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Rollerdrome is a game about performance. There is combat, but it's not about winning, as such. It's about style. The attitude you bring to it. Putting on a show. Efficiency is a by-product of mastering its violent dance—really, you're here to look good.
It might be my favourite action game since Devil Daggers. A single minded, stylish and evocative beast that pulls you along for a ride it's hard to let go of. Let's just say I've had more than one after-midnight session of Rollerdrome, chasing those high scores.
The main character, Kara Hassan, finds herself thrown into a gladiatorial contest on roller skates. Think Running Man on wheels and you're basically there. In essence the game is pretty simple: you skate and shoot. The joy of it is that while it builds so much upon that foundation, it's still great fun even if you only ever learn the basics. Coming from Roll7, the folks behind the joyous skateboarding series OlliOlli, that's no surprise. Skating is simple—you simply steer and build momentum—but it feels great. There's a real sense of speed that adds to all your actions, however many you master.
With Max Payne-esque bullet time, landing shots is a matter of timing more than aim, which makes combat feel part of the game's overall rhythm instead of an interruption to your flips and tricks. You can get health by killing enemies, but only get ammo back from doing tricks like grinds or perfect dodges. There always has to be a balance between movement and attack. Nailing that combo is the sweet spot where Rollerdrome becomes electrifying, pushing you to go faster and faster. What weapon combinations let you take down a shielded foe in seconds? Can you trick that enemy into launching mines at their allies? I expect to see social media flooded with clips of people's best runs. It's a game that's almost as fun to watch as it is to play.
The visuals certainly don't hurt on that front. It has a sketchy, vibrant look reminiscent of last year's Sable with retro future, 70s-inspired design. All of it clearly owing influence to the work of artist Jean Giraud, better known as Moebius. (No, not the double box office bomb vampire.) It's striking in screenshots or in motion, but moreover, highly readable. Strong colours, high contrasts. Even the big bold text that introduces new levels speaks to the clarity they're aiming for.
(Image credit: Roll7)
The game can afford to get incredibly chaotic and explosive (especially in its later stages) because it so clearly communicates information to the player. Sniper beams or charging lasers turn white to indicate the perfect dodge, for instance. Even the sounds are great, that harsh roll of wheels on concrete pulling you in before the symphony of explosions, rockets and shotgun blasts is unleashed. The soundtrack itself seems to mimic the increasing tempo of each level, letting you know when the timer has kicked in. All this combines to ensure you know what's going on in any given moment without ever really having to think about it. It just happens to look and sound damn good doing it.
Rise and grind
It might be my favourite action game since Devil Daggers.
As you progress, complexity increases rapidly. Enemy types pile up, each asking for new tactics from the player (check out challenges for hints) as do player abilities. Skating gets complemented by wall running, and your starting pistols are soon kept company by a shotgun, grenade launcher, and rail gun. Each of these offers a new dimension or play style, letting you tackle enemies with specific combinations until you have a routine that will make even your first runs pretty successful. I loved coming into crazy new spaces with heaps of confidence. In fact, the difficulty curve of the game feels perfectly pitched all the way through. Things definitely get tougher towards the end but I never felt out of my depth. New enemies never felt like setbacks, just exciting new puzzles to solve.
No matter how much it stacks on top, the core of the game is always on performance. It's not about taking out your enemies, it's about doing it with style. Rushing past an enemy so you can spin and shoot him the back looks cool—and the game is quick to acknowledge that. Doing a flip right before launching a grenade down on a walking mech is what gets the audience excited at this ludicrous death-sport. There's a heap of tricks to master too (with a handy "tricktionary" listing them all) and fitting them into your runs is essential if you want those high scores, or to complete the game's challenges.
(Image credit: Roll7)Progress through the game's campaign (about a dozen levels, plus an unlockable mode after completion) is tied to those challenges, which encourage players to try out daring moves or chase impossible score multipliers. You don't have to work those into a serious run—even if you hit a challenge before defeat it still counts, so you can just tackle each challenge on its own if you want. Again, if you wanna just take it easy, the game allows that. In fact, there are a host of modifiers to make the game easier, including invincibility, ensuring the experience is as accessible as possible. Using them takes you off the leaderboards, but you get to enjoy the game on your terms.
Bloodlust
If you're anything like me though, you'll want those high scores. Chaining some challenges and a high multiplier together? Let's get to work. Having a few practice runs before pulling off some wild feat is a thrill only the best of action games can offer, but I don't know that I've played any such score focused games that left me feeling so… relaxed. I seldom got frustrated over a failure or a messed up stunt. There's a sense that it's all just practice, putting in the work to get it right next time rather than a loss. Which only adds to the joy as you start not only doing well but throwing in little flourishes. A spin before a shotgun blast here, a somersault before taking out a sniper from above.
This bravado forms part of Kara Hassan's identity too. She's practically a silent protagonist, but there's a sense of who she is through the game's encouragement of stunts, and in its small sprinkling of narrative sections. At the outset of each new tier of the championship, you get a little breather, a small slice of life in the shoes of the champ as she explores behind the scenes spaces to flesh out the world. The way she'll comment on some of her aloof rivals, or play with an action figure, sketches out someone competitive but just humble enough to understand stakes beyond this sport she's in.
(Image credit: Roll7)I don't know that I've played any such score focused games that left me feeling so… relaxed.
You will too as you play, finding hints of protests and revolution outside the arena but on some level knowing that… you like this terrible thing. You're good at it. At what point do you go from reluctant combatant to complicit champion in this world? It's a slippery slope, especially when you've got skates on.
All that's a complementary story, applied with a light touch. Just enough to get you to take a breath and wonder about where this is all going. As badly as Kara, I wanted to see the end. Partly because of the sights, with each new level raising the spectacle from stadium battles to all out battlefields. There's a truly spectacular spider tank fight later that slots into the game's over the top sensibilities effortlessly. If you could see what you're up against at the game's end from the beginning, you'd think it impossible, but by the time you get there, the overwhelming odds will just put a smile on your face. Bring it on.
Skate outta ten
Keeping on top of the rising chaos is a key survival skill, but you can't keep things too calm or it'll become impossible to chain together those score multipliers. Enemies almost become dance partners, and you have to plan out some careful choreography to reach those high scores rather than just killing everything in sight. You might hit an enemy once to keep a multiplier going and leave them for the next go around the map instead of killing them. Once you start to think about Rollerdrome in those terms, you'll be amazed at the ludicrous heights you can reach.
(Image credit: Roll7)Not that speed isn't important. You get a bonus to your score for how much you beat it under the time limit, and a penalty for any time over. Just don't lose sight of what's important. The game certainly doesn't.
Because Rollerdome is a game that squints its eyes, takes aim, and lasers in on the bullseye. Its focus is squarely on delivering that loop of blisteringly paced action, the kind of thing you can play again and again because each individual beat hits so hard and flows into the next effortlessly.
No skill trees, no unlockable abilities or experience points to grind. No obstacles between you and the exhilaration on offer. It's a game that knows exactly what it wants to be and lets nothing get in its way. Kara Hassan certainly isn't gonna stop until she's conquered this sport. After over dozens of hours in the Rollerdome, I'm starting to think I won't either.
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Way back in the '90s there was a pretty decent football game called Fever Pitch (renamed Head-On Soccer in America) where the idea was essentially footie with special moves. So, all the players could play normally but Peter 'Cheesy Keeps' Stilton was a goalkeeper who'd keep out anything barring a comet, while there was a striker whose special move was to dive and win cheap free kicks. Sport with superpowers is an interesting concept and when games pull it off, like NBA Jam, it can result in greatness.
Fever Pitch sprang to mind this morning as I tried to puzzle out a somewhat confusing announcement from EA about the upcoming FIFA 23, the last game under the current license before the series relaunches as EA Sports FC. EA has collaborated with Marvel in order to bring some superhero flavour into the game's enormously popular FIFA Ultimate Team mode, which already includes footballing 'heroes', though the actual implementation remains a little fuzzy.
What it seems to boil down to is that there is going to be a lot of slightly odd art featuring great footballers reimagined as superheroes in the Marvel style, such as America's own Landon Donovan.
