When I was younger, I was always convinced that the first Tomb Raider game got a sort of remake on the Game Boy Color. It makes a lot of sense in my mind, since the title of the game was Tomb Raider. And in the same time period, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine also got a port to the Game Boy Color. That game was an interesting remake in 2D. Now, we are not here to discuss an Indiana Jones game, so let us focus on the Tomb Raider games.

I do not always do research before I start playing a game. This game is one perfect example. I just started the game up, expecting the story starting with a rendition of the Ice Caves. But, to my surprise, the game started up different. 

The actual subtitle of the game is The Nightmare Stone. On the box-art, we just got Tomb Raider as a title. On the box-art, we see that Lara is running away from an erupting volcano and behind her, you see several skeleton enemies. The bottom section is reserved for company logo’s like Eidos, Core Dynamics, the licensor Nintendo, and the publisher THQ. We also got the “Only on Game Boy Color” triangle in the left corner.

The game was released in June 2000. On June 7th, North America, Europe got it on June 28th and the UK two days later. Only Australia got the game a little bit later. Their version got released on July 18th. Nowhere on the box-art, the game got the subtitle The Nightmare Stone. The game just released as “Tomb Raider” in North America and released as “Tomb Raider: starring Lara Croft” in all other regions. This is a practice also done with the other Tomb Raider games. It would have been easier if they just added the subtitle, to make conversation easier.

The critics gave Lara Croft is first entry on the Game Boy Color very high praise. Various gaming magazines and websites gave this title 8 or 9 out of ten. The average score of this title is 79% on the aggregator GameRankings. One of the lowest scores I could find was by a German magazine named 64 Power in their June issue, giving it a three out of 5 or 60%.

Since Core Design developed this game, it will not be a surprise that you find a lot of developers on this game also worked on the main Tomb Raider games. This game was developed by people who knew how a Tomb Raider game should play. In this title, Lara is hunting after the Nightmare Stone. This stone is in possession of a treasure hunting group who wants to use it to release the evil god Quaxet, a factious god in the Mayan mythology.

Playing through this game, you really want to play through a Tomb Raider game. Of course, there are some big differences since the game got released on a handheld. The most obvious difference is that the game is in 2D. There were only a handful of 3D Game Boy games, and most of them did not involve jumping. 

Another significant difference with the main line Tomb Raider games is that this game plays a lot slower. The controls are more limited on the Game Boy Color, and more action-packed gameplay could not really be implemented, per se without it becoming really clunky. 

Speaking about the controls, it takes some time to get used to. I mostly played platformers or adventure games on the Game Boy, and I was so used to push the A button to make my character jump. But Lara jumps with the up arrow in this game. Not only that, if you want to climb up ledges, you need to hold B. Which is the button you use to run. If you are moving left or right and press B, Lara starts running. When Lara is running, and you press the jump button, Lara jumps in the direction she is running. This gives you a hint how to jump a gap when standing still. You have to press B first before the jump button to jump over a gap.

This control scheme is quite ambitious since there is no real tutorial in game explaining the controls. You do not have a training or testing level in Lara’s home. The manual explains these things quite well, but if you bought your copy today from a garage sale without the manual, I would advise you to look for it online. The control scheme is something that you will not really expect from a Game Boy game. 

Earlier, I mentioned that this game has a slower pace compared to the main line Tomb Raider games. That was intentional. If you start running everywhere, you will find that this game will be quite harsh and brutal. There are several pits and gaps that either eat a good chunk of your health or kills you right away. Enemies are also hidden everywhere, and their damage can be unforgiving. 

You cannot save where you want in this game, since the save crystals from early Tomb Raider console games return in this game. Learning where the save crystals are important. It is the only way you can save, and it is you respawn spot when Lara losses all her health. The save crystals are not close to each other, either, so I was always happy to find one. 

If you do not really know the controls, it can feel a bit like trial and error. For example, I did not know that when you are running and jump, Lara will land further than from a standing jump. I did not expect this mechanic to be in the Game Boy Color games as well. Other things like dynamite being able to use to explode walls, which is something I’d have loved to get explained to me.

Overall, visually, this game is extremely impressive. Once everything starts clicking together, and you get used to the controls, this game is a hidden gem on the Game Boy Color. When you know what you are doing, this game takes around 4 hours to play through. For a first playthrough, I would say that you can finish this game in roughly 15 hours. 

The game must have been quite successful since a year later we got a new adventure in the same engine and style. Eidos tried to get this game released around the time the first Tomb Raider movie released. Tomb Raider – Curse of the Sword, released in late June in North America and in August in Europe. 

This time, the game was not released by THQ, but by Activision. Most of the team who worked on the first Game Boy game also worked on this title. Because this game got a shorter development time, this game is shorter compared to the first Game Boy Color game. If you know what you are doing, this game can be beaten in two and a half hours. For a first playthrough, I estimate that it will take 8 to 10 hours. 

The sequel got the same reception from critics when it released. This game still shows off impressive visuals for the Game Boy Color. Remember that the Game Boy Color is an 8-bit system, and these two Tomb Raider games had such fluid animations that it looked next-generation. Did you know that there are over two thousand animation frames per game to make the animation work? Lara’s model is also forty-eight pixels, making her one of the most detailed characters on the Game Boy Color. 

Personally, I feel like both games are amazing entries into the Tomb Raider series. While they play quite different from their console and PC counterparts, both are an amazing adventure through various locations. You still must solve various puzzles and platform your way around. In Curse of the Sword, you even have a chase sequence on the rooftops. 

When I look with a critical eye at these two games in 2024, I would say that the lack of a tutorial for the controls really hurts the game. Also, some people might be put off from the difficulty level of this game. These games have some really difficult sections. Use the save crystals well! Otherwise, you might lose a lot of progress. And if I am really nitpicky, I could say that some areas would benefit from a map screen. But the levels are a bit too complex for those and with the small Game Boy Color screen, the map might not be even readable. Thankfully, there are various sources online, like Stella’s Tomb Raider site (tombraiders.net) that have amazingly drawn maps. 

When you read this, you might think that beating these games without a walkthrough is almost impossible. But do not worry. These games are quite linear and straight forward. I rarely got stuck in these games by not knowing what to do next. Most of the time, I did not know I was able to perform a certain action or how to solve a certain puzzle. 

The streak of releasing a new game every year continues in November 2002. The Game Boy Color was on its way out, and the next title was released on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. For this title, Ubisoft Milan was tasked with creating a new game. That is because the main team was working on the sixth main title, Angel of Darkness. Tomb Raider – The Prophecy was released to mixed reviews. It released in early December in Japan.

