Last month, Epic Games laid off about 1,000 employees as part of a $500 million cost-saving push, following the poor performance of several new games and Fortnite updates. On April 16, Epic will shut down Fortnite's Ballistic mode and Fortnite Festival Battle Stage. Rocket Racing will follow in October. Read Entire Article View the full article
On April 2, D&D competitor Pathfinder embarked on a new quest. Its publisher launched Paizo Printables, a new subscription service for printable mini files and accompanying TTRPG content. Plus, each mini is compatible with the One Page Rules system, pushing Pathfinder into the world of wargaming. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: DnD alternative Draw Steel just got a PC port, and it's on Steam D&D rival Pathfinder offers hefty 93% discount on RPG books worth $658 Unpublished megadungeons from the father of D&D come to crowdfunding View the full article
When did Bethesda become, you know, Bethesda? That is, when did it become one of those game companies whose every release becomes a ginormous public event? Morrowind? Oblivion? Fallout 3?.. Read more.View the full article
I mean this in the best way possible: Pragmata feels like a game straight from the Xbox 360 era. It's the kind of third-person action-shooter that hangs its hat on a specific gimmick, but then plays everything else fairly straightforward. By executing on the important parts really well, Pragmata is able to let its punchy shooting, creative hacking mechanic, and tough fights do the heavy lifting. The storytelling around that stuff isn't exactly its strong suit, even with how much it emphasizes its budding father-daughter dynamic, and I'm a little disappointed it didn't do more with what was initially an interesting space drama setup. But Pragmata is focused on the action first, and that part is so compelling and so satisfying that I didn't even think twice about 100%-ing it. Something I appreciate about Pragmata is that it doesn't really waste time getting you in the flow once it starts. A brief intro gives you just enough to understand Hugh, the main protagonist, before a rogue AI turns the Moon's space station and endless supply of robots against his crew, leaving him as the lone survivor. There's a brief conversation about how the crew's company resorts to 3D printing at an unfathomably massive scale to fabricate most of what exists on the Moon, and how it's easier for it to just reprint infrastructure than actually maintain it properly. It's an effective opener that establishes a sensible premise for the rest of the roughly 12-hour campaign, although the overall story doesn't really explore this with much depth. It's more concerned with the truth about a humanoid robot girl named Diana, who quickly becomes Hugh's partner in crime – she takes care of the hacking while he takes care of the shooting, and this is where Pragmata shines. Hacking happens in real-time whenever you aim down sights, asking you to solve a grid-based pathing puzzle by drawing a route from one point to another using the face buttons on a controller. Successful hacks expose enemy weak spots and make them susceptible to real damage. This is Pragmata's marquee feature, and there's no avoiding it since enemies are basically impenetrable otherwise. My biggest concerns in the early hours were if this mechanic would get tiresome and if it could evolve in interesting ways as you progress – thankfully, those concerns were quickly put to rest, as it proves to be one of the best ideas I've seen in a shooter in a good long while. The more "Open" blue spaces you include in your route, the longer enemies stay vulnerable. The yellow "Nodes" you have equipped will pop up on the grid at random, which tack on additional status effects like spreading hacks to nearby robots, increasing damage potency, or turning robots against each other. Tougher enemies and bosses have more complex grids with obstacles that can block or sabotage your hack as well. So not only do you need to keep an eye on the battlefield to dodge imposing foes and keep them in your field of view, you also need eyes on the hack to solve it as quickly as possible. Juggling the two broke my brain at times, and as frustrating as it might get when more enemies are thrown at you, finding a smarter approach and making the most of the weapons available to me made the hardest fights conquerable and intrinsically rewarding. Pragmata's hack-and-shoot formula absolutely rules, and I hope Capcom builds on those ideas in the future. The shooting just feels good, too – between the shotgun and charge rifle, landing a direct shot on a robot's weak spot has a satisfying weight and feedback to it. The grenade launcher clears crowds with authority and the stasis net can buy you much needed time to execute a hack, hit a clutch shot, or just reposition. And once I unlocked the automatic rifle to replace the pea-shooter pistol, I took every opportunity to let the chopper sing, so long as I could control the wild recoil from its beefy shots. It's sometimes an annoyance to deal with the "heat" buildup on the pistol and rifle, but I found continually swapping weapons between cooldown periods to be an effective way to get more out of the great gunplay. These weapons are categorized in your loadout, so you can't just take everything with you, and while there are numerous other options with varying functions, I dug my heels in with a weaponset that was both effective and fun as hell to work with. The heavy weapons have limited ammo, however, so there is a degree of scavenging