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Become the Most Wanted Person in the Galaxy in Star Wars Outlaws

LOS ANGELES — June 11, 2023 — Today at the Xbox Games Showcase, Ubisoft, in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games, announced that Star Wars Outlaws, the first open-world Star Wars game, is launching on Xbox Series X|S consolesPlayStation 5 and Windows PC through Ubisoft Connect in 2024.

A first look at Star Wars Outlaws gameplay will be shown during Ubisoft Forward on Monday, June 12. The event begins at 10:00am PDT/7:00pm CEST and can be watched on YouTube (youtube.com/Ubisoft) or Twitch (twitch.tv/ubisoft).

With development led by Massive Entertainment*, Star Wars Outlaws will invite players to experience the Star Wars galaxy like never before through an original story set between Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back™ and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi™. As the Galactic Empire relentlessly pursues the final defeat of the Rebel Alliance, the criminal underworld thrives. Fans will play as cunning scoundrel, Kay Vess, brought to life by Humberly González, and her loyal companion Nix, played by Dee Bradley Baker (Star Wars: The Bad Batch™), as they attempt one of the greatest heists the Outer Rim has ever seen. Seeking the means to start a new life, players will join Kay and Nix as they fight, steal, and outwit their way through the galaxy’s crime syndicates and join the galaxy’s most wanted.


"When we first imagined the first open-world Star Wars game, we explored where and when it could take place, and quickly realized that we had all the right ingredients for the journey of a scoundrel. These outlaws live life under the thumb of the Galactic Empire, but can still thrive given the opportunities that the criminal underworld opens up for people looking to take advantage of the turmoil,” said Julian Gerighty, Creative Director at Massive Entertainment. “The time is ripe for a new outlaw to make their name, and Kay Vess is written in the stars.”

“With Star Wars Outlaws, we’re excited to deliver the first truly open world Star Wars game, with an action-adventure story filled with characters and planets both new and well-known to the Star Wars galaxy,” said Douglas Reilly, vice president, Lucasfilm Games. “We have been working closely with the talented team at Massive Entertainment, and with their years of experience in creating richly-detailed worlds, we’re excited for fans to be able to jump into the Star Wars scoundrel fantasy like never before.”

For more information about Star Wars Outlaws, please visit: starwarsoutlaws.com

 

*Development partners include Ubisoft Annecy, Bucharest, Chengdu, Milan, Montpellier, Shanghai, Toronto and Paris.

 

About Ubisoft


Ubisoft is a creator of worlds, committed to enriching players’ lives with original and memorable entertainment experiences. Ubisoft’s global teams create and develop a deep and diverse portfolio of games, featuring brands such as Assassin’s Creed®, Brawlhalla®, For Honor®, Far Cry®, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon®, Just Dance®, Rabbids®, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six®, The Crew® and Tom Clancy’s The Division®. Through Ubisoft Connect, players can enjoy an ecosystem of services to enhance their gaming experience, get rewards and connect with friends across platforms. With Ubisoft+, the subscription service, they can access a growing catalog of more than 100 Ubisoft games and DLC. For the 2022–23 fiscal year, Ubisoft generated net bookings of €1,739 million. To learn more, please visit: www.ubisoftgroup.com.

 

© 2023 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Ubisoft and the Ubisoft logo are registered trademarks in the US and/or other countries.

 

STAR WARS TM & © 2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Ubisoft. Ubisoft TM & © 2023 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved.

Article by: Susan N.
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Occupy Mars - PC (Steam) Preview

Occupy Mars: The Game by developer Pyramid Games and publisher PlayWay S.A.PC preview written by Susan N. with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes


Introduction

Occupy Mars: The Game is an open world title where the objective is to build a base to endure the harsh environment by using basic survival skills. With a short tutorial, some of the foundational skills needed to survive is explained before entering the deep end of the campaign. After landing on Mars in an escape pod, it's imperative to search ruined bases to salvage items to build a new home for yourself. And as far as you can see, there is no other life on the planet. To sum up the presentation of the game, it has a great foundation to build upon but has some mixed reception.

General Thoughts

My first impression of Occupy Mars is hopeful. On the surface, it looks like the game will be good because the visuals are mostly polished, the gameplay is passable, and the interactions with the environment is decent enough. (Although, there is something to be said for the object hitboxes...) We embark on an exploration journey to salvage broken equipment and bases so that we can live on Mars. This core loop is fine but, as time went on I became frustrated with the game and not because of the core open world survival principles. Simply put, there's just not a lot to the title. 

