We’ve all used a Steam Deck, so we all know how poor the battery life can be when playing a more graphically extensive game like God of War: Ragnarok, or Cyberpunk 2077. Here’s the trick, you need a good power bank to accompany your portable PC adventures.
Dear mother can you hear me gaming?
Good grief, first alarm clocks and now this… Rock band Green Day has announced that it is releasing ‘Dookie Demastered’, a collection of extraordinarily unique items that play individual tracks from the band’s iconic 1994 album Dookie.
The items are available to purchase in the US, but only via a limited draw; so essentially you’re free to order however many you like, but you could very well end up with none. Items include a floppy disk (Having a Blast), a doorbell (Longview), and a Big Mouth Billie Bass (Basket Case), but what really caught our attention is a genuine Game Boy cartridge that plays the entirety of Welcome to Paradise.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
“There are no songbirds in the palace of the king”, it says this when you boot up Bulwark, an unconventional quote for an unconventional game and world. Because in this world there are giant warbirds ridden by mounted warriors called Falconeers. The palaces in this world also are rarely places of beauty but bastions of violent subjugation and factional strife. Something I as the solo developer of The Falconeer first explored in 2020 in the Series X/S launch title The Falconeer – a retro air combat game in the vein of Crimson Skies but set in this hauntingly bleak yet beautiful world called the Ursee.
Bulwark : Falconeer Chronicles saw me return to this world but with a more upbeat creative city builder. Allowing anyone to design and grow a small settlement into a massive fortified palace rising into the skies. But of course, there are no songbirds in those palaces, and this is the Ursee, so that meant inevitably I would have to expand the game to fully make use of the more violent and bleak aspects still very much party of this world and universe. This meant evolving the game, which is what has happened with the release of Bulwark Evolution: Falconeer Chronicles.
Evolution is the next step in the continuing growth of Bulwark, it expands the world and adds strategy and economics that make war something more meaningful. And this comes with two major areas of expansion. The most obvious addition is a new game mode called “total conquest” and secondly is a complete overhaul of the game with a special focus on making combat more meaningful.
The Total Conquest game mode is the obvious new addition. Start building your empire but in a scenario where everyone is against you. Your enemies will start throwing waves of units at your settlements just about as soon as you get it up and running. Survival means properly defending yourself before you can go on the offensive.
Luckily the second part of Evolution is a bevy of new content to help you accomplish this. From new fortress elements that add gigantic naval batteries to being able to set different stances for your commanders, have their units defend, escort or assault based on your commands.
There is also a surface flagship you can unlock as a freehouse wonder that will allow you to sail the Ursee yourself, just like you can already fly. No system has been left untouched and you’ll find a deeper economy but also a price to losing units in battle. But this doesn’t mean only combat and strategy have been improved, the actual world of the Ursee has been filled with new content to explore, new locations to acquire new commanders and captains to enlist
All in all this update has been powered by the community and feedback from players, with nearly every aspect being in some part improved from the game having been played by so many of you and the feedback it’s been lucky to receive.
In closing I’d recommend any existing player to at least once play with a clean start to experience the hopefully more balanced and meaningful growth and also use some of the new building blocks that can be found in the design of their settlements. Explore some of the mechanics you already know and you’d be surprised to find some nifty new improvements you didn’t expect but hopefully will love. Play Bulwark Evolution: Falconeer Chronicles today on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
Wired Productions
Bulwark is about designing your fortress and expanding it into an empire.
I hope you enjoy my attempts to experiment and evolve this game into something enjoyable and fresh.
Bulwark also continues to evolve with each passing update, based on your feedback.
So positive or negative comments are welcome. If it’s intended to help then it’s all appreciated!
Story:
You are in charge of the last remnants of free people on the Ursee, tasked with building a new home. Carve your path onto a world, tower by tower, wall by wall, sculpting from the daunting cliffs and perilous waters of an unforgiving landscape that refuses to be tamed.
Game goals:
Design fantastic ocean fortress settlements. Progress is simple, grow the populations of various factions and you will progress on their Soultrees. Unlocking commanders and captains that may work for you, unlocking new ships, units and abilities.
Play Your Way:
Bulwark – Explore the Great Ursee as you build your grand civilisation. Scavenge for resources,create trade routes and strike alliances with other factions scattered across the waves as you balance negotiation and conflict to grow your settlement.
Freebuild – Enjoy a cosy ‘Freebuild Mode’, devoid of the conflict and challenges present in standard play, you can sketch and experiment without the need for resources, building without limits.
