Devotid has announced that they have partnered with publisher Kwalee to put more resources behind The Coin Game, a strange coin-op simulator that is currently in Early Access.

I wrote an Early Access review of The Coin Game just slightly over a year ago. I can’t possibly stress how bizarre the game is. It started as an attempt of emulating the sort of quarter-chomping prize games that you find in bowling alleys and shopping malls, and then bloomed into an open-world game set on an island of mid-western robot people. You take up side jobs in order to scrape together a bit of cash to spend at the arcades and win tickets. It’s an incredibly atmospheric game that draws you into summer directionlessness.

However, it’s largely been developed by a single person. In a post on Steam, they confess, “As a stubborn do-it-ALL-yourself kind of person that was very hard to face but the game is so much bigger than me now and it had to be done.”

There has been some frustration over the slow development of the game. While the updates that get released always feel meaningful, they don’t come very often. It has felt like Devotid’s personal project that they pluck away at on their own time, and in that way it’s very charming. However, I am interested to see what happens when there’s a bit more horsepower pulling the cart.

There are no announcements beyond the partnership with Kwalee, so it’s uncertain how long it will be to see the fruits of this arrangement. For now, The Coin Game is available on Steam Early Access.

The post Bizarre ennui simulator The Coin Game hooks up with publisher Kwalee appeared first on Destructoid.

The “one last thing” at Gamescom Opening Night Live was a reveal for a new game in the Mafia series: Mafia: The Old Country.

Unfortunately, it didn’t tell us much aside from the fact that the game is going set in the early 1900s in Sicily. It’s going to give a look at the birth of the Mafia, so I suppose it could be considered a prequel to the entire series.

Aside from that, there was no gameplay shown. However, I got a press release afterward that says that it will involve “action brought to life by the authentic realism and rich storytelling that the critically acclaimed Mafia series is known for. It promises a “deep, linear narrative with that classic mob movie feeling.”

Honestly, I love Mafia. I got deeply into the first game back in 2002. I enjoyed the second game. I haven’t played the third, but I should since my expectations are set appropriately low. Then Mafia: Definitive Edition is maybe not quite as definitive as the name sounds, but it was a cool revisit to the first game. On a planet where every big budget game seems to be an open-world affair crammed full of side distractions, the more linear narrative of the (first two) Mafia games, where the open world is more of a backdrop, sounds very refreshing.

I'm weirdly hyped over a nothing trailer.

We’re promised that we’ll hear more about Mafia: The Old Country in December 2024. It will be coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

The post Wait. That’s it? Mafia: The Old Country gets brief teaser appeared first on Destructoid.

In what will likely be the most memorable moment of Gamescom Opening Night Live, a very emotional Tim Miller, co-founder of Blur Studios and director of Deadpool, has shown of footage of the upcoming Amazon Prime video game anthology series, Secret Level. This is coming so fast, but I definitely saw Mega Man in there.

Secret Level is supposedly a series of original short narratives set around various video games. It’s an incredibly eclectic mix including Armored Core, Sifu, and Spelunky alongside more mainstream stuff like Concord and God of War. Maybe also Pac-Man.

There's also Mega Man, but he's doing that really cliche gear-up sequence. Like, it's so ubiquitous that Doom Eternal even opened with it.

I am entirely unable to process what’s going on. I’m not sure if there’s some sort of metanarrative here. As I mentioned, it’s reportedly going to be a series of short narratives (via Deadline), but the sizzle reel doesn’t exactly clarify that.

The introduction by Tim Miller was especially interesting. I mentioned to my colleagues that he sounded like he was on the verge of tears before he seemed to break further and admit his emotions. Some sounded cynical about the sincerity, but as a prolific crier, it seemed genuine. Listen, it’s sometimes easy to get emotional about stuff. I can cry pretty easily on some days. Dude might just really love showing off his team’s efforts.

Secret Level airs December 10, 2024 on Amazon Prime.

The post Sizzle reel shows off game anthology series Secret Level – wait, was that Mega Man? appeared first on Destructoid.

If you’re winding through the twisting threads of Miquella's followers' quests in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, you’ll eventually reach a point when Leda turns to you for advice. Should she go after Thiollier, The Hornsent, or should you just remain impartial.

Upfront: it doesn’t matter. Not at this juncture, anyway. You’ll be pushed onto the final decision regardless of what you choose. If you take no action, she’ll reach a decision on her own. As such, choose either target and you’ll learn who the game intended you to choose.

This conversation happens after the great rune breaks and Miquella’s influence over her followers wanes. As was mentioned in an earlier conversation, they each have conflicting goals and, without their mutual love of Miquella, are at each other’s throats. Toward the end of your interactions, she’ll ask the question, should she target Thiollier or Hornsent

• Suggest Thiollier: Straight up, Leda will disagree. She’ll consider your suggestion for a moment before arriving at the conclusion that Thiollier doesn’t pose a threat. She'll then ask you to reconsider your suggestion, which removes Thiollier from the responses.
• Suggest the Hornsent: Leda will consider your words, then decide she needs time to consider harder. She asks that you return to her later. In this case, “later” just means that you should rest at a Site of Grace. Once you return, her mind is made up, and she’ll go after The Hornsent.
• Make no suggestion: This will just end the conversation. However, if you don’t return to make a suggestion (the one she wants), then she’ll still go after the Hornsent.

The repercussions of this conversation aren’t completely solid. You haven’t doomed Hornsent. When you get to the Main Gate of Shadow Keep, you can find summon signs for Hornsent and Leda. Choosing one will lock you in a fight against the other.

If you summon Leda here, Hornsent will be eliminated, which will end his questline and you'll be awarded with the Lacerating Crossed-Tree Talisman. If you summon Hornsent, Leda will fight you, and he’ll be an available summon when fighting Messmer (the sign appears in the arena).

You can also choose to summon neither and just continue on. Nothing will happen and Leda will eventually just stop her pursuit, allowing you to continue on both questlines. So, really, who you summon at the Main Gate is the actual difficult choice. However, in the conversation with Leda, your only choice is Hornsent.

The post Who should you suggest Leda target in Elden Ring? appeared first on Destructoid.

During the Ubisoft Forward Stream, the company has again assured us that their remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time still exists. Except it’s coming in 2026. They told us this during an extremely brief nothing of a teaser.

Considering this is the series’ 35th anniversary and they’re making a big deal of it, they probably wanted the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake to hit this year, but things don’t sound like they’re going that well with a change of developers back in 2022. I suppose with nothing else to tell us, they showed us a candle burning in reverse before revealing a pretty far-off date. That’s far enough away for me to forget that it exists.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time first came out in 2003 and brought new excitement to the franchise started by Jordan Mechner back in 1989. Since then, new entries in the series have been pretty frequent, but arguably, none have really been able to achieve the same popularity.

That’s not for lack of trying. This year saw Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown which released to critical acclaim. The Rogue Prince of Persia is currently in early access and is being handled by the devs of one of the best Roguelite platformers, Dead Cells. Even without the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake, it’s a pretty great year for the series.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will be coming in 2026.

