After multiple successful playtests and becoming the Most Played Game at February’s Steam Next Fest, extraction RPG Dungeonborne is out now for Early Access on PC, available to all players looking for a punishing but rewarding RPG.
Dungeonborne is a first-person dungeon crawler in which players band together with up to two friends or play solo to seek treasure and glory among the ruins of a gritty, gothic setting that is overrun by monsters and other adventurers. Blending extraction gameplay with iconic fantasy class design, Dungeonborne offers strategic gameplay full of powerful loot and high stakes combat as you rush to extract before a blade finds your back.
Eight Playable Classes, Eight Distinct Ways to Play
Dungeonborne draws on traditional RPG classes, giving you a chance to embrace your role as a Fighter, Priest, Rogue, Druid, or Pyromancer while also offering more unique choices like Swordmaster, Cryomancer, or Death Knight.
Thanks to the first-person point of view, combat feels visceral and every spell or weapon swing has weight behind it. Each of Dungeonborne’s classes brings something unique to the table, too — while Death Knights are masters of manipulation, capable of pulling enemies toward them and draining their life force, Druids can attack from any range and shapeshift into animal form to rip and tear.
Caster classes dispense destruction from afar. You can wield fire as the Pyromancer and scorch and burn all who oppose you, or encase your foes in ice and slow their advance as the Cryomancer. For players looking to take on more of a support role, the Priest will fit like a glove – heal your teammates and support them from afar, bolstering their defence and keeping them alive.
Protect your allies from the frontline as a Fighter, capable of holding the line against your foes while your allied Rogue sneaks behind enemy lines to unleash devastating critical strikes. Defend as a Swordmaster and keep your enemies’ attention on you as you conjure powerful psionic blades capable of sowing quick death among the unsuspecting.
With over 10 unique weapon pairings, every duel in Dungeonborne becomes a dance of death that brings a fluid, back-and-forth action combat experience. Parries, blocks, and ripostes dictate the flow of battle, and it’s split-second, in-the-moment decision making that determines the winner.
Strategize, Prepare, and Execute — You’ll Have to Fight Tooth and Nail to Claim What Is Yours
While simply jumping in and swinging your weapon around might work at first, you will quickly realise that spamming light attacks and pressing the loot button won’t be enough. Dungeonborne rewards and encourages tactical planning and strategy — terrain, trap locations, enemy positions, and time are all factors that you need to take into account if you wish to triumph over the opposing team that’s looking to claim your treasure as their own. Utilise terrain verticality to set up an ambush or lure enemies into the traps you find for easy kills.
As you slay your opponents and plunder their riches, you will find equipment with over 80 item affixes that synergize with your playstyle or completely change the way you play. If you don’t need an item or simply have a better one, you can put it up for sale at the in-game auction house, then hunt for dozens of legendary and unique items designed to help you sculpt the ultimate build. In Dungeonborne, the thrill of finding rare loot is accessible to all, not just the most dedicated players.
You Can Play Dungeonborne Right Now, and Devs are Listening to Your Feedback
Throughout Dungeonborne’s journey, Mithril Interactive has been working to address player feedback and tweak gameplay so that it feels rewarding, satisfying and fair. Based on community feedback, the team has implemented a range of balancing and quality-of-life updates, and introduced new server regions. Mithril is also planning to introduce new active and passive skills for each individual class to expand gameplay options.
Dungeonborne is now available to download for free in Early Access on Steam. A ‘Mithril Edition’ DLC upgrade is available for players who want to support the game and development team for 9.99USD/7.99GBP (subject to regional pricing) that will grant players two cosmetic items to carry on their adventures as well as Bandages, Healing Potions and Throwable Flasks. If you’re keen on joining the community and finding like-minded players to group up with, you can check out the game’s official Discord channel, and follow their X (Twitter) page for new updates as the team continues developing the game during Early Access.
The thing that immediately stands out when roaming derelict buildings and creepy aqueducts in AI Limit is just how stylish and crisp everything looks, and as it turns out, that killer presentation goes quite a long way. Sure, it’s yet another soulslike with the same old bonfire checkpointing system, punishing combat encounters, and super gross bosses that really need to take a chill pill, but I’ve gotta admit, the anime-inspired, sleek and cartoonish art style really won me over, and I could see this becoming my next sweaty fascination – y’know, maybe as a nice chaser in between Shadow of the Erdtree sessions.