Now, it's quite clear that Occupy Mars is in Early Access as there are plenty of patches that have been deployed to fix the myriad of bugs that players have encountered. There's also been a bunch of improvements to the overall experience from when it launched into Early Access on May 10th which inspires hope for a successful full release down the road. Additionally, many of the major issues with Occupy Mars seem to have been contained or fixed since launch. Thus, I maintain hope for its continued development.   


Despite the general outlook of the game's future, I am not a fan of the campaign in its current state. Originally my impression was that the campaign was meant to tick off video game checkboxes because the tutorial is paltry at best. After further thought, and a few restarts, the campaign's beginning weirdly works. Instead of dropping you into the fire, the game lets you do rudimentary tasks within an established base. This is important because you don't get that luxury in many games within the survival genre. So, once you get a sense of key elements of gameplay, then you are thrown into the deep end. You will need to start from scratch but with the knowledge of what your home base *could be*. Essentially, the game gives you plenty of opportunities to envision your ultimate home without giving you a laundry list of objectives or awkward building placements that you are forced into using.

Survive

When you scavenge wreckage and explore Mars, you get to handle the survival part of the game. Not only will you have to find and make parts on your own, but you will also have to construct an entire base. This is challenging in itself because you have to research various technologies to build one. You will be confronted with conserving water, electricity generation, and managing hunger while searching for tablets that contain blueprints to progress. 

In the campaign, you will also deal with natural disasters like meteor storms. When these events occur, you will need to repair your base which gives the game an extra layer of difficulty. There's nothing quite like the threat of losing your base because of a random disaster. But these disasters force you to remain awake as time passes by. If that wasn't enough, your health drains as you become increasingly hungry or tired. This concept is not bad as it increases the difficulty of the game. However, forcing us to stand still inside the landing pod (at the beginning) is a complete miss in my opinion. I think the inclusion of disasters is a good one, but not as early as it is. The reason for that is because the player has nothing to do. We can't even speed up time either, which would make this element much more bearable for new players.


Aside from some aspects of base building, the slow time progression, and the challenge of resource conservation, my main issue with Occupy Mars is how little substance there is. On the surface, it looks fleshed out and visually beautiful in places. However, basic functions don't work the same way depending on what items you are using. For example, if you pick up a cable, pressing right click will drop the object. If you are holding a tool, right click will put the object away. It's not a huge issue, however, it can be confusing to know which objects end up in your inventory and which ones fall to the ground.

To elaborate on the game having little substance, when dashing out to a ruined base for parts, there are vast open areas with nothing to see. The video game version of Mars does not appear to have any kind of life forms to break up the monotony of the environment. And while I'm not expecting there to be an oasis or anything, I was expecting some kind of weird creature or at least some bones to add life to the planet. Even adding random broken monuments of past civilizations that doesn't get explained could be added to give some hope for survival. But without having anything exciting beyond the slow story campaign and flat environment, there is little reason to play the campaign mode over the free play one.

Final Thoughts

At this time, Occupy Mars has a decent foundation to build upon, but right now it is a bit thin for what I've seen in Early Access games. As this is a preview of the game, I can only hope that the game developers have plans to expand this title to have a successful full release. As it stands, the price tag is a little steep for what it is. 


So far, Pyramid Games have been patching the game and are continuing to update various aspects of it, which is what we like to see in Early Access. Additionally, there will be another major update that will address a number of issues that base building enthusiasts have commented about, which keeps me hopeful that the game will become an excellent entry in this genre. That's not to say that the game won't be worth the price down the road, but I'd give it a little more time before purchase.  
 
Score: N/A
Article by: Susan N.

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Arena Shooter Brotato Available on Steam!

 

Zurich, Switzerland - June 23, 2023 - After an amazingly successful early access period, the Vampire Survivors-like Arena Shooter Brotato by Blobfish launches its 1.0 version on Steam today with a 20% launch discount.


The success of Brotato came as a surprise, especially for its developer Thomas Gervraud, also known as Blobfish. Before the game’s early access release, Thomas was unsure about his future as an indie game developer, as his two previous games had only found moderate success. Maybe making games about potatoes was just not going to cut it?


While working on Brotato, he had started to look for a job in case things didn't work out. However, three turned out to be Blobfish’s lucky number. After working on the demo for Brotato (his third game) for only three months, things started to take off. Brotato’s demo found a huge audience during its participation in the "Going Rogue: A Festival of Persistence" and "June Next Fest" events on Steam, garnering 40,000 wishlists for the game before its early access launch.




