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The Painted Realm is a location players can unlock during Chapter 3 of ****** Myth: Wukong. Reaching this hidden domain requires the Destined One to obtain the Ruyi Scroll, a legendary item that will transport the player to the Zodiac Village within the Painted Realm. Once unlocked, the Zodiac Deities, Xu Dog, and Shen Monkey will relocate to the village, making it an invaluable one-stop shop for upgrading equipment, making medicines, and gathering ingredients. View the full article

"Studio Ghibli" is a genre of game, in the same way "Aliens" and "Blade Runner" are genres of game. Blue skies, wind rustling grass that's a just-so shade of green, a preoccupation with flight? Welcome to Ghibli town, friend. You'll find all of the above and several other familiar pieces of iconography in Europa, a puzzle and story-led adventure that's out now. Read more View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Thronefall is a pleasant, minimalist mashup of tower defence and strategy, in which you build up a base during the day then defend it from monstrous hordes at night. It launched in Early Access in August last year and has been wooing people with its cool colour palette ever since. Now it'****** 1.0. Read more View the full article

Turn-based strategy games and tactical RPGs come and go, but XCOM is forever. At least, it can certainly feel that way. It's been more than eight years since Firaxis unleashed XCOM 2 on the world, and almost six since the arrival of its masterful War of the Chosen expansion. Since then, we've seen some excellent contenders in the space - the likes of Gears Tactics, Battletech, and Warhammer 40k Battlesector come to mind - but none have become quite the cultural phenomenon that XCOM is. In the wake of its own attempt, I asked Paradox deputy CEO Mattias Lilja about trying to compete with such established titans. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: XCOM like strategy game with a twist hits new Steam historical low Underappreciated Game Pass strategy game is getting a big free update Cities Skylines 2 publisher says new XCOM-like strategy game is a flop View the full article

Starry Studio is apologizing for ongoing lag problems in Once Human, and offers up a slate of free items as compensation. There's also a three-step plan in place to remedy the free Steam game's connectivity problems, which is set to come into force in October and beyond. There have been lag issues since Once Human launched earlier this year, but their repetitive nature continues to put a dampener on the experience. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: When is the next Once Human server wipe? Once Human dev promises "strict action" against PvP exploit ****** Once Human update The Way of Winter challenges you to survive the elements View the full article

Diablo 4 just revealed a second wave of World of Warcraft-themed cosmetics, including outfits rendering each of the six classes as a popular hero or villain of Azeroth, along with the unique Ashadar mount. Using these new transmogs, players can dress their Diablo 4 characters up as the Lich King, Garrosh, Jaina, Malfurion, Illidan, or Bwonsamdi as they explore Nahantu and beyond. View the full article

In an interview with VideoGamer, ex-Bethesda developer Bruce Nesmith defended the studio's continued use of its proprietary Creation Engine and predicted that the RPG giant would likely stick with the tech in the future, even as more big name devs like BioWare, CD Projekt, and Halo Studios (formerly 343 Industries) trade in their bespoke engines for Epic Games' ubiquitous Unreal... Read more.View the full article

A recently released Metaphor: ReFantazio mod improves the game with the addition of ultrawide support, customizable graphics tweaks, and some critical bug fixes, among other novelties. However, the mod is currently only available for a single PC version of Metaphor: ReFantazio. View the full article

Erenshor is a single-player RPG that simulates an MMO experience, going as far as to emulate the genre’s quest structure and combat, as well as adding fake players into your game. The game’s demo is available on Steam right now, which means that we can move through its tutorial zone and pretend to play it […] Source View the full article

Brighter Shores, the upcoming MMO from RuneScape creator Andrew Gower, has been delayed by just one day for a surprising reason. Previously, Brighter Shores was penned for release into Early Access on November 5, although RuneScape creator Gower has decided to shift it to November 6. View the full article