for guns that you'll have to do in the middle of a fight, which also leads to neat moments of adapting to the situation. But more often than not, I wanted to get that sweet finisher on enemies – certain weapons and hacking with specific nodes drives up a stagger meter, and if you can fill it, you're rewarded with an execution that comes with a quick camera cut and a nice, big damage number. Some of the ways Pragmata harkens back to old-school design principles also comes from its level design. They're fairly linear with plenty of rewards, resources for upgrades, and bits of storytelling in datapads and holograms to find off the beaten path, often asking you to search the environment for hidden paths to those goodies. (And it's pretty sick seeing Diana rip a data vape to expand her ultimate meter.) Oftentimes, tight corridors lead to open spaces for combat arenas in a predictable rhythm that largely works, though it does get somewhat repetitive toward the end of the campaign. And as impressive as Pragmata can look at times, I did get pretty worn out by how frequently you're fighting within the confines of sterile space station walls. Even still, I was happy to retread levels to pick up all the collectibles when I unlocked the ability to access certain areas for the love of the game (and to max out the levels on my favorite abilities and gear). Pragmata doesn't really push above and beyond the cadence it establishes in its early hours, but at least I knew I had intense combat encounters waiting for me at a brisk pace. And, of course, the boss fights that cap off each level are definite highlights. Hugh and Diana are dwarfed by these monstrous robots and their unique attack patterns, as well as how they can manipulate the hacking grid, throw tough challenges at you while bringing a bit of spectacle to it all. I also appreciate specific moments that use the hacking system outside its typical fashion, in the same way you might see a QTE punctuate a big fight or keep you engaged during a cutscene. It highlights Diana's place not just in the story, but also in how she's just as integral to the gameplay itself as Hugh. Between main missions, it’s nice that you get a ton of simulation missions you can play back at the hideout hub area, sometimes challenging you in unexpected ways by showcasing offensive techniques or enemy quirks you can then take advantage of in real-level situations. However, some of the more granular mishaps in how Pragmata controls can rear their ugly head here. For example, Hugh's momentum is pretty unpredictable, so when these missions ask you to do some basic platforming, the inconsistencies in movement tend to be infuriating. Thankfully, these aren't prohibitively difficult, and rarely do the main levels require you to do things like this. All that said, Pragmata is one of the few games I felt compelled to clear 100% – all the simulation missions, all collectibles in every level, and all the post-game content. While it took me roughly 12 hours to roll credits, doing all the extras took it to a worthwhile 15-16 hours. As of this review, I can't show or detail what's in the post-game, but just know that it's worth seeking out – not just to get more out of the fantastic gameplay, but to also see what kind of curveballs lie ahead, if you can figure out how to find them all. And when it comes to boss fights, Pragmata certainly saves its best for last. Maybe the story just isn’t meant to be anything deeper than the popcorn-flick it is, and maybe that's all it needed to be. While Pragmata is mainly concerned with making sure you have fun while out in the thick of the action, it still shoots its shot with a story that tries to pull at your heartstrings and weave in broader sci-fi drama. It starts with some really smart ideas of what a theoretical spacefaring future might look like, extrapolating the technology we have today and taking it to an unhealthy extreme. The very existence of a fabricated Earth-like place opens up fascinating possibilities, but much of that gets sidelined for a more predictable story. Rogue AI gone mad: check. A robot girl who's learning about humanity: check. One man who can save the day with laser guns and the will to fight: also check. You'll find well-written data logs and some voiced holograms that flesh out employee drama and exactly what went wrong on the Moon before Hugh's crew arrived. I especially liked the series of entries hidden behind camouflaged walls that tells you about an employee who played hooky during work hours. And then there are ones that undermine what the story actually wants to say – some of the most important information about Diana and her existence, which should have been told in the main dialogue, are relegated to data pads. It's absolutely head-scratching how flippant Pragmata is about these details. Ultimately, it wants you to care about Hugh and Diana, and the found father-daughter relationship that eventually motivates them. At times, I found it charming in a way that made me really root for the duo. When you find REMs in levels – fabrications of real-world objects like toys, crafts, and electronics – and bring them back to the hub area, Diana has a curiosity about them that's heartwarming, especially when she brings Hugh drawings after you get her crayons. Moments in which he explains to her what life on Earth is like which helps put her place in the world into perspective, too. Hugh's not a particularly interesting character, though – not just because he's pretty generic, but also because his attachment to Diana isn't really grounded in enough that's tangible or developed on screen. It just kind of happens without taking enough time to foster a believable bond that aligns with his goals, so some of their dynamic feels forced. It's disappointing because this duo is such a good spin on the companion campaign idea when it comes to the actual gameplay, with Diana being crucial to why Pragmata plays so well. Maybe the story just isn’t meant to be anything deeper than the popcorn-flick it is, and maybe that's all it needed to be when I so thoroughly enjoyed the action side of things. View the full article
