Gamingbolt interviewed level designer Miles Tost about Cyberpunk 2077 and asked about the setting, freedom of choice, side quests, and more.

We saw hints of destructibility in environments during the demo. I know you’ve spoken about this a bit recently, and I understand that right now you may or may not have pinned this down, but is that something you’re looking to make a much larger part of the game?

We believe that having a world you can interact with and which reacts to your presence is a key part of a good open-world experience. Dynamic environments ultimately serve to fulfill that promise exactly: they help to enhance your immersion, the game world to become more alive and believable, and — what’s especially important when it comes to Cyberpunk 2077 — add a whole different level of weight and grit. Combat becomes that much more vicious too, enhancing the feeling of a world shrouded in violence and danger. Given all that, let me just say that we’re working hard on making sure that our environments look just as good when they’re untouched as when they’re getting blown up, without sacrificing the performance.

Night City has looked absolutely stunning so far, but will we be visiting any other areas in Cyberpunk 2077? Perhaps suburbs or lesser known townships in the vicinity of Night City?

Night City’s six districts are designed to be unique in many ways — their architecture, culture, atmosphere, people living there and the problems they are facing. We’re making sure that all of these districts blend nicely into one consistent and believable city environment.

Not all parts of the city are covered in darkness by shadows thrown from skyscrapers. Take for example Pacifica, which was a district planned to be Night City’s prime tourist resort. When the funding died, so did this dream, leaving many started construction projects unfinished and ultimately taken over by gangs as their hideouts. Each district has its own history which you will be able to uncover. It is really important to us to allow for this variety whilst also keeping it grounded within the lore of our world.

[...]

The Elder Scrolls Online: Murkmire was reviewed by Sknr.

The main quests are some of the most interesting to come out of ESO in quite some time. Upon entering Murkmire you will meet an archaeologist named Famia, who’s scouring the temples to find Argonian artifacts for her museum. Her heart is in the right place, wanting to preserve Argonian culture, but it is unfortunately at the expense of taking those artifacts out of The Black Marsh. The quests you embark on with (and often times for) Famia, have a Tomb-Raideresque feel, carefully tumbling and sneaking your way past various traps throughout the temples. This definitely gives the expansion a more Raiders of the Lost Ark vibe, as opposed to the traditional sword and sorcery feeling you get by playing Summerset Isles.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

@PC Gamer A mod that adds World of Warcraft to Skyrim.

Originally, Azeroth in Skyrim was a mod created back in 2012 by two modders known as Hellscreamy and Celsiuz, but they abandoned the project a few years later. It seemed the dream was dead until yesterday when Fled1 released a new update to the mod that features a ton of improvements, like the addition of Westfall and Scholomance. "I've got to the stage where I feel this is a pretty substantial upgrade on the previous version 0.1 and felt it should probably now be available for you to download and try," Fled1 writes.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

IndianNoob shares his feelings about ELEX as a Piranha Bytes fan.

In my nearly 20 years of playing role-playing video games, I’ve been the loyal defender of dozens of video game developers and their products throughout the years. Some come and go like Black Isle and Troika. Some you grow out of, like Bioware and Obsidian. But some stay. In my case, Piranha Bytes is the one that stayed. Ever since playing their first game Gothic as a wee lad, I’ve maintained a passionate obsession towards the German developer and their games. So it’s a no-brainer when I say that I absolutely love Elex, Piranha Bytes’ 2017 RPG, or in the words of us fans- “a hardcore RPG”. But some wise man on the internet once said that “Elex is not a good game unless you are German, married and have Aspergers”

[...]

Some more details, screenshots and video on Left Alive.

Gematsu here and here:

loading...

loading...

As demonstrated in the latest trailer, titled “Find a Way to Survive,” Left Alive encourages players to rely on their basic instincts to forge their own paths to survival by utilizing stealth mechanics, crafting, traps and more. The dark, gritty setting of Left Alive also poses challenges to players as they weigh the potential outcomes of their interactions with other survivors, which can help or hinder each other’s chances for survival.

Left Alive follows three different protagonists, each with their own stories, missions and potential paths to salvation. The game features a variety of action-packed play styles for players, blending strategic stealth maneuvers with frenetic gun battles and adrenaline-fueled encounters with powerfully armed troops, armored vehicles and towering mechs.

Twinfinite:

During the livestream, Nabeshima-san illustrated how the gameplay loop will work in a rather analog way (mentioning that “analog is the best”).

