Graywalkers: Purgatory will get new content this February.

Content Update #2 Coming in February 2021

Belated Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We hope you had a great time with your friends and family during your thanksgiving dinners.

We have some good news for everybody. I wanted to take this opportunity to announce that the next major update, Content Update #2, will release in early February 2021. This update will feature primarily the preview release of the Single-Player Campaign. Originally, we were thinking of releasing this feature upon full release but we've decided to release it and add on content with regular updates instead until the full release is ready. This means you will now be able to create your own character avatar in the game and you will be able to explore the world of Graywalkers Purgatory.

• Single Player Campaign Access - this will not yet be the full campaign but it will contain a significant part of it. From the point we release this, we will update it with small updates every month.

• Quest / Mission Tracking - as you go through the game, there will be a system in place to help you manage and track all the different missions you'll be finding in the game.

• 15 Recruitable Characters - there will be at least 15 playable characters that will be readily available to be found to be recruited in the campaign. More will be added as more locations will be added to the world. Many of these are those revealed in the Missions Mode while some have not yet been shown. Take note though that the characters from the Missions may differ slightly to their counterparts in the campaign. They may have different stats, levels and abilities in the campaign.

• Character Portraits & Game Avatar - you will be able to choose from over a score of character portraits and in-game avatars. Your choice of portrait will determine which avatar you will have in-game. Take note that this is the initial version of the character creator. As we go along, we intend you to be able to customize the look of the in-game avatar to a certain degree but this will probably be available closer to the full release.

• New Creatures - New creatures will be released with the next update. All the ones you've seen in the game thus far will be there but we will also be adding a large number of new creatures to populate the world. This includes new types of vampires, werewolves, zombies, demons, monsters and supernatural creatures.

• Graywalker Gifts - with the release of the campaign, your character and the other recruitable Graywalkers will have what we call their Graywalker Gifts. These are special abilities that make each one unique as well as marking them as true Graywalkers. For your in-game character/avatar, you will get to choose from many different kinds of abilities that will be your signature ability. The other recruitable Graywalkers will have their Gifts chosen already for them but you will still have the option to improve it (or not) the way you want it to be. These gifts that the characters have can be upgraded as you level up if you so chose to make them even more powerful or versatile.

• New Abilities - new abilities will also be made available in the campaign, Some abilities may also be removed or streamlined to balance it out. These abilities will be available for you to customize your character as you level up from experience.

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

Hero-U will arrive on Nintendo Switch February 9th 2021.

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Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption is a humorous fantasy role-playing adventure game by Lori and Corey Cole, creators of the acclaimed Quest for Glory series.

Feature list:
- Story and Character-Driven Adventure Game
- Role-Playing Game Featuring Skills, Equipment, and Tactical Combat
- Replayable with thousands of player choices and story variations
- Turn-Based, Non-Twitch, Avoidable Combat
- Seamless Blend of Dramatic Story and Comedy
- Immersive Mini-Games and Challenging Stealth Gameplay
- First of a Series of Games Set at the Hero University

About this game:
Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption is an epic - and humorous - fantasy adventure and role-playing game in which you take on the role of Shawn O'Conner, a young man striving to become a hero as well as a rogue.

During the day, Shawn attends classes at the University, practices his skills, and tries to make friends with other students. At night, it's time to pull out weapons, armor, and traps to explore the abandoned wine cellars, stunning sea caves, creepy catacombs, and deadly dungeon beneath Hero-U. Most combat is optional for those who prefer a pure adventure game, but there are ample rewards for those who choose to valorously fight the creatures that threaten the school and all of Sardonia.

Shawn can become the Rogue of the Year while exploring a mysterious castle, making friends and enemies, fighting deadly foes, and uncovering the secrets of his own hidden past. Meanwhile players will enjoy the rich and humorous dialogue and descriptions as they guide Shawn through his adventures.

Thanks Couchpotato!

Enderal got a final patch and SureAI is working on a commercial game:

Enderal Patchnotes 1.6.4.0 (Final Patch)

Enderal Patch 1.6.4.0 is now available. Here are the patchnotes.

Walk blessed,

the new patch 1.6.4.0 is now available! This patch will be the final one for Enderal, because we no longer have the amount of free time we used to have to keep on patching it! This also means that we will not create a port for Skyrim Special Edition.

SureAI is currently working on a new, commercial project which will hopefully be announced this year. So stay tuned for news and keep an eye on our social media channels.

Furthermore, the Korean localization is now available on Steam.

Steam will automatically download and install this patch for the English and German version. It needs to be translated for other localizations of the game (currently Simplified Chinese, Italian, Russian, French, Spanish, Japanese and Korean) and it will be available as soon as the responsible translation teams finished their work.

Be careful, the patch notes contain spoilers to some extent.

Thanks to community member overdev who provided fixes to this patch.

Stay safe and have fun playing!

