Battlefield 6 is letting anyone play for free for a limited time, but PlayStation Plus subscribers shouldn't overlook a bonus opportunity. Battlefield Studios' and EA's first-person shooter has been a smashing success, currently on pace to beat Call of Duty in sales this year, and is generally being celebrated as a much-needed return to form for the franchise. View the full article
I've used ****** Friday gaming PC deals to assemble a 1440p-ready system with all-modern components, and I don't think it costs as much as people might think.View the full article
The Oath of Noble Genies is by far the standout subclass of D&D's recent sourcebook, Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn. It's a versatile Dex build with a fantastic spell list and potent abilities that mean you'll excel in all the expected areas of a Paladin 5e (plus a few you wouldn't expect of these heavily armored half-casters). Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: D&D's new turn based tactics PC game should be a delight - but without VR, I'm not finding the fun How to build Dek from Predator Badlands in DnD 5e D&D reveals final tweaks to its revised Artificer, now with even more Flash of Genius View the full article
***** and Two Point Studios revealed today that not only will the Two Point Museum: Zooseum DLC be the biggest yet but it's also arriving really soon. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article
Indie horror game Horses is preparing to launch on December 2 on the Epic Games Store, GOG, Itch.io, and the Humble Store. But one place it won't be is on Steam, because Steam has banned the game for, according to the developer, reasons that remain unclear even after two years of back-and-forth with Valve. And according to the developer, this ban seems likely to result in the shutdown of their entire studio. We spoke with Pietro Righi Riva of Italian studio Santa Ragione (Saturnalia, Wheels of Aurelia, MirrorMoon EP), who explained their side of the story. According to Riva and a detailed FAQ shared with IGN, Santa Ragione first submitted Horses to Steam in 2023, when the game was in a very unfinished state. "We were only about halfway through development and had scrambled together a build that could be played start to finish, solely to satisfy Steam’s request for a playable version to open a Coming Soon page, something we had never been asked for before," Riva explains. It was at this stage that Valve rejected the game. However, Riva goes on to say that Valve did not offer any explanation as to why the game was rejected, nor was there any opportunity for the team to change whatever the offending content was. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get anyone at Valve to work with them to reverse the decision. "Steam’s decision came without detailed feedback, and the ban notice did not cite any specific scenes or elements," Riva says. "For months we repeatedly asked what triggered the ban and received no answer. We also offered, unsuccessfully, to change any content deemed unfit, especially since the game was still early in development at the time of submission." Chasing Wild Horses So what triggered the ban? Riva still doesn't know. While minds may jump to Steam's recent banning of a number of adult games to comply with sudden crackdowns from payment processors, Riva says this ban took place long before that was even a conversation, and all the content in the game is fully legal. He does have a theory, though. The automated review sent by Steam in 2023 included a link to Steam's Onboarding Documentation, as well as the following sentence: "Regardless of a developer’s intentions with their product, we will not distribute content that appears, in our judgment, to depict ******* conduct involving a minor." Horses, Riva says, does not contain any such content. All characters in the game are older than 20 "as communicated by their appearance and through dialogue and documents that you will encounter in the game." He also asserts that the game is not pornographic. It is, per the studio, "about the burden of familial trauma and puritan values, the dynamics of totalitarian power, and the ethics of personal responsibility." From the FAQ sent to IGN: While it does contain some ******* elements, the intent is never to arouse. It uses challenging, unconventional material to encourage discussion. It invites players to examine why something feels the way it does, what it says about the characters and systems at work, and where their limits lie. It is about tension, not erotic content. (We apologize if we got your hopes up for horse porn.) What Riva thinks triggered the ban is a scene that existed in the game during the initial Steam submission, where a man and his young daughter visit the farm. As the FAQ explains: The daughter wants to ride one of the horses (in the game the “horses” are humans wearing a horse mask) and gets to pick which one. What followed was an interactive dialogue sequence where the player is leading, by a lead as if they were a horse, a naked adult woman with a young girl on her shoulders. The scene is not ******* in any way, but it is possible that the juxtaposition is what triggered the flag. We have since changed the character in the scene to be a twenty-something woman, both to avoid the juxtaposition and more importantly because the dialogue delivered in that scene, which deals with the societal structure in the world of Horses, works much better when delivered by an older character. Riva says he has tried everything. He has tried speaking to contacts at Valve who had previously worked with the studio on past games. According to him, they claimed not to know the specific reasons for the ban and said it would not be possible to find out and tell them. He's reached out to Valve again and again, but has yet to receive any official explanation of what content was offensive, nor an opportunity to resubmit it without that content. IGN also reached out to Valve for comment for this piece, but did not