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Showing off over 70 indie games with positivity and compassion at their core, today’s Wholesome Direct had quite a few neat games to keep an eye on, whether today marked their world premiere or just the debut of a brand new trailer. A handful of games even received surprise releases, and there are quite a few more demos out right now! From a cheese-filled decorating simulator for mice to an exploration game where you play as a house on a date (and an impressive number of games with “lands” somewhere in their titles), here are 15 of our favorite games from this year’s Wholesome Direct. Squeakross: Home Squeak Home Receiving a world premiere at today’s Wholesome Direct, Squeakross: Home Squeak Home is an adorably named combination between a puzzle game and a decorating simulator. Players will solve furniture-shaped puzzles made of cheese, watch as the cheese turns into furniture, and then use it to decorate rooms for their mice. With hundreds of furniture items, stickers, and accessories available, I’m already determined to collect everything and be the best mouse parent I can be. Squeakross doesn’t have a release window yet, but it’s headed to Steam (and will run on Steam Deck). Fruitbus In the upcoming adventure game Fruitbus, players will get to customize their own food truck, drive around and gather ingredients from an open world, and help adorable customers through cooking. While the core game loop is focused around cooking and experimenting with recipes, there’s also a narrative about the previous owner’s past to uncover, stirring up what looks to be a tasty balance between open-ended gameplay and story. Fruitbus is headed to Steam and consoles this October, and it also has a demo out now. Wax Heads I’ve always been on the hunt for a game that authentically nails the feeling of just really caring about music, and Wax Heads seems to have it down perfectly. Set in the struggling store Repeated Records, players will help quirky customers find the perfect album to take home. Along the way, they'll play minigames, get distracted by the shop’s secrets, and learn about each musical act (like Scandinavian metal band Jarhead, which may or may not have… murdered their own singer and kept his head in a jar). It’s headed to Steam and has a demo out right now — no word on a release date yet, though. Building Relationships Flaunting what’s possibly the weirdest concept I’ve ever seen in a Wholesome Direct, Building Relationships is a dating and exploration sim where you play as… a house. While exploring a 3D island and its many biomes, you’ll search for eligible bachelor pads, fish for cars, discover secrets, and unlock movement skills that let you lumber up mountains. Building Relationships is headed to Steam, *****.io, and consoles later this year. POOOOL Sitting somewhere between last year’s viral Suika Game and GamePigeon 8-Ball is POOOOL, a tiny physics puzzler about combining pool ****** with faces while saving space for more. It’s clean, colorful, and full of satisfying sound effects. It’s also just unexpectedly challenging to get the hang of, as pool ****** get heavier and slower as they grow, which adds a neat dimension of skill to the growing camp of 2048-like games. Receiving a surprise release during today’s Wholesome Direct, POOOOL is out now on Steam. Littlelands Everything looks like a toy in Littlelands, an adventure game with detailed, stylized environments that just make the characters look… so small and cute! It’s a little bit like Animal Crossing — players can catch bugs, fish, grow berries, and befriend their neighbors — but it also has an exploration element, and players can even head to dangerous areas inhabited by goblins. Littlelands doesn’t yet have a release window, but it’s headed to Steam. Tiny Lands 2 What’s even smaller than Littlelands? Tiny Lands 2! In this find the difference puzzle game, players will find the differences between photorealistic miniature worlds that tell their own stories. Each scene made up of big objects is inhabited by little people, whether they’re conducting traffic amid a cluttered desk full of art supplies, gathering around a ***** beneath a tea kettle, or diving into a cup of coffee. Today’s Wholesome Direct marked the world premiere of Tiny Lands 2, which is headed to Steam, the Epic Games Store, and Switch. Sally There’s a lot to do in Sally, which doubles as the name of the game as well as its subject, a magical ship that’s in search of