Tech:

• Fixed that the damage dealt by the talent Archaic Might was reduced by armor directly, very often resulting in dealing 0 damage on the highest talent rank.
• (Set of the Tracker) Fortune of the Tracker now properly increases Rhetoric when being worn.
• Disenchanting Sublime Garments now grants the proper enchantment.
• Fixed that some bows would disappear when they were dropped from the inventory.

Sound:

• Fixed two sound files.

UI:

• Fixed various typos.

Thanks Couchpotato!

The RPG Codex has voted for the GOTY 2020:

Game of the Year
1st - Wasteland 3
2nd - Yakuza: Like a Dragon
3rd - Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children

Best Remaster/Port
Persona 4 Golden

RPG Codex GOTY 2020: Results & Cool Graphs

Welcome to the RPG Codex 2020 GOTY Award!

This year we had 1025 voters, who rated 76 releases from 2020.

If 2019 felt like a slow year, this was even slower. But we still had some good games that will likely turn into classics as more people try them out. Since we had very few expansions & DLCs this year, I've cut the categories to just two: Best RPGs of the Year & Best PC ports/remasters.

Best 2020 RPGs

I always enjoy doing this graph, because I think it makes the reception of the year's releases very clear:

[...]

As you can see, in 2020 only two RPGs were really popular: Cyberpunk 2077 and Wasteland 3. And while Cyberpunk's position at the very top seems impressive, only 58% of voters played it. That's much lower than games like Divinity:OS2, Disco Elysium and even ELEX had.

Since I've began doing this in 2014, this is likely the year with a smallest percentage of RPGs being played on release. Which doesn't mean that we didn't have good games:

[...]

Champagnes must be popping at InXile, because Wasteland 3 managed to beat CDProjekt, with 84% of positive votes, becoming the 2020 GOTY. Still, I must point again how low its numbers are. Only 48% of voters played it, while 65% played Wasteland 2 in 2014. This is really surprising, given how WL3 is also on consoles & on game pass, was released earlier in the year than WL2 and there weren't many other big RPGs competing against it. People really played less games.

Nowhere that's more evident than on our #2 game, Yakuza: Like a Dragon. With almost 90% of positive votes and 67% of all voted being 4/4, it has a really amazing rating. But only 16% of the Codex played it. You could say the same for #3, Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children, an indie Korean tactical RPG: only 17% of voters played it, despite overwhelming positive ratings. If you are looking for the year's hidden gems, here they are.

The next games continue the trend, with very low player numbers despite strong ratings. Dungeon of Naheulbek: The Amulet of Chaos and SpellForce 3: Fallen God also had over 80% positive ratings, but now the majority of those are 3/4 votes, putting them one step behind. After them, the rest of the games beside Cyberpunk don't even reach 10% of voters. Those numbers are so low that just a handful of votes from trolls/fanboys could heavily impact the results, so take them with a grain of salt.

While Cyberpunk 2077 was by far the most played one, it got a mixed reception: 57% gave it a positive score, 43% gave it a negative score. It still ranked #7, but that's not really an achievement for such huge & hyped release.

At the low end of the scale, Marvel's Avengers and Torchlight III stand out as the worst games. Despite the big names, their reception seems to have been so bad that no one even bothered to try them.

Remasters & PC Ports

[...]

This is basically the JRPG Codex category, and Persona 4 won by a landslide. So much that it's actually the #2 best game of the year if you combine both categories. And it was also one of the most-played games of the list, at 25%.

Dragon Quest XI and Trails of Cold Steel III also got very good ratings, which is no surprise considering DQXI was ranked #5 at out 2018 poll, and Trails of Cold Steel II was ranked #2 in the 2018 ports category. Wasteland Remastered also got a lot of votes and positive ratings, but way less 4/4 votes than its peers. Seems like the consensus is that it was a good remaster, but not a great one. Finally, while Horizon Zero Dawn's status as an RPG is contested, it still got a lot of play and positive votes.

The 16-bit SNES style RPG Chained Echoes will be released in Q4 2021:

Chained Echoes

Take up your sword, channel your magic or board your Mech. Chained Echoes is a 16-bit SNES style RPG set in a fantasy world where dragons are as common as piloted mechanical suits. Follow a group of heroes as they explore a land filled to the brim with charming characters, fantastic landscapes and vicious foes. Can you bring peace to a continent where war has been waged for generations and betrayal lurks around every corner?

Chained Echoes is a story-driven game where a group of heroes travel around the vast continent of Valandis to bring an end to the war between its three kingdoms. In the course of their journey, they will travel through a wide array of diverse landscapes spanning from wind-tanned plateaus and exotic archipelagos to sunken cities and forgotten dungeons.

