Steam

With the blurb “Gear up, get in, and get out”, Exoborne elegantly sets out its stall as an extraction shooter. But they left out the most important part: “Get blown around by a massive tornado”. While Exoborne bears all the features you’d expect from the likes of Escape from Tarkov and Call of Duty: Warzone’s DMZ, the most exciting part of a presentation I saw at Play Days was when developer Sharkmob talked about the weather. Exoborne’s setting is not postapocalyptic, but rather midapocalyptic, with the world falling apart all around you – the result of mankind’s meddling with the climate. Project Rebirth’s attempts to provide limitless clean energy have backfired somewhat, and now Mother Nature is taking her revenge. Extraction shooters live or **** on emergent gameplay, and there’s nothing as emergent as a twister, flood or tsunami. The weather during a session of Exoborne can change from clement to hellscape in minutes – all of which has profound effects on gameplay, according to Sharkmob. A 10-minute walkthrough video based on a pre-Alpha build of the game began with a short cutscene where a group of teammates known as The Reborn assemble in a dropship and prepare to jump. The character models are based on whatever skins and loadouts each player has selected, so this is a nice chance to show off your flair before the action starts. The players then skydived from the dropship, parachuting in to the map below. Action kicked off immediately, as this area of Colton County in the Southeast USA was infested with ******* robotic machines and human enemies. Over a longer play session, you can expect a dynamic range of climates to impede your progress. The rain apparently gets so heavy you can no longer hear your teammates, their comms drowned out by the deluge, forcing players to rethink their strategies. *****, loot, equip – so far, so extraction shooter. Entering a base located nearby required some teamwork, and the destruction of some AT-ST-like ****** walkers, while at another point the squad clambered aboard a Warthog-style armored vehicle with open top/sides/back for ease of blasting. Maps are as vertical as they are wide, with towers connected by huge Rebirth Cables that snake through the environment, placed by the architects at Rebirth without regard for the scenery or the human residents; these industrial eyesores allow players to ascend with grappling hooks and ****** on higher ground. Burned-out school buses and a busted motel sign litter the deserted streets of what might long ago have been an idyllic rural town. Sinkholes offer the chance to explore underground. And then came the tornado warning. Once the weather hit, the squad cut their mission short, calling in the dropship and climbing aboard with the loot before things got hairy. But a Sharkmob developer explained that over a longer play session, you can expect a dynamic range of climates to impede your progress. The rain apparently gets so heavy you can no longer hear your teammates, their comms drowned out by the deluge, forcing players to rethink their strategies. While the risk may be high in any given session, Sharkmob has designed Exoborne to be more forgiving in the longer term. That is, extraction is not always guaranteed, and you may lose items in a given session if you don’t make it out alive – but the game makes it possible to rebuild your arsenal over future games, improving your character from game to game as you loot and progress. The idea is to make the game as approachable as possible for newcomers, who may find the high risk of other extraction shooters off-putting. Throw in a bunch of cool near-future weapons, tech gear and Exo-Rigs, and of course a mix of PVP and PVE scavenging action, and Exoborne is shaping up to be a cool addition to the genre. View the full article

Riot Games is adding another repeatable mission to the League of Legends Hall of Legends pass today to ensure even ARAM and League Arena-mode enthusiasts can earn experience twice as fast and complete the pass in less time. The League development team announced the significant update to the event pass mission addition on June 18 in a short post on X (formerly Twitter). This new repeatable mission, which has been designed to benefit all players, means everyone can earn experience twice as fast. As a result, you should be able to complete the pass a whole lot quicker than you usually would when compared to a standard pass from past League events. View the full article