hear back in time for publication. Riva also says he's had no issues with any other platform: GOG, Itch.io, and the Humble Store had no issues with it. Epic asked the studio to update just the screenshots on the game's store page so as not to include nudity, which Riva says they complied with, and the game was accepted. As for consoles, he says he's shown the game to console partners and hasn't heard any concerns about content. Horses also has received PEGI and ESRB ratings that would be required for console distribution. "The only reason we haven't actively started porting the game is lack of funds." Reining It In To be clear, Horses is unsettling to say the least. I watched a colleague play some of it at a demo at Day of the Devs in 2023, and it's not for the faint of heart. It's about a young man who comes to a farm to work a summer job caring for horses, only to discover the horses are actually naked adult humans wearing horse head masks, chained up in the yard. Snippets from trailers show the "horses" watching what seems to be horse propaganda, being ridden by other people by carrying them on their shoulders, being fed carrots, and being on the receiving end of humiliation and violence. It challenges the player to either accept what they're seeing and continue to participate in it, or try to subvert what's going on at the horse farm, a process that seems like it will be utterly terrifying and unpleasant in some way. But Santa Ragione also has a solid track record of making and publishing artistic, esoteric, disturbing games with poignant messages, many of which have been up for awards for that very reason. Their board game Escape From The Aliens In Outer Space was nominated for the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming. MirrorMoon EP was a finalist for the Innovation Award at the Independent Games Festival after its launch in 2013. More recently, in 2024, Santa Ragione published Mediterranea Inferno, which won the Excellence in Narrative Award at the Independent Games Festival. And Mediterranea Inferno is just one of a handful of games published by Santa Ragione as part of its efforts to promote the work of up-and-coming Italian creators, with Horses being another example. Again from the FAQ: We are committed to producing challenging, adult storytelling. Horses uses grotesque, subversive imagery to confront power, faith, and violence. We reject subjective obscenity standards and believe this kind of moralizing censorship evokes a darker past in which vague notions of “decency” were used to silence artists. Games are an artistic medium and lawful works for adults should remain accessible. We respect players enough to present the game as intended and to let adults choose what to play; lawful works should not be made unreachable by a monopolistic storefront’s opaque decisions. Steam publicly downplays human curation in favor of algorithmic sales optimization, yet intervenes with censorship when a game’s artistic vision does not align with what the platform owners considers acceptable art. Steam’s behavior passively shapes which titles developers feel safe creating, pushing preemptive censorship. And yet, the verdict stands. Riva and Santa Ragione are stuck: one week until launch, and no ability to publish their game on the most massive PC storefront in existence. Long Faces According to Riva, the inability to release on Steam almost certainly means that Santa Ragione is done for. The studio already was struggling with financial troubles: it initially invested $50,000 when they signed the game with its creator, Andrea Lucco Borlera. They were hoping that sales of the team's previous game, Saturnalia, would help make that money back, but it didn't do as well as they'd hoped. Riva says they even lined up "a great bundle opportunity" for Saturnalia, but had to cancel it when Valve refused to give them Steam keys for again unclear reasons. Around the same time, we were informed that Horses had been banned and would not release on Steam, which completely erased our ability to find an external supporting publisher or partner to fund the rest of the game, as no one in the industry considers an indie game that cannot be released on Steam to be viable. After two years of seeking these funds through traditional venues while trying to get the game unbanned, we had to seek private funding from friends to complete development, which puts us in a completely unsustainable financial situation unless the game somehow recoups its development costs. Hopeless as this seems, Riva isn't closed to the possibility that Santa Ragione could be saved. He says if it manages to sell "tens of thousands of copies" without being on Steam, they'd be able to break even and keep working on future projects. But he's not banking on that. Ideally, he says, Valve would revert its decision and reconsider the game, but after two years, that doesn't seem likely to happen either. This double standard suggests Steam does not treat games as art on par with film. However, Riva says their team won't fully disappear from gaming. The team has funds set aside for six months to support Horses post-launch with bug fixes and quality of life updates. Riva also tells me that the studio has known this was a possibility for a while now, and has been preparing accordingly. Its members have all found other gigs, some of which are in games. Riva himself says he's always worked multiple jobs in teaching, consulting, and curation while directing Santa Ragione, so he plans to "do more of that." And Horses director Borlera is already pitching new projects elsewhere. While Riva would love to see a miracle leading to Horses recouping its costs and saving the studio, he says what he actually wants more than anything is for Valve to be transparent about its policies on mature content, which have fluctuated over the years and never really been clear. From the FAQ: Alongside ultraviolent titles, Steam distributes explicit pornographic games; some of these listings acknowledge the