Sunless Skies’ Exploration update adds some much-appreciated features

Sunless Skies gets a new update that encourages you to explore.

Sunless Skies got a new update on January 31, 2018 called “Exploration.”

If you’ve never heard of this game, it’s pretty much the sequel to Sunless Sea. You’re the captain of a spacefaring locomotive and you need to travel between distant ports. You talk with NPCs, hear stories and news, and even trade cargoes. It’s all about exploration between the ports and resource management. Your team also has a loyalty meter and you’ll have to avoid mutiny.

Your action heavily influences the game’s outcome by your decisions and also switch between different vessels as well. You’ll have to fave pirates and more in the skies. You can also recruit your team as well.

You can check out more information about the game here on Steam.

The latest update allows the gathering of items around the map and the discovery of Spectacles. You can find anything from sky rocks to honey. There’s also the introduction of the Pitchkirk from Old Tom’s Well, which allows you to complete the Rite of Wrongs to modify their skills. The update adds some atmosphere to the game and some new music cues and visual effects to Terror. The headlights and foglights have also been updated so you can tell which part of the environment is scenery so you’ll stop crashing into, and it’ll help in targeting.

Docking is also much easy and automatic as well. The musical additions to the game also help ramp up the immersion of the game.

Another update isscheeudled for the end of Febraryw with combat and movement updates. Then the ALBION update rols out to add a new region to the game. Sit tight for this one. It’s gonna be the most-anticipated one yet.

Image via Steam.

Bungie releases update “roadmap” for Destiny 2

Destiny 2 gets an update schedule.

After the many waves of criticism for Bungie’s Destiny 2, they’ve finally laid out a “roadmap” for its players to clam the tides.

The specifics of it are pretty scarce, as it’s mainly just random titles like you’d see on a to-do list. But at least it shows Bungie is working towards improving Destiny 2 and it’s taking action- whether in the players’ favor or not. It’s pretty much just an outline of what you should expect from the AAA title in the coming seasons.

Some noticeable improvements include fixes to criticisms from the players tied to the main gameplay. It should receive some updates like public chat on the PC version and also a rate change to the duplicate Exotic items. There will also be Nightfall exclusive rewards as well. This is all planned by February 27.

By March 27, one month later, there should be new updates to abilities and weapons that balances the game as well as Crucible playlist and gameplay tweaks and Heroic Strike modifiers.

Later in May, it’ll get Eater of World’s Prestige Mode and Private Matches as well. The mod system will also be improved.

The roadmap isn’t set in stone though. It’s pretty much just ideas on a board and everything is just planned. But it gives the impression that Bungie is focusing on updates that will make Destiny 2 a game worth playing again. Sit tight for updates.

Image via Bungie.

Nintendo won’t reveal who’s behind the Labo

Nintendo Labo is coming soon.

The Nintendo Labo has been a pretty good success based on word around the web.

One questionable thing about Nintendo’s new interactive cardboard toy is that no one (other than Nintendo) is who exactly is developing the software for this product.

Kotaku has been prodding them with questions regarding the software development for the Labo, but even during the latest showcase, they stated that Nintendo has declined to answer any questions about the people developing the software for the toy.

Although this isn’t unlike Nintendo, since they’ve been quiet about this whole project since the start. They haven’t revealed anything about the teams or devs behind the Labo yet.

The only thing that makes this a weird thought is that it’s already out and released. It’s not like it’s still in development- it’s already availble for pre-order. This sort of information isn’t usually concealed after a game or product release.

The Labo Variety Kit and the Labo Robot Kit both roll out in a few months. Perhaps then Nintendo will shed some information. Right now, if you’re einterested in Labo, you can grab the Toy-Cons on preorder right now from their store.

Image via Nintendo.

Overwatch update nerfs Mercy and Junkrat

Overwatch nerfs both Mercy and Junkrat in newest update.

Overwatch has gone through some major changes in the last patch- specifically for two of the most ass-kicking characters in the game.