Critter Cafe embodies coziness. From its rescue cafe premise to its no-holds-barred approach to customization and decoration that encourages players to express themselves, the brief demo I watched and played pointed to a consistent, refined vision that I have a feeling will be a big hit for fans of monster collecting games who are looking for something cozy to sink their teeth into. Blending monster collecting, management simulation, and puzzle-based dungeon crawling sounds a lot more overwhelming than it actually is in Critter Cafe. That’s not to say that this comfy game from Sumo Digital and Secret Mode is oversimplified, just that it’s chill and approachable. Like any sim worth its salt, customization is the name of the game here. With in-depth customization options (that can be changed at any time) for my chibi avatar and full-on cafe customization, the world is your aesthetic oyster in Critter Cafe. I was blown away at how much I could do to precisely mold the cafe to my liking. From wallpaper and floorboards to furniture—even the materials it was made from—I felt a sense of control and freedom over the cafe in a way that can often elude some games in this genre. To give you a proper sense of what I mean, let’s look at Animal Crossing: New Horizons, for example. It’s a stellar game to be sure, but one whose customization suite leaves a lot to be desired. Changing your island or house takes a lot of work. Beyond the steps to actually unlock the recipe for something, you’ll often need tons of resources to craft said piece, which can be gated based on the real-life passage of time. But even without the progressive aspect of unlocking new recipes, clothes, etc. the process of customizing a home gets really tedious really quickly. Not so in Critter Cafe, where customization options are available to you from the get-go. This allows for other mechanics and parts of the game to shine while still letting you express yourself to the fullest without jumping through extra hoops. Redecorating isn’t just for fun, though. Instead, you’ll often need to change the cafe at a customer’s request for special events. Indeed, these events are one of the ways you can grow and improve your cafe. Let’s say a customer wants to have a movie night. You can redecorate with movie theater-themed furniture to cater to your customer’s desires. They might also share other aesthetic preferences and even tell you what kind of critter they’d like to spend time with. If you hit a high enough mark for a customer, they might even tell you where to find a portal that will take you to a new critter to befriend. These adorable little beasties are mostly amalgamations of real-life and mythical animals with some kind of endearing twist or change. My favorite looks like a kit-bash between a dinosaur and a duck. But making a new feathered friend isn’t as simple as walking through a portal. Instead, you’ll need to complete a small block-pushing puzzle to find your new buddy at the end of a *****. Normal service is a little bit more complex than the special events, and will help you and your critter deepen your bond as your reputation grows. Growing your reputation is the other main way that you’ll progress in Critter Cafe, so it’s important to balance leveling up your reputation while also making sure to make new friends. These adorable little beasties are mostly amalgamations of real-life and mythical animals with some kind of endearing twist or change. My one gripe with what I saw of Critter Cafe was how simple those puzzles seemed. Yes, this is a cozy game first and foremost, so they’re probably not going to be Portal-level brain busters, but they seemed potentially lacking in diversity. That said, the puzzles I saw weren’t bad. In fact, they seemed like the perfect level of challenge to give me something to do in between running a cafe and hosting special events, but these same puzzles didn’t seem to promise much in the way of verticality or evolution based on what I’ve played and seen in trailers and screenshots. If in fact they don’t grow or change much, they could seriously undermine the wholesome creature-befriending scenes at the end of each puzzle. Part of what made this demo special was how exciting it was to meet a new critter. If that gets pulverized into something tedious or repetitive, that could very easily dampen Critter Cafe’s otherwise exuberant nature. I’m really interested in seeing what kinds of whimsical combinations Sumo Digital has in store for the rest of Critter Cafe. I hope the next time I hear about it brings more stuff to do while befriending critters and tells me a little bit more about its story, which seemed pretty light in the demo. But even if there’s no overarching plot to speak of, I’m certain its deep customization suite and critter designs will almost definitely appease the most rabid cozy gamers looking for their next obsession. View the full article

Much can be said about popular streamer Asmongold, but he’s never been one to shy away from speaking his mind. Recently, he went to bat for political streamer Destiny, railing against the Twitch moderation policies that resulted in Destiny’s ban from the platform. In a stream this week, Asmongold took a break from World of Warcraft to react to Destiny’s appearance on the Iced Coffee Hour podcast, where the YouTube streamer explained his own thoughts on his ban and the underlying reasons. View the full article

Ghost of Tsushima is an action-adventure game out of ******* Punch that places players in the role of Jin Sakai. This is easily one of the most cinematic games to come out of ******* Punch, and the wide array of audio options reflect this intent. Players are given plenty of choice regarding the games audio and language settings. Before diving into Ghosts of Tsushima, it might be best to survey your options. View the full article

The biggest take from this new release is the new official Western localization for the second entry. View the full article

A new Mario & Luigi is coming to Nintendo Switch, later this year. View the full article

Grand Theft Auto Online has offered the first official look at its upcoming content update, Bottom Dollar Bounties, which is set to land on June 25. A brief video gives players an idea of what they can expect when they hit the streets as bounty hunters. View the full article

An ex-employee of Kick has posted a video detailing her complaints towards the company, where she lambasts the staff for racism, homophobia, and “consistent disrespect.” Kick, a streaming company that looks to rival popular fan broadcasting platforms like Twitch and YouTube, has earned a mixed reputation in recent years, especially after hiring several controversial figures. Now, Kick’s employees have come under ***** after an ex-staffer, who says she resigned in May, claims other staffers mistreated her, disrespected streamers, and “consistently” used hate speech while in the office. View the full article