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Key Features:

• 20-25 hours of play time
• Fast paced turn-based battles
• No random encounters; enemies can be seen running around
• Tons of items to be looted, stolen or crafted
• Complex skill and equipment system
• Customize your own airship
• Travel and fight by foot or in your Mech
• 16-bit SNES style graphics
• Music inspired by PSX RPGs

The open world RPG Avalom: Ancient Heroes will be released on May 28:

Avalom: Ancient Heroes

Developed by a single person and based on an RPG book written by him! Set in a huge open world, Avalom: Ancient Heroes presents a rewarding action combat experience. Players embark on an epic adventure in a rich and alive world with their AI companions. In a world where mortals and gods coexist and live on the same plane of existence! Interpret and be whatever you want in this endless journey where anything can happen! Remember you are free and can live however you want without any linear story to follow, you are the one who tells your own story!

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Fascinating narrative driven by your choices - You don't just decide to live freely in the world of Avalom, you make important decisions that change the future. Each choice has its weight, and its actions can lead to several results. Avalom is a highly personalized journey where a false move can lead to a series of events that alter even physical aspects of the world, making you and your allies truly unique.

An Immense World to be Discovered - The world of Avalom has never been so large and so detailed. It is completely open and ready to be explored. Discover the enemy that is ready to act. Reveal hidden caves full of lurking creatures. Avalom is vast and dangerous, but unraveling its secrets can mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Intense and strategic combat - There is no wrong way to play Avalom: Ancestral Heroes, except in which you die. Fortunately, you can build characters with a giant skill tree to build unique characters on.

The action RPG Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards will be released in 2021:

- 16th Century -

From the heavens, mystic shards rain down upon the earth defying both time and space. Superstition, mysticism and fear of the unknown gave life to a path that went beyond the land of its birth. We meet our heroine Aluna, who as a child has was given the most powerful of these shards that is said to contain the heart of her mother, the goddess of Earth Pachamama. Through a series of circumstances, Aluna must leave her home and journey to the new world. Aluna is fulfilling her destiny, but so is the evil that seeks to fulfill theirs. Aluna's past guides her future and her enemies will stop at nothing to steal the shard and take control of the world...

Non Stop Real Time Combat

Your skills will define your fate. Experience fast-paced action using a vast array of weapons abilities to defeat your enemies. Combine your combat abilities with spells and evasion tactics to gain the upper hand in the heat of battle.

Explore a vast new World

From large gloomy jungles, to the Sanctuary seaside cliffs, all the way to Nagaric's Temple in the Volcanic Canyons. Journey through a mysterious unexplored territory.

Battle Mythological Creatures

Your travels will be perilous as this land is teeming with dark mythological creatures and demons that stop at nothing to end Aluna’s journey through the New World.

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Key Features

• Explore a vast land filled with dense jungles, majestic beaches, and towering cliffs.
• Choose from a vast array of weapons based on historical weapons from the Old World (South America) and New World (Spanish Empire).
• Customize Aluna’s fighting style by unlocking powerful magical abilities across 3 schools of magic.
• Collect, craft, and trade hundreds of unique items and loot.
• Defeat mythological boss creatures inspired by South American lore.
• Aluna is voiced by actress/producer/creator Paula Garces.
• Based on the popular comic book series "The World of Aluna" by the writers of Assassins Creed and Batman: Arkham Origins. 

A S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 development update from GSC Game World shows off a new hero.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Development Update: a Gameplay Teaser and a New Hero

by Zakhar Bocharov, PR Specialist at GSC Game World • Jan 15, 2021 @ 10:00am

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Hi everyone!

GSC Game World here.

The debut S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 trailer at the Xbox Games Showcase was all about the atmosphere. We have made quite a bit of progress since July, and we decided to go forward, sharing an in-engine gameplay teaser. That seems like a neat way to kickstart a new year, right?

Just imagine.

A long and tedious road.

The hostile and treacherous Zone.

Unbelievable treasures that might cost you everything. A blood trial, separating your old life from a new one…

It’s time for a taste of how the game actually feels. Fast-paced changes of scenery, ominous landscapes and the ever-present feeling of an inevitable danger.

You’re seeing this world through the eyes of a stalker named Skif— remember the codename, you will hear it a lot. Following the steps of its predecessors, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 introduces a completely new main protagonist. His actions will shape the new grand chapter in the history of the Zone.

The short scene takes place in the ruined school on the outskirts of the dead town of Pripyat. That’s an extremely dangerous place, and nobody would like to be here on their will. Still, the place doesn’t seem completely abandoned: there is a freshly started fire with a guitar nearby. However, Skif hardly has time to acknowledge that: he seems in a hurry. It looks like an inevitable danger is following him.

And here it is: an emission. A signature part of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, a powerful release of the anomalous energy from the center of the Zone. Emission happens from time to time and it’s extremely dangerous: it can kill you in the blink of an eye. When a stalker notices a start of emission, they should hide immediately and wait for the end of it, hoping they can get through. So that’s why Skif is in a hurry: he is certainly looking for cover in the nearby building.