For me, Pragmata kind of came out of nowhere. Not only did its announcement seem completely out of left field, but the road to its release was a bit muted as well. It turns out, it's hard to depict just how fun Pragmata is without playing it. View the full article
Brendan Greene, the creator of PUBG, is making a game that will drop us in the woods and have us find our way out. And if it goes as planned, it will exist on the web without the need for gaming platforms. That’s a big idea, and it’s why I interviewed him for The BIG Show at the recent GamesBeat Crossfire event at the GDC Festival of Gaming. We talked about his new company, PlayerUnknown Productions, and his plan to make three major games, including Prologue: Go Wayback, which is now in early access. Each game is a step along a decade-long path. A decade ago, Greene spent his 40th birthday hanging out with South Korean game developers he had met two days before. They were part of a company that would later become Krafton, and they took Greene’s mod for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and turned it into a game that sold more than 100 million copies since its release in 2017. With the massive success of PUBG, Krafton was able to go public at a $22 billion valuation in 2021. While Krafton went on to fully exploit PUBG with PUBG Mobile and reached more than a billion downloads, Greene stepped off the treadmill. “I was going back to my roots,” Greene said in our conversation for The BIG Show. He founded PlayerUnknown Productions so that he could work on his next big idea. The first game is a survival game where if you are caught in the rain too long, you could die. Prologue: Go Wayback has started its open beta. Source: PlayerUnknown Productions Prologue: Go Wayback is a game where you land in a procedurally generated map of the woods, with each instance covering 64 square kilometers. Your job is to survive in the woods and reach an exit point in the map, a weather station. For a lot of fans of PUBG, I’m guessing this doesn’t sound fun. But Greene thinks about it in different ways; he enjoys going out into the virtual woods to relax and chill. It’s also a technical wonder, where it locally generates terrain on the user’s own machine, and that terrain can be different every time the player logs in to start a new game. It’s a combination of procedural generation and machine learning. It’s a testbed of sorts, the first of a few massive games that Greene, also known as PlayerUnknown. The proceeds from his prior success have enabled Greene to patiently build a game studio in the Netherlands that has huge ambitions to make the next big thing. [Hidden Content] Prologue: Go Wayback is a single‑player open‑world survival game that uses machine learning to generate millions of possible landscapes. Built in Unreal Engine, it’s just the first playable experiment for Greene’s larger ambitions. For those looking for a game as dramatic combat game like PUBG, where only one of many players survives, this game is slow-paced and very different. It’s for modders or user-generated content fans, with guided world-building. It’s where your biggest enemy is the weather. The game started out a bit empty, naturally, and fans criticized it for that. But Greene’s team has a plan to populate the world with things to do that can create emergent experiences, or unexpected play. Greene believes in letting players figure out the world themselves so they can understand what survival truly means and get some joy out of solving their own problems. PlayerUnknown Productions is generating procedural game worlds. Source: PlayerUnknown Productions The second project underway is Preface: Undiscovered World, or Game Two. It will test more of the technologies that Greene’s team has been developing in his quest to create a large-scale world. It will be a multiplayer game that stress tests a networked, shared experience. And that large-scale, “Earth-sized” world will be Project Artemis, a massively multiplayer sandbox world that is like a new kind of 3D social platform for players — a persistent shared world with a user economy and more. Greene calls this Game Three. All of these games are very ambitious and normally they would require gigantic server farms when running at full scale. But Greene’s team is building these worlds with tools that can generate the worlds on a user’s own machine. It’s a kind of procedural content generation that combines with AI machine learning smarts. “If you want to create an Earth-scale world for millions of players, you traditionally do that with servers,” Greene said. “You’re just not going to be able to scale. And if you do it generatively via the world models they have on servers these days, it just doesn’t scale to Earth-scale. So it has to be local, like the tool you use to create the world. It has to be like a calculator … it gives you the same result every time. But it also doesn’t require you to ping a server every time or spend tokens to get a result. It