Mercy has been top-tier for the past couple of months already in almost every single match. Overwatch League was no exception. She has a super high pick rate and also has the kit to seriously help dominate the enemy team.

Having the ability to revive 2 downed teammates instantly and being able to support the remaining 3 members for twenty seconds is just OP. Because of this, Blizzard has gone ahead and laid down the nerf hammer once again.

In the newest patch, her ultimate Valkyrie has been dropped down to just 15 seconds and also the speed boost has been reduced to just 50% that it provides to Guardian Angel.

Valkyrie will also no longer give her an extra Resurrect charge and it won’t negate the casting time. With these nerfs, players should see a lower Mercy pick rate since Blizzard has gone in and pretty much nerfed her like crazy. She won’t be as helpful and OP as before- that’s for sure. Even skilled players won’t be nearly as effective as before.

The updates were available on the PTR server for a while now. Reactions from players have been mixed. It does what it does- it nerfs her. But some players complained that it goes too far because of the significant casting time of Resurrect and leaves her vulnerable for quite some time.

Even with this player feedback, Blizzard still slammed the hammer.

Junkrat also got a minor nerf in which the Concussion Mine will have damage falloff. They now detonate with weaker damage and need to be extremely close to the target to deal the full 120 hit points. It’s not that bad, but it just makes the AoE of the mines deal less damage.

If you’re a Mercy hater or a Junkrat hater, this update should be bliss.

Image via playoverwatch.com

Hollow Knight is getting another expansion pack – Gods & Glory

Hollow Knight is getting its third expansion pack- free for all players!

Hollo Knight is getting a new (and final) expansion called Gods & Glory.

Since its release, Hollo Knight has already gotten two expansions so far. The base game is already huge, and these expansions added some collectible items, boss fights, and new NPCs to interact with.

Now, this popular underground Metroidvania title is getting its third and final expansion, as announced by Team Cherry in a post. It’ll be the final chapter of the game’s story, and it’ll include a new quest tied to a new NPC known as the Godseeker. From the announcement on their Steam Community page, it looks like she’s a new enemy that’ll eventually team up with the player to bring an end to the game’s chapter.

It’ll also include new bosses for fight, but the exact number is still classified as of now. The bosses introduced with being tied with the Godseeker’s quest, and the devs also said the encounters may not be as they appear- whatever that means.

Upon completion of, the new expansion’s story quest comes a third game mode, which is also a mystery but it’s been built for the fans and is a “classic for the genre.” There’s also a new feature called “Glorify Charms” which allows players to customize their loadouts for their charms.

There’s also some new music from the awesome composer Christopher Larkin.

As of now, there’s no set release date for Gods & Glory as now other than early 2018. Like the previous two expansions, Gods & Glory will be completely free to download for everyone.

Image via Hollow Knight Steam page.

Microsoft acquires Playfab; focusing on better game development with Azure

Playfab has been bought out by Microsoft.

Playfab, a platform for game developers to support their online games, has been bought out by Microsoft.

According to a blog post, they’ve acquired the rights to backend Playfab. This isn’t a platform that’s touted in the face of gamers, but rather developers who need something to compute tasks that we take for granted. Things like account info, account linking, players stats, login info, game saves, and tons of other player data that needs to be stored in the cloud so it can be accessed anywhere.

Playfab is sort of like Google Drive or OneCloud for game data. Kinda.

It’s currently being used by over 1,200 titles and over 700 million gamers. That’s pretty significant.

Getting the rights to this property allows the software giant to expand their focus on gaming and development of Xbox One and Windows gaming platforms as well. This allows for an extensive way to complement their existing platform, Microsoft Azure, in order to better the gaming experience. The Corporate VP of Gaming Kareem Choudhry believes this statement.

Playfab has all of this stuff already figured out. Instead of developing it yourself, why not just buy it? Now Azure can be improved for game developers all over the world. It saves Microsoft money. It saves game devs money and hassle from sorting out complicated code. And it saves both parties time and cost by creating a universal environment for them to utilize.