The situation is far from safe, though: the building is half-ruined, and the PDA doesn’t seem to work: the signal is lost. All things considered, it’s easy not to notice someone hiding in the shadows. He does look familiar, though…

Some of our fans may recognize the hardly-distinguishable guitar motive. If this tune evokes your nostalgia feelings, that’s because it’s taken from a “Life Line” song by famous Russian rock band Splean We found it to fit just perfectly in the scene we created. If you are hearing this tune for the first time, we recommend listening to the full version — it’s sad and moving at the same time. And extremely catchy, if you ask us.

Finally, we would like to finish this update with a development status. We’re progressing smoothly, including Xbox Series X/S versions as well. The aim is to deliver the product of the highest quality possible on every platform it’s announced for. With fast SSD, RTX support (both Series X and S) and 4K-resolution (Series X), we’re pleased to see how S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is shaping up to be the ultimate experience we’ve initially promised.

The exact release date of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is yet to be announced by GSC Game World. But you can be confident the game will come to Xbox Game Pass on day one. We’re more than excited for all the new Xbox fans to experience S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for the first time.

Thanks for your attention and have and have a truly great year! You’ve deserved it.

ESO has looked over Fallout New Vegas mod Fallout: The Frontier and lets you know what to expect in terms of factions and content.

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Fallout The Frontier is a DLC sized Mod for Fallout New Vegas!

CogConnected share their five pet peeves about Cyberpunk 2077.

2. Menu Mismanagement

Who would have thought navigating menus in a game would become a full-time job? In Cyberpunk 2077, it is. I’m not going to break down all the in-game menus – trust me, I originally did that and it ended up looking like a massive wall of painfully constructed text. There’s just no way I can be concise about Cyberpunk’s menus, and therein lies the problem. This game is so deep you’re likely to drown just trying to figure out all the different systems and subsystems. The Character menu – where you tweak your abilities – has a bunch of Attributes and Perks you can fiddle with. Yet all these perks and attributes just add minor, incremental enhancements that really don’t add much to the overall game. The Inventory is a disorganized joke with non-sensical icons denoting each item category. The Journal is an ever-growing honey-do list of missions you can tackle. The Map is a disorientating Jackson Pollock painting. And finally, there’s Crafting, which after all my time with this game, I still have zero idea how it works. In talking with some of my colleagues, they rarely, if ever, used Crafting either. To compound this problem, the menus use a cursor system – which makes sense if I’m using a mouse and keyboard – but is a pain in the ass when using a controller.

The Ripperdoc suggests: First, scrap the Crafting component, it’s useless. Second, add proper tutorials for absolutely every aspect of the menu. And no, not those stupid on-screen prompts that show up at the worst possible moment or the “help” option that displays vague information on screen. I want full tutorial videos that I can watch within each menu that clearly lays out what everything does and how I can get the most out of this game. And finally, drop the annoying cursor navigation and come up with a system that works well with a controller.

[...]

Twinfinite have suggested five ways Cyberpunk 2077 could be improved.

Better Economy and Money System

Cyberpunk 2077 is a pretty massive game, with tons of different perks to unlock and attributes to level up. You’ll definitely want to level V up quickly to start getting better equipment, but you’ll need to make sure you have the cash for it too.

One of the biggest problems we’ve encountered in this game is just how hard it is to get, well, anything. You can get a fairly steady flow of income from doing main missions, side gigs, and other optional quests. However, equipment and upgrades are extremely expensive, and just trying to get a couple of Ripperdoc upgrades will certainly deplete your bank account in the blink of an eye.

Money aside, getting experience for specific skills can also be a slog. Crafting, in particular, feels extremely unrewarding once you get to the mid-game stages, as it’s hard enough to gather crafting components to craft more valuable items, and it only stings more when you realize how little crafting experience you get from it.

The same can be said for pretty much any non-combat skill as well, making the game feel a little inflexible overall. It’s no wonder that players have been quick to find money and experience exploits to speed up the leveling process.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Gameinformer interviewed the devs of Assassin's Creed Valhalla about successes, surprises, and post-launch priorities.

Apart from the announced post-launch updates, what is on the top of your priority list?
I think Odyssey was very successful in listening to its player base. When looking at Valhalla’s post-launch plans, it was important to me to have quality-of-life fixes in there, and also be able to react to the new platforms, because they continue improving. We’ve got great reception on PS5, Series X, and PC as well; people are definitely enjoying the high-end capabilities of the game, so we want to continue to capitalize on that. This isn’t meant to sound like bulls--- or cliché, but for me, it’s about hearing what the player base is saying and reacting to that, on top of the extra content and the features.

