I'm no shoot 'em up nutter - or "shmutter", as I understand they prefer to be called - but some of the first games I remember playing are shmups. Games like Maelstrom, Ambrosia's Macintosh clone of Asteroids, and the proto-shmup Crystal Quest from Patrick Buckland, who would go on to make Carmageddon. Little did I know that the humble premise of a small 2D spacecraft shooting baddies on a wrap-around screen would reach the glittering heights of Nova Drift. Had you shown me this game back in 1995, I dare say I'd have shmupped myself.

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As long-time readers will know, I'm a piteous mark for weird little game guys. I’m currently trying to puzzle out what the titular Mother Machine in The Curious Expedition studio Maschinen-Mensch’s upcoming co-op platformer refers to. But, if it’s a reference to forming a parental bond with what the game has saw-me-comingishly named “chaos gremlins”, I'm way ahead of you.

Ah, the press release speaketh! Probably should have read some more before I began exclaiming “Chaos Gremlins!” over and over. Have an announcement trailer.

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I'm no shoot 'em up nutter - or "shmutter", as I understand they prefer to be called - but some of the first games I remember playing are shmups. Games like Maelstrom, Ambrosia's Macintosh clone of Asteroids, and the proto-shmup Crystal Quest from Patrick Buckland, who would go on to make Carmageddon. Little did I know that the humble premise of a small 2D spacecraft shooting baddies on a wrap-around screen would reach the glittering heights of Nova Drift. Had you shown me this game back in 1995, I dare say I'd have shmupped myself.

Read more

As long-time readers will know, I'm a piteous mark for weird little game guys. I’m currently trying to puzzle out what the titular Mother Machine in The Curious Expedition studio Maschinen-Mensch’s upcoming co-op platformer refers to. But, if it’s a reference to forming a parental bond with what the game has saw-me-comingishly named “chaos gremlins”, I'm way ahead of you.

Ah, the press release speaketh! Probably should have read some more before I began exclaiming “Chaos Gremlins!” over and over. Have an announcement trailer.

Read more

Did The Gentlebros come up with the pun "Pi-Rats" and then work backwards from there in deciding that Cat Quest 3 should be pirate themed? Or was "Purr-ibean" the initiating pun? I feel that the action-RPG sequel had to begin with one of wordplay or another, given that its Steam page boasts that it also has "furr-ocious spells" and "gla-meow-rous costumes".

It's also claws-out now on Steam, which has me feline fine.

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Did The Gentlebros come up with the pun "Pi-Rats" and then work backwards from there in deciding that Cat Quest 3 should be pirate themed? Or was "Purr-ibean" the initiating pun? I feel that the action-RPG sequel had to begin with one of wordplay or another, given that its Steam page boasts that it also has "furr-ocious spells" and "gla-meow-rous costumes".

It's also claws-out now on Steam, which has me feline fine.

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Forthcoming action-RPG Phantom Blade Zero developer S-Game says that as it believes in "making our game accessible to everyone", it has not "ruled out any platforms".

Confirmation came via the studio itself, which took to social media to clarify its stance after several media outlets reported an unnamed developer said "nobody needs Xbox".

S-Game has distanced itself from the comments, saying they do not represent "S-Game's values or culture".

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Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford says news about the next game in the Borderlands series will come "sooner rather than later".

Gearbox – which is now a subsidiary of Take-Two after being sold by Embracer last year – hasn't yet confirmed another Borderlands game is on the way, but Pitchford says he hasn't "done a good enough job of hiding the fact that we're working on something [...] and [he] thinks people that love Borderlands are going to be very excited".

"Oh man, I don't think I've done a good enough job of hiding the fact that we're working on something," Pitchford told TheGamer. "And I think people that love Borderlands are going to be very excited about what we're working on.

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Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford says news about the next game in the Borderlands series will come "sooner rather than later".

Gearbox – which is now a subsidiary of Take-Two after being sold by Embracer last year – hasn't yet confirmed another Borderlands game is on the way, but Pitchford says he hasn't "done a good enough job of hiding the fact that we're working on something [...] and [he] thinks people that love Borderlands are going to be very excited".

"Oh man, I don't think I've done a good enough job of hiding the fact that we're working on something," Pitchford told TheGamer. "And I think people that love Borderlands are going to be very excited about what we're working on.

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No Rest for the Wicked developer Moon Studios has released its first new content update for the early access release.

Known as The Crucible update, it brings a "whole new Crucible" (seems fitting), as well as a new fungal enemy faction known as the Gloam, a new Exalted item status, the promise of "more visceral" combat and more.