As you can see below, the game is split into chapters, and each chapter will focus on one of the three protagonists. In the schematic below, the first and third chapters focus on Mikhail, while the second focuses on Olga.

Inventory isn’t shared. Items gathered during the first chapter will become available again in the third when Mikhail reappears. Items gathered by Olga in chapter two will be usable in the next chapter focused on her.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Game Debate checked out Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden:

Beast of Eden - Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden Review

Mutant Year Zero is an utterly absorbing blend of turn-based tactics, real-time adventuring and stealth. It wears its XCOM inspirations on its sleeves in regards to grid movement, two actions per turn, Overwatch, and unique class skills. It differs greatly from XCOM in terms of the package that binds it all together though.

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is a compact tactical RPG set in a post-apocalyptic Norway. Nearly all humans are extinct thanks to a combination of natural disasters, global warming, and nuclear devastation. A single remote settlement known as the Ark remains, inhabited by a handful of humans and an array of the titular mutants. This includes the player’s party, such as the crossbow-wielding Dux the anthropomorphic duck, and Bormin the shotgun-toting boar.

[...]

Hardcore fans of turn-based tactics may be slightly put off by Mutant Year Zero’s obvious missteps but that aside, The Bearded Ladies have cooked up a special game here that’s got great potential for the future. Road to Eden isn’t perfect but it’s definitely stood out from the crowd for me in what’s been an excellent year.

Score: 8.5/10

ConcernedApe has put his new game on hold to make more Stardew Valley and is putting together a team to do it.

Hi everyone,

First, a quick reminder:

A few weeks ago I announced that I’ll be self-publishing Stardew Valley on most platforms (everywhere except Nintendo Switch and mobile). Today, that transition takes effect.

So, as of today, for PC, Mac, Linux, XBox One, Playstation 4, and PS Vita, if you have any questions, comments, or business inquiries, please send them directly to me. I now bear 100% of the responsibility for these platforms!

Now, I’d like to tell you guys what I’m up to, and what’s in store for the future of Stardew Valley.

As many of you know, I’ve been working on a new game for a while. I haven’t revealed anything about it, except that it takes place in the same universe as Stardew Valley. I’ve been deliberately secretive about it because I want to be able to work on it without any pressure for the time being. I also want to make sure the concept is fully realized before revealing anything, because once it’s out there, I’m going to have to fully commit to it. I’m a pretty cautious person when it comes to this sort of thing.

Now, I believe I’ve said in the past that I wanted to devote all my time to the new game, and I might not work on any new Stardew Valley content. Well, that’s not exactly true. While there have been times in the past where I felt burnt out, and maybe even said that I wanted to move on, I always find myself coming back to Stardew Valley. For one, I keep getting new ideas for ways to improve and expand upon the game. This world is so full of potential, I could probably work on it for the rest of my life. There’s also such a wonderful community surrounding the game… and I like making you guys happy. I’m extremely grateful to all of you for supporting my work and creating this wonderful Stardew Valley community.  I wouldn’t be where I am today without you. And knowing that there’s still tons of people out there who love the game and would be extremely happy to get new content motivates me to keep working.

In short, what I’m saying is that I am going to keep making new content for Stardew Valley. In fact, I’ve recently put my other game on the back-burner and have been in the process of creating a new free content update.

French, Korean, Italian, and Turkish translations are also underway, though they may not come out until early next year.

I’m aware that saying “I’m working on new content” might be aggravating to those on consoles who don’t have the 1.3 update yet… Or to those on Switch who are experiencing frame rate issues in the new patch. I also haven’t forgotten about the PS Vita users, some of whom have reported bugs to me. It’s very important to me that I make good on my promises… the idea of expanding further while there are still lingering issues and unmet promises disturbs me, and isn’t something I want to be doing.

So I want to make it clear that these issues are my top priority, and if there’s ever anything I can do to help these things happen more quickly, it takes precedence over any new content… however, I don’t do those ports myself, they are done by Sickhead Games, so there’s nothing I can personally do to have an effect on that process, beyond setting it into motion (Sickhead Games does great work, by the way…  and they are making very fast progress on the console updates). I am also doing what I can to see the issues with Switch multiplayer get fixed, but that is also not something I can directly accomplish. So when I do work on new content, it’s only when I have no current avenue for addressing these higher priority issues.