The post Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time coming in 2026, new teaser could have been an email appeared first on Destructoid.

If you’re a fan of Bleach and are playing Type Souls in Roblox, you may be wondering if and when you’ll reach Rukongai, the largest, most populated area of Soul Society. Good news; you can. This is how you get to the Rukon District.

The most important requirement for getting into the Rukon District is that you have to become a Soul Reaper. Don’t worry; we have a guide to help you out with that. If you’re already progressing through another class (Hollow or Quincy), you can use a Soul Ticket to reroll your character.

Getting to Rukon District is a part of becoming a Soul Reaper. To start this off, you first have to die. I’m not sure I have to explain this, but you can either let yourself be killed by a Hollow or get “help” from another player.

Once you die, you’ll become a Lost Soul and be taken to Karakura Town. There, you’ll want to find Kisuke (a guy sitting on a bench wearing a striped hat roughly in the middle of town). Tell him you want to become a Soul Reaper, and he’ll set you off as a Shinigami. Directly after that conversation, you’ll be taken to the Rukon District.

There you have it. You’ve made it to Rukongai. From here, as a Shinigami, you can join a division and start tackling their missions. It’s your first step into actually playing Type Souls as a Soul Reaper.

The post How to get to the Rukon District in Type Soul appeared first on Destructoid.

It’s tough being someone who, in the search for some sort of meaning in life, has arrived on video games as their foundation. I could have chosen a much worse passion, but I also could have probably picked one that would pass in normal conversation. Instead, no one I meet understands me. It’s lonely being better than everyone.

Elation for the WonderBox 6000 gets me. Unfortunately. It’s a bizarre game about loving one thing so much that it becomes the central source of your alienation.

I think. That’s as much as I could glean from the less-than-10-minutes of demo.

Elation for the WonderBox 6000 comes from Digital Tchotchkes, the creator of Go Fly a Kite, which I should probably play. They describe the demo as, “it's a costco free sample style demo.”

It starts off with a Doom-style text crawl telling you about the eponymous Elation for the WonderBox 6000, a game so transcendental that the protagonist suggests that it is the apogee of video games as an art. That if only more people played and understood it, then art wouldn’t have died. It is the protagonist’s goal to acquire this lost relic.

This opening exposition turns out to be something the protagonist is posting on the internet. The outpouring of distilled, potent opinions leads to them getting death threats, followed by a permanent ban from their chosen forum. We’ve all been there.

You’re then left to explore the wreckage of the protagonist’s life. You mouse around to see what’s interactive and then click on what you find to hear about it. Through this, you discover that society has continued its course toward refining the endorphin supply, which is part of why nobody remembers something as artful as Elation for the WonderBox 6000. Easier access to simpler stimulation has caused the masses to lose their way.

It’s difficult to tell if Elation for the WonderBox 6000 is making fun of, or trying to explain, the perpetually repeating discourse of how things were better in the before times. Or both. Why not take the high ground over every other perspective?

It represents a part of myself I’m unable to take too seriously. Some people have to travel abroad or get lost in the desert to “find themselves.” I’ve always known myself. I like video games. I might enjoy video games to an extent that other people find annoying. The whole reason I’m here (on this site, I mean) is that I want to support and spread the things I’m passionate about. It keeps me occupied until a bus finally decides to hit me.

But also, and I can’t stress this enough, the Elation for the WonderBox 6000 demo could be finished in less than 10 minutes. In that time, you look at stuff, talk to a person, and then walk to a place. That’s it. It could maybe be defined as the prologue. The game part of the game is beyond that demo wall.

It doesn’t really get me more excited to play Elation for the WonderBox 6000, but it also doesn’t make me less excited. I was just so disoriented when it ended.

On the other hand, it refers to the protagonist’s computer as “My portal to philistines,” which is what I will now call mine.

The post The shockingly brief Elation for the WonderBox 6000 demo really speaks to me appeared first on Destructoid.

Toys for Bob has announced via Twitter that they’ve teamed up with Microsoft for their next new game. There’s no word on what that next new game will be, but their choice of partner is… quite the choice.

Toys for Bob was originally a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard and, along with them, were bought up by Microsoft in 2023. It was only a few months before Microsoft went to work laying of 1,900 employees, including some that were at Toys for Bob, leaving the developer’s survival in question. Subsequently, Toys for Bob was able to split from the newly acquired Activision and set out on their own.

Since then, Microsoft has shuttered Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, while absorbing Roundhouse Studios into ZeniMax Online.

I consider myself to be a forgiving person, but I’m confused that the studio is so eager to partner with their former existential threat. I shouldn’t be too surprised because, at the time of their split, Toys for Bob said in a statement that they were looking into a possible partnership with Microsoft. It may have been a part of the deal that allowed them to separate. Or perhaps they are working on a property owned by Microsoft. Or maybe they feel it’s a safe partnership because Microsoft no longer has the power to lay off their staff.

Toys For Bob most recently worked on the Skylanders series, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, and Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. It’s possible that the developer is looking to return to one of those licenses, which would necessitate a deal with Microsoft. However, that’s purely speculation trying to make sense of the matter. We won’t know until the project is revealed. According to the Tweet, “We're still very early in development, so you might not hear from us for a bit - but know that we're working hard on an experience we're so sooo inspired about! Can't wait to share more.”

The post Toys for Bob partners with Xbox to publish its next game appeared first on Destructoid.

Despite many protagonists lacking them entirely, there have been many great feet in first-person shooters. Duke Nukem 3D, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, F.E.A.R.; when the kickers come out, it’s often a spectacle. Anger Foot attempts to outdo all previous feats of feet.

Anger Foot comes to us from Free Lives, a developer whose work has brought us a varied portfolio that includes games like Broforce, Genital Jousting, and Terra Nil. It’s coming sometime later this year, but I got to plant my feet in it today. Or, recently, I guess. What day is it?

Anger Foot takes place in Shit City, a location that makes me grateful that I work for a publication that lets me swear. In Shit City, crime is the law. You heard me. If a person isn’t committing a crime, that’s a red flag. At that point, police step in to ensure that the person gets the help they need to, at the very least, participate in petty larceny.

The city is ruled by four gangs, and you play as the one person who is willing to stand up to them. But only so they can steal some new shoes. However, before you get a single moment to admire your now complete sneaker collection, it’s stolen from under them. There are only two weapons powerful enough to get that footwear back, and their names are “Left” and “Right.”

Actually, there are also guns, but you’ll be getting a lot of mileage out of your two hooves.

Anger Foot is set up like a cross between Mullet MadJack’s corridor killing and Hotline Miami’s die-and-retry formula. Your goal is simply to reach the level’s exit point in the map, and any man, woman, or door that gets in your way needs to be kicked to splinters. One man. Two feet. All anger.