(Image credit: EA Sports)If The Brave just makes you think of The Deep, you're not alone (and if it doesn't then watch The Boys, it's great).
The publisher's announcement says the intention is to "celebrate [the players'] larger-than-life cult hero status alongside the amazing artists at Marvel. Recognising their memorable careers for club and country, each FIFA World Cup FUT Hero will receive a special illustrated FUT item at the launch of the World Cup game mode, with base versions of FUT Heroes being available at launch of FIFA 23."
Other footballers receiving the treatment include Claudio Marchisio, Yaya Toure, Park Ji-Sung, and Ricardo Carvalho, whose reincarnation as The Anticipator has to be one of the funniest of the lot.
Image 1 of 4(Image credit: EA Sports)Image 2 of 4(Image credit: EA Sports)Image 3 of 4(Image credit: EA Sports)Image 4 of 4(Image credit: EA Sports)As well as the mock-ups, the collaboration will include other items Marvelled-up including tifos, kits, balls, and other cosmetics. The collab naturally comes with a Marvel Heroes comic book featuring Marvel-written bios for each player, which will have a limited physical run.
The Marvel crossover will be in FIFA 23 at launch, with certain elements rolling out over time. It doesn't seem like the most obvious crossover but I suppose the mythologising of football greats has always been a part of the game, and it's a short step from that to hero status and statues outside grounds. Now, if they put them in the main game and added some special moves, I might be a little more interested…
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Guild Wars 2 is coming to Steam. We've known this for a while—originally ArenaNet had planned to launch on Steam back in late-2020, before putting the release on hold. Now, though, the Steam release date has been revealed. It's out next week on August 23, meaning it coincides with the MMO's tenth anniversary celebrations.
In addition to the base game, which is free and has no subscription cost, ArenaNet is also introducing a Complete Collection bundle through Steam for $100/£87. Unlike previous Guild Wars 2 bundles—such as the expansion collection available on the game's website right now—this actually unlocks everything, including the five Living World seasons that bridge each expansion story with new maps and features.
I've seen plenty of players complaining on the subreddit and forums about the additional, hidden cost of the Living World story episodes—currently only available through in-game microtransactions. Frequently the maps they add are some of the most replayable, with Season 4's Dragonfall and Icebrood Saga's Drizzlewood Coast being two of the best farming spots in the game thanks to their lengthy meta event chains. They're also required for two of the best mounts—the roller beetle and Skyscale—and offer the easiest access to ascended trinkets, which offer the best stats. For regular players, they're basically essential purchases, so it's good to see an easier, more upfront method of purchase. Sure, it's $100, but that's 10 years of stuff—all of it still relevant thanks to the game's horizontal progression system.
ArenaNet has clearly spent the last few months making preparations for the Steam release, through a bunch of tests and changes that improve the new player experience. The biggest of these is a tweak to the mount system. Where previously players could only unlock their first mount when they started the Path of Fire or End of Dragons expansion stories, now you'll be handed one while levelling. Any player who owns one of the expansions will be given a raptor for their account at level 10. And players who don't own the expansions will still get a raptor—but only for a 10-hour trial.
This is a pretty good change. While the core maps were designed before mounts were introduced, they're still regularly visited by veteran players looking to kill world bosses or get their daily mystic coin from the ley-line event. And so while you don't need a raptor to traverse the game's original zones, it sure is good to have one to keep up with other players.
(Image credit: ArenaNet)Also on August 23, a new balance patch is due that aims to improve damage for core class weapons. While this is part of a larger series of balance changes, many designed to restore viability for power builds (as opposed to condition builds, which apply damage over time and are the current meta for most instanced PvE bosses), it should have the added effect of making the levelling process smoother for newer players who haven't yet unlocked elite specialisations of their classes.
This Steam launch comes at a pretty good time for the game at large. While there is some griping about balance among the community right now—specifically around just how dominant the engineer's Mechanist specialisation is—the game at large is still coming down from the highs of this year's End of Dragons expansion. Recently ArenaNet has also been reintroducing Season 1 of the Living World story, reformatting it into the more instanced, mission-based approach of later seasons. After that, we're expecting new Living World updates—with a new map set in End of Dragons' Canthan region.
It's a good time to jump in, basically, not least because a fourth expansion has already been confirmed—ensuring there's plenty of life in the old MMO yet.
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After a brief delay, MultiVersus season one has arrived. It's been a rocky launch for the patch with plenty of frustrating bugs to contend with, like Wonder Woman hurting herself and Arya's up special not connecting. There's also the game's first 50-tier battle pass, which is going down like a lead balloon with players for one reason: there isn't a single bit of gleamium, MultiVersus' premium currency, to be seen on either the free or paid track.
It's an interesting choice, especially in the face of other games like Fortnite and Apex which incentivise players to plough through the battle pass in order to have enough premium currency to buy the next one. Not only is MultiVersus completely lacking in a gleamium reward, there are also rather a few empty tiers in the former. Coupled with its $10 price tag, the pass is proving unpopular among many players.
A ton of Reddit posts have cropped up in the last few hours with fans lamenting the rewards and the battle pass's overall worth. One poster said the battle pass "sucks," adding they were "so disappointed right now." Many comments agreed, with one saying how "missing tiers is a real killer." Another comment reads: "The pricing on this game is outrageous. It's right on par, maybe even a little worst than Fortnite, which is pretty pricey."
does_the_multiversus_season_1_battlepass_pass_the from r/MultiVersus
Some players didn't seem to mind however, with one saying "I might be ignorant but I've played many F2P games where the battle pass doesn't include the paid currency. It's not required by any means, especially if the other content included gives more than gleamium is worth." If words and debates aren't your cup of tea for decision-making, there's also a post that compares the battle pass to a Chick-fil-A spicy chicken deluxe meal (also $10). Spoiler: the Chick-fil-A wins.
It's true that MultiVersus isn't the only game with a battle pass to forgo premium currency rewards, but it's a disappointment regardless. Earning a small portion of gleamium towards the next battle pass would have been lovely, but at the very least filling up those empty free tiers feels like a major priority right now. Surely the whole point is that each tier of progression should mean something, no matter how small: a little bit of gold or even a couple of extra toasts would go a long way to keeping the battle pass feeling satisfying. MultiVersus is a game still finding its feet, and things could end up looking a lot different in season two. I'll personally be giving this one a miss, but if you're a Harley Quinn or Tom & Jerry main then the battle pass may be one worth scoping out for their respective skins.
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World of Warcraft's 9.2.7 patch is due to land with the weekly reset later today—or tomorrow for EU servers—and Blizzard has posted a warning to boosters to keep to their own (new) chat channel or "proper actions will be taken".
"With the separation of trade services into its own chat channel, a new policy will take place," states Blizzard's blue post. "Any boosting, carrying, or other similar services offered for gold that’s advertised outside of the Trade (Services) chat channel will be considered spam and the proper actions will be taken, so be sure to switch your service advertisements to the new chat channel when it becomes available after this week’s regional maintenance."
Boosts (or carries) are services offered by groups of players to help you get through a dungeon or raid in return for gold. You might opt for something like this if you're after a specific achievement or if you don't have the time—or skill—to get it the usual way.
The new Trade (Services) channel was announced back in July. The original trade chat has traditionally been a place for random chatter and guild recruitment, rather than its intended purpose of buying and selling items and profession services. But in recent years it's become clogged with groups selling boosts for dungeons or raids for in-game gold, to the point where it's almost impossible to see anything else that might be posted, especially if you're on a busy server.
Trade chat isn't for everyone, but at the very least it's a reminder that you're in Azeroth with other people. So here's hoping this will put an end to the non-stop macros for boosts.
Along with the new chat channel, changes are heading to the auction house in the 9.2.7 update. After this weekly reset, commodity listings on the auction house will become region-wide, rather than server-specific, so you should expect the cost of items like flasks and potions to fluctuate over the next few weeks.
In the long run, though, this should mean low-population servers shouldn't suffer so much with inflated prices. So once prices settle down, maybe you'll get the chance to save some gold ready for Dragonflight, later this year.
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Paradox has sent the Crusader Kings 3 community into a tumult after announcing a retroactive price change for CK3 flavour packs that almost doubles their cost.
