Slay the Princess was one of the biggest indie surprises of 2023, and its Steam player count has since exploded past the stratosphere after popular YouTuber Markiplier began a playthrough video series on June 22. To help the climb of Slay the Princess, developers at Black Tabby Games launched a Steam promo campaign that shaved off 20% of the game's price, then did players one even better.
In a series of since-deleted tweets originally caught by PCGamesN, Black Tabby Games' official Twitter account addressed the people getting into the game through Markiplier's video series. Black Tabby talked about the game's high reactiveness to the player's choices, the game's key aspect that will make every single playthrough a unique experience. Thus, the developers recommend you play the game on your own first — even if you have to resort to piracy, in case they can't afford the game. They concluded by saying you can always buy a copy of the game later.
Image via BlackTabbyGames
While we don't know the reason behind the decision to delete the Tweets, this remains an act of extreme good faith, one that will likely result in Slay The Princess receiving even more goodwill from the gaming community at large.
And now that the real-life conundrum some players were facing has been solved, now they only have to deal with the in-game conundrum of slaying the princess or dealing with the dire consequences.
You can get Slay The Princess for PC on Steam for $14.39 until the promotion ends on June 24, though it's likely to go back down when the Steam Summer sale begins on June 27. You can also play it on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and you can get the free demo right here.
A few years back, someone spread the word that FromSoftware was making a Kart game set in the world of Bloodborne. It was but an April Fools’ joke, but it soon blossomed into much more.
Over two years of development and a few months of legal tinkering later, developer Lilith Walther has finally released Nightmare Kart.
You might know Lilith from Bloodborne PSX, a remake of the first sections of the PS4 classic that played and looked just like a PS1 game. It was great, but Nightmare Kart is on a whole different level. You can pick between 21 racers, 13 karts, 15 tracks, and none of it is a mere transplant from Bloodborne. While each character is heavily inspired by a Bloodborne counterpart, these are all complemented by original additions coming straight out of Lilith’s mind.
Most vehicles are original and unique, some of them to the point of absurdity. For example, Herman doesn’t even need a Kart or a Bike. The old man remains so strong that he needs nothing more than his his ultra-powerful arms to move his wheelchair as quickly as everyone else moves their motorized vehicle. Nicolas is mad, but no one even dares coming close enough to tell him about the rules, so he ditches any sort of vehicle and just runs alongside the others. Those are just a few of the quirks I've been able to notice in the short period of time I've had to try the game so far, so I'm sure there are so many more for you to find.
On top of allowing you to challenge your friends to races in split-screen mode, there's also a battle mode where you can just duke it out against a bunch of friends or AI opponents in a bunch of very familiar arenas. Nightmare Kart not only looks like a game of old, it also features many of the multiplayer options that we miss in the games of today.
There are also a bunch of very welcome customization options, such as the CRT FX, which does a great job of filtering the pixelation like the TVs of old did. Also, this might be the closest non-modders will ever get to playing something Bloodborne-ish at 60 FPS:
The most positively surprising element for me, however, was the presence of an actual campaign, one with cutscenes and even unique boss fights.
In a world where games can't seem to stop becoming more expensive, getting such a package completely free of charge feels almost like a miracle. Yes, you can get Nightmare Kart right now for free on Steam or pay-what-you-want on itch.io. You can also get Nightmare Kart’s fantastic original soundtrack from Bandcamp right here.
Furiosa, the next chapter in the Mad Max saga, is nearly out, and that's a great excuse to watch or re-watch the whole thing. It's completely fine not to know the right order to watch the series, as the whole series is nearly 50 years old and most people old enough to remember it are also already old enough to have some memory problems.
https://youtu.be/FVswuip0-co
There are two possible orders in which to watch the Mad Max Saga, and there are very small differences between both. Let's check them out.
How to Watch the Mad Max Saga in Release Order
1- Mad Max (1979)
The original Mad Max takes place in an undisclosed near feature (for the people of 1979) where the world was on the brink of complete collapse. The film follows Max Rockatansky, a cop who is broken after he witnesses his family killed at the hands of a biker gang and goes on a revenge spree.
2- Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
Even though Max ended up effectively "retiring" the evil biker gang at the end of the original movie, he didn't really do much for the state of the world, which is now long past the brink of collapse. Even though it takes place just around three years after the original movie, the whole known world of Road Warrior is but an Australia-sized arena where those who have the guns and the fuel get to make up the rules.
3- Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
Thunderdome takes place nearly a decade after Road Warrior, at a time when people are once again trying to create something we'd charitably call society. Max finds himself in a gladiatorial arena and ends up leading a bunch of kids to a better life. It's the least-liked movie in the franchise, but it's still deserving of your attention.
4- Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Fury Road came out 30 years after the release of the previous entry in the franchise, so director George Miller wisely left the chronology unclear. We naturally assume that the story takes place after the events of Thunderdome, but the movie doesn't feature any direct reference to that movie. That's by design, for the record; Miller confirmed that the films do not have a strict continuity, with the idea being that Max's story is akin to a campfire tale told by survivors. So while Max's age and design may be in flux, he's intended to be the same character in each film.
There's also a second release of FuryRoad, Black and Chrome, which is how the director intended the film to be viewed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bbh9CUFS0M
5- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
Furiosa shows us various stages of the life of the titular character, and we know that it takes place before she's the badass adult general we see in Fury Road. If you believe that Fury Road takes place in the same universe as the original trilogy, then Furiosa takes place an unknown amount of time after Thunderdome and around a decade before Fury Road.
How to Watch the Mad Max Saga in Chronological Order
Mad Max (1979)
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Mad Max: Fury Road - Black and Chrome (2017)
The Mad Max saga to date has been an entirely chronological affair. The sole exception is that Furiosa is a prequel to Fury Road. If you want to watch the Mad Max Saga in chronological order, the only change you need to make is seeing Furiosa before you see Fury Road.
Can a hero even be called cool if they never face opponents who test their limits? We want to see odds that look insurmountable, even for supermen who shoot lasers from their eyes and manage to hide their identity only by wearing a pair of glasses.
While it might seem like too daunting of a task, fiction authors sure have done a great job at diving into their scariest nightmares to pull out these absolute monsters.
Image via FOX
10. T-1000 (Terminator 2)
The T-1000 is as close as a good AI — not a real-world one — was able to come to the perfect killing machine. Its body is composed entirely of liquid metal, meaning that bullets can, at best, hope to slow him down a little. He has full control over the metallic goo he's made of, meaning that he can conjure swords and even impersonate anyone he sees.
How scary is the T-1000? Well, if regular Arnold Schwarzenegger is already pretty scary, then remember that this guy is even more powerful than a robot version of Arnie.
Image by Nintendo
9. Giygas (Earthbound)
Giygas from Earthbound is an alien lifeform who can will reality into collapsing. It serves as a very enticing final villain not just because he has world-ending powers but also because he'll fill your brain with imagery so foul that you might lose your mind long before you perish.
In all fairness, though, this being of immense cosmic power does end up getting defeated by a bunch of kids, so there's that.
Image by WB
8. Adrien Veidt/ Ozymandias (Watchmen)
Adrien Veidt's most dangerous trait is thinking that he's a good guy. He believes he has the ability to save the world, whatever that might mean, so he stops at nothing to achieve his goals.
Ozymandias, his "heroic" alter-ego, ends up murdering hundreds of thousands of people after his master plan succeeds, but we never see any guarantee that his awful actions will ever even lead to postponing the end of the world. What scares me the most about Ozymandias is that he makes me sometimes wonder if there's one rich person out there who can one day pull this off.
7. Sauron (The Lord Of The Rings)
Sauron is the quintessential super warlord of the Fantasy genre. He was powerful enough as an evil shapeshifter, but powerful enough is never enough when you are a supervillain. He also created an artifact that bestowed upon him immense power and the ability to enslave the minds of some of the most powerful inhabitants of Middle Earth.