floating islands. Players can cook, take care of animals, work in the machine room, and disembark to gather resources from floating islands, all while leading the Sally to its destination. Best of all, though, they can make friends and find a sense of community among a roster of characters that changes with every game — “everyone’s in the same boat.” Sally has a new demo out now and is headed to Steam and Switch. Lost and Found Co. Lost and Found Co. is a hidden objects game that takes place in a beautifully hand-drawn world full of personality. Alongside a cast of quirky characters, players can search for items in bustling boardwalks, restaurants, homes, gardens and more, getting to decorate their office (and restore the fame of a forgotten goddess, no big deal) as a neat little reward. With a new demo out right now, Lost and Found Co. is headed to Steam, consoles, and mobile. Into The Emberlands Into The Emberlands is an exploration game about bringing light back to a procedurally generated world engulfed by darkness (and helping bring home the villagers who got lost along the way). Once they’re home, players can help their newfound neighbors thrive by repairing houses, running errands, and expanding the village. Just don’t let the lantern light fade! Into The Emberlands is slated for release on Steam later this year and got a new demo today. Tracks of Thought Tracks of Thought is a cozy mystery that’s set on a train. After the train goes through a mysterious tunnel, every bug on board somehow forgets where they’re headed. Through card battles, players (playing as a really cute ladybug) can help their fellow bugs resolve conflicts, reach a consensus, and solve the mystery, all while making their way to the control room through the train’s many different cars. Tracks of Thought also received a surprise release today, and it’s out now on Steam and the Epic Games Store. Curiosmos A solar system seemingly made out of clay is the player’s canvas in Curiosmos, an adorable space adventure game that received a new trailer during today’s Wholesome Direct. Players can chip away at planet surfaces with meteors, drag debris into ****** holes, and add gravity (and even life) to adorable planets with faces. While there isn’t much information about Curiosmos available yet, I’m curious to see what kind of sandbox adventure it might shape up to be. Curiosmos isn’t yet slated to release on a specific platform, but more information can be found on its website. Rooster Receiving a new trailer during today’s Wholesome Direct, Rooster is a point and click narrative adventure about the animals of the ******** zodiac. Each level has completely different gameplay that ranges from cooking and dating sims to tower defense and hidden objects (all depicted in the game’s gorgeous watercolor art style), and it all culminates in a story about helping others and sharing love. It’s headed to Steam and consoles early next year. Caravan SandWitch Caravan SandWitch is a narrative adventure about a young woman searching the desolate world of Cigalo for her lost sister. While the trailer shows off the game’s exploration, including driving the game’s signature yellow caravan through beautifully modeled futuristic environments, riding on a zipline, and traversing through massive storms, the Steam page also promises a meaningful narrative about living in harmony despite over-exploitation. Caravan SandWitch is headed to Steam and the Epic Games Store along with Switch and PS5, and it received a brand new demo during today’s Wholesome Direct. Goodlands Goodlands is a game about being a dinosaur and unearthing fossils of other dinosaurs in an open world inspired by the Badlands. With an art style vaguely reminiscent of A Short Hike, players will customize their own dinosaur, clean fossils in minigames, and restore an empty museum by donating their brand new digs. Goodlands was briefly shown off during the direct’s montage section and is headed to Steam and *****.io. Find more information on all of these games (and the rest we couldn’t fit in this roundup) on the Wholesome Games website or on the Wholesome Direct Steam curator page. Wholesome Direct is also part of IGN’s Summer of Gaming, which contains quite a few showcases and runs through the end of June. Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they've contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun, and they're currently developing a game called Garage *****. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