So, currently I’m working on a new Stardew Valley update, and my new game is on hold for the time being. The difficult thing is that I want to work on both… I want to keep working on Stardew Valley and I also want to work on my new game. But I don’t have enough time to accomplish my goals with both things simultaneously. For a while, I considered being finished with Stardew Valley altogether. But that would make me (and many others) sad. So I’ve decided that I’m going to form a team to help me work on future Stardew Valley content. The update I’m working on right now (1.4) will be another solo update, but after that I hope to have a team in place that I can work closely with on future content.

This is going to be a big change for me… I’ve always worked alone, and working with a team is a whole new ballgame. However, just as I did with Stardew Valley originally, I’m just gonna go for it, and have faith that I can rise to the occasion and make it work. My hope is that the new team will help take some of the workload off me, so I have enough breathing room to divide my time between my new game and Stardew Valley. I still plan on having a very active role in the future of Stardew Valley, and the originator of all major Stardew Valley decisions and content. And there are many aspects of development which I’ll never be okay with handing over to another, like music or writing. But when it comes to programming, fixing bugs, administrative/business work, or even pixel art… I think I’d be okay with having some help. I’ll post more about this later.

 

This is a lot of new info, so here’s a summary:

• My top priority is to see the 1.3 multiplayer update come to Xbox One & Playstation 4, and for issues with the Switch patch to be addressed.
• I am working on a new game, but I’ve put it on hold in order to create a new Stardew Valley update (1.4).
• French, Korean, Italian, and Turkish translations are in the works, though they may not come out until early next year.
• I plan on forming a team to help me work on new Stardew Valley content (beyond 1.4)
• Once the team is in place, I’ll divide my time between Stardew Valley and my new game.
• I am now self-publishing on all platforms except Nintendo Switch and mobile.

Thanks so much for reading and have a great weekend

-Ape

@DSOGaming RAGE 2 will be exclusive to the Bethesda Launcher.

Back in August, Bethesda claimed that not all of its titles will be exclusive to the Bethesda launcher, however that it appears that this won’t be the case with RAGE 2. Bethesda did not state back then that RAGE 2 would be coming to Steam either so technically, and while this is a bit disappointing, the publisher has not lied to its PC customers.

Thanks Farflame!

Ashen has been received well.

Eurogamer - Recommended

Mystery, I think, is Ashen's missing link. The concept of a realm recently lifted from apocalypse is majestically played out in the environments, but undercut by dialogue, quest and item descriptions that want to explain rather than tantalise. The writing has colour (and an exciting range of accents) but the delivery is generic - this is one of those fantasy RPGs where every weapon comes with a quote from a cast member, like “this axe chops stuff real good”. In general, Ashen is so in love with the enigmatic workings of From and Thatgamecompany's creations that it neglects to kindle enigmas of its own. Still, it's a robust and often mesmerising piece of craftsmanship that serves as a gentle introduction to the Souls subgenre, though it's definitely no substitute for Journey. And for a veteran of Lordran, there's genuine satisfaction to unravelling its reinventions and departures - identifying the places where it sheds a little more light on Souls at large, and the places where it lets the darkness close in.

Gamespot -9/10

Ashen does more than enough to differentiate it from other Souls-like games. Although its combat utilizes the same stamina-focused mechanics, the inclusion of features that promote a sense of community with the game's characters makes for a wholly different experience. It's frustrating to spawn and see that your computer-controlled partner has a weapon that doesn't complement the one you're using. However, even when playing with NPCs, your allies' efforts to assist you in battle cause you to care about the fates of the colorful cast of people you meet on your journey. The relationships you forge define your adventure through Ashen, and helping your new friends is a powerful motivator that drives you forward through the game's beautiful world.

Gamesradar - 4/5

Ashen is a faithful homage (for better or worse) to the games that inspired it, and it executes on those existing principles soundly. Ashen's own contributions to the formula waver between exhilarating highs and frustrating lows, but the former greatly outweigh the latter, and even if it's not the most original journey you've ever been on, it's one well worth taking. There's a lot to love about Ashen, even if you've loved it before.

Thanks Farflame!

The tactical RPG Shieldwall Chronicles: Swords of the North will be released on December 17:

Shieldwall Chronicles: Swords of the North

In Shieldwall Chronicles: Swords of the North, you lead a mercenary band into the perilous and cold northlands of Tarren. Your search for fortune will see you pitch blade and spell book against a host of enemies including the undead, demons, and lizardmen and many other creatures. In a battle that is part game-book and part tactical RPG, you will build a powerful band of warriors and wizards and tilt the balance of power in the northern kingdoms.

loading...