Anger Foot puts its best foot forward with its art style. Its grotesque stylings and use of bright comic-book colors are incredibly striking. The odd proportions and puppet people provide a helpful buffer to some of its gross-out humor. It’s like the Garbage Pail Kids have grown up with a fondness for toilets and swearing.

The music is similarly captivating. It maintains a near-constant, pulsing beat, but when there’s a break in the action, it takes on a reverberating sound, like it’s being played at maximum volume next door.

However, after emerging from the forest of its aesthetic, there’s much less impact. Kicking doors is great. It’s fun to watch them sail across the room before breaking on a thug’s face. And while the actual kicking will send foes flying, it strangely lacks force.

Melee combat is something that first-person shooter games often have trouble with. In Anger Foot you slide about, and when your foot is raised in anger, it doesn’t feel like it connects. There’s only the sensation that there’s a danger zone in front of your character. If you misjudge your timing, you might just pass by your target and glide around the floor to get ready for the next approach. There’s no weight or force in play. Even the drop kick doesn’t feel good to use. A door reacts to your toes in a fun way, but everything else just falls victim to the danger zone.

This is something that bothered me all throughout the sizeable chunk of gameplay I was served. I never felt powerful. It only takes a handful of shots to bring you down, and you’re not really given many options to avoid them in a crowded room. Keep moving, kite enemies, and keep kicking. You can pack yourself full of caffeine using cans of Thirst Fucker you find laying around, or get yourself drunk off of Brewforce if you feel like it, but it’s still just a couple of shots to bring you down.

The safest way to get through a level becomes kicking a door open, backing up, then kicking the enemies as they appear through the choke point. Even when you’re not cheesing, any time you need to be careful about your actions, the all-important momentum dies. Without the momentum, you don’t feel powerful, and that’s something that is crucial to Anger Foot and entirely lacking.

There are guns, but that’s just another problem. Their ammo is so limited, and movement is so important that in the chaos of a firefight, your feet seem more useful. That’s certainly on message, but it doesn’t give a reprieve from its problems.

On the other hand, optional objectives that provide stars give value to repeated playthroughs of levels (even if some are frustrating). More importantly, the stars are used to unlock new shoes, each of which comes with new buffs and abilities. I could see myself getting deeply into collecting new kicks if the gameplay was made more exciting.

Mullet MadJack feels so similar in intention to Anger Foot: Momentum, corridors, movement. However, through the use of systems like dashing and the glory kills of recent Doom games, MadJack feels much more satisfying. It has a series of mechanics that ensure that you never have to stop moving and you’re constantly killing.

Anger Foot is missing something. More accurately, it’s missing a few somethings. There are quite a few approaches that can be taken to alleviate its issues, but it’s probably going to require a few changes. As it stands, the whole experience is just too shallow.

I’m hoping that before launch, Free Lives can implement something to bring everything together. The level design, aesthetic, and even framework are all outstanding. Everything except the core gameplay is exceptional. I love looking at it, but Anger Foot is going to need to do more than just put one foot in front of the other to really nail the landing.

The post Anger Foot needs to be kicked up a bit appeared first on Destructoid.

Vampire crafting survival game V Rising is better played with other people. I don’t say that lightly. I prefer playing games alone, and even I recognize it’s better with at least one other person. So, that means you have to set up a server.

When I say “set up a server” I mean setting up someone’s client to act as a host. You can certainly rent a dedicated server or, I suppose, just have a dedicated server running, but those things cost money. A dedicated server has the benefit of running constantly, allowing others to log in and out whenever they feel like without relying on the host to be available. These settings still apply when you rent or host a dedicated server, but I just wanted to stress that there is a difference.

However, if everyone’s all right with playing at the same time as the host, you can just create a private game. When you create a private game, the world you’re hosting is only available when you’re online and logged into the game. It’s also reliant on your computer’s hardware, which is something to take into consideration. A lot of players building a bunch of castles everywhere is going to be extremely taxing on your performance, so if you’re running an older rig, maybe aim low.

To make a long story short, just pick the “Normal” preset for the default recommended settings.

There are three presets for private games: Relaxed, Normal, or Brutal. Relaxed is good if you don’t want you or your players to lose. If you just want to experience powerful dominion over the game’s world, that’s what you want. Normal will present some challenge and is what I recommend as the default experience. Brutal will make the world much more dangerous, so maybe only choose that once you and your friends have more experience under your belts.

Otherwise, you can tweak all the settings yourself by going to “Advanced game settings” under those options. In fact, I’d invariably suggest you go to advanced game settings anytime you set up a server, as it gives a lot more options.

As a note, you can change server settings after setup, but it requires that you edit a config file using a text editor. Unless you're confident with doing so, you may want to consider your options carefully before launching.

General server settings

The most obvious options you need to consider when setting up a new server are player count, clan size, and global chat.

Before this however, consider the LAN option. LAN (local area network) is useful if everyone you’re playing with is in the same house under the same network (or using a virtual LAN). If you’re not accepting anyone from the internet, and everyone is connected to the same router or wireless hotspot, then you can use this to reduce latency.

Likewise, if you’re playing alone, you can just check off solo and have the world to yourself.

The player count and clan size are going to depend on your group, though you will want to consider your hardware when choosing player count. The more players, the harder it will be on your performance. You may not even want clans if you know everyone in your group, but if you’re allowing outsiders from the internet, then you’ll maybe want them to be able to create their own clans.

Finally, Global Chat enables everyone on your server to talk to one another. If this is disabled, you can only speak to players in your vicinity or in your clan.

World settings

World settings in V Rising affect the environment you play in. These include things like how long the days and nights last and what drops happen.

You mostly need to consider what kind of pace you want your game to move at. I’d generally recommend leaving the “Day Time Length” – the overall length of the day – to medium or higher, as shorter days feel far too brief to me when it comes to allowing exploration. 

“Day Length,” on the other hand, dictates the percentage of the day that the sun is up. If you shorten this, nights will dominate, and you’ll have more time to move about the world freely. For the sake of immersion, I usually leave this on default. If you prefer to be all-powerful, then a shorter day is more in line with your goals.

PvP or PvE

One thing to consider when setting up your server is whether you want players to be able to harm each other. PvP (or player versus player) will allow others on your server to create clans and wage war against anyone else who logs in. PvE (player versus enemy) only allows players to attack NPCs in the environment.

Obviously, which you choose will be based on your group’s dynamic and if you’re allowing strangers.

You can turn PvP on and off completely in the third tab of the advanced game options. However, you can also tweak it to only happen on certain days of the (in-game) week. You can also choose if players can be looted once defeating, and if castles can be attacked. If you leave Castle Raids off, then players at least have a safe haven.

Progression

Most of the other advanced server options in V Rising relate to how quickly you can accomplish things or how powerful you start off as or become.

This means you can tweak yields from resource nodes and make it so that you get more when you collect. This also goes for blood yield, which is a separate option. Alternatively, you can set it so that building and crafting use fewer resources. Either way, this means you can get through the game faster. You can also change inventory stack sizes so each player can carry more.