has to be all local. So we’re doing it kind of the opposite of what a lot of people are doing.” That platform will be accessible via a simple web link. You can access the game and it will generate worlds on your own computer. Over time, that platform will grow into something that can operate independently of game platforms. On that path lies developer freedom and a direct link between a developer and gamers. Greene released an early version of Prologue: Go Wayback! in August, 2025. It was buggy, and some players were disappointed with the lack of gameplay for a game that lacked directed play. But Greene’s team worked on it and fixed the bugs. By November, they released a paid $20 early access version and the ratings have been going up, he said. Greene himself finds that when he needs a bit of peace, it’s a wonderful thing to just go walk in the virtual woods. We caught up at a quiet spot near the recent Dice Summit in Las Vegas and again at GDC. Here’s a YouTube version of our video conversation and an audio recording on Spotify. Enjoy! The post Brendan Greene’s plan to take us into the woods and disembody the tech platforms | The BIG Show appeared first on GamesBeat. View the full article
When I played TMNT Empire City for the first time last year, I was instantly impressed by how easily being a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle jived with the immersive first-person VR perspective. Dashing from rooftop-to-rooftop, scaling skyscrapers, and taking down Foot Clan ninjas in melee combat all showcase the stuff that VR is best at pulling off, and the unique charms of these goofy reptiles pair perfectly with the playfulness and whimsy in a way that only virtual reality games can do. But last year’s demo didn’t let me play beyond the tutorial, and didn’t let me take the all-important co-op mode for a spin, so I was left with a lot of questions for how this thing would feel beyond being a really neat premise. Having recently had the opportunity to not only try out the co-op features by playing alongside a developer but also freely roam around one of its open-area hub zones completing quests, I now have a much better idea of how this thing feels with friends, and so far I’m feeling pretty good about this radical rendition of the Ninja Turtles. No Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game is complete without cooperative multiplayer. After all, a core part of the turtles fantasy is bringing the crew of four legendary fighters together to take down over-the-top goons with some good ol' fashioned comic mischief. Doing so in VR is exactly as hilarious as you’d hope, simply because seeing your friends represented by dorky, green anthropomorphized reptiles never stops being amusing. Whether it was their grubby, three-fingered hands, their massive mouths that flap open like something out of the Muppets, or the freakishly large shells that adorn their backs, I couldn’t help but cackle watching my co-op partner jump around and swing weapons with reckless abandon. Of course, half of the fun of VR is dancing around and doing shenanigans with your buddies, so naturally I spent a good chunk of time just hanging out back at the underground secret hideout eating pizza, chugging soda, and throwing stuff at my friends for a laugh. But the real fun comes when you take to the streets of Empire City with your pals to put a stop to would-be criminals. Taking a page out of developer Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, you can freely explore parts of the city in search of quests to complete and minigames to take part in, like one where we had to beat up some Foot Clan goons and return stolen goods to their rightful owner, and another where we had to complete a time trial by gathering floating letters, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater-style, using our mastery of the climbing and jumping mechanics to get to hard-to-reach places before time ran out. None of the sidequests I saw were anything groundbreaking, but they did offer some decent excuses to do silly stuff with your buddies and compete with one another for who could take down the most baddies or complete a challenge with the best time, and you can get some good mileage out of that kind of stuff with the right crew at your side. There are lots of great details to be found while exploring, too, like how when one of your friends is defeated, they hide inside their shell and plop to the ground, revived only when their fellow bro runs over and stands near them for long enough to lure them back out and into the fray. Or how Shredder’s base of operations in Empire City can be seen from most anywhere – a massive skyscraper in the city center that looks like what you’d get if the Foot Clan launched a successful tech startup. One thing I was definitely bummed to discover is not in the game is skateboarding. In addition to the free exploration, I also got to see a tiny bit more of the main story and progression systems beyond what was in last year’s demo. After gathering intel around the city and taking down some goons, my crew and I were ambushed by none other than one of Shredder’s favorite acolytes, Rocksteady, which triggered a lengthy and honestly quite challenging boss fight where we both had to work together to get shots in when we could, then dash out of the way before getting absolutely destroyed by this rhinoceros’ devastating attacks. Were it not for a healing item or two we’d saved from some previous adventures, there’s a pretty decent chance we would have become turtle soup, and it was cool