Soulslikes are like, so in> right now. Truthfully I don't remember when they weren't in>, so it's nice when one comes along that has a slightly different vibe than just doom, gloom and big swords. Tails Of Iron has doom, gloom, big-ish swords and a rat kingdom that's been overthrown by frogs. Lead designer at developers Odd Bug Studio, Jack Bennett, tells me the frogs are the bad guys because "obviously frogs have this innate evil-ness to them", which is a statement and a half to say to someone who quite likes frogs.

Bennett also told me a bit about what it was like working with Doug Cockle (voice actor of Geralt in The Witcher series) who narrates this game, their plans for more stories in the Tails Of Iron world, and why he thinks the genre is so popular. But honestly, I'm a little hung up on why he thinks frogs are evil, so we'll get to all that in a bit.

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For me, Little King's Story and Dandy Dungeon dev Yoshiro Kimura is one of the great national treasures of the Japanese gaming industry. He's worked at Square Enix, Grasshopper Manufacture, and in the last few years he's set up his own independent studio Onion Games, making quirky, oddball adventures that I love very much. He may not have achieved the same kind of mega fame as your Shigeru Miyamotos, Hideo Kojimas or Tetsuya Nomuras, but his games have always managed to make me laugh and smile whenever I've played them.

Recently, he started a YouTube series on the history and theory of RPGs, and last month Onion Games started putting English subtitles on some of its earliest episodes. They're a great watch, and I'd highly recommend making some time for them over the weekend if you're a fan of the genre.

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Want to learn how to create the best build for the Traveler in Genshin Impact? The Traveler is your starting character in Genshin Impact, and they're a little different from the other playable characters in the game. For one thing, you get to choose their name and gender (though both characters will play a role regardless of which you choose; and, by default, the male Traveler is called Aether and the female Traveler is called Lumine). Secondly, their elemental relation is unaligned and can adapt during gameplay.

Despite these unique features, the Traveler has a lot in common with the rest of your character roster in that you can still customise their build with your choice of weapons, artifacts, ascension materials, talents, abilities, and constellations.

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What's better than one video game? Two video games! What's better than two video games? Two video games for the price of one video game! What's better than two video games for the price of one video game? Boost bars, but we're contractually obligated to talk about video games on this show.

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It's been a few months since we last saw any newness for the upcoming soulslike Black Myth: Wukong, but it's looking as gorgeous as ever in a new gameplay trailer that dropped today. This new Nvidia DLSS footage is designed to show off all the lovely visuals in Unreal Engine 5, and it does a very good job. Have a watch below to be taken through dramatic boss fights on snowy mountains, a scenic flight through rocky outcroppings, and catch a glimpse of a sparky dragon I'd like to look at but never meet.

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I like a good puzzle dungeon. Give me a tiled floor littered with switches and spikes and I'll probably have a merry time.

Temple Of Snek gives me that and more, by crossing those puzzle concepts with the classic rules of Snake. Which are: you are a snake, you are always moving forward, and you get longer the more you eat. Can you wind your way out of each puzzle room before you get long or skewered?

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I'm slowly coming around to the charms of large monitors. As my eyesight gets worse and my focus on good posture strengthens, the prospect of a nice big monitor that I can read at a distance is appealing more and more. That's why I went for Samsung's 32-in Odyssey G7 when it briefly dropped to £469, and it's also why I'm today recommending another 32-inch monitor: the LG 32GN600-B, which today is available from Overclockers for just £249, 28% off its RRP.

That's a great deal for a 32-in 1440p 165Hz monitor based around a flat VA panel, with a quoted 3000:1 contrast ratio and 1ms MPRT pixel response time. The nearest comparable monitor on Amazon costs £30 more, with other monitors of this spec retailing for £100 extra!

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After several leaks, Call Of Duty: Vanguard has been officially revealed. It's not quite> the WW2-setting the leaks suggested, but rather an alt-history post-WW2 shooter about stopping Hitler's successor.

Watch the trailer below.

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GOG has kicked off their 2021 Games Festival, which runs from today (August 19th) until September 2nd. GOG is promising "releases, announcements, 1200+ deals", and so far all three components appear to be in place - including 20 demos of recent or upcoming indie titles - nice! Here are some of the highlights from our roving correspondent.

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Quake, the classic 1996 first-person shooter, has received a major new update enhancing its graphics, adding dedicated deathmatch servers, cross-play with consoles, splitscreen multiplayer, and a brand new expansion developed by Machine Games.

It's out now to mark Quake's 25th anniversary and available for free to all existing owners of the game.

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