A Tourist’s Guide to Dungeons of Hinterberg – Coming Day One with Game Pass

Category: Games

A Tourist’s Guide to Dungeons of Hinterberg – Coming Day One with Game Pass

Summary

Microbird’s Regina Reisinger shares the need-to-know sights, sounds, and tastes when exploring Hinterberg.
Dungeons of Hinterberg is broken into four very distinct regions that each have their own pockets of adventure, weather, and monsters.
Dungeons of Hinterberg launches July 18, 2024, for Xbox Series X|S and will be available day one with Game Pass.

Dungeons of Hinterberg – launching July 18, 2024 for Xbox Series X|S (and coming day one with Game Pass) – is a delightful dungeon crawler that blends combat, exploration, and social sim elements into a charming and colorful package. The game takes place within the bustling town of Hinterberg, which has recently found itself full of monsters and magic – and become a tourist destination as a result. It’s here you’ll guide your hero, Luisa, away from her dreary life of a dead-end job to explore the surrounding regions seeking adventure.

But, as a grand vacation, you need to know the sights, sounds, and tastes of where you’re visiting. What are some of the marquee locations that you should track down and discover during your time in Hinterberg? Are there any culinary delights you absolutely must try? What kind of monsters can one expect when traveling from the Doberkogel to the Kolmstein regions? For those answers (and more) we enlisted the help of Microbird Co-Founder and Art Director on Dungeons of Hinterberg, Regina Reisinger to help point us in the right direction.

Your Four Regions

Dungeons of Hinterberg is broken into four very distinct regions, called Overworlds, that each have their own pockets of adventure, weather, and monsters. We asked Reisinger to summarize each of these unique regions.

Doberkogel – “Doberkogel has this lush green meadow and it’s a very chill and sunny atmosphere. Oh, and you can pet the cow (if you want). You can also climb up to the very top of the mountain where it gets a bit rougher, but in general it’s a very relaxing hike up to the Upper Lush Green.”

Hinterwald – “Very deep, dark, and dense. Lots of covered space where you get to hike in various nooks and crannies. It’s a great place for you to get lost in.”

Kolmstein – “Kolmstein is a perpetually snowy mountain, but it’s also very bright with a beautiful blue sky — but always covered in snow. It’s here you get to use a magic hoverboard, so it’s very much like a giant ski slope feeling. Another mountain peak with great sights.”

Brunnelsumpf – “Brunnelsumpf is a perpetually rainy (and a bit foggy) marshland. There are lots of different islands for you to explore – you can rent a canoe to travel to each of them. It’s a bit more like the type of place you’d want to cool down a bit, thanks to its more cloudy and tempered weather.”

Unique, Can’t-Miss Features

If you were planning to take a visit to the town of Hinterberg for the first time, what would be some of the “Can’t Miss” features from each of the regions that you must see before your trip is over?

Doberkogel – “There’s a cool lake to hang out at, and of course traveling up to the summit. On the mountain, there’s a hut where you can sit outside on the balcony and take in the view while sipping a drink or eating a snack. And of course, there’s still the cows.”

Hinterwald – “I think for Hinterwald it’s nice to take a hike up to the windmill, and from there you can look around in the central hill. That’s a good place. And there’s also a nice romantic water mill that you can sit by a little streamlet and meditate along with some castle ruins hidden away that are worth a visit.”

Kolmstein – “There are two peaks connected by a huge, free-hanging bridge where you get a great view over all the surrounding areas. You can walk down this 30-meter bridge, which leads to a cave filled with icicles. That’s a very nice spot. Also, if you go to Kolmstein, there’s a lot of ski lifts and one of them will lead you to a Hut called Edelweiss Rust, which is named after a flower. It’s one of those huts where you can shop for a snack while skiing, and you can sit outside on a bench in the sun. So that’s also a good spot to visit.”

Brunnelsumpf – “There’s an island that has some old castle ruins nearby for you to explore, where you can also access some dungeons; that’s a good spot. And there’s a tent for refreshments, helping you stay out of the rain, rest a bit, and get some refreshments.”

The Must-See Monsters

Hinterberg and the surrounding biomes are filled with a wide variety of monsters and bosses that you’ll have to contend with on your adventures. Here’s a quick breakdown on what type of nasty fiends you can expect to encounter.

Doberkogel – “Kobold’s are everywhere but if you go to the mountains, all the dungeons are mine-themed. The boss is a big worm that can burrow through the earth and lives in a cave in the mountain.”

Hinterwald – “There’s an enemy that looks kind of like an old woman, and she’s called Buschweibchen, which is kind-of “bush woman” in German, so very literal. She will throw poison mushrooms at you, and she can heal. She’s kind of like a forest witch.”