After its early access release, the game remained popular with streamers and continued to extend its reach. As of today, Brotato has sold over 2 million copies on Steam, maintaining an ‘Overwhelmingly positive’ rating at a $5 price point.

Quote from Thomas Gervraud about his design goals with Brotato:


    “My goal with Brotato is to appeal to a very specific niche of people by combining mechanics from a few different genres, mainly the survivor-likes with hordes of enemies to fight off and autochess games with a shop allowing the player to create unique builds through weapon synergies and combinations. Everything is glued together by a hand drawn artstyle and a potato theme.”


For its 1.0 release, many new features have been added to the game, such as new characters, weapons, items and bosses. All these expansions further increase the huge amount of combinations and play styles in the game.


Potato fans can jump right back into the bullet hell playing as a Golem drilling into its enemies, a Cryptid with claws or a King wielding Excalibur.

Thanks to Brotato’s success, Thomas is now making plans to build up a team around Blobfish. Even with all the changes happening in the studio, some things stay the same as Thomas claims that the studio’s future games are very likely to remain potato-themed.


Key Features

  •     Auto-firing weapons by default with a manual aiming option
  •     Fast runs (under 30 minutes)
  •     Over 40 characters available to customize your runs
  •     Hundreds of items and weapons to choose from (flamethrowers, SMGs, rocket launchers or sticks and stones)
  •     Survive waves lasting 20 to 90 seconds each and kill off as many aliens as you can during that time
  •     Collect materials to gain experience and get items from the shop between waves of enemies
  •     Accessibility options: tweak the health, damage and speed of enemies so the difficulty is right for you


About Blobfish

Thomas Gervraud aka Blobfish is a solo developer from France who started making small potato rogue-lite games right after finishing his studies in late 2018. Blobfish published three commercial games so far: Space Gladiators, Lost Potato and more recently Brotato, whose success has allowed him to set up an actual studio and now he’s looking forward to expanding his team!

 

Article by: Susan N.

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Cultivate Your Ultimate Farm in One Lonely Outpost


HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – June 26, 2023 –
 One Lonely Outpostthe wholesome space farming simulator set on a desolate alien planet from developer and publisher Freedom Games, has successfully landed on PCs via Steam Early Access today, with ports for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on the horizon alongside the future 1.0 launch.

Take the first steps into a charming new world filled with potential and mysteries to uncover. As the first pioneer, make the rusty-hued planet of Calypso hospitable for civilization with the help of Qwerty, a trusty robot companion and the only other Earthly being to make the journey. Terraform the dry desert landscape, mine for resources, and build a bustling community from the ground up.

Plant the seeds of a new colony from reserves stored in the Space-RV. Tend to the brave little seedlings that will provide new oxygen and soon make the air breathable. Harvest and amass a stable food supply to ensure the survival of future colonists, cultivating the planet and learning from it too. Explore the rocky landscape of Calypso and record existing life, weather, minerals, and more in the Omniac. 



Gaining an understanding of this new home will be vital to humankind’s harmonious survival. As the planet becomes more fit for society, curious travelers will make this lonely outpost not-so-desolate. Build a utopia together, welcoming company and connecting with the new denizens as they experience their own fresh starts. Form close-knit friendships and find a budding romance among the colonists. The future of human civilization lies upon the robustness of this community!

“The virtue of working together to build something new can be found at the core of any healthy society,” said Bryan Herren, Director of Marketing, Freedom Games. “One Lonely Outpost honors the strong communities that come together to build something larger than themselves, including our own. I’d like to thank our wonderful community for following along our journey thus far. We can’t wait to show you what’s to come for 1.0!”

 

One Lonely Outpost is now available on PC and via Steam Early Access. For more information about One Lonely Outpost, set sights on Freedom Games’ official website, follow @1LonelyOutpost on Twitter, join fellow pioneers on the official Discord server, and search #OneLonelyOutpost on social media.

About Freedom Games

Freedom Games is a publisher dedicated to offering best-in-class services to partners and providing players around the world with unique and memorable experiences. With over 50 years of combined industry experience at the executive level, Freedom Games seeks to leverage its expertise to facilitate great games and even better publishing experiences.

 

For more information, visit the official Freedom Games website.

Article by: Susan N.
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Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life - Switch Review

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life by developer Marvelous Inc. and publisher Marvelous Inc. & XSEED Games—Nintendo Switch review written by Jim with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes.