The change, which is due to take effect on September 13, will ratchet up the price of CK3's smaller DLCs from $6.99 to $12.99 (though regional pricing means the scale of the increase might change a bit depending on where you are). It affects the two previously released flavour packs—Northern Lords and Fate of Iberia—plus any flavour packs that are yet to come, whose cost will "be more in line with this price point" when they come out. Neither the base game nor the game's bigger expansion DLCs will be changing in price.
Inflation seems like the most obvious explanation. With everything else in the world getting precipitously dearer, why not CK3 DLC? But Paradox's announcement doesn't mention the global economic situation at all. Instead, a Paradox community manager says only that, "These changes are being made to keep up our quality level with the increase on all Flavor Packs and related content".
Paradox has been through a lot of turmoil recently. After a much-feted announcement, work on Bloodlines 2 ground to a halt before Paradox took the project off Hardsuit Labs and gave it to a new, still unknown developer. During that time, Paradox lost CEO Ebba Ljungerud after her resignation in 2018. Her replacement, returning CEO Fredrik Wester, almost immediately had to issue an apology over his "inappropriate behaviour" toward a colleague at a company conference held that same year. These crises have all carried a price in terms of time, morale, and money, and it may be the case that price hikes like these are part of an attempt to make up for that.
Players haven't taken the news well. The Paradox forum post announcing the price hike is flooded with comments from fans upset by the unexpected and—to be fair—pretty significant leap in price. Paradox has recommended that players pick up the currently available packs before the price change kicks in, and suggested that players could avoid the pinch on future packs by buying future expansion passes. If anything, those suggestions only seem to have fueled the community's belief that these changes are motivated by greed rather than necessity.
CK3's flavour packs are the bitesize cousins of its bigger, full-blown expansions. Where expansions bolt on entire new layers to the game as a whole, flavour packs focus on adding more specific cosmetic and mechanical differentiators to the game's myriad cultures and religions. The two that have been released thus far have focused on adding new customisation options and mechanical intricacies to the game's Iberian and Norse cultures, but there's almost certainly a lot more to come if CK2's gargantuan library of DLC is anything to go by.
If, like me, you have a crippling and self-destructive addiction to buying Paradox DLC and then not playing it, that habit is now going to cost us around twice as much from September on. Maybe I can get a loan from the Pope.
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Whether you need the answer to today's Wordle or just want a nudge in the right direction, I've got everything you need to help solve the August 16 (423) online challenge.
I made a real rookie error today: I saw a grey and a green box in my first guess and somehow managed to mix the two up in a dozy rush, trying to make a letter that I could see definitely wasn't in today's answer fit and casting aside something that could've really helped. I recovered in the end but… phew. I know I'll end up triple-checking everything tomorrow.
Wordle hint
Today's Wordle: A hint for Tuesday, August 16
Today's word is chiefly used to describe a thin mixture of oats and water, although it can also be used to describe anything lacking in substance. There are two vowels to chase today.
Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day
If there's one thing better than playing Wordle, it's playing Wordle well, which is why I'm going to share a few quick tips to help set you on the path to success:
- A good opener contains a balanced mix of unique vowels and consonants.
- A tactical second guess helps to narrow down the pool of letters quickly.
- The solution may contain repeat letters.
There's no time pressure beyond making sure it's done by midnight. So there's no reason to not treat the game like a casual newspaper crossword and come back to it later if you're coming up blank.
Wordle answer
(Image credit: Josh Wardle)What is the Wordle 423 answer?
Sometimes the answer just doesn't spring to mind. The answer to the August 16 (423) Wordle is GRUEL.
Previous answers
Wordle archive: Which words have been used
The more past Wordle answers you can cram into your memory banks, the better your chances of guessing today's Wordle answer without accidentally picking a solution that's already been used. Past Wordle answers can also give you some excellent ideas for fun starting words that keep your daily puzzle solving fresh.
Here are some recent Wordle solutions:
- August 15: POKER
- August 14: KHAKI
- August 13: HUNKY
- August 12: LABEL
- August 11: GLEAN
- August 10: CLING
- August 9: PATTY
- August 8: UNFIT
- August 7: SMEAR
- August 6: ALIEN
Learn more about Wordle
Every day Wordle presents you with six rows of five boxes, and it's up to you to work out which secret five-letter word is hiding inside them.
You'll want to start with a strong word like ALERT—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters. Hit Enter and the boxes will show you which letters you've got right or wrong. If a box turns
️, it means that letter isn't in the secret word at all. 
means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 
means you've got the right letter in the right spot.You'll want your second go to compliment the first, using another "good" word to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn't present in today's answer.
After that it's just a case of using what you've learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there's an E). Don't forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).
If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you'd like to find out which words have already been used you'll find those below.
Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn't long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it's only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.
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On an average day about a dozen new games are released on Steam. And while we think that's a good thing, it can be understandably hard to keep up with. Potentially exciting gems are sure to be lost in the deluge of new things to play unless you sort through every single game that is released on Steam. So that’s exactly what we’ve done. If nothing catches your fancy this week, we've gathered the best PC games you can play right now and a running list of the 2022 games that are launching this year.
Escape the Backrooms
(Image credit: Fancy Games)Steam page
Release: August 12
Developer: Fancy Games
Launch price: $9 | £6.47 | AU$13.05Hey look, it's another game based on the viral horror concept of The Backrooms, borne of an eerie, unheimlich photo of a desolate office. There have been a number of these, and I've covered one before, but this latest four-player cooperative take is gaining a lot of traction. An Early Access affair, Escape the Backrooms looks like a fairly conventional survival horror jaunt—it has baddies—but it has eight discrete levels too, some of which appear to depart quite dramatically from the source material. When played cooperatively you'll use proximity voice chat, which dovetails nicely with the labyrinthine level design: if you lose your friends, you won't be able to speak to them. If you can't get enough of this fascinatingly creepy setting, and have some similarly fascinated friends, it looks like a creepy way to spend an evening.
Moondrop
Steam page
Release: August 12
Developer: Moonroof Studios
Launch price: $9 | £6.47 | AU$13.05Here's a whimsical farming game with glorious pixel art, which may put you in mind of Stardew Valley. This is a roguelite take though, so it may not be as relaxing. The farm you're tasked with plotting and nurturing is situated atop a "shifting mountain" harried by a supernatural mist: when this mist arrives, your farm disappears. The idea is to grow and harvest enough produce between these mist visitations to make some money at the nearby village. As the game progresses, you'll learn some ways to keep the mist at bay. Moondrop is in Early Access, and will stay there until early next year, during which time it'll get new content and the usual optimisations.
The Mangotronics Employment Collection
Steam page
Release: August 14
Developer: Various
Launch price: $8 | £5.75 | AU$11.60Here's a collection of nine games based around the theme of employment. Each game is short and sweet, and range from first-person physics puzzles based around production lines, to visual novels about dreaded job interviews. There's also a game about working behind the counter at a fast food restaurant, and, uh, a game about tossing projectiles at presumably annoying customers. It's not without violence then, but what is work except violence upon our desire for true freedom (and more time to play games about employment)?.
Tyrant's Blessing
Steam page
Release: August 9
Developer: Mercury Game Studio
Launch price: $20 | £15.49 | AU$28.95Last week I pointed out that we're living in a golden age for tactics RPGs. And here's another one, with all the elements you'd expect: cute fantasy pixel art, a gaggle of characters to recruit and customise, and difficult decisions with every turn. According to Mercury Game Studio, Tyrants Blessing isn't just about min-maxing: "your ability to plan, adapt, and strategize" is more important, apparently, so expect to have to think on your feet as you explore the colourful world Tyberia in order to obliterate the Tyrant.
Pud Pud in Weird World
Steam page
Release: August 10
Developer: Ocean Software
Launch price: $1.79 | £1.52 | AU$2.65Ancient and forgotten retro games are often re-released unceremoniously on Steam, and Pud Pud in Weird World is the latest. You may not have heard of it, but it's an Ocean Software affair originally released for ZX Spectrum in 1984. It's nominally a platformer, but it's a damned weird one. You're a yellow ball with wings who must survive in a bonkers and surreal world. How is this achieved? By discovering hidden bowls, of course! Look, lore and cohesive worldbuilding weren't big videogame concerns back in the early '80s, but if you want to try something bizarre for just over a buck, this could be some fun.