Kolmstein – “There’s an enemy called a Drood. She’s a flying woman with talons. You encounter her a lot and she can conjure thunderstorm clouds and make lightning and bad weather.”

Brunnelsumpf – ”For Brunnelsumpf, it must be the Irrlicht, which is German translation of “Will-o’-the-wisp”. It’s said to be a spirit of people who vanished in a swamp and come back as this little light and kind of lead people astray.”

Must-Try Culinary Delights

If you’re returning for the evening to the village of Hinterberg after a day of adventuring, there are a lot of possibilities for culinary snacks.

“Go to the Main Square and there is a traditional café called Cafe Keindl – they have eismarillenknödel, which is a dumpling of ice cream filled with apricot. That’s very good. And of course, all the chocolate cakes and those kinds of things. And then there’s the local inn, also on Main Square, where you can go in and have a Schnitzel, the absolute classic Austrian dish.”

Meet the Locals (Klaus in Particular)

There are many locals you can befriend during your time in Hinterberg that can give you the lay of the land and help you get acquainted to the peculiarities of the region. There are a few folks you should seek out once you arrive in town, but one of the most important is Klaus.

“He used to be a famous mountaineer in his younger days and is now the guide for onboarding tourists – he will help you on day one and you can go see him at any time. If you visit him later, he will suggest some tips and tricks. And if you’re a good person that collects trash up on the mountain, you can also give it to him for some special rewards.”

Now it’s time to get ready to set out and tour these sights and delights on your own when Dungeons of Hinterberg launches July 18, 2024, for Xbox Series X|S and day one with Xbox Game Pass. Thanks again to Regina Reisinger for helping point us in the right direction.

Dungeons Of Hinterberg

Curve Games

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★★★★★

$29.99

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Pre-order now to receive the exclusive X-Blade Series sword to enhance your adventure!

Welcome to Hinterberg, a new tourist hotspot in the idyllic Austrian Alps! You play as Luisa, a burnt-out law trainee taking a break from her fast-paced corporate life to conquer the Dungeons of Hinterberg. There are plenty of dungeons to find and adventures to be had in Hinterberg – will Luisa be sent packing on her first day, or remain to become a Master Slayer? Only one way to find out…

Snowboard down a glacier, zipline through the forest, climb a mountain, or have a coffee by the lake… There’s no shortage of places to discover while you’re out looking for your next dungeon!

Monsters lurk around every corner in Hinterberg, and your sword and magic skills are essential for keeping them at bay. Harness the wind, conjure a snowboard out of thin air, or freeze your enemies in a jelly block!

Braving a dungeon requires more than just cutting-edge sports gear and a good sword arm: Hinterberg’s dungeons are full of puzzles that will surprise and challenge you. Use your head, your magic skills, and every trick in the book to solve them!

Spend your nights forging friendships with the locals and other adventurers! Some of them will help you get stronger or teach you new tricks, others are just here for excitement and selfies… But good relationships don’t just make your stay more memorable – they’re the key to becoming a better slayer!

The post A Tourist’s Guide to Dungeons of Hinterberg – Coming Day One with Game Pass appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Team Had to Collect So Many Different Awards That Game Development Was Affected

The team behind Baldur’s Gate 3 had to collect so many awards that game development was negatively affected.

Speaking to Edge, Baldur’s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke said the number of awards received became “a real problem” as Larian had to send “rotating teams” of staff out to collect them.

“It affects development. There’s a lot of them,” Vincke said. “This has been a real problem.” Baldur’s Gate 3 was the surprise hit of 2023, earning myriad game of the year awards including from the New York Video Game Critics Circle, The Game Awards, the Gayming Awards, the Game Developers Choice Awards, and more.

It is surprisingly draining on the soul.

Vincke insisted he was still appreciative of the awards, as “it’s great that you have a moment of celebration” and Larian does “really appreciate it,” but sending key members away to each award show seemingly left the development team fragmented.

It “would be cool if everybody could agree to do it all at the same time,” Vincke said. “It is surprisingly draining on the soul.”

This continued focus on Baldur’s Gate 3 also stopped Larian from getting closure, he added “We’ve all been more emotional because we can’t get closure, and you want to have closure at the end of a project.”

That being said, Larian has paid plenty of attention to Baldur’s Gate 3 itself in the myriad updates released following launch, but perhaps Vincke is implying there wouldn’t have been so many if the game wasn’t so successful.

The final major update is due in September 2024, when Larian releases official mod support for Baldur’s Gate 3. After that, it’s leaving behind the game, franchise, and Dungeons & Dragons altogether to create something new.

