Now that we have closed our Game of the Year awards, it is time for the very first Game of the Decade and obviously we mean RPGish Game of the Decade. Our very own lackblogger has volunteered to do all the heavy lifting and process all your votes into a list that shows what the role playing game of the decade is.

Here is what each voter has to do:

Imagine your own personal Games of the Decade list and PM it to lackblogger. There are no rules regarding form or content, lackblogger will sort it all out in the wash.

What he wants is for everyone to just PM him their list of personal nominations.

you can vote for just one game. you can vote for 809 games, it makes no difference to him.

You can say in the PM how you want the weighting for each game you list. you can do a personal top 10, a personal top 100, or say you want every game on your list to be equally weighted, or you can provide tiers, you can provide the info in any way that you like, lackblogger will sort it all out so it all still works.

This main thread for the vote is an official RPGWatch vote thread but this thread will only be used for people to ask questions and advertise what they voted for, only PM'ed votes will count.

Questions about the poll should not be PM'ed to lackblogger, that's what the thread will be for. Questions sent as PMs will not be answered. If someone gets all spammy you'll be warned that you will be reported… and then be reported if you continue to spam him.

People will be allowed to change their vote right up until the last minute.

Voters will have to be prepared to get PMs back if thre are questions about their specific selections, such as vagaries, typos, versions, etc.

The list of 809 games from the RPGWatch database can be found here, for people to use as a guide to jog their memories if needed, but it wont link to any voting forms or anything.

The list of games is just a dump from the RPGWatch database and there are situations which might be confusing, for example, Divinity 2 was released in 2009, so can't be voted for, yet Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance and Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga were released in 2010. If you vote for one, do you also vote for the other, or arre you secretly voting for Divinity 2 or not? We have set no rules for anything that could be confusing, like this. Just send your votes and explain what you meant with your votes to lackblogger and it is up to him to sort it all out.

Voting will close on 28th February 2020 at midnight in Tonga.

I assume that given the fact that lackblogger needs to be PMed that it is clear you need to be a registered member of RPGWatch.

Once the voting has been closed, expect lackblogger to come up with a complex algorithm that includes all the possible variables, which will result in a list that we will then name the official RPGWatch Game of the Decade list.

Happy voting!

A demo for Bloom: Memories is coming in about a month.

Hey everyone, since the last post there have been some big developments... and that's the coming prologue chapter in about a month!

I'll be releasing it on steam - so wishlist here to get a notification when it comes out! (Though I'll also make a post about it).

Apparently in the last couple years doing a demo chapter has been a growing trend on steam. And since the game is a fair amount further along now, I figured it would be a good opportunity to put one out myself.

I'd actually tried a demo a while ago on itch, but it was a much much earlier version of the game.

Anyhow, if no luck with a publisher this coming month, I'll also be taking another shot at the entire KS thing to try and get dev moneys to finish up. You can follow that page here if you're interested.

Just gotta keep moving forward, will get there eventually! 

Adventure game Beautiful Desolation has been released on GOG and Steam.

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BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION is a 2D isometric adventure game set in the distant future. Explore a post-apocalyptic landscape, solve puzzles, meet new friends and make powerful enemies, mediate conflicts and fight for your life as you unravel the secrets of the world around you.

FEATURING

• P&C Puzzles and classic adventure gameplay.
• An 80's retro technology look and feel.
• A story-driven adventure set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future.
• A unique tribal punk aesthetic and 2D isometric rendered environments.
• African landscapes captured with photogrammetry and scale model elements.
• Bizarre creatures, animals and vibrant characters await.

Mark, a man out of time, searches for his lost brother Don, in a far-flung futuristic era ruled by highly advanced technologies which are both revered and reviled.

Your surroundings hold echoes of a desolate past, and glimpses of a dark future that has yet to be written by your actions. Be prepared to face many tough choices that will shape this land long after you complete your journey.

The score is masterfully crafted by composer Mick Gordon, known for his work on Wolfenstein®, DOOM®, Prey®, Killer Instinct® and Need for Speed®.

The inhabitants of this world will help and hinder you, as you make new discoveries and navigate the spectacular African-inspired landscape. Negotiate your passage with local leaders, healers and warriors, or find yourself embroiled in a battle against nanite swarms, enormous scorpions and rocket-equipped robots.

From thriving villages to crumbling cities, petrified forests and bone-dry ocean beds, this strange new world holds a multitude of terrains to uncover, beautifully rendered in 2D isometric art.

FIND YOUR BROTHER AND GET HOME...