You can check out a little teaser for the update in the video below.

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In Cleanfall you essentially play a Roomba that is trying to reverse the apocalypse because the apocalypse is messy. A Roomba capable of tunnelling through miles of procedurally generated, monster-infested crust so as to reorganise the Earth's core and bring about its ultimate objective - a sparkling living room. I enjoy the militant reductiveness of this character motivation. There are sprawling underground ecosystems to discover, yes, weird plants to harvest, fractious clumps of tentacles to appraise, avoid or slaughter. But all of these things are contemptible details to be swept up and bagged and thrown in the dumpster.

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How do you like your survival games? A nice bit of wood chopping while the birds chirp? Gathering some mushrooms while you deflect a little goblin's swings? Stumbling parched through a desert as a bed of scorpions prick your ankles with deadly venom? Well, Enshrouded may provide some or none of these experiences, but what its latest update does is capture their spirit. You'll now be able to choose from several difficulty presets to dampen or spice up the game's challenge. Otherwise, there's new customisation options and some quality of life tweaks, too.

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Grimdark hack-and-slasher No Rest For The Wicked has received its first major update - or the first that isn't focused on bug fixes and performance improvements, anyway. It focuses on revamping the Crucible, the endgame's repeatable roguelite, adding more randomisation to arenas and a new system of player buffs.

Read more

In Cleanfall you essentially play a Roomba that is trying to reverse the apocalypse because the apocalypse is messy. A Roomba capable of tunnelling through miles of procedurally generated, monster-infested crust so as to reorganise the Earth's core and bring about its ultimate objective - a sparkling living room. I enjoy the militant reductiveness of this character motivation. There are sprawling underground ecosystems to discover, yes, weird plants to harvest, fractious clumps of tentacles to appraise, avoid or slaughter. But all of these things are contemptible details to be swept up and bagged and thrown in the dumpster.

Read more

How do you like your survival games? A nice bit of wood chopping while the birds chirp? Gathering some mushrooms while you deflect a little goblin's swings? Stumbling parched through a desert as a bed of scorpions prick your ankles with deadly venom? Well, Enshrouded may provide some or none of these experiences, but what its latest update does is capture their spirit. You'll now be able to choose from several difficulty presets to dampen or spice up the game's challenge. Otherwise, there's new customisation options and some quality of life tweaks, too.

Read more

Grimdark hack-and-slasher No Rest For The Wicked has received its first major update - or the first that isn't focused on bug fixes and performance improvements, anyway. It focuses on revamping the Crucible, the endgame's repeatable roguelite, adding more randomisation to arenas and a new system of player buffs.

Read more

Diablo 4's Season 5 will introduce a new wave-based rogue-lite mode.

By using an Infernal Compass – which scales in difficulty and world tier – players will be able to unlock the Infernal Hordes mode wherein they'll earn Burning Aether "to unlock powerful weapons and rewards".

Successfully slay the Hordes, and you'll be asked to take on the powerful Fell Council, which consists of three random minibosses. Successfully defeat them, and you'll be able to spend your Burning Aether on "Spoils of Hell" – Spoils of Equipment, Materials, Gold, or Greater Equipment – which guarantees an item with a Greater Affix.

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Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco has "called out" Elden Ring fans struggling with the dfficulty by suggesting they "level up your Scadutree Blessing".

In a brief message posted on social media platform X, Bandai Namco US said simply: "This is a suggestion".

"The best advice coming straight from the source," said one Tarnished.

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Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has fallen to a "mixed" user rating on Steam after players logged their disappointment with difficulty and the PC version's performance issues.

An aggregate score of almost 15,000 players has seen the critically acclaimed DLC stumble on PC, and whilst most players comment favourably on the game's stunning presentation and world building, others take issue with the capped FPS, stuttering, and "bosses with jerky roll-catch movements and a plethora of physically nonsensical moves".

"I love running for 20 minutes in an open area with absolutely nothing to pick up random consumables that I'll never use against bosses that are insanely tedious to fight. Very miserable experience," said one unhappy Tarnished.

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Elden Ring pros are helping players beat two key bosses to enable fellow Tarnished access to its recently-released DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree.

As Shadow of the Erdtree isn't accessible until you've taken out both Starscourge Radahn and Mohg, Lord of Blood – something a surprisingly high number of Elden Ring players have yet to do – Elden Ring experts are offering their time and expertise to fell the great enemies and help players jump into the new content.