Likewise, you can change how much health a player has, how much damage they do, and how quickly durability is lost in armor and weapons. This directly affects difficulty.

There are also options for castles, including how big they can be and how much territory they get for each tier. While this also affects progression, you may want to also consider the power of your hardware. If you just max out the floors and territory so player can create the grandest castles possible, you may find performance drops significantly once everything is built.

Finally, you can change the starting level, equipment, and resources. If you don’t want to start a new game from scratch, you can turn these up to skip all the early phases of progression. Otherwise, leave them at default so that you have to build your way up as normal.

Selecting a prebuilt ruleset

If this is too much to consider, you may want to use a ruleset when you start a server in V Rising. These are buttons at the bottom of the advanced game settings screen.

V Rising comes with a number of pre-defined rulesets. Mainly, these are for PvP, as it gives a number of options for how to balance it to certain situations. However, there are also settings for starting PvE at various levels.

If you have a ruleset that you really enjoy using and don’t want to have to set it up each time you create a new server, you can save your advanced settings with the “Save New Ruleset” button at the bottom of the advanced options.

The post V Rising: Best server settings appeared first on Destructoid.

AFK Journey is a new idle RPG and the follow-up of AFK Arena from Farlight Games that has you wage battle across Esperia, while not having to be glued to your phone. It’s a gacha game, which means you’ll want every advantage you can gain. These promo codes will help you out with free resources.

All working codes for AFK Journey

These codes are not case-sensitive.

AFKJOURNEYPG0 (that's a zero) - 100 Diamonds, 18k gold
AFKJOURNEYRUG - 200 Diamonds, 20k gold
AFKJOURNEYLGIO - 200 Diamonds, 20k gold
AFKJOURNEYDE - 100 Diamonds, 18k gold
AFKJOURNEYVG - 200 Diamonds, 18k gold
AFKJOURNEYJIANHAO - 200 Diamonds, 20k gold
AFKJOURNEYVIVA - 200 Diamonds, 20k gold
AFKJOURNEY88 - 100 Diamonds, 18k gold
AFKJOURNEYCMK - 100 Diamonds, 18k gold
AFKJOURNEYNOGLA - 200 Diamonds, 20k gold
AFKJOURNEYTGT - 200 Diamonds, 20k gold
AFKJOURNEYZANNY - 100 Diamonds, 18k gold
AFKJOURNEYSQUEEZIE - 200 Diamonds, 20k gold
AFKJOURNEYJOSHDUB - 100 Diamonds, 18k gold
AFKJOURNEYCARBOT - 200 Diamonds, 20k gold
AFKJOURNEYMSA - 200 Diamonds, 20k gold
AFKJOURNEYCREATOR – 200 diamonds, 18k gold
AFKJOURNEYPAX – 400 diamonds, 40k gold
AFKJN2024 – 188 diamonds and 18k gold
AFKJOURNEYART – 327 diamonds and 16k gold
AFKJOURNEYTT - 88 diamonds and 16k gold
PLUTOMALLEXTRA5% - 100 diamonds and 18k gold
AFKJOURNEYLILYPAX - 100 diamonds
AFKJOURNEYDISHPAX - 100 diamonds
AFKJOURNEYXEKIAPAX - 100 diamonds
AFKJAPRIL20 - 100 diamonds and 50k gold
AFKJOURNEYALPHARAD - 100 diamonds and 18k gold
AFKJOURNEYSPECIALEDD - 100 diamonds and 18k gold
AFKJOURNEYPRESTON - 200 diamonds and 20k gold
AFKJOURNEYHI - 100 diamonds and 18k gold

How to redeem codes in AFK Journey

1. Tap (or click) the three horizontal lines icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
2. Tap the gear, which is now in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
3. Tap “Others” from the tabs near the top of the screen.
4. In the others area beneath the others tab, press Promo Code.
5. Type in your code and press the checkmark.
6. Enjoy your new stuff.

AFK Journey codes not working

We will notify you of additional freebies and bonuses as soon as they are available. Since these codes do expire over time, make sure you redeem them as soon as possible. All codes provided have been tested and verified as of the date this post was published. If you come across an expired code, please inform us in the comments section with the exact code so that we can remove it. Remember to enter the code exactly as it is listed to ensure it works correctly.

AFK Journey is available for PC, iOS, and Android.

The post AFK Journey Codes (May 2024) appeared first on Destructoid.

Strange Scaffold’s 2023 hit El Paso, Elsewhere is the next indie game in line to have it narrative transferred to the big screen. According to Deadline, LaKeith Stanfield is being tapped for the role of protagonist James Savage. Di Bonaventura Pictures and Colin Stark are set to produce.

El Paso, Elsewhere was one of my favorite games of 2023, and that was almost entirely because of its narrative. While its gameplay was a neo-noir shooter in the style of Max Payne, the story is of a demon hunter trying to stop his abusive vampire ex-girlfriend from ending the world. While the concept may sound otherworldly on the surface, it delves with meticulous detail into emotional abuse and its effects on the victim.

I’m not at all sure how well that will translate to film as it’s entirely set within an abstract, ethereal world hidden beneath a motel. The characters only interact with each other during vignettes where James descends the floors in a hostile elevator. It lends well to the cutscene-level-cutscene flow of a video game, but for a compelling to watch experience, this will need to be extrapolated on. Thankfully, there's a lot of backstory and worldbuilding around the core game.

While the game’s developer, Xalavier Nelson Jr., has acknowledged the movie, it hasn’t yet been stated if he will be involved in the creation process.

It’s a weird time we’re living in where game-to-TV adaptations like Castlevania and Fallout are finding praise and niche titles like El Paso, Elsewhere and Iron Lung are being adapted to film. I still prefer playing games to watching absolutely anything, but I never thought I’d see the day where justice was being done to the medium.

There’s no set timeline for when we might see the El Paso, Elsewhere film.

The post Vampire trauma tale El Paso, Elsewhere is getting a film adaptation appeared first on Destructoid.

Surviving in Valheim can get pretty harrowing as you progress through the game. If you’re struggling and need some relief, console commands can provide a way to tweak your experience. Here’s how to activate and use them.

How to enable the console in Valheim

Steam

For the Steam version, just follow these steps.

• Right-click the game in your Steam library and select properties.
• In the textbox under “Launch Options” input -console.
• Launch the game.
• Press F5 during gameplay to open the console.

PC Game Pass

It’s a bit more complicated to enable the console on the PC Game Pass version.

• Navigate to the game's installation folder. By default, it can be found at C:\XboxGames\Valheim\Content.
• Right-click on Valheim.exe and select “Create Shortcut.”
• Right-click the shortcut and select properties.
• In the textbox beside “Target” add -console to the end (after a space).
• Click Apply (or just OK) and exit the window.
• Use the shortcut to launch the game (you can copy and paste the shortcut somewhere accessible).
• Press F5 during gameplay to open the console.

Xbox

Getting to the console is much easier on Xbox.

• Press RB+LB+RT+LT+menu (the three lines) and the console will open.