The second day of NAIC’s Pokémon TCG tournament has seen a huge shift in play, with one deck leading the pack heading into the final day tomorrow as Gardevoir ex made up for over 20% of the final decks left in the tournament. This marks a massive rise since yesterday when it was the third most-played deck. In contrast, both Lugia VSTAR and Raging Bolt ex/Ogerpon ex have seen massive drops heading into the second day as they ******* to land in New Orleans. View the full article

DisplayLink docks provide an alternative to pricier Thunderbolt options by using data compression tricks to funnel high-res video streams through plain old USB connections. While you might notice some quality hits with intense gaming, most day-to-day desktop duties are unaffected. The key advantage is that these docks can often push... Read Entire Article View the full article

"The Silver Shroud" is a popular side quest in Fallout 4 that begins in Goodneighbor, wherein players meet the optimistic ghoul Kent Conolly, who runs Silver Shroud Radio. The Silver Shroud was a pre-war radio serial about a masked hero whom Kent looks up to and whom the Sole Survivor can dress up as. You get the Silver Shroud armor as part of the quest. This adventure soon turns deadly when Kent is kidnapped by raiders led by the raider boss, Sinjin. View the full article

Few things are quite as satisfying as pulling off the perfect turn in XCOM, transforming impossible odds into a winning position with just a few clicks. The likes of Into the Breach and Invisible Inc implement that feeling into a more puzzle-style roguelike format, each making you feel like a tactical genius. Yet new strategy game Tactical Breach Wizards may be the coolest such setup yet, combining slick, speedy combat scenarios with snappy, witty dialogue. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Tactical Breach Wizards is an indie XCOM that strips away the uncertainty New games: Tactical Breach Wizards barges into Steam View the full article

At some point, a game developer realized that point-and-click adventure games don’t always have to be angled at eye level or rely on pixel art. Nothing is immune to nostalgia, and now designers and gamers have realized that prerendered backgrounds have an artistry all their own, and picturesque cinematic imagery can be achieved when the […] Source View the full article

Popular roguelike card game Balatro, which made a big impact when it debuted on Steam in February, is getting a physical release on major consoles. While Balatro is based on making poker hands, it's really a deck-building game at heart, and its various collectible Joker cards provide a wide variety of bonuses that have earned it a lot of praise from fans. View the full article

Despite Call of Duty games of the past venturing off into space or near-futuristic settings, the FPS franchise's combat has largely felt the same over the last 10 years. ****** Ops 6 could shake up gunfights, though, and if the rumors are to believed, we are so back COD players. Not only has Treyarch supposedly overhauled the shooter's movement, but rumors claim it is similar to the Max Payne series. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: I spoke to two COD Zombies legends as ****** Ops 6's reveal looms MW3 Season 4's strangest camo is locked away for Discord users COD Warzone flooded with ****** Ops 6 teasers as full reveal nears View the full article

Lost and Found Co. | Image: Bit Egg Despite its cozy appearance, Wholesome Direct 2024 is actually shaping up to be the most packed event of Summer Game Fest. The hour-long presentation featured more than 70 different games. Some were brand-new announcements, some were previously known games that got a fresh trailer or release date, and a handful of titles even launched during the event. Now, 70 is a large number, so to help, I’ve curated the games that stood out to me the most. You can also watch the full presentation right here to soak in every detail. Even better: many of the games have demos on Steam that you can check out. Anyway, here are my picks, in no particular order. Kamaeru: A Frog RefugeLaunching today on PC and Switch Kamaeru looks like a more interactive... Continue reading… View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Monster Hunter: World and Rise are currently available at historically low prices, as are their DLC packs. The *****, which includes a variety of storefronts, offers a great opportunity to jump (back) into the Monster Hunter franchise without breaking the bank. View the full article

There are only two months left until the 2024 Esports Awards begin, but the face of the broadcast has decided to resign after clashing views on the company’s direction over the last year. Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez has announced that he will resign from the Esports Awards panel and won’t host the event moving forward. The popular shoutcaster and commentator has been the face of the Esports Awards since he became its host, but now, he is stepping away for a handful of reasons. View the full article

There are many challenges and missions to unlock and complete in Star Wars Hunters, some being more challenging than others. One of these mission types is to earn hunter elimination streaks, which can be understood in different ways.What are hunter elimination streaks in Star Wars Hunters?Hunter elimination streaks may confuse come Star Wars Hunters players as this could be taken in a couple different ways. So to clear things up – you will earn a hunter elimination streak by ******** other players without dying.So if you are required to earn a hunter elimination streak of 5, that means you must eliminate five other hunters (players) without being *******. Every time you get eliminated, the streak resets.It doesn’t matter how much time has passed between each elimination either – the streak will keep going indefinitely until you yourself get eliminated. Also, for these sorts of challenges, you can’t achieve a 5 hunter streak twice without dying,...View the full article

I'm used to mystery games where the mystery is the main thing. In Strange Horticulture you may be running a shop while trying to figure out what's going on in Undermere, but you don't have to balance the books between trying to figure out how a druid got poisoned. You're not going to suddenly get a game over because a national chain of weird plant shops opened up a franchise across the road from yours... Read more.View the full article

Earlier this week, we've seen our first taste of a cozy detective game for those who want something more low-key and wholesome while still presenting enjoyable mysteries. But what about those who want more traditional mysteries to solve, but would still prefer more wholesome aesthetics? Something with darker secrets to uncover, but something still more pleasant to look at? Well, that's what On Your Tail is for, from Humble Games and developers Memorable Games. Appropriately enough, the game popped up during today's Wholesome Direct, after making its debut during a Nintendo Direct last December. Now it's resurfaced, not only with a spiffy new trailer that you can check out at the link here, but also with a demo available now for all to check out. View the full article

