Coming to Switch this summer.
The construction RPG and life sim My Time At Sandrock will be getting a cross-platform multiplayer update this summer.
It will allow users on Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, and PC to team up and experience “combat, construction, social activities and more”.
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The weekend is officially here, and we’ve got loads of new deals you do not want to miss! Some of the hottest 2024 releases are already discounted, with savings of up to $30 in some instances. The best deals for Saturday, April 13, include Unicorn Overlord, Persona 3 Reload, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, God of War Ragnarok, and more.
God of War Ragnarok is still one of the best PS5 games you can pick up. This action game acts as the sequel to 2018’s God of War, following Kratos and Atreus as Fimbulwinter looms. This price matches the previous low we’ve seen Ragnarok at, so you know you’re getting a great deal. If you’ve yet to play this game, this is a great time to pick up Ragnarok at a discount and see why so many players love this series.
This NieR Replicant box set includes 4 LPs with music from the game. Included are the Nier, Kainé, Emil, and Devola & Popola LPs, which were all released separately. The cover of the box set was illustrated by Shirow Miwa, who has contributed designs to titles like Fate/Grand Order. Additionally, an original paper stand is included in the box set.
Amazon currently has the Sony WF-1000XM5 Earbuds on sale for $229.95. These earbuds are equipped with the same technology utilized in Sony’s premium line of overhead headphones, which are known for their best-in-class noise cancellation. Utilizing the new Integrated Processor V2, these earbuds provide crystal clear audio using the latest Bluetooth technology.
Unicorn Overlord just released last month and is already available at Amazon for $39.99. This title was developed by Vanillaware, most recently known for 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. Over 60 unique characters are available to choose from within Unicorn Overlord, where you command armies in tactical battle. We gave the gave a 9/10 in our review, stating “Unicorn Overlord is a visual delight that’s brimming with creativity, and an absolute must-play for any fan of strategy RPGs.”
Persona 3 Reload is already one of the biggest 2024 releases so far. The remake brings in new gameplay features, new voice actors, and an impressive slew of technology, including ray tracing. It’s on sale right now at Amazon for $39.99, which marks a new all time low for the title. If you’ve never experienced the story of Persona 3, this is the definitive way to do so.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the latest title in the long-running RPG series. Kiryu Kazama returns following the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, uniting with Ichiban Kasuga in a wild adventure you won’t forget anytime soon. This $30 discount just a few months after launch is a great deal you shouldn’t pass up on, though newcomers should aim to play the previous titles in the series before jumping in.
This special edition Xbox controller is sure to make a nice addition to any collection. The Dream Vapor edition features a swirly pink and purple pattern, which is a unique offering compared to other official Xbox controllers. At 24% off, this is the lowest we’ve seen this controller yet. Additionally, you can always use an extra controller. Whether you’re playing a multiplayer title or your controller wears down after years of use, having an extra on hand is better for everyone.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a release that went under many people’s radars earlier this year. At $29.99, this 2D platformer is absolutely worth your time and money. We gave the game an 8/10 in our review, stating, “Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown captures not only what made games such as The Sands of Time so good, but it irons out a lot of the little issues that plagued the 3D games.”
By now, you’ve probably heard the buzz surrounding Amazon’s live-action Fallout show. And as it turns out, it is a faithful and fun adaptation of the hilariously grotesque post-apocalyptic role-playing game series. The live-action show offers a glimpse of the wild world of Fallout and all the bizarre hijinks just waiting to be uncovered, and it’s likely got you wanting for some games to try out that have a similar conceit.
But if you’ve already taken the plunge into the Fallout series or already have them on your list of games to check out, we’ve got some other games to recommend that scratch the same itch as the games from Bethesda Game Studios. Along with similar games centering around choice and agency, our list also includes some games that tackle the post-apocalypse a bit differently. So, with that, here are our recommended games to play if you can’t get enough of Fallout.
Before developer Interplay found runaway success with the original Fallout, the foundations of the post-apocalyptic RPG were first set with 1988’s Wasteland. As the first PC RPG set in the American post-apocalypse, Wasteland featured a really weird plot and tons of raiders to battle in tactical engagements. While the original Wasteland and its 2014 sequel are still excellent tactical RPGs, the recent Wasteland 3 is the series’ pinnacle and a great place for newcomers to start.