Was there any feature from early on that you thought might have been cool to include, but it just didn’t make it into the final game?
We had our pillars pretty early, and we stuck to them. We tweaked in terms of balance ... but we stayed true to those pillars. But one thing I can say that didn’t make it through that we thought might work very early on was naval combat. We actually found out that Vikings were not doing much naval combat; we thought they might be shooting flaming arrows like in Odyssey. But they just didn’t do that. So, we said, “There’s no sea in our map, only rivers ... we’re going to treat the ship more like a vehicle.”

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Hardcoredroid interviewed the devs of ATOM RPG about its creation.

Kickstarting ATOM RPG was clearly a good move that helped you turn your ideas into reality. How did the process go for you guys?

It was a very humbling experience. Starting out with zero advert budget, it was a great surprise when people learned of our project and backed it so frugally. It was nerve racking to follow the campaign, guessing whether we’d get enough to finish development. But it was so very joyful to see it come to pass!

Do you plan on Kickstarting future projects, or has the success of ATOM RPG made you financially able to proceed without Kickstarter?

Even if we’d be lucky enough to have enough funds to start our next project without Kickstarter, which isn’t very likely, we’d still go on Kickstarter with some small end goal just to see how people react to our idea, what they think about it, etc. We also love it when the player base interacts with our projects on the earliest possible stages, supplying ideas, critiques and themes. And Kickstarter is perfect for this.

The game was first released on Steam, then ported to mobile and now Switch. What difficulties in particular did you encounter when creating the Android version of the game?

Thankfully, Unity has a very wide array of tools to make the transfer process as easy as it can be. But we still had to spend a lot of time and resources to accomplish such tasks as making a new mobile-friendly UI\UX, a cloud saving system, and many other mobile-exclusive features.

Was the decision to create ports to different platforms a logistical one, or was it based on player demand? Will ATOM RPG make its way onto Xbox and PlayStation in the future?

We constantly interact with our players, and the first request to port to mobile and Switch was sent to us when our game was still in Kickstarter. So, yeah, basically first and foremost the ports are a promise we made to players long ago and really wanted to keep. We’re working on doing the Xbox and PlayStation ports at the moment (closer and closer to the finish line) for the same reason.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

A video to celebrate two years of Early Access for Edge of Eternity.

Two years of Early Access

December 5th marked a new anniversary of our early access: it has now been 2 years since we launched our first chapter in 2018. The game has seen an impressive evolution since then with 3 chapters in its first year, and 3 more this year.

However, the content was not the only axis of improvement this year, indeed this year was also illustrated by the passage of the game to the beta phase! We have also started to anticipate the final release of the game with features like the Modifiers that arrived with Chapter VI.

We still have work to do for 2021 but nothing is impossible. For the coming year we have a chapter much bigger than any currently available, as well as the final release!

Today this phase of Early Access is useful as it allows us to have your feedback to create thanks to you a JRPG that will be remembered! We also took the opportunity to give you our own feedback through a video presented by three members of our team:

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[...]

Coming in 2021

If we plan the final release of the game for Spring 2021 we still have a lot of work, including the upcoming chapter, the final boss, but also other optimizations to allow you to run the game to its full potential. However, we can already tell you that DLSS will arrive in a few weeks!

Intermediate Chapter

Announced in September, the Chapter "0.5" is coming very soon to allow you to explore the Open World within the first hour of play! You can already test it out by enabling the "Chapter 0.5" option on Experimental Features but as it's experimental some features might not work [TEST AT YOUR OWN RISK], don't hesitate to join our Discord for support if you are stuck!

Thanks Farflame!

The Turn Based Lovers checked out the tactical RPG Strike Team Gladius, which has been released as Early Access today:

Strike Team Gladius

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Strike Team Gladius is a turn-based, tactical combat game where you and your team fight to reclaim a colony world from an alien invasion. Complete missions to level up your strike team members, earn better equipment and unlock new command skills and abilities. Special missions will let you support your team with tanks, troop carriers, artillery and even combat mechs. The game’s focus is on turn-based, tactical combat alone and does not slow the gameplay down with base building or resource management.

• Employ cover, terrain and destroyable objects such as fuel containers and explosive barrels to gain an advantage over your enemies.
• Battles involve dozens of aliens at once in fast-paced combat missions.
• Fight over deserts, alien jungles and even an alien home world. Each environment features unique tactical challenges.
• Choose your team from 22 unique classes ranging from lethal snipers to brutal melee specialists.

The main campaign features 40 combat missions, each with their own special objectives and win conditions. Each successful mission will help your team become stronger and obtain more powerful equipment. As you progress, your strike team will evolve in a finely-tuned and ruthlessly effective combat force. 

 

The Action-Adventure Persona 5 Strikers will be released on February 23:

 Persona 5 Strikers

Join the Phantom Thieves and strike back against the corruption overtaking cities across Japan. A summer vacation with close friends takes a sudden turn as a distorted reality emerges; reveal the truth and redeem the hearts of those imprisoned at the center of the crisis!