Forgotten Gems is a regular column about notable games that have moved out of the public eye and may not be easily accessible anymore. To see all the other games I've covered so far, check out the previous issues of Forgotten Gems in our Columns section. Metroid-like games and their roguelike off-shoots are everywhere today. Not a week goes by without an indie game announcement promising “metroidvania” gameplay elements – and even Nintendo returned to making new Metroid titles after a near six year hiatus following Metroid: Other M in 2010. And that’s me being generous and counting Metroid Prime: Federation Force as a Metroid game… But it wasn’t always so. After a Metroid renaissance in the early 2000s with Fusion, Prime, and Zero Mission (what a run!) exploring the series in both 2D and 3D, there was a clear shift away from these classic side-view explorative shooters. Konami stuck it out longer with the “vania” part of the equation and cranked out several quality 2D Castlevanias. But despite the critical success of many of these games, I think it’s fair to say that the genre was diminishing. So it was with much excitement that I read on IGN back then that designer Donald Mustard and the ChAIR Entertainment team were planning to make a game based on Orson Scott Card’s dystopian novel, Empire. The two had previously collaborated on the underrated Advent Rising, and early coverage on IGN in 2006 – including whispers that it was going to be a bit of a love letter to Metroid – sounded promising. When Metroidvanias Roamed the Earth “The 2D Metroid and Zelda games were some of my favorite games of all time and to me represented the pinnacle of 2D game design, specifically when it comes to making a non-linear ‘onion layer’ world where exploration and discovery is the core design pillar,” Donald Mustard, former CCO, Epic Games and Co-Founder of ChAIR told me last week. "…mostly, we had some awesome and innovative ideas and I just wanted to make it and play it." - Donald Mustard “Our team felt like the genre had been largely abandoned for over a decade, since the advent of 3D gaming, and we really missed playing them. We thought maybe other people missed them as well, or that even a whole new generation of gamers could discover them. I know it’s weird to consider now, but it was also a time when non-physical – aka digital – distribution was ‘just’ becoming viable and games were no longer limited to being put in a box on a store shelf at a cost of $60 or more. It felt like the possibility of what a game ‘had’ to be was ripe for disruption, and it was the perfect moment to try and do something unique. But mostly, we had some awesome and innovative ideas and I just wanted to make it and play it.” Selecting a genre other than first-person shooter or RPG already meant swimming against the current, but releasing Shadow Complex as a digital exclusive in 2009 made it an even ******* wager. At the time, console gamers vocally defended their preference to buy physical media over digital downloads. Living in a Material World Selling a game like Shadow Complex as a digital exclusive was a big deal back then. While Steam, Google Play, Apple App Store, and console digital stores game sales now dwarf the amount of physical games sold in the US, Statista estimates that in 2009, 80-90% of all game purchases were physical. I’ve pulled this slide from our 2012 Gamer Segmentation Study (from the dusty corners of my hard drive) for another look at console gamers’ buying habits back in the Xbox 360/PS3 era. Even in 2012, the majority of console gamers didn't just prefer to buy physical games, they relied on retail purchases for most of them, too. [/url] While it cut down on the publisher’s gamble with a non-franchise, niche game potentially gathering dust on store shelves, a digital-only release also risked alienating its potential core fanbase. Luckily, Shadow Complex made a great first showing. The polygonal, 2.5D presentation avoided the game looking like a relic of a bygone era. For ChAIR, going with polygons over sprites was all part of wanting to push the classic 2D Metroidvania formula as far as they could – and that included advanced lighting and effects. Shadow Complex is at its core a side-scrolling action-adventure that’s heavy on exploration and platforming, but there are moments where it swings the camera around for third-person action sequences and lets players ***** into the background. In a bit of serendipity, perhaps, that approach found its way into the very series that inspired Shadow Complex. The Team Ninja-developed Metroid: Other M similarly mixed 2D sequences with third-person perspective interaction – to its detriment, I’d argue in that case, as it was also tied to a clumsy control scheme. Colonel Mustard, in the Lab, With the Foam **** One my