This game played quite different compared to the Game Boy Color titles and played more as a top-down isometric puzzle platformer. If I am very honest, this is the gameplay style I expected more of the Tomb Raider series on the Game Boy. It is mainly because I associate Tomb Raider more as a top-down game on handhelds than it being a 2D side view game. The Game Boy Color version of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine showed me it was possible to have a game like that on Game Boy Color. 

The story of this title is about the Tome of Ezekiel. In this tome, a story is told about three magical stones that bring great power. She faces a big cult by the name of Teg-du-Bhorez. The game takes about 6 hours to complete on a first playthrough. If you really know what you are doing, this game can be beaten in 2 hours and a half. 

Honestly, for a portable Tomb Raider adventure, I really enjoyed this one. It is a rather underrated gem in my opinion and really can be quite exciting to play. Especially since the formula really works this way on the Game Boy Advance. The big issue is that reviewers compared it too much to the mainline series, which is quite unfair to do. What I can agree with, is that this game can feel a bit repetitive at times in terms of puzzles and level mechanics. But it is way less repetitive compared to the Game Boy Color titles, since a lot more puzzle solving like statue placing is used. 

The final Tomb Raider title on the Game Boy line of platforms came in 2006. After the very mixed reception to Angel of Darkness, the IP was given to Crystal Dynamics and Tomb Raider Legend was born. Talking about that, can be an entire article in itself. But, to close off this article, I want to quickly focus on Tomb Raider Legend on the Game Boy Advance. I know there is a port to the Nintendo DS, but I do not have any nostalgic memories for that one. I do have nostalgic memories for the Game Boy Advance port.

Now, let me tell you, the Game Boy Advance port was rough. The game went back to the style in like the Game Boy Color games. Yet, it also tried to do intractable doors. I can totally understand why reviewers back in the day were extremely negative about this game. Especially, since the console and PC versions of this game were such a blast of fresh air in the series. 

Still, why did I beat this title 100% three times? Because, it had a certain charm. You could find various secrets in the game to unlock secrets like concept art or even cheat codes. But you were not able to see if you got all treasures in a level. The jumping and swinging controls were a bit awkward, yet you had very forgiving checkpoints. 

There are a few things that stick with me to this day, the fact that the final boss is rendered a joke in this version. Just mash the attack button and you easily win. No matter the difficulty. Also, the mini-games and exploring Lara’s home were fun distractions as well. Moreover, I want to thank all the pizza boys who delivered me pizza during the writing of this article, like in the credits of this game.

And with that, I want to wrap up this brief nostalgic look into the 4 Tomb Raider titles on the Game Boy Color and Advance. My name is NekoJonez and if you enjoyed my writing and want to read more of my work, you can find me over at: https://arpegi.wordpress.com. I want to thank you all for reading my article, and I hope you enjoy the work of the other writers in this magazine. But for now, I am out! I hope to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care!

Editorial note: This article has been written for a gaming magazine. Did you find this article interesting? Then you should read the other articles right here. Thank you so much Dominus for letting me publish an article. There are various articles about Ultimate Underworld Retrospective – Sin God – The Making of the Wipeout logo design – …

This is a News-in-brief article, our short format linking to an official source for more information. Read more about this story by following the link below:

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Silent Hill: The Short Message – a two-hour free-to-play first-person horror shadow-dropped by Konami earlier this year – has been downloaded over three million times.

Konami marked the occasion on social media, inviting players yet to meet Anita to "please give it a try".

"In an abandoned apartment building where strange phenomena occur one after another, can you escape from the grotesque creatures?" the publisher teased (machine-translation provided by Google Translate).

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Activision and Microsoft have reportedly approved the creation of a new "smaller" team within Blizzard Entertainment - mostly comprised of employees from Activision's mobile-focused King division - to develop new "AA" games based on existing Blizzard properties.

That's according to Windows Central's Jez Corden, whose sources say the new initiative reflects an eagerness at Microsoft to "explore and experiment" with smaller teams within the larger organisation, in response to the "monstrously ballooning costs" of AAA game development.

Corden notes Microsoft has seen success with the likes of Sea of Thieves and Grounded, both built by comparatively small teams - and, of course, 2023's Hi-Fi Rush, created by a small team within Tango Gameworks, was heralded as a "break out hit" by Microsoft after its release.

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Activision and Microsoft have reportedly approved the creation of a new "smaller" team within Blizzard Entertainment - mostly comprised of employees from Activision's mobile-focused King division - to develop new "AA" games based on existing Blizzard properties.

That's according to Windows Central's Jez Corden, whose sources say the new initiative reflects an eagerness at Microsoft to "explore and experiment" with smaller teams within the larger organisation, in response to the "monstrously ballooning costs" of AAA game development.

Corden notes Microsoft has seen success with the likes of Sea of Thieves and Grounded, both built by comparatively small teams - and, of course, 2023's Hi-Fi Rush, created by a small team within Tango Gameworks, was heralded as a "break out hit" by Microsoft after its release.

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Hororová adventura pro jednoho hráče od společnosti Supermassive se odehrává ve světě Dead by Daylight a bude k dispozici pro PC a konzole současné generace.

Společnost Behaviour Interactive oznámila datum vydání hororové adventury pro jednoho hráče The Casting of Frank Stone, která se odehrává ve světě Dead by Daylight a kterou vyvíjí studio Supermassive Games (Until Dawn a The Dark Pictures).

The Casting of Frank Stone vyjde 3. září. Film se odehrává v 80. letech minulého století a bude vyprávět příběh skupiny dospívajících kamarádů, kteří se vydají do ocelárny v Oregonu, která je známá jako místo hrůzných zločinů z minulosti, v naději, že zde natočí dokumentární film s názvem „Murder Mill“.

Stejně jako předchozí hororové adventury od studia Supermassive, které mohou fanoušci tohoto studia znát, se hra bude do značné míry točit kolem mechaniky volby a důsledků, přičemž činy a rozhodnutí hráče ovlivní, jak se bude příběh vyvíjet a které postavy budou žít nebo zemřou. Níže se podívejte na trailer.

Předobjednávky na titul byly spuštěny, přičemž cena standardní edice je 39,99 dolarů, vedle edice Deluxe, která se prodává za 49,99 dolarů. Ta bude kromě několika herních bonusů, kosmetických doplňků a dalších věcí obsahovat také funkci The Cutting Room Floor, která hráčům umožní vracet se ke klíčovým bodům hry a činit různá rozhodnutí, měnit osudy postav a nacházet skryté sběratelské předměty.

Po svém zářijovém vydání bude hra The Casting of Frank Stone k dispozici na PS5, Xboxu řady X/S a PC.

Článek The Casting of Frank Stone bude uveden na trh 3. září se nejdříve objevil na GAME PRESS.

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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Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Perfect Dark are heading to Nintendo Switch Online, as part of the Expansion pack's new "mature" games app.