Jump into the stylish world of Persona in an all-new story

Dynamically control your team during explosive action combat

Battle across Japan in an epic road trip

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Key Features Include:

• Experience the world of Persona 5 Strikers on PC in Full HD, supports up to 4K
• Steam Achievements and Trading Cards
• Choose between Japanese and English VO
• Full keyboard and mouse adaptation

The expansion Path of Exile: Echoes of the Atlas is available today:

Path of Exile: Echoes of the Atlas Launches on PC

Grinding Gear Games kicks off 2021 with a major expansion for their popular action RPG that will test the mettle of players crazy enough to go toe-to-toe with The Maven

Auckland, New Zealand, January 15, 2020 – Grinding Gear Games is announcing that its next major expansion for Path of Exile, Echoes of the Atlas, is launching today at 11 AM PT on PC and Mac, and on January 20th for Xbox and PlayStation® consoles, including the new Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. The expansion delivers new end-game content, a new challenge league, new skills, and a new pinnacle boss simply known as The Maven. 

The Echoes of the Atlas expansion will deliver several new pieces of content and improvements such as: 

• End-game content including new pinnacle boss, The Maven, which requires players to defeat several bosses simultaneously in order to challenge her; New Boss Arena; Atlas Passive Skill Trees; 11 New Maps with Bosses; Craftable Watchstones and The Maven’s Orb.
• New Ritual Challenge League
• New items and skills
• Rebalancing nineteen Ascendancy classes, three of which had major reworks
• The return of Heist and Harvest leagues

Nioh 2 Complete Edition will be available on February 5:

Nioh 2 Complete Edition - Official PC Overview Trailer

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Take a look at the technical features in the PC version of Nioh 2 Complete Edition, including 4K, HDR, 144hz support, and more! Nioh 2 Complete Edition will be released on February 5, and includes all of the original game content plus all three DLC expansions and multiplayer modes.

Gameskinny reviewed Werewolf: The Apocalypse:

Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Heart of the Forest Review: Choose Your Own Rageventure

A well-done and intelligent choose your own text adventure set in the venerable World of Darkness Werewolf RPG universe makes for a satisfying bit of interactive fiction.

Werewolves, as it turns out, are an angry lot. You might have noticed as much from their many appearances in film, television, and other pieces of pop culture. Such an indignant demeanor might be because of how much decent hair products cost for lupine fur or the fact that flighty teenagers keep choosing annoying emo vampires over them. Hard to say, really.

Pros

• Beautiful presentation is nostalgic for fans of the source material
• Well written, with an eye on history, diversity, and real-world issues
• More advanced than standard choose your own adventures thanks to the inclusion of meaningful stats

Cons

• Feels way too pricey for a short text adventure
• Little action or in-depth roleplaying

Heart of the Forest is an intriguing diversion. It’s an interesting story with fleshed-out characters, and it makes fascinating use of actual history and modern issues. More importantly, the game uses the source material to excellent effect.

The story is only a few hours long per playthrough, though there are multiple paths to explore. That said, the $15 list price seems a bit steep for a game that would go for a fraction of that upon its inevitable mobile release. Still, for gamers who love text adventures, this is certainly recommendable.

Score: 8/10

Gosunoob checked out Yaga:

Yaga Review – Wonderfully Weird Folklore RPG

Eastern European fairy tales often combine beautiful fiction, immense brutality, and strong educational components, much like their complements from the west. They are largely unknown to the global audience – every child out there has heard about Hansel and Gretel, almost none knows about The Princess Who Never Smiled. If it were not for the Witcher series, this rich eastern, mostly Slavic mythology, would be completely invisible.

Yaga provides the opportunity to dive deeper into the imaginative folk tapestry from deep, dank forests of Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and others. Yaga, or „Baba Yaga”, isn’t just a John Wick’s nom de guerre – historically, she is a hag that lives in the forest hut that stands on chicken legs. Yaga is depicted as a morally ambivalent entity with unpredictable behavior and enigmatic motives. She might help the poor passer-by, or she may vex him and hex him, you never know with the ‘ol Yaga.

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Yaga is an incredibly charming, unusual game. It is becoming apparent that the real innovation in the gaming sphere almost solely rests with indie developers. Yaga underlines the superb vibe we got from Hades in 2020. and sets the right tone for the year ahead.

Score: 8/10

The Turn Based Lovers collected once more 5 upcoming turn-based RPGs:

Upcoming Indie Turn Based RPGs - KAEOI #8

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Welcome to the eighth episode of Keep An Eye on It. For the uninitiated, this is an article that I publish every Wednesday with a simple formula. I show you 5 upcoming turn-based games, with a short description, and links to the store to wishlist them with the help of my poor English. Let me know what you think about these 5 upcoming indie turn-based RPGs in the comments.