Like countless genre peers, AI Limit makes no apologies about its inspiration; this is a soulslike through and through. You’ll gather materials from fallen enemies to spend on stat upgrades, find weapons and equipment in every monster-filled corridor to customize your fighting style and abilities, and, of course, die a whole heck of a lot when some tanky boss with serious anger management issues uses your face as a doormat. Classic soulslike stuff!
And at least in the hour-long demo I played, AI Limit seems content to follow that blueprint to a tee, offering pretty much no novel tweaks on the formula or reasons to play this one over the piles of games like it. With one notable exception, that is: the endlessly impressive and hard to look away from art style.
That might not sound like enough of a differentiator to keep one’s interest, and yet I found it to be the primary reason I was so eager to claw my way through each deadly zone to see what awesome-looking thing awaited me in the next area. In the same way the Persona series follows the traditional JRPG playbook very closely but sets itself apart by oozing style and unrivaled swagger, AI Limit really did stand out to me in many of those same ways. Whether it was the sleek and interesting UI or combat animations that made me feel like I was the main character in an action-packed anime as I cut down the enemy with ease, I found myself nodding my head in appreciation even when every other aspect was fairly by the numbers.
I’m definitely intrigued by its fantastic presentation enough to add it to my list of soulslikes I’m excited to play.
I will say though, it’s a bit surprising that, despite all the style AI Limit has going for it, the protagonist, at least in the demo, is woefully inexpressive. With no dialogue and a deadpan look on her face at all times, there’s not much beyond some neat looking outfits and sweet combat animations for me to go on. She doesn’t even make any kind of noise when she takes damage or dies, which just feels odd. I mean, I get that this lady’s supposed to be a robot, but why even give her a human appearance if you aren’t going to give her any humanity? Here’s hoping these details merely didn’t make it into this early build of the game.
The demo confined me to an early area that seemed pretty clearly intended as an introductory tutorial zone, but even so I managed to find some new weapons to try out and outfits to try on, and fooled around with one of AI Limit’s precious few unique mechanics, the Sync Rate meter, which is charged up by attacking things and loses power when you take hits or use special abilities that consume it, like firing an electric railgun I found lying around. Most importantly, the Sync Rate meter also determines how much damage your weapons do, rewarding you for keeping the meter full, and punishing you for depleting it, which made for a pretty interesting tradeoff.
AI Limit might not be immediately groundbreaking at first blush, but I’m definitely intrigued by its fantastic presentation enough to add it to my list of soulslikes I’m excited to play. With a release date planned for later this year, it seems I won’t have to wait too much longer.
With College Football 25 set for wide release on Friday, EA has released its promised Team Builder feature that will allow players to create their own custom teams.
EA detailed the new feature in a lengthy post, including how it incorporates alternates, stadiums, and more. The Team Builder tools are accessible via browser, with custom teams available to be downloaded in-game. If you’re not feeling particularly creative, you can also download creations made by your friends or other creators.
Custom teams are compatible with College Football 25’s Dynasty Mode, meaning you can create your own school and build them into a collegiate superpower like Michigan or Georgia. Up to 16 custom teams can be imported per dynasty, where they will replace an existing team of the commissioner’s choice.
Team Builder was a heavily-requested feature by fans, who remembered it fondly from previous iterations of the NCAA franchise. EA responded by going as far as to hire one of its original architects, senior engineer Chris Markuck, who returned to help lead development on College Football 25’s version of Team Builder.
According to Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker, on July 17th, EA Sports College Football ranked #3 in US daily active users on Xbox Series (behind only Call of Duty HQ and Fortnite) and 4th on PS5 (COD, Fortnite & GTAV).
Elsewhere, College Football 25 is off to a very strong start, ranking at #3 for US daily active users on Xbox and #4 on PS5. EA servers were slammed by as many as 700,000 fans, with more to come once it leaves early access. Fan feedback has been mostly positive, though our current review-in-progress is currently a bit more mixed on the experience.