Nintendo made the announcement during this afternoon's Direct broadcast. Both N64 shooters are available from today. In addition, Perfect Dark will arrive with online multiplayer, so who is ready for a round or two later?

As well as these mature games, Nintendo Switch Online users will be able to get their hands on GameBoy Advance's Metroid: Zero Mission and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Four Swords. You can see a little taste for what's in store via the video below.

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We are officially in summer, with the summer solstice having passed just yesterday.  Happy Midsommar to all who celebrate.  May your sacrifices protect you and bring a bountiful harvest once more.

I was a bit surprised that the Steam Summer Sale did not kick off yesterday.  Steam has a pretty solid track record of landing summer and winter sales on the first day of each season.  But this year it won’t start until the 27th. [Addendum: Though if I had looked back to 2023, I would have seen it didn’t start until the 29th, so just another issue in my brain.]

So no post about that today, as I had sort of planned.  Instead, some things are launching or announcing dates for launch.  Time for a pass through that I guess!

• Tarisland Launches

Tarisland goes live today, doesn’t it?  Technically it is going live world-wide and will have launched everywhere on the list by the time this post gets published.  At 11am eastern time it was supposed to go live here in North America, the last of its launch regions after Asia, Europe, and South America.

Now here and Free to Play

Derided repeatedly as a WoW-clone in a world where it is tough to be an MMORPG without that comparison, it is available on PC, Android, and iOS as a free to play title.

I have said several times that I wanted to give it a try, if only to see if all this WoW-clone talk had any merit.  But I have I downloaded it yet?  I have not.  Maybe it will strike my fancy this weekend.

Anyway, there is a launch announcement with details on how to join in on your platform of choice.  They have even partnered with an emulator to try and make the game playable on MacOS.  You need an M-series Mac, no Intel models need apply, and there are hoops to jump through, but you could make it happen if you were dying to play.

Finally, looking at that logo, is it Tasisland or Taris Land?

Meh, I’m not going to worry about it.

• Throne & Liberty Launch Date

Amazon Games, fresh off their good times trying to pretend New World isn’t an MMORPG, has announced the launch date for their next venture, Throne & Liberty, which promises to bring online RPG gameplay into a new era.

Throne and Liberty and totally not an MMORPG

Also it is multiplayer.  And a lot of people will be able to play together.  I mean, they literally use the word “massive” later on in the text to describe the PvP and PvPvE experience.  It is almost like it is… I don’t know, another MMORPG?

Amazon, why won’t you say that?  They have literally banished the term from their web site.  They make zero MMORPGs if you believe what they say.

Anyway, a title that I nearly put on the “won’t ship in 2024” list for my new year’s predictions… seriously, it was on there, then I realized I had one too many for the point count, so I removed it, will in fact ship in 2024, landing on September 17th.

So I dodged that bullet.  That and the whole refusal by Amazon to use the term “MMORPG” are the key takeaways from this bullet point.

• Valheim Board Game

Valheim has apparently hit the level of success where somebody felt they needed to make a board game out of the experience.

Please Odin… now in physical form

This will be a crowdfunding campaign and run by another company, which is probably good because Iron Gate has like three devs and they still have a biome to finish some time this decade.   The campaign will be run on Game Found, an off-brand Kickstarter clone for board games which you can find here.

There is a teaser video, but I am not going to bother to embed it because it is 17 seconds and tells you less than I’ve already written.  If you are interested you’ll have to go sign up at Game Found to get alerts as to when the campaign will go live… as they haven’t bothered to tell us yet.

• EVE Online Paragon Store for SKINs

The next stage of the Equinox expansion hit yesterday, which included the launch of the Paragon store in game, which allows you to take those rather pricey SKINs you can make with the new SKINR utility and list them on the market.

Want to buy a lime green Harpy SKIN?

And, of course, it is a mess.  The store front is there and you can do some sorting, but as an online shopping experience it rates ahead of the Pokemon Go in-game cosmetic store, but only just barely, and Niantic at least has the poor excuse of having to work within phone sized devices.

Anyway, you can find it in game… not easily, but you’ll get there if you persist… and read the CCP optimistic take on it here.  Or you can go over to r/eve and see what players think.  It isn’t pretty.

• EVE Vanguard Solstice

CCP’s decades spanning desire to make a successful first person shooter game despite all the signs indicating it is a bad idea carries on with a new round of EVE Vanguard testing which starts… wait, it started yesterday, didn’t it?  Yes.

The Solstice is here… which means it will just get darker from now on

The play test… because it is still in alpha so all two dozen fans will get angry and remind you of this should you criticize any aspect of it… features a second map, weapon SKINs, and… um… well, there is still just one gun, but you can now change its stats with chip sets you can find in game.

The play test runs to July 1st, so there is plenty of time to join in.  You’ll need to download it in the EVE Online launcher because CCP is determined to handcuff this potential corpse to its one viable game.  And, of course, they are offering SKINs to people who join in… which feels kind of odd now that they have blown up the SKIN market with SKINR, but whatever.  That is the bribe they have to offer.

You can read more about it here.

• Hearthstone Perils in Paradise

Finally, over at Blizzard they are cranking out yet another Hearthstone expansion.  It isn’t exactly a “month with a vowel in it” level of phenomena, but they do seem to get two or three out every year.

Maybe the WoW team could learn something from them.

Or maybe not, as Hearthstone goes where it pleases with the lore, with the new expansion being called Perils in Paradise, featuring a lot of perhaps unlikely Azeroth activities on the splash screen.

Perils in paradise

Anyway, among the features of the expansion are tourist cards that act as a conduit to bring in cards unrelated to your class in order to spice up your deck.  Blizz is also introducing catch-up packs, which I think was mentioned back at BlizzCon where I made some joke about ketchup packs… wait, here is the joke… was it worth it?

How this helps you with deck building I don’t know…

Anyway, those are here now.  The whole thing launches on July 23rd and you can read more about it here.

That is what I’ve got for Friday.  Did I miss anything?

Akční RPG Where Winds Meet od studia Everstone a NetEase Games, které bylo oznámeno v roce 2022, se dostalo do hledáčku několika hráčů a po nedávném představení na prezentaci State of Play společnosti Sony je pravděpodobné, že se na něj zaměří ještě více očí.

Akční RPG se na nedávné prezentaci pochlubilo novým herním trailerem, který ukazuje svižné a agresivní souboje v bojových uměních, vizuálně podmanivé prostředí starověké Číny a další prvky. Mimo bojové dovednosti mohou hráči bojová umění obdařit i dalšími magickými schopnostmi, od dýchání ohně po schopnost skákat jako obří žába, a hra slibuje také rozmanité možnosti pohybu, rozsáhlý svět k prozkoumání, unikátní typy zbraní na výběr a další. Níže se podívejte na trailer.