Ever since I bought Harvest Moon: Back to Nature on sale at a Target years ago I have been hooked. I loved the game back then so much I had played, if I had to guess, over a hundred hours in it. Now when I see any game named Story of Seasons or even Harvest Moon or anything like it, even like Stardew Valley, I just have to try them. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a remake of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life that originally came out for the Nintendo GameCube and was another one that I enjoyed back then. I remember playing it with the window open in my room with a cool spring breeze coming in and I would play for hours. That was back in 2004 now nearly twenty years later we get a fresh take on the game.

For those that have never played a Story of Seasons game, it is a life/farm sim. Some of the changes from the original are in this one where you can pick your pronouns from he/him, she/her, and they/them. This doesn't affect the game much as no matter what you pick you can romance one of four men or four women. There is also some character customization you can do before the game starts and during the game. You start with a small farm with two fields, a barn, a coop, and a pasture. One field isn't very fertile while the second is a bit more fertile and will give you better crops. You start the game with a cow that Takakura your father's best friend and who lives in a cottage on your farm gifts you. You will also be given a dog who you can pick from two different looks. 

The game gives you plenty of tips on what to do like watering your crops twice a day, feeding animals, and using the tools you need to farm. For me, the game started a little slower than I remember. I had two fields full of crops, a chicken, a cow, and a horse that you get shortly after you start. Even with all that I found I still had a lot of time in the in-game day to do other things. You can fish once you get a fishing pole, talk to the villagers, get a daily recipe from the nature spirits, go dig in the mine for artifacts that you can sell, or gather flowers and wild herbs. But these artifacts can not be put in the shipping bin for Takakura to sell for you, however one of my favorite parts of this game is it lets you open your own shop stall in town. Also in town, you will find a bulletin board where you can find requests from the villagers for anything from crops, eggs, milk, fish, or even a cooked dish. I'm sure there will be other things too later. You will get rewards for completing these, but you only have so many days. The rewards can vary from seeds to wild herbs among other things.

Oddly enough the game never told me how to do this but by memory luckily I found the spot. Here you can pick a few items to sell and villagers will come and stand in front or to the side of your little stall. You talk to them and they will ask about an item that you can sell for full price or give a discount. Every villager will only buy a certain number of items. Three for most so talk to them more than once. Some will only buy one or two items and some will only buy if you discount it. You can sell just about anything this way but takes it takes time and sometimes villagers won't walk by for some time. There is another way to sell your unwanted items. Every four days a man named Van will stop by the village and set up his stall where you can sell just about anything. Also you can buy special items from him like upgraded tools. The only things you can buy at any time in town are seeds and food to eat right away at the cafe. 

There are three different kinds of crops: tree crops that can grow any time but will only bear fruit at certain seasons, flowering crops that grow above ground, and root that grow below ground. The only ones I see that made a difference are tree crops as they take up more space and don't need to be watered. Each crop takes different amounts of time to grow so best to keep an eye on what seasons they grow or they may wither away on you.

When a villager's happiness is high enough there will be small events that will play out sometimes giving you the option to pick what to say and sometimes you just read what they say in little cut-scenes that tell you more about that village and who they are. There is also a festival once every month. By doing these you can get closer to the person you are trying to hook up with or if you're already married you can go to the events as a family. Again these are just little cut-scenes other than them asking you to bring food to one and an ingredient to another other I do wish they were a bit more interactive. Even Back to Nature had interactive events every month and more of them than just four.


The game is played in chapters and in the first chapter where you just get started the story wants you to get married by the end of the first year. This is pretty easy by giving gifts to your favorite and then giving them a blue feather that you will get after a bit in the game. There are four seasons in the game and each one counts as a month and is ten days long. These short months help push the story of the game along, but can also come as a surprise to anyone who has played a story of seasons before as months are usually longer. 

Once you get married at the start of your second year you will get a child who starts as a toddler. You can pick if it's a boy, a girl, or either for a random choice. I picked either and got a son who I named Aiden. You can interact with your child and carry them, snuggle, toss and catch them, or sing them a lullaby. You will also be able to buy some toys for your child from Van once he has them in stock. Your wife will also help out with watering the crops a few times and this does come in handy as the second year picks up a bit where you can buy a third and even better field. 

By this time you might have more than one type of cow on the farm each with their own milk type, ducks, chickens, sheep, and goats. So even though things started slowly you may be having more to do once the second year comes up. You will have to watch your stamina, energy, and fullness. By doing things like watering crops your stamina will lower at first. The only way to make this go back up is to eat which will also raise your fullness. Run out and you will pass out for a few hours. After the first year however your home will have a shower and that will restore your stamina. I couldn't figure out what energy was, but it did lower and I could raise it by buying an item from Van.