How to use the console in Valheim

The console in Valheim can be used for an assortment of things. There’s a massive list of commands that you can do, but not all of them are going to be immediately useful. You can simply type / in the console and it will pop up a list of commands to scroll through.

Most likely, you’re going to want to stick to the cheats.

Valheim Cheats

In order to enable cheats in Valheim, there’s one additional step: you need to type devcommands into the console. Also, note that you can only use these cheats in singleplayer. Most commands can’t be used on multiplayer servers.

Admin commands

If you are set as the admin of a server, you can also use these commands to manage players.

The post Valheim console commands and how to use them appeared first on Destructoid.

Pufferfish is a delicacy in some places. You can get in on the “eat dangerously, die satisfied” mindset in Stardew Valley if you use the right bait and fish in the right spot.

Pufferfish are ocean fish, and they can only be caught on the mainland during the Summer. However, for every other season, they can be caught on Ginger Island. This means that you’ll be fishing from the beach on the mainland, or Ginger Island’s Pirate Cove, or South, Southeast, and Western shores.

If you’re in need of a Pufferfish and it isn’t Summer, you can also use Magic Bait which let’s you catch any fish regardless of the season.

The Pufferfish can be a bit tricky to catch as they tend to move up and down quickly as if they’re bouncing in the water. You might want to use a Trap Bobber for Pufferfish to make it less likely that they’ll escape while you’re trying to reel them in.

You can also sometimes find them in garbage cans during the Summer, for some reason. And, like many things, it is sometimes for sale at the Traveling Cart for 600 to 1000 G.

Once you have a Pufferfish, you can turn it into sashimi. It can also be used as an ingredient in Quality Fertilizer and Maki Rolls. It also can be used as part of the Specialty Fish Bundle in the community center fish tank.

The post How to catch Pufferfish in Stardew Valley appeared first on Destructoid.

Everyone likes pretty rocks, and in Stardew Valley, none is prettier than the Prismatic Shard. But beyond just looking really nice on a shelf and feeling good in your pocket, the Prismatic Shard has a number of important uses.

First, we’re going to tackle how to find one, then we’ll discuss what to do with it.

Places to get a Prismatic Shard in Stardew Valley

A Prismatic Shard is a rare find, but it’s not one that’s unique. Like many things in Stardew Valley, it’s usually a matter of chance to find one, but here are some places:

• You’re guaranteed to find one when you first reach the top of the Volcano on Ginger Island.
• There’s a chance to get one from Iridium deposits in the Volcano, Quarry, and Skull Cavern.
• They often appear in Mystic Stones found in the Mine (below floor 100), Quarry, and Skull Cavern.
• They sometimes appear in the treasure rooms that appear in Skull Cavern.
• Prismatic Shards can be found in meteors that occasionally crush your crops and paths.
• Mystery boxes and golden mystery boxes sometimes contain Prismatic Shards.
• There’s a very small chance you will get one from opening an Omni Geode.
• There’s also a very small chance you can find one in a fishing chest (after fishing level 6).
• Wilderness and Iridium Golems occasionally drop Prismatic Shards.
• The Statue of Perfection will produce one Prismatic Shard each day.
• Shadow Brutes and Shaman, serpents, and mummies all rarely drop one.

Chances are, you’ll just come across Prismatic Shard as you play late into Stardew Valley. Aside from the Statue of Perfection and the volcano, there aren’t really any guaranteed ways to find them, so it’s better to just relax and wait for them to come to you.

What to do with Prismatic Shards in Stardew Valley

You might already have something in mind for what to do with a Prismatic Shard. But if not, here is everything you can use them for.

• In multiplayer, you can craft one into a Wedding ring to get hitched with another player.
• You can donate one to the Museum.
• They can be used to enchant tools in the Forge (in the Volcano).
• Used with a Sewing Machine, you can craft prismatic clothing.
• If you feed one to the Dark Shrine of Selfishness, your children will turn into doves(!?).
• It’s one of the items that you can use for the Missing Bundle, which unlocks the Movie Theater.
• If you hold one and walk between the three pillars in Calico Desert, you’ll get the Galaxy Sword.
• The Desert Trader will give you a Magic Rock Candy if you hand over three Prismatic Shards.
• It can simply be gifted to an NPC. Everyone loves them except Haley who finds them gross for some reason.

So whether you’re grossing someone out or wishing your children away, there’s plenty of reason to keep hold of every Prismatic Shard you find in your farming adventures.

The post How to get Prismatic Shard in Stardew Valley appeared first on Destructoid.

This is certainly a unique way to revive an old license. Slave Zero was a 1999 Infogrames title for Dreamcast and PC. Infogrames became Atari, which has links to Ziggurat Games, which works with publisher Tommo. So, the rights have been swirling around this big bucket.

That’s maybe not important. What is important is that someone at Ziggurat or Poppy Works identified it as fertile ground for a revival, even though the original wasn’t entirely acclaimed. Then, Poppy Works discarded basically everything about Slave Zero and somehow created something that pays respect to the original but is a completely original concept.

The result is fascinating. At a glance, you wouldn’t link Slave Zero X with its supposed progenitor. It’s an entirely new thing. And yet, somehow, it still adds value to the original like a good prequel should.

Slave Zero X (PC [reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox SeriesX|S, Switch)
Developer: Poppy Works
Publisher: Ziggurat
Released: February 21, 2024, Spring 2024 (Switch)
MSRP: $24.99

Slave Zero was a game about a big stompy robot that trudged around a megacity, blowing up other giants and disinterested motorists. Slave Zero X is entirely not about that. It takes place four years before the Dreamcast title and involves Shou, a member of a resistance faction called The Guardians. They stand in opposition to the SovKahn, a relentless tyrant whose name sounds to me like a lactose-free coffee-based beverage.

Shou takes command of a biomecha, which is essentially a sentient suit of armor. With it, he’s gone rogue from his organization to wage a one-man-one-armor war against the SoyKoff. This means that he’s going to cut through the worthless armored goons in his way, slice up the Four Calamities who protect the tyrant, and then kill the man himself. It’s a tall order, but he might just be crazy enough to do it.

The game consists of a large assortment of levels flanked by dialogue and flashback cutscenes with incredible gay sexual tension. Being entirely motivated by revenge, it’s not the most unique plot, aside from the art, the characters, and the gay sexual tension.

I think it’s pretty genius to create a prequel to a Dreamcast game by creating what looks like a lost Sega Saturn title. Specifically, it resembles a biopunk Strider 2 with pixelated 2D sprites over lo-fi backdrops. On top of that is a terrific art style and an aesthetic that seems like something Suda51 would put together. If nothing else, Slave Zero X is candy to the eyes.

It’s stage dressing for a brutal mix of hack-and-slash and fighting games. Shou has a wide arsenal of moves, enemies are surprisingly robust, and they like to bring a lot of friends to the party. It’s a remarkably difficult game to come to grips with, and the skill ceiling is deceptively high. Even during the final battles of the game, I needed to learn more strategies to counter the more complicated bosses. I never stopped learning new things.