James Gwertzman, CEO of Playfab, wrote a post about the history of the company as well. He wanted to build an infrastructure to accommodate the development of online games.

Fans react to Rainbow Six Siege price increase; Ubisoft responds

R6S Advanced Edition increased in price by $20.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (R6S), has bumped up the price of its game based on a news post on their site.

This didn’t go through silently and smoothly though, as tons of fans showed some hatred towards the price increase- especially from the Rainbox Six Siege subreddit.

The game was originally released in 2015 and is still played today as a tactical FPS game. It features two teams of five players against each other in small maps and focuses heavily on using strats to beat the enemy team. It has a defending team which can use a variety of objects like traps and barricades to set up defensive positions to gain an advantage over the attacking team, which uses gadgets and rappelling gear to get around these obstacles.

It’s not the first game in this genre, but it’s probably one of the best as of recent, modern times.

The developers removed the Standard Edition which was priced at $39.99 and substituted the Advanced Edition priced at $59.99. This means new players had to buy the Advanced Edition rather than the Standard Edition for $20 extra. The AE only includes some 10 Outbreak packs, loot boxes, and some cosmetic stuff- nothing that special. It does also include 600 credits as well. The loot crates are worth 300 credits each. It pretty much includes everything and makes the original 20 Operators easier to unlock.

There’s also a Starter Edition, which also increased in price and lots of fans backlashed at this as well. For players who aren’t fimilar with it and just wantt a taste of it, it’s a tough bullet to bite. Ubisoft has then decided to make things right for the community. It’s available for the PC only and comes with all content, 600 credits, but takes more time to unlock the 20 original Operators.

First, they decided to keep the Standard Edition instead of removing it.

Second, anyone who plays a match in the game between now and March 6 will unlock the Ash Sidewinder skin for free. And they’re also in discussion about acquiring Operators in the Starter Edition as well.

However, the Advanced Edition will remain at the $59.99 price point on Steam.

Image via Ubisoft blog post.

What’s coming in Sea of Thieves updates

Sea of Thieves has some hidden gems coming soon.

Some users in a Reddit post have gone through and data-mined Sea of Thieve’s code to discover what features are coming up next based on a report via VG247.

If you haven’t heard about this game, it’s developed by Rare and is probably the next big MMORPG. It’s a pirate-themed online experience complete with combat, boats, and everything that entails a pirate on the seas. How could you have not heard of it?

They’ve discovered a bunch of stuff ranging from NPCs, landmarks, weapons, and treasures maps. That’s all the common stuff you’d expect from future updates anyway.

But there are some real golden nuggets you may want to tip you pirate hat at coming in a future patch you may want to look out for.

Spoiler alert: Those who don’t want to get their goods spoiled should stop reading here.

Some notable discoveries in the code include:

  • The Kraken is a threat to ships because it wraps them up and drags them underwater. This seems to be a new monster in a near update.
  • Players can soon play instruments like banjos, fiddles, drums, and ukeleles.
  • Ship customization is going all out as well- you can swap your mast, livery, wheel, cargo, and figureheads.
  • New maps are coming like the Caribbean and such.
  • Bugs patches and error fixes.
  • Besides this, users are constantly posting new discovering. You may want to keep your eye on the Sea of Thieves subreddit for new updates.

The beta will run until January 31st, so there’s still some time to mess around with the game. Or if you’re already all-hands-on-deck about it, you can pre-order it right now on their official site. The launch is scheduled on March 19, 2018 and will retail for $59.99. And it’ll be available for just Xbox One, Windows 10, and Xbox One X. It’ll also have Play Anywhere included.

You can get more info on their site.

Image via Sea of Thieves site.

Battlefront 2 new updates on the way

SW: Battlefront 2 has some nice updates rolling out.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 got off to a rocky start with its player gouging.