Sauron is unbeatable in combat as long as he's wearing the One Ring and will never die unless you destroy the ring — a task that I've heard isn't particularly easy.
Screenshot via Nintendo
6. Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII, Kingdom Hearts, Super Smash Bros.)
Sephiroth is a highly trained SOLDIER who also benefits from sharing a genetic bloodline with a race of alien deities. He's too drunk with power to be slowed down by any sense of empathy or mercy, but that isn't even the scariest thing about him. Sephiroth is one of the few villains in media who can nullify the hero's ability to always save their love (?) interest.
When not trying to blow up the planet he inhabits by pulling in meteors, he can be seen kicking your ass as the hardest boss of the Kingdom Hearts multiverse. You know you're about to have a bad time whenever this guy shows up.
Image via Warner Bros
5. Doomsday (Death Of Superman, Batman V Superman)
Doomsday only has the ability to grow a natural defense against whatever you throw at him. Shoot him once, and he'll get hurt and pissed off. Shoot him a second time, and he'll only get pissed off. That's pretty scary as is, but we learn that by the time we first see him, Doomsday has already been subject to countless years of violent experiments. He's the only creature in fiction who was ever able to kill Superman, and he didn't need to buy a single Kryptonite knife from Amazon to achieve that.
4. Femto (Berserk)
Femto is the result of a deal that saw the mercenary Griffith reborn as a member of the fearsome Godhand. Femto is incredibly strong and can warp reality, but that's not even the worst of it. The problem is that he cannot even be harmed by any known means. Anything you throw at him that would pose any sort of threat just goes through him as if he were a ghost. Going up against Femto is like fighting a cheater who has god mode and noclip on.
Even before he was Femto, Griffith was the biggest backstabber in the history of art. The only thing in life worse than being betrayed by the person you love is seeing them then turn into a quantically immortal being of pure evil, which is what the hero of Berserk also has to deal with.
3. Harbinger (Mass Effect)
Whereas the Borg from Star Trek will assimilate humans into their hive mind, the Reapers from Mass Effect just melt people into goo and use them as building materials.
They're the scariest alien fleet you can have invading your planet because they're the most technologically advanced civilization in their universe. Harbinger, first introduced in Mass Effect 3, seems to be their leader. Whereas the other villains on this list are only confined to one planet (at a time, at least), Harbinger's goons can get you wherever you are.
Image by Cyberdreams
2. AM (I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream)
The Allied Mastercomputer, AM, from Harlan Ellison's masterpiece short story and the video game of the same name, I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, is not only one of the most powerful villains in fiction, it's also undisputedly one of the most vile.
AM is an AI made by the best minds in its world solely to find ways to hurt humans, and that's exactly what he's done for untold millennia when the story is set. After he takes over the planet Earth, AM is indestructible, relentless, and able to torture and kill with great efficacy. Still, the worst part is how he's also able to heal and make his victims immortal, allowing him to torture them forever.
https://youtu.be/M2o2FRwn_hg
1. The Thing (John Carpenter’s The Thing)
When I said that The Thing is the scariest Sci-Fi Horror movie of all time, I wasn't joking. The titular Thing is an intelligent organism with the ability to consume and replace any organic or inorganic material in existence. Sure, it can bite your head off, but it can just as well kill, eat, and replace all your loved ones before it does the same to you.
It only needs one functioning cell to consume an entire planet, and it's smart enough to build spaceships to visit other planets when it's done with yours. You might be able to defeat The Thing, but you'll never have the mental strength to shake off the paranoia that will forever haunt your every thought whenever you talk to another person or, even worse, try to pet a cute dog.
Our natural fear of the unknown immediately makes us keen on blending Science Fiction with Horror, but the combination isn't all that easy to pull off. For every Alien, you get ten movies like The Happening, and, well, the Alien sequels.
Here are ten movies that did the formula justice, some of which even pushed the genre forward by adding surprisingly effective, fresh new elements.