Part of this is because it’s terrible at explaining things. There’s a tutorial at the very beginning that consists of a few slides telling you everything. However, without the context of a few battles under your belt, the more advanced stuff doesn’t have much hope of sticking. Unless you’re a better student than me, I guess.

There’s a training mode, but it doesn’t provide you with different moves and combos to try out. You just smack away at a dummy and wiggle the directional buttons hoping that something new happens. This is quality-of-life stuff, but it feels like it would help immensely.

On the other hand, it did feel great to learn new things organically, but this may come at the end of a long string of humiliating defeats.

Much of the strategy here comes down to crowd control and air juggling. Those skills will get you furthest, with dodging, clashing, and parrying all secondary. Enemies arrive in masses, and you don’t want to get stuck between groups. If you leave an enemy behind you, they’ll just smack you, end your combo, and set off a chain of stun locking.

Instead, you need to corral everyone to one side, then pop them in the air and keep them elevated. This means learning the moves that will push you ahead and the timing to keep the enemies in the air.

This goes with bosses, as well, which are a bit different. The heaviest enemies and the lightest bosses require you to “break their focus” before they’ll start getting stunned by your hits. It’s actually kind of lame that they just no-sell your sword slice until they’ve taken enough damage, but I’ll admit that it keeps you strategizing. Once you break their focus, you then have a window of time to do as much damage as possible. Best way to do this? Get them in the air and start juggling.

At times, this led me to lean hard on holding forward and hitting the heavy attack. That only got me so far. Enemies will inevitably get you in a combo, and when that happens, you may find an entire group beating you down while you’re stuck hopelessly stunlocked. You can then use a pulse to push them back, allowing you to get to a better position and turn the tables. Likewise, there’s Fatal Sync which allows you to pull off heavier attacks at greater speed while slowly refilling your health gauge.

If I’m illustrating anything here, I hope it’s that there’s a lot going on in Slave Zero X.

Anyone who simply bounces off Slave Zero X’s unfriendly exterior is right in doing so. It is one steep learning curve for an otherwise short game. I can’t even claim that the narrative makes it worth it.

Where it does feel worth it is when things finally click into place. The penultimate boss battle really tested the lifespan of my controller. The numerous attempts it took me to finally take them down caused my thumbs to ache as I parried, made careful use of my Fatal Sync, and carefully learned to read their movements. It’s a very brutal finale, but I got into a flow that I feel I most recently felt with Doom Eternal.

A challenge tower unlocks after beating the last boss, but I haven’t attempted it yet. I need to give my thumbs some rest.

I don’t think Slave Zero X will click with everything, but for the most part, I think it’s exactly what it wants to be. I think some quality-of-life improvements would make it easier to get into, but other small tweaks would be appreciated as well. In particular, there were a few areas where foreground objects would completely block my view of battle. Beyond that, I ran into technical issues, like the graphics blurring in one particular spot and a few crashes.

But even if those issues were addressed, the demands it makes from the player in regards to learning its systems will be too much for some. It does, however, feel like a welcome reprieve from a lot of modern games that signpost everything and ensure that nothing can possibly be missed.

Despite the pixelated exterior of Slave Zero X and its unforgiving temperament, it doesn’t necessarily feel like an old game from a bygone generation. Rather, it feels like the work of a passionate team that knew what they wanted and unapologetically went for it. It took an obscure license and ignited a new spark in it without compromising its own vision. It’s a rare thing, and I truly hope it finds its audience.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review – Slave Zero X appeared first on Destructoid.

No joke, while I was midway through writing this article, EA dropped Command & Conquer - The Ultimate Collection on Steam. I had just been wondering how where I could get Renegade these days, and speak of the devil. I know what I'm doing this weekend.

One of the most amusing stories I have from my youth is the time a cousin and I spent most of the day playing Command & Conquer: Red Alert while eating Warheads candy. And not just, like, a package of Warheads, but this big basket of them. For the next few days, I was peeling dead skin off my tongue. But the point of this story is that Command & Conquer has had a place in my heart since I was a kid.

The series has been going since 1995 and went quiet after 2010 (not counting Rivals). In that time, it's seen some ups and downs, but mostly ups. To help you separate the ore from the Tiberium, here's a tier overview of the games in the series. I've tucked the expansion packs under their relevant entry since it would be rather difficult to compare them.

F-Tier

Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor (1997)

If you don’t remember Sole Survivor, neither does anyone else. In fact, it’s the only entry on this list that doesn’t have a Wikipedia page or a user-submitted description on MobyGames. It was an online-only affair, which is interesting since Command & Conquer already had an online mode baked in. 

Rather than building bases and controlling an army, you controlled a single unit, essentially in the same way you would in the RTS. In a way, it controls like a MOBA, but really, it’s mostly a deathmatch. You could move your units over power-ups, but you were still clicking places and letting them drive themselves.

If this was a mod instead of a retail game, it might have had some value back in the day. But as a retail product, it’s just baffling. I think it says something when EA even leaves it out of The Ultimate Collection.

D-Tier

Command & Conquer: Rivals (2018)

I’m admittedly biased against mobile games, so I haven’t even played Command & Conquer Rivals. It’s mostly just above Sole Survivor in the ranks because some people say Rivals is decent, which Sole Survivors isn’t, so I’m just going to take people’s word for it and place it here.

Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (2010)

If 2007’s Command & Conquer 3 suggested that the series still had some fuel in the tank, Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight just drove it off a cliff. I can understand the intent here. The fact that there hasn't been a proper game in the series since (sorry, Rivals) should say it all. The RTS genre was maybe, possibly at risk of growing stale, so they needed to shake things up. It’s just that, urgh, it wasn’t for the best.

The resource gathering and base building is gone. Instead, you have crawlers and command points. It’s such a massive divergence from the normal C&C formula, that it would take a while to explain. Suffice it to say that almost everything that made the series great, isn’t here. In a way, that’s impressive in its own right.

C-Tier

Command & Conquer: Generals (2003)

Now we’re away from the bad C&C games and into, at the very least, the okay ones. Command & Conquer: Generals has its fans, but I’m not one of them. It was the first one released after EA closed down Westwood Studios, but while it isn’t bad, I feel like it’s just so generic compared to the previous games. The Tiberian and Red Alert games had a sort of style to them that isn’t present in Generals.

Rather than fictional factions, you have the US, China, and the GLA (okay, that last one is fictitious). It’s just a modern day war game with a few exaggerated abstractions. And that’s okay, I just don’t think it compares very well.

It got an expansion later the same year, Command & Conquer: Generals: Zero Hour, which, er, expands the storyline. More importantly, it brings back the series’ traditional FMV sequences.

Command & Conquer 2: Tiberium Sun (1999)

There’s not a lot wrong with Command & Conquer 2: Tiberium Sun. I think my issues with it are mostly petty, but maybe some of you agree with me.