“Right now, EA College Football 25 feels like a college quarterback who left school for the NFL too soon, got drafted way higher than he should have because a team was desperate, started under intense scrutiny from a fanbase and an owner who are tired of losing all the time, and then flamed out of the league because he just wasn’t ready for prime time,” we wrote.
Everybody knows that Counter-Strike’s asymmetric levels are its best. If only someone had told its millions of players. Counter-Strike creator Minh Le seems to agree with me at least, naming cs_siege as one of his favourites in a recent interview.
This Prime Day deal is still available. Amazon is currently offering Amazon Prime members the 2TB SK Hynix P41 Platinum PCIe 4.0 NVME solid state drive (SSD) for only $127.99 shipped. That’s one of the best prices we’ve seen for a 2TB PS5-compatible SSD from a reputable brand. It also happens to be one of the fastest PCI-E 4.0 SSDs on the market right now. This is an outstanding candidate for your PS5 or gaming PC rig.
SK Hynix P41 Platinum 2TB M.2 SSD for $127.99
SK Hynix might not be a brand that the consumer recognizes as much as Samsung or Western Digital, but make no mistake that they are a major player in the flash memory market. SK Hynix is a South Korean DRAM manufacturer and is the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker and the world’s third-largest semiconductor company. They supply components for brands you’ve heard of, like Corsair and G.Skill.
The Platinum P41 is SK Hynix’s highest end SSD. It boasts sustained read speeds of 7,000MB/s and sustained write speeds of 6,500MB/s. It also boasts random read speeds of 1.4 million IOPS and random write speeds of 1.3 million IOPS. In terms of reliability and stability, the SSDs have been tested and validated through 1,000 hours of stress testing with MTBF reaching 1.5 million hours or up to 1,200TB written. SK Hynix backs it all up with a 5 year warranty. Unlike most other SSDs, both the chips and the controller are manufactured in-house. The P41 Platinum uses an Aries controller with 176-layer TLC NAND flash chips.
Of course, in terms of real world performance, the vast majority of users won’t be able to tell apart the speeds between the highest end PCI-E 4.0 SSDs. Some of these SSDs include the SK Hynix P41 Platinum, the Samsung 990 Pro, and the WD Black SN850X. Therefore, it all comes down to the price. At its current price point, the P41 Platinum isn’t just one of the fastest drives on the market, it’s also cheaper than any competitor that can come close to its performance.
A great PS5 SSD, but you’ll need to get a heatsink
The SK Hynix P41 Platinum does not come equipped with a heatsink. That’s because this SSD is catered to PC gamers looking to add storage to their desktop computer. Many motherboards come equipped with built-in SSD coolers and will only accept bare SSDs. It’s generally harder to remove a heatsink than to apply a new one. If you plan to use this for your PS5, rest assured that’ it is 100% compatible (in fact, it’s overkill). Although some people have gotten away with an SSD with no heatsink, we recommend you install one for peace of mind. You can easily get a PS5 heatsink for under $10.
It was just last month that we reported on Streets Of Rogue 2’s early access release date, then planned for the middle of August. Alas, the streets of video game development are meaner than first thought, and its release date has now slipped until October 22nd.
The best Prime Day power bank deal is still available. Amazon is offering Amazon Prime members the powerful and high capacity Anker Prime 27,650mAh USB Power Bank for only $119.99, a hefty 33% price drop from its original $180 MSRP. This is the successor to the Anker 737 that we deemed the best Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally charger. Note only does it carry a significant battery capacity, it also boasts an absolutely massive 250W of USB power delivery to charge even the most power hungry MacBooks, iPhones, and handheld gaming consoles (simultaneously, in most cases).
Anker Prime 27,650mAh Power Bank for $119.99
with 250W of USB Type-C Power Delivery
The Anker Prime is a hefy power bank, measuring 6.4″x2″x2.2″ and weighing in at 1.5 pounds. This is a heavier duty power bank designed to charge more power hungry devices like laptops, (multiple) portable gaming systems, and (multiple) phones. It has two USB Type-C ports and one USB Type-A port. Each USB Type C port supports up to 140W of Power Delivery, which is the max charging rate of a new 2024 MacBook Pro 16″ laptop. If you want to use both USB Type-C ports simultaneously, one will charge at 140W and the other at 100W. The USB Type-A port also boasts up to 65W of charging, although that drops to 18W if you’re using both USB Type-C ports at the same time.