DICE has since been committed to improving the gameplay experience of the AAA title after learning that you can’t just try to extract time and money from players like many, many other companies are doing nowadays. Loot crates and randomized items are pretty much the same as gambling your cash for some virtual pixels these days.

That’s probably why there’s a push towards discretions that let the players know exactly what they’re getting themselves into- such as the requirement to jot down the exact percentages of winning a particular item.

DICE has posted some improvements coming to Battlefront 2 in a recent blog post.

First, players who participated in The Last Jedi content season’s faction war may be wondering about why the First Order over the Resistance. It’s because 58% of participants chose to fight for the First order rather then the Resistance, which is why they emerged to be the winners over 10 million faction quests were completed. That’s plenty.

Second, DICE talks about a new content seasons that are underway and will be rolling soon. It’s pretty much hidden at this point, but it should be based on feedback from the previous season.

Third, there will be a new game feature called Jetpack Cargo which arrives next month in February. It puts players into an 8v8 matchup with jetpacks. It’ll be a limited-time thing. There will also be other limited-time game modes as well.

And lastly, there will be a fully-revamped progression system which is built towards what players have been asking for. There isn’t a whole lot written about it, but it does suggest that it’ll be available in March.

If you’re a fan of Battlefront 2, get ready for some awesome updates.

Read their post here.

Indie developers Image & Form and Zoink merge to Thunderful

The two popular indie devs combine to form Thunderful.

Image & Form, a rising indie studio is merging with Zoink to create a new company called Thunderful.

The two studios have worked together before and consider themselves, partners. Instead of replacing one of them, they’ve combined to create a new label. They even have a new site designed just for Thunderful and describe themselves as an LLC that owns both Image & Form and Zoink.

However, it states that both of them will continue to create games with their own intellectual properties under their respective labels.

So it’s like these two studios have created a whole new brand which allows them to work together and develop new indie games, yet it still keeps their properties separate. It’s pretty amusing.

They’ve worked together before, and according to CEO Brjann Sigurgeirsson of Image & Form, they already work “together on a daily basis in PR, marketing, intelligence and publishing.”

These studios created games that are known for their artwork such as, Dig 2, Dig, Heist, and Zombie Vikings. Combining them together may help them create even larger and more awesome games.

As of now, Zoink is working on a game called Fe, which is an action-adventure game published by EA games. You play as a fox in a forest against the Silent Ones. The game is available next month on PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. The interesting part is that this game doesn’t slow development just because of the development of Thunderful. It seems like nothing was halted or slowed.

Image & Form is currently making SteamWorld Dig available for the Switch.

Image via Thunderful.

Coffee Crisis to be released February 15, 2018 – a cult indie retro classic

Coffee Crisis is set to release on February 15, 2018.

If you’ve never heard about it before, it’s a game developed by Mega Cat Studios. It was originally released as a Sega Genesis cart, but now it’s available for multiple platforms- Windows, Mac, and Linux, as well as PS4, Xbox One some time later in the future.

The game first appeared from a successful Kickstarter campaign about a year ago in 2017. It rolled out as a Genesis cart with a box and instruction manual. Mega Cat Studios basically wanted to create another Genesis game without all the laws and regulations of creating one. It’s completely fan-made with no input from Sega.

The game was a success and they continued to work on new updates for the game via the circuit boards and new cartridges because the game was in a physical format and had no connection to the internet. Some updates included art, combos, and new hitboxes. It’s a real blast to the past.

Now, Coffee Crisis is the next game. It’s an action sidescroller beat ’em up with gorgeous 2D graphics. If you’ve played legendary classics like Streets of Rage and Final Fight, you’ll know exactly what the game is like. Players play as one of two characters who need to fight off an alien race in Penn State. It’s a 2-player game with 10 stages that are hand-drawn with complete couch co-op. The game also has some awesome music made by a band called Greywalker and has 12 tracks.

If you’re into indie games, this is one you don’t want to give up.

