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"Players should have the agency to tailor their experience"View the full article

If Balatro completely took over your brain (totally understandable), then you might want to pay attention to this one. Fanatical's latest Platinum Collection is packed with discounted Steam games, and hidden among them is a weird little gem called This Ain't Even Poker, Ya Joker (wow, it rhymes) - and yes, the game is just as unhinged as its title. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Arc Raiders is at an all-time low price, but this deal is only available for 48 hours If you think Steam's 90% discount on Resident Evil 3 is good, Fanatical's just beaten it Fill the gaps in your Bethesda collection with Oblivion, Fallout, Doom, and other classics from just $3 each View the full article

"DDLC is widely celebrated for portraying mental health in a way that meaningfully connects deeply with players," the lead dev and publisher sayView the full article

Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss has outlined a number of significant changes coming to the game in the coming months, each addressing various community complaints that were highlighted recently. There are some real crowd-pleasers in Pearl Abyss’ blog post, including boss rematches, enemy territory recapture, and difficulty settings. But beyond that, Pearl Abyss also confirmed upgrades to the two secondary characters, Damiane and Oongka, to bring them more in line with main playable character Kliff, new pets and mounts, new outfits, and significant changes to storage. Meanwhile, user interface and control improvements are on the way, as well as improvements to distant scenery quality. Perhaps the most important change is you’ll be able to hide items on Kliff’s back (finally!). There’s a lot to unpack here (all the details are below), but let’s start with ‘re-blockading:’ “Peace is fleeting, and darkness does not retreat so easily. Enemy remnants are waiting for their chance to reclaim liberated locations. Drive out the forces that have seized these locations once more and continue proving the strength of the Greymanes.” That’s a timeline upcoming change, given we reported just this week that some players with hundreds of hours under their belt had started to complain that the world had become too peaceful because they’d basically killed all the enemies. The changes to difficulty settings are welcome, too. Here’s the note: "A difficulty settings feature will be added so that everyone — from new Greymanes to the more advanced — can enjoy the adventure at the level that suits them best. You’ll be able to choose from easy, normal, and hard difficulty." As IGN had reported, some players had called for a hard mode because they felt updates had made the game too easy. But now we know we’re also getting an easy mode, which should be good news for those who prefer a more easy-going experience (Crimson Desert can be brutal in places, particularly with some of the bosses). It will be interesting to see how the game changes with each setting. And this is a really important one: new skills for Damiane and Oongka: "We fully understand your feedback about the need for Damiane and Oongka to have skills comparable to 'Force Palm' and 'Axiom Force.' To address this, both characters will receive new abilities equivalent to those skills." This is key, because players have found that Damiane and Oongka are limited in scope compared to Kliff, and indeed much of the game simply can’t be completed while using either of the characters because they don’t have the same abilities to, for example, solve puzzles. Hopefully with this change, Damiane and Oongka will become genuine alternative choices. Other quality of life improvements are also welcome. Crafting from camp storage is a big deal for a game that currently forces you to take resources out of your storage box and pop them into your inventory every time you want to use them. And more summonable mounts and new pets will be added. Overall, all this is good news for Crimson Desert. