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Chef RPG is Stardew Valley but for restaurants instead of farms, the ‘plate’ side of the hypothetical ‘farm to plate’ bundle that Steam may one day sell. Even the set-up is similar to the farming game. You rock up all chef-like off the train, and you’re soon greeted by your guide Hazel, yet another Boba-clutching robot. I might be misremembering Stardew. Fry yourself off a nice chunk of trai-loumi below.
“Deus Ex but tiny and hilarious” is how I pitch the first Streets of Rogue to people in elevators. Then I kick the elevator control panel to pieces, climb out the hatch, and cut the cord with a buzzsaw I smuggled in earlier. “It’s also total chaos!” I yell, as the elevator plummets. “Ha ha ha ha ha ha!” Streets of Rogue 2 is looking similarly chaotic. But one thing has been brought to order: its release date. It’s coming to early access on August 14th, while a new trailer (below) shows horse riding, flame throwing, and speed boating. My favourite moment is when a man pumps magic gas into a room full of people doing zumba, and it turns them all into giants, and they freak out and start smashing the walls in a panic.
The god of video games news is vengeful, for this weekend He has sent forth a flood of game announcements to wipe out any remaining game journalists from this earth. Come at me, God! What have you got? Ah. It’s Ale Abbey, a management game about brewing beer in a monastery of medieval monks, and between making craft ales the priests get tipsy on their own supply. You can’t fool me, god of game reveals, this one has been openly in the works on GameJolt for 2 years. But, yes, I suppose now that the developer is teaming up with the Northgard creators as a publisher, the people must know.
The Artful Escape developers Beethoven & Dinosaur are following up their musical platformer with another soundtrack-driven narrative game. Mixtape draws on the classic tropes of coming-of-age teen flicks, adds striking stop motion-style visuals and completes the package with a soundtrack that would feel right at home in a John Hughes movie.
Microsoft and Blizzard have slapped a release date on Diablo 4‘s forthcoming content-o-season Vessel Of Hatred. It’s out 8th October 2024, and sees you hooting and hollering down the road to the new region of Nahantu in search of Neyrelle, a character “who is both suffering the fate of her choice to imprison the Prime Evil Mephisto, and seeking a means to destroy him”. In the process, you may choose to become “the apex predator of the jungle as the all-new Spiritborn class”. You can also recruit mercenaries to help you, fight alongside other players in a new PvE co-op activity, “and more”.
Max Caulfield is back! The time-bending protagonist of the first Life is Strange is returning in a new entry in the series, Life is Strange: Double Exposure. It’s out this October.
Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! You likely already know that books are made from trees, but did you know that Kindles are made from discarded tree asset packs? My uncle, who is a tree, told me that. This week, it’s the one and only author and games-worder-abouter, Alice Bell! Cheers Alice! Mind if we have a nose at you bookshelf?
What are you currently reading?
What did you last read?
I wrote about the Wholesome Direct earlier this evening and pulled out a handful of games I liked from the showcase. I didn’t mention the game I liked most, because I wanted to give it this fuller shoutout. Lost And Found Co. is a hidde object adventure game set in a colourful, densely detailed world, and there’s a demo available to play now.
The Finals is a multiplayer first-person shooter about stealing cash and demolishing buildings in a virtual reality game show. Why does it need to be set in a virtual reality game show? So it can do things like transport players to Kyoto in the year 1568, which is what will happen when season three arrives on June 13th.
The advertising bonanza formerly known as E3 continues into its second day with another set of streams. The Wholesome Direct was today’s highlight, in my mind. The yearly collection of games that may or may not be cosy, but which definitely do not involve stabbing men in the neck, always contains some games worth keeping an eye on. This year was no different, and you’ll find the archived stream below.