The 27,650mAh battery capacity is more than you’ll ever need on your itinerary. It can charge a Nintendo Switch OLED about 6 times, iPhone 15 Pro Max about 6 times, Steam Deck about 5 times, and an ASUS ROG Ally about 10 times. What also makes the Anker Prime unique compared to most other power banks is the LCD digital readout. It displays a lot of useful real-time information like remaining battery capacity, power input, and power output from each port.
Regarding bringing the Anker Prime on airplanes, this power bank outputs 99.54Wh, which meets the TSA requirements for carry-on baggage. Power banks need to be under 100Wh, which means this is the absolutely highest capacity you can bring on board without needing special clearance.
The Anker Prime is an excellent Steam Deck / ASUS ROG Ally charger
Both the ROG Ally and Steam Deck suffer from a short battery life when gaming on the go. For instance, when playing most games at 60 FPS, you’re likely looking at four hours of battery life for the Steam Deck and maybe half that on the ASUS ROG Ally, which is equipped with a measly 2600mAh battery. During our Steam Deck review, we even found games like God of War or Spider-Man could potentially tap out in under 2 hours. At the end of the day, you’ll never get the full potential out of your Steam Deck or ROG Ally if you’re not equipped with a decent portable charger.
The Anker Prime is an outstanding charger for the Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally portable gaming handhelds. The Steam Deck supports up to 38W, the ASUS ROG Ally up to 65W, and the Nintendo Switch up to 18W of power delivery, That means technically you could charge all three gaming consoles at the same time across all three ports. If you’re traveling with a family with multiple Nintendo Switches or Steam Decks, this option will be a lot more convenient than bringing multiple power banks.
Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, and Sonic 06 favourites return.
Continuing the Year of Shadow celebrations, Sega has shared a brand new trailer for Sonic X Shadow Generations, which showcases a couple of the stages returning for Shadow’s side of the adventure.
And, just like with Sonic’s stages in Sonic Generations, Shadow will also be revisiting levels from previous titles. Sega has highlighted three of those, and they’ll be familiar to all of you diehard Shadow fans.
Dungeons 4 Heads West in New DLC: The Good, the Bad, and the Evil
David Colbourne, PR and Media Relations Coordinator, Kalypso Media
Summary
Brynnhilde and her army of do-gooder Dwarves gather their forces as the last bastion against Thalya and the uprising of The Absolute Evil.
Contend with powerful new enemies wielding weapons dreamt up by the finest Dwarven blacksmiths.
Dungeons 4 – The Good, the Bad and the Evil releases on August 8, 2024. The base game is available now with Game Pass.
Tell them Thalya’s coming, and Hell’s coming with her! Dungeons 4 is catching a steam engine to the Wild West in its first DLC, The Good, the Bad and the Evil, on August 8, 2024, for Xbox Series X|S, taking you through a brand-new, western-inspired area of the overworld known as “The West.” The new frontier is bristling with opportunity for The Absolute Evil, featuring new enemies, environments, and challenges, including a 5-mission campaign that will revisit an old rivalry between the Dark-Elf Thalya and the Dwarf Queen Brynnhild, culminating in a duel at high-noon.
Brynnhilde and her army of do-gooder Dwarves gather their forces as the last bastion against Thalya and the uprising of The Absolute Evil. The feud reaches an epic climax as the minions of Evil battle against Dwarven gunslingers to determine the fate of the Overworld. But it won’t be easy; the Wild West is a dangerous place for even Thalya and her most formidable and evil Little Snots, and you will need to contend with powerful new enemies wielding weapons dreamt up by the finest Dwarven blacksmiths. Check them out below!
The Pistolero is a pistol-wielding outlaw especially adept at close range battles. They draw their guns faster than you can say “Brynnhilde” and unleash their full clip with a fury before needing to reload.
The Machine Dwarf is equipped with rotary guns powerful enough to pierce through even the most well-armoured Evil with maximum efficiency and speed, but with a slow enough reload time you might be able to take them out before they lay waste to larger areas.