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a developer make such sweeping improvements to a big, AAA single-player open world video game this quickly before, and Pearl Abyss is rightly being praised for it. The pace of change with this game really is remarkable, and you wonder each week what’s coming next. Pearl Abyss said the changes, below, will be rolled out from April to June. Changes coming to Crimson Desert April-June 2026: ◆ New Content and Features We’re preparing new challenges so you can continue testing yourself throughout your journey across Pywel. ■ Boss Rematches The powerful bosses you encountered across Crimson Desert are waiting to challenge you once again. With boss rematches, you’ll have the opportunity to face off against any boss again, test how much you’ve grown, and further refine your own combat style through different strategies and approaches. ■ Re-blockading Peace is fleeting, and darkness does not retreat so easily. Enemy remnants are waiting for their chance to reclaim liberated locations. Drive out the forces that have seized these locations once more and continue proving the strength of the Greymanes. ■ Difficulty Settings A difficulty settings feature will be added so that everyone—from new Greymanes to the more advanced—can enjoy the adventure at the level that suits them best. You’ll be able to choose from easy, normal, and hard difficulty. We’re also working on new combat-focused content, so stay tuned. ◆ Improvements to Character Play ■ New Skills for Damiane and Oongka We fully understand your feedback about the need for Damiane and Oongka to have skills comparable to “Force Palm” and “Axiom Force.” To address this, both characters will receive new abilities equivalent to those skills. ■ Hide Back Weapons A new option to hide the weapons on your character’s back will be added, so certain equipment worn on your back won’t break immersion during combat. ■ Addition of New Outfits: New outfits for characters will be added. Additionally, certain outfits that can only be sold or donated will be updated so that they can also be worn. ◆ QoL Improvements and Life Features ■ New Specialized Storage - Food storage: We plan to add a new food storage, from which you can directly take out ingredients for use in cooking. When preparing meals, you’ll be able to use ingredients from both your food storage and your inventory. - Wardrobe: A new wardrobe storage will be added so that you can store your headgear, armor, gloves, footwear, and cloaks. - Gatherables Storage: A new gatherables storage will be added, from which you can directly take out items for use in tempering and crafting. This storage will be able to hold a variety of crafting materials, including insects, stones, ores, and more. - Collections Storage: A new Collection Storage will be added, giving you a place to keep quest items tied to your adventures, along with recipes and other items you've collected on your journey. ■ Pets & Mounts More summonable mounts and new pets will be added. Also, in addition to existing horse tack sets, dedicated armor for other mounts is also being planned. ◆ System and Graphics Improvements ■ UI Improvements To improve legibility, we’ll be adding a minimum font size adjustment option. Since Crimson Desert supports 14 UI languages, fully optimizing this feature across all of them will take some time, but we plan to introduce it first to help make the game more comfortable to play. We also plan to continue improving various UI elements and QoL features, including improvements to the map, inventory, and housing. ■ Improvements to Controls We are carefully reviewing your feedback about controls. To provide a better gameplay experience, we plan to add customization options for certain controller inputs. We will also expand the range of configurable keys for keyboard and mouse to improve usability. ■ Improvements to Distant Scenery Quality We are working on enhancing the realism of distant backgrounds so you can enjoy Pywel’s landscapes in greater depth. Please note that the patch size may be somewhat larger due to improvements to how distant scenery changes and the quality of rendering under different conditions. Take a look at the image below for a preview of how Pywel will look after the update. Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article

