Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot recently said Skull And Bones is a “quadruple-A game”, which I think is very accurate, actually. “AAAA” is the sound that escapes my lips as I embark on yet another hour-long sail to retrieve some logs, or when I’m doing my little deliveries and a brigantine starts on me. After 11 years in development, Ubisoft’s pirate game isn’t necessarily a disaster, I just think its live service model has transformed piracy from a roguish lark on the waves into a tremendously dull series of shipping tasks.
Update : Pre-orders for the physical GBA versions of Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution are now available, courtesy of Limited Run Games. Don’t forget, these are only available until 7th April 2024.
We’ve got all of the details of both versions below. The game is coming to Switch in digital form at some point, but we haven’t had any news of a release date yet. So keep your eyes peeled.
Lny_Trpr_EE7 shares the titular Stray and robot friend B-12
scottoka1 shares the Persona 3 Reload protagonist and companions
HomuraChihiro shares the Hunter and their eagle companion in The Pathless
Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?
THEME: Comfort SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on February 28, 2024
Next week’s theme is all about games that bring you comfort. Share a moment from your go-to comfort game using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.
In the immersive storytelling between Dragonheir: Silent Gods and Dungeons & Dragons, the legendary ranger Drizzt Do’Urden successfully thwarted his nemesis, Errtu the Balor, in the first phase of the storyline. As the adventure moves into its second phase, two arcane masters from Dungeons & Dragons, Elminster Aumar and Sammaster, will debut on February 23rd, offering players an exciting showdown.
Expanding Dragonheir’s Fantasy Multiuniverse with Classic IP Collaboration
Dragonheir: Silent Gods, also referred to as Dragonheir, is an open-world TRPG that incorporates several classic Western fantasy tabletop game mechanics. It includes dungeon duels, card mechanics, dice rolls, and a wide variety of races and professions.
Sagi, the lead producer of Dragonheir and head of SGRA Studio, shared his thoughts on the collaboration: “We look forward to embarking on an extensive collaboration with Dungeons & Dragons, a renowned western fantasy IP. Our goal with this collaboration is to provide players with an immersive experience as they explore the vast world of Dragonheir. We want players to enjoy the thrill of forming adventurous teams with iconic Dungeons & Dragons characters and engaging in strategic combat.”
Experience an Exclusive Storyline to Receive Limited-Time Rewards
In the storyline of this collaborative adventure, Dragonheir‘s multiverse welcomes the arrival of Elminster Aumar and Sammaster, two esteemed masters of the magic arts. In the original lore, Sammaster once studied magic under Elminster Aumar. However, after a heated argument, Sammaster’s irrationality led him to redirect his dissatisfaction towards Elminster’s existence, fueling his resentment. This divergence pushed him away from the path of righteousness, delving into necromantic arts, and ultimately opposing Elminster Aumar. Within Dragonheir, players will accompany Elminster Aumar to thwart the collaborative boss Sammaster from encroaching upon the world of Dragonheir.
In addition, the second phase collaborative event offers players new gameplay features, artifacts, and promotional benefits compared to the first phase:
Introduction of a limited-time dice skin exclusive to Phase Two Collaboration – [Arcane Dice].
Debuting the multi-phase gameplay for the collaborative Boss, presenting varied abilities and attributes, empowering players to tailor their strategies.
Presenting the limited-time artifact – [A Guide to Magic by Elminster], accessible through the Collaboration Token [Sage’s Chess Piece].
Unveiling for the first time, an exclusive collaborative promotion bundle containing multiple Heliolite Dice and Skill Scrolls, accompanied by the exclusive collaborative avatar frame [Sage of Shadowdale].
Players can delve deeper into strategic gameplay and reap additional benefits during this collaborative adventure. The expanded feature set promises a more immersive experience, with greater strategic depth and an enhanced reward system for players who participate in this event.
Dragonheir: Silent Gods‘ collaborationwith Dungeons & Dragonsis now available to play on Mac, Windows, Epic, Steam, iOS, and Android platforms. Click here to download the game now and enter IGN’s exclusive gift code ign223 to redeem limited rewards.
Join Dungeons & Dragons legends in Dragonheir and engage with the game’s community on Facebook, YouTube, and Discord for comprehensive information!
Lil Guardsman is a game that wears its heart on its sleeve. In a victory for normative determinism, this is a fantasy adventure about a small girl named Lil who somehow becomes the first (and seemingly only) line of defence at a city’s border patrol as a guardsman. At various points, both Lil and those around her frequently call attention to the fact that, yes, you are merely a 12-year-old child who is massively underqualified for this task, and that if you’re going to continue filling in for your good for nothing father who’s down the pub gambling on the latest ball game, then really, what do your superiors expect? It’s very self-aware in that sense, and occasionally verges on breaking the fourth wall. This alone will probably be a fairly good indicator of whether you’ll gel with Lil Guardsman’s sense of humour or not, but for the most part, this is a sweet and jovial narrative adventure whose characterful animation and charming voice cast help bring this oddball tale of fate and consequence to life.