Image via Bad Robot
Cloverfield (Matt Reeves, 2008)
Movies about big monsters ravaging through a city rarely fail to entertain, no other did it better than Cloverfield, the only film courageous enough to ask people to experience all the fear and devastation in first person perspective.
The found footage genre can go from scarily horrifying to incredibly good at putting you to sleep. After The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield is likely the most interesting attempt at this genre — and one of the best Kaiju films ever made.
Image via MGM
The Myst (Frank Darabont, 2008)
If you want to see a truly messed-up alternative to the father-and-child dynamic of The Last Of Us and Logan, you can do no better than The Myst. Instead of a bunch of people who get more than they bargained for by venturing where they shouldn't, The Myst tells the story of a family just going about their business when their town gets engulfed by a mysterious mist that, you guessed it, is hiding scary things within.
There's no lack of cool jumpscares and monster designs here, but The Myst never stops being about family, a family that ends up having to face making a decision that you'll never forget.
Image via FOX
The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)
The Fly references in more popular media are so prevalent that younger audiences might attribute the accidental mix between a person and an insect to a surprisingly popular trope, not a specific film. Still, David Cronenberg's The Fly is much more than the imagining of one of humanity's (apparent) greatest fears.
Though we tend to remember the scene of the accident and the very gory climax of the film, the entire deterioration of Jeff Goldblum's character is more than worthy of everyone's time.
Image via Amazon
Spring (Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, 2015)
Spring ups the Sci-Fi Horror ante by inviting Romance in. Yes, even though it features spooky monsters and scientific concepts are thrown around, those take the backseat to a surprisingly great love story between a regular guy and a mysterious Italian woman. Spring would've been an interesting experiment even if it had failed in the daunting task it set out to achieve, but it doesn't.
It's heartbreaking that not many people know about this one, and there's only one way to fix that.
Image via Google Play
28 Days Later (Danny Boyle, 2003)
While it's only natural to think of George A. Romero's movies or Resident Evil when you think about Zombies, it's hard to deny how much 28 Days Later revitalized the genre.
Running infected were some of the most divisive movie monsters when we first saw them, but now we can all admit they're much scarier than the classic zombie type. Also, 28 Days Later doesn't just rest upon this update, as it weaves a personal and at some points even heartwarming tale of survival in an outbreak-ravaged England that you'll never forget.
Image via MAX
Aniara (Hugo Lilja, Pella Kågerman, 2019)
Aniara invites viewers to see what an interstellar cruise ship trip might look like, too bad it picks the worst possible voyage to promote this cool new type of travel. Aniara doesn't feature the space equivalent of an Iceberg crash that quickly leads to the sinking of a ship. Instead, it masterfully shows the slow descent into madness of a ship's crew that accidentally strayed off course and has to come to terms with the possibility of never reaching the destination.
While Aniara doesn't feature jumpscares, it's hard to ignore all the existential dread it fills viewers with by constantly giving them new hope and squashing it in front of their eyes.
Image via Amazon Prime
Cube (Vincenzo Natali, 2000)
As far as low-budget sci-fi horror goes, I doubt you can do better than Cube — In fact, some of its darkest aspects are so well-conceived that you'll have a hard time noticing it was even low-budget.
Cube invites viewers to experience a reality where a bunch of people are seemingly put at random into a megastructure composed of cubes that lead into other cubes, some of which feature deadly traps. The movie offers no answers, which helps the incredible violence of Cube feel extremely alien — or something late-stage capitalist humans would totally come up with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v4Kn0J6E-I
Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
Ever since the release of Aliens, fans have been arguing over which is the best between the two original Alien films. Aliens fits more neatly in the sci-fi action category, and, as for the main reason why it's not featured on this list, well, I just don't think it measures up to the original.
The original Alien from 1979 set an incredibly high bar for Sci-Fi horror by introducing us to a story equal parts Sci-Fi and Gothic Horror. Unlike Aliens, Alien revels in its buildup, and the moments we spend trying to understand what's happening and watching the Xenomorph grow are as enthralling as the moments we spend being afraid once this perfect killing machine reaches maturity.