In our 10/10 review of the game, IGN said: “With crunchy, tactical RPG combat, a memorable story with complex characters, highly polished cinematic presentation, and a world that always rewards exploration and creativity, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the new high-water mark for CRPGs.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Once Human review: waiter, there’s some brilliant creature design in my big bland survival soup

So I’ve just hopped on my motorbike, enjoying one of several pleasingly incongruent classical musical tracks that plays from the radio, on my way to tick tasks off a list in the top right corner of my screen by scavenging an abandoned hospital. It’s a great hospital, by the way. Spotlight-headed phantasma shamble about corridors reminiscent of The Division 2 or The Last Of Us’s naturalia.

Striking, but also within easy reach of comparisons. And if Once Human was purely the collection of x from ys it very much appears to be, I’m not sure I’d have much positive to say about it. On the surface, what you’re getting here is a 6/10 third-person shooter from ten years ago that gleefully spills thumbtacks along any simple paths to progress with live service obfuscation, propped up by a detached crafting and building economy that has you popping mined rocks and chopped wood in the oven then taking out freshly baked shotguns a few minutes later. Its systems run the gamut from numbly enjoyable to being a source of major psychic damage, and even the simple act of replacing your initial tier I rustic baseball cap means navigating several menus, currencies, and resources.

Fallout London’s Robot Speaker of the House Played by UK’s Actual Former Speaker of the House

Expansion-sized Fallout 4 mod Fallout London has already secured the likes of Baldur’s Gate 3’s Neil Newbon for its voice cast but now has announced that, bizarrely, former UK Speaker of the House John Bercow will star, too.

As reported by VG247, Fallout London project lead Dean Carter revealed in Fallout London’s Discord that its post-apocalyptic version of the UK capital will still have a Speaker of the House (the member of parliament who chairs debates between political parties), and in true Fallout fashion the position is now held by a robot.

But who’s voicing that robot? Bercow, of course, who served as Speaker of the House from 2009 to 2019.

“Imagine being Fallout London and feeling so lucky having all the talented voice actors on the team, but then boosting it further with the fact that we have [two] Doctor Who actors as VAs… then Neil Newbon messages us and also wants a role,” Carter said in the post. “But the cherry on the top? Who better to represent our mod’s version of the Speaker of the House, than a robot version voiced by John Bercow himself?”

The role will seemingly be Bercow’s first foray into voice acting but those looking forward to it shouldn’t have too long to wait. Developer Team FOLON declared earlier in July that “the end is in sight” for the highly anticipated mod.

Fallout: London was previously due to arrive on April 23, 2024 but actual Fallout developer Bethesda announced a surprise update for Fallout 4, which the mod developer feared would impact its release.

Carter later lamented how Bethesda, which has made clear it’s aware of Fallout: London, failed to inform Team FOLON of its plans. “That has, for lack of a better term, sort of screwed us over, somewhat,” Carter said. Meanwhile, GOG has confirmed to VG247 that Fallout London won’t be playable via Epic Games Store-bought copies of Fallout 4 at launch because the storefront doesn’t support update rollbacks.

Fallout London is one of the most high-profile mods in development and will let players engage with everything from “stuffy parliamentary aristocrats to a resurrection of the Knights of the Round Table to an uncompromising cult of revolutionaries.”

Bethesda development chief Todd Howard has confirmed Fallout 5 will arrive after the Elder Scrolls 6, which is still years away itself, though massively multiplayer online game Fallout 76 continues to be updated.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Mortal Kombat 1 DLC Character Takeda Gets Proper Gameplay Reveal Ahead of Year 2 Reveal at Comic-Con

Mortal Kombat 1 developer NetherRealm has released a gameplay trailer for final Year 1 DLC character Takeda ahead of his July 23 release date alongside Kameo character Ferra.

Takeda is one of the so-called Kombat Kids alongside Cassie Cage, Kung Jin, and Jacqui Briggs. The gameplay video, below, shows off a number of Takeda’s moves and combos, which revolve around his trademark bladed whips, as well as pre-fight interactions (Johnny Cage, for example, wants him to star in a superteam action movie).

It ends with a look at his fatality, which, as you’d expect from Mortal Kombat, is not for the faint of heart. Here Takeda wraps his hapless victim tightly in his bladed whips before slowly retracting them. Now that’s got to hurt.

Takeda is the last of the six Kombat Pack 1 DLC characters to come out, and joins Omni-Man from Invincible, Quan Chi, Peacemaker from the DCU, Ermac, and Homelander from The Boys. Dataminers have already unearthed evidence to suggest the next six DLC characters coming to the gory fighting game as part of Kombat Pack 2.

