The news, the sequel:
AdventureQuest 8-bit Dungeons & Doomknights is a heavy dose of mid-2000s internet meme nostalgia that released on the NES first, for some reason
https://www.pcgamer.com/adventurequest-8-bit-dungeons-and-doomknights-is-a-heavy-dose-of-mid-2000s-internet-meme-nostalgia-that-released-on-the-nes-first-for-some-reason/
I played Adventure Quest back when it came out in—2002? God, that can't be right. Give me a second, I need to lean on something and take some deep breaths.
(...)
This meant that, yes—you could play Adventure Quest on school PCs, which was basically the only requirement for a game to become a fad back then. It was also charming in a ramshackle, cobbled-together-with-tape-and-glue sort of way. Its developer Artix Entertainment has still been making games for the past 21 years (deep breaths, Harvey), to mixed success: DragonFable, Adventure Quest 3D—and, apparently, a game for the NES.
Dungeons & Doomknights came out for the NES—the actual Nintendo Entertainment System—a year ago. As of 2024 it's now on Steam. This might be the first instance where a modern game has taken that particular route to publication, but who am I to judge?
The demo for poker-based roguelike Balatro returns today with nearly 40 new jokers—plus a full release date in February
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-demo-for-poker-based-roguelike-balatro-returns-today-with-nearly-40-new-jokersplus-a-full-release-date-in-february/
I had some big gaming plans for the holiday break this year: I was finally going to start a second playthrough of Red Dead Redemption 2, build a new city in Farthest Frontier, and grab some friends to dive into Lethal Company.
I didn't do any of that. Instead, I just played poker-inspired deckbuilder Balatro. Every single day I sat on the couch with my Steam Deck and played it for at least a couple hours. And it wasn't even the full game, just the demo, which I still managed to sink 30 hours into. That meant I was pretty bummed when that awesome demo got pulled off Steam by its developer, LocalThunk, on January 1.
Today I'm firing my Steam Deck up again because that deckbuilder demo is suddenly back, and it's got a ton of new cards for you to try out—including nearly 40 brand new jokers. Even better, along with the return of the demo, LocalThunk's poker roguelike also has a launch date: Balatro will release on February 20.
This co-op survival game looks like a mad scientist's mashup of Lethal Company and Half-Life—and there's a demo out now
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-co-op-survival-game-looks-like-a-mad-scientists-mashup-of-lethal-company-and-half-lifeand-theres-a-demo-out-now/
Yeah, I know, there have already been a couple big co-op survival games released in just the past week, the record-smashing monster-managing Palworld and sprawling fantasy RPG Enshrouded.
But there's always room for one more, isn't there?
This one isn't taking its cues from Pokémon or using Valheim and Zelda as an inspiration: co-op survival game Abiotic Factor is more like a mad science mash-up of the original Half-Life and Lethal Company. It looks delightful, and ahead of its May 2 release date there's a new demo on Steam you can play right now.
Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader players have one week to snag some free DLC cosmetics before they're gone for good
https://www.pcgamer.com/warhammer-40k-rogue-trader-players-have-one-week-to-snag-some-free-dlc-cosmetics-before-theyre-gone-for-good/
Owlcat Games has revealed a pair of cosmetic items that are free for all Rogue Trader players until February 1. The "Exclusive Rogue Trader Mask" and "Magnificent Rogue Trader Cloak" will presumably be locked in the Disney Vault (or the Games Workshop Vault, I guess) following this brief window.
Just four months after launching into early access, Nexon's 'full contact sword action' game Warhaven is shutting down
https://www.pcgamer.com/just-four-months-after-launching-into-early-access-nexons-full-contact-sword-action-game-warhaven-is-shutting-down/
The team-based swords-and-sorcery brawler Warhaven launched into early access on Steam on September 20, 2023. Today, just four months later, Nexon has announced that it will be closing down for good in April.
Blizzard's canceled survival game had been in development for over 6 years, was highly praised by employees
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-survival-game-cancellation-news/
Blizzard's unnamed survival game had already been in development for over four years when it was announced in early 2022. Its team doubled in size that year with plans to grow even more in 2023. Now, after over six years of total development time and positive responses to the project from current and former Blizzard employees, the game has been canceled by Microsoft and its developers are out of jobs.