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The developers of Owlboy have revealed their next game, the delightfully titled Vikings on Trampolines. You might guess there's more to it than the name, and there kind of is, but honestly it's clearly about vikings and they are bouncing on trampolines. It's a simple concept, one which creators D-Pad studios say is inherently accessible since the controls really only need one hand, but it'll have a singleplayer and cooperative campaign, multiplayer challenges, and a variety of minigames.
The campaign will see you take on "the bad Balloonie," presumably by bouncing on and violently popping his henchmen, who are also balloons. Multiplayer battles range from the simple-sounding—knock other vikings off the trampolines—to various rather complex-looking stages, complete with powerups. There will also be "trampoline sports," a phrase I find both electric and thrilling in this context, though no precise examples are given beyond what looks like soccer, in the trailer.
Vikings on Trampolines doesn't yet have a release date, but you can find it on Steam and its official website, for now. We don't expect it'll take them as laboriously long as it took them to make Owlboy, which they said took nine years. The reveal of Vikings on Trampolines makes this a banner week for niche game genre "Games That Are Exactly What Their Title Says" following the reveal of Squirrel with a Gun.
Image 1 of 8(Image credit: D-Pad Studio)Image 2 of 8(Image credit: D-Pad Studio)Image 3 of 8(Image credit: D-Pad Studio)Image 4 of 8(Image credit: D-Pad Studio)Image 5 of 8(Image credit: D-Pad Studio)Image 6 of 8(Image credit: D-Pad Studio)Image 7 of 8(Image credit: D-Pad Studio)Image 8 of 8(Image credit: D-Pad Studio) -
It takes a lot for deckbuilding games to stand out nowadays, but Nadir: A Grimdark Deckbuilder has absolutely caught my eye. A demo released late last week gives you a look into a vision of hell that I'm pretty excited to dive into. Something between a desaturated aesthetic and the heavy-lined pen of Mike Mignola's Hellboy, the art style also draws on the kind of tattoo designs a heavy metal Catholic biker might get. A skeletal statue with a sword fighting faceless horrors from beyond. That sort of thing.
Nadir's mechanical innovation beyond rad art is in its resource system. You and your enemy both share three tablets, which are either Sacrum (Blue) or Profanum (Red) on any given turn. Using a card from your hand that costs one of those tablets flips a corresponding number of them over and—at the same time—tells you exactly what the enemy is going to do. In short, it's deterministic combat: You always know what your cards do and you choose what your enemy's exact reaction is. Otherwise it's a full-on duel game, where yourself and the enemy are the only competitors, each with their own life pool and status effects.
Image 1 of 6(Image credit: Team Nadir)Image 2 of 6(Image credit: Team Nadir)Image 3 of 6(Image credit: Team Nadir)Image 4 of 6(Image credit: Team Nadir)Image 5 of 6(Image credit: Team Nadir)Image 6 of 6(Image credit: Team Nadir)You can find a demo of Nadir: A Grimdark Deckbuilder on Steam and on GOG, where it will release this year. It's published by Black Eye Games and developed by Team Nadir and Black Eye Games. Meanwhile, our Wes Fenlon is very sick of roguelike deckbuilders, but has found a recent dicebuilding game charming.
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First spotted by PCGamesN, a group of modders is already coalescing to create a Starfield Community Patch to address bugs in the game, even though we're still more than half a year out from the highly-anticipated sci-fi RPG's planned release.
There's a rich history of fan fixes for Bethesda games. Alongside flashier mods that add Master Chief to Skyrim or a McDonald's to Morrowind, projects like the Unofficial Oblivion Patch do the thankless, lunch pail work of addressing mesh errors, scripting hiccups, and mismatched item enchantments that withstood official bug fixes. Grabbing the equivalent patch for a given game is usually my first stop after reinstalling an old favorite, especially when it comes to those running on the Gamebryo and Creation engines Bethesda's been building on since Morrowind (and has brought forward to Starfield.)
Given the level of hype for Starfield and Bethesda's history of launch day woes, it makes sense that the modders behind the Starfield Community Patch would want to organize early and hit the ground running. Still, I can't help but imagine a situation where too many people are trying to fit through the door at once—Bethesda's labors will hardly be over with Starfield's launch, and the official team and community patchers may find themselves rushing to fix the same bugs. After the launch rush, however, I'm sure the Starfield Community Patch will prove itself similarly essential to previous unofficial patches.
It certainly speaks to Bethesda's reputation that such an effort is underway well before Starfield even launches. I'm always of the opinion that non game-breaking or completion-blocking bugs can add a little texture to a game, but I find it interesting how this sort of project is such a forgone conclusion—it should be a shocking vote of no confidence, but I heard the news and thought "yeah, that makes sense." From the rolling hills of Cyrodiil to the farthest reaches of space, you can always count on NPCs clipping through the ground and asking each other about the Fighter's Guild.
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Today's new release trending upward on Steam is Backpack Hero, a whole roguelike about inventory management. You're a literal pack rat, a critter delving into a dungeon with a big backpack and a craving for the ancient and powerful cheeses held within. Your real power? That packpack is magic, and it gets bigger as you defeat enemies, letting you store more items in ever-puzzlier combinations for ever-greater results.
Each turn you have three energy, and using items from your pack to attack, defend, or buff yourself costs energy. Meanwhile, some items are free—like potions—or rely on magic stones stored in your bag with them to charge up their magic powers. It's the kind of basic gameplay you're familiar with from roguelike deckbuilding games such as Slay the Spire, but your whole "deck" is on display at all times. That makes building a combo a bit simpler and more intuitive.
Image 1 of 8(Image credit: Jaspel)Image 2 of 8(Image credit: Jaspel)Image 3 of 8(Image credit: Jaspel)Image 4 of 8(Image credit: Jaspel)Image 5 of 8(Image credit: Jaspel)Image 6 of 8(Image credit: Jaspel)Image 7 of 8(Image credit: Jaspel)Image 8 of 8(Image credit: Jaspel)I quite enjoyed the hour I spent with it today, and I especially liked how combos are built. I had a ring of strength that drew from an ever-lengthening line of magic stones. At the same time, I had a magic dragonfly that buffed weapons it moved next to in my bag, which incentivized me to leave open space for it to fly around in. Others seem to enjoy it, as its cracked the top few hundred games on Steam with a few thousand players and is a top new release at about 2,200 players. You can find Backpack Hero in Early Access on Steam.
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As spotted by Massively Overpowered, Ultima creator Richard Garriott's next project, a blockchain MMO formerly code named Effigy, got an official name, Iron and Magic, as well as a website. The site contains fly-throughs of a selection of fantasy locales, as well as an under-construction shop featuring plots of land, buildings, and the opportunity to "buy land in the realm of Lord British."
In an interview with PC Gamer back in April, Garriott and developer Todd Porter made the case for their game and its blockchain features. Despite some interesting musing on Ultima Online's digital economy, Garriott and Porter don't seem to offer anything you haven't heard from other NFT developers before: the promise of "owning" your digital assets and "earning" some kind of monetary recompense from the gaming you do in your leisure time, or as Garriott put it, "We're certainly doing more for players than just, when they put their money down, they play the game and all they're getting out of it is 60 hours of fun."
For those less familiar with Richard Garriott, he's most famous as the creator of the Ultima series in the '80s, a crucial piece of gaming history and a bit of a "last common ancestor" for Western RPGs and JRPGs, as well as a crucial influence on MMOs and immersive sims through its spinoffs Ultima Online and Ultima Underworld. His Lord British persona was a consistent presence in these classic games.
Garriott's Black & White series of god simulators were also highly regarded, but his more recent MMO endeavors, Tabula Rasa and Shroud of the Avatar, ran into trouble. Tabula Rasa shut down about a year and a half after launch, and SotA's initial Kickstarter success gave way to a sequence of delays and development overhauls before quietly dying. Garriott himself has made more headlines in recent years by being ahead of the curve on the "rich guys going to outer space" beat, and he recently traveled to the bottom of the Pacific.