The gameplay video does not feature Ferra, however. Ferra is the small fighter who sat atop the hulking Torr as part of the combined Ferra & Torr character from Mortal Kombat X, and was set to hit Mortal Kombat 1 in Kameo form in June but was delayed to launch alongside Takeda on July 23.

Speaking of Kombat Pack 2, NetherRealm has confirmed plans to reveal the future of Mortal Kombat 1 during San Diego Comic-Con 2024, in a panel set for 2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern / 10pm UK on Friday, July 26. Year 2 plans may include what Boon has already teased is set for Mortal Kombat 1, such as story DLC and “a big surprise after that.” Meanwhile, the Mortal Kombat 2 movie is due out October 24, 2025.

Takeda is available from July 23 to Mortal Kombat 1 Premium Edition or Kombat Pack 1 owners. The character is then available to buy a week later.

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.

Review: Darkest Dungeon II (Switch) – An Uncompromising Sequel That Isn’t Afraid To Try New Things

Prepare to die.

Upon booting it up for the very first time, Darkest Dungeon 2 greets you with a message that plainly informs you that you’re going to fail… a lot… while trying to overcome its many challenges. It does this not to discourage you, but to set expectations. Keeping with the precedent set by the first Darkest Dungeon, this sequel is the kind of game that doesn’t pull its punches as you work to achieve mastery over its various systems. Many may be put off by developer Red Hook Studios’ uncompromising approach to difficulty, but those who stick it out will find that Darkest Dungeon 2 offers some of the most rewarding experiences one can find in a roguelike RPG adventure. Perhaps most importantly, this new entry also isn’t afraid to try some new things that set it noticeably apart from its predecessor.

Getting its first full release on PC back in May 2023 following 18 months of Early Access, Darkest Dungeon 2 takes place in a grim, Lovecraftian world overrun by all manner of undead creatures and eldritch abominations after an academic named The Scholar messed around with an ancient relic called the Iron Crown. All the horrors stem from a mountain looming ominously in the distance, and you’re thus tasked with assembling a team of four adventurers and using their combat and survival skills to help you carry a flame called Hope aboard a stagecoach to the mountain, where you will confront the source of the evil and hopefully rid the land of it for good.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Finding your flow in Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, out July 17

Hi PlayStation community—I’m Chris Stair, the creative director of Squid Shock Studios, and I’m excited to have an opportunity to share some insights into our first game, Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, a hand-drawn action-platformer coming out on PlayStation 5 on July 17.

Some of the big inspirations for Bō are the 2D action-exploration games I grew up playing. I love the wonder and mystery that comes with exploration, the thrill of finding new abilities, and the sense of satisfaction when you figure out how to use those skills you’d found to uncover a secret path.

Some of my favorite games in the genre also have really memorable traversal: bombing yourself up a wall, launching yourself off enemies, or just backwards dashing through a castle hall. In Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, we wanted to create a movement and combat system with its own distinctive, rewarding rhythm—something that can make you feel like you’ve entered a “flow” state when everything comes together—and wanted to talk a bit more about that with you today.

Get the flow going

Bō isn’t capable of doing a double jump by default, so one technique you’ll need to learn early on is what we call the Bump. When Bō strikes an object or an enemy with the Equinox Staff while airborne, you’ll glow teal, giving you the ability to do a mid-air jump. If you strike something again after that second jump, you’ll glow again and can do a third jump, and so on.

You’ll frequently combine this with Bō’s Pogo move to get even more airtime. If you press down and strike an object while you’re on the descent, you’ll not only immediately bounce up and get some height, but you’ll reset your jump ability too, enabling you to perform another mid-air leap right afterward.

And as long as there are objects or monsters in the environment to hit, you can keep Bumping and Pogoing basically indefinitely, staying airborne for as long as you can keep up the rhythm. It becomes a little game of its own.

Eventually, you’ll discover other traversal abilities that let you dash or smash downward forcefully through the air. We hope that as you play and get familiar with your abilities, you’ll start to see opportunities throughout the game for all of these things to work together—enemy spawns during a boss battle, seemingly incidental environmental objects, curious platform placement—and get into a really rewarding groove.

Trouble brewing

These abilities aren’t just for movement; they power your combat skills, too. One critical component of the action is the mystic Tea Kettle you get early on from Asahi, a rabbit tentaihana (a sprite-like being) who plays a central role in your entire journey.

