to return unmanned and open for salvaging,” they say. “Lynx does not support the claims that these vessels are being piloted by ‘a strange force’, only that the navigation system is in immaculate condition for salvage!” The audio log from this poor pilot in the trailer makes it seem like there is absolutely some creepy force at work, no matter what Lynx say....
“The long-rumored project is very real,” says Bloomberg’s report. Earlier in the year, rumors suggested that Warner Bros. would be hosting their first E3 press conference to announce the Harry Potter RPG, along with a new Batman game. Of course, E3 2020 got cancelled, leaving the Bros. without a stage. “The new plan is to unveil the Batman game in August at a digital event called DC FanDome, and the Harry Potter game will be revealed later,” say Bloomberg....
ΔV: Rings of Saturn has some more growing to do, principally in its promised story. But it’s already got this calming, almost hypnotic core of carefully, skilfully flying through hazardous space, and eating rocks. I often assume that a game about flying around in space will have combat and trading and all that. But that’s not necessary when it it feels this nice to float about, occasionally altering your course, or thrusting and rotating back and forth in just the right increments to peacefully accelerate after an errant chunk of ore....
The free Jotunn Edition update made loads of good changes, for free! But it did not change the charm of the game. The diddy little soldiers and the tippy-tap of their little feetsies. And then they stain the ground red with tiny viking blood. The vikings in this are an oncoming horde, swallowing up the map behind you as you hop to the next little island to make another defensive stand....
Even if you haven’t played a single minute of Sniper Elite, the series’ kill cam is something you’re almost certainly already aware of. Although, as satisfying as ball-popping is, it’s recommended you do a bit of reconnaissance work beforehand. I mean, the game is called Sniper Elite 4. So, at the beginning of each level, you need to take out your binoculars and start tagging all patrolling scrotums. And because the game doesn’t auto-tag after a cursory scan of the area – all tagging is manual – those violent and gruesome kills are all the more sweet....
Of course, the flow state gets a little messed up when you accidentally tap left one too many times, and suddenly the expletives are coming as thick and fast as the tetrominoes. After that point, there’s an interesting dichotomy between the upbeat chillstep music and effects, and the sheer panic that wells up inside you as you fight desperately to regain control of the board. Board? Is it a board, or a grid?...
Seriously, the mortality rate in Domina is nightmarish; it makes Darkest Dungeon look like a real soft touch. It would be a really upsetting experience, in fact, if all the viscera involved wasn’t abstracted to cartoonish red fountains by the game’s art style. It helps, as well, that Domina isn’t trying to make any particularly heavy historical points. There are some neat touches of authenticity, but there’s no doubt that this is meant to be a larger-than-life, comic book version of ancient Rome....
And then I dash into another flame-filled area of Asphodel, and I’m halted in my tracks. Any notion of haste falls out of my mind. Because there is Eurydice in her chambers, singing her beautiful, haunting song. And, like every other time I’ve come across this particular room in Hades, I stay still and listen until the song is over before continuing in my quest to escape. I don’t want her to think I’m being rude, after all....
In 2015, Rez Infinite reframed the then 14 year old game as a VR experience. All of the original levels were there, as well as a new VR-only level called Area X. Finally, it seemed that Rez had reached its final form, with the reticule mapped to head movement and the world rendered in full 3D space. Stepping into Infinite genuinely feels like entering another world, and after an hour or so in the headset, you forget that you’re playing a game at all....
Stronghold: Crusader, of course, was the 2002 sequel to the original Stronghold. Because it was made in the same engine, and because Stronghold 2, actually the third game in the series, came out in 2005, it’s easy to mistake Crusader for an expansion pack at first glance. But it was a meaty old game in its own right, cranking up the RTS element of the Stronghold formula, moving the action to the Middle East, and cracking open a massive tin of campaign missions....
The new video takes us through just the first few minutes of the game but it’s sporting some commentary from Hello Games designer Steven Burgess. For what it’s worth, it appears that we’ve seen most of this video’s scenes already by way of The Last Campfire’s recent trailer. It is nice to see things in their proper order with a bit of context though. Little blue cloth person Ember wakes up alone in what seems like a crypt and has to find their way out....
Save up to 80% in Ubisoft’s Legendary Sale The big highlight has to be on Ubisoft’s recent releases. Games like Immortals Fenyx Rising, Watch Dogs Legion and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla have dropped to some of their lowest prices yet, especially if you’re interested in picking up their complete editions with loads of DLC. For example, Anno 1800’s complete edition costs a massive $110, but with the sale price and the further 20% discount from using the LEGEND20 code, you can pick up the whole lot for just $57 - less than the base game cost when it was released two years ago!...
When the Wastelanders update launches, there will be a lot more evidence that humans have returned to the hills. Two new settlements have cropped up: Foundation and the Crater, owned by a faction of settlers and raiders respectively. Even right out of the vault, you’ll be met with a newly-built bar called The Wayward. In Bethesda’s preview below, they take you for a quick spin through the watering hole to meet its proprietor Duchess where you’ll get to take a stab at some of the new speech checks tied to your traditional Fallout S....
So far, players have uncovered several YouTube videos as part of the ARG. Until today though, each video had been just a black screen with sound or a live-action video providing new clues. Today’s video looks like it’s almost certainly from the game itself. There’s voice-over from a person named “Tasi” who could possibly be the game’s protagonist, what looks like a desert, and a small rocky ruin-looking structure with spooky blue light coming out....
The first half of 2023 is positively packed to the rafters with some pretty great looking video games at the moment. Heck, when we all returned from our Christmas slumber at the start of January, the list of our most anticipated games for the year stretched all the way to 101 - and even then, I had to bite my own hand from making it even longer. It’s a good feeling knowing there are so many exciting things to write about over the next six months and counting - especially when there was a point last summer when every game and their dog seemed to be getting delayed, leaving us with a veritable hole of neat new games to tell you about....
Watch it and make up your own mind. Honkai: Star Rail is the fourth game in the Honkai series, and the first to be turn-based. If the name sounds familiar, it’s maybe because the last game in the series, Honkai Impact 3rd, was a huge hit in Asia, and the precursor to the huge-hit-everywhere Genshin Impact. Star Rail mixes things up by being turn-based, but also because it features new characters and alternate versions of characters from previous games....