It's a rough time to launch a digital world with blockchain-backed real estate, cryptocurrencies more broadly experienced a real humdinger of a Spring, with Bitcoin and Ethereum precipitously dropping in value and so-called stablecoins fluctuating in a decidedly not stable manner. That instability extends to NFT real estate: Cointelegraph reports that six of the largest Ethereum-based metaverse projects featuring digital real estate purchases like those promised by Iron and Magic saw an 85% decline in average price of those assets in recent months. Additionally, unlike a, you know, real life bit of real estate, you can't do cool things like grill out or play frisbee golf on your suddenly worthless plot of digital land.
Beyond questions of financial wisdom or tangibility, figures like former Greek Finance Minister and Valve in-house economist Yanis Varoufakis, as well as Brazilian game developer Mark Venturelli have made compelling philosophical arguments against these initiatives' promises of decentralization and the dystopian notion of "play to earn." No matter how you slice it, I'm not inclined to buy land in the realm of Lord British.
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The advent of Multiversus Season 1 has come alongside an in-game advertisement that shows off two more characters likely coming to the platform fighter this year: Black Adam, from DC Comics, and Stripe, from the 1984 movie Gremlins. That's right, kids, a duo of Antihero and malicious alien... thing are your next Multiversus competitors. Black Adam was on the previous list of leaked Multiversus characters, but that list also noted protagonist Gizmo, rather than Stripe, from Gremlins as the character from that franchise.
Black Adam, a character nearly 80 years old so I'll have to be a bit simple here, was first a villain antagonist to the Shazam character. Black Adam is a magically-empowered human who wields energies granted by the ancient Egyptian gods. He's the kind of bad dude that can fight Superman to a standstill. In the last few decades, however, the character has been reinvented as a more sympathetic and complex antihero. He's also the subject of a movie starring Dwayne Johnson, due to release later this year on October 21st, so... I'd expect him before or around then. I'll also bet you the character gets a Dwayne Johnson-flavored skin, if the studio can swing it.
The other addition is way less predictable, at least as an outsider. It's Stripe, the bizarre and vicious antagonist from 1984 black horror comedy but also movie for children with enough violence that it helped get the PG-13 rating invented in the United States. I'm not sure what else to say, but Stripe will probably have a move where he uses a buzz-saw blade or maybe pulls a gun, which are things he does in the movie—my vote's on assassin for his class. Either way, this probably lends credence to the idea that Gremlins 3, a movie absolutely nobody asked for, is coming in 2023.
Multiversus' first proper season launches today, and you can read more about Multiversus Season 1 on the site. The short of it? Batman, Arya Stark, LeBron James, and Steven Universe are your free characters this go-round, and Morty's coming on August 23rd.
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Engine creator Unity has officially rejected a takeover offer by AppLovin. The tech firm, known for its mobile marketing and analytics platforms like AppDiscovery and SparkLabs, had previously offered $17.54 billion to buy the well-known software developer, whose engine has powered games like Kerbal Space Program and Pillars of Eternity.
The offer was made on condition that Unity drop its own $4.4 billion bid to purchase ironSource, a Tel Aviv-based company that is a rival to AppLovin. But in a statement, Unity CEO John Riccitiello said. "The board continues to believe that the ironSource transaction is compelling and will deliver an opportunity to generate long-term value." Unity itself further added that AppLovin's offer "would not reasonably be expected to result in a 'Superior Proposal' as defined in Unity's merger agreement with ironSource."
That deal, which will now presumably continue as planned, is expected to close in Q4 this year. This isn't the only deal Unity has made recently. Last week, the company signed a "multi-million" dollar contract to work with US Government Defense, despite reports of dissatisfaction with Unity's military affiliations emerging in the middle of last year.
ironSource, meanwhile, is known for developing InstallCore, a wrapper for bundling software installations so infamously obnoxious that it's treated as malware by programs like Windows Defender and Malwarebytes. Unity's interest in ironSource stems from its interest in expanding its stake in mobile advertising, with plans to harness "the company's tools, platforms, technology, and talent to form an end-to-end platform that enables creators to more easily create, publish, run, monetize, and grow live games".
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Take Two's publishing label Private Division has announced it is working with Wētā Workshop, the production company that created the special effects in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, on a new game "set in the Middle-earth universe of J.R.R Tolkien."
The game, which will be based upon the "literary works of the series", is currently in early development, and is expected to launch during Take Two's fiscal year 2024, although a specific release date has understandably not been announced.
Head of Private Division Michael Worosz said "We are thrilled to partner with Wētā Workshop to publish a game set in such an extraordinary and celebrated universe," adding that "No entity is better equipped than the team at Wētā Workshop to create a distinctive, new Middle-earth gaming experience."
There's certainly some truth to that. Wētā Workshop has been regularly involved with many things Tolkien over the last two decades. Most notably, Wētā was behind the visual effects of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, which, if you've ever watched the Extended Edition's DVD extras, involves some pretty incredible stuff, like the thousands of amazing costumes, and most of the films stunning "Bigatures" like the models for Rivendell and Minas Tirith. Wētā also worked on the less-well regarded (but still amazing-looking) Hobbit Trilogy, and more recently has been involved with Amazon's hotly anticipated prequel series.
There's very little information about what kind of game Wētā is making, but Wētā's head of Interactive, Amie Wolken, offered a couple of tantalising titbits, stating "It's a privilege to create a new game set in Middle-earth, especially one that's so different from what fans have played previously." Wolken further added "We're excited for gamers to explore Middle-earth in a way they never had before."
Combine that last statement with Wētā's deep experience with Tolkien based world-building, and my guess is that is a LOTR open-world game, one that goes beyond the borders of Mordor as seen in Monolith's "Shadow of" series. But that guess is only educated to primary-school level. It could be absolutely anything, from a Shire management sim to a Nazgûl kart-racer.
In any case, I'm extremely up for this. Monolith hasn't been back to Mordor since 2017, instead working on its long in-development Wonder Woman game. There is that Gollum game from Daedalic Entertainment in the works, but our early impressions were mixed, and it has also been delayed. You can read the full announcment of Wētā's new game here.
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In an instant, it all comes back. The immediate sense of danger. The strategy, the weapons, remembering to grab a grenade launcher for the 2-1 bonus round and remembering to avoid opening the gates in 3-2 and 5-2 to keep them safe for the eventual loop. I make it to the Throne at record pace, busting the generators to break into the secret second phase... and then I beef it. Melted. A promising run killed in an instant, doomed by one slip up.
I need you all to understand, I used to be hot 'frack' at Nuclear Throne. Back in uni I was obsessed, making sure to get a daily run in every morning before heading to class, ill-advised subwoofer blasting the sounds of Joonas Turner's fat bassy gunshots into my neighbours' ceilings (probably). Even if I never topped the leaderboards, I was a regular sight in the top 25, frequently clawing my way into the top 10.
Because while Nuclear Throne was never the deepest or most strategic roguelike, it's raw, loud and incredibly satisfying, a buffet of crunchy pixelated murder where even the most successful runs can easily be crammed into a lunch break.
Throne butt
Nuclear Throne is a 2015 twin-stick shooter by Vlambeer, the (now- defunct) crafty Dutch rascals behind equally screen-shaking games like Luftrausers and Ridiculous Fishing. It is, generously speaking, a roguelike—maps are procedurally generated on the fly, weapons are scattered across levels, levelling up grants you a choice of upgrade 'mutations' to plug into your body, and death is both quick and permanent.
But unlike a Binding of Isaac, Slay the Spire, or even Enter the Gungeon (its closest relation, mechanically speaking), Nuclear Throne isn't really a game about strategising builds or long-term planning. It's a roguelike played on the edge of your seat, selecting from a scant list of upgrades in a blind panic in the hopes that you're either carrying, or might find, the weapons that make it all click.
It works, because the simple act of blasting stuff in Nuclear Throne is joyous. Vlambeer wrote the book on game feel, and when even your piddly little starting revolver kicks up bass and punches the screen, you know you're in for a good time. The world is built up of tiles, and some weapons (explosives, particularly spicy energy weapons) will blow out chunks of these walls, while some bosses might even charge through 'em in a murderous rage.