When you strike enemies with your Equinox Staff, including when you Bump or Pogo, you’ll siphon their energy into the kettle and brew up some tea. You can then use that tea in a number of ways, such as restoring your health (if you can find a moment of peace) or summoning one of the Daruma Dolls you’ve collected, which unleash some of the game’s most powerful attacks.

The Daruma Dolls especially love hot tea. The hotter your tea is when you summon a Daruma, the more devastating their attack will be. And the way you heat up your tea kettle is, you probably guessed it, by staying airborne in combat as long as you can. So, we really tried to create a system where airborne agility and combat prowess are intertwined.

We designed Bō’s areas and encounters around this idea. Seemingly uncrossable chasms with an archipelago of enemies who serve as your path. Boss battles where you’re bouncing higher and higher off little foes, building momentum to blast the boss’s head with a potent Daruma Doll strike. All with the goal of making it fairly simple to learn, but challenging and rewarding to master.

The boiling point

While we drew a lot of inspiration from 2D action-exploration games, the world and gameplay also draw a lot from Japanese folklore and traditions. The character of Bō is in part inspired by stories of Princess Kaguya and Momotaro. Many of the yokai and monsters that Bō battles represent our own creative twists on classic folktales, like your confrontation with the massive Hashihime who guards the bridge in Bō’s world. Bō powers up the Daruma Dolls by finding ink to draw additional eyes, which in our real world is linked to achieving goals and good fortune. Bō can also collect and equip a wide range of Omamori, amulets that grant you bonuses to customize your gameplay.

There’s a lot more for you to explore and many more ways to find your flow for yourself, waiting in Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus. We hope you’ll check it out when the game arrives on PlayStation 5 on July 17.

Swery’s bloody gambling in Death Game Hotel won’t be his only multiplayer game, he says

Death Game Hotel came out last week – a comically gory game in which players play casino-style card games around a table and raise the stakes by betting their own limbs. It’s a VR game, which is a break from the norm for White Owls, the studio run by Hidetaka “Swery” Suehiro (then again, what is their “norm”?). It’s also got a big multiplayer component, with lots of jovial bubble-popping and chicken-squeezing between the comedy blood spurts. And this taste of multiplayer mischief has Swery’s head percolating. This game won’t be his last dipped toe in the multiplayer ocean, he told us.

“In the future,” said Swery, “I would like to leverage this experience to challenge myself with something new in the online multiplayer realm (something you probably haven’t even imagined yet).”

Ubisoft Hasn’t Forgotten the Driver Series But It Has Cancelled the TV Adaptation

Ubisoft has cancelled the Driver TV adaptation but insisted it’s still working on projects related to the beloved racing series.

Speaking to Game File, Ubisoft confirmed it had cancelled the show, which was announced in 2021 as a collaboration with streaming service Binge and not heard from since, after dissolving film related subsidiary (named after Driver protagonist) Hotrod Tanner LLC.

“We are no longer moving forward with our partnership with Binge for a Driver series,” a Ubisoft spokesperson said. “We are actively working on other exciting projects related to the franchise and can’t wait to share more information in the future.”

We are actively working on other exciting projects related to the franchise.

Ubisoft hasn’t been particularly kind to the Driver franchise recently, having not released a mainline game since 2011’s Driver: San Francisco and Driver: Renegade 3D. A mobile game called Driver: Speedboat Paradise was released in 2014, but the franchise hasn’t made a peep since.

Fans were therefore surprised by the 2021 announcement of a Driver TV show that would “focus on undercover agent and ex-racecar driver John Tanner as he tries to take down a crime syndicate.”

No word on a franchise reboot came alongside it though, and Ubisoft’s latest comment that “exciting projects related to the franchise” still leaves all things Driver up in the air. The fact Ubisoft is still thinking about Driver may be enough for some fans, however.

In our 8/10 review of the last game, IGN said: “Driver: San Francisco has one game-changing, eyebrow-raising idea and it pulls it off with aplomb, infusing the OTT arcade racing with unparalleled variety and a ridiculous supernatural twist whilst staying true to its Seventies chase-movie roots.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Like a Dragon: Yakuza series actor sees Kiryu as a heroic character who’s “starved for love”

If there’s one series that can be relied upon to dole out 80-hour helpings of joy straight into my eager face at regularly scheduled intervals, it’s the RPG brawler stylings of Yakuza/Like A Dragon. One could, I believe, make a convincing argument for Yakuza 0 being – if not the best videogame ever made – then at least the most videogame. While this coming October’s Amazon series won’t be the first live action adaption of Yakuza, I am hopeful its episodic format will give its characters a bit more room to breathe. Or, according to Kiryu actor Ryoma Takeuchi in an interview with IGN, to find the love they’ve always longed for.