Both the base game and the Binding Blade DLC will be available on the eShop separately, though can be bundled together with the Oblivion bundle. View the full article

Xbox Game Pass subscribers flocked to social media to voice their discontent regarding the lackluster advanced graphical options in Still Wakes the Deep. Studio The ******** Room confirmed the PC versions of its recently released survival horror title did not share the same features across all platforms. While Still Wakes the Deep is part of the Xbox Game Pass library, subscribers noticed their PC copies of the game lacked several upscaling and super resolution options that were included for the Epic Games and Steam versions. View the full article

A Destiny 2 player has shared a hilarious clip in which they lost a chest by accidentally throwing it into the water. Chests in Destiny 2 are spawned in different locations to help players obtain useful materials, as long as they don't push them beyond reach. View the full article

Today's Nintendo Direct had several great announcements, some of which already had rumors circulating, while others were complete surprises. Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics falls into the latter category, but what a welcome surprise it was. Out of all the collections Capcom has released over the past few years, none of them have touched on their very popular crossover of Marvel characters and their expertise in tournament fighters. First the first time, these gems, which include the fan favorite Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes will be available on modern platforms. View the full article

Overwatch 2 is adding Community Crafted, a new Arcade game mode featuring hero changes curated by a group of content creators. This Overwatch 2 game mode goes live with the start of Season 11 on June 20, and will be available to play through July 9. View the full article

The integrated graphics chip powering AMD's Ryzen AI 300 SoCs might be substantially faster than the one currently used for most handheld gaming PCs if GPD's official specs on its upcoming dual-screen laptop are anything to go by. The new APU lineup, also known as Strix Point, is expected to... Read Entire Article View the full article

Voice acting is a funny business in gaming. It's one of the core things which can make or break a game, poor or flat voice acting can leave players feeling disengaged or even turned away. Good voice acting, however, can turn a good game into something great, so it's time we paid more attention to the craft. That's something Ubisoft is trying to do, with a brand new dubbing competition for *********'s Creed Shadows. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: *********'s Creed Shadows system requirements predictions Is *********'s Creed Shadows on Steam? *********'s Creed Shadows release date, trailer, story, and gameplay View the full article