Wasteland 3 is all about strategic decision-making with your squad of Desert Rangers, offering a complex and emergent-level approach to exploring and surviving the many sticky encounters in the ruins of the American Rocky Mountains. As you build up a reliable crew of rangers, Wasteland 3 throws a whole host of odd encounters with marauders and other weird factions that play up the absurdity of the post-apocalypse. One particular quest that stands out centers around a cult that worships a Ronald Reagan AI housed inside a mechanical statue that fires death lasers. Wasteland 3 offers a solid tactical RPG experience that shows an absurdist side to a dark post-apocalypse.
The Metro series from developer 4A Games shines a light on what the post-nuclear apocalypse looks like outside of America and in more unforgiving scenarios. Based on the sci-fi novels by Dmitry Glukhovsky, the Metro video game series focuses on surviving one harrowing encounter after the other in what remains of Russia following nuclear war and how warring factions continue to fight for control. Metro Exodus is the culmination of a trilogy of solid narrative-driven shooters, bringing the series into a more open-world-inspired setting to explore and survive in.
Playing as a young survivor named Artyom, the Metro trilogy shows his growth from a scavenger to a leader of a faction of rangers looking to find safety in the ruins of the old world. While exploring and fighting through the different regions across Russia, the protagonist has to rely heavily on crafting and carefully managing resources to survive encounters with bandits and mutants in the wilds. While the original two entries are solid shooters, Metro Exodus is an excellent jumping-on point for the series for newcomers as it focuses on survival in large-scale environments while giving its cast of characters a satisfying conclusion to their story of survival.
Obsidian Entertainment features a ton of talent that worked on the original Fallout series, and following their work on Fallout: New Vegas, the developers went on to build an entirely new game that keeps up with much of Fallout’s absurdist humor and gory action within a future gone awry. The Outer Worlds is a different type of RPG that brings its dystopian and deeply bizarre setting to a galactic scale. Set in an alternate timeline where American businesses were never regulated in the early 1900s, and space exploration led to a new age of capitalism, you lead a crew of misfits traveling the galaxy and landing headfirst into conflicts with megacorporations that run pretty much everything.
The Outer Worlds is essentially the sci-fi TV series Firefly mashed up with Fallout, leaning heavily into comedy and the absurdity of its hyper-capitalist universe. Much like Fallout, you can build up your protagonist to be a smooth-talking explorer who can talk their way out of trouble or a cunning rogue who solves their problems with a well-placed blaster shot. With a loveable set of companions, including the ever-reliable Parvati, The Outer Worlds really puts its characters and the wild setting at center stage, and it’s an excellent pick for those looking for a more sci-fi spin on an RPG.
What makes Guerrilla Games’ Horizon series such an intriguing take on the post-apocalypse is that it centers its story on the larger mystery of what came before the world’s end -– and it also adds roaming, towering machines into the mix. Horizon sees the remnants of humanity explore a ruined earth following the robot apocalypse, which has left communities scattered and without knowledge of what came before. Forbidden West follows up on the excellent Zero Dawn by showcasing a greater level of detail for its world while giving protagonist Aloy more ways to engage with its different quests and characters. And not to mention, there are way more machines to fight and subdue.
Forbidden West brings the story to the ruins of the American West Coast, showing how the remnants of San Francisco and Las Vegas have evolved in the post-robot apocalypse. What makes the Horizon games so fun to explore is learning how the world has changed following the end of the world, and engaging with some of the more daring battles against the advanced machines that take some careful planning and coordination of skills to take down. The Horizon series really leans into the wonder and weirdness of the post-apocalypse, and the latest mainline entry Forbidden West showcases the series at its best.
The STALKER series from GSC Game World makes you feel like an insignificant part of a large and incredibly hostile world – and that offers up some genuinely terrifying and equally thrilling moments. With the upcoming sequel releasing this year, the original STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl is still a fantastic narrative survival experience about contending with the weird phenomena and hostile factions within the mythical Zone, the remnants of the irradiated Chornobyl that somehow become even more dangerous over time.