I was also surprised to find some mini-games thrown into the mix like a strange line game where you try to make triangles and block your opponent from making ones of their own. I was really bad at this! There were a few others too that were easier. It just seems like most of this comes after the first year including new villagers. Also, starting later in the game, you can start to mix seeds and crops with other crops and certain flowers from an interesting NPC. Now you can make new kinds of crops by mixing them with others!

I have played a lot of this game and I can't wait to see even more of what will happen and how my son and family may grow over time. Even though things started slow I was quickly reminded why I loved the GameCube game all those years ago! Story of Seasons is a relaxing, and clean, game that I still love to this day, and it was only made even better by the additions and fixes this updated version made.


Score: 8.5 / 10




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Tactical Action Turn-Based Mech game “DUAL GEAR” Moving to use Unreal Engine 5

Also getting an Update in this late August by Code Name "Dual Gear [D]"


Genre:
Turn Based Strategy, Tactical Action, Mech, Robot

Platform: STEAM (Windows), other Consoles Still TBA

Developer: Orbital Speed Studio Co., Ltd.

Estimated Release Date: Late 2025

Bangkok/ Thailand June 23rd, 2023Tactical Action Turn-Based Mech game “DUAL GEAR” Moving to use Unreal Engine 5 and getting an Update in this late August by Code Name "Dual Gear [D]"
 

Dual Gear will get the first update of 2023 this August! The team decided to move the game porting to Unreal Engine 5. The new engine will bring reliability to development along with a new technical term that comes around 2-3 years. This is the Next Phase of the game under the new name "Dual Gear [D]" The team will announce the details and more Screenshots soon and put a 50% discount on Steam until June 26th, 2023.

Get a discount on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/443000/DUAL_GEAR/
 

The Revealable Features That Coming.

  • [D] Mode to provide a high-speed pace of the game, Feels more mech pilot under this mode.
  • [T] Mode to increased intensity of Tactical Turn-Based factor!
  • Improvementation by Unreal Engine 5

Dual Gear is still in Early Access Phase on Steam. The team aims to develop a new vision of Turn-Based mixing by Piloting robots into the game by using Unreal Engine 5. The estimated release date is in late 2025.

About Orbital Speed Studio

Orbital Speed Studio is a small independent game studio based in Bangkok, founded in 2014. The team member consisted of developers who have experience in game projects including Aeternoblade and some worldwide titles. Orbital Speed Studio is working on the current project, Dual Gear. The first original game from the studio.
 

Company Website

www.orbitalspeedstudio.com
 

Dual Gear Official Website

www.dualgeargame.com
 

Social Media

Twitter

Facebook

Youtube

Steam

 

Article by: Susan N.



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Watch the Launch Trailer and Get Computer Specs for Forever Skies Here!

19 June 2023, Wroclaw, Poland | Forever Skies, the first-person, sci-fi survival game have put out 2 new trailers and their PC specs ahead of their Early Access launch on June 22nd.

On top of a launch trailer, the team have put together a video to highlight some of the vast customization options players will have when building and personalizing their own airships that they will use to explore and survive in the ruined skies of Earth.



And with only a few days to go before launch the team have also released their minimum and recommended PC specs:

Minimum

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 10/11
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-7600 / AMD Ryzen 5 1600
  • Memory: 12 GB RAM
  • Graphics: RX 580 6GB VRAM / GeForce GTX 1060 6GB VRAM
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Storage: 31 GB available space
  • Sound Card: DirectX compatible
  • Additional Notes: System requirements may change during the development of the game.

Recommended

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 10/11
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-7700K / AMD Ryzen 7 3800X or better
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: RX 5700-XT / GeForce RTX 2070 / Intel Arc A770 or better
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Storage: 31 GB available space
  • Sound Card: DirectX compatible
Forever Skies is a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi survival game that has players exploring an ecologically ruined Earth. Players will navigate the world in a high-tech, mobile airship that they will build, upgrade and customize. On top of exploring the skies, players will also venture beneath the toxic dust that blankets the Earth’s surface. Scavenge for rare resources, defend yourself against viruses and modify pathogens to boost your body. Discover what became of humanity before its downfall and be wary of what mother nature has allowed to evolve in this new, toxic environment under the dust.

Since being made playable with a public demo back in October 2022, the game has expanded immensely with the team adding new locations, revamped survival mechanics, multiple customization options items and much more for the start of Early Access.

This is however only the start of the team’s journey and along the way the team will be adding up to 4-player coop, additional story chapters, more exploratory locations and location variants, more airship construction modules and equipment, additional artifacts and decorative elements, threats above the dust and combat in the under the dust locations. These additions will run in tandem with updates steered by what the game’s community will ask for.