Image via FOX
Predator (John McTiernan,1987)
If you like the action of Die Hard, Terminator, or even Commando, Predator has that for you, but what sets it apart is a brilliant genre subversion. Predator follows a group of soldiers led by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who are naturally the biggest and baddest dudes in the world — but not in the Universe.
After a mission in which Arnie's squad kills an entire battalion like it was a video game tutorial, they start dropping one by one in a gruesome fashion. Out of nowhere, what you thought would be another celebration of testosterone, turns into a slasher where the hopeless victims are all badasses you'd think each could've carried their own horror movies. On top of all the beautifully well-realized Sci-Fi and Horror crossover, Predator cements Arnie as the greatest action hero of them all by showing how the man isn't afraid of getting slapped around by something bigger and stronger that forces him to use his wits to come out on top.
Image via Universal
The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
What makes The Thing special isn't the evil shapeshifting alien that hunts down the members of a likable crew one by one — though it features the best practical effects ever seen in cinema history. It's the sense of dread you cannot shake by having to constantly wonder who's the monster and who's just an equally dangerous human on the verge of losing it.
John Carpenter's loose remake of Howard Hawks's The ThingFrom Another World was a critical and commercial flop upon release, with Roger Ebert seeing it as little more than " a gross-out movie in which teenagers can dare one another to watch the screen". Still, I believe there's no better possible laurel for a sci-fi work than coming out ahead of its time, and The Thing was quick to get a cultural reappraisal that propelled it into the podium of sci-fi horror, which it hasn't left since.
One of the year's breakout TV series may be getting more episodes. Deadline reports that Hiroyuki Sanada, who produces and stars as Lord Yoshi Toranaga in the once-limited series Shogun, has inked a deal to play the part again in a second season, making it all the more likely a second season will happen.
Keep in mind, season two has not been officially ordered; per The Hollywood Reporter, this is an "if-come" deal that just secures Sanada's involvement, should it get greenlit. Though details are still scarce, the events of season two would likely go beyond the events of James Clavell's novel that the show's based on, considering how the original season already covered most of it. But really, should they even do that?
We know that the character of Toranaga is loosely based on real-life Tokugawa Ieyasu who, you guessed it, went on to become the Shogun of a Shogunate that lasted for over 250 years. Many tales can be told of that time, but that would be missing the point of the show.
Nobody sets out to make a series finale that sucks, but many series still end on notes so low they cause entire fandoms to break down and wonder if they ever really loved the series all that much. See: Game of Thrones.
Shogun masterfully passed its final test — and definitely not because it ever took the easy way out. Spoilers ahead: Though the FX series covers most of the events of the novel it's based on, it makes the beautifully deliberate choice of ending before the novel does — but not as a way to leave space for a second season.
While many were expecting the big battle that the series had been teasing ever since the POV character, John Blackthorne, got recruited to help Toranaga because of his naval warfare proficiency, they got one hour of people talking. This ending would spell disaster many-a-show—but that made for a beautifully subversive closer here. Shogun's finale spends its climax essentially telling the viewer that this was always Toranaga's show, never Blackthorne's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClmWZX28ARg
When asked about the involvement of shipwrecked sailor in Toranaga's master plan, the warlord finally admits he only really has Blackthorne around because he finds him funny. Toranaga excelled at war, sure, but what made him so admirable was his ability to win battles even before they were fought. We never see the final battle because it just isn't necessary.
What matters is that we see Toranaga planting the seeds for his final victory. We spend the entire series seeing Toranaga moving ahead of his enemies, even when everyone and both gods seem to be against him. It was somehow so much more rewarding to know there's only one way it could turn out than to see it play out in the same overblown CGI bonanza you see in every big blockbuster nowadays.
Much like Toranaga's rivals, the people expecting the big battle were paying attention to the wrong moves, and that's on us — and his rivals. His victory is inevitable; why drag it out?