It’s also not shy about where it’s taken its main source of inspiration from either. This is fantasy Papers, Please through and though, albeit one that’s more about interrogating and probing would-be citygoers for information than checking documents and spotting inconsistencies. During the day you’ll be working your post, dealing with the increasingly large, but fixed queues of fantasy species all trying to enter the city gate to go about their business. When you’re off the clock, it’s time to pick up the game’s wider plotlines, with Lil able to travel around the city to set locations where she can chat with other townsfolk, sometimes partake in the odd mini-game or two, and visit the local shop before toddling off to bed. It’s admittedly quite a straightforward interpretation of Lucas Pope’s magnum opus, with star ratings denoting clear right and wrong answers for how you deal with each day’s horde, but you know what they say about first impressions. Good ones go a long way.
Microsoft has continued its custom console collection by creating an Xbox Series S based on ‘Pokémon with guns’ hit Palworld.
Revealed on X/Twitter, below, the Palworld Xbox Series S itself features a ton of Pals in colourful artwork, but it’s perhaps the controllers that will draw the most attention. The console comes with four gamepads, each one themed after different Palworld beasties.
A yellow controller features Electric element Pal Grizzbolt, a green controller features Grass element Pal Mammorest, a blue controller features Water and Ice element Pal Pengullet, and a pink controller features Neautral Pal Cattiva.
Imagine playing Palworld on THIS
Follow and RT with #PalworldXboxSweepstakes for a chance to win a custom Palworld Xbox Series S, 4 custom controllers, and a 3 Month Game Pass Ultimate Code.
Xbox isn’t selling the custom console but is instead giving it away in a sweepstake. Fans can enter for a chance to win by following the Xbox X/Twitter account and retweeting the post by March 17, 2024. The prize bundle comes with three months of Game Pass Ultimate, too.
Palworld is a smash hit, logging 25 million players since going on sale in January 2024, including 10 million on Xbox. It’s the biggest third-party launch on Game Pass ever. This might lower the chance of winning the special console, but someone’s got to win.
I know this sort of thing has been said before around these parts, but in scanning through the endless reams of Steam Next Fest demos earlier this month and trying to work out what these games are and whether they’re worth downloading, I truly believe it’s a sentiment that’s worth repeating. When I first saw the name C.A.R.D.S RPG: The Misty Battlefield appear on the Next Fest landing page, I instantly thought, ‘Yes, here we go, now we’re talking’.
Well, my first thought was actually, ‘Gee, if only there was an easy way to know what this game’s about based on just the title alone,’ but that’s just me being facetious. Ultimately, I have a lot of respect for this kind of naming convention, and the fact it’s also being made by the Octopath Traveler developers Acquire is really just the icing on the cake.
Steam survival crafting game Nightingale is getting an offline mode “as soon as is feasible”, with developer Inflexion Games deeming it a priority.
In a developer update posted to Steam, Inflexion said it built the game with a shared, connected universe in mind but didn’t realise players would want an offline mode too.
It updated the post later to say work on regular updates would be uninterrupted despite saying it was prioritising the unplanned single player mode. News on regular updates, pertaining to new content, fixes, bugs, and other work would arrive in the coming days, it said.
“We are now prioritizing and developing an offline mode that we plan to release as soon as feasible,” Inflexion said.
“Our vision for the game since inception was to create an interconnected series of Realms, with the idea of allowing for co-operative exploration in mind — a universe bigger than a single Realm or server. That meant we made a choice early in development between supporting co-op from day one or focusing development on an offline mode.”
It added: “Looking back on that decision, we misjudged what some of you were looking for in your experience.”
Nightingale launched on February 20 in Steam Early Access as a shared world survival crafting game set in an all new fantasy universe. Players are stranded beyond their own world, cut off by the sudden collapse of the arcane portal network.
“The gameplay loops of Nightingale look flexible, engrossing, and fun, though [we are] mildly worried about how much attention the base building can keep,” IGN said in our final preview. “[We’re] unsure of what else there is to do or maintain once it’s built the way you like. Of course, [we] do suppose creatures can also come wreck things and force you to build anew.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Credit to Nightingale, I’ve been enjoying the early access form of Inflexion’s gaslamp fantasy survival crafter a fair bit more than I did its older stress test build. The UI is cleaner and tighter, and I’ve had more space to explore (and enjoy) the mysterious nooks of its magic ‘n’ moustaches world. There’s potential here, but it’s very much the raw kind, especially when performance needs as much work as it does.
Besides relying on upscalers like DLSS for truly smooth running, Nightingale currently has a serious stuttering problem, and bumping into an ugly graphical artefact or even a hard crash is worryingly common. I’ve pulled together an optimised settings guide (down below) so that you don’t need to drop the visual quality lower than is strictly necessary, but do keep in mind that this is early access with emphasis on the early.
Splatoon 3’s Side Order has been dangling just out of reach since it was revealed in 2023, but Wave 2 of the DLC has finally landed for Splatoon 3 Expansion Pass owners. Nearly five years after the release of Splatoon 2’s Octo Expansion, Agent Eight’s story continues in the drab and colourless world of the Memverse, but is it worth the train fare to reach this particular station?
Let’s be blunt, Side Order is a roguelite, meaning there’s a series of semi-random levels you must beat sequentially in order to triumph. The catch? If you run out of lives, you’re sent right back to the start. Note the ‘t’ in the genre name, though, as unlike a roguelike, you can unlock bonuses and boons to make each subsequent run up the tower that little bit easier.
