Tiny grape guardian adventure Garden Story had been planning a release for an unannounced date this summer and oh look! It's today. This little community sim and combat 'em up has been in the works for a bit and has ripened enough to pick at last. A new launch day trailer shows off some more of all Concord's slashing, questing, and adventuring to conquor all the Rot invading The Grove.
Mechanical keyboards are wonderful. They will last for decades with minimal maintenance, they can be customised with new switches or keycaps, and they just feel fantastic to type on. However, they're also normally quite expensive - most of the mechanicals we feature at RPS cost $100 or more. Today though, that changes - as we highlight a Monoprice mechanical keyboard that's dropped from an MSRP of $100 to just $42.99.
Stumbling across different dimensions will always be a rich vein for video game plotlines, but rarely are they as stylish and fiendishly conceived as Thomas Happ's Axiom Verge games. The solo dev's first entry in the series was a breakout retro hit back in 2015, harking back to the 16-bit Metroid and Castlevania games of yore with its detailed pixel art and retro sensibilities. It turned heads with its dizzying array of guns and tough bosses, but it was its planet full of glitches that sealed the deal, as it felt like you weren't just playing a great Metroidvania, but you were also getting to peek behind the curtain to see what made it tick.
Axiom Verge 2, a semi-sequel that's set in the same universe as Axiom Verge 1 but can be played standalone without any knowledge of what went down beforehand, is a more sedate affair than its predecessor, but Happ's fascination with portals, overlapping worlds and seeing beyond the veil has only grown stronger in the intervening six years. What it lacks in finger-tapping firepower, it more than makes up for with clever puzzles, a more meaningful skillset, and a very, very> neat grappling hook.
The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X is one of the best CPUs for gaming, and now it's available at a historic low price. The 8-core 16-thread CPU has been discounted to $369 at Antonline's Ebay shop, significantly lower than the current Amazon price of $399 and well below the chip's MSRP of $449. Here's why this processor is worth considering, beyond the price drop.
Ever since the Steam Deck was first unveiled last month, Valve have said one of their top design goals was making sure it could play the entire Steam back catalogue, including games from the last 12 months. It's a tall order for such a dinky little device, but speaking to Steam Deck designers Greg Coomer and Lawrence Yang over Zoom last week, it's clear the team never really considered any other option. "Although we did discuss versions of the device that would be more appropriate for, say, lower-spec games, that was never really a prominent thrust of our work," Coomer tells me. "It wasn't really interesting to a lot of people who work here."
The fifth crusade looms closer as Pathfinder: Wrath Of The Righteous's September release date approaches. As the troops prepare to battle demons and the like, Owlcat Games have released a new trailer showing off the strategic Crusade Mode, some of your party companions, and the special Mythic Transformations that your hero can unlock. Become a demon yourself, perhaps, or a troublesome Trickster. It's a good bit to pore over until September 2nd.
Dodgeball Academia is a sporty RPG that's taken me totally by surprise. Where had this game been hiding? I suppose it's apt, really, that the game's smashed into my chest and made me wheeze with excitement. Developers Pocket Trap had me cornered on the dodgeball court all along, I just didn't know it.
Historical RTS Age Of Empires 2: Definitive Edition has a brand new DLC with two new civilisations for you to play as. Dawn Of The Dukes introduces the Poles, farmers and nobles with great cavalry units and blokes with giant hammers, and the Bohemians, a civilisation of gunpowder and monks with explosive medieval tanks. This is the second decent chunk of newness for the game in six months, which isn't bad for a game that's over 20 years old.
There’s no point in doing a [Craig stops to read a list of skateboard moves] feeble grind if you don’t look the part. And we all have our own definitions of what “the part” is. For example, and I’m just pulling an example out of thin air here, someone might want to skate around in a bumble bee onesie. The upcoming OlliOlli World will let you do that. The skateboarding platform game has hundreds of customisation options for the player to pick from. Go on, hive> a look at the new trailer and see.
Revealed during Square Enix's not-E3 stream back in June, Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy will be the next blockbuster Marvel game to grace our screens. It's taking a different direction from Marvel's Avengers, focusing on a single-player story where you play as Peter "Star-Lord" Quill, rather than some huge multiplayer experience (and hopefully will do better for it). It's being developed by Eidos Montreal, the folks who made Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and I had a chance to chat with them about what it's like working with Marvel, and how it felt moving from their own games to this huge superhero franchise.