Hra Where Winds Meet je ve vývoji pro PS5 a PC. Pro více informací o hře se určitě podívejte na náš rozhovor s jejími vývojáři.

Článek Trailer na hru Where Winds Meet představuje souboje, prostředí a další prvky se nejdříve objevil na GAME PRESS.

Back in December of last year we revealed The Casting of Frank Stone at the Game Awards, and we couldn’t have been happier with the reception.

Not only did it become one of the event’s most buzzed-about titles, but it was great to see that like so many of us here at Dead by Daylight, people were genuinely excited to dive deeper into our universe with a standalone narrative experience. Expanding the world of Dead by Daylight alongside the crew at Supermassive Games has been nothing short of a thrill. 

Fresh off its premiere at Dead by Daylight’s 8^th Anniversary Broadcast, The Casting of Frank Stone’s new Gameplay Trailer offers a chilling look at our cast of characters, setting of Cedar Hills, and the unspeakable horrors that await there.

Play Video

For four young aspiring filmmakers in the summer of 1980, the quaint town of Cedar Hills is the backdrop to their first foray into moviemaking. With their Super 8 camera in hand, they set out to make their mark on horror cinema with the shoot of Murder Mill – a soon-to-be cult classic with an insidious influence. 

Four friends looking to make their mark on horror cinema.

Unbeknownst to them, the blood-soaked history of the Cedar Hills Steel Mill is far more terrifying than any screenplay they could imagine. Was it fate that drew the budding auteurs here, or something much more ominous? When their film unearths long-forgotten secrets of the town’s infamous serial killer, Frank Stone, they’ll find themselves pulled into a web of cosmic horrors beyond comprehension.

In true Supermassive Games’ style, The Casting of Frank Stone presents players with a dark, branching narrative and countless sinister threads to pull. Every piece of dialogue you pick, every decision you make pens the script – and may be the only thing standing between life and death for this group of young friends. 

This is a story where the unexpected lurks around every bend, and the choices you make can have consequences that impact the very fabric of reality itself. 

As the story unfolds, players will face horrors beyond comprehension.

Players will have to carefully consider every action they take as they explore this cinematic nightmare. Environmental puzzles and quicktime events lie in wait to test your wits. You’ll also need a keen eye to hunt down clues that reveal the bigger picture as you guide characters through haunting locations. 

“The world of Dead by Daylight is one that’s always been filled with deep stories,” shares Dead by Daylight Sr. Creative Director, Dave Richard. “But the game itself has its limits when it comes to how we tell those stories. With The Casting of Frank Stone, we get to explore these stories through a brand-new cinematic experience based entirely on player choices.”

Crafted for all walks of horror fans – whether they have experience with Dead by Daylight or not – The Casting of Frank Stone lets players in on the ground floor of a terrifying new tale.

The Cedar Steel Mill furnace chamber, 1963.

The Cedar Steel Mill furnace chamber, 1980.

“We can dig deeper into a Killer’s origin story and let players actually be part of it, which is unlike anything we’ve ever done before,” adds Dave. “It’s all still linked to The Entity, but this narrative plays out in our world, away from the Trials of Dead by Daylight, which is very interesting to us.”

The Casting of Frank Stone comes out later this year, and until then we’ve got an exciting road to launch filled with lots of great reveals ahead. 

Stay tuned for more info in the months to come, and wishlist the game today to make sure you never miss a beat.

Back in December of last year we revealed The Casting of Frank Stone at the Game Awards, and we couldn’t have been happier with the reception.

Not only did it become one of the event’s most buzzed-about titles, but it was great to see that like so many of us here at Dead by Daylight, people were genuinely excited to dive deeper into our universe with a standalone narrative experience. Expanding the world of Dead by Daylight alongside the crew at Supermassive Games has been nothing short of a thrill. 

Fresh off its premiere at Dead by Daylight’s 8^th Anniversary Broadcast, The Casting of Frank Stone’s new Gameplay Trailer offers a chilling look at our cast of characters, setting of Cedar Hills, and the unspeakable horrors that await there.

Play Video

For four young aspiring filmmakers in the summer of 1980, the quaint town of Cedar Hills is the backdrop to their first foray into moviemaking. With their Super 8 camera in hand, they set out to make their mark on horror cinema with the shoot of Murder Mill – a soon-to-be cult classic with an insidious influence. 

Four friends looking to make their mark on horror cinema.

Unbeknownst to them, the blood-soaked history of the Cedar Hills Steel Mill is far more terrifying than any screenplay they could imagine. Was it fate that drew the budding auteurs here, or something much more ominous? When their film unearths long-forgotten secrets of the town’s infamous serial killer, Frank Stone, they’ll find themselves pulled into a web of cosmic horrors beyond comprehension.

In true Supermassive Games’ style, The Casting of Frank Stone presents players with a dark, branching narrative and countless sinister threads to pull. Every piece of dialogue you pick, every decision you make pens the script – and may be the only thing standing between life and death for this group of young friends. 

This is a story where the unexpected lurks around every bend, and the choices you make can have consequences that impact the very fabric of reality itself. 

As the story unfolds, players will face horrors beyond comprehension.

Players will have to carefully consider every action they take as they explore this cinematic nightmare. Environmental puzzles and quicktime events lie in wait to test your wits. You’ll also need a keen eye to hunt down clues that reveal the bigger picture as you guide characters through haunting locations. 

“The world of Dead by Daylight is one that’s always been filled with deep stories,” shares Dead by Daylight Sr. Creative Director, Dave Richard. “But the game itself has its limits when it comes to how we tell those stories. With The Casting of Frank Stone, we get to explore these stories through a brand-new cinematic experience based entirely on player choices.”

Crafted for all walks of horror fans – whether they have experience with Dead by Daylight or not – The Casting of Frank Stone lets players in on the ground floor of a terrifying new tale.

The Cedar Steel Mill furnace chamber, 1963.

The Cedar Steel Mill furnace chamber, 1980.

“We can dig deeper into a Killer’s origin story and let players actually be part of it, which is unlike anything we’ve ever done before,” adds Dave. “It’s all still linked to The Entity, but this narrative plays out in our world, away from the Trials of Dead by Daylight, which is very interesting to us.”

The Casting of Frank Stone comes out later this year, and until then we’ve got an exciting road to launch filled with lots of great reveals ahead. 

Stay tuned for more info in the months to come, and wishlist the game today to make sure you never miss a beat.

V Rising was finally released in full this week, and so many players have jumped into the open-world survival game, it's breached 100,000 concurrent players for the first time since it released as an early access two years ago.

Developer Stunlock Studios marked the milestone on social media with a "Thank you!" and a simple graphic that confirmed there were "100,000 vampires in-game".