The test will be open to select countries in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia. View the full article

The action RPG inspired by Korean folklore was originally set to release on May 26. View the full article

Subscribing to Xbox Game Pass makes it practically impossible to ever run out of interesting games to play, but it's unfortunately easy to overlook small indie releases. April is a stacked Game Pass month with 18 games announced so far, but a relatively new cozy game has a chance to stand out. View the full article

The PC is one of the last places you'd expect to see a Mariogame. It's not a totally unprecedented destination — Mario Teaches Typing, anyone? — but it's hard to imagine Nintendo bringing any normal Mario game over to the platform in this day and age. View the full article

Remember Darkstone? Probably not. It's one of many Diablo-likes of the 1990s largely forgotten today like Revenant or, er, one of the other examples I could come up with except for the fact I seem to have forgotten them as well... Read more.View the full article

Google has removed Doki Doki Literature Club from its Google Play Store due to perceived violations of its Terms of Service. The cult visual novel surprise-released on the storefront in December following its initial PC release in 2017. It's since been ported to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and iOS... Read more.View the full article

Note: This update is for the Steam Deck Beta and Preview channels, and includes new features that are still being tested. You can opt into this in Settings > System > System Update Channel. These notes contain all changes since the current stable SteamOS 3.7 release, with no changes added since the 3.8.1 preview General Fixed a case where WiFi performance could become degraded until the device was put to sleep or manually reconnected Fixed excessive trackpad sensitivity on certain early Steam Deck LCD models Initial support for upcoming Steam Machine hardware Updated Arch system base Updated graphics driver with performance and stability fixes Fixed a case where per-app performance settings would intermittently fail to apply when launching a game Improved support for the screencasts in Game Mode (e.g. OBS/Discord) Fixed dropdown menus not appearing in some games Improved VRR frame pacing Fixed FSR badge remaining off in the performance overlay, even if it was actually active Improved support for games that attempt to open PDF files in external viewers Fixed an issue affecting certain titles (such as "SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide") where the game window could have an incorrect position Fixed closing certain titles (such as "STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor™") and Starfield resulting in a session ****** Improved support for certain USB racing wheels and USB devices that boot in a non-standard mode Frequently these are devices that appear as USB storage devices with a driver installer, and must be switched to their normal mode by the OS Steam Deck controller firmware updates now display update progress on the splash screen Fixes issue on specific Steam Deck revisions where firmware updates could render the left controller inoperative for that session Numerous stability and security updates Bluetooth Re-re-enable Bluetooth Wake for Steam Deck LCD Fix for more spurious wake issues that were present in earlier attempts Audio Detect HDMI channel count and expose surround configuration if available Add a setting to allow using Bluetooth headset mics (Bluetooth playback quality will be worse while capture is active) Restore internal audio device on reboot if set to "Off" in desktop mode Increase suspend timeout for HDMI devices so initial audio isn't cut off after a few seconds of inactivity Fixed a bug with switching input devices when a wired headset is plugged in Fixed an issue where audio underruns could be experienced after sleep/resume Accessibility Added an option to force mono audio output Desktop Mode KDE Plasma updated to version 6.4.3 from 6.2.5, and now uses wayland by default Fixes several cases of reduced performance in Desktop Mode compared to Game Mode Improved support for rotated displays Better scale factor out of the box on TVs Adds support for external HDR displays Adds support for VRR displays Adds support per-display scale factor For more information, see Plasma release announcements [Hidden Content] [Hidden Content] Keyboard layout and language are now obeying Game Mode settings Improved windowing behavior for games running in Proton System Firmware Includes Steam Deck LCD BIOS v133 Security updates Added "Memory Power Down" setup option Preliminary support for hibernation Includes Steam Deck OLED BIOS v114 Security updates Charging LED now changes color when charge limit is reached, rather than only at 100% Non-Deck Improved compatibility with recent Intel and AMD platforms Greatly improved video memory management with discrete GPU platforms Fixed a compatibility issue with the SteamOS chainloader that could cause a boot failure on some desktop systems with recent UEFI firmware Power button short and long presses now supported across a wide variety of devices Improved controller support for OneXPlayer F1 series, GPD Win 5, GPD Win Mini, Anbernic Win600, OrangePi NEO, and Lenovo Legion Go Added controller support for OneXPlayer X1 series and Lenovo Legion Go 2 Added system and controller firmware update support for the Lenovo Legion Go 2 Added preliminary charge limiting support for Legion Go, Legion Go S, and Legion Go 2 - currently only accessible in Desktop Mode Added controller RGB LED color settings for the Lenovo Legion Go 2 Added controller, TDP control, and speaker audio support for the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally series Reduced handheld controller input latency from 5-8ms to 100-500us Night mode, color vibrance, and color temperature sliders in Steam now work on Z2E and later AMD APUs Seamless boot fixes for Z2E and later AMD APUs Automatically handle internally rotated display for some third-party handhelds Improved motion control support for handhelds with BMI260 IMUs SD card reliability improvements for some third-party handhelds, including ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, Legion Go 1, Legion Go S, Legion Go 2, and MSI Claw Fixed washed out colors for Zotac and OneXPlayer handhelds with OLED Fixed some GPU hangs on Phoenix APU devices (Tales of Arise, Octopath Traveler II) Fixed ASUS ROG Ally power consumption from fingerprint reader while shut down Developer Desktop Mode now uses Wayland by default X11 support may still be selected via Steam developer settings, or via `steamosctl` Updated Linux kernel to 6.16 Steam now uses steamos-manager to query available desktop sessions and trigger desktop session switching Added support for setting the desktop password in developer settings Initial support for running as a Virtual Machine guest (virtio guest drivers) Added support for third-party devices to trigger the SteamOS boot menu via EFI variable Added `custom-update` verb to `atomupd-manager` for easier testing of specific builds System reports now include more audio debug information Initial support for LAVD CPU scheduler via `steamosctl set-cpu-scheduler lavd` View the full article