Forever Skies is releasing on Steam Early Access and is also being developed for current gen consoles.

Article by: Susan N.
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Check Out the Launch Trailer for the Twitch Integrated Experience in Silicon City

Annecy - France, June 15th, 2023 – Polycorne unveils the launch trailer for Silicon City, its new election feature for Silicon City, which will leave early access on 22 June (7 AM PST/ 4 PM CEST) and transforms the gaming experience into a City RPG on Twitch.

Silicon City is a fun citizen-centric city-building game with a retro-classic-flavor and modern tools.



Get Elected or Leave the City!

In addition to all the buildings, data views, unique citizen profiles and customisation options, Silicon City has a brand new election system.

You start out as the Mayor of Silicon City, and all the modern tools at your disposal allow you to build and customize the city of your dreams. However, the Silizens (Citizens of Silicon City) all have their own opinions on the matter, and your term of office is in danger of running out if you don't listen to them carefully. 

Use your knowledge and the information provided by the municipal service on voter engagement and needs to run your election campaign. Get re-elected and continue to manage your urban planning projects, offering your fellow citizens a good life, or it's game over, Mr ex-mayor!

Silicon City as a City RPG

Twitch integration allows streamers to play with their viewers as citizens. These citizens appear in the game and can carry out a host of different actions, including looking for a job, using the Bakr social network, voting, and many other surprises.

Silicon City is thus transformed into a real Twitch RPG where, more than ever, every Silizen has a say, and where the streamer-mayor experience reaches its climax.

Features

  • A tribute to the classic City-Builder 
  • Unique, independent and important citizens
  • Blueprint management and data views tools
  • Procedurally generated buildings
  • Customize your games
  • Bakr: an integrated social network
  • Multiple camera option
  • A fun and friendly tone that makes the game accessible to everyone
  • Twitch integration - Your audience become Silizens in your game
  • A Silicon City Wiki.

About Polycorne Games

Polycorne Games is an indie video games studio from Annecy. We put gameplay innovation at the heart of our projects. We encourage creativity within our team to produce a unique gaming experience. We were born gamers and have a real passion for video games and their mechanics. Polycorne shares these values by contributing to management game projects with innovative concepts.
Article by: Susan N.
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Play Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow on Steam Now!

June 14th, 2023 - Publisher Ravenage Games and Developer Frozen Line announced that atmospheric puzzle platformer Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow is now available on PC via Steam. Save 10% on the title for a limited time during launch week and unveil its official launch trailer.
 
In Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow, you step into the shoes of a young boy Griffin accompanied by a teddy bear Birly. They find themselves in an incomprehensible place, pursued by a menacing force. Together, they must solve puzzles and uncover the mystery of their arrival in this world.



Though being a game about the adventures of a child and their teddy bear, Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow immerses you in the gripping story of a person on a quest for redemption. Solving tricky puzzles, escaping terrifying monsters, and avoiding dangerous traps will help this person find inner peace.
 
Travel through a mysterious world of floating castles, craggy caves, enchanting forests, and vast plains. Prepare to be captivated by the enthralling world of Daydream, where you'll discover the transformative power of resilience and the bittersweet beauty of letting go.

Key Features of the Game:
  • Delve deep into a sprawling story, uncovering secrets and unraveling the mysteries of an enchanting narrative.
  • Encounter memorable characters, including the endearing young Griffin and his devoted companion, Birly the teddy bear.
  • Take control of an adorable teddy bear friend who assists you in reaching inaccessible areas.
  • Enter an unforgettable world enhanced by dreamy melodies and mesmerizing music.
  • Engage in a delicate fusion of mind-bending puzzles that will test your wits and heart-pounding action that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
For a span of four years, the indie developer trio Frozen Line dedicated themselves to bringing Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow to life. With limited resources and a small team, they passionately poured their creativity and hard work into every aspect of the game's development.

Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow is now available on PC via Steam for $19.99. Save 10% on the title for a limited time during launch week.
 
For more information, please visit the website and follow the game on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and join the Discord server. 