Key Features

Take part in deep, turn-based combat. Combat is realistic and incorporates details such as weapon range, damage effects, and counter attacks without slowing down gameplay. Players will also have to use cover and line of sight effectively to be successful.

Build a party from among 15 different classes. Choose a party of six heroes that range from scholarly wizards to hardened warriors. Using each character type to their fullest is vital to securing victory as most excel in only certain tasks. Wizards have massively destructive magic but will fall quickly to a simple spear thrust while great warriors can hold off a horde if properly supported.

A unique morale system adds an entirely new tactical layer to the combat. Warriors will fight far better if they believe the tide of battle is on their side and will begin to panic if they believe otherwise. Watching a friend fall or an enemy leader slain drastically affects morale. Arrows and spells, even when they miss, will affect the courage of both friends and foes in their area of effect. Finally, the bloodlust mechanic means certain warriors will find new sources of energy for each foe they slay.

Collect hundreds of powerful magic items to equip your party. Each character can equip up to nine items from swords, shields, cloaks, rings to helmets. Each item can range from a common item that grants only a small benefit to legendary items that can both boost stats and grant entirely new powers to its bearer. Fighters can equip magical rings that can allow them to conjure fireballs or summon undead guardians, for example. The magic item system allows you to customize your party even further and develop entirely new tactics and battle plans.

Enjoy over 50 hours of gameplay in the campaign. Your journey will see you lead your party across snow-covered wilderness, through dark caverns, ancient ruins and the bloody streets of great cities. Battles can be replayed at various difficulties and no level cap provides no end of enjoyment for the die-hard player.

Delve into a gritty, realistic world that blends dark age history and culture with fantasy races and monsters. The northern kingdoms of Tarren are places where men fight in shield walls with spear, axe and sword against elves, dwarfs, goblins and even dragons. Wizards and monsters are powerful but can still be defeated with sound tactics, armour and courage.

PC Gamer interviewed Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky - they still try to get better in making RPGs:

The creators of The Outer Worlds on learning to make better RPGs

Our full interview with Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky about Fallout, making mistakes, and Obsidian's RPG heritage.

I recently visited Obsidian Entertainment to see the studio's new RPG The Outer Worlds, which I called a blend of Firefly and Fallout. It may look like the space cowboy version of Bethesda's recent Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, but its roots run deeper than that: lead developers Leonard Boyarsky and Tim Cain created Fallout together in the 90s, along with other famous PC RPGs like Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.

You can read a lot more about The Outer Worlds in my feature, but I also talked to Tim and Leonard about their careers making RPGs, and how that experience and working at Obsidian is affecting this new game. Here's what they had to say.

Wes Fenlon, PC Gamer: Tim, did you sort of have an inkling of what this game was going to be before Leonard came over to Obsidian from Blizzard, or did you form the idea together?

Tim Cain: I had no idea what it was going to look like. We had not picked any art style. We knew it was going to be sci-fi.

Leonard Boyarsky: Obsidian asked Tim to make a new IP and Tim reached out to me, because we complement each other really well in terms of what we're good at and what we're not good at, and just kind of went from there. We knew going in that we wanted it to be a space opera-y kind of thing. We hadn't really done that before. We'd done post-apocalyptic, we did Vampire, and Arcanum, steampunk fantasy.

Even before we had the art style, I definitely knew that it was going to be another one of these kinds of alternate history, weird things that most other people wouldn't try to tackle. I think it's more prevalent now, but back when we did Fallout, people didn't quite get the 1950s post-apocalyptic thing right out of the gate. They weren't quite sure what to what we were talking about.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Discord offers developers a a 90/10 revenue split:

TL;DR — In 2019, the Discord store will allow all developers to self-publish games with a 90/10 revenue split.

Back in 2015, we asked ourselves a few questions. Why do you still need to enter an IP address to join voice chat? Why do gamers have to pay for voice chat? Everyone was already using Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, or Mumble, and we wanted to make yet another one.

However, we believed that we could create a modern and easy-to-use app that provided more people with the amazing experience of hanging out online with friends. Nearly 4 years later, over 200 million people have used Discord to chat and play games with their friends.

Discord has also brought game developers and their fans much closer together. As a player, there is something amazing about jumping into a verified community server and talking directly to the developers who build the game you love.

