Spelunky


Welcome to another week of Five of the Best, a series where we celebrate the overlooked parts of video games. They're the kind of things you don't pay much attention to at the time, but which spring readily to mind years later, proving just how memorable they were. So far we've had potions, hands, and dinosaurs - an eclectic bunch! - and we've enjoyed reading your suggestions as much as sharing ours. Today, then, another batch, another five. And the theme...

Shops! Oh, how many virtual registers we've rung over the years. Imagine a role-playing game without one - you can't. It would be sacrilege. You simply must visit a new shop in every town and have their wares be slightly more powerful than they were where you came from. Everyone knows that. But there are so many shops, it's often hard to remember a single one.

It's not just RPGs. I remember ogling the superbikes for sale in Road Rash and then crashing them when I eventually saved up enough money to buy them. I remember spending ages shopping for shorts and T-shirts in a knock-off GAP in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. And I've probably spent more money than I should have on costumes in Fortnite, which is hardly my fault when they sell such silly costumes, is it?!

Read more

This War of Mine

Epic is finally beginning to introduce a feature we've been expecting for a while - cloud saves.

A player spotted the new function in the setting pages for recent Epic Store freebie, Moonlighter, and Epic boss Tim Sweeney confirmed the feature is enabled right now for a select few new games.

Reddit user u/arctyczyn also noted This War of Mine (which went up on the store for free at the same time as Moonlighter) currently supports cloud saves too. Sweeney noted Epic has "a bit more work to do before rolling it out more widely".

Read more

This War of Mine

Epic continues its efforts to coax PC players onto its store this week with another batch of freebies in the form of This War of Mine and Moonlighter. And while you're here, I might as well let you know that Alan Wake and For Honor are up next.

Moonlighter - which is free right now, alongside This War of Mine - offers an intriguing blend of shop management and dungeon crawling. By day, plucky hero Will stacks shelves and tends to the whims of his customers, while his nightly pursuits involve monster slaying and exploration.

The gist of Moonlighter's cyclical action is that items found while adventuring make for exotic new goods to sell in-store, and, in turn, pay for better equipment for deeper dungeoning and even more exotic wares. Eurogamer liked it a lot on release. Perhaps not coincidentally, Moonlighter just launched its first paid DLC, Between Dimensions, on PC.

Read more

Moonlighter

Developer Digital Sun's charming shop management action-RPG Moonlighter has had a bit of a busy year, proving popular enough - the game recently surpassed half a million sales - to spawn a wealth of free content updates. And it's now received its very first paid DLC on PC, in the form of the sizeable Between Dimensions expansion.

Moonlighter casts players as Will - attentive shopkeeper by day, daring explorer by night - then sets them forth on an adventure that deftly mixes Zelda-esque dungeon-crawling with marginally less perilous shop management. Eurogamer liked it a lot, if you were wondering, awarding the game a shiny Recommended badge when it released on PC last May.

Digital Sun's Between Dimensions DLC, which technically unfolds after the events of the base game, leaves Moonlighter's foundation unchanged. It does, however, significantly expand that core, introducing a new Interdimensional Dungeon, with its own mini-bosses, and adding new creatures to existing dungeons in order to freshen up the place.

Read more

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

What with E3 in full swing we're a bit late getting to the latest Humble Monthly bundle for July, but now we've had a chance to breathe it's definitely one you need to know about.

Headlining this month's bundle are the BAFTA-winning atmospheric adventure Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and charming RPG/management sim Moonlighter. You can sign up to the July Humble Monthly for 10/$12 to get access to both games immediately.

Hellblade was unquestionably one of the most interesting and unique games of 2017. A harrowing and engrossing experience that ably replicates the character's struggle with psychosis as she journeys to Helheim in order to save her lost lover's soul. If you've been holding off on trying it for yourself, now is the perfect opportunity to pick it up.

Read more

Moonlighter

Developer Digital Sun has revealed that it's working on a sizeable amount of free new content for its wonderful shopkeeping-and-adventuring RPG Moonlighter, and there's an accompanying roadmap outlining exactly what 2018's remaining months will bring.

Moonlighter's first batch of new stuff arrives later this month in the form of the More Stock Update. This introduces over 50 new room patterns across the game's four dungeons (making for a total of almost 600 rooms), new art for enchanted weapons and armour, and new shop upgrade tutorials to give struggling players a helping hand.

That's followed at some as-yet-unspecified future time by the Adventure Update. This will see the arrival of a New Game + mode with a higher difficulty and increased challenge for experienced players wanting to play through again. It also brings new equipment based on mysterious technology, known as Dimensional Weapons and Amulets.

Read more…

Moonlighter


Yes, I know, I'm selling sticks, but these sticks fell off of something that nearly killed me in a deep, dark dungeon just a few minutes ago. I risked my hide for that limestone over there, too. This particular starter cable is most certainly a priceless relic, and if you want me to get more treasure like it, you're going to have to pay the price I've set for it. Or at least a price we can agree on.


In Moonlighter, your RPG hero's inventory, perpetually overstuffed with all the things you're absolutely sure you're going to need one day, is a vital part of the experience. You control Will, the young, white-haired owner of the eponymous shop in the small town of Rynoka. The shop's name is everything, as Will sells only items he's gathered while moonlighting as an adventurer at the dungeon not far from his house. When we first meet him, he's in there armed with nothing but a broom, and despite giving his all our adventurer promptly receives the beating of his life. This is the game's first and most important lesson: to make it through the dungeon, you're going to need more than just skill - you're also going to need a whole lot of cash for equipment.

At first, Moonlighter feels like a bit of a vicious circle. To get better weapons, you need materials and quite a formidable stack of coins, but to get either of these you're going to have to go into the dungeon and fight monsters for parts to sell once you return. The procedurally generated dungeons, five in total, have Zelda written all over them: exploring the interconnected rooms, there are always plenty of pots to smash, innocent bushes to stab and ravines to tumble down. You face off against a variety of enemies with different behaviours, and that means adapting or getting cornered quickly. An escape is possible at any point using a talisman that drops you right back in town. Using it costs money, getting away in one piece is thankfully a bargain.

Read more…

Moonlighter

Developer Digital Sun has announced that its delightful shop management themed action RPG Moonlighter will launch on Xbox One, PS4, and PC on May 29th.

Moonlighter charts the adventures of Will, shopkeeper by day, daring explorer by night. Its top-down, Zelda-esque action RPG side looks perfectly entertaining, but more intriguing is the fact that a significant portion of the experience is dedicated to running your shop and interacting with the local villagers.

Moonlighter's basic loop is that you can sell items in your shop to raise the cash to buy new items that improve your chances while adventuring. The dungeons you'll explore at night are randomly generated, albeit each with their own distinctive elements and boss fights.

Read more…

...

Search news
Archive
2025
Jul   Jun   May   Apr   Mar   Feb  
Jan  
Archives By Year
2025   2024   2023   2022   2021  
2020   2019   2018   2017   2016  
2015   2014   2013   2012   2011  
2010   2009   2008   2007   2006  
2005   2004   2003   2002