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Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.
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Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.
Hollywood’s action genre owes a massive debt to John Woo. The Face/Off and The Killer director had his breakthrough with 1986’s A Better Tomorrow, whose stylized gun-fu sensibilities subverted expectations associated with Hong Kong’s martial arts-saturated action scene back then. Stylized gunfights and operatic choreography soon became a part of Woo’s signature artistry, along with the effective use of slow-motion and multiple angles to convey a sense of urgency. In 1992, this specific genre of action filmmaking (termed “heroic bloodshed”) led to Woo’s critically-acclaimed Hard Boiled, featuring an iconic buddy-cop routine with a no-nonsense detective and a morally ambiguous undercover agent.
Code Vein 2 is just a few short weeks away now, and to celebrate, Bandai Namco has dropped an all-new teaser trailer entitled "The Blinded Resurgence Offspring".
Polish developer Rebel Wolves has unveiled the main musical theme for its promising dark fantasy role-playing The Blood of Dawnwalker, and surprise surprise, it sounds a lot like The Witcher 3.
43.8 million player votes later, the winners of the 2025 Steam Awards have been announced, with Hollow Knight: Silksong securing top prize, Game of the Year.
It's been another strange, difficult, and yet somehow also brilliant year for video games in 2025. Triple-A releases have been sparse again, compared to the boom times of old, with a great big GTA 6-shaped hole left in the final few months of the year. And yet once again, every gap left by the established order has been filled twice over with something brilliantly new.
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Chinese action game Phantom Blade Zero has amassed over a million wishlists in the two weeks since its September 2026 release date was confirmed.
The high-fantasy strategy of Total War: THREE KINGDOMS and the sci-fi extraction of Wildgate have officially rotated out as of today, January 8. In their place, Epic has launched today Bloons TD 6 as the free title available to claim until January 15 at 11:00 AM ET. Following this window, the store will shift into a stealth-focused week by giving away Styx: Master of Shadows from January 15 through January 22. While the giveaway is the most resourceful way to build your library, those who prefer other platforms can find Bloons TD 6 on the Steam Store for $13.99. For a significantly cheaper alternative, G2A (affiliate link) currently lists global keys for roughly $2.45, which is a 76% discount compared to official retail.
Bloons TD 6 is far more complex than its bright art style suggests. It is a massive tower defense title featuring 24 distinct “Monkey Towers,” each with three separate upgrade paths and unique 5th-tier abilities. The game also introduces powerful “Heroes” that level up automatically during a match, providing specialized buffs or massive screen-clearing attacks. Since its release, the developer has added a steady stream of content including weekly Boss Events, four-player co-op, and “Paragon” towers that fuse multiple tier-5 upgrades into a single ultimate unit. It is a resourceful pickup for anyone looking for a strategy loop that supports both quick ten-minute sessions and long-term completionist goals across nearly 90 different maps.
Starting next Thursday, January 15, the mood shifts significantly with the arrival of Styx: Master of Shadows. This is a dedicated stealth-RPG where you play as a two-century-old goblin navigating a massive, vertically-designed fortress. Unlike many modern “stealth” games that allow you to fight your way out of a mistake, Styx disincentivizes direct combat, forcing you to rely on cloning yourself for diversions, using invisibility, and manipulating the environment to stay alive. If you want to jump in early or grab it on Valve’s platform, Styx: Master of Shadows is priced at $19.99 on Steam. However, you can find keys on G2A (affiliate link) for approximately $2.60, representing a 92% discount for those who miss the upcoming free period.
You have exactly seven days to claim Bloons TD 6 before it is replaced by the Styx giveaway. Both of these titles represent a solid start to the year for gamers who value mechanical variety over raw graphical power. While Bloons provides a social, co-op experience for up to four people, Styx offers a challenging, single-player dive into traditional stealth mechanics. Make sure to hit the “Get” button on Epic before the refresh next Thursday to ensure these remain in your library permanently, or use the Steam and G2A links to secure them for your preferred secondary launcher at record-low prices.
The post Strategy and Stealth: Epic Rotates to ‘Bloons TD 6’ and Teases ‘Styx’ appeared first on Game Reviews, News, Videos & More for Every Gamer – PC, PlayStation, Xbox in 2026.
The Epic Games holiday marathon continues, and if you were expecting another flashy, neon-soaked adventure like yesterday, think again. Today, December 20, Epic is taking us into the dirt, the dark, and the downright cursed with stealth FPS Blood West.
This is the fourth game in the lineup, and it further cements the fact that the “mainstream blockbuster” leaks were way off the mark. Instead, we’re getting a gritty, low-poly masterpiece that feels like a lost artifact from the late 90s.
Imagine if the original Thief games had a baby with S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and then that baby was raised in a haunted version of the Wild West.
You play as an undead gunslinger—literally brought back from the dead by mysterious spirits—to “clean up” the frontier. But this isn’t a power fantasy. In the Barren Lands, everything wants you back in the grave, and usually, it only takes a couple of hits to put you there.
Don’t let the “retro” graphics fool you. The low-poly, pixelated look is a deliberate choice that makes the lighting and shadows feel much more oppressive. It’s “boomer shooter” tech used to create a survival horror experience that feels massive, with three huge open-ended maps to explore.
Blood West (usually $24.99) is free on the Epic Games Store right now. You have until December 21 at 11:00 AM ET to add it to your library.
If you’re tired of modern games holding your hand with quest markers and regenerating health, this is the challenge you’ve been looking for. Just remember: in these lands, ammo is more precious than gold.