Total Conquest – War has come to the Great Ursee. You start at war with every faction, diplomacy is disabled and the frequency and scale of raids is ramped up. It is no longer enough to just build – now you must survive.
Building Resources:
Wood, stone and Iron aren’t stored or tallied up, the only thing that counts is distance, not cost. You transport resources along your network of towers as well as trading routes over the sea. Towers and walls within range of the resource can be upgraded and built for free, those out of range cannot.
Splinters :
The currency that powers diplomacy, army building, buying new locations and unique buildings is separate from resources, it runs on a currency called, Splinters. You gain these through population growth, trade with other factions or as rewards from combat.
Challenge:
The game challenges you to design and grow grand fortresses, often at little cost other than setting up trade routes for resources. As you grow you may invite in populations from other factions which unlock faction unique content from their “soultree”.
But everybody hates everybody on the Ursee and doing so might lead to war or to loyal allies that merge with your empire. This sandbox builder has consequences!
The post Bulwark Evolves on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One Today appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Battle zombies across Hell-A, attempt to outwit a serial killer and their trap-filled hotel, build the ultimate university campus and learn the devastating, hilarious art of riposte and more with October’s PlayStation Plus Game Catalog lineup*! Dead Island 2, The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me, Two Point Campus, Return to Monkey Island and more games are available to play from October 15. On the same day, an awesome foursome of titles join PlayStation Plus Premium in the form of PS VR2 game The Last Clockwinder and three Classics – Capcom adventure Dino Crisis, terrifying horror Siren and iconic sci-fi shooter R-Type Dimensions EX.
Let’s take a look at each game in turn.
Dead Island 2 | PS4, PS5
Dead Island 2 is a thrilling First-Person Action RPG, stylish, vibrant and flooded with zombie infection. Explore an iconic, gore-drenched Los Angeles. Meet larger-than-life characters. Slay countless foes in exquisitely bloody detail. And evolve to become the ultimate Zombie Slayer! There are six characters to choose from, each with their own unique personality and dialogues. You can fully customize the abilities of each Slayer, with a brand-new skill system allowing you to re-spec instantly and try out the craziest builds. The game includes an over-the-top co-op mode for up to three players.
Two Point Campus | PS4, PS5
Take your simulation management experience to a class above with Two Point Campus, the sequel to the multi-million selling Two Point Hospital. Two Point Campus is jam-packed with new creative tools to help you build the university of your dreams. The academic year begins with a summer break, giving you enough time to get everything looking great before your students move in. Build libraries, hire the best staff, kit your campus out with the best courses and watch the academic potential of your students get unlocked.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me | PS4, PS5
The Dark Pictures is a series of stand-alone branching cinematic horror games from the studio behind Until Dawn. Easy to pick-up and play in short sessions, alone or with friends. The Devil in Me is the fourth game in the series and the Season One finale. A group of documentary film makers receive a mysterious call inviting them to a modern-day replica of serial killer H.H. Holmes’ ‘Murder Castle’. It’s an opportunity that’s too good to pass up and could be just the thing they’re looking for to win some much-needed public interest. The hotel is the perfect set for their new episode, but things aren’t quite as they seem. The crew discover they’re being watched and even manipulated, and suddenly there’s much more at stake than just their ratings! Can you outsmart the killer and checkout all your cast? All playable characters can live or die in your version of the story.
Gris | PS4, PS5
Gris is a hopeful young girl lost in her own world, dealing with a painful experience in her life. Her journey through sorrow is manifested in her dress, which grants new abilities to better navigate her faded reality. As the story unfolds, Gris will grow emotionally and see her world in a different way, revealing new paths to explore using her new abilities.
Grus is a serene and evocative experience, free of danger, frustration, or death. Players will explore a meticulously designed world brought to life with delicate art, detailed animation, and an elegant original score. Through the game light puzzles, platforming sequences, and optional skill-based challenges will reveal themselves as more of Gris’s world becomes accessible.
Return to Monkey Island | PS5
Return to Monkey Island is an unexpected, thrilling return of series creator Ron Gilbert that continues the story of the legendary adventure games The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge developed in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games. Banter with old friends and new faces on familiar islands now under dangerous new leadership. Then, take to the high seas and explore the new and unknown as you work your way out of tough predicaments. Clever puzzles, bizarre situations, and devastating ripostes are all that stand between Guybrush and glory.
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed | PS4, PS5
This fun multiplayer game is perfect for all skill levels. Four proton pack wielding Ghostbusters attempt to catch a Ghost haunting unique locations in asymmetrical multiplayer battles (online or offline). As players progress, they will unlock cosmetics and upgrades for both Ghostbusters and Ghosts to evolve their gameplay experiences. The look and feel will deliver to fans an immersive experience in the universe, allowing them to play out their Ghostbusting fantasies. This game will allow players to enjoy the game solo or with up to four friends and includes an online and offline single-player mode in the form of bot-assisted play.