So far, the 1.0 edition is sitting on a "very positive" Steam rating, with almost 4000 recent reviews bolstering the early access release's similarly positive score.

Read more

V Rising was finally released in full this week, and so many players have jumped into the open-world survival game, it's breached 100,000 concurrent players for the first time since it released as an early access two years ago.

Developer Stunlock Studios marked the milestone on social media with a "Thank you!" and a simple graphic that confirmed there were "100,000 vampires in-game".

So far, the 1.0 edition is sitting on a "very positive" Steam rating, with almost 4000 recent reviews bolstering the early access release's similarly positive score.

Read more

V Rising was finally released in full this week, and so many players have jumped into the open-world survival game, it's breached 100,000 concurrent players for the first time since it released as an early access two years ago.

Developer Stunlock Studios marked the milestone on social media with a "Thank you!" and a simple graphic that confirmed there were "100,000 vampires in-game".

So far, the 1.0 edition is sitting on a "very positive" Steam rating, with almost 4000 recent reviews bolstering the early access release's similarly positive score.

Read more

Ačkoliv jsem fanda spíše dvoustopých vozidel, tak recenzování motorkářské hry odmítnu jen zřídka. Ať už se jedná o silniční motorky, crossky, simulátory či arkádovější závody, tak je pod titulem často opakuje stejný vývojář, a tím jsou italští Milestone. Ti i letos vydávají další díl série Moto GP, se kterou jsem měl v minulých letech několik problémů. Vydali se vývojáři konečně správným směrem?

Recenzovaná verze: PlayStation 5

U sérií, které plodí rok co rok nové pokračování je často omílána stejná otázka. Vyplatí se kupovat nový díl, když vlastním ten předchozí? Nebudu vás zde vodit za nos a rovnou vám prozradím, že nový ročník MotoGP je pro mě velkým zklamáním a v následujících řádcích se vám pokusím osvětlit všechny hlavní faktory, ze kterých mi vyplývá, že se nový díl příliš mnoho hráčů nezaslouží.

Během testování MotoGP 24 jsem nonstop nechápavě kroutil hlavou a podivoval se nad tím, jak jiné nejen tuzemské weby mohou této sérii s klidným srdcem udělovat vysoké známky. Mně už trpělivost došla. V jádru přitom proti studiu Milestone nic nemám a jejich sérii Ride považují za zářný příklad toho, jak se to má dělat. Proč ale vývojáři nedokáží podobnou péči poskytnout i další ze svých sérií?

MotoGP 24 obsahuje velmi malé množství herního obsahu. Kromě těch nejzákladnějších režimů jako Grand Prix, Championship a Time Trial tu najdeme jen a pouze režim kariéry a LiveGP, což jsou závody online. Není zde žádný dodatečný obsah jako tomu bylo u mnohých předchozích dílů. Žádné historické momenty legendárních představitelů motorsportu, ani nic tomu podobného. Kariéra a online, toť vše. V tomto směru tak novinka nabízí hráčům méně obsahu, než tomu bylo v minulosti. Vývojáři ale před vydáním lákali na určité novinky, tak se na ně pojďme podívat.

Jako dvě hlavní novinky studio představilo tzv. Riders Transfer Market. Tato „revoluční“ myšlenka a objev, že jezdci mohou mezi týmy přestupovat je něčím, co například konkurenční Codemasters znají už dlouhá léta. Během režimu kariéry budete dostávat nabídky od týmů v různých výkonnostních třídách. Tento algoritmus má jistý vliv i na vaše jmenovité rivaly a obsah vašich sociálních sítích, což je další aspekt hry, o kterém asi tušíte co si myslím.

Druhou novinkou, na kterou jsou v Milestone možná až moc pyšní, je Adaptivní obtížnost. Podle slov vývojářů je toto nastavení skvělou volbou pro začátečníky i experty. Hra má v ideálním případě sledovat vaše počínání na trati a fluidně tak přenastavit skill vašich soupeřů. Studio uklidňuje hráče, že tato funkce nebude fungovat jako kouzelná gumička, kvůli které se vám nepovede vaše soupeře nikdy setřást. S pozitivními výhledy jsem tuto funkci samozřejmě vyzkoušel hned v prvním závodě. Ten jsem vyhrál o celých 90 sekund a soupeři se mi nezdáli příliš „adaptivní“. Ještě větší překvapení mě ale čekalo v závodě následujícím, kdy byla obtížnost náhle neskutečně přepálená a já se ostatních závodníků sotva držel. Bohužel, já jsem přišel závodit a užívat si hru, ne čekat až si hra zkalibruje obtížnost. Po třetím závodě jsem tuto funkci v Menu vypnul a sám si nastavil obtížnost podle toho, jakou výzvu od hry očekávám.

Abych jen nenadával, tak zmíním i některé další novinky, které mě naopak potěšili. Fanoušci série MotoGP se mohou těšit na upravené UI, které odpovídá letošním televizním přenosům. Dočkali jsme se také nové pódiové cutscény či lepšího nasvícení tratí pro noční závody. Novinky to vskutku jsou, ale o jejich důležitosti moc polemizovat nebudu.

Rád bych se totiž dočkal jiných změn, tedy spíše oprav. Umělá inteligence je v této závodní sérii dlouholetý problém a nápravy jsme se nedočkali ani letos. Začínám si ovšem myslet, že to není jen o AI, ale o samotném přístupu vývojářů, kteří prostě nechtějí změnit ani ty do očí bijící hlouposti a nesmysly, které neuniknou nikomu, kdo viděl motorky alespoň v televizi. Nebudu zde zmiňovat mechaniky slavící svého vítěze na boxové zídce. Po všech těch letech jsem se již smířil, že tohoto detailu, jenž je k vidění snad ve všech závodních kategoriích se od italského studia nedočkám. Na mysli mám spíše algoritmy, systémy a chování soupeřů, které přímo ovlivňují hratelnost. Zmínit mohu jeden zcela klasický příklad, který je tu s námi taktéž již několik sezón a nezbavili jsme se ani tento rok. V režimu kariéry jezdíte před závody kvalifikace. Když jedete své rychlé kolo, tak vás podle pravidel nesmí nikdo brzdit či jinak na trati omezovat. Ať už jedete kvaldu na jakékoliv trati, tak se můžete spolehnout, že při nájezdu do rychlého kola vám přímo před vás hra naservíruje dva až tři závodníky, kteří nějaké modré vlajky a další pravidla vůbec neřeší. Vskutku, stává se to na každé trati. Pravý opak této situace pak lze najít v online režimu. Nejednou se mi stalo, že při brzdění do zatáčky to do mě zezadu napálilo nějaké torpédo. V některých jiných titulech hra tuto situaci rozpozná a vás tzv. ghostne a zezadu se blížící ničema prostě proletí skrze vás. V MotoGP 24 vás v lepším případě jen sestřelí a oba se vybouráte. V tom horším to hra vyhodnotí jako VAŠÍ CHYBU a vy dostanete trest za Inpeeding. A to je silné kafe.