Earlier this year though, we noticed a change happening in the game industry. We talked to a lot of developers, and many of them feel that current stores are not earning their 30% of the usual 70/30 revenue share. Because of this, we now see developers creating their own stores and launchers to distribute their games instead of focusing on what’s really important — making great games and cultivating amazing communities.

So, we asked ourselves a few more questions. Why does it cost 30% to distribute games? Is this the only reason developers are building their own stores and launchers to distribute games?

Turns out, it does not cost 30% to distribute games in 2018. After doing some research, we discovered that we can build amazing developer tools, run them, and give developers the majority of the revenue share.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Book of Demons has been released and is available on Steam and GOG.

loading...

Book of Demons is a Hack & Slash Deck-building hybrid in which YOU decide the length of quests. Wield magic cards instead of weapons and slay the armies of darkness in the dungeons below the Old Cathedral. Save the terror-stricken Paperverse from the clutches of the Archdemon himself!

Procedurally Generated Dungeons
Roguelike Mode for fans of extreme challenge
70+ different types of monsters, with different traits and custom mechanics
Twitch and Mixer integration
Monthly and all-time Leaderboards, 200+ Achievements

Book of Demons is the first installment of Return 2 Games - a series of original mid-core titles, inspired by the early golden days of PC gaming.

Banner Saga 3 has some new DLC available called Eternal Arena on Steam and GOG.

loading...

Greetings, Bannerfolk!
We have great news to warm your hearts this December - Eternal Arena is here! The team has worked long hours on this piece of Banner Saga 3, available today as DLC on Steam and GoG.com.
Eternal Arena is a new game mode which pits your best combat tactics against quick-play challenges! Sandbox-style battle options, different gameplay rules, alternate turn order mechanics, timed tournaments, leaderboards and more!

Our community has been asking about this for years. The time is NOW!

• Eternal Challenge: Come back every week to compete in a tournament with a global leaderboard.
• Arena Mode: Design your own battles, choose the enemies, and change the rules in this spellbinding sandbox mode.
• Play with all 46 characters, plus all enemies, and battleboards from the entire Banner Saga Trilogy and refine your party tactics.
• 39 new achievements (including 3 hidden ones)!
• 3 new leaderboards.

Thanks Couchpotato!

The rogue-like Below has been released today:

BELOW

Test your adventurer mettle against The Isle’s procedural subterranean labyrinths. Explore a large, interconnected underworld crawling with cunning wildlife, deadly traps and stalked by a shadowy presence. Survive the perils of The Depths and unearth what lies below... or die trying..

Below is a procedural terrarium filled with life, mystery and death.

loading...

EXPLORE

Explore the vast subterranean underworld of The Isle: a dangerous, unfathomable deep. Choose your path through the randomly generated labyrinth crawling with deadly monstrosities, traps and hazardous environments. Perma-death awaits at every false step, and there are no hints to guide you…

SURVIVE

Spelunking through The Depths of BELOW is a treacherous endeavour, with death around every corner. The world is alive with flora & fauna, and there are many ways to scavenge materials and harvest ingredients to create life-saving remedies or useful survival tools…

DISCOVER

What lies below? Only the bravest wanderers will find out. The Depths are filled with secrets and danger. BELOW embraces the idea that players enjoy discovering secret areas, finding hidden passageways and unravelling the deepest mysteries hidden in the darkness…

The CRPG Book has gone to print and pre-orders are due to open 14/01/19. You can sign-up to be notified here.

OK, so over 100,000 words edited, 1,400 images optimised for print. 528 pages of epic CRPG goodness has now gone to print! @felipepepe

Pre-orders open on 14/01/19
Sign-up to be notified: https://t.co/3MK8TItWU2 pic.twitter.com/RbwgLgCWKW

— Bitmap Books (@bitmap_books) December 13, 2018

Julian Gollop answers questions about Phoenix Point from the community.

loading...

Lead Designer of Phoenix Point, Julian Gollop, answers the first wave of questions from our Facebook comments in this first Mailbag video.

The Forgotten Sanctum DLC for Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire has been released on Steam and GOG.

loading...

When a violent tremor shatters the islands of the Deadfire, the greatest wizards in Eora seek out the aid of the Watcher. The archmage Maura has vanished into the depths of a newly opened dungeon located in the Black Isles and threatens to awaken what lies forgotten there. Follow Maura's trail and determine the fate of one of the Deadfire Archipelago's most closely-held secrets.