to see a bit of unexpected challenge emerge from Empire City. I also got a tiny sneak peek into the progression systems in TMNT: Empire City, which include a whole suite of gadgets and upgrades that can be gained by grabbing scraps while out on missions, then returning to the sewer for Donnie to turn them into tools for the team to use. I didn’t get to use the vast majority of these, but early examples included injectables that healed the team in times of need and smoke bombs that allowed for a stealthy retreat when combat gets too hot to handle or a failed stealth attempt warranted a speedy retreat back into the cover of darkness. One thing I was definitely bummed to discover is not in the game is skateboarding. I get that they’re already doing quite a few things, and it’s a co-op game where there’s likely to be a lot of chaos going on as it is, but still, skateboarding seems sorta crucial to the teenage mutant ninja turtle experience, especially when you’re running around open areas and have to do so on foot when there’s a perfectly good excuse to speed up ground travel just sitting there waiting to be exploited. You already put Tony Hawk-like time trials into the game, guys! How the heck are you not gonna let me try and complete those while pulling off sick tricks on a skateboard?! After spending a little more time with TMNT: Empire City and seeing how effortlessly hilarious its multiplayer mode can be, I’m feeling pretty good about its chances of capturing the attention of me and my friends. Here’s hoping the final product turns out as well as this preview felt when it comes out later this month. Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his games coverage here. View the full article
Fable development studio Playground Studios is pushing back against the recent reports that the game is getting delayed, potentially as late as 2027. Fans have been waiting a long time for a new entry in the Fable series, with this recent entry having been announced all the way back in 2020. Thankfully, Playground Games appears to have been making steady progress, as the developer confirmed an Autumn 2026 release earlier this year during the Xbox Developers event. View the full article
"For the future, the big question mark is really AI," says former Microsoft vice president of game publishing, Ed Fries. "There's obvious advantages where AI is going to make building games faster and cheaper with smaller teams, and those things are great if they're done well. But there's even more potential with AI to change the experience itself." Fries was speaking to host Luke Lohr on the Expansion Pass podcast last week, but his support of the controversial technology has some caveats. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: In defense of placeholder assets: why generative AI accidentally appears in so many games [Hidden Content] AI will be in "every single videogame" and your fridge, says former Blizzard president View the full article
Let's roleplay (no, not like that) a scenario in Valorant. It's a 1v5 on Haven site B. You've got a Phantom and a dream. You gun down one foe; not bad. A flick to the left, a second falls. A well timed dash takes out two more, but the remaining Radiant wraps around behind you and scores some hits. Your health is blinking; you Updraft out of the way (of course you're playing Jett); Tailwind has reset with those last two kills. You go soaring over their head, landing behind them, executing the perfect kill. The team goes wild in the chat, but there's one response that stands out above them all. Someone just said 'UwU.' It's love at first sight, but in the middle of the action, how can you make your move? Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Valorant gets its biggest VCT shake-up ever, and it could be the best thing to happen to it New Valorant agent Miks is channeling pure sonic power, and he could be my next instalock Valorant ranks order, distribution, and ranking system explained View the full article
Indonesia’s games ratings board has accidentally leaked significant story spoilers for unreleased games, including 007: First Light. This weekend, it was discovered that a security flaw with the Indonesian Game Rating System (IGRS) had left gameplay footage exposed for many unreleased games, which were submitted privately for the purposes of classification. That includes over an hour of spoiler-filled footage for IO Interactive’s 007: First Light, which VGC has verified is being circulated online, including what appears to be the ending of the game. Read More... View the full article
Alex Nichiporchik is the CEO of TinyBuild, which he started with Tom Brien back in 2011 to develop and market, No Time to Explain, via Kickstarter. Over the years, Nichiporchik has picked up a lot of experience in indie and double-A game publishing, and how he’s sharing some of it for the company’s 15th anniversary as an indie publisher. Nichiporchik told me in an interview about the struggle he went through just to get to the creation of TinyBuild, now based in Seattle, while growing up in Eastern Europe. But he never stopped searching for new games and making big bets. And that led him to Hello Neighbor, a giant hit that has had more than 300 million downloads since hitting the market in 2018. .memberful-global-teaser-content p:last-child{ -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent); mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent); } This article is free — just create an account Join GamesBeat to read this story and almost everything else on the site. No credit card, no catch.Start Reading FreeAlready a member? Sign in The post How TinyBuild survived 15 years of game publishing | Alex Nichiporchik interview appeared first on GamesBeat. View the full article