legal grey area Steam mentioned in the HORSES ban message, by stating “All characters depicted are over the age of 18” in their store descriptions, and yet non-pornographic works like HORSES can be banned without context. By contrast, mature works with comparable or stronger themes routinely appear on mainstream streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, where controversial directors are an accepted part of the catalog. This double standard suggests Steam does not treat games as art on par with film, and intervenes with censorship when an artistic vision does not align with what the platform owner considers acceptable art. As a final word, Riva urges game developers to stand up together to demand transparency from Steam. "I know developers are understandably scared of voicing their complaints about Steam, but I hope we can collectively ask for better conditions to make our work more viable and more creatively free," he says. "The current landscape is one where very few actors control the distribution of almost all games that are produced, and that should mean they are responsible not just for the commercial sustainability of the industry, but also for the growth of games as an artistic medium." Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected]. View the full article
Technological dreams and realities morph into one as something sinister hides beyond the door you're too scared to open. Yet, A.I.L.A wants nothing more than to remind you of what's behind it. What mistake have you made, and just how far are you willing to go to escape your past? Thrown into the world of advanced technology, A.I.L.A sees you play as Samuel, a video game tester. With talks about a killer taking the eyes and hands of their victims, escaping into the virtual realm of horror felt fitting for the broken Samuel. One of the indie horror games I was most looking forward to playing this year was the November 25 horror release, A.I.L.A. A technological horror that blurs the line between the virtual world and reality, A.I.L.A throws you into different worlds in hopes of reminding you of a past Samuel tries so desperately to forget. A.I.L.A has a lot of ideas and doesn't suffer from them I see the lack of a map feature as a highlight of A.I.L.A. Screenshot by Destructoid A.I.L.A cleverly and effortlessly combines ideas and horror subgenres together without ever feeling confused. The inclusion of collectible hunting, both in the form of figurines and Red Wagon pages, strengthens the inviting level design throughout this title. The compact level design was tidy and polished, so much so that A.I.L.A doesn't provide a map. Surprisingly, didn't need it. I found myself easily getting through the game with little hesitation or struggle, as each level had good pacing and flowed well together. The problem is that while the setting and idea shift with each world you explore, the gameplay remains identical throughout. The survival and action horrors blur together, and outside of A.I.L.A's promising opening, the one-note, unscary enemies appear in three forms: the small and common enemy, the larger and stronger foe, and the level boss. The format makes A.I.L.A repetitive and removes any challenge altogether. The puzzles are also simpler than most horror games, and the boss fights feature the same tiny arena, where running in a circle and turning to shoot is sufficient every single time. An intriguing karma system At its core, A.I.L.A is a story about grief, acceptance, accountability, and moving on. Screenshot by Destructoid While the game does offer narrative choices, each devolves into two obvious, binary moral options. The outcome of the game also looks at a final decision, where choosing the right option is as clear as Mass Effect's Renegade and Paragon paths. Karma is not expanded upon further than the occasional choice and provides little depth to the story, for you're not shaping Samuel like a Quantum Dream game or Baldur's Gate. Your decisions are really about whether you accept or deny a truth you haven't yet learnt (but can easily guess). Truthfully, the karma system doesn't change much, but it's a fun inclusion. You're told very early on that A.I.L.A keeps track of your karma and listens to your feedback. This only seems to matter in the first hour, however. What seemed like a big selling point of A.I.L.A in its karma system (which had great potential) offered disappointment as it was underutilized. Unreal Engine 5 in full force (except the janky character models) Each setting is interesting enough to easily immerse yourself in. Screenshot by Destructoid The atmosphere you'd expect from a horror title was severely lacking. Outside of the first half hour of gameplay that clearly took a leaf out of P.T.'s book, the rest of A.I.L.A offered little tension as I breezed through each level, solving mostly easy puzzles and brute-forcing the rest, engaging in simple yet repetitive combat along the way. While I enjoyed the lore each level had to offer, I couldn't immerse myself in the story, for I knew they were created by the A.I.L.A. software. This is hopefully something only I noticed, but it's hard for me to invest in characters that are inconsequential to the overarching plot when their existence is purely video game filler. Like Inception's dream-within-a-dream, no one cares for the extras that fill Cillian Murphy's subconscious, but rather the real people that are invading his mind. Similar to Cronos: The New Dawn, there is nothing new or inspiring in A.I.L.A Scripted chase sequences, slow-moving enemies, unchanging combat, and tiresome, poorly-designed boss fights quickly made A.I.L.A rather monotonous. Screenshot by Destructoid While I don't expect something original, borrowing so obviously from Resident Evil and Silent Hill, acknowledging the inspiration with references like Leon Kennedy's ID and combining the health item with a flower for increased effectiveness, makes A.I.L.A feel like a copycat. The P.T.