The action RPG Warlander has been released today:

Warlander

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Warlander is a third-person action RPG that combines story-driven adventure with fast paced swordplay. Set in a bleak and unforgiving world, Warlander lets players customize their combat style as they progress through an action-packed narratively driven journey as a vengeful resurrected hero. With a vivid art style and interactive environment, Warlander will entrance players in its epic story and intense combat.

Key Features:

• Brutal combat system with unique swordplay that’s fun to play yet hard to master
• Ragdoll physics and mesh slicing giving you the feeling of cutting through real flesh and creating satisfying finishing kills
• Challenging enemy variety that requires tactical thinking and skillful swordplay
• Fully voiced storyline with immersive narrative focusing on the dynamic relationship between the hero and his sentient sword.
• Vivid art and character design
• RPG character progression with multiple combat abilities and upgrades
• Explore a dark fantasy world filled with intrigue and danger
• Replayable gameplay with different skills from skill trees
• Use the environment itself as a weapon to crush your enemies

Gamingbolt reports that Code Vein has a new DLC called Frozen Empress. The DLC is mostly negative at the moment on Steam.

The DLC will add a new Depth, the area you explore adjacent to the main story, that is covered in frost and ice. It will add tons of new weapons and costumes to dress up your characters, as well as a new boss in the Frozen Empress. As you can probably guess from the name, she has ice-based powers and promises to use them to be a formidable foe. Check out the launch trailer below.

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Path of Exile: Delirium has been announced. The latest expansion will be coming in mid-March.

Grinding Gear Games Announces Path of Exile: Delirium

Auckland, New Zealand - February 26, 2020 -
Grinding Gear Games announced today that it will launch the next expansion to their hit ARPG, Path of Exile: Delirium on the PC at noon PST, March 13th, 2020 with the PlayStation®4 and Xbox One versions available the following week.

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Since its launch in 2013, Path of Exile has been known for its exciting action combat with risk/reward tradeoffs and its incredibly deep character customization options. The Path of Exile: Delirium expansion will dramatically push the boundaries of both of these systems.

In the latest expansion, as you touch the Mirror of Delirium, reality turns to mist and your worst nightmares emerge before your eyes. Delirium introduces dozens of lethal monster modifiers, many new bosses, and horrifying demons lurking within rare and unique monsters. Encounters you once mastered can now be played under the effects of Delirium, substantially ramping up their difficulty and rewards.

• Path of Exile: Delirium Key Features Include:
• Download and play for free, but never pay-to-win
• The Delirium Challenge league
• New Delirium Cluster Jewels let you dynamically expand your passive skill tree
• Four new skills and three new support gems, including Kinetic Bolt, a new physical damage wand skill and Bladeblast, which detonates blades created by other abilities.
• Thirteen new unique items, including a cosmetic set of equipment and many new unique jewels
• Numerous improvements to the Conquerors of the Atlas endgame

December's Metamorph challenge league has been integrated as core game content More information about specific features of Path of Exile: Delirium can be found at: www.pathofexile.com/delirium

GOG has recently added seven new dungeon crawlers which are apart of the weekly dungeon crawler sale.

This is definitely a good day for all RPG fans. Firstly, we welcome 7 dungeon crawlers on GOG.COM that will make many nostalgic memories come back to life. Secondly, during this Weekly Sale all those titles and many more RPGs are available with up to 86% discounts lasting until 2nd March 2020, 2 PM UTC.

Note: Legends of Amberland: The Forgotten Crown is available in GOG Connect. To get it, connect your Steam account and add the game to your DRM-free library.

[...]

Swords and Pixels

In tabletop gaming, as well as in computer RPGs, so-called dungeon crawlers became a vanguard of the whole genre. The first known title of this breed was pedit5 developed for the PLATO system by Rusty Rutherford in 1975. Early dungeon crawlers, like dnd and Moria, were turn-based and had very crude visuals, yet they managed to inspire a whole generation of RPG creators and fans.

After Dungeon Master, a classic title by FTL Games from 1988, dungeon crawlers with a first-person perspective and real-time action became more popular. The game’s spiritual successor was the Eye of the Beholder trilogy from SSI and Westwood Studios with its eye-catching visuals and the rich Forgotten Realms world setting. Westwood then went on to create its own Lands of Lore RPG series with great music from Frank Klepacki.

Other classic dungeon crawlers worth mentioning are the Ishar trilogy from the French studio Silmarils and the Might & Magic series that later gave birth to the hugely popular turn-based strategy series known as Heroes of Might and Magic. Their legacy lives on, as we now witness a new generation of dungeon crawlers arrive on our modern computers. Here are 7 of them freshly made available on GOG.COM.