Firefighting Simulator The Squad | PS4, PS5
Become part of a major US city’s firefighting team and experience how it feels to fight fires. Discover over 40 diverse deployment locations spread across the city inspired by the North American West Coast. Equip yourself with authentic firefighting gear such as helmets, firefighter boots, and a breathing apparatus model by well-known North American firefighting equipment manufacturers. In single player mode, become the leader of an experienced firefighting team. In multiplayer co-op mode, play with up to three friends and take on whichever role suits you most. Assign tasks to your team or jump into the action yourself.
Overpass 2 | PS5
Identify the best routes and balance of power, speed and precision to overcome obstacles at the controls of a UTV, ATV or Rock Bouncer in both solo and multiplayer modes, your talent and choices of technique will make the difference. Put your skills to the test in 5 game modes in which you have to come to grips with demanding challenges: off-road sprint, off-road circuit, hill climb, obstacle course, closed circuit. At the controls of powerful buggies and quads from major manufacturers such as Yamaha, Arctic Cat and Suzuki, you will travel across 30 routes in 5 regions: Baja Desert, East Central US, Johnson Valley, Utah Desert and Western Europe.
Tour de France 2023 | PS4, PS5
Play the mountain or flat stages and experience the intensity of the Grande Boucle. Pedal alongside the best cyclists, test your endurance and show your panache to triumph on the Champs-Elysées in the official game of the Tour de France 2023.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands* | PS4
Create a team with up to 3 friends in Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands and enjoy the ultimate military shooter experience set in a massive, dangerous, and responsive open world. In a near future, Bolivia has fallen into the hands of Santa Blanca, a merciless drug cartel who spread injustice and violence. Their objective: to create the biggest Narco-State in history. Create and fully customize your Ghost, weapons, and gear. Enjoy a total freedom of playstyle. Lead your team and take down the cartel, either solo or with up to three friends.
*PlayStation Plus re-release.
The Last Clockwinder | PS VR2
Clone your actions into endlessly repeating loops to build assembly lines and contraptions. Harvest resources, grow plants, and restore life to an ancient tree in this award-winning VR game. Your mission is to repair the Clocktower, an ancient haven for the galaxy’s plants. Use the Clockwinder’s gloves to turn the actions you take into looping clockwork clones. They can do everything you can, from planting to cutting to throwing items through the air. Use their help to save the Clocktower!
Dino Crisis | PS4, PS5
Three years ago, a scientist researching a new source of clean energy known as Third Energy died during an experiment. Now, alarming reports arrive from an agent dispatched to a small country in the South Seas. Regina, a member of a government spy team tasked with extracting the scientist, heads for the isolated island where the military facility is located. Experience Dino Crisis, originally released on the original PlayStation, now enhanced with up-rendering, rewind, quick save, and custom video filters.
Siren | PS4, PS5
Experience Siren, originally released on PS2, now enhanced with up-rendering, rewind, quick save, and custom video filters. Midnight. A siren calls and a sea of red water mysteriously surrounds the mountain village Hanuda. Slowly, a terrible force transforms the inhabitants into shibito, undead husks of their old selves, fueled by evil and hate.Play as one of ten characters caught in a living nightmare. You have three days to learn how their paths intersect as they try to stay alive. Survival depends on your ability to “sightjack” or the power to see through the eyes of friends and foes. There is no one hero. There is little hope.
R-Type Dimensions EX | PS4
The coin-op classics, R-Type & R-Type II, are together on PS4! Fight through all 14 Bydo-infested stages in retro 2D graphics or shiny 3D graphics – and swap back and forth with the touch of a button ‘on-the-fly’. The new 3D graphics are accompanied by fully reimagined arrangements of the timeless R-Type music tracks. The classic game-play remains untouched while the new Infinite game mode allows continuous progression from game start to final boss. Both game modes can be played as single player or local multiplayer.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the first game in the fantasy action role-playing game series not to feature spiders, developer BioWare has confirmed.
Fans had wondered about the lack of an arachnophobia mode after BioWare revealed The Veilguard’s accessibility options without one, but it turns out it’s not needed because there are no spiders in the game.
“No arachnophobia mode because there’s no spiders!” posted associate community manager blackhairvioleteyes in the Dragon Age subreddit.