• Traverse an expansive dungeon built into the flesh of a sleeping god.
• Encounter the highest-level challenges yet faced by the Watcher and their companions.
• Scheme with or defy the wills of Eora's most powerful wizards.

The Wildcards DLC is now available on Steam and GOG for Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

Fiend blood runs through their veins, whispering cruel truths and evil ideas. Who are they? Tieflings, the outcasts of the civilized world.

Living channels of elemental energy, tamers of wild power - who are they? Kineticists, masters of occult elemental skills.

A mysterious stranger crosses the threshold of your barony - marked with the blood of devils, gifted with the power of the elements. Who is she? Discover for yourself!

This new DLC for Pathfinder:Kingmaker includes:

• A new playable race. During the poll to decide which bonus race we were going to add to the game, one particular option was requested a lot (besides the winner - Aasimars): Tieflings, the people with a drop of demonic blood in their veins. They didn't make it into the base game, but became the natural choice for the first piece of post-release content.

• A new playable class. They master the raw power of the elements, channeling it into their wild talents to manipulate the world around them. Kineticists are living conduits of primal energy, deadly both in close and ranged combat.

• A new companion. If you combine a race with a class, you get a character. Welcome your new companion, the Tiefling Kineticist who comes, just like every other companion, with her own storyline. She could also be a romance option and may hold one of the positions in the Kingdom.

The new companion will join your party in the beginning of Chapter 2. Those who would like to add the companion to their current playthrough can do so at any point before the end of Chapter 5 ("War of the River Kings"): the companion will ask for an audience at your throne room. However, we would advise to begin your acquaintance with the character as soon as possible.

The GOG Winter sale has begun and will finish January 3rd.

Full Throttle Remastered for free ⬥ Daily Flash Deals ⬥ free game with first purchase ⬥ more than 2000 deals across 3 weeks

The stay-at-home season's festivities launch with free stuff, daily deals, personalized recommendations and more deals than ever before! All this goodness on GOG.COM – purveyors of the DRM-free spirit, curators of the best in gaming, and a friendly bunch of gamers overall.The Winter Sale will last for 3 full weeks, till January 3.Wear your helmet and respect local speed limits, but otherwise, put the pedal to the metal.

Grab a copy of Full Throttle Remastered for free in the first 48h of the sale (till December 15, 2:00 PM UTC)! Your destination is a giveaway banner parked on the GOG.COM front page – click on it to redeem the game for free.And since we're on the subject of FREE – unlock free games while you shop in the sale: get Fantasy General free with your first purchase, and EVERSPACE once all your Winter Sale spendings add up to $15.DRM-free your Steam games – GOG Connect is back! Connect your Steam account and add eligible games to your DRM-free library. Some titles you can Connect include: Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, Age of Wonders 3 and Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director’s Cut. And there's a new batch of eligible titles each week, so check back regularly!

The Winter Sale kicks off with +1900 offers, and you can expect nearly every game on sale this Holiday Season.Daily Deals, an old favorite returns – these are particularly high discounts available for 24 hours only. So check back at 2:00 PM UTC every day for eight new games you won't otherwise find in the Winter Sale.The amount of deals in Winter Sale might make you feel a bit overwhelmed. We have your back! With our curated approach, we ensure that every GOG.COM release is worth it – and between 400-something new games added this year, you'll find our fresh favorites on sale like Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales (-20%), Frostpunk (-33%), Divinity: Original Sin II - Definitive Edition (-35%), Stellaris (-60%), BATTLETECH (-30%), Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (-34%).Other extremely good deals you should not miss include The Witcher: Wild Hunt GOTY (-60%), SWAT 4 (-50%), Homeworld: Remastered Collection (-80%), XCOM: Enemy Unknown Complete Pack (-80%), Heroes of Might & Magic 3: Complete (-66%), ELEX (-50%), The Witness (-75%) and more.

The Winter Sale ends on January 3, 11 PM UTC.

A gameplay video for Void Bastards from IGN.

loading...

The developers of the comic book-looking shooter/strategy game Void Bastards take you through a meaty 18-minute chunk of gameplay.

The creative director of Below played the first 13 minutes of the game and spoke to IGN.

loading...

Yes, Below is FINALLY here! Creative Director Kris Piotrowski walks us through the opening minutes of the loooooong-awaited Zelda-ish roguelike and discusses what the end of the development journey has been like for him.

Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest was previewed by Rock Paper Shotgun.