It’s a divergence from the relative groundedness of the original Command & Conquer, leaning was more into sci-fi. The world has been overtaken by the uncontrolled growth of poisonous Tiberium crystals. This leads me to my first complaint, which is that it’s way too drab. Like the games before it, the battlefields are desolate, uninteresting landscapes. I don’t love the troop varieties, and the lack of mammoth tanks hurts me. In fact, the disappointing selection of tanks, in general, is a black mark on it, as instead, the game leans on walking mechs.

Command & Conquer 2: Tiberian Sun: Firestorm is the first time the series extended a game's storyline with an expansion. It adds two new campaigns that follow after the main game's narrative.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (2008)

Building off the success of Command & Conquer 3, EA decided to revisit the Red Alert subseries. And, honestly, it wasn’t bad. They went all out on the story, giving Tim Curry an appropriately ridiculous spot as Colonel Anatoly Cherdenko. If anything, the story has outlived the game itself.

The gameplay in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 is… fine. Despite adding the ability to build offshore, it’s not really revelatory. If anything, it kind of shows off EA’s, er, blander sensibilities. Not egregious, just okay.

It was expanded by Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Uprising, which was similarly not impressive.

B-Tier

Command & Conquer: Renegade (2002)

Speaking of just okay, Command & Conquer is the okay-est first-person shooter I’ve ever played. It couldn’t be more par if it tried. Absolute boilerplate.

However, it gains bonus points for C&C fans like myself. After looking at these buildings from above, actually being able to see their scale and their interior was so cool. Plus, you got to drive a bunch of the vehicles that you commanded in the original. Its adherence to the series it’s based on makes it almost indispensable for fans, which is why I've bumped it up to B.

Unfortunately, it didn’t find much of an audience outside those fans. It wasn’t very successful and was a factor in EA unceremoniously shutting down Westwood.

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (2007)

Back in 2007, four years was a long time to go without a new entry in the series. For a while, it felt like EA had just buried it. But then Command & Conquer 3 came out and felt like it rejuvenated the series. Continuing from the Tiberium Sun eco-apocalypse setting, C&C3 brought back everything that people loved about the original, including FMV cutscenes and, more importantly, Mammoth Tanks.

It felt like the series had a future again, but that didn’t really last. It was mostly just a glowing success in a cloud of corporate apathy.

Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath was the obligatory expansion here. It was okay if you preferred NOD over GDI for some reason.

A-Tier

Command & Conquer (1995)

The original Command & Conquer was a formative game in the burgeoning RTS genre. It came out the same year as Warcraft II, and while it didn’t completely eclipse that game, it was way better overall. I said it.

C&C was great back in 1995, and it’s still great. The two opposing sides of NOD and GDI have their own strengths and weakness, mission variety is outstanding, and the campaign has branching routes based on your (poorly informed) decisions. The story sometimes feels a little too straightforward, but the existence of Tiberium gives it a bit of extra spice.

It had an expansion released in 1996, Command & Conquer: The Covert Operations, but it’s nothing too exciting. It mostly focuses on adding some harder missions.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996)

The follow-up to Command & Conquer doesn’t change much in terms of gameplay but is much more imaginative with its setting and narrative. It opens with Albert Einstein traveling back in time and murdering Hitler, so you know you’re in for a ride. With the Nazis removed from history, Europe remains mired in economic uncertainty while the Soviet Union grows unchecked. When they come to blows, things get desperate.

Red Alert takes everything that was great about Command & Conquer, changes very little, but adds so much more color with its alternate Cold War setting. It’s just awesome.

So awesome that it got two expansion packs: Counter Strike and The Aftermath. Both add new missions and there are some new units thrown in. However, like The Covert Operations, they don’t have a uniting storyline, so they’re pretty missable.

S-Tier

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (2000)

As great as Red Alert was, a leap in graphics did a lot to make it feel more like something was at stake. In the original Red Alert, you were mostly fighting it out in open fields, but in Red Alert 2, suddenly there were all sorts of landmarks the battles unfolded around. That alone made it feel like the stakes were higher. It opens with the Statue of Liberty crumbling (which is weird since it's made from copper, not stone), so you know things are getting real.

Red Alert 2 was just fun and imaginative. The story was extremely entertaining, and the series' mission variety is well on display. Just playing it, it's not hard to figure out why this is the zenith of Command & Conquer.

There was one expansion for the game called Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2: Yuri’s Revenge. It was a story expansion that continued from the end of the Allied campaign. This was the last classic C&C game that Westwood developed before EA shuttered the studio. Because we can’t have nice things.

The post Best Command and Conquer Games, Ranked – Full C&C Series Tier List appeared first on Destructoid.

Various outlets are reporting that the influential creator of Dragon Ball and character designer for games like the Dragon Quest series and Chrono Trigger, Akira Toriyama, died on March 1 of a subdural hematoma.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a game developer in Japan who wasn’t influenced by Toriyama in some way. His work on Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball has pervaded the culture there and even found popularity in the West. Because of this recognition, he was tapped to design the characters for Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior in North America) which itself became a cultural phenomenon in its home country.

As Streets of Rage and Actraiser composer Yuzo Koshiro put it on Twitter, “Toriyama’s work, with its unique art style, captivating characters, and warm, comforting stories, really made an impact on us kids.”

From there, Toriyama continued to work on the Dragon Quest series throughout his life. He later assisted with the creation of Chrono Trigger, often cited as one of the best RPGs ever made. He also lent his character design to the Tobal series and Blue Dragon. April will see the release of the adaptation of his manga, Sand Land.

This comes as quite a shock. Many people, including myself and the rest of Destructoid, are deeply saddened by this. But while Akira Toriyama may have passed too soon, his influence and his works will live on for a long, long time.

Lead image via Yahoo News.

The post Famed storyteller and artist Akira Toriyama dies at 68 appeared first on Destructoid.

Delisted Games, citing various developer, is reporting that the Adult Swim Games subsidiary of Warner Bros. is ceasing operations and will be delisting games currently published by them within the next 60 days. 

Delisted Games are speculating that this will affect all games under the label and are reporting that WB is refusing to work with affected developers. Matt Kain Lewandowski, one of the developers of 2013’s Fist Puncher, has stated on Steam Discussions, “So far they have said no with the reason being that they made the universal decision not to transfer the games back to the original studios and do not have the resources to do so. No, the transfer process is not complicated. It likely takes about 2 minutes on their end”

Matt also says that the games “will presumably be removed from users' libraries,” but that isn’t how it’s worked in the past, so I’d be extremely surprised if this was accurate.

Owen Deery, creator of Small Radios Big Televisions, says that WB controls the sale price, so he can’t mark his game down before its delisting. Instead, he has made the game available for free on the developer’s website.

According to the developers, they have been told that the delistings are due to “business changes.” It should be noted that Adult Swim Games hasn’t really been active since at least 2020. However, in their time, they published games such as Double Fine’s Headlander, Duck Game, and Super House of Dead Ninjas. Other games like Rainworld and Jazzpunk have had the publishing rights returned to the developer. Unfortunately, for any developer who didn’t move away from Adult Swim, it seems like it will be difficult to save the listing.