• RavenWeald
• Suffering
• Gods of Sand
• Cairn: Mathair's Curse
• Amber Island

Rock Paper Shotgun explains why RPGs matter more than ever:

There and back again: why RPGs matter more than ever

So many roles, so little time

In a 2019 interview with Retronauts, inXile Entertainment founder Brian Fargo recalled what Interplay hoped to accomplish in Tales Of The Unknown: Part 1, the seminal RPG more commonly referred to by its subtitle: The Bard’s Tale.

“We were trying to set a mood and build a sense of being there… that there was a world… in our own primitive way,” Fargo said. “You started off in a bar; you got to walk around outside, you had to go down to the dungeons, so you felt like you were living in a world; you weren’t just thrust into a wireframe dungeon and that was it.”

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It wasn’t until the following decade, with the surprise success of fiddly dungeon crawlers like Dark Souls, that RPGs found a way to strike the balance. Crowdfunding certainly did its part, as did the explosion of digital distribution and the proliferation of more powerful tools. Streamers and YouTubers, too, helped to popularise games like Undertale, which took familiar genre trappings and subverted them with unique and interesting choices of their own.

Meanwhile, the PC and console ecosystems came together in the 2010s, but not in the way that publishers might have expected. In recent years success has flowed out of platforms like Steam, where Divinity: Original Sin and other games like it are continually refined before being released to larger audiences on consoles. The flow has run the other way as well. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest – classic franchises that got their start on console – have thrived on PC. In 2020, Persona 4 Golden, an enhanced version of a 12-year-old PlayStation 2 RPG, found great success on Steam, prompting Sega to announce that it was planning additional ports.

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Thanks Henriquejr!

PC Gamer reviewed the horror RPG OMORI:

Omori review

A whimsical adventure and a surprise RPGmaker cult horror hit.

There's a weird reputation surrounding games made in RPGmaker. The game engine is known for spawning a mix of your basic clunky demakes of classic RPGs and cult horror hits like Yume Nikki, Lisa: The Painful, Mad Father, and The Witch's House - games that surfaced on the fringes of game forums and quietly received overwhelmingly positive reviews on steam.

The RPGmaker scene has dwindled over the years, which is why Omori almost feels like the ghost of a bygone era. Even though seeing the game's blocky visuals is like a blast from the past, this psychological RPG has all the makings of being a modern cult classic.

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It nearly slips into the trope of everything being solved with 'the power of friendship', but thankfully its heartfelt moments are backed up with great storytelling and characters you really feel for. Omori was developed over the course of six years by the Omocat team (originally just one person) and you can feel the passion that the team put into it.

Omori is a kid who is living through sleeping, scared to face the realities and consequences of the real world. Wanting to shut yourself away and hide is a child-like response but it's one that's tempting to carry through to adulthood. The need to escape to another world away from our anxieties is a feeling that's universal, and why Omori wants to protect himself is understandable, even if he is a little creepy. What's important is choosing to take that first step outside, hopefully, the first of many, and Omori captures this sentiment masterfully.

Score: 80/100

Thanks Henriquejr!

Henriquejr spotted this CD Projekt statement:

Cyberpunk 2077 — Our Commitment to Quality

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Dear gamers,
here's CD PROJEKT’s co-founder’s personal explanation of what the days leading up to the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 looked like, sharing the studio’s perspective on what happened with the game on old-generation consoles.

For more details about the progress being made on Cyberpunk 2077’s further development, including information about updates and improvements, free DLCs, and more, please visit cyberpunk.net/ourcommitment

Redglyph spotted patch 2.6.2.0 for Baldur's Gate EE:

Patch 2.6 is almost ready!

A new Steam Beta for Baldur's Gate:Enhanced Edition is available now, and we need your feedback. Are we ready for the big release? Go on an adventure and share your thoughts!

TEST OBJECTIVE: Start questing! Is the patch good enough to release?
See Details on the 2.6.2.0 Beta Test:

Important:
- This is NOT the last update for BGEE
- 2.6 will not fix every issue— but we hope to improve the game in future updates
- Here's what we've focused on for this patch: 2.6 Patch Items
- System Requirements have changed:
Minimum: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 64-bit, OS X 10.9, Ubuntu 18.04 or equivalent
- Please check your device meets the updated System Requirements before testing
- Make sure your device supports 64-bit games

How to Participate
- Playthrough some quests & VOTE on the release
- Tell us about *new bugs (the beta shouldn't add any issues) - comment below!
- Tell us about major issues affecting saves, visuals, sound & quality - comment below!

How to opt-in & verify you're using the correct version

• Please make sure you're using a clean (unmodded) install. Clear your override folder before testing the beta build
• In your Steam Library, Right-Click Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition and choose “Properties”
• Click on the Beta Tab
• Choose the road_to_2.6 in the drop down menu
• If you don't see the road_to_2.6 in the drop down menu, please restart Steam
• In-game, on the main menu, you will see that the build is 2.6.2.0

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Solasta: Crown of the Magister got a new patch:

Solasta January Patch - Patch Notes

Hey there again folks,

It's time for the January Patch! This small update should work out most out the bugs released with December's Winter Update, as well as a few others that thrived in our game since our Early Access came out in October. This means... it's patch note time!