Stále se opakující režim kariéry mě přestal bavit již před lety a není tak na místě, abych se do něj obouval za zcela nedostatečné inovace. Zábavu nacházím v online režimech, které jsou i v letošním ročníku prostě luxusní. Kromě toho, že se hra může pyšnit dedikovanými servery bych rád zmínil režim Stewards, kde pozorujete chování ostatních jezdců z pozice ředitele závodu a rozdáváte upozornění a penalizace.

Zatímco novinek a herní náplně MotoGP 24 moc nenabízí, tak ji lze pochválit za něco zcela jiného. A tím je hromada háblátek a posouvátek, které najdete v Nastavení. Hru si můžete uzpůsobit zcela podle vašich představ a možností. Užít si závody tak může zkušený jezdec i vaše malé dítko. Pro tyto případy lze využít i režim rozdělené obrazovky, který v kategorii závodních her stále není standardem.

Dalším aspektem hry, který je potřeba si rozebrat je grafické zpracování. Vývojáři letošní díl postavili na osvědčeném Unreal Enginu od Epic Games a hra vypadá velmi k světu, tedy dokud se nezačnete pídit po detailech. Samotné závody jsou opravdu slast pro oči a pokud pominu místy zvláštní nasvícení, tak hře nelze nic vytknout. Okruhy, motorky i kombinézy jsou vymodelovány přesně podle svých předloh a to platí i o ozvučení mašin ve všech dostupných kategoriích. Co je ale neméně veselé jsou videa před závody, obličeje jezdců a animace vedlejších postav. Na ty se nesáhlo již několik dílů a zub času je zde doslova masivní. A přitom by stačilo tak málo.

MotoGP 24 je pro mě opět velkým zklamáním. Zcela nedostatečný počet fungujících a smysluplných novinek je hlavním záporným argumentem v debatě o tom, zda se vyplatí nový díl kupovat. Obě hlavní novinky, na kterých studio letos staví, jsou buď nezajímavé nebo nedoladěné a hra tak stojí i padá na pevném jádru online režimů, jenž svou funkci plní na výbornou. Sérii očividně škodí nucené každoroční vydávání, jenž z logiky věci ani nedává prostor vývojářům pro výraznější změny. To ovšem neomlouvá logické nedodělky a dlouholeté bolístky, na které neupozorňuji jen já, ale i valná část komunity. 

Článek RECENZE: MotoGP 24 – Závody v začarovaném kruhu se nejdříve objevil na GAME PRESS.

For more than 50 years, Deep Space Station 43 has been an invaluable tool for space probes as they explore our solar system and push into the beyond. The DSS-43 radio antenna, located at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, near Canberra, Australia, keeps open the line of communication between humans and probes during NASA missions.

Today more than 40 percent of all data retrieved by celestial explorers, including Voyagers, New Horizons, and the Mars Curiosity rover, comes through DSS-43.

“As Australia’s largest antenna, DSS-43 has provided two-way communication with dozens of robotic spacecraft,” IEEE President-Elect Kathleen Kramer said during a ceremony where the antenna was recognized as an IEEE Milestone. It has supported missions, Kramer noted, “from the Apollo program and NASA’s Mars exploration rovers such as Spirit and Opportunity to the Voyagers’ grand tour of the solar system.

“In fact,” she said, “it is the only antenna remaining on Earth capable of communicating with Voyager 2.”

Why NASA needed DSS-43

Maintaining two-way contact with spacecraft hurtling billions of kilometers away across the solar system is no mean feat. Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., knew that communication with distant space probes would require a dish antenna with unprecedented accuracy. In 1964 they built DSS-42—DSS-43’s predecessor—to support NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft as it performed the first-ever successful flyby of Mars in July 1965. The antenna had a 26-meter-diameter dish. Along with two other antennas at JPL and in Spain, DSS-42 obtained the first close-up images of Mars. DSS-42 was retired in 2000.

NASA engineers predicted that to carry out missions beyond Mars, the space agency needed more sensitive antennas. So in 1969 they began work on DSS-43, which has a 64-meter-diameter dish.

DSS-43 was brought online in December 1972—just in time to receive video and audio transmissions sent by Apollo 17 from the surface of the moon. It had greater reach and sensitivity than DSS-42 even after 42’s dish was upgraded in the early 1980s.

The gap between the two antennas’ capabilities widened in 1987, when DSS-43 was equipped with a 70-meter dish in anticipation of Voyager 2’s 1989 encounter with the planet Neptune.

DSS-43 has been indispensable in maintaining contact with the deep-space probe ever since.

The dish’s size isn’t its only remarkable feature. The dish’s manufacturer took great pains to ensure that its surface had no bumps or rough spots. The smoother the dish surface, the better it is at focusing incident waves onto the signal detector so there’s a higher signal-to-noise ratio.

DSS-43 boasts a pointing accuracy of 0.005 degrees (18 arc seconds)—which is important for ensuring that it is pointed directly at the receiver on a distant spacecraft. Voyager 2 broadcasts using a 23-watt radio. But by the time the signals traverse the multibillion-kilometer distance from the heliopause to Earth, their power has faded to a level 20 billion times weaker than what is needed to run a digital watch. Capturing every bit of the incident signals is crucial to gathering useful information from the transmissions.

The antenna has a transmitter capable of 400 kilowatts, with a beam width of 0.0038 degrees. Without the 1987 upgrade, signals sent from DSS-43 to a spacecraft venturing outside the solar system likely never would reach their target.

NASA’s Deep Space Network

The Canberra Deep Space Complex, where DSS-43 resides, is one of three such tracking stations operated by JPL. The other two are DSS-11 at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, Calif., and DSS-63 at the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Robledo de Chavela, Spain. Together, the facilities make up the Deep Space Network, which is the most sensitive scientific telecommunications system on the planet, according to NASA. At any given time, the network is tracking dozens of spacecraft carrying out scientific missions. The three facilities are spaced about 120 degrees longitude apart. The strategic placement ensures that as the Earth rotates, at least one of the antennas has a line of sight to an object being tracked, at least for those close to the plane of the solar system.

But DSS-43 is the only member of the trio that can maintain contact with Voyager 2. Ever since its flyby of Neptune’s moon Triton in 1989, Voyager 2 has been on a trajectory below the plane of the planets, so that it no longer has a line of sight with any radio antennas in the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere.