Reaction is mixed. Dragon Age is known for its creepy spiders, which are common throughout all the games. There are even mods that turn the spiders into other animals to help those with arachnophobia. But while some players have said they’re surprised by the omission, others have welcomed it.
And as some have pointed out, this suggests that the creepy spider with human hands creature shown off as part of a behind-the-scenes trailer released in 2020 may not have made the cut. You can see this nightmarish monstrosity in the video below (skip to 3:17 if you dare).
IGN has plenty more on Dragon Age: The Veilguard, including a deep-dive into its development, which is well worth a read if you want to know more about how BioWare realized the game. We’ve also got a lore deep-dive and everything you need to know about relationships and its steamiest romance.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
I’m told that if I do one more Prime Big Deal Days post, they’ll take off the metal clamps holding my eyelids open, and won’t put them back on until Black Friday next month. Result! So here’s a little after-dinner mint of a PC gaming hardware bargain: JSAUX’s Steam Deck thumbstick covers, which come packaged with some stick-on decals for £8 / $8. Both 20% off, they be, leaving a price so low I have real hope you’ll forgive me using the phrase “stocking stuffer” in October.
October’s Prime Day has given us a wide variety of discounts to check out at Amazon, but a couple of other retailers are jumping in on the action with their own rival sales. Best Buy is one such place giving Amazon some competition. They currently have a great Xbox Series X deal running for a limited time.
At the moment, you can save $50 on an Xbox Series X console there, dropping its price to $449.99, but that’s not all. Best Buy’s also throwing in a free $25 gift card with your purchase. That’s a nice little bonus on top of the discount, and one you can use towards a game for your new console, if you wish. This deal is only running today, so you’ll have to act fast to pick it up!
Best Buy isn’t the only retailer offering up some unforgettable deals right now. Target has a wide variety of LEGO sets discounted at the moment and Walmart currently has one of our favorite gaming monitor deals for Prime Day. And if you’d like to see the rest of what Amazon has in stock for today, have a look at our massive October Prime Day roundup to see the best deals across tech, film, games, and so much more.
While this October sale event ends after today, there’s still plenty more to look forward to as we near the holiday season. Mainly, Black Friday is on the horizon, which is when these retailers will really ramp up their sales. The biggest difference between Prime Day and Black Friday is that more retailers get involved, so there’s plenty more to look through. If you miss a deal during this sale event, it’s likely to pop up again later on. To learn more about these sale events and which is the best one to watch out for, have a look at our breakdown of Black Friday vs. October Prime Day.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.
I always like to balance the inherent cynicism and general corporate awfulness of covering events like Prime Big Deal Days by focusing recommendations on hardware I genuinely like, and ideally, what I actually own. Partly hence the G515 Lightspeed TKL keyboard post from yesterday. And here’s another: the sleek-lookin’, sharp-recordin’ Logitech StreamCam, which is down from £139 to £70 in the UK and down from $170 to $100 in the US.
The developers of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead have revealed its microphone noise detection, an optional feature that lets the game’s monsters hear sounds players make in real life.
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is a single-player horror video game based on Paramount Pictures’ popular post-apocalyptic franchise, which revolves around blind extraterrestrial creatures with an acute sense of hearing. The first movie, starring Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, met with criticial and commercial acclaim back in 2018.
Here’s how the noise detection works: by activating your microphone, this optional feature lets the game’s deadly creatures detect every sound you make in real life, bringing the horror “right into your room.”
Here’s the official blurb:
Capturing the frantic terror, unnerving atmosphere and gripping human drama that made the franchise famous, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is designed for fans of the films, horror games, and story-driven adventures alike. With nothing more than your wits and the simple tools you can scavenge, you’ll have to overcome the many treacherous challenges and obstacles that lie ahead, all while trying to survive the ever-present dangers that lurk all around you.
Experience the harrowing journey of Alex, a young college student suffering from asthma and struggling to survive the end of the world alongside her boyfriend, Martin. But the nightmarish creatures stalking the land aren’t the only threat she’ll have to contend with as she travels through the ruins of civilization in search of a safe haven for herself and her family.
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is developed by Stormind Games, the Italian studio that created survival horror franchise Remothered and action RPG Batora: Lost Haven, and published by Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 maker Saber Interactive. It launches on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S on October 17.
It’s a busy time for the A Quiet Place franchise. Following the breakout first movie in 2018 and its 2020 sequel, prequel A Quiet Place: Day One came out in June, with a third mainline movie expected in 2025.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Serenity now!
Sigh… Okay, let’s do this.
While fans are absolutely desperate to hear from Nintendo regarding the upcoming Switch successor hardware, the firm has instead revealed an official alarm clock dubbed ‘Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo’.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