The post Survival of the Deadest: Why Today’s Freebie ‘Blood West’ is a Must-Grab on Epic appeared first on Game Reviews, News, Videos & More for Every Gamer – PC, PlayStation, Xbox in 2026.
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Crabs and Rats is a wall-jumping arcade game against chaotic enemies that will devour you if you don’t avoid the bottom of the screen. I played the game at BCN Game Fest...
The post ‘Crabs and Rats’ – Precise Jumping Away from Deadly Critters appeared first on Indie Games Plus.
HIGH Charming. Nostalgic aesthetic, fresh mechanics.
LOW Rookie mistakes. Uninspired combat, stale boss fights.
WTF Did they really need to make that dude’s butt jiggle sound like that?
When I first saw the email from Tastie Games with “bossavania” in the subject line, I cocked my head in puzzlement and was curious to know what that meant exactly, so I took a look.
The press release included stills, accolades and a brief description of the new genre, stating “It combines the strategic, puzzle-like boss fights of games like Punch-Out!! with the freedom and exploration of a metroidvania.”
While there aren’t quite enough novel ideas to say that it truly did establish a new genre, the devs clearly put a lot of love into it, and I enjoyed many aspects of their work.
The premise is centered around a girl who belongs to an underground-dwelling society and must endure a rite of passage which involves collecting medals from four area captains. Along the way she’ll encounter a plethora of curious life forms in different biomes and a colorful cast of idiosyncratic NPCs with authentic humor.
Tonally, it seems cheery, but underneath the charming retro aesthetics and upbeat chiptune soundtrack lies a darker social commentary regarding the reason why her people are living underground — they don’t have much of a choice, if there ever was a choice, and this situation is explained by unearthing intriguing lore nuggets that help fill in the blanks.
Gameplay-wise, I found Mole Maiden to be engaging thanks to tight controls and a novel approach to platforming. While some abilities and powerups will be familiar to platforming fans, its drilling mechanic is the most unique, as it allows the player to reach new areas by digging, flying around and leaving bombs in their wake.
There’s a bit of a learning curve to controlling it effectively, but once the player gets the hang of it, drilling through a section of sand or rock and then launching into another is a blast, especially as the level design becomes more elaborate and offers more opportunities to reach a previously-inaccessible upgrade or rare item.
I also liked how the devs tied this drilling to health — attacking hostile NPCs loads the player’s drill with fuel, which they can then use to replenish their life. However, while this reward mechanic worked for me, Mole Maiden‘s combat, as a whole, lost its charm quickly.
While it’s possible there were some abilities or powerups I hadn’t yet unlocked, most of my time in combat amounted to little more than dodging and mashing the attack button — and for a self-proclaimed “bossavania,” the bosses of Mole Maiden feel gimmicky and ultimately underwhelming.
During my first boss fight, I was frustrated by the sluggish pace as I exchanged blows with the enormous butt-jiggling King B. who I defeated simply by getting behind him and wailing on his rear end over and over until he had a tantrum, and then I would get out of the away until he was finished — wash, rinse and repeat.
Maybe I’ve played too many soulslikes, but I found the movesets of every boss or miniboss that I faced so predictable and easy to telegraph that I barely felt any satisfaction when I won and progressed to the next area.
I was also disappointed to find that the devs structured things so that there was a linear order to what bosses and areas needed to be cleared before advancing — although that’s essentially consistent with traditional metroidvanias, games like Hollow Knight have shaken up the formula in that they adopted a more open approach so that there are multiple avenues to acquiring different powerups needed to advance.
Finally, there were a few glitches that weren’t gamebreaking, but did feel a bit amateurish. The most glaring oversight that I came across early on was the “thank you for playing” message from the developer which appeared mid-boss fight and caused me to die.
I assume it exists because a demo version would let the player try for a certain amount of time before it triggered the message, but I was playing the full version of the game. Or maybe they kept it in intentionally? Either way, they shot themselves in the foot, as a message shouldn’t pop up and cause the player to be defeated because their view is obstructed.
Other glitches were fairly commonplace, like various camera issues, and there was one recurring miniboss who would sometimes start sliding across the screen and get stuck attacking into a corner, making it cake for me to beat him.
Some glitches were just plain weird, like the occasional sound effect that would sometimes linger following a defeat. Most memorably, it happened with the first boss whose squishy butt-jiggling sound effect persisted even after the screen faded to black.
Maybe after the devs squash the bugs and make a few other changes I’ll want to come back and dig some more, but in its current state, Mole Maiden doesn’t feel like it’s quite ready to surface.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Buy Mole Maiden – PC
Disclosures: This game was developed and published by Tastie Games LLC. The game is currently available on PC. It was obtained via publisher and reviewed for PC. Approximately 3.5 hours were devoted to the campaign mode. The game was not finished. There is no multiplayer functionality.
Parents: This game is not rated by the ESRB but has only cartoon violence and crude language, so the equivalent of a “T” may be appropriate.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game features text-based dialogue with some audio in Japanese or gibberish dialogue to give it flavor, but doesn’t have any audio cues that impact the gameplay in any significant way. As such, this game is fully accessible.
Remappable controls: The controls cannot be remapped.
The post Mole Maiden Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.
Developer: The Game Kitchen Publisher: Dotemu Release: 07/31/25 Genre: Action Also on: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch Ninja Gaiden was long overdue for a comeback. After a spectacular revival in the early 2000s the...
The post Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound appeared first on Classic-Games.net.