As spotted by TheGamer, the r/BeyondTheFog subreddit – a community dedicated to "online multiplayer in the Elden Ring game" where you can "request help with a boss or area or offer help with bosses and areas" – is full of friendly Tarnished offering to lend a helping hand across PC, PS5, and Xbox.

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Nintendo is keeping tight-lipped on what studio is developing Mario & Luigi: Brothership.

When asked by journalist Stephen Totilo who was leading the development of the resurrected action RPG series, Nintendo wouldn't confirm who was involved, even though the original studio behind the series, AlphaDream, closed down in 2019.

It did, however, concede that "some of the original developers" were involved.

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Update Sunday 23rd June, 2024: FromSoftware has responded to CD Projekt Red's congratulatory tweet, saying it is "truly an honour" for the Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree to be "placed alongside" The Witcher 3's Blood & Wine, long considered one of the greatest DLCs ever made.

In a response to CDPR's original X post, FromSoft said: "It is truly an honour to be placed alongside Blood and Wine, one of the all time greats.

"We are humbed by your kind words. Thank you."

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Chaos and comedy. Death and rebirth. Luck and, uh, running out of luck. A good roguelike doesn't treat the player like other games do. Roguelikes won't guide you helpfully along a path, or let you cinematically snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They're more likely to dangle you deep between the jaws of defeat and fumble the rope until you go sliding down defeat's hungry gullet. This is their beauty, and it's a part of why we keep coming back for another go. Next time everything will go right. Next time you'll find the right pair of poison-proof loafers, the perfect co-pilot for your spaceship, a stash of stronger, better ropes. Next time.

Here's our list of the 19 best roguelikes on PC you can play in 2024.

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Excuse me, sorry, pardon me, can I just, thank you, ah, sorry, thanks... Phew, made it. Steam Next Fest is pretty crowded, eh? As if the unholy swarm of trailers and game announcements from Summer Game Fest was not enough, this week the fearful megalords at Valve decided to drop their regular cavalcade of coming-soons onto their megastore. The beautiful (and terrifying) thing about Next Fest, of course, is the overwhelming number of demos that come out during the event. A small herd of video games are standing on my toes as we speak. But that's okay, we are expert curators. Here's a handy list of our nine favourite demos of the lot.

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Chaos and comedy. Death and rebirth. Luck and, uh, running out of luck. A good roguelike doesn't treat the player like other games do. Roguelikes won't guide you helpfully along a path, or let you cinematically snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They're more likely to dangle you deep between the jaws of defeat and fumble the rope until you go sliding down defeat's hungry gullet. This is their beauty, and it's a part of why we keep coming back for another go. Next time everything will go right. Next time you'll find the right pair of poison-proof loafers, the perfect co-pilot for your spaceship, a stash of stronger, better ropes. Next time.

Here's our list of the 19 best roguelikes on PC you can play in 2024.

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Excuse me, sorry, pardon me, can I just, thank you, ah, sorry, thanks... Phew, made it. Steam Next Fest is pretty crowded, eh? As if the unholy swarm of trailers and game announcements from Summer Game Fest was not enough, this week the fearful megalords at Valve decided to drop their regular cavalcade of coming-soons onto their megastore. The beautiful (and terrifying) thing about Next Fest, of course, is the overwhelming number of demos that come out during the event. A small herd of video games are standing on my toes as we speak. But that's okay, we are expert curators. Here's a handy list of our nine favourite demos of the lot.

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Sonar Shock is a reminder that some of the best game concepts or settings seem so obvious as soon as you play them.

System Shock on an unreasonably huge submarine on an equally ludicrous trip around the Northeast Passage via Cape Agulhas? With a satirical Soviet setting that isn't just "lol russia" or "I think Stalker was about machismo and gun attachments"? And a third thing that I'll get to in a minute because this intro is getting out of control? God yes.

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This week we finally got our raging bear gauntlets on Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree, an even dingier and danker edition of 2022's best and dankest open worlder, but perhaps you'd rather play a Soulslike with a Florentine flounce and the warmth of a Mediterranean sunset on its brow. A brighter, stagier variety of action-role-playing, which deepens the connection between Italian folklore and Soulsliking established by last year's Lies Of P. Well then: cast aside those ursine mitts, slip on a pair of immaculate white theatre gloves and get your thumbs into Enotria: The Last Song, which has a demo on Steam.