WB has been in headlines a lot recently for its anti-creative moves. Not long ago, there was an outcry against the company’s decision to shelve the reportedly complete film Coyote vs. Acme for tax purposes. In recent video game industry news, they made the baffling decision to double-down on live service games despite the relative failure of Suicide Squad. They also recently announced the decision to shutter online video producer Rooster Teeth.

I’m at a bit of a loss for words right now. I already considered WB to be one of the worst publishers, not just in terms of quality but also for game preservation due to their unwillingness to re-release much of the back catalog of Midway/Williams/Atari Games. I never predicted how much worse it would get. In the early ‘10s when they started publishing alternative games, it seemed like they were on track to be competition for Devolver Digital in terms of quirky small-budget style. But I suppose yesterday’s optimism sometimes becomes the devil’s pants.

In the meantime, if you are interested in any of Adult Swim Games’ back catalog on Steam, you might want to act now. As mentioned, WB is in control of any discounts, and they don’t seem interested in hosting a last-chance sale. Some developers will be able to make their games available elsewhere or perhaps find a way to relist themselves, but nothing is guaranteed.

The post WB’s Adult Swim Games label is delisting its games within 60 days, possibly all of them appeared first on Destructoid.

EA has announced that they’re releasing a slew of their older games onto Steam. All of them were available elsewhere, but finally, they’re available on the PC’s biggest digital storefront.

A lot of these are from Bullfrog, one of the many studios that EA shuttered, but there’s also the Command & Conquer - The Ultimate Collection, which features some games from Westwood, another studio that EA shuttered.

Here’s the list:

• Command & Conquer - The Ultimate Collection
• SimCity 3000 Unlimited
• Populous
• Populous 2: Trials of the Olympic Gods
• Populous: The Beginning
• Dungeon Keeper Gold
• Dungeon Keeper 2
• Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack
• The Saboteur

That’s a coincidence! I’ve been working on something involving Command & Conquer, and while doing my research, discovered The Ultimate Collection. I saw that it was available on the “EA App” (formerly Origin), and that’s as far as I went in that direction because I’m not installing the EA App. Now I don’t have to! Phew. But that’s neat since I just discovered its existence today while I was looking up if you could still buy Command & Conquer Renegade.

Aside from that, everything else was available on GOG, and I already own most of them on that list, but not Command & Conquer - The Ultimate Collection.

If it sounds like I’m being flippant, it’s because EA is one of the worst companies when it comes to preserving their back catalog. SimCity 3000 is here, but do you know what isn’t available? The original SimCity. Most of what they made back in the ‘80s and ‘90s might as well not exist to them.

But credit where it’s due. You can now buy the listed EA games on Steam. That’s not nothing. Maybe they're going to pay better respect to their old classics, but I'll believe it when I see it.

The games are available right now, and they're all discounted quite considerably for a limited time.

The post Long overdue, EA finally releases some of its classic games on Steam appeared first on Destructoid.

On the company’s website, Toys for Bob, the developer behind Skylanders and Crash Bandicoot 4, has announced that it's diverging from Activision Blizzard to become independent.

The post doesn’t really give much more in the way of details. It states that the company will return to being a “small and nimble studio.” They also state that, while they’re separating, they are looking into a “possible partnership” with Microsoft. Explaining, “Our friends at Activision and Microsoft have been extremely supportive of our new direction, and we’re confident that we will continue to work closely together as part of our future.”

That’s somewhat surprising, considering Toys for Bob was reportedly among those hit by the massive wave of Microsoft layoffs in the wake of the Activision Blizzard acquisition. Don’t burn any bridges, I suppose.

Toys for Bob says it's in the early days of developing its next game and is looking forward to providing more updates.

This news comes shortly after the news that Saber Interactive and Gearbox are being sold off by Embracer Group. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic and even following that, we say a period of rapid acquisitions from companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Embracer. In the fallout of that, there have been a dizzying number of layoffs and studio closures, so seeing a developer spin-off on their own is almost refreshing.

The post Toys for Bob separating from Activision Blizzard, going independent appeared first on Destructoid.

Bloomberg is reporting that Saber Interactive, the developers reportedly working on a remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, is being sold by Embracer Group to a private investment group.

Embracer Group has been going through a massive restructuring that has seen hundreds of employees laid off and the shuttering of studios. This latest deal appears to be another part of that ongoing effort.

While the state of the Knights of the Old Republic remake is currently in question, Saber Interactive is slated to release a few games this year, including Warhammer 40000: Space Marine 2, Toxic Commando, and Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game. It’s currently not known how the sale will affect their current projects, which also include Jurassic Park: Survival. 

According to Bloomberg’s source, the deal is worth $500 million. Saber was part of Embracer’s big buying spree. They purchased the company back in 2020 at a reported price of $525 million, which means a bit of a loss. Furthermore, Bloomberg is reporting that the price also “includes an option for Saber to bring along multiple Embracer subsidiaries.” While this might just be referring to Saber’s branches in other countries, there are other studios listed under them, such as 3DRealms and Tripwire.

It’s possible that more of these sales will happen as Embracer continues its efforts to restructure. During their previous fiscal reports, the corporation has stated that they are in “the final stretch” of their restructuring, but it’s currently unknown what else is planned.

The post KOTOR remake developer Saber Interactive to leave Embracer Group appeared first on Destructoid.

Poncle has abruptly dropped a new update for Vampire Survivors with a trailer that includes some well-timed Final Fantasy references. Just a few. The Space54 update is available today.

Is the update at all related to Final Fantasy? Hmmm, no. It doesn’t look like it. However, for some reason, the team decided to release a trailer alongside it that is a shot-for-shot remake of the 1997 Final Fantasy VII trailer. Well, as shot-for-shot as they can manage with Vampire Survivors.

What? Well, according to the press release I received, an insides says, “Because we had the original trailer on a PlayStation demo disk and watched it on loop so now it’s scored into our brains. Plus the team is extremely hyped for Rebirth. What better way to celebrate than with a trailer of our own?”

As for the actual update, I don’t think you’re going to be seeing any buster swords. It looks to be more sci-fi-themed. This is what Poncle has highlighted for the Space54 update:

7 New Achievements

2 New Characters:

• Bat Robbert – When falling below 20% health, he gains +16 MaxHP (max +400) and recovers 30% health. This ability recharges every time the character is fully healed.
• Space Dude – Every few seconds fires all weapons regardless of their Cooldown. The cooldown of this ability is affected by the Cooldown stat.

New Weapons:

• Pako Battiliar – May retaliate when losing health.
• Phas3r – Pew Pew! Generates thin damaging zones. High Amount scaling.

New Stage

• Space54 – A cosmic trek through horrors and delights.

New Relic

• Allows to enable random level up choices.

Vampire Survivors is available on basically everything at this point. The Space54 update is free and will be arriving today.

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