It’s already being planned for Xbox One as they’ve already begun the process and PS4 will be announced some time later. Windows, Mac, and Linux will be released on the 15th of February.

There will be also some exclusive PC features as well.

The keys for the PC version were delivered to backers in March, and since then we’ve been adapting their feedback into the game. Because of their suggestions, the PC release will have a ton of polished content and exclusive features! We’ve also started the Xbox certification process, so a cup of crisis is coming to consoles too!

Check out their campaign for more info.

Rust is rolling out as a full game – also full price

Rust will be rolling out 2/8/18 as a full game.

Rust is finally leaving Early Access and is coming to full game release on February 8, 2018!

If you’ve never heard of Rust, it’s a survival game that takes place in the modern world. Like any other survival game, you’ll have to gather resources, craft items, and form alliances with other players in order to make it in the world. Raids and attacks are common, so you always need to be prepared for enemies looking for loot.

The game has been in Early Access for over 4 years now. Many players probably already gave up on it and just labeled it as a game that’ll never come out of Early Access and evolve into a full game. But just recently, the developer/publisher Facepunch Studios announced that it’ll finally be a full release title.

The game rolled out a while ago and redefined the survival game genre. It’s been through many, many patches and updates that changed everything from a static map to a procedurally-generated world. Lots of player feedback went into developing the game. It also regressed in gameplay features for a bit as the newer stuff needed to catch up to the old stuff.

Now, it’s fully fleshed-out with NPC vehicles, weapons, items, armor, building materials, keypad locks, and even wildlife to hunt down.

When Rust gets released as a full game, game development will continue on the game to improve. The devs also stated that the update schedule will change from a weekly schedule to a monthly schedule instead. There will also be 2 branches to get the download from. There’s a Main Branch which will include the stable monthly updates and hotfixes. And then there’s the Staging Branch which includes the newest updates (daily) as experimental features. Players can choose whichever branch they desire to play in.

The full version will bump the price from $19.99 to $34.99. So if you’ve been wanting to play Rust, now’s your chance to get into the game before it rolls out. The price increase will be immediate so now’s the time to buy.

We Happy Few delayed until Summer 2018; Stopping sales until game released

We Happy Few will be delayed and is offering refunds for everyone who bought it.

We Happy Few has been officially delayed until Summer 2018 based on a video about the production update straight from the devs.

If you’ve never heard of We Happy Few, it’s pretty much a survival game that’s based in a world where everyone uses drugs to conform to a single unit in society. It’s a first-person game that focuses on exploration in a whole new world as a rebel. You play as a character who refuses to abide by society and you need to discover and learn more about the people behind it. At least, that’s what I last heard about it.

It’s made by Compulsion games. The reason they’re pushing it back is that they need more time to polish it up. And they’ve noticed some complaints and player feedback about the game so they’re taking the time improve the game. They also noticed that there’s not enough content in the game to justify the current price offering, so they’ll be doing something pretty cool.

Sales for We Happy Few will be paused. You won’t be able to buy the game in Early Access anymore starting at the end of January 2018 until it’s released. And everyone who currently owns the game will get a full refund if desired irrelevant of playtime (Steam has a 2-hour window to get a refund).

You’ll have to use stealth to sneak past very dangerous situations and also blend into the surrounding by being a social chameleon. There’s also a combat system if you do get caught as well. You have to explore the dark city of England in 1960s. It’s war-torn and everyone seems happy, but that’s just because of the drugs. You need to find out why everyone is so happy. The game plays with the stories of 3 different citizens each with their own perks and they’re all on the same mission- to find out what’s going on in their super happy city of England. It’s pretty creepy and gives you that eerie feeling as you play it. It features immersive and atmospheric gameplay.

The game has been out for a while now and you can give it a try as Early Access only for $50.99 USD, but the actual game hasn’t been released yet. And it won’t be until Summer 2018. If you’re a fan, be happy for them taking the time.

Overall, there’s a huge fanbase in following this game. At least they’re not rushing it and taking the time to get it right.