The excellent Dome Keeper now has multiplayer, and there's a new content DLC available that brings The Infiltrator and The Beastmaster characters. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article
There's no shortage of Pokémon cards with prices in the five-figure or higher range. Our list of the most expensive rare Pokémon cards is full of older variants and promos that've accumulated scary value over the years. This Mew ex is a bit different, though; it's not a vintage classic, nor is it some big chase card with a BGS 10 ****** Label grade. No, it's expensive because of how ridiculously scarce it is: only 1510 copies were ever made and, after this exclusive batch, there are no more coming out, ever. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Some Pokémon TCG customers will be eligible for a new early access system These vacation themed Pokémon TCG accessories make me wish I could really go to Unova This promo Snorlax Pokémon card is reaching silly prices on the secondary market View the full article
4A Games will debut the first look at its next Metro title, Metro 2039, in an Xbox-branded showcase this Thursday, April 16. The digital broadcast will debut the first look at the next title in the beloved post-apocalyptic first-person shooter series at 10 am Pacific / 1 pm Eastern / 6 pm ***. “This will be the fourth mainline entry from 4A Games in the series based on the iconic novels of Dmitry Glukhovsky,” Xbox said, “all of which tell the stories of survivors of nuclear devastation living in the Moscow subway tunnels and the world that surrounds them.” Read More... View the full article
Marathon fans are debating the best way to get more people into the brutally difficult and complex endgame raid, Cryo Archive, suggesting ways to help more casual players learn the high-stakes map. Across the board, if you fail to exfil at the end of a Marathon game, you lose everything you took in with you, including your weapons and consumables. But Cryo Archive is even harder to get into, because your loadout needs to be worth at least 5,000 credits just to play. "Give everyone the free loadout that was offered when the map launched once per week," suggested redditor timeobedlam. "It'll give players a low-risk way to engage with the content (on a very limited basis) and won't really inject that much value into the overall economy (let's be honest, most of those loadouts will get wiped out by super-kitted teams and will be left on the ground)." The proposal picked up traction on the Marathon subreddit, where hundreds of players left upvotes and commented. Many agreed with the idea of "just make it free once and then charge 5K [credits] after that." "I’d play more of it for a straight-up credit exchange set than piecing a 5k kit together," explained one player, while others liked the idea of being able to load custom pre-made loadouts so "you wouldn't have to rebuild all the time." "Would love to be able to make a kit from regularly stocked items you can buy, and then have a one-click option to buy the kit," suggested this player. "It would pull items from inventory if available, and then automate purchases after." Bungie has repeatedly said that while Marathon has a steep learning curve, over time, recovering from a bad loss gets easier. But then Cryo Archive doubled down on the ultra hardcore experience, with several requirements you need to meet in order to access it. Former professional Counter-Strike player, Shroud, has said that while Cryo Archive offers an incredible experience, it's too difficult for casual players. Speaking in a recent stream, the influential gamer said: "Cryo Archive is insane. It's the most elaborate extraction shooter map I've ever seen in a game ever. The loop that they made is truly something special. The problem is, is it too elaborate? Is it too complex? Is it too much of a grind? Is your 9-5 grandma and grandpa going to be able to do it? I don't know." Marathon's difficulty is the subject of much debate, and is often cited as one of the reasons the game has struggled to maintain players or sell in mainstream numbers. Are people bouncing off Marathon because of how brutally difficult it can be? Were some put off by its steep learning curve? A new report recently claimed Marathon’s budget is over $200 million, and while player numbers have fallen significantly since launch, Bungie’s extraction shooter is allegedly not facing an imminent shutdown. Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky. View the full article
I'm not sure if we're about to enter a Renaissance of horror-themed fishing games on accident, or if there has always been something about fishing that inherently evokes suspense and even terror. Given the unknowable nature of the sea, it's probably the latter. But between Dredge, About Fishing, GONE Fishing, and now Dreadmoor, we're spoiled for solid fishing games with an excess of tentacles, teeth, and heads. And I'm here for the fishing trip. Dreadmoor's premise immediately invokes thoughts of Dredge, a similarly Lovecraftian fishing adventure that I really enjoyed back in 2023. That's what got me through the hatch for a Dreadmoor preview at the Game Developers Conference last month. But Dreadmoor is instantly distinct. In Dredge, while you technically played the person who sailed your boat, you only ever controlled the boat. In