favorite things about every new Zelda, Mario, or Metroid game is to discover what new powers the designers came up with. Being able to unlock, say, a magical vacuum cleaner, and then figuring out how to use it to solve puzzles is the sort of ***** that has me coming back for more time and time again. I just 100-percented Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom this week – and while it didn’t quite live up to the peak combat and dungeon design of the best Zelda games past, it takes and runs with the "multi-use tool" concept in impressive ways. Whether it’s grabbing a water-based ****** to put out flames or building stairways out of beds, getting creative with objects that unlock exploration is half the fun in action-adventure games. Which brings me back to one example of why Shadow Complex stuck with me for so long: the Foam ****. Turns out, Mustard is also on Team Foam ****: “I love the Foam **** too! One of the things that most Metroid games have is a freeze mechanic you can use to freeze enemies in place. You can then use the frozen ****** as a platform to land on or jump off. We loved that mechanic and wanted to extend on the idea – what if you could use a ‘quick hardening Foam’ to ‘freeze’ an ****** or an object but then could stack Foam to build structures or walls or platforms, and then go further and add combinatorial effects like ‘what happens if I ****** foam onto something and then throw a grenade into it?’ We wanted to allow for more emergent and unexpected forms of gameplay. The more we prototyped and played with it, the more exciting it became, and the more we leaned into it as a core mechanic. That kind of philosophy and design heavily influences everything I’ve made since then.” The Foam **** wasn’t just fun to use. It also became an integral way to sequence-break Shadow Complex. At a runtime between five and 13 hours, according to HowLongtoBeat, the ability to create yourself your own platforms provided those who knew where to look a way to blaze through the game even faster. There is a moment in Metroid Fusion where the game sort of breaks the fourth wall to acknowledge when a player creatively “breaks” the game and gets to an area in record time. It’s a fascinating bit of meta commentary because it reminds players that for as smart and crafty as they think they are, the designers were actually one step ahead after all. They didn’t just figure out the same trick, they may have designed it in the first place. “I love emergent gameplay, and rewarding players for trying to push the edges of what the game world or a game system can be. As we discovered crazy sequence-breaking opportunities, we decided to lean into them as opposed to ‘fixing them’ as much as possible,” Mustard told me when asked about the Foam **** shortcuts. “We were very lucky to have Ken Lobb at Microsoft Games give us some incredible advice. It was great working with him. He was part of Nintendo when the original Metroid games were being made and shared some techniques they used to deliberately allow people to find ways to sequence break very very early into the game. It’s a design lesson I’ll never forget. Cough. Fortnite Rocket Riding. Cough. Cough.” When Shadow Complex released in August of 2009, the reception was unanimously favorable. Not only did players love the game, it brought back fond memories of an increasingly underserved genre. Naturally, ChAIR started work on a sequel. Mustard: “Finishing the game almost felt like ‘okay now we actually know how to make a game like this’ so now we can be much more ambitious with the next one. Our goal can be to really move the genre forward!” Mobile ******* the Console Star While not much is known about the actual project, designers at ChAIR and its parent company, Epic Games, acknowledge that they were working on a Shadow Complex sequel. As late as September 2011, Cliff Bleszinski (then Epic Games design director) commented that Shadow Complex 2 was “largely designed” and that Epic needed to find a partner to help finish the game and publish it. But sometimes, better – or perhaps, ******* – is the ****** of the good – and a pioneering mobile game hit led ChAIR into a new direction. “We immediately began working on a sequel. Like with Shadow Complex, we designed the entire game map on paper first, then quickly stood it up in a very rough but completely playable form. We got pretty far into preproduction, and in my opinion, it probably would have been the best game I’ve ever made,” Mustard shared. “But… in late July of 2010 we had a very unique opportunity to partner with Apple to make the very first game ever using Unreal Engine on mobile devices. We decided to pause development on SC2 to investigate that opportunity and 4 1/2 months later released Infinity Blade on iOS.” "Shadow Complex 2 