The throughline of the STALKER series and what makes it unique is that it presents a very unforgiving and atmospheric world that you have to contend with. In addition to managing your precious resources, you’ll also need to make sure the protagonist stays in top form and away from deadly radiation. This is all while you evade rival factions looking to take out anyone in the Zone, including the mutant monsters that lurk about. You’ll often face an unexpected death while in the Zone, but therein lies what makes STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl such a classic game to come to terms with: Surviving the Zone and making do with what you have is simply a gripping experience. With the recent remasters for the game and its expansions, it’s now a great time to give this uncompromising action RPG a look.
Since the original 2020 release, CD Projekt Red has slowly rebuilt and expanded upon the foundations of Cyberpunk 2077, and it’s now one of the best modern action RPGs out there. Set within the sprawl of the practically lawless Night City, the sci-fi urban setting is a fantastic change of pace from other dystopian shooters and role-playing games, and it still scratches that post-apocalyptic itch for how bleak, weird, and unforgiving a future mega city turned out to be.
Along with an amazing cast of characters – played by A-list stars like Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba – Cyberpunk 2077 shines for its approach to role-playing and fast-paced combat, all leaning on how you want to build your futuristic mercenary. Where Cyberpunk 2077 truly hits is in how it puts you right in the middle of a hostile yet still enthralling city filled with different encounters and quests to take on, all showing a level of agency that hits at RPG classics like Fallout and Deus Ex. The vibes of Night City are electric, and getting immersed within the sprawl and its outer wastelands is a thrill. If you haven’t tried Cyberpunk 2077 yet and want something that offers a satisfying and rich role-playing experience, then you can’t go wrong with CD Projekt RED’s modern classic.
Alessandro Fillari is a freelance writer for IGN.
Or, how a game about betrayal brought me closer to my friends.
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they’ve been chewing over. Today, Kate reminisces about a memorable trip… to Loser Town!
I can’t believe I’ve been allowed to use the word “arse” in a title. I feel so powerful. Anyway. Let me tell you a story…
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Oh, Penitent one.
Right then, it’s the weekend, but before we dive into what we’re playing, let’s take a look at what’s been going on this week.
First up, it was announced that Balatro would be getting its first major update, but keep calm, as it’s not Switch-bound just yet. We caught wind of a rather pointless mod that allows Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to run in 4K (but with terrible performance). And more recently, we were treated to a new trailer for Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, showcasing a brand new form for its protagonist.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
And multiple Switch-specific improvements.
There are now even more reasons to check out the retro first-person shooter Rise of the Triad with a new update adding cross-play support.
It means you can now engage in multiplayer firefights with your friends on other systems including Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. Here’s Nightdive’s summary of Version 1.1 and below this are the full patch notes (via Steam).
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Update: N64 wireless controller support confirmed.
Update :
Diplodocus Games has shared some exciting news on social media – revealing a pre-release patch for Corn Kidz 64 on the Switch will add support for Switch Online Nintendo 64 wireless controllers.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Square Enix recently released a helpful patch for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth that ushered in a litany of quality-of-life improvements, including a fix for a Platinum Trophy-breaking bug. One unmentioned hero Rebirth’s recent changes is a subtle yet effective rewording of its final battle’s game over screen that had players mistakenly restart the entire encounter from the beginning.
Rebirth, like Final Fantasy VII: Remake, has a progressively difficult multiphase final battle boss run. Upon failing the final phase, Rebirth greets you with a game over screen with these three options:
Players who clicked “Retry from This Battle,” assuming it would spit them out moments before their untimely deaths, were instead sent to the start of the final boss run — effectively negating upwards of an hour of hard work players put in to get to where. This caused players to storm online forum pages with posts pointing out that the correct retry option — in this case, “Retry from Before Current Battle” — was worded in such an unnecessarily contrived way that they were doomed from the start. It would appear that this gamer headache is now a thing of the past.
Players on the r/FFVIIRemake subreddit spotted a much more straightforward change to Rebirth’s final game-over screen. Now, the top option reads “Retry from Current Phase.” Folks celebrated the unceremonious menu change, lauding Square Enix for paying attention to the community’s upheaval over it while sharing anecdotal tales about how misclicking the final boss menu led to them rage-quitting.