Dreadmoor, you're very explicitly embodying a guy with hands, feet, and a first-person perspective. Specifically, you're some creaky, cranky guy who seems to have washed up in hell with nothing but a crummy fishing boat and a will to escape. Perfect for a big fish story. Because I am controlling a fella, with hands that can do work, there is significantly more mechanical density to Dreadmoor than I expected. It's very tactile. I wake up in the swamp, my boat's broken. So I step out of the cabin, bust out a grappling hook, fire at a nearby crate, and reel it in to acquire metal scrap for the repair. The repair itself is accomplished via timed button presses. Actual fishing is similar - I cast out at a distance, and I can wiggle the hook around in the water by gently clicking it in to entice a catch. Crafting takes place on a big table with all my ingredients spread out and a worn recipe book telling me what to click and drag where to make the thing I'm making. I physically pick up and drag a gas nozzle from a pump to my boat to fill it with fuel. Everything about Dreadmoor is crunchy, clanky, clunky, crispy, or some combination of those, really selling the old sea shantiness of it all. My demo took place very early in the game, which means my boat was appropriately slow and scrappy. I've been promised aid escaping this watery hellhole if I sufficiently contribute to the local economy by selling my catch to a crusty fish mutant merchant pair named Gill and (his…****? second head?) Betsy. Gill is evasive about what's really going on here, and Betsy entirely unhelpful, so off I chug in my clunker. I start with the small fry, worth barely anything, which I am instructed to grind up into bait and then use to catch *******, more Lovecraftian horrors. Lures, too, can be crafted with scrap bits I find in crates out on the waters and used to target specific fish, with factors such as what lure and bait I use and how I jerk my rod around contributing to who comes to supper in each school. All this prep work leads to the actual fishing minigame, which is similarly tactile. When I get a bite, I hold down the mouse to reel in, while moving the rod left or right opposite where the fish is swimming and watching both the fish's stamina and line tension so I know when to give it some slack. The fish quickly becomes meaningfully more challenging to wrangle, as demonstrated by my steely-eyed focus in trying to reel one in while the people running the demo tried to ask me a question at a critical moment (sorry!). If there's one thing fishing games and minigames alike struggle with, it's difficulty balance and pacing. So many fishing games are way too easy or way too hard at points where you don't expect them to be either. If Dreadmoor can manage a nice, smooth ramp up from walleye to whale shark, it might be a miracle of Cthuhlu. Everything about Dreadmoor is crunchy, clanky, clunky, crispy, or some combination of those, really selling the old sea shantiness of it all. Where Dreadmoor loses me juuuust a bit is in its relatively flat tone thus far. Look, I only played the first half hour or so. For all I know, it goes places. But to (sorry) compare it with Dredge again, Dredge begins relatively normal: daylight, regular boat, no Lovecraftian horrors. That makes it especially unnerving when you pull in something freaky, or when darkness descends and nightmares begin playing at the edges of your vision. Dreadmoor, from what I saw, was all creepy all the time. There was no hint of a day-night cycle, and no suggestion of biomes that were significantly distinct beyond the swampy bog I started in. As a result, I didn't really jump when giant tentacles flew out of the water to rock my boat; I just assumed they were there the entire time. When everything wants to scare you, nothing does. Still, the trailers for Dreadmoor do suggest some significant lighting and location variety, with gently haunting sunsets, nights lit only by the glow of mushrooms that should not rightfully be that large, and some unsettling red eyes looming on all sides. I also like the look of some of the even more complex fishing mechanics I see in those teasers – even as the fishing in my demo became more difficult, I remain unconcerned that I've seen anywhere near the end of the mechanical depth here. It looks like the fish might try to fight you? Sure! Why not! I'll fist fight a tuna. We can and will make this boat weirder. Most important to me, a lover of fishing games and minigames, is how much I like the feel of Dreadmoor. I like the flow of catching new types of fish, which feeds directly into being able to find and craft new upgrades, which in turn leads back to more interesting new fish, and onward. I think the visual details are very cool, such as the aforementioned crafting table with all its little drawers and boxes, Gill's weird walking Baba Yaga house, or the way the player character briefly holds up the monstrosity he's just caught to the camera, as if giving it a once-over himself, when it's first brought in. The environments contain loads of detail, whether that's crusty barnacle overgrowth out on the pier or the barrels overflowing with indescribable sea horrors behind Gill's counter. I've not yet decided if Dreadmoor is explicitly trying to scare me or if all the tentacles are just set dressing for what seems to be a highly competent fishing game, but my demo has led me to think I'll be pretty happy with Dreadmoor regardless. Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected]. View the full article