"If you would've told me, 'Oh, Bungie will be part of Sony, you know, 25 years ago, I'd be like 'What? No, I don't think so'"View the full article

Pokémon Champions has over 200 different monsters available for you to collect (counting the Megas), but there are a few that you can't obtain directly. They can only be obtained with the help of the transfer feature. While the list isn't big, they're certainly unique. Let's look at all the transfer-only Pokémon in the current version of the game, and how you can obtain them. Table of contentsComplete list of transfer-only Pokémon in ChampionsHow to get transfer-only Pokémon in ChampionsComplete list of transfer-only Pokémon in Champions Here's the list of all Pokémon that can only be obtained via transfer. While we will look into the method later, let's first look into the names. FloetteVivillonFurfrou For Vivillon and Furfrou, you can also obtain them in their different forms. Both of them have various trims that help them get unique appearances. How to get transfer-only Pokémon in Champions Screenshot by Destructoid As you might have understood by their names, these Pokémon will never appear as a recruit. Instead, you'll first need to find them in different Pokémon games. Furfrou and its trims, for example, can be found in Pokémon Go. There was an event back in Feb-March that allowed you to freely change its trims. To transfer them, you'll need to first send them to Pokémon HOME. The Nintendo ID tied with HOME should be the same as Champions. Then, proceed to send the chosen Pokémon on a visit to Champions. Go to Pokémon Champions, accept the transfer, and your Pokémon will show up in the Recruit section. As long as it has permissible moves, you'll be able to use the Pokémon across all types of battles. The post All transfer only Pokémon in Pokémon Champions and how to get them appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

Lyrical Games and One More Level have shared a new gameplay trailer for Valor Mortis ahead of its launch this fall. View the full article

A free Neverway Steam Prologue demo is also available alongside a new trailer. View the full article

A new dark fantasy RPG has just been released for free on Steam, and you can keep it forever, no strings attached. You can find an ever-growing list of free titles to obtain on the platforms, from a variety of genres. Just a few days ago, four new free games joined Steam, allowing players to add them to their libraries without having to pay a single penny whatsoever. Among the huge influx of freebies, there are some that may be worth paying attention to. View the full article

Formerly known as Crosswind, this game features souls-lite combat and a procedurally generated world. View the full article