Top Scarlet and Violet VGC players are seeing success with a unique Gen I Pokémon at the North America International Championships (NAIC) based on stats from day two. As NAIC continues this weekend, we’re seeing a lot of the same dominant Pokémon—Incineroar, Urshifu, Calyrex, Miraidon, and their friends. In fact, there’s only one major difference when comparing the usage stats between day one and day two. If you look at the last slot of the top 12 Pokémon on day two, Ditto just made the cut at 12.2 percent usage. VGC caster Rosemary Kelley confirmed a total of 10 players made it to day two with the pink blob. View the full article

Guide Crystals are a key item that can be obtained by completing the Court Of Savantae Ruins Puzzle in Wuthering Waves. As players discover new areas, they can find Supply Chests of varying rarity. These grant various rewards that will help strengthen characters and give Astrite, which is needed to summon more Resonators. Players who solve the Court of Savantae Ruins Puzzle can use the two Guide Crystals to obtain a Premium Supply Chest. View the full article

I'm so tired. Partly because I stayed up until 4 AM watching teams trying and failing to win the Salvation's Edge raid race. But also because, I woke up this morning to find that after a staggering 19 hours the final boss had been defeated, meaning that the curtain has been brought down on a story I've been playing for a decade... Read more.View the full article

Pricing for products like these is typically kept hidden from the public, but Intel has bucked the trend and provided some official figures. The flagship Gaudi 3 accelerator will cost around $15,000 per unit when purchased individually, which is 50 percent cheaper than Nvidia's competing H100 data center GPU. Read Entire Article View the full article

Here's a lovely little surprise in the midst of Summer Game Fest: the makers of the excellent building and management sim Parkitect have been cooking up a little something in secret. Today at the Glitch Future of Play showcase, developer Texel Raptor revealed a new game, and it looks fantastic... Read more.View the full article

Something you see a lot in cozy games is a scenario where you move to a small island or a rustic neighborhood, then use your farm or shop to revitalize it, bringing new life to a sweet but neglected little town. Those vibes are definitely present in supermarket management sim Discounty… at least at first... Read more.View the full article

Hardware manufacturer MSI has shown off revamped versions of its Claw handheld gaming PC, alongside reinforcing its commitment to the handheld market by confirming future iterations of the device. Earlier this year, MSI released the Claw handheld PC after a lot of teasing, but the handheld didn't quite live up to expectations due to numerous factors. View the full article

As part of the most recent Operation in Halo Infinite, 343 Industries has revealed a bunch of changes made to the classic Big Team Battle mode in the game. Halo Infinite continues to evolve with each new update, into a game much better than what was launched almost three years ago. View the full article

Capcom has revealed that M. Bison, the first character of Street Fighter 6's Year 2 pass and the game's next DLC character, will be coming sooner than fans might have expected: June 26, 2024. Capcom's momentum for Street Fighter 6 isn't slowing down anytime soon, as following the first year DLC pass that added four new characters, both new and old, a second pass was recently revealed at Summer Game Fest. This second pass of content is touting not only the return of two fan-favorite characters but also guest fighters from SNK's Fatal Fury franchise. View the full article

Persona 3 Reload‘s Expansion Pass has been steadily receiving content for some time now since the game’s release earlier this year. Now, Atlus has announced that the third wave for the DLC, the highly anticipated Episode Aigis: The Answer, will launch in September. Atlus released a new trailer on Friday, June 7, announcing that the Persona 3 Reload story DLC expansion Episode Aigis: The Answer will launch on Sep. 10. The trailer shows an extremely short piece of gameplay footage with Aigis and her sister Metis in action. View the full article

Round up your favorite creatures and prepare for brand-new horizons, the Palworld Sakurajima update is shifting the tides of Palworld onto a fresh island ripe for exploration. But taking in the sights isn't all you'll be doing in the next major update from developer Pocket Pair, as deadly bosses, new pleasant Pals, and more are set to keep you busy. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Palworld reveals four new Pals, then torches one with a flamethrower The new Palworld update just made your Pals twice as powerful Palworld PvP reveal blunder leads to promise of "major" summer update View the full article