(Image credit: Vlambeer)Gene pool
Rather than synergising into weird and wonderful combos, 'mutations' tend to benefit stuff you're already doing. Better health and ammo drops, shotgun shells that bounce further, crossbow bolts with aim assist, halos to grant you a second chance, each framed as another gross little mutation bursting out of your messed up little guy.
Nuclear Throne's characters are a wonderfully screwed up band of freaks, mutant fish and living crystals, and rebel bandits who turn their flesh into smaller, friendly bandits. They each have their own quirks, usually in abilities, but often in how the world responds to their presence.
YV is a floating triangle from Venus, and you're guaranteed to crash his pad on reaching level 10 to pick from a literal pile of guns, while simple ol' Fish will always get a guitar on reaching Throne 2. Rogue is on the run from her former extradimensional cop buds, and will be accosted by them from the offset—a small price to pay for being able to summon in devastating airstrikes at will.
Unlocking these characters at all is also refreshingly old school in its strangeness. There are no levelling thresholds or unlocks—and while early characters are unlocked just for reaching certain stages or beating the game, you need to get creative to find others. Horror will only show up if you avoid those tantalising rad canisters scattered about each stage.
And that's really the thing about Nuclear Throne. It's a deceptively simple game on the surface—shoot gun, mutate, don't die, kill god's chair, easy as. But the more you poke and prod, scraping away at those wonderfully destructible walls, the more secrets you find. Hidden stages, hidden bosses, final endings and a world rooted in a more melancholic tragedy than you'd ever have suspected.
(Image credit: Vlambeer)Fläshyn
Yes, Nuclear Throne is a game about being a funky little guy blasting bandits and monsters in a wasteland. But there is a truly astounding level of effort put into making this cartoon universe feel coherent and considered. There's a whole language called Trashtalk for your mutant's guttural screaming—a selection of sounds representing actions, places, and objects.
For example, did you know that at the start of your run your character will often shout "Fläshyn!", constructed of FL (do) Ä (me/we) SH (this) YN (now), loosely translating to "Let's do this!". Rhaäve'sho can be interpreted as "our lives are hard", while the Nuclear Throne itself is a sharp, choked Fläisum.
It's a level of care that grounds this goofy world of mutants and monsters enough that, when it wants to, Nuclear Throne can pull off moments of real melancholy. You'll often load into a map playing a more sombre piano variation of the level theme, maps feeling eerie when the dust has settled.
The run-up to the Throne itself is a masterclass in scene-setting, a just-too-long walk up a long corridor while pulled strings ring ominously. Once the fight starts, the music is a desperate howl with frontier strumming, one final effort that begs to ask whether your fight was worth the pain.
Across the board, Jukio Kallio's soundtrack hits this perfect note of post-apocalyptic western, heavy riffs settling alongside twangy guitars. The game's credits song is an all-time great, a breath of relief sung in campfire melody.
(Image credit: Vlambeer)Modular chair
Nuclear Throne, on release, was a perfectly formed thing. But that form took years to take shape, and its development was catalogued in entirety through Twitch. Vlambeer would work on the game in front of a live audience, who would then get to mess with the latest version of the game in Early Access.
In that way, Nuclear Throne has always belonged to the community. And in the seven years since release, the community has run wild with the game, a small but fascinating modding scene growing up around it.
The biggest of these is Nuclear Throne Together, which on the surface expands the game's multiplayer from couch co-op to full online lobbies of up to four players. But Nuclear Throne Together's secret is that it also cracks the game wide open, acting as a foundation for Nuclear Throne's wildest mods.
There are mods that add guns, mods that change guns, mods that procedurally generate guns on the fly. Mods that let you play as the Soldier from Enter the Gungeon, mods that replace every enemy with frogs, mods that slam environments into each other in a dimensional nightmare.
(Image credit: Vlambeer)Beyond NTT, there's even a massive Community Remix mod that adds three new characters, fifty new weapons, and enough new mutations, crowns and otherwise to turn Nuclear Throne into something madly and wonderfully new—but never unrecognisable.
Nuclear Throne is pure, simple, chaos. Mods might turn the game on its side, deep fry it, and cram a thousand tons of explosive into it, but they never pull the game away from the raw thrill of slamming 'play' and dropping into a desert full of bandits armed with only a revolver and heavy guitar riffs. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm late for today's daily. Let's see if we can't actually make it back into the top 10 this time, eh?
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Team 17 has announced the release date for its upcoming cooperative sailing roguelike Ship of Fools, which will launch into the volatile waters of Steam on November 22.
The debut game by Quebec-based studio Fika Games, Ship of Fools sees one or two players managing a rickety vessel named Stormstrider as they navigate a cluster of islands known simply as "The Archipelago", searching for a way to thwart the Everlasting Storm, a monstrous tempest that threatens to submerge the entire island-chain. The game will see players battling marauding pirates and a host of dastardly sea-creatures as they sail the Archipelago's treacherous seas, stopping off at islands to scavenge resources and equipment that'll help them upgrade their ship.
Team 17 also released a new trailer to accompany the launch date announcement. I really dig the game's art-style, which has darkly comic vibe similar to Klei's eccentric survival game Don't Starve. Ship of Fools has some survival elements akin to Don't Starve too, although it otherwise seems more action-centric than Klei's game. Indeed, as your ship travels from island to island, you'll have to regularly defend it from attack, manually reloading and aiming your ships cannons, and fending off boarding parties with a good whack of a paddle.
More broadly, you explore the Archipelgo with an FTL-style travel system, choosing from different sectors of ocean to explore as you gradually wend your way to your ultimate destination. Also like FTL, if your boat sinks, it's game over, with Ship of Fools reshuffling the Archipelago for an entirely new run.
Ship of Fools isn't the first game to take a stab at a seafaring themed rogue-like. In 2018, Fireblade Software released Abandoned Ship, although it was somewhat more serious than Ship of Fools, which adopts a more caperish tone. In any case, you can view the full trailer above. For more information about Ship of Fools, check out the game's Steam page.
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Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered is an exclusively single-player experience, as is its follow-up Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which is coming to PC soon. But it appears developer Insomniac Games toyed with the idea of multiplayer in its open-world superhero game, as suggested by information uncovered within the PC version's executable file.
The initial discovery was made by Twitter user DniweTamp, who posted two images showing lines of text purportedly from the game's executable. One image references a phrase "Superior Spider-Man", which can be applied to either Peter Parker or Miles Morales. Other lines make reference to red and blue teams, which alongside the phrase "Superior Spider-Man", imply that Insomniac was working on some form of competitive multiplayer mode for its game.
whatwhat is this pic.twitter.com/NUZ32OO0ulAugust 13, 2022
See moreThat's not all. Another image includes what appear to be dev notes in the code, stating "If set and in co-op, Character 2 will see this text." This implies Insomniac also had a cooperative mode for Spidey in the works, letting players team up and battle thugs across New York together.
As for the validity of the images, gaming news website VGC stated in its own report that it had "verified the contents of these files, confirming these elements". So it appears the files are legitimate.
The most likely reason behind these hints toward multiplayer is simply that Insomniac tested out multiplayer functionality for Spider-Man, but decided to ditch it, either to reduce the scope of the project, or simply because the studio couldn't get multiplayer to work the way it wanted. That said, it's possible that this could also represent a test-bed for multiplayer in Marvel's Spider-Man 2. Insomniac has previously referred to the sequel as Peter and Miles' "most epic single-player adventure yet." But the game will feature both Spideys in its campaign, and allowing cooperative play would be a heck of a hook for a second game.
Either way, for the moment you'll have to content yourself with single-player Spidey. The good news is, that's by no means a poor alternative.
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When Larian boss Swen Vincke first heard that his debut RPG was going to be called Divine Divinity, he thought it was a joke. But his publisher in Germany, CDV, was all too serious. They'd had a hit with a game called Sudden Strike, and suspected that alliteration might be the key to long-term success. Reader, they were wrong.
Today, CDV is long dead. But the name ‘Divinity' remains—attached to almost every Larian project of note since. It's an artefact from a long and gruelling period in which the studio was subject to the whims of whoever held the purse strings. An inescapable reminder of the outside interference which the developer has now triumphantly expunged.