About Ravenage Games

Ravenage Games was founded by a team united by one trait: substantial developer relations experience. The publisher believes that in this industry, decisions must be clear and lightning-fast to build trusting relationships with game creators and deliver quality products. For more information, please visit https://ravenage.games/

About Frozen Line

Frozen Line is a three-person studio committed to developing storybook-like adventure games that can be enjoyed by everyone. Company’s first game Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow received the Best Unreal Engine Game award at Indie Cup 2021 and Best Art at the Indie Blast Awards 2020.
Article by: Susan N.
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Play The Demo of Revival: Recolonization Ahead of Its Launch on June 28th

June 11th, 2023 - HeroCraft PC opened the Demo of its 4X game Revival: Recolonization during the PC Gaming Show event. The demo is available right away on Steam! Press, and influencers alike are welcome to thoroughly try the game before its EA launch on the 28th of June 2023.

The Demo is the pre-final Revival: Recolonization experience and offers hours of gameplay without play-time or content restrictions. Some polishing will be applied to an Early Release though. 

Revival: Recolonization is a 4X game set on a post-apocalyptic Earth.  Players will lead a fledgling group of people as they rise up, improve their technologies and lead Humanity to glory and prosperity. 


Manipulate the terrain using the Edict System to give your army the edge in tactical battles
Customize your units the way you want to. Primeval warrior with high-tech gear? Sure, why not!
Retake the Earth from the frantic AI that will make you face the consequences of your actions.  

Revival: Recolonization is the first entry in the Revival franchise to appear on PC. The first two entries debuted on feature phones.

About HeroCraft PC

HeroCraft PC is a publisher and occasionally a developer of PC games, including King of Dragon Pass, Tempest, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf. The company’s portfolio comprises over 10 games with a focus on role-playing, action, and strategy titles. HeroCraft PC is currently publishing several games, including  Heart Abyss (Steam), Deck of Souls (Steam), Anvil Saga (Steam), Catizens (Steam), Roboholic (Steam), and Organs Please (Steam).
Article by: Susan N.
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Starship Troopers: Extermination PC Preview

Starship Troopers: Extermination by developer and publisher Offworld IndustriesPC (Steam) preview written by Robert with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Starship Troopers: Extermination is PvE horde shooter developed and published by Offworld Industries and given they are the studio behind one of the industry's best mil-sim titles, Squad, I had high expectations. To put it bluntly, Starship Troopers: Extermination lacks any depth, reuses assets in the name of progression, and has plenty of pop-in no matter the machine you throw at it ... and I wholeheartedly love it. Not just love it, I adore it, and in my not-exactly-humble opinion, Offworld Industries is doing Early Access right and every studio looking to do the same should take note.

Though Squad has its own bumpy history to it, Offworld Industries has managed to break into the mil-sim market as a mod and take it by tactical storm. In a world dominated by arcade shooters looking for the next major thrill (or dance move, or whatever), the Mil-Sim genre has been fairly steady in that you had the wonderful yet intimidating, Arma franchise by Bohemia Interactive. While there were others, Arma has always been, "the one." Though not exactly a booming genre, it's one known for reacting to player feedback- if you release something horribly unbalanced and don't fix / address it based on player feedback, you'll simply be washed down the drain... Not so with Offworld. Having been birthed into one of the most pedantic and ornery communities in gaming (I say that in the most loving of ways, as I'm a part of that genre), I feel that only Offworld could've pulled off what they have with Starship Troopers.


It takes a certain kind of crazy to release a shooter set in a franchise that is woefully misunderstood, in part due to the campiness of the absolute bangar of a blockbuster, Paul Verhoeven's 1997 adaptation of Starship Troopers. What rankles me most is that the movie is horribly misundestood- I highly recommend spending the 2 or so hours it takes to watch it, then sit down and watch The Critical Drinker's video on it (I apologize ahead of time, but there are curse words in his videos), which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8nM5N4ptkw Then go back and watch Starship Troopers again. While the movie IS quite goofy and full of unapologetic B-rated goodness. It's just fun ... but it, like the book it takes its inspirations from, Robert A. Heinlein's 'Starship Troopers' is an excellent piece of anti-fascist scifi literature. When you're done watching the movies and spend a little time looking into some of the retrospectives and documentaries you'll probably ask yourself whether it's a good choice or not.

It was.


Starship Troopers: Extermination, for all of it's simplicity, manages to capture something in it's hopeless situations; comraderie. There's a weirdly fierce and incredibly loyal community behind the game (irrespective of whether they'd seen the movies or read the book) and because we're all standing the line to hold back the Arachnids together. Which is what the premise of every session is ... whether you're playing the faster, more arcade-like assault and secure (or "AAS") game mode, or the slower, more plodding and strategic ARC game modes. In AAS you're essentially dropped right into the action with only a few minutes to spare. Most of my AAS games would last 15-20 minutes, though with a good crew you could actually be in/out in about 12-15 minutes. These are great and if you're playing on the "Quick Play" mode that just shoves you into a game where they have the available roster, because there's a chance the next Quick Play session will see you in the more tactical ARC mode. The pacing for both is great and ever since they added that "Quick Play" mode, I've not felt the need to specifically play one mode or the other. When I let "the algorithm" do it's thing, I would be rewarded with a good mix between the two modes.