The last thing I was expecting Druidstone: The Secret Of The Menhir Forest to remind me of was a deck-builder. Not least because it doesn’t feature any decks. And yet, there’s something about this deeply tactical isometric RPG, from Legend Of Grimrock’s creators, that contains the same spirit of gradually gaining a deeper and more refined understanding of a limited set of tools, through repeated failure, and incremental improvement.

This is at first glance a very traditional turned-based RPG – much as Grimrock recalled the glory days of the first-person dungeon crawler, this visually suggested memories of late-90s BioWare-ish battling. But playing it, it quickly becomes apparent this isn’t going to be a game that lets you spam your most powerful attacks at repeated mobs, but rather something that’s going to demand a lot more planning, a lot more forethought. This is going to be tough.

[...]

A new update for Element: Space introduces Captain Christopher.

loading...

Background

*Early Concept Art

The latest newsletter for Praey for the Gods announces that closed beta is underway and the plans for early access and beyond. Screenshots at the link.

Hello to all of our backers and newsletter readers!
Progress on PFTG has been going great! PAX West feels like it happened ages ago, but I think it's important to let you know that it went very well for us. We expected a couple of people to show up to the booth, maybe 100 people max, but were shocked to find that our our booth was PACKED.
It was amazing to meet face to face with our backers and show them the game they made possible with their pledges. It was also awesome introducing the game to people that had never heard of it before. Coming back from PAX, we were incredibly pumped up to dive back into development and get Closed Beta out to our backers.
Yup, you heard me Closed Beta is OUT;)

Seriously, Closed Beta is out!?
Yes! We've been in Closed Beta now for about a month, so those that have backed us at "Legion Edition" or higher have had their Closed Beta keys sent out. If you backed those tiers but haven't seen your key arrive, be sure to contact us.

Awesome! How's it going?
Closed Beta is going very well with much of the feedback being overwhelmingly positive. Of course, there have been critiques and suggestions too, with many of them aligning with our to-do list. We're also fixing a number of bugs and making positive gains with performance as we lead up to our initial PC launch.
To better manage feedback, we broke the Closed Beta into 2 phases. We are calling them CB1 and CB2. Each consists of a subset of content that will lead up to our initial PC launch which will contain all the digital content we set out to do during our Kickstarter. We're currently in CB1 and will be in CB2 before years end.

[...]

Is the game coming out Dec 2018 still?
Short answer? No.
We looked at our schedule and while we could kill ourselves to get it out by year's end, it made more sense to stay in Closed Beta longer to make sure the game is solid and ready for our backers. That may disappoint some but the good news is the in-game Kickstarter content is finished. We only have a couple of things left that we want to tweak prior to launch, but there's still a lot more stuff we hope to work on post launch.

Yes, we want to add MORE content.
Remember those stretch goals we had? There were a couple goals we were unable to hit in our Kickstarter campaign and we still really want to do those. Also, we created some new content like Champions, and puzzles during development which we want to expand on. We went back and forth on how exactly to do this, considered a number of options, and the one that made the most sense to us as a small team was going to Early Access to add the extra content while we worked on consoles.

Before you roll your eyes we'd like to explain our reasoning.

Initial PC Release
Our plan is to release into Early Access with all the game content we achieved in our Kickstarter campaign. This means the 5 bosses are done and fully playable, along with cutscenes, open world exploration, minions, puzzles, and all the additional Kickstarter Backer Content. It's a fully playable game that is exactly what you backed us for when we started on this journey. However, we love working on this game and our engine and tools have come leaps and bounds since we started development. This is allowing us to develop faster and better and it feels silly to stop development on the game when we've just hit our stride. While Chien is working on getting the game further optimized and certified for PS4/Xbox One, Tim and I will add what additional stretch goal content we can prior to a final launch on consoles. We found this to be a win/win for both PC backers and console backers as PC backers will get the game as well as additional content over time and console backers will have some fresh content and a somewhat spoiler free conclusion to the game.

What additional stretch goal content would we be planning?
To be clear, additional content would depend on the sales we get when we launch on PC. However, we'd like at least one more boss, flesh out crafting, add more puzzles, have a perma-death mode as an option, and a bit bigger final conclusion to the game. Honestly, I like to think of it like an epilogue at the end of a book.

We want to reiterate the stuff you backed will be available at launch. We're simply initially releasing into Early Access to see if we can add more content before we launch on consoles. Yes, we could do a big ol' super duper day one launch but let's be honest we're 3 people and that kind of stuff terrifies us. We'd rather release newer content in waves, continue to expand our community and listen to your feedback along the way. We felt Early Access fits this approach and we watched our friends on Grim Dawn and Subnautica create fantastic games using this development method. We like the consistent development we've been doing since Closed Alpha and going this route feels like the proper next step.