BitLife has a vast vault of weekly challenges, with a different one typically rotating in each week. Many of these trials are themed after famous pop culture content, as is the case with the Real Housewife challenge. In this trial, you're tasked with living it up and stirring up quite a bit of drama throughout your life. There are quite a few tricky goals to tackle, so here’s how to complete the Real Housewife challenge in BitLife. Table of contentsBitLife Real Housewife challenge walkthroughBe a female in BitLifeMarry rich in BitLifeHave 3+ female friends make you their enemy in BitLifeGo to a party with someone you started a rumor about in BitLifeDevelop an addiction in BitLifeOwn a Range Rover in BitLifeBitLife Real Housewife challenge walkthrough Screenshot by Destructoid The Real Housewife challenge has six key goals for you to tackle in BitLife: Be a female.Marry rich.Have 3+ female friends make you their enemy.Go to a party with someone you started a rumor about.Develop an addiction.Own a Range Rover.Be a female in BitLife You start off easy, with your first goal being to simply be a female. Start a new life for this challenge, as you'll want to work your way up from the very beginning for the best odds of success. When selecting your character, make sure you choose to be a female. Marry rich in BitLife Next up, you want to marry rich. For this goal, it's best to wait until you're out of school, as most people you run into while younger will also be in school and likely won't have much money yet. Once you're out of school, select the Activities tab in the bottom right corner, navigate to the Love option, and choose the Dating App. Select any age range you like, then shift your focus to the net worth section. Choosing the right option here is how you find someone rich to marry. I recommend setting the net worth section to the highest option you can choose, as you want to find a match with lots of money to check off this goal. You have to spend 100$ to use the app, but this fee is worth it for ensuring you get the match you need for this challenge. After paying this cost, look for a partner whose money bar is almost entirely full or is entirely full. Once you find them, get to work building the relationship over time until you can eventually make things serious and get married. Screenshot by Destructoid Have 3+ female friends make you their enemy in BitLife Your next goal is to have at least three female friends make you their enemy. Odds are, you picked up at least a few female friends throughout your life. If not, socialize with some people until you manage to make a few friends. Once you have at least three female friends, you can get to work making them your enemies. Checking off this goal involves mostly random luck, as whether or not they decide to make you an enemy is entirely up to them. You can help the process along by giving them bad gifts, like a dead flower, insulting them, starting rumors about them, and otherwise finding ways to be mean. If you can, trying to get them to attack you also really helps, especially if you can then attempt to sue them right after. Odds are, this will be more than enough to get them to declare you as an enemy. Go to a party with someone you started a rumor about in BitLife Screenshot and remix by Destructoid Next up, you need to go to a party with someone you started a rumor about. To check this task off, select the Relationships panel, scroll down to the Friends section, and select the Rumor option. Then, go to the same tab again, but select the Party option instead. Doing this will officially mark this goal as complete. Develop an addiction in BitLife The next goal you need to work on is developing an addiction. There are quite a few different ways to make this happen, but generally, the best way is to visit the nightclub repeatedly. Select the Activities tab, scroll down to find the Nightlife option, and choose any club to visit. Then, repeat this process over and over. Whenever you get pop-ups offering you alcohol or drugs, accept them. If you can, try to go for alcohol or a lesser drug, as accepting ones like ******** come with a high chance of dying by overdose. Own a Range Rover in BitLife Screenshot and remix by Destructoid The last mission you need to work through is buying and owning a Range Rover. Select the Assets tab, scroll down to the Go Shopping... option, and select any car dealer. Look through the options until you manage to find a Range Rover. The available car listings are randomized and change over time. If you don't see the Range Rover you need, you can either age up to get new ones available or close and reopen the app to instantly change the options. Any Range Rover or Land Rover counts for this task. As soon as you finish this last goal, the full Real Housewife challenge will be complete. There are lots of other trials you can work through from the vault, though, if you're up for it. Some other ones you might try working on next are the Attack Titan challenge, the Lucky Duck challenge, the Mamba challenge, and the Kahlo My World challenge. The post How to complete the Real Housewife challenge in BitLife appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article
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Last month, Epic Games laid off about 1,000 employees as part of a $500 million cost-saving push, following the poor performance of several new games and Fortnite updates. On April 16, Epic will shut down Fortnite's Ballistic mode and Fortnite Festival Battle Stage. Rocket Racing will follow in October. Read Entire Article View the full article