-style opening sets up the usual psychological horror take, but it has unique elements in its use of glitches, televisions, and a remote control to shift reality. This, paired with the overall creepy sound design, gave A.I.L.A a strong start. It wasn't until I saw the ubiquitous mannequin that features in many indie horror games that my enjoyment dipped. Overtired, oversaturated, and sadly predictable—those were my thoughts an hour into A.I.L.A and remained until the end, eight hours later. I hoped the story would save the game, but it was clear from the start where it was headed. The reveal was expected, evident by the various hints thrown in your face from the onset. Most will quickly catch on if you're used to horror games. If you wanted a terrifying experience, you won't find it here. However, if you're not desensitized by horror as I am, then A.I.L.A should offer entertainment, tension, and intrigue with its narrative. Those who are fans of P.T. and Resident Evil should enjoy this title, so long as you're not looking for the next influential psychological or survival horror. The post A.I.L.A review — A genre-bending adventure that’s sorely missing its nightmarish code appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article
For many years now, the *********** character Thomas the Tank Engine has been something of a modding phenomenon. You can find Thomas in everything from Hogwarts Legacy to Elden Ring, but it all began with a 2013 Skyrim mod that replaced all dragons with the resplendent blue engine, as well as adding sound effects from the show... Read more.View the full article
After Valve announced its upcoming Steam Machine living room box earlier this month, some analysts suggested to Ars that Valve could and should aggressively subsidize that hardware with “loss leader” pricing that leads to more revenue from improved Steam software sales. In a new interview with YouTube channel Skill Up, though, Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais ruled out that kind of console-style pricing model, saying that the Steam Machine will be “more in line with what you might expect from the current PC market.” Griffais said the AMD Zen 4 CPU and RDNA3 GPU in the Steam Machine were designed to outperform the bottom 70 percent of machines that opt-in to Valve’s regular hardware survey. And Steam Machine owners should expect to pay roughly what they would for desktop hardware with similar specs, he added. “If you build a PC from parts and get to basically the same level of performance, that’s the general price window that we aim to be at,” Griffais said. Read full article Comments View the full article
There are some incredible deals in Steam's first-ever official ****** Friday *****, with hundreds of games getting massive discounts. It isn't very often players get access to such great deals, but it's even less common for top-rated games to be made available entirely for free. View the full article
PC gamers looking to upgrade their RAM kits may be priced out of buying one, as RAM prices have soared by over triple the amount they were in September, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. The RAM price spike affecting PC gaming will invariably affect the price of consoles, smartphones, and other modern devices that need RAM to function at all. View the full article
Previously code-named Project Orion, Cyberpunk 2 is the still-nebulous, upcoming sequel to beloved RPG and comeback success Cyberpunk 2077. Cyberpunk 2 remains almost entirely mysterious – developer CD Projekt Red's next release is The Witcher 4 – but there are some promising indicators that development is ramping up. View the full article
Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada says he’s been taking an interest in Capcom’s decision to charge fans who want to stream upcoming Street Fighter 6 tournament finals. It was announced during Tokyo Game Show in September that the finals of Capcom Cup 12 and the SFL World Championship would be streaming live via pay-per-view. The announcement stated that fans who want to watch the tournament finals online will have to pay ¥4,000 ($27) to watch the Capcom Cup 12 Finals on March 14, 2026 and another ¥4,000 ($27) to watch the SFL World Championship on March 15, 2026. Alternatively, a bundle is available for ¥6,000 ($40) that allows them to watch both finals. Read More... View the full article
Bethesda is celebrating a decade of Fallout 4https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/fallout/this month, and, as is Toddly tradition, has released yet another version of the Sole Survivor's wasteland journey. The Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition launched on November 10 as an all-encompassing collection of DLC and add-ons, but a related update to Fallout 4's Creation Club menu rolled out for everyone who owns the game and caused issues with certain existing mods... Read more.View the full article
There are very few RPGs out there that can immerse players in their worlds the same way popular, time-tested titles like Fable or The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt do, but a newly released open-world role-playing adventure from Fire & Frost studios aims to do just that. View the full article
Arrowhead Game Studios has finally revealed that Helldivers 2's next premium warbond, Python Commandos, will be available for players to purchase after the title's next big update goes live on December 2. Helldivers 2 was originally released on February 8, 2024, and is currently available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. View the full article
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Battlefield 6 is letting anyone play for free for a limited time, but PlayStation Plus subscribers shouldn't overlook a bonus opportunity. Battlefield Studios' and EA's first-person shooter has been a smashing success, currently on pace to beat Call of Duty in sales this year, and is generally being celebrated as a much-needed return to form for the franchise. View the full article