Of course, no Larian story begins with godhood. Getting there can be a slow, strategic, and sometimes bruising journey, and so it proved for the studio itself. Along the road to release, Divine Divinity was compromised not just by CDV, but the publisher before it, Atari. Larian should have been following in the wake of Baldur's Gate, its spiritual kin; instead, the studio's paymasters directed it to copy Diablo, the leading light in the adjacent action-RPG genre.
The result was an identity crisis viewed from an isometric perspective. On the one hand, Divine Divinity boasted the intricacy and interactivity of Vincke's beloved Ultima VII. In its world, every crate and barrel could be shunted around with the mouse, and every kitchen table relieved of its cutlery. Yet outside the alluring density of civilisation, the game devolved into long and testing dungeons, which leaned heavily on simplistic hack-and-slash combat. The fact that the screens seemed to roll on forever—unfurling a near-continuous tapestry rather than the discrete patchwork of the Infinity Engine games—only contributed to the sense that Divine Divinity was stretched thin. To quote Bilbo Baggins, it was like butter scraped over too much bread.
Divine tragedy
Nevertheless, it reviewed well. Launched during a CRPG drought in 2002, Divine Divinity won over a dehydrated hardcore, and justified a follow-up in the same style: Beyond Divinity. Yet the landscape was already changing beneath Larian's feet. With Knights of the Old Republic, BioWare had graduated to 3D games for a console audience, and pulled the entire RPG genre along with it. If Larian was to stand any chance of attracting publisher money, it had no choice but to follow.
Larian hadn't tempted new RPG converts away from Fallout 3 and Fable.
Divinity 2: Ego Draconis was exactly what an RPG was required to be in 2009: a fully voice-acted adventure in a shiny, sun-dappled land that was easily navigable via an Xbox 360 controller. To stand out from the crowd, Larian developed not one but two gimmicks: NPC mind-reading and the ability to dogfight in dragon form. But without BioWare's budget, Ego Draconis belonged firmly in the B-tier, alongside other European efforts like Risen, Two Worlds and a slightly muddled Polish novel adaptation of something called The Witcher.
Despite its best efforts, Larian hadn't tempted new RPG converts away from Fallout 3 and Fable. And in the pursuit of 3D fidelity, it had sacrificed much of the granular interactivity that had made Ultima VII so engrossing for a young Vincke.
"I lost track a bit," the CEO wrote in a 2012 blog post. "The joys of console development steered Divinity II far away from the original idea, and so many compromises were made in that game that what shipped was but a shadow of what I had envisioned it to be. In truth there are only a few gameplay moments in there that come close to the reason I set up this company."
(Image credit: Larian Studios)High kick
As an overbloomed sun set on the noughties, Larian seemed doomed to repeat this unfulfilling cycle—chasing genre leaders at the behest of its publishers, and at the expense of its own vision for the future of the Western RPG. But something changed, and that something was Kickstarter: a lightning rod for the revival of the classic CRPG. The same movement Larian had just missed out on a decade earlier.
To the public, Larian pitched Divinity: Original Sin—appropriately named, since it was more or less the game Vincke had been attempting to make since the very beginning. Back was the isometric perspective, and the tactile connection to the world of Rivellon—an intricate creation you could pull apart with lockpicks and fireballs to discover its secrets. Returning, too, were those continuous maps—now backed by a sense of purpose. With a little ingenuity, you could engineer solutions to your problems using tools designed for other quests halfway across the level, rather like a Deus Ex or Dishonored player might.
Yet the wisest design decision came midway through production. Vincke was in the shower when he realised that, even though Larian was independent, it was still listening to the ghosts of publishers past. "What are we doing? We're making a real-time game because they told us," he thought, and later recounted to Game Informer. "We're gonna be competing with Blizzard making an action RPG? We can't compete with Blizzard, we don't have the resources."
(Image credit: Larian Studios)Break free
Rather than make its Diablo mistake all over again, Larian turned Original Sin into a turn-based tactics masterclass. It struck a chord, topping Steam's sales chart upon release in 2014—before its sequel repeated the feat in 2017. Over the same period, Larian has become an experienced self-publisher, partnering only with companies who already love what the studio is doing, and aren't seeking to alter it.
Now, finally, Larian gets to join BioWare's lineage by developing an official follow-up to Baldur's Gate, the quintessential CRPG. The Forgotten Realms is a perfect home for the studio; like Rivellon, D&D's favourite setting is malleable by design, a blank canvas on which to scrawl scenarios and draw entertaining characters.
None of which is to say that Larian couldn't adapt its talents to a more specific fantasy world if required. But a recurring theme in the studio's work is the prisoner who, growing in power, breaks free of their shackles. Perhaps it's had enough restrictions for one lifetime.
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Warner Bros and Player First Games have released the Season 1 full-patch notes for their colourful character brawler MultiVersus, confirming Season 1's free character rotation and a new release date for delayed character Morty Smith, alongside a whole host of balance tweaks and bug-fixes.
Launching today, Season 1's new free character rotation will let non-paying players do battle as Batman, Arya Stark, LeBron James, and "Steven". I know that's specifically Steven Universe, but there is something inherently amusing about seeing the name "Steven" sitting alongside Batman in an announcement of playable heroes.
The patch notes also confirm a new release date for Morty Smith, whose inclusion in the game was delayed alongside the pushing back of Season 1's launch from the original release date of August 9. Now, Morty will be stammering his way into MultiVersus on August 23rd, armed, of course, with a Plumbus.
Alongside these headline changes are a whole host of character balancing tweaks, with seventeen characters getting various buffs, nerfs, and specific fixes. Of these characters, Arya has received the biggest bonuses, with her hits now launching opponents at a better angle for follow-up attacks, and her ground-down attack getting slightly earlier dodge branching. The patch notes explicitly state that "The goal of these changes was to make Arya's combos be more consistent and successful at lower skill levels."
Meanwhile, LeBron has also received a fairly substantial buff, with several attacks branching earlier on hit for better combo potential, and a more consistent Ground Side Attack. The Iron Giant, by comparison hand, has received the biggest nerf. His Air Up attack can no longer hit the same target multiple times, while his Air Neutral Attack has been altered to push opponents further away from him, giving them a better chance to recover.
These character-specific changes are accompanied by broader alterations to the game's meta. Battle Pass XP match rewards have been substantially increased to 10 for wins and 5 for losses (previously 5 for wins and 3 for losses), while class-based Battle Pass missions have been disabled other than for Tanks. The devs have also added icons to specifically identify characters currently in free rotation, which is a useful quality-of-life feature.
You can read the full list of patch notes here. It's worth noting that the patch is split into two parts, one launching today and another "coming shortly afterwards". The notes state that "most" of the changes listed will be available from today, but don't specify which of the changes are to be left out until the second part of the patch.
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The Yakuza series is part Japanese organised crime drama RPG, and part slice-of-life about helping kids win the claw game at an arcade, teaching novice dominatrixes about self confidence, and writing the perfect postcard to a radio show. In Yakuza 0, it's also about side-hustling as a hostess club manager.
If it were possible to see the breakdown of my 65-hour playtime, you'd rightfully think that Majima Goro had given up his life of crime for good and become a full time stylist, date coach, and bartender, because I absolutely love Yakuza 0's hostess club management game.
(Image credit: Sega)Manager wanted
A few hours into the rip-roaring drama and distractions of Kamurocho in the 80s, Yakuza 0's co-protagonist Majima is pulled away from his main daytime gig as the manager of a cabaret venue to manage a newfangled caberet club. It's a smaller joint, but a hostess club nevertheless, where men pay for a cover to chat up and buy drinks for pretty young women. Trouble is, Club Sunshine's nominal top hostess is awful at being chatted up, and the club itself needs a lot of TLC too.
I wasn't expecting to spend much time there. I didn't enjoy the Real Estate Royale minigame on Kiryu's side of the plot, and figured that the club management would be equally missable. There is not a single thing about the Cabaret Club Czar game that deserves to be skipped.