In our review, we wrote, “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth impressively builds off of what Remake set in motion, both as a best-in-class action-RPG full of exciting challenges and an awe-inspiring recreation of a world that has meant so much to so many for so long.”
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh
Hey Xbox Insiders! We are releasing a new Xbox App and Game Bar app for Windows builds to Xbox Insiders who are enrolled in the PC Gaming Insiders preview! Thank you all for being Xbox Insiders. Continue read to learn about fixes and known issues. Make sure that you update the Xbox app, Gaming Services and Game Bar to ensure you get all of the fixes!
Versions of PC Gaming prerelease products:
Xbox App version: 2404.1001.21.0
Game Bar version: 7.124.3191.0
What’s New
Store
Starting today, users will notice a new section for Casual Games when accessing the Store tab, where you can either install Microsoft Solitaire & Casual Games or launch directly into a games included with that title.
Xbox App Bug Fixes:
How to Get Xbox Insider Support
Don’t forget! If you encounter any issues, you can leave feedback by navigating to the feedback option on your profile menu.
You can also provide feedback, as well as interact with the community, on the Xbox Insiders Subreddit. Please be as specific as possible when providing feedback.
When posting to the subreddit, please look through most recent posts to see if your issue has already been posted or addressed. We always recommend adding to threads with the same issue before posting a brand new one. This helps us support you the best we can!
For more information regarding the Xbox Insider Program follow us on Twitter. Keep an eye on future Xbox Insider Release Notes for more information!
Thank you to everyone who participates in the Xbox Insider Program! Your feedback helps us continue to build a great gaming experience in the Xbox app on PC.
The post Xbox Insider Release Notes – Xbox App [2404.1001.21.0] appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Engine building is an amorphous genre of board games in which you acquire resources that you spend on things that will net you more resources. At some point, you’ll start to convert resources into whatever the game’s victory condition is, turning it into a race to get the best score. Often there’s a whole lot of extra mechanics attached to this basic framework in order to make the game richer and more strategic.
Given the rather wide-ranging nature of this definition, it can be hard to pin down what an engine building game is: after all, war games where you capture territory could qualify! But as the famous saying goes, engine building is something you’ll know when you see it, particularly in the subset of games that put it front and center among their mechanics. And among those, there’s a smaller subset of the very best that we’ve picked out for recommendation.
Why not start with an engine-building title that involves building near-literal engines? In Furnace, you’re magnates during the Industrial Revolution, bidding in an auction to gain machines and businesses to add to your growing empire. The purpose of these is to either generate the game’s basic resources or to take those resources and process them into higher-level products with the aim of creating a sort of production line that eventually spits out money, which serve as victory points. It’s a fascinating setup, with the auction providing the sort of tension and interaction that these kinds of games are often lacking, while the production line brings a new dimension to the way you have to build your engine.
Engine-building games include some of the most complex and intense titles in strategy gaming. But the concept itself is straightforward and there are some excellent entry-level engine games that are suitable for the whole family. Century: Spice Road is perhaps the best. Everyone starts with two cards, one which gives them basic spices and another that lets you upgrade a spice for a more valuable one. There’s a selection of cards available to buy that let you do more complex variations of these two actions, feeding in certain spice combinations to get more valuable ones in exchange. Players are aiming to get card combos that feed into one another, snowballing chains that result in more and more valuable spices at each step in a race to afford the most valuable victory point cards. If the faux-historical theme doesn’t do it for you, there’s a fantasy version with gorgeous art.
Another family-weight engine builder, Splendor casts the players as jewellers, trying to make the most impressive pieces from a range of gems. On your turn, you can either pick up some of the delightful poker chips that represent different types of gem, or spend them to get a jewellery card from a face-up display. Once gained, jewellery cards also act as permanent gems to help you in future purchases, and this is the fuel that powers your engine, allowing you to afford bigger and better cards which will, eventually, be worth victory points. It’s a simple setup that hides a surprising amount of angst as you wait to see if you’ll get the cards you want before other players, and even if those cards are as valuable to your growing engine as you hope. The game plays perfectly well with two, but there’s a strategically richer two-player version available called Splendor Duel.