OK soooo when?
Obviously, we want to give a firm date and based on our current feedback from Closed Beta and Closed Beta 2 we're hoping mid/end of January. However, looking at our track record let's stick with Q1 2019 just to be safe.

Its time for the top 100 mods of 2018 at moddb.

Back for a 17th time, welcome to the 2018 Mod of the Year Awards. You will find no loot boxes, microtransactions, unlockables or DLC here - just amazing free mods made by dedicated creators for your enjoyment. For the next 4 weeks it is up to you to vote for your favorite mods so that they may make the top 100 which will be announced on the 11th of December.

There was plenty of blood & gore to go around last year, with the fan favourite Brutal Doom claiming top spot on the podium. Coming in second was the galactic spectacle Starwars II: Thrawn's Revenge II: Ascendancy followed by an alternative C&C timeline in the Twisted Insurrection modification. If you need a refresh of how last year's awards went down head on over to the top 10 countdown's for both players and editors to see who stood out among the pack.

Show your support and start smashing those vote buttons for your favorite mods (and if your favorite mod isn't listed encourage the team to add it). Developers need to feel the overwhelming power and groundswell of support for mods, which drive so much creativity and goodwill in games of all shapes and sizes. There's been some huge releases this year, make your vote count and we look forward to seeing who will climb to the top, and be crowned the 2018 Mod of the Year.

Thanks rjshae!

@Bluesnews Jon Shafer's At The Gates is a 4x strategy game from the designer of Civilization V. The release date has been announced as the 23rd of January and a Steam page is now available.

loading...

At the Gates is a 4X grand strategy game from Jon Shafer, designer of Civilization 5.

You are a Dark Age lord. Your destiny is to build a kingdom in the shadow of the crumbling Roman Empire. Explore the dangerous landscape around you, harvest its resources, and build a mighty economic and military machine. Your clans have their own personalities and desires, so carefully consider how you use them.

It won't be easy. Your path is unsure. Overcome your immensely strong neighbors. Outlast the frigid winters of the far north to discover a source of gold and vast riches.

Are you the leader who will usher in a new era of European history? Or will you be forgotten?

--- Features ---

An Evolving Map

Seasons and weather dramatically transform the landscape around you. The river that once served as a barrier in the summer might become a highway in the winter - for both you and your enemies!

Character Management

Each of your clans has unique traits and desires, so choose carefully how you use them.

Survival & Roguelike Elements

Keep your clans fed through the harsh winter. Resources run out so always be hunting for more. Your neighbors can be immensely strong. Every game poses new challenges and opportunities.

Watercolor Art Style

A beautiful watercolor landscape serves as the canvas for your clever economic and military strategies.

Tooltips-in-Tooltips!

AtG features a revolutionary user interface which utilizes "tooltips-in-tooltips" for the very first time, making it far easier to learn without sacrificing any gameplay depth.

Sector interviewed Viktor Bocan about Kingdom Come: Deliverance and ask where it succeeded and where it failed.

Since the release of Kingdom Come: Deliverance has been running for some time, you've had a lot of repairs and some DLCs. When you look back at the game, what do you think is your greatest success, and what, on the other hand, is the area where you have somehow failed?

I think the best thing is that the game is successful in the sense that we managed to give people a message. We knew we were doing a game that was not entirely for everyone, and we hoped we'd like people to love because we like it. This is a matter we often talk about. We are trying to make games, even if there is only one and in the future we will hopefully be the ones that will be good for us and which we want to play. Which we think are somewhat interesting. It's not about trying to find a hole in the market, trying to get some money, then counting incoming dollars. We did a game where we were not sure that a lot of people would like to be, but we knew they would like us and we were waiting for what people would say. Our success has inspired us to understand that they like it and that they want more.

If I say negatively, of course, I'm not happy with a lot of bugs, but rather the things we could not do. For me personally, it is the biggest disappointment that we failed to make those big battles. I was very happy to bring something up, but it just could not. On the one hand, the engine is not entirely up to date, and a whole new technology has to be developed, and we have failed. So we made the battles the way they can be. I think that if we develop this further, they may be a little better, but the huge and wonderful ones we originally planned with hundreds of soldiers, it is not that technology.

[...]