It's part dress-up game, in which you'll pick clothes, hairstyles, and jewellery for your hostesses, all of which have an impact on their stats: beauty, sexy, cute, and funny. You know, classic RPG stuff. But behind the earrings and pumps is a genuinely fun real-time management game.
Raking in food and drink sales is the name of the game, which my roster of hostesses earn over the course of a shift from their customers. It's on me to pair hostesses up with customers they can impress based on their skills—talk, party, love, and ‘skill' (which is apparently their wit and intelligence).
Things get no less than hectic on the club floor each night. Customers show up regularly, spending a short or long session at one of my six booths, and need a matching hostess with the skills and looks they prefer. Hostesses lose stamina, take sick days if I overwork them and routinely call me to their table to deliver a menu, glass, or ashtray, each of which I have to remember by their hand signals.
Each hostess can only entertain one guest at a time, and I found myself in a panic swapping out a woman from a customer with shallow pockets to go ply one who would shower her with drink orders. Other times I have to risk a woman with a client that won't like her and hope she hangs in there until another woman finishes her current date.
(Image credit: Sega)Play dates
That's just the minigame itself. Over the course of the story, Majima and his ladies outrank the competition, recruit the top hostesses from rival clubs, and grow as people.
As Club Sunshine's manager, Majima also gets to know the women he hires, taking them on dating sim-like practice dates to help them improve their skills for real customers. They're adorable, each and every one, with their own personal stories that unfold across several dates: Hibiki who's become guardian to her kid brother, soft spoken Ai the low-key loner, upbeat sporty girl Saki, Chika, Mana, and Sunshine's zero-to-hero hostess Yuki.
All of Sunshine's ladies are more than their archetypes, making conversation practice dates no joke. More than once, I'd learn something about a hostess on one date and be asked to recall it hours later on the next. I always desperately wanted to fill up those pink heart bars but, as in life, I couldn't always correctly understand what they wanted or struggled when my dialogue choices came out of Majima's mouth a bit different than in my head. I tried to do right by each of them, supporting them as friends, and the reward was an adorable found family of young women in the big city.
The Yakuza series often dabbles in hostess clubs and dating, but the full management and dating sim of Yakuza 0 is so much more than a minigame. If Ryu Ga Gotoku ever launched it as a standalone, I might just put 65 hours into that too.
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I can offer all the help you could possibly need with today's Wordle. If you'd like to read a clue for the Wordle of the day or quickly find the answer to the August 15 (422) challenge then you'll discover all of that and more just below.
It's time for another week of Wordle; another week of stunning victories, oh-so-close defeats, learning rare unused definitions of everyday words, and trying to push that win streak just a little further than last time. Whether you've popped in for a quick hint or check in every day, I hope you have as much fun with this as I do.
Wordle hint
Today's Wordle: A hint for Monday, August 15
The answer to today's challenge is the name of a popular card game—so popular some people play it professionally and win large sums of money in the process. It can also refer to a long metal rod used to prod a fire, or a kind of face Lady Gaga sang about.
Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day
If there's one thing better than playing Wordle, it's playing Wordle well, which is why I'm going to share a few quick tips to help set you on the path to success:
- A good opener contains a balanced mix of unique vowels and consonants.
- A tactical second guess helps to narrow down the pool of letters quickly.
- The solution may contain repeat letters.
There's no time pressure beyond making sure it's done by midnight. So there's no reason to not treat the game like a casual newspaper crossword and come back to it later if you're coming up blank.
Wordle answer
(Image credit: Josh Wardle)What is the Wordle 422 answer?
Let's make sure you start your week with a win. The answer to the August 15 (422) Wordle is POKER.
Previous answers
Wordle archive: Which words have been used
The more past Wordle answers you can cram into your memory banks, the better your chances of guessing today's Wordle answer without accidentally picking a solution that's already been used. Past Wordle answers can also give you some excellent ideas for fun starting words that keep your daily puzzle solving fresh.
Here are some recent Wordle solutions:
- August 14: KHAKI
- August 13: HUNKY
- August 12: LABEL
- August 11: GLEAN
- August 10: CLING
- August 9: PATTY
- August 8: UNFIT
- August 7: SMEAR
- August 6: ALIEN
- August 5: BUGGY
Learn more about Wordle
Every day Wordle presents you with six rows of five boxes, and it's up to you to work out which secret five-letter word is hiding inside them.
You'll want to start with a strong word like ALERT—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters. Hit Enter and the boxes will show you which letters you've got right or wrong. If a box turns
️, it means that letter isn't in the secret word at all. means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. means you've got the right letter in the right spot.You'll want your second go to compliment the first, using another "good" word to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn't present in today's answer.
After that it's just a case of using what you've learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there's an E). Don't forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).
If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you'd like to find out which words have already been used you'll find those below.
Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn't long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it's only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.
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We've waited long enough. After all that time impatiently modding Spider-Man into other games like GTA San Andreas, GTA 4, and of course, Skyrim, now we can finally mod Spider-Man Remastered. Which means we'll reskin him as someone else.
Among the first batch are mods to turn Spider-Man into Black Cat and Stan Lee, though neither has any animations yet. You'll be stuck in an A-pose, which is probably fine for the screenshot memes these are made for. Spider-modding on PC is in its infancy, with a lot of the usual tedious reshades filling NexusMods, though I do like the look of Noir New York. It doesn't just turn everything black and white, but promises "Increased contrast, blacks are darker, whites a little more tame, and some bloom and film grain for the old movie feel."
Less memetically, there's a No HUD mod, which drops the UI at the press of the caps-lock key, and some costume replacers. The Symbiote Black Suit mod swaps the Advanced Suit for an outfit we might see an official version of in Insomniac's Spider-Man 2, while the Miles Morales Suit replaces it with what is apparently "a leftover model from when they were developing a multiplayer game mode."
Most promising of all is the Modding Tool uploaded by prolific Rockstar modder jedijosh920, who says, "It's the foundation of creating and installing mods, having an easy to use mod file system where users can create and share their mods, and also install them." If you're interested in taking that for a spin, there's a Discord server dedicated to Spider-Man modding you can join. Who knows, maybe you'll make something as masterful as Flying Rats, a mod that turns all of New York's pigeons into, yes, flying rats.
What's next? It's a sure bet someone will find a way to restore Peter Parker's original face from the PlayStation 4 version, add some kind of vertigo-inducing first-person camera, maybe a co-op mode, the inevitable nudity and then, I dunno, return the favor and turn Spider-Man into CJ from San Andreas? A look at some of the PlayStation version's mods suggests some possibilities, including playable villains, multiple Spider-Men, and pizza textures. So that's something to look forward to.
It's time to go Super Saiyan in the Fortnite x Dragon Ball crossover event
in Gaming News
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The Fortnite x Dragon Ball crossover event is now live and will run until September 17. As well as new Dragon Ball-themed skins, emotes and other goodies in the item shop, you'll be able to visit a new point of interest where you can view Dragon Ball Super episodes, travel to new locations and complete time-limited quests.
Son Goku, Vegeta, Bulma and Beerus are available in-game, and completing Dragon Ball quests will increase your power level, which in turn earns your Dragon Balls. Dragon Balls can then be used to unlock in-game rewards, like emotes and back blings. You can view your progress in the Power Unleashed tab, as well as all the rewards and quests.
The quests focus on skills like strength, agility and focus, so as you complete each set you'll earn more Dragon Balls. If you manage to complete all your training, you'll get the super rad Shenron Glider. You'll have until August 30 to complete all the quests and collect your rewards.
It gets even more exciting—from August 19 you'll be able to travel to Dragon Ball Adventure Island, where you can complete even more new challenges and will be able to battle it out against other players in the Tenkaichi Budokai battle arena. You can also soar through a ring course on a Nimbus Cloud at Kami's Palace, prepare food at Goku's House and run an obstacle course at the Room of Spirit & Time.
Versus boards will replace bounty boards during the event, and you can battle it out in a 1v1 match. You'll then have five minutes to seek out your enemy and defeat them. In all modes except Competitive matches—except the time-limited Tournament of Power—you can pick up the Kamehameha from Capsule Corp deliveries and unleash a devastating beam of energy toward an opponent. You can also travel to Kame House where you can find Bulma, who has some powerful new items on offer.
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