What's on whoever will keep on making the show, however, is the emotional core going forward. Even though they were just pawns in Toranaga's game of war, many characters that gave their life so that Toranaga could win through the smallest possible amount of bloodshed. These roles were the heart of the show, and I don't envy the task of filling the gaps they left behind.
The official Bungie Twitter account has just revealed that Aleph One, Marathon's open-source engine community, has released Classic Marathon to play on Steam completely free of charge. If you have a little over 65 MB of free storage on your PC, you too can now enjoy one of the best and most elusive classic FPS titles of all time.
Readers should know this is not an official Bungie release, but it does have Bungie's seal of approval. It's also a port of the best version of Marathon currently out there.
What's new in Steam's release of Marathon
Though this is a surprise release, it's already a proven title. The quality-of-life updates brought by Aleph One's Classic Marathonare already known, as it's a port of an already existing fan re-tinkering of Marathon. You can expect to find the following improvements:
Widescreen support
Modernized UI and UX
Lua scripting support
Third-party modding
Online Multiplayer
OpenGL support
Why Marathon on Steam is a big deal
While FPS fans have had DOOM on PC ever since it came out, the Marathon series, one of the genre's best early outings, was only available for Mac owners during most of its lifetime. Even though Marathon was later ported to the Xbox Live Arcade, it remained unplayable on PC in any quasi-official capacity until now. If you enjoy classic FPS games, Halo, and Destiny, giving Marathon a try might prove a great trip back into the roots of this great genre.
An official new take on Marathon as an extraction shooter is also in the works, though Bungie has yet to announce a release date. The remainder of the Marathon trilogy will also make its way to Valve's platform at an undisclosed date.
Netflix has just announced the release schedule for the sixth and final season of Cobra Kai via a neat video collage of events from the hit Karate Kid series revival.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPUGgxf3tx8
While that's not a traditional trailer, it does reveal crucial information, such as the fact that the upcoming final season will come out in a rather unexpected manner.
Cobra Kai Season 6 release schedule
The final season will be composed of 15 episodes and is divided into three parts.
Part 1, which will be released on July 18.
Part 2, which will be released on November 28.
Lastly, The Finale Event, which will be released at an unannounced date in 2025.
We have no information on how the 15 episodes will be split between the three parts.
Cobra Kai Season 6 plot
The final season takes place after the arrest of Terry Silver, and will bring John Kreese back as the main villain after his Hannibal Lecter-esque prison escape. It seems like the series is returning to its roots, as Kreese has brought back Cobra Kai in the final attempt to defeat Daniel LaRusso's Miyagi Do and Johnny Lawrence's Eagle Fang Karate schools.
The Karate Kid sequel had its humble beginnings as a comedic YouTube series that brought fans up to speed with the modern-day lives of Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso. However, it became a hit of such magnitude that it grew to accommodate pretty much the entire cast of the movie series, and a whole new generation of kids who are — in the series' own words — inexplicably too much into Karate. You can witness the beginning of the end on July 18.
Is this the end of Karate Kid?
If Cobra Kai has sparked or reignited your interest in the Karate Kid series, you can also stay tuned for the upcoming Karate Kid movie. While connections to Cobra Kai are sadly unconfirmed, we know It'll be a sequel to both the original film and the 2010 remake, and both Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan are set to make a return. The new Karate Kid movie was originally set to release in 2024, but the studio currently has no set date.
Even though Fallout 4 is arguably the easiest game in the series to get into for people who just got hella hyped about this world because of the Fallout TV show, it still features some strange blind spots when it comes to making some mechanics clear for players.
We've previously talked about how to recharge fusion cores, an essential but somehow not very well-explained part of getting your Power Armor to work, so let's now talk about how to get out of your Power Armor, as nobody wants to get unnecessarily trapped in a metal coffin forever.