To ensure that DSS-43 can still place the longest of long-distance calls, the antenna underwent a round of updates in 2020. A new X-band cone was installed. DSS-43 transmits radio signals in the X (8 to 12 gigahertz) and S (2 to 4 GHz) bands; it can receive signals in the X, S, L (1 to 2 GHz), and K (12 to 40 GHz) bands. The dish’s pointing accuracy also was tested and recertified.

Once the updates were completed, test commands were sent to Voyager 2. After about 37 hours, DSS-43 received a response from the space probe confirming it had received the call, and it executed the test commands with no issues.

DSS-43 is still relaying signals between Earth and Voyager 2, which passed the heliopause in 2018 and is now some 20 billion km from Earth.

[From left] IEEE Region 10 director Lance Fung, Kevin Furguson, IEEE President-Elect Kathleen Kramer, and Ambarish Natu, past chair of the IEEE Australian Capital Territory Section at the IEEE Milestone dedication ceremony held at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex in Australia. Furguson is the director of the complex.Ambarish Natu

Other important missions

DSS-43 has played a vital role in missions closer to Earth as well, including NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission. When the space agency sent Curiosity, a golf cart–size rover, to explore the Gale crater and Mount Sharp on Mars in 2011, DSS-43 tracked Curiosity as it made its nail-biting seven-minute descent into Mars’s atmosphere. It took roughly 20 minutes for radio signals to traverse the 320-million km distance between Mars and Earth, and then DSS-43 delivered the good news: The rover had landed safely and was operational.

“NASA plans to send future generations of astronauts from the Moon to Mars, and DSS-43 will play an important role as part of NASA’s Deep Space Network,” says Ambarish Natu, an IEEE senior member who is a past chair of the IEEE Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Section.

DSS-43 was honored with an IEEE Milestone in March during a ceremony held at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex.

“This is the second IEEE Milestone recognition given in Australia, and the first for ACT,” Lance Fung, IEEE Region 10 director, said during the ceremony. A plaque recognizing the technology is now displayed at the complex. It reads:

First operational in 1972 and later upgraded in 1987, Deep Space Station 43 (DSS-43) is a steerable parabolic antenna that supported the Apollo 17 lunar mission, Viking Mars landers, Pioneer and Mariner planetary probes, and Voyager’s encounters with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Planning for many robotic and human missions to explore the solar system and beyond has included DSS-43 for critical communications and tracking in NASA’s Deep Space Network.

Administered by the IEEE History Center and supported by donors, the Milestone program recognizes outstanding technical developments around the world. The IEEE Australian Capital Territory Section sponsored the nomination.

In the world of strategy and management game Goblin Stone, the goblins are nearly extinct. Getting murdered in large numbers by adventurers hungry for a quick experience point and a slack handful of coin will do that. I cannot tell you that you will want to bestow protection and prosperity on these gribbly green niblets. They exhibit a tweeness that you’ll either find charming or despicably manipulative, even when they’re showering in the blood of their enemies. Should you want to, though, Goblin Stone offers you the chance to rescue these maligned misfits from the brink of extinction, rebuilding their kingdom and leading them on outings to take the fight to all those heroes that have spotlight-hogged the left side of your screens for far too long.

Read more

What are the best card games on PC? It is not a question we would have been asking a few years ago, when some basic ports of paper-based systems and some minigames in larger titles were all we had access to.

Now, there are heaps of games like Hearthstone vying to be among the best card games on PC - it is one of the fastest-growing genres in the industry. Card games offer players a rich and constantly shifting meta, potentially limitless replayability, and are approachable to boot - so it is not hard to see why they have started to emerge on our best PC games list. Our list covers everything from the biggest player in the genre today, the best ports from paper, the up-and-comers you might not have heard of, and some of the best free card games out there.

I pretty much spent all of February ignoring WoW, Blizzard, or anything related.  The call of Valheim and the need for a break was strong I guess.  I suppose it is time to take a minute to catch up with a new month on hand.  And hey, it is Friday, so bullet points look like the path forward.

• Season of Discovery Season 2 and XP Boosts

WoW Classic: Season of Discovery hit phase 2 early in February, so that is hardly news I suppose, except to acknowlegde that it happened and that I haven’t logged in since before that occured.  I had done the WoW Classic zones already a few times, and for anybody who was neither raiding nor interested in PvP, Season of Discorvery doesn’t have much new to offer.  The idea of “Classic Plus” was always a fantasy.

The Gnomeregan raid was the headline of phase 2

Well, Blizz has apparently at least realized that making everybody grind through vanilla yet again… they’re on a mission to make us do this once a year I guess… so will be introducing the Discoverer’s Delight buff, which brings a 100% xp boost for level 1-39 characters.

They have also decided to cut the price of level 40 mounts in half and to increase the coin reward for all level 1-39 quests, because while penury was all fun and laughs back in 2004, asking us to scrimp and save to just buy our basic class skills yet again is turning into a non-starter for some.

That will all land next Tuesday next week, March 5th, which is also “Super Tuesday” (of “Stupid Tuesday” as it may turn out) here in the US.

The team did say they won’t change the price of epic mounts, but I am not convinced they will stick with that.  Grind for that fast mount just on a server that will go away soon enough?

Blizz is also going to adjust a bunch of raid related things, because raiders are always the main concern of the company.  There is also some discussion of level 60, end game, and what happens to these characters with all the special skills and runes when Blizz ends the season.  My bet is that they will managed to make people angry somehow when they shut down the Season of Discovery servers.

Read all about it here.

• Diablo IV on XBox PC Game Pass

Microsoft… and I should probably just stop using “Blizzard” or “Activision” now, it is all the Microsoft show, layoffs and all… has announced the first formerly Blizzard title to show up on the Microsoft XBox PC Game Pass:  Diablo IV.

Diablo IV

Coming March 28th, you will be able to play Diablo IV by just subscribing to the XBox PC Game Pass, which last I checked was $10 a month, though rumor has it that price will be going up before the end of the year.

Announcement here.

• Prime Gaming WoW Tabard Give Away

Blizz has another WoW item available on Prime Gaming, the tabard of frost.

The promo shot for the tabard

While a tabard is kind of small potatoes, it still looks better than what you can make with the guild tabard generator, a bit of the game still stuck in 2004.  Also, only available for retail WoW.

Find out how to claim the tabard of frost here.

• Harder WoW Classic Hardcore

Is WoW Classic Hardcore not challenging enough?  Want to prove you’re even tougher than the run of the mill no-lifers who made it to level 60?  WoW Classic Hardcore introduced “self found” mode so you can prove you’re a step above the average hardcore survivor.

Hardcore for all your… something… needs

Self found mode restricts your character from using the auction house, recieving in-game mail, or trading with other players so that you can prove the purity of your efforts.

