A cookbook featuring over 50 recipes inspired by Stardew Valley is now available.

The recipe guide – which includes step-by-step instructions for delectable delights like Strange Bun and Seafoam Pudding – is written in collaboration with Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone and features "photos, appearances from Stardew Valley’s characters, and delightful illustrations".

"Welcome to Stardew Valley, where each season brings a new crop of bountiful food to make for friends and family," teases the blurb. "From farm staples like veggies, fruit, milk, and eggs to foraged mushrooms and berries to fresh fish, there's always something delicious to put on the table.

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A Stardew Valley mod will add the likes of Astarian and Shadowheart from Baldur's Gate 3.

The project was shared over the weekend, with a tease of the mod's map (appropriately called Baldur's Village) and its pixelated Baldur's Gate 3 residents.

The mod's team - which comprises three dedicated fans - said it is currently working on Astarion, Shadowheart, Gale and Halsin, but more characters will come. Oh, and we will be able to date Asterion, with the silver-haired vampire having his own "unique romance plot".

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Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has pushed out another update for Stardew Valley.

Update 1.6.6 addresses a number of bugs and some balance, gameplay, and translation issues, including restoring the ability to give your spouse crap flowers – the cornerstone of every healthy relationship, of course – and resolving an evaporating raccoon.

The patch also now means bee houses work with flowers in garden pots, the "Minecart depot" alternative layout now only appears in the upper or lava mine areas, and you can now turn the gold clock off and on.

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Over the past while a few games have had post-launch patches, the exemplars being Starfield and Stardew valley, which have post-launch patches of different kinds and for different reasons. We take some time on the Electronic Wireless Show podcast to talk about this patch of patches, and what it was like in the good ol' days, where a broken game came out and stayed broken, gosh darn it!

Nate isn't here today, which means I can make fun of him for owning fish, or whatever it is he does, but in his stead James steps up with an RGB lighting-themed game where I have to guess what accessories people stuck lights on to turn into gamer accessories. This is because Razer stuck RGB lights on a pandemic mask and are in trouble over it now. Naughty Razer. Plus, we talk about the games we're playing right now, and dish you up some juicy recommendations at the end of the show.

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A team of enterprising modders are looking to unite two of the internet’s favourite dating games - Baldur's Gate 3 and Stardew Valley - in one beautiful thirst trap. The mod set to launch a thousands AO3 ships is Baldur’s Village, which transports your favourite adventuring companions to the pastoral climes of Stardew’s farming towns.

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You'd think after launching Stardew Valley's massive 1.6 update, creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone would want to catch his breath; but nope - Barone has just casually tossed out a new patch that, among other things, adds 40 new mine layouts for players to explore.

Barone confirmed a new update was on the way last week, teasing "a new fishing thing, and some new mining related stuff". Turns out Barone might have been underselling things a bit. Update 1.6.4 kicks off its patch notes with 20 new 'alternate' mine layouts - which can start appearing after players reach the bottom of mines - plus 20 new volcano mine layouts, which can appear after unlocking the shortcut between the caldera and the volcano entrance.

And there's more! Barone's mysterious "fishing thing" has revealed itself to be fish frenzies, and they're joined by four new fairy types, as well as a "special cutscene" that triggers after players help their new neighbours grow their family to the max. Additionally, it's now possible to place an extra eight non-fish items into fish tanks, mystery boxes and golden mystery boxes can be traded at Raccoon's shop, vinegar can be poured onto trees to stop them from ever growing moss, and the shaving enhancement now causes tree-specific drops.

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You'd think after launching Stardew Valley's massive 1.6 update, creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone would want to catch his breath; but nope - Barone has just casually tossed out a new patch that, among other things, adds 40 new mine layouts for players to explore.

Barone confirmed a new update was on the way last week, teasing "a new fishing thing, and some new mining related stuff". Turns out Barone might have been underselling things a bit. Update 1.6.4 kicks off its patch notes with 20 new 'alternate' mine layouts - which can start appearing after players reach the bottom of mines - plus 20 new volcano mine layouts, which can appear after unlocking the shortcut between the caldera and the volcano entrance.

And there's more! Barone's mysterious "fishing thing" has revealed itself to be fish frenzies, and they're joined by four new fairy types, as well as a "special cutscene" that triggers after players help their new neighbours grow their family to the max. Additionally, it's now possible to place an extra eight non-fish items into fish tanks, mystery boxes and golden mystery boxes can be traded at Raccoon's shop, vinegar can be poured onto trees to stop them from ever growing moss, and the shaving enhancement now causes tree-specific drops.

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It's starting to feel like ConcernedApe (aka Eric Barone) may in fact be a modern day Sisiphus, destined to work on Stardew Valley forever. Following on from the mega update of 1.6 a month ago, and 1.6.3 soon after that, the hardy perennial farming game has a new 1.6.4 mini update. The key addition this time is more new layouts that will appear after you reach the bottom of the mines, and more layouts for the volcano mines too. If you've not played Stardew Valley you might wonder why there are deep mines and volcanos, and to you I say "Pah! You should play Stardew Valley."

1.6.4 also has a lot of bug fixes (including fixing disappearing pets, new pets being a key feature of 1.6) and some balance changes, as well as a host of fixes for modders and modded players. ConcernedApe said early on that 1.6 would be an update for modders, so it's nice to see that being supported. You can read the full patch notes here.

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Five of the Best is a weekly series for supporters of Eurogamer. It's a series that highlights some of the features in games that are often overlooked. It's also about having your say, so don't be shy, use the comments below and join in!

Oh and if you want to read more, you can - you can find our entire Five of the Best archive elsewhere on the site.

I've always thought it strange that games should include fishing - games that aren't about fishing, that is. Take World of Warcraft as an example, a game that's included below: it's already a game that sucks away your time, so why would you want to do something even more time-consuming like fishing within it? Yet, fishing has definitely become a thing. There isn't a crafting game or an online game that goes by without fishing included. It's become a must-have. I only wish I had the patience for it. Do you?

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Stardew Valley is celebrating its eighth anniversary today (yes, I couldn't believe it either) and developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has marked the occasion by announcing a release date for his beloved farm-life sim's eagerly awaited 1.6 update - which is coming to PC on 19th March, with a console and mobile release to follow "as soon as possible".

Stardew Valley's 1.6 update was revealed to be in the works back in June 2022, when Barone warned it would be relatively modest in scope and 'mostly modding-focused'. Since then, however, it's ballooned substantially, with Barone so far confirming it'll bring one major new festival and two new mini festivals, new items and crafting recipes, new dialogue lines, a new farm type, new late-game content, winter outfits for villagers, a new larger chest, 8-player co-op on PC, plus - most importantly of all - hats for cats and dogs.

It was exactly one month ago today that Barone last shared a progress report on 1.6's development, revealing he was "done adding major new content" and that it would "definitely" release this year - and we now have an exact date to mark in our calendars.

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Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has marked the 8th birthday of his farming sim phenomenon baby (also called Stardew Valley) by announcing the impending release of update 1.6. The PC version - the one we care about - is arriving on the 19th of March, and consoles and mobile as soon as possible after that. The actual content of update 1.6 is largely a mystery, but Barone has teased a few things here and there, including that it's "mostly changers for modders" that'll make it "easier and more powerful to mod".

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