A Power Armor is a great tool to use in the job of fixing Wasteland, if you know what I mean, and its simplified use in Fallout makes a lot of sense. What doesn't make much sense, however, is how the game doesn't do a great job of explaining how to exit it, so here goes:
PC: Hold the E key until the character exits the armor
PlayStation: Hold the X button until the character exits the armor
Xbox: Hold the A button until the character exits the armor
In case you've changed the key bindings for some reason, the rule is that the key or button you use to exit the armor is the same one you used to enter it.
It's an extremely simple action to perform, but only once you know how to do it, and the game only explains it in a brief message once you find a power armor station.
Screenshot via Destructoid
Even worse, you can hold down the correct button for 90% of the time required to hold it to exit the armor, and the game still won't tell you that you're about to trigger an action.
You can play Fallout 4 on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. You can now watch the Fallout TV series on Amazon Prime.
Missing the golden days of StarCraft, Command & Conquer, and Age Of Empires? A scoop by PCgamer foretells that the Real-time strategy genre might be about to make a comeback, as Starcraft2's multiplayer lead developer David Kim revealed in a documentary that he's working on a new RTS project aimed at completely changing the landscape.
https://youtu.be/4zotYqIiaw4
In this new Noclip documentary, Redefining the Game: A Paradigm Shift for the RTS Genre, Uncapped Gamesshowed their plans for a new real-time strategy game with a much broader appeal than the previous games in the genre.
One of the core problems of the RTS genre is its inherent level of difficulty, or, perhaps, the level of difficulty that most strategy games have accustomed us to.
On that, Kim says, "Our game concentrates on the core essence of this genre and gets players to the fun of RTS more quickly than ever before." Kim also talks about how the "easy to learn, hard to master" motto has always been a lie, at least regarding the RTS genre, and he wants to change that.
Games like Starcraft 2 are inevitably dominated by players capable of performing a nigh-superhuman amount of inputs per minute, and Kim is trying to make a change here. "It's one of my favorite games of all time," Kim says, "but I often wonder, like, is this really a real-time strategy game, or is it more like real-time execution?" Kim is now aiming at making a game that's approachable and values strategic decision-making over typing speed.
This is a pretty ambitious goal as, even if you make an RTS aimed at letting the player who thinks strategically over the one who "plays piano faster" win, the fastest player might always get ahead in the long run. Still, Uncapped has enlisted developers who'd previously worked on the StarCraft, Warcraft, Dawn of War, and Company of Heroes series, so this might be one worth looking forward to.
We'll learn more about Uncapped's new take on the RTS genre this June as the studio does its full reveal at the Summer Games Fest.
February 29 is a rare day, a perfect date to celebrate with a session of the Final Fantasy-themed musical game Theatrhythm Final Bar Line. However, I've got sad news for anyone attempting to celebrate today with a little Theathrythm as the rhythm game just won't load on this day, specifically.
The situation is a bummer, yes, but worry not as a solution already exists, and the cause for the whole thing is rather hilarious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXs7tcnD8t4
It seems like what's preventing players from joining the servers is that we're currently existing in the most cursed day of a glitched period in time, the one our calendar lords call "leap year". Look, I admit that don't know the complex math behind this cosmic event, but I believe Destructoid's own Zoey Handley perfectly described it as "a little Y2K that comes 'round every four years".
This Y2K ordeal becomes twice as hilarious once you remember that Theatrhythm is a mostly offline game. It doesn't need the Internet, hell, it doesn't even need to know what time it is. In fact, the good people at Vooks report having tried it on their consoles, and the fix they found was to just change the console's date to any other date of the year. Thank you, Mr Kojima, you've taught us well.
Here's hoping Square Enix solves this problem soon, or the Theatrhythm fans who are too wise to mess with the authorities of time will have to abruptly find new plans for February 29, 2028.
This is such an interesting failure — or maybe, just maybe, Square Enix is bottlenecking Theatrhythm on purpose to prevent it from completely overshadowing the release of Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, the real competition here all along. There's just no way of knowing.
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is usually available on the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, just not today.
Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth comes out today on the PlayStation 5 and will likely stay available until the great global collapse.
Přihlásit se