I was told there was supposed to be a software drought while we waited for Switch 2. I was told to expect a handful of ports, remakes, and remasters sprinkled throughout the rest of 2024. I was told the Switch was dying. Well, apparently no one told Nintendo. And if they did, Nintendo certainly wasn’t listening, as today’s Nintendo Direct was one of my favorites in years, with surprise announcements that will make the wait for Nintendo’s next console incredibly easy. Don’t unplug the dock from your entertainment center just yet, because the Switch still has plenty of juice left. If you were completely removed from the video game news cycle and you watched the June 2024 Nintendo Direct, you’d probably think it was a presentation dropped somewhere during the peak of the console’s life cycle. Nintendo really brought out the big guns with new entries in its classic trio of franchises: Mario, Zelda, and Metroid. We got our first look at Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, a brand new mainline The Legend of Zelda game starring the eponymous princess for the first time, and the long-awaited return of the Mario & Luigi series, continuing the fairytale-like resurgence of Mario RPGs over the last year. Add on Super Mario Party Jamboree and Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, and Nintendo revealed four brand-new first-party games and one remaster, three of which will be out later this year. I really appreciate Nintendo’s focus on concrete release dates in its Directs. The Xbox showcase this year was awesome, but we were left with a lot of “TBA” or generic “2025” dates. I’m super excited for games like Fable and Perfect Dark, and can’t wait to eventually get them, but it’s a lot easier to be more excited about a new Zelda game I didn’t know existed when I woke up this morning that will be in my hands exactly 100 days from now. And The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom really looks like my dream game. Everything we know so far points to Nintendo taking the explorative, creative spirit of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom and injecting it into the top-down Zelda formula. In today’s reveal trailer we see Zelda building a column of water and ascending to its surface, stacking beds to create a makeshift ladder, and running across treetops 2D Zelda has forever used as barriers for the player. Plus, this is a Zelda game without a sword, and it’s allowing the developers to truly go crazy with combat and puzzle possibilities. Echoes of Wisdom looks like my dream game. BotW/TotK's spirit in a top-down game. Convention breaking! Zelda runs along treetops 2D Zelda has forever used as barriers. I've wanted a Zelda game without a sword for years because I thought they'd go crazy with it... and they did! [Hidden Content] — Logan Plant (@LoganJPlant) June 18, 2024 Moving on from Zelda to Mario, the remakes of Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door already felt like small miracles, and it’s truly shocking that Nintendo is completing the trio by putting out a brand new Mario & Luigi game this November. Mario & Luigi: Brothership is the first Mario & Luigi game in nearly a decade, and it marks the franchise’s home console debut. After Mario & Luigi developer AlphaDream sadly went bankrupt in 2019, it seemed like the series was *****, so it was a huge surprise to see this game kick off the Direct. We still don’t know who is developing Brothership (Nintendo has been frustratingly quiet about this), but hopefully Nintendo brought on some of AlphaDream’s talent to continue the series. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond isn’t coming until sometime in 2025, but how great was it to finally see what it looks like now, over seven years since its original announcement? It certainly appears to be a faithful Metroid Prime game, complete with the iconic HUD, raindrop effects on Samus’ arm cannon, and the return of the detective-like scanning ability. As a huge Mario Party fan, I also loved seeing a brand new entry that seems to learn from the strides the series took in 2021’s Mario Party Superstars, with ******* boards, more minigames, and tons of characters to choose from. The first-party surprises were the stars of the show, but I have to give a shoutout to some of the great third-party games developers are still bringing to Switch. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake looks gorgeous, and it was a phenomenal surprise to learn that Dragon Quest I and II are getting the same treatment. And, the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection is finally bringing the last unlocalized Ace Attorney game to the West, which I never dreamed would happen as a lifelong Ace Attorney fan. My one main disappointment from this Direct is Donkey Kong Country Returns HD. Don’t get me wrong – I love Donkey Kong Country Returns, but I’ve already played it twice on both Wii and 3DS. Plus it’s easily the inferior Donkey Kong Country game compared to Tropical Freeze, which is already on Switch. I’m glad Nintendo hasn’t forgotten about Donkey Kong, but I’m still waiting for the first brand new Donkey Kong platformer since Tropical Freeze hit Wii U in 2014. Still, that’s a minor quibble for a Direct that otherwise blew my expectations out of the water. And as someone who can’t stand leaker culture, I loved that none of Nintendo’s major first-party announcements got out beforehand. It gave the whole event a level of energy and mystery that was missing from some of the summer’s other big showcases, like when Sony’s big Astro **** reveal was spoiled online days before the State of Play. Astro **** looks incredible and I can’t wait to play it, but it takes some wind out of the sails of a big, exciting showcase when we know exactly what to expect. The Switch has already established its reputation as one of the greatest Nintendo consoles of all time, and if the major first-party games revealed today turn out to be as good as they look, it will strengthen the argument that no other Nintendo software library can match Switch. Pulling out some of the most iconic franchises in gaming during the Switch’s eighth year on the market is quite the power move, and it puts an emphatic stamp on the most successful generation in Nintendo history. If the Switch is dying, this is one ***** of a farewell tour. Logan Plant is IGN's Database Manager, Playlist Editor, occasional news writer, and frequent Super Ninfriendo on Nintendo Voice Chat. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant. View the full article

Too Kyo Games, Media.Vision, and Aniplex announced a new strategy RPG from the creators of Danganronpa. View the full article

Travel the oceanic world of Ivoire once more with Marona and Ash on a brand-new follow up to the revered tactical RPG that first released on the PS2. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

The new game will also have characters returning from Gundam Breaker 3 and the now-defunct mobile game. View the full article

The ****** Tail expands with an action-packed sequel coming this winter! View the full article

Featuring new arranged tracks by Kenji Ito, though players are free to select the original tracks as well! View the full article

If there's one thing that sums up summer for me, it's ignoring the weather and spending all my time indoors playing MMOs. That's a pastime Lost Ark developer Smilegate RPG seems to appreciate too, with the upcoming Summer Heat update about to hit the colossal MMO with a huge amount of new stuff. So if you're planning on spending your summer months with the curtains closed in a good game, there's a big chunk of new content on the way. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: The best MMO and MMORPGs to play in 2024 Lost Ark updates will always be "a couple of months behind Korea" Lost Ark finally gets much-requested balance update, and new content View the full article

Let's get the bad news out of the way first. Read Entire Article View the full article

Play the game with added voice acting, enhanced visuals and with a new difficulty option. View the full article