Million-selling hit Wingspan earns its place on this list through the wide appeal of its ecological bird sanctuary theme. It might seem a strange subject for an engine-building game, but the structure is there: each time you add a bird to a habitat the rewards of that habitat in terms of food, eggs and bird cards, get stronger and most birds have a special power that’s activated as part of that same step. So, the more birds you have, the easier it is to get the resources to play even more birds. Purists might find that the game ends just as the engine you’re building gets complex enough to be interesting, and it’s true that part of your strategic focus is on racing to be first on each round’s scoring criteria, but you can’t argue with the beautiful art, the variety and those million-plus copies sold.
Res Arcana is a bizarre game that feels like it shouldn’t work. Players, representing wizards racing to gain magical power, get dealt or draft a random selection of cards depicting random spells, minions and artefacts. Many of them give you access to additional resources to play more cards or, as the game progresses, grab some victory points. There’s no way that such a slapdash collection of cards ought to synergise well enough to make an engine and yet, they do. The onus is on you to try and figure out how your hodgepodge collection of magical minions will best synergise to put you ahead in the sprint for magical power. It’s never anything less than a fascinating puzzle which, as the race enters its final stages, becomes surprisingly exciting with a plethora of additional powers including limited player interaction.
However complex an engine-builder might be, they all operate on the same basic principle of using resources to buy things that get you even more resources. But Anachrony has a genuinely fresh, thematic twist: in a sci-fi setting with time travel, what if you could borrow those resources from your future selves? Doing so will let you get a step-up on your competitors as you prepare to escape a global disaster but fail to pay them back in time, and you’ll be hit with instability penalties. The game builds a demanding framework around this concept, challenging you to recruit workers and score points from a variety of sources as you research and build futuristic technologies to power your game engine.
Another sci-fi take on engines, Underwater Cities has you constructing, well, cities underwater in the near future. There’s a novel colour-matching mechanism whereby you can send your workers to any space to take the action there, but if that space is the same colour as the card you spend to take the action, you also get the card effect. This forces you to work with the cards you’ve been dealt, prioritizing effectively to try and get an edge over the competition. The engine is based around industrial plants that you can build around your developing cities, which fire into production at various points in the game, boosting your efforts to colonise the undersea before your opponents by using the game’s rich and satisfying palette of strategic options.
The Wonderful World you’ll be building isn’t a feelgood winter narrative, but a near-future Earth in which you’re governing a new state. Your raw materials are a draft of cards from which you’ll be selecting likely candidates to slot into your engine to generate resources and points. Some you’ll start building, others you can recycle for the resources they’ll cost, but you’ll need a plan because the turn unfolds in phases, each of which generates a particular resource type, so long as you’ve got a building that creates it. This combination of draft and staged building offers a lot of crunch for relatively few rules, especially with a huge stack of cards in which you can hunt for synergies on your way to build a powerful, satisfying nation-state.
This perennially popular sci-fi card game is an early example of the “following” mechanic, where each player picks a type of action and everyone gets to do it, in this case with a small bonus to the picking player. Early on, you’ll mostly be playing alien worlds and technology upgrades, which are the starting fuel for the engine you’re going to develop over the course of the game. Unusually, cards themselves are a key resource which you pay to put other cards into play, although some of your worlds will also produce goods that will feed into your growing machine. There are a lot of tricky synergies to manage between the tableau you’re building and the phases you’re picking, ensuring you’ll stay engrossed in a very varied diet of strategy until your stellar empire-engine is churning out tech and settling worlds at a satisfying rate.
While there are other games on this list that wear a civilization theme, Tapestry is the only one that really evokes that narrative in any detail. You’ll take actions each turn which, as well as providing the resources typical of engine building games, can net you exploration tiles to build the map, city pieces and military units you can fight on the map with. Your engine is based on uncovering. Tapestry’s other draw is the staggering variety of different ways you can build your engine, with different civilizations offering differing starting points, unfolding through the titular “tapestry” cards and bonuses you can get through climbing the four advancement tracks, making sure every game offers brand-new challenges to explore.
For more, check out our roundups of the best 4-player board games, and if you’re in the market for a deal see our best cheap board games roundup.
Matt Thrower is a contributing freelance board game and video game writer for IGN. (Board, video, all sorts of games!)