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Patch Download Size
As we often see people complaining about the size of each update, I'd like to clarify once more why you're more or less re-downloading the entire game every time. Long story short, due to how Unity works (the engine Solasta is running on) we've had to make a choice between longer loading time, or bigger patch download size - and considering we're not too keen on making loading screens even longer than they already are, we've prefered to choose the latter. That's pretty much the short version of it :(

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Thanks Redglyph!

Redglyph spotted this tweet:

We would like to thank fans from around the world on the tremendous reaction to the announcement of Hogwarts Legacy from our Portkey Games label. Creating the best possible experience for all of the wizarding World and gaming fans is paramount to us so we are giving the game the time it needs.

Hogwarts legacy will be released in 2022.

Ubisoft will develop an open-world Stars Wars adventure with their studio Massive Entertainment:

Ubisoft Tweet

We are excited to announce we are working with

@LucasfilmGames

to develop a brand-new, story-driven, open world Star Wars adventure!

The New Year's update for Monomyth explains current plans and announces an intention to go to Kickstarter.

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A short update on what's been happening with the development of Monomyth.

The tactical RPG Shards of Feyra has been released:

Shards of Feyra 

Shards of Feyra is a turn based RPG, where magic is real and the monsters are unleashed. This world is dangerous, full of adventures and mythical beasts. Land of Feyra is a mystical place, where you can adventure with your friend in co-op game mode or alone. Each player will control 2 heroes through the deepest dungeons and complete tasks for the village leader. This game is built for the casual gaming community, however the hardcore player base can aim to reach the top of the leaderboards. The game is more challenging if you try to complete fast for more points and achievements, with automatic difficulty level adjustments.

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A single session is between 45 minutes and 2 hours, based on your skill and campaign you choose. There are 2 campaign so far, but this number will increase as time goes. Since the game has multiple heroes, which are randomly chosen, you will face different challenges each session, different team compositions and you must try different tactics to finish your adventure.

• Play with your friend in a full co-op environment or complete the quests alone!
• Unique locations with secret rooms, doors and mystery!
• Optional puzzle-like RPG elements to unlock secret locations and achievements!
• Deep combat system!

The Action RPG Yaga has been released:

Yaga

Play as Ivan, a one-handed blacksmith cursed with incredible bad luck.
Ivan is caught between a Tzar giving him impossible tasks, a mysterious witch who wants to manipulate him, and his grandma who wants him to find a wife.
Start your journey in an action RPG where the story and characters react to the way you roleplay your character.

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• Building a reputation through roleplaying results in different interactions with villagers and NPCs, unlocking secrets, trading options, or bestowing game-changing curses or blessings upon the player character.
• Pagan beliefs and superstitions are key to unlocking hidden secrets, getting house spirits on your side, or avoiding the powerful curses of unclean creatures.
• Fateful Crossroads between levels allow the player to influence the difficulty, challenge and level generation of the game
• Discover and combine lots of talismans and artifacts that change the player's abilities and the gameplay
• Craft and upgrade an arsenal of weapons and tools to aid you in your journeys.
• Unique Soundtrack featuring underground folklore band Subcarpati.

You can play a new character in Genshin Impact - Ganyu:

Genshin Impact - Collected Miscellany - "Ganyu: Ambling Amidst Karst Peaks" Official Trailer

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DSOGaming reports on a slight delay into Early Access for King Arthur: Knight's Tale which will be available January 26th.

Neocore Games has announced that its upcoming turn-based role-playing game, King Arthur: Knight’s Tale, will now hit Steam Early Access on January 26th. The game was originally meant to hit Steam Early Access on January 12th. However, the team needed a little more time in order to iron out some bugs.

As Neocore Games stated via a press release:

“While we are aware that Early Access is called that name for a reason, we want to ensure everything is polished and bugs are squashed before you begin your adventure in Avalon, and we need a little more time to do that.”

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A teaser video for a new Indiana Jones game which Bethesda have announced with a tweet.

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A new Indiana Jones game from Bethesda and Machine Games has been revealed! Check out the short teaser here!

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A new Indiana Jones game with an original story is in development from our studio, @MachineGames, and will be executive produced by Todd Howard, in collaboration with @LucasfilmGames. It'll be some time before we have more to reveal, but we’re very excited to share today’s news!

Thanks Redglyph!

Joe, The Alternative Gamer has reviewed Immortals Fenyx Rising:

"Immortals is One of 2020's Best (And Underrated) Games!" - Immortals Fenyx Rising Game Review

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