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I should be further in than this. My supposed rebellion has thus far eked out a territory that could be described as "where?". My personal reputation is great only among people who love mushrooms and hate deer. It's been long enough that I should probably be a fierce warlord running a large chunk of the kingdom in opposition by now, but instead, I have the skillset of fifty peasants, and the outstanding work of fifty three. And I know why. Bellwright has taught me what I already knew in theory, but had not truly appreciated:

Good managers are rare and precious. And I'm not one of them.

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FromSoft has dropped a new tease about the "fearsome foes of unfathomable power" that await us when Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree drops next month.

The image – which is about as hard to describe as the creature will inevitably be to beat – shows a muscular being with horned, uh, tendril things, a cracked golden mask for a face, and long grey hair flowing out of its right eye socket.

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Assassin's Creed Shadows pre-orders are "looking very strong".

That's according to notable – and often accurate – leaker Tom Henderson, who claims that "no one in the know [at Ubisoft] is disappointed" with the number of pre-orders the highly-anticipated action-RPG has secured so far.

"Assassin's Creed Shadows pre-orders are looking very strong," Henderson said in his full, if brief, statement on Twitter/X. "I don't have the exact numbers yet, but no one in the know is disappointed with them."

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You might remember Enotria: The Last Song as the Italian-inspired Soulslike that shifted its release date from June to August to avoid Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree... but found itself nestled next to Black Myth: Wukong. Well, scratch that August release, as now it's been shifted back to September instead! But hey, there's a demo coming out real soon that'll hopefully give us a better sense of what the game's like. I imagine it'll involve a lot of fighting spindly monsters, dying, and resurrecting at whatever object they've decided will be the equivalent of Dark Souls' bonfires. Likely something Leonardo da Vinci made or drew or invented. That man's stats were specced high.

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I have a couple of takes on Nico Papalia's new RPG Athenian Rhapsody, which launched on Steam yesterday and still has a demo. The first is that it's a brighter, glitzier version of Toby Fox's Undertale that looks like it belongs on Gameboy Advance - a retro parody created in GameMaker whose turn-based combat houses many an inventive minigame, and whose writing doesn't so much break the fourth wall as moonwalk along the parapet, showering the player in poop, anime tropes and off-colour mental health advice.

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Moon Studios has outlined the changes coming to the first patch for its early access dark fantasy action RPG, No Rest for the Wicked.

"This patch brings significant CPU and GPU performance improvements (especially when it comes to traversal and “heavy” areas), keyboard control remapping, a new mouse/keyboard control scheme, increased inventory stacks, chest inventory access at vendors / crafting, bows using stamina, earlier housing access, Quality of Life and 45+ bug fixes," the team explained in the patch notes, saying the patch "celebrates" the game's two-week anniversary.

Given the long, long list of performance improvements and optimisations, Moon Studios has now revised its recommended PC specs for the RPG, the updated version of which is available below:

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Moon Studios has outlined the changes coming to the first patch for its early access dark fantasy action RPG, No Rest for the Wicked.

"This patch brings significant CPU and GPU performance improvements (especially when it comes to traversal and “heavy” areas), keyboard control remapping, a new mouse/keyboard control scheme, increased inventory stacks, chest inventory access at vendors / crafting, bows using stamina, earlier housing access, Quality of Life and 45+ bug fixes," the team explained in the patch notes, saying the patch "celebrates" the game's two-week anniversary.

Given the long, long list of performance improvements and optimisations, Moon Studios has now revised its recommended PC specs for the RPG, the updated version of which is available below:

Read more

Moon Studios has outlined the changes coming to the first patch for its early access dark fantasy action RPG, No Rest for the Wicked.

"This patch brings significant CPU and GPU performance improvements (especially when it comes to traversal and “heavy” areas), keyboard control remapping, a new mouse/keyboard control scheme, increased inventory stacks, chest inventory access at vendors / crafting, bows using stamina, earlier housing access, Quality of Life and 45+ bug fixes," the team explained in the patch notes, saying the patch "celebrates" the game's two-week anniversary.

Given the long, long list of performance improvements and optimisations, Moon Studios has now revised its recommended PC specs for the RPG, the updated version of which is available below:

Read more

A bunch of us at RPS have been blattering our way through the underworld of Hades 2, which came out in early access yesterday. Naturally, our favourite gods and goddesses are emerging from our evenings of hacking and/or slashing. For me, Nemesis provides a lot of chuckles. Not because she's bright and jokey (she is frownier than a wet bulldog). But because she's determined to put the player in their place and to beat you at your own roguelike. Narratively, she fulfills a role similar to Meg in the first Hades, that of closest frenemy. But in gameplay terms, Nemesis won't stoop to something as trite as a boss battle. Oh no. She's out to mess with your build.