ARC missions tend to last about 45 minutes, unless you're blessed with a terrible command structure, then you're screwed. While there's no specific commander mode, there are very, very few games that I've played that didn't have some level of command crew figured out within minutes of hitting the ground. It's rather impressive given the quality of Squad Leads and Commanders in public Squad games. That said, there are five total squads, Ifrit, Demon, Hellfire, Nightmare, and my personal favorite, Cerberus Squad that players can join into. Currently they don't do much other than loosely corral Mobile Infantry into semi-cohesive collections of meatbags that are only there to do their part and no more. Spread throughout those five squads will be your squadmates. If you're lucky, you'll manage to land into a squad that uses their microphones to properly convey orders, positions, tasks, needs, etc. and not some chud just letting his 4 year old little brother just "reeeee" into the microphone (FYI, if you press Z you can mute players, which is good if you're recording or streaming). Fortunately, though, the overwhelming majority of players are solid and always trying to do their part.


Starship Troopers isn't all glory and liberation, though- it has its warts, and some I'm still trying to determine the "why" of. I can't quite work out some of Offworld Industry's decisions given their backgrounds with Squad. There's no command structure (Squad Leads, Command, etc.) though they do have limited classes between the Hunter, Bastion, and Operator (assault, tank, support). There's a single map that, though large and varied in elevation, can feel a bit stale after a week or two of playing. While there are three unique classes, the weapons and skills aren't quite there yet to make up for any missing gameplay loops. It wasn't until a month after release that loadouts and game settings would even be retained. Audio channels are weird- the local channel will sometimes be the squad channel, and the "Team" voice channel is just ... the entire 16-person crew, which is really difficult to follow along with because you have 16 people trying to talk and listen all at the same time. It doesn't work out great. One of the little issues that can really just annoy you is aiming down sights- it's really amateur and just abnormal as all get-out. Given the level of care and quality that went into the animations for Offworld Industry's other titles, it's hard to see why they pushed the game out the door in the state that it's in.

One this is for sure, though- Starship Troopers: Extermination is a hit. I've spent nearly 50 hours in game, slaying wave after wave of Arachnids and I don't regret a single moment in it. Instead, I'm eagerly looking forward to jumping into my next mission to do my part-

Are you willing to do yours?

Score: N/A


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Steam Next Fest | Jumplight Odyssey demo out now!


League of Geeks
 has today released the free playable demo for Jumplight Odyssey, a roguelite colony sim inspired by genre staples and classic ‘70s sci-fi anime. The demo is available to download during the Steam Next Fest, from June 19-26, 2023, and provides a sneak peek of their latest project, from the studio behind the hugely successful indie hit, Armello.

Watch the latest Jumplight Odyssey trailer below

Start a career as captain of the SDF Catalina. Explore multiple star systems, customize the ship’s decks with dozens of fully placeable objects, and manage a robust crew comprised of characters with detailed relationships, personality traits, and schedules.
 

Manage a bustling starship with multiple decks inspired by Incredible Cross-Sections. Freely navigate between the Bridge, Promenade, Crew Quarters, and more, each with vital utilities to keep the ship running and crew happy.
 

  • Deploy pilots on resource-gathering away missions from the Flight Deck

  • Watch crew members socialize on the Promenade to deepen relationships

  • Fabricate supplies and maintain power on the Quarter deck

  • Harness Starlight, a vital resource allowing the Catalina to jump to new star systems.

 

Build, expand, and customize the Catalina’s decks to create a personalized ship on your journey to the fabled Forever Star. Experiment with different layouts and technologies across multiple runs while keeping hope alive.
 

Jumplight Odyssey will be available on PC via Steam Early Access in 2023, with English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) language support. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions are planned following Early Access.
 

For more information, visit the official Steam page.
 

About League of Geeks

League of Geeks is an independent video game studio based in Melbourne, Australia. Specializing in approachable strategy games with an eye-catching aesthetic, League of Geeks’ debut title, Armello, sold nearly 2 million units on PC and consoles since its launch in 2015.
 

League of Geeks is currently working on Solium Infernum and Jumplight Odyssey. For more information, visit the official website.

Article by: Susan N.



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