probably would have been the best game I’ve ever made" - Donald Mustard Infinity Blade blew up – in part because it showed core gamers that mobile games could be for them – and was quickly followed by a sequel. The two games grossed over $30 million at a time when established publishers and developers alike were still trying to figure out a “there” for them on Apple’s expanding mobile gaming marketplace. Infinity Blade III was unveiled in late 2013 and launched at the same time, complete with an Imagine Dragons song tie-in. It rocketed to #1 in the App Store within hours. But there was an even ******* distraction on the horizon that made a return to the world of Shadow Complex very unlikely. Mustard says that creating Shadow Complex was one of the great joys of his life. The team’s goal was to see if they could make something that would live up to the games that inspired it – and then expand upon them and help bring something new to the genre. “The right timing to return to Shadow Complex just never presented itself as we soon became very busy with what became Fortnite,” said Mustard. I've Seen the Future and it Will Be As for the future, Mustard left Epic in 2023 to join the Russo Brothers, the directors of Winter Soldier, Civil War, and Avengers Infinity War and Endgame, at multimedia studio AGBO. “I am very satisfied with the work I’ve done in games over the past 20+ years and for now I feel like I have done everything I wanted to do -- with one possible exception,” he told me. The good news for fans of metroidvanias – including Mustard who calls out this year’s Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and Animal Well as new favorites (I agree!) – is that the genre is now clearly here to stay. Gone are the days of having to pick between the two flavors “sci-fi” and “gothic” bounty hunter or having to wonder if Metroid: Dread would ever see the light of day. We now have granddaddy Castlevania crossing back into the very roguelike spin-off it inspired in the first place, ***** Cells. We have forgotten Atari 2600 shooter Yars’ Revenge serving as the inspiration for a 2D metroidvania reboot in Yars Rising. And we even have the absolutely delightful shmuptroidvania Minishoot’ Adventures that basically crosses The Legend of Zelda with Galaga. If you want to play a metroidvania, you no longer have to dig in the past. I know, ironic – because that’s what this very column is about. But I’m greedy, so I asked Donald Mustard if he would come back to work on a game like Shadow Complex – or if he was ready to deputize someone else out there who could carry on the legacy and continue the series. “The opportunity to become a partner at AGBO with Joe and Anthony Russo and the absolutely incredible team that has assembled there is a dream come true for me. We are creating some truly incredible stories that will allow us to push storytelling further across different mediums. I can’t wait for people to experience some of these things,” he said. “But that ‘possible exception’ I mentioned? If I was to ever direct another video game someday, it would absolutely be a game like Shadow Complex.” "If I was to ever direct another video game someday, it would absolutely be a game like Shadow Complex.” - Donald Mustard Where Can You Play it Now Shadow Complex wasn’t entirely forgotten after ChAIR turned to Infinity Blade. The developer brought back a Remaster of Shadow Complex for an encore outing in 2015 for PC, with a console release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One the following year. If there is a silver lining in the story of a potential game series cut short, it’s that Shadow Complex is easy to track down – and it still holds up well in both editions. The Remaster is available for $15 on the Epic Games Store and Steam and the PlayStation and Xbox Stores. Annoyingly, the original Xbox 360 game sells for the same price. If you want to splurge, there’s even a small physical release of 7,500 PS4 copies of the Remastered version, courtesy of Limited Run, which unfortunuately now commands upwards of $100 on eBay. The remaster is definitely the version to play – and I highly recommend going back to it if you’re a fan of metroidvanias in general. Peer Schneider heads up Game Help & Tools across IGN, Map Genie, Eurogamer, RockPaperShotgun, and VG247 and would love to fill a pool with metroidvanias and go swimming in it. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Fortnite has patched the popular trick that allowed players to gift bundles at a reduced price to their friends, a trick many in the community had been using for quite some time. Now, players will not be able to gift their friends a Fortnite bundle at all if the other person already owns one of the items, and fans aren't happy about the change. View the full article