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After a bit of a bumpy landing on PC, it looks like No Rest for the Wicked is finally finding its feet. The early access action-RPG launched with notable performance problems that developers Moon Studios promised they’d address, starting with several hotfixes over the last few weeks that managed to claw back some frames. The game’s first big patch goes a step further, seemingly boosting the game’s performance to a degree that its minimum and recommended hardware specs have been lowered as a result.

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If you’re holding out hope for another Ori and the Blind Forest sequel after Will of the Wisps, bad news: it’s probably going to be a while. Developers Moon Studios have said they’re all-in on Soulslike action-RPG No Rest for the Wicked, suggesting that their “magnum opus” will be their focus for up to a decade.

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Tucked away in the corner of this year's Day Of The Devs at GDC I discovered a lavish, strangely unattended action-RPG, in which austerely beautiful young women in elaborate skirts kick the bejazus out of each other on fields of whirling flowers. That game was Aikode, the work of Spanish solo developer Ace.

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Fallout fever continues to grip the world, with Fallout 4, New Vegas, and Fallout 76 all seeing a resurgence in popularity, and the latter breaking its own concurrent user record on Steam years after it first released.

As noted in SteamDB, the 2018 action RPG – which debuted on Steam in 2020 – has hit 66,045 simultaneous players on Steam, the most concurrent users the game has ever had.

Before this weekend – and, arguably, before the arrival of Amazon's hit Fallout TV show – the RPG had boasted a concurrent record of around 40,000 players, and that doesn't even account for the thousands of players who have likely jumped on on Xbox, as the Fallout series is available to Xbox Game Pass subscribers for no extra cost.

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No Rest for the Wicked's first early access hotfix has been rolled out, and a second patch is "already in progress".

As Victoria summarised for us yesterday, the Diablo-like game from Ori and the Blind Forest developer Moon Studios released to mixed reviews on Steam, but already the team is on the case in a bid to address "balance, durability, stamina, loot, stability, and immediate Quality of Life".

In a lengthy update on the game's social media accounts, the team said: "Thank you again to all of you for making our Early Access launch so amazing. Today's hotfix is the first of many upcoming patches and updates to improve No Rest for the Wicked on the road to our 1.0 release.

Read more

No Rest For the Wicked launched in early access yesterday, but has unfortunately hit a few bumps on its debut.

The Diablo-like game from Ori and the Blind Forest developer Moon Studios currently holds a mixed review average on Steam, with the top comment stating that while there are definitely the bones of a good release here, its developer "still needs to cook".

"I want to like this, but the performance is just not in a good enough place for me to recommend it right now," one player wrote, while another adds: "Wait till further development/release if you have any self control."

Read more

No Rest for the Wicked is out now on early access, giving us our first glimpse at Moon Studios' latest project. The developer's prior offering - Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and The Will of the Wisps - turned the Metroidvania style of game on its head, offering a powerful, fresh experience that is difficult to forget. And now, four years later, Moon looks set to do the same for action RPGs with No Rest for the Wicked. Simply put, No Rest for the Wicked couples a stunning visual design with elements inspired by From Software's Souls titles, Blizzard's Diablo and even Animal Crossing - and yet the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

At its core, Wicked remains a game rooted in the Unity Engine but with a vast range of customisations transforming it into its own thing, hence the nickname - Moonity. This, however, is used only for the game's presentation layer - the graphics you see on-screen. Moon has also built a new simulation engine - built on top of Exit Games' Quantum Engine - to handle game logic, including a fully deterministic 3D physics system for networking, which No Rest for the Wicked will feature at a later date.

What makes this setup work well is the division between rendering and simulation - basically, input responsiveness is separate from frame-rate so, if you're playing on a lower end platform, like a Steam Deck, at 30fps, the game will still feel as responsive as a game running at a higher frame-rate. The visuals, however, are striking. First and foremost, Wicked supports HDR on day one - this is important as we have largely considered Ori and the Will of the Wisps to stand out as one of the best examples of HDR in any game released to date. The HDR implementation is superb and just as intense and engaging as Ori. It makes a gigantic difference if you use an HDR display.

Read more

If you're a person of exceptional taste, you'll already known developer The Gentlebros' adorable quick-fire action-RPG series Cat Quest is a bit of a winner, so you'll likely be chuffed to hear the next instalment - Pirates of the Purribean - will be arriving for PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and Steam on 8th August. Oh, and a demo's out for Switch today.

