Amplitude's upcoming 4X strategy game Humankind was expected to launch yesterday until it was delayed to August. It may not be the full launch, but you can still get your hands on a good chunk of it right now. Amplitude have launched another of their OpenDev game demos, this one including the first four eras of the game for you to navigate as well-known strategist Victor Hugo. That is what he's famous for, yeah?
If you're looking for the opposite of a 4X game, this one might just qualify. Instead of xploiting and xterminating and those other two X activities, We Are The Caretakers is a turn-based strategy game about animal conservation. The afrofuturist sci-fi setting has you forming alliances between factions and fighting tactical battles to save your planet. It's just launched into early access with a campaign and survival mode.
Call Of Duty: Warzone and Cold War season three has started this week and it's been a busy one. After releasing zombies onto the map for weeks, Verdansk finally got nuked during the live Warzone event on Wednesday. I hope you like the new 1984 version of the map, because it's here to stay. The developers say that modern day Verdansk is gone for good. In other map change news, Outbreak has a new region and another round-based Zombies map will be coming in a future season.
I love a good gimmick in my Valorant maps. Icebox and its many ziplines, Bind and its teleporters, and now Breeze and its daft trap door. Riot Games announced Breeze earlier today: it's a new seaside map coming to the tactical FPS next week. It's big, it's pretty and I had a chance to try it out early and capture some footage for you to feast your eyes on. Breeze also features a trap door that I don't full understand the function of, but that just makes me love it all the more.
Viking craft 'em up Valheim is continuing along in early access with tweaks and updates, but there are some bigger changes on the horizon too. Iron Gate have previously mentioned their planned Hearth And Home update, which they've just given a very tiny teaser for. A couple of Valheim's bosses, and its trolls, are all getting a visual makeover too.
When Rogue One: A Star Wars Story came out in 2016, most of us already knew how it was going to end: miserably. In the final scene, the protagonists brace for death - just after sending critical Death Star schematics to their fellow rebels - setting the stage for 1977’s A New Hope. All we knew up until Rogue One was that a group of rebels sacrified themselves for the future of the galaxy. This bittersweet ending offers a fatal catharsis to a doomed story that predates the original Star Wars trilogy: this is how they did it, this is how they struggled, and this is why living through the end mattered.
And now, after what feels like an eon of pandemic anxiety, death, struggle, and economic despair, we have the much-anticipated re-release of Nier Replicant. Sorry - Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139.
The online convention all about narrative games is kicking off this weekend. Even if you don't usually go in for games with a wordcount to rival a hardback, you may find something up your alley in LudoNarraCon. The event begins this evening including talks and insights from the likes of folks involved with Hades, Control, Amnesia: Rebirth, The Outer Worlds, and more.
When the embargo lifts and the discourse begins, I'm pretty confident the only thing developers are looking for is a Bestest Best from Rock Paper Shotgun. It is, after all, the highest honour that can be bestowed on any video game.
Some video games publications like doling out numbers, though. And, like the MSR that focused on games with Metacritic scores of 60 or lower, I'm very thankful for them today. We wouldn't have an episode of Mystery Steam Reviews this week without you. So, thanks, number-givers.
After dropping onto countless islands to shoot 99 faces off the skulls they once called home, how'd you fancy a different sort of battle royale? You might look at Nakara: Bladepoint, a third-person fantasy action game with zippy movement, grappling hooks, wall-running, big swords, stealth, and magical transformations for up to 60 players. It's due to launch this summer, and everyone is invited to have a go in an open beta weekend starting today.
Lush sandy beaches, bright blue skies, a cool fort to take sweet photos next to and show off to all my pals: man I wanna go on holiday, but my excursions these days don't go much further than the local supermarket. I'll be able to get a small taste of such a lovely location in Valorant next week though, because the game is adding a new map named Breeze, which is set on a gorgeous remote island in the Carribean.