The Crack Shot is capable of firing at long distances with extreme precision zoning in on one specific target.
The Brewmaster does more than just brew beer for his thirsty compatriots, but weaponizes the malted grain to damage to enemies and heal nearby allies.
And if these new daunting enemies weren’t enough of a challenge for the Absolute Evil, the mighty (irritating) Dwarves and their new gunslinging factions have turned to the tracks to capitalize on their new steam locomotives, which roar and chug through the prairie. Outfitted with more dynamite than you can shake a stick at, the Dwarves are pulling out all the stops to try and stop Thalya from conquering the Overworld.
But, luckily for Thalya, the Train-Enthusiast Evil is a long-time Railway Empire 2 fan and has been conjuring up an idea for a locomotive of its very own. Traverse the West and research the necessary science to uncover the boundless resources of the dusty plains to build your own locomotive capable of destroying the Dwarves once and for all and put it to use for the good of all that is Evil!
Dungeons 4 – The Good, the Bad and the Evil releases on August 8, 2024, with the base game available to play now on Xbox and PC Game Pass. So, there is only one question left to answer – do you feel evil, punk?
The Absolute Evil and its trusted *cough* servant, the Dark Elf Thalya, return in Dungeons 4 after the events of its fabulous predecessor to bring about their triumph over the forces of good once more.
Build a cozy and comfortable Dungeon to suit your creatures’ needs and rule over them, then send them out into the Overworld to kindly remind the good people living there that the Absolute Evil rules over their lands. Gather your Evilness in new and dynamic ways and unleash it upon the lush green forests and plains of the Overworld to turn them over to the dark side. But make sure that your Dungeon is well-secured by traps and defended by your creatures, for those pesky Overworlders won’t just twiddle their thumbs while you turn their land into the Absolute Evil’s most pleasurable holiday paradise.
But what is that noise? “Gold, gold, gold and gems, gold and gems and gold!” The ancient song echoes throughout the underworld, accompanied by the clanging steel of hammers and axes. The Dwarves have arrived to claim their share of the abundant resources and together with the Elves and Humans of the Overworld, they send out their raiding parties to find the Dungeon’s heart.
Dungeons 4 keeps the spirit of its predecessor, but everything is now bigger, better, and with even more dynamic Evilness.
Features:
• Everything is better with Dwarves: The Dwarves have arrived to build their underground strongholds and the hardy little fellows (although they don’t like being called that) compete with the Ever-Expanding Evil for space and resources.
• It makes your Dungeon great again: Dungeons are up four times larger than before and there are many more creatures who wait for the All-Commanding Evil’s orders to conquer the Overworld. Now the time has come for massive armies and truly sprawling dungeons!
• Ripe for the taking: The Overworld is bigger than ever before. Gain Evilness by beating Mini Bosses like the obsessively harmonious Unicorn and use it to transform the Overworld into stunning biomes of pure evil.
• New and shiny: An ability-based Perk system for Thalya, the Absolute Evil’s trusted *cough* and most loyal subordinate, grants her impressive new powers. The Absolute Evil can now enjoy taking over the world, governing the creatures and slapping subordinates even more with the customizable Evil Hand.
• Minions, everywhere: The Horde, the Undead and the Demons wait to do the Absolute Evil’s bidding, with more creatures than ever eagerly following the gesturing Evil’s orders, and Snots will play a much more prominent role this time.
• Many ways to tell the story: A long campaign, narrated by the beloved English Narrator from previous titles, as well as several skirmish maps all to challenge your rule as the Absolute Evil.
• Change the world: Spread your Evilness across the Overworld to bring lush and green environments over to the dark side, now shining even more vibrantly and beautifully evil as you spread your evilness across many new biomes.
• Work together, slay together: 2-player co-op multiplayer with both players managing one Dungeon together. All maps from the campaign and the skirmish mode are playable in co-op.
The Dungeons 4 – Deluxe Edition Upgrade includes the digital artbook and soundtrack, nostalgic Dungeons 3 skins for Thalya and your Evil Hand, as well as a remaster of the classic Dungeons 3 map “The Storming of Dollaran”. See the nostalgic outfits in all their splendour, and the music will surely delight the culture-loving Evil.
.