Activision Blizzard reports that exposure to toxic voice chat in Call of Duty has declined by 43 percent since the beginning of this year. The publisher credits the recent implementation of AI-based moderation for the results, which have convinced it to expand its use when Call of Duty: ****** Ops... Read Entire Article View the full article

Disney Dreamlight Valley has added an alternate Edit Mode control scheme that allows players to revert to its old cursor style or switch to the new fixed pointer when using a controller. The feature was introduced as part of the latest major Disney Dreamlight Valley update, titled Jungle Getaway. View the full article

During the keynote address of the 2024 Korea FanFest in Seoul, Final Fantasy 14 producer and director Naoki Yoshida shared new screenshots of features coming to Dawntrail soon. The new Final Fantasy 14 features that Yoshida discussed were the Echoes of Vana'diel alliance raid, Cosmic Exploration, and the Shades' Triangle adventuring foray. View the full article

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero has revealed its full roster, and it's fittingly impressive for the fourth game in the fan-favorite Budokai Tenkaichi arena fighter series. The incredibly large roster includes 182 heroes and villains from across the entire Dragon Ball universe, even non-canon media. Alongside 19 different versions of Goku will be Cell (first form, second form, and perfect form), nine versions of Gohan, 11 versions of Vegeta, and Krillin, to name just a few. View the full article

Fortnite may already be finished with making sizable new changes to the game's Rocket Racing game mode, according to a recent update from the developer. The massively popular battle royale from Epic Games has seen its brand undergo several major expansions throughout recent years, with many new styles of gameplay under its umbrella. LEGO Fortnite brings Minecraft-esque survival sandbox gameplay into the franchise's universe, while Fortnite Festival introduced rhythm gameplay reminiscent of games like Guitar Hero. However, one game mode seems to be lagging behind the rest. View the full article

Stardew Valley's giant 1.6 update finally has a set release date for console and mobile players. The latest update released earlier this year for PC, and was one of the largest content drops for the game. Other platforms had to wait because developer ConcernedApe wanted 1.6 to work with as few errors as possible once released on platforms other than PC. View the full article

One Until Dawn actor's reposting of a theory discussing the possibility of a sequel could be lending credence to the possibility of a second game on the horizon. Until Dawn actor Peter Stormare, who is also known for his roles in films like Fargo and Constantine, hasn't directly said anything about a sequel, but his sharing of the theory has some fans believing it's got some weight. View the full article

Publisher Indie.io and developer Chonky Loaf have announced a release date for Everholm, their cozy open-ended minimalist RPG. Everholm is set to launch for Windows PC (via Steam) on November 11th. A playable demo for the game is available on its Steam page. Here’s a rundown on the game, plus a new trailer: Lilly is […] Source View the full article

Nvidia's latest Blackwell GPUs are experiencing unprecedented demand, with the company reporting that it has sold out of these next-gen processors. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed the news during an investors meeting hosted by Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley Analyst Joe Moore notes that Nvidia executives disclosed that their Blackwell GPU... Read Entire Article View the full article

It's been a long time coming, but Civilization 7 finally feels real. We've still got some time to wait for the next installment in Firaxis' defining series, however, so you might be on the lookout for another strategy game to fill the gap. If so, you need to check in with Feudums, a beautiful blend of 4X and grand strategy games. With its in-development build currently available as a free demo on Steam, developer Kalamona Studios confirms that a single-player mode "will happen" as it continues to add features and functionality. Read the rest of the story... View the full article

It looks like Rocket Racing, the Rocket League spinoff available inside of Fortnite, is putting an end to adding official tracks to the game. Epic Games shared the news alongside update v31.40, saying "goodbye to Inferno Island and themed updates" while putting an emphasis on "tracks from creators." The game mode will still get new quests, items, and ranked periods, but new seasonal overhauls and official tracks appear to be no more. It's safe to say this hasn't gone down well with the community, with many players unhappy with the end of extra races and themes. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Fortnite update delay puts Halloween Fortnitemares event on hold Check out this Lego Fortnite gaming PC with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 5 release date and latest news View the full article

Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel has added one of the most powerful decks from the game's physical formats, but players looking to pick up the deck will need to spend a pretty penny. The massively popular digital card game from Konami has introduced plenty of popular new decks to the game throughout recent updates. Recent selection packs have brought the dominant "Yubel" and "Centur-ion" decks to the game, while also improving pre-existing strategies like "***** King" and "Sky Striker." However, the newest update to the game brings one of its strongest decks yet. View the full article

Starfield is a game about exploring the great expanse of the known galaxy, granting players the chance to fly around the cosmos and discover various extraterrestrial wonders, but one creative mod finally takes the idea of being an astronaut and makes it a little more realistic. While Bethesda spent a great deal of time developing Starfield's universe, players don't actually spend too much time floating around space. Most of their adventures are confined to planetside treks or vehicles, so those wanting to experience the anxiety of drifting through space need to look for some third-party assistance. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]