Deck building and dungeon crawling mashup Loop Hero has sold 500,000 copies in its first week, developers Four Quarters have announced. Along with celebrating that success, they've revealed some of their plans to boost the loop with additional features. They're planning some quality of life changes to start with, and bigger changes like new classes down the line.
Quick, think of a roguelikelike deck-building game! Go! You're thinking of some dungeon-crawler, right? Most of 'em are, really. So I'm quite pleased by Luck Be A Landlord, a roguelikelike deck-builder which puts familiar ideas into a simpler form: a slot machine. If you've ever felt like you lost a roguelikelike run because of bad luck with rolls, boiling the genre down a fruit machine makes perfect sense. It's in early access now, and pretty fun.
Matthew and I have been rewatching old episodes of the US Office recently (it is such great comfort TV, lemme tell ya), and the other week we got to the episode in season three where Jim is introduced to the wonderful world of Call Of Duty lunchtimes with his new colleagues in Stamford. Having clearly never played a video game in his life, Jim is very much out of his depth when the lights go down and everyone dons their favourite headset, and he's repeatedly berated by his exasperated co-workers about letting the side down.
I empathise a lot with Jim during these episodes, because I have definitely been 'that person' on the office lunch squad who just isn't as good at Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (and Bad Company 2 Vietnam) as everyone else. Our games never got quite as heated and competitive as the ones in The Office, but their average lifespan would always follow a similar pattern. We'd all get into it and play it for a few weeks, one person would go away and research the meta game in their spare time to dominate the rest of us, and then no one would want to play against that person and we'd move on to something else. We had some good times as well, though, and to this day one of my fondest video game memories is finally winning a game of what we affectionately referred to as 'HOLD THE LINE' in Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance.
At the start of Call Of Duty: Warzone Season Two, a big tanker filled with zombies clattered into the side of Verdansk. And there I was, excited to see how they'd spread across the map and cause unimaginable chaos. With the latest update, they have simply abandoned the Shipwreck and shuffled into the Prison. Oh, how...dull.
You could live the life of a squillionaire by banging on about NFTs and posting bad memes, but you might find it less loathsome to quietly try establishing your own Martian colony with a free copy of Surviving Mars from the Epic Games Store. The colony-building management game was free on Epic way back in 2019 but if you missed it then, hey, here it is again. It's still a good game, and free is still a good price.
Valheim, which is Old Norse for "Valerie is home", came out in early access last month to the roars of Viking-likers everywhere. It is a survival game about building a hut in the woods and then protecting that hut from friends who want to erect a gaudy temple next door, totally ruining the rustic ambience of the whole glade. I guess there's some monsters to fight too. But will any of this matter if you do not make it through cold nights full of dangers, and lean days without food? Just where does your Valheim viking fall on the bar chart of survivability? Here are the 8 toughest Vikings in PC games, a healthy exercise in comparison and shame.
I’m desperate for Food Chain to take off. Described on its Steam page as ‘Full Physics Massive Multiplayer’ and developed by the same guy who made Paunch, Food Chain is a battle royale with a wild twist.
The year is 2026. There are only two game genres left: "Stardew Valley but gritty", and "Stardew Valley but anime". Kitaria Fables is the latter. It's also> "Stardew Valley but cats", but look into their eyes. These are anime cats.
It's also Stardew Valley but Diablo>? Stop asking questions and just watch the trailer.
Metro 2033 was a diamond in the rough upon its release back in 2010. Set in the subway beneath a post-apocalyptic Moscow, it was atmospheric, bleak, and buggy. Now it's free to keep, if you grab it before 10am PT/6pm GMT on March 15th.
I feel like there are a lot of Quake-like retro first-person shooters now, and I feel like every single one of them has a name like Rune Rampage or Demonic Burn or Shotgun Hell. Dread Templar is the latest to enter the crowded niche - and dang if its shotgun and throwable katana don't make me want to burst some demons.