If you decide you have made a horrible mistake in choosing that mode, you can turn it off.  But once turned off, it can never be restored.

Read all about it here.

• The War Within Hero Talents Preview

I feel like I should be interested in what Blizz has going on when it comes to the next retail expansion… though I also feel like I shouldn’t care since I haven’t played since early Shadowlands… so I did poke my nose into the early look at the hero talent trees for The War Within.  So, for example, Paladins will have hero talents that work between spec pairs it seems.

This is one piece of a giant chart, let me assure you

And, at some level, “hero talents” sounds pretty cool.

But then the history of the game starts to weigh on me.  Specs and talents get thrown in the air and redone with EVERY expansion.  Nothing ever builds on the past, everything is a complete rug pull, changing up what you’ve grown used to in order to try and be fresh and new.  Also, anything with “hero” in the name is doomed to be nerfed it is as all useful.  The history of the game demands it.

Still, they have something in play.

More on that available, including large and complicated charts, here.

• Hearthstone Anniversary Rewards for WoW

Remember when Hearthstone came out… oh… ten years ago!  Yeah, back then for launch to get WoW players to try it out, they gave away the Hearthsteed.  I will admit, that was enough to bribe me to try it out.

Well, now that Hearthstone is turning ten, they are doing it again, this time offering the Fiery Hearthsteed mount to WoW players who log in between March 11 and May 14 2024.

Hearthsteed, hearthsteed, burning bright…

This reward, like the frost tabard above, is only available to be redeemed in retail WoW.  Classic players can suck it… which makes me wonder if I should bother.  Oh, who am I kidding, I do Twitch drops for games I’ll never play again, I can log into Hearthstone for this.

For all the detail about that and the Hearthstone anniversary click this link.

So it goes, here on the first day of March.  Spring is in the offing, at least here in the US, but so is Daylight Savings Time, so your mileage may vary.

I pretty much spent all of February ignoring WoW, Blizzard, or anything related.  The call of Valheim and the need for a break was strong I guess.  I suppose it is time to take a minute to catch up with a new month on hand.  And hey, it is Friday, so bullet points look like the path forward.

• Season of Discovery Season 2 and XP Boosts

WoW Classic: Season of Discovery hit phase 2 early in February, so that is hardly news I suppose, except to acknowlegde that it happened and that I haven’t logged in since before that occured.  I had done the WoW Classic zones already a few times, and for anybody who was neither raiding nor interested in PvP, Season of Discorvery doesn’t have much new to offer.  The idea of “Classic Plus” was always a fantasy.

The Gnomeregan raid was the headline of phase 2

Well, Blizz has apparently at least realized that making everybody grind through vanilla yet again… they’re on a mission to make us do this once a year I guess… so will be introducing the Discoverer’s Delight buff, which brings a 100% xp boost for level 1-39 characters.

They have also decided to cut the price of level 40 mounts in half and to increase the coin reward for all level 1-39 quests, because while penury was all fun and laughs back in 2004, asking us to scrimp and save to just buy our basic class skills yet again is turning into a non-starter for some.

That will all land next Tuesday next week, March 5th, which is also “Super Tuesday” (of “Stupid Tuesday” as it may turn out) here in the US.

The team did say they won’t change the price of epic mounts, but I am not convinced they will stick with that.  Grind for that fast mount just on a server that will go away soon enough?

Blizz is also going to adjust a bunch of raid related things, because raiders are always the main concern of the company.  There is also some discussion of level 60, end game, and what happens to these characters with all the special skills and runes when Blizz ends the season.  My bet is that they will managed to make people angry somehow when they shut down the Season of Discovery servers.

Read all about it here.

• Diablo IV on XBox PC Game Pass

Microsoft… and I should probably just stop using “Blizzard” or “Activision” now, it is all the Microsoft show, layoffs and all… has announced the first formerly Blizzard title to show up on the Microsoft XBox PC Game Pass:  Diablo IV.

Diablo IV

Coming March 28th, you will be able to play Diablo IV by just subscribing to the XBox PC Game Pass, which last I checked was $10 a month, though rumor has it that price will be going up before the end of the year.

Announcement here.

• Prime Gaming WoW Tabard Give Away

Blizz has another WoW item available on Prime Gaming, the tabard of frost.

The promo shot for the tabard

While a tabard is kind of small potatoes, it still looks better than what you can make with the guild tabard generator, a bit of the game still stuck in 2004.  Also, only available for retail WoW.

Find out how to claim the tabard of frost here.

• Harder WoW Classic Hardcore

Is WoW Classic Hardcore not challenging enough?  Want to prove you’re even tougher than the run of the mill no-lifers who made it to level 60?  WoW Classic Hardcore introduced “self found” mode so you can prove you’re a step above the average hardcore survivor.

Hardcore for all your… something… needs

Self found mode restricts your character from using the auction house, recieving in-game mail, or trading with other players so that you can prove the purity of your efforts.

If you decide you have made a horrible mistake in choosing that mode, you can turn it off.  But once turned off, it can never be restored.

Read all about it here.

• The War Within Hero Talents Preview

I feel like I should be interested in what Blizz has going on when it comes to the next retail expansion… though I also feel like I shouldn’t care since I haven’t played since early Shadowlands… so I did poke my nose into the early look at the hero talent trees for The War Within.  So, for example, Paladins will have hero talents that work between spec pairs it seems.

This is one piece of a giant chart, let me assure you

And, at some level, “hero talents” sounds pretty cool.

But then the history of the game starts to weigh on me.  Specs and talents get thrown in the air and redone with EVERY expansion.  Nothing ever builds on the past, everything is a complete rug pull, changing up what you’ve grown used to in order to try and be fresh and new.  Also, anything with “hero” in the name is doomed to be nerfed it is as all useful.  The history of the game demands it.

Still, they have something in play.

More on that available, including large and complicated charts, here.

• Hearthstone Anniversary Rewards for WoW

Remember when Hearthstone came out… oh… ten years ago!  Yeah, back then for launch to get WoW players to try it out, they gave away the Hearthsteed.  I will admit, that was enough to bribe me to try it out.

Well, now that Hearthstone is turning ten, they are doing it again, this time offering the Fiery Hearthsteed mount to WoW players who log in between March 11 and May 14 2024.

Hearthsteed, hearthsteed, burning bright…

This reward, like the frost tabard above, is only available to be redeemed in retail WoW.  Classic players can suck it… which makes me wonder if I should bother.  Oh, who am I kidding, I do Twitch drops for games I’ll never play again, I can log into Hearthstone for this.

For all the detail about that and the Hearthstone anniversary click this link.

So it goes, here on the first day of March.  Spring is in the offing, at least here in the US, but so is Daylight Savings Time, so your mileage may vary.