Cat Quest 3: Pirates of the Purribean casts players as a swashbuckling "purrivateer", sending them on an open-world adventure across the game's titular archipelago in search of the long-lost Northern Star treasure. It's a journey, spanning both land and sea, that'll necessitate battle against the fearsome Pirate King and his hordes of Pi-rats, with The Gentlebros promising varied dungeons and biomes to investigate as events unfold.

Pirates of the Purribean doesn't, admittedly, look like a radical departure from previous games, but the series' breezy, super-streamlined action-RPG adventuring - which mixes real-time combat, dungeon crawling, and equipment progression in a wonderfully accessible package - was already a treat, so more is always welcome.

Read more

No Rest for the Wicked's first early access hotfix has been rolled out, and a second patch is "already in progress".

As Victoria summarised for us yesterday, the Diablo-like game from Ori and the Blind Forest developer Moon Studios released to mixed reviews on Steam, but already the team is on the case in a bid to address "balance, durability, stamina, loot, stability, and immediate Quality of Life".

In a lengthy update on the game's social media accounts, the team said: "Thank you again to all of you for making our Early Access launch so amazing. Today's hotfix is the first of many upcoming patches and updates to improve No Rest for the Wicked on the road to our 1.0 release.

Read more

No Rest For the Wicked launched in early access yesterday, but has unfortunately hit a few bumps on its debut.

The Diablo-like game from Ori and the Blind Forest developer Moon Studios currently holds a mixed review average on Steam, with the top comment stating that while there are definitely the bones of a good release here, its developer "still needs to cook".

"I want to like this, but the performance is just not in a good enough place for me to recommend it right now," one player wrote, while another adds: "Wait till further development/release if you have any self control."

Read more

No Rest for the Wicked is out now on early access, giving us our first glimpse at Moon Studios' latest project. The developer's prior offering - Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and The Will of the Wisps - turned the Metroidvania style of game on its head, offering a powerful, fresh experience that is difficult to forget. And now, four years later, Moon looks set to do the same for action RPGs with No Rest for the Wicked. Simply put, No Rest for the Wicked couples a stunning visual design with elements inspired by From Software's Souls titles, Blizzard's Diablo and even Animal Crossing - and yet the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

At its core, Wicked remains a game rooted in the Unity Engine but with a vast range of customisations transforming it into its own thing, hence the nickname - Moonity. This, however, is used only for the game's presentation layer - the graphics you see on-screen. Moon has also built a new simulation engine - built on top of Exit Games' Quantum Engine - to handle game logic, including a fully deterministic 3D physics system for networking, which No Rest for the Wicked will feature at a later date.

What makes this setup work well is the division between rendering and simulation - basically, input responsiveness is separate from frame-rate so, if you're playing on a lower end platform, like a Steam Deck, at 30fps, the game will still feel as responsive as a game running at a higher frame-rate. The visuals, however, are striking. First and foremost, Wicked supports HDR on day one - this is important as we have largely considered Ori and the Will of the Wisps to stand out as one of the best examples of HDR in any game released to date. The HDR implementation is superb and just as intense and engaging as Ori. It makes a gigantic difference if you use an HDR display.

Read more

If you're a person of exceptional taste, you'll already known developer The Gentlebros' adorable quick-fire action-RPG series Cat Quest is a bit of a winner, so you'll likely be chuffed to hear the next instalment - Pirates of the Purribean - will be arriving for PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and Steam on 8th August. Oh, and a demo's out for Switch today.

Cat Quest 3: Pirates of the Purribean casts players as a swashbuckling "purrivateer", sending them on an open-world adventure across the game's titular archipelago in search of the long-lost Northern Star treasure. It's a journey, spanning both land and sea, that'll necessitate battle against the fearsome Pirate King and his hordes of Pi-rats, with The Gentlebros promising varied dungeons and biomes to investigate as events unfold.

Pirates of the Purribean doesn't, admittedly, look like a radical departure from previous games, but the series' breezy, super-streamlined action-RPG adventuring - which mixes real-time combat, dungeon crawling, and equipment progression in a wonderfully accessible package - was already a treat, so more is always welcome.

Read more

No rest for No Rest For The Wicked's developers, it seems. The punishing action-RPG launched in Steam Early Access last week with performance issues, among other issues, and Moon Studios have now deployed their first hotfix.

Read more