Pizza Tower, 2023's best platformer, is getting a free update where you play as one of the villains with his own music and moveset: 'Think of it as a sort of New Game+'
https://www.pcgamer.com/pizza-tower-2023s-best-platformer-is-getting-a-free-update-where-you-play-as-one-of-the-villains-with-his-own-music-and-moveset-think-of-it-as-a-sort-of-new-game/
Pizza Tower might be the best 2D platformer I've played since Hollow Knight, and if you want to restrict that to non-metroidvanias, I gotta go back to 2014's Shovel Knight for anything this good. A year after launch, developer Tour de Pizza now seems close to adding a long-promised mode where you play as one of the game's main bosses.
We regret to inform you that Palworld has a smutty lizard 'seeking a night of love' with humans, which raids bases in hordes of 'rampaging fangirls'
https://www.pcgamer.com/we-regret-to-inform-you-that-palworld-has-a-smutty-lizard-seeking-a-night-of-love-with-humans-which-raids-bases-in-hordes-of-rampaging-fangirls/
Palworld is an edgy game—more in implication than reality. While it's grown a reputation for a Happy Tree Friends-style subversiveness, everything in its world is pretty sanitised. For instance: Pals eat human cadavers, but they just peck at them until they vanish.
The whole game feels like a send-up of Pokémon's simmering 'it's messed up if you think about it' worldbuilding and Pokédex entries, just more overt. As is the case with Lovander, a pal that explicitly wants to bone down with humans. Lovander is number 69 in the Paldeck, naturally, and its entry reads as follows:
Dwarf Fortress' missing best mode is tantalisingly close to release, just as soon as they nail down how to 'target toes with your crab pincers'
https://www.pcgamer.com/dwarf-fortress-missing-best-mode-is-tantalisingly-close-to-release-just-as-soon-as-they-nail-down-how-to-target-toes-with-your-crab-pincers/
In the cavernous recesses of my heart I nurture the belief that Dwarf Fortress is the greatest game ever made. And ever since it got its shiny Kitfox-branded new version in 2022—now with graphics!—I've been convinced that's the best way to play it.
But that version isn't quite feature complete. It's still missing original Dwarf Fortress' Adventure Mode, a kind of roguelike approach to the game where you control a single character or party as they venture through one of your procgen worlds. That's in stark contrast to Dwarf Fortress' main mode, which sees you play god, admin and overseer for a whole colony of miners. It's due out in April, but the devs still have a fair bit of work to do.
Stunned devs left scrambling for livelihoods in wake of yesterday's layoff bloodbath: 'In the end the contributions didn't matter'
https://www.pcgamer.com/stunned-devs-left-scrambling-for-livelihoods-in-wake-of-yesterdays-layoff-bloodbath-in-the-end-the-contributions-didnt-matter/
The entire game industry is still reeling from yesterday's bombshell announcement that Microsoft—hot on the heels of its $69 billion acquisition of Activision—would be laying off 1,900 employees across Activision-Blizzard and Xbox. Inevitably, Twitter is awash with reactions highlighting the human cost, both from dazed devs waking up in a world in which they no longer have jobs, and from others wondering what this all means for the months and years ahead.
And now, the GOG and Steam deals for the weekend:
+GOG
- Only one, the New Year Sale: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2024_new_year_sale
+Steam
- Galactic Civilizations IV is going to be 20% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1357210/Galactic_Civilizations_IV/
- Green Hell gets a 50% discount until the 30th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/815370/Green_Hell/
- Terraformers will be 40% off until the 1st of February: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1244800/Terraformers/
- Deliver Us The Moon features a 72% discount until February 1st: https://store.steampowered.com/app/428660/Deliver_Us_The_Moon/
- Publisher Kepler Interactive puts its games up to 80% off until the 1st: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/keplerpublishersale2024
- This War of Mine will be free to try during the weekend and 85% off until the same February 1st: https://store.steampowered.com/app/282070/This_War_of_Mine/
- Publisher Plaion puts its games on sale with up to 90% discounts. Most deals will end the 1st of February, but others will last more: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/PlaionPublisherSale2024
- Blasphemous 2 gets a 33% discount until the 5th of February: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2114740/Blasphemous_2/
- And the last one is shapez, with a 70% deal that will last until February, 8th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1318690/shapez/
That's all the news for this week. Until next time, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.
Please excuse my bad English.
Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070
Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.