A new report has 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. Forbes reported that the Marathon budget is likely more than $250 million. It’s worth noting that this spend allegedly does not include ongoing costs for the live service game, nor the development of post-launch content. Last month, one analyst said “Marathon hasn't exactly made the splash Sony and Bungie wanted,” estimating sales at around 1.2 million copies. That, Alinea Analytics said, amounted to gross revenues of around $55 million across PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S. On Steam, Marathon hit a peak concurrent player count of 88,337 at launch. But that number has fallen steadily over the past month, with the latest 24-hour peak hitting 25,392 players. Of course, Marathon is also out on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, but neither Sony nor Microsoft make player numbers public. Still, PC is clearly the dominant platform for Marathon with an estimated 70% of the sales, so those Steam concurrents give us a decent idea of how it's tracking. Bungie is under pressure to deliver for Sony after recent and very public financial failings. In November, Sony said Bungie had failed to meet its sales and user engagement expectations, recording a 31.5 billion yen (approx. $204.2 million) impairment charge as a result of Destiny 2’s underperformance. That was significant enough to drag down profits at Sony’s Game & Network Services Segment, which includes Sony Interactive Entertainment. According to Forbes, Bungie developers are working hard on new content, and there is no danger of an imminent shutdown. But after what happened to Sony’s own Concord and, more recently, Highguard, everything surrounding Marathon feels a little on edge. We’ll probably have to wait for Sony’s next set of financial results to find out if it’s happy with Marathon's commercial performance. As for Bungie itself, it may have made a game so hardcore that it is impossible for it to hit the kind of mainstream sales fellow extraction shooter Arc Raiders enjoyed last year — at least without significant changes or additions. Marathon is a difficult game; if you die, you lose all your gear. And not just what you looted while out on the battlefield, but what you brought in. And given how easy it is to die in Marathon, it can feel like a brutally punishing video game. Are people bouncing off Marathon because of this? Were some put off by its steep learning curve? Bungie has repeatedly said that while Marathon has a steep learning curve, over time, recovering from a bad loss gets easier. But then Marathon’s recently launched raid-like experience, 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." Where does Bungie go from here? Marathon is far from a Concord-style live service disaster, but it’s clear Bungie needs to do something to increase sales. Simply making Marathon easier may not be enough to do the trick, and would run the risk of alienating those who currently love it the way it is. Making it free-to-play this soon after launch would just anger those who paid full price. Could a single-player or PvE campaign spark renewed interest? Could a traditional PvP mode help? And should we be surprised by word of Marathon costing north of $250 million to produce? Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier recently talked about AAA games developed in the U.S. and Canada, where developer salaries are typically higher than in other parts of the world, costing $300 million or more to produce. Indeed, Concord's initial development deal was around $200 million, according to a report by Kotaku. In 2023, new documents submitted as part of the Xbox Federal Trade Commission case accidentally revealed The Last of Us: Part II and Horizon Forbidden West each cost more than $200 million to develop. Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article

Radical Fish Games' new action RPG Alabaster Dawn will enter Steam Early access on May 7. View the full article

Following snippets of gameplay, Alkahest gets its first full gameplay reveal trailer. View the full article

Konami and Evil Empire shared a new trailer for Castlevania: Belmon'ts Curse during the Triple-i Initiative stream. View the full article

Your journey from Finland to Russia in Road to Vostok doesn't need to be a lonely march, and that can be ensured by finding a cat on the fourth day of your adventure. If you manage to survive the first three days, you'll be tasked with finding a missing cat. Let's look at how you can rescue it and add it as your beloved companion. How to complete the Missing Cat event in Road to Vostok You have to survive the first three days, and you will be able to accept the quest. The cat can be found in the Outpost area, but for that, you'll need to prepare carefully. The quest requires you to travel from the Village to the School, and then to the Outpost, and then again return via the same route. Since you'll lose hydration and energy at all levels, you'll need water and food. Image via Road to Vostok Stick to the right side of the map, go past the lake, and you'll find a road. Stick to the road, head right, and you'll find the Transfer sign that takes you to the School area. Once you're at the School, walk near the cover that will lead you to the bridge. This is a straight route, but there will be enemies around. Reach the end of the bridge, and you'll reach the Outpost area. The Outpost is extremely dangerous since it's an open area, and you can get shot. There are three bunkers at this location: the first one is immediately on the right of the spawn point. The second one will be to the left of the Red Farmhouse. Finally, the third one is to the right of the Red Farmhouse. Image via Road to Vostok Once again, keep to your right, and you'll come across a small hill. There's an entrance to an underground bunker that will lead you to the cat. Go inside a room on your left, and you'll find a small well (look for the entrance hidden by wooden planks). You'll find the ****** cat in a cardboard box. Interact with the well to rescue the cat. The exact location of the cat could differ on your save. It can spawn in any of the three bunkers at the Outpost location. Once you rescue the cat, head back via the same route that you came from. Don't die along the way, as you'll need to restart the entire process. The post How to get a cat in Road to Vostok appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

Previously announced by Humble Games, the game is now published as the first title for Balor Games. View the full article

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Diablo 4 has revealed nearly 12 minutes of Lord of Hatred gameplay, featuring cunning deception, new enemies, and, of course, gratuitous violence. Mephisto has the upper hand in this Diablo 4 expansion, which arrives on April 28, 2026. View the full article