[...]

Here's dev update #8 for Solasta: Crown of the Magister:

Dev Update #8 - Choose your Monster & More!

Hey there folks!

How have you all being doing? We want to start off this Dev Update with a big congratulations to Kiaradth Bright-Spark (submitted by Jackobake), winner of the Mayor of Caer Cyflen Contest. Look forward to meeting her in-game! And now, before jumping into the Update, it's time for the next Community Choice...

We did it once during our Kickstarter Campaign, and we're doing it again! It's time for you, our future players, to choose which of the following four monsters you want to see added to Solasta at release. In an ideal world we'd want to have all of them, but Game Development is all about making choices to stay within schedule and budget!

So which will it be? The mighty Minotaur, the towering Ettin, the undying Badland Troll or the treacherous Ettercap? Choose wisely, as you will be the one facing these foes! Click here to vote now!

Fetch me my Armor!

It might seem like a tiny thing, but swapping armors around is actually not that simple when you have characters with different sizes and shapes. Just imagine dumping Garrad's massive armor onto poor little Violet. It... wouldn't work so well. For those who may not know who we're talking about, Garrad was our Human Fighter and Violet our Halfling Wizard in our Kickstarter Demo - you can check out the characters' size difference from a screenshot of our old opening cutscene to the Ruins of Telema below.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Henriquejr spotted an Master of Magic update and a DLC on GOG:

Master of Magic gets an update and new DLC from Slitherine

The classic strategy game receives a new version with fresh features and visuals. Master of Magic is now available on GOG.COM in a completely updated version.
Also, you can now acquire a Master of Magic: Caster of Magic DLC that further expands the game’s universe and the community options.

A new gameplay mechanic has been introduced to Battle Brothers with the DLC Blazing Deserts called The Retinue.

Dev Blog #127: The Retinue, Part I

A big reason why suffering heavy losses late in a campaign is devastating, and also why coming back from those losses is difficult, is because most progress that you attain throughout a campaign is in the growing strength of your men - which is the very thing that you stand to lose in every battle. While you can and should save some crowns for hard times, all too often you’ll have to start near the bottom again and hire fresh recruits all over. But what if you’d have a drill sergeant that whips these recruits into shape more quickly? And what if having that drill sergeant would be an advantage that you couldn’t lose again? In other words, permanent progress not erased by battles lost.

Some of you will recall the concept of having ‘non-combat followers’ - non-fighting specialists like blacksmiths, surgeons or that drill sergeant mentioned above. A retinue of people that would support your company of fighting men outside of battle. It’s an idea that we’ve been toying with since before Battle Brothers even went into Early Access, and it’s what we’re now introducing to the game.



Your retinue of non-combat followers can be found in a new screen accessible from the world map. Here, you’ll find the men, women and children that travel along with your company sitting around a homely campfire. There’s five slots in total for you to fill, and several times that many followers available to choose from. Each follower pulls their weight by granting you one or more beneficial effects on the world map. Let’s take a closer look at the drill sergeant.



The drill sergeant makes your men gain more experience from combat and never lose mood when being stuck in reserve, by keeping discipline and enforcing a hard training regime. In order to hire a follower like him, you’ll first have to unlock them. At the most basic level, followers require you to have a certain level of renown, but many also require other conditions to be met. For example, in order to unlock the drill sergeant you’ll first have to retire a brother with a permanent injury. That’s not hard to achieve, but other requirements can be more involved, giving new goals to pursue. Each follower costs a certain amount of money to hire, and you can replace a follower at any time with a different one for a cost.

There’ll be followers available that have an impact on various aspects of strategic gameplay that any mercenary company has to deal with, like the drill sergeant, but also a couple that further support more specialized playstyles. For example, if you’re particularly interested in banditry, exploration, trade or named item hunting, we’ve got you covered. Choosing the right set of followers for your company is another way to customize it to your playstyle and to make each company and playthrough feel more unique.



In addition to your entourage of followers, you’ll also find a donkey around the campfire which you can upgrade first to a cart, then to a wagon, and then to an even bigger wagon, each time to increase the capacity of your inventory. Indeed, you no longer have to wait until the right ambition comes along in order to unlock more slots for your stash, but you can at any time just buy more inventory slots for money here. Easy!

Join us again next week when we take a closer look at some of the followers available for your retinue in part two of this dev blog.

Wasteland Remastered will release today on GOG, Steam, Microsoft Store, Xbox One.

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Originally released in 1988, Wasteland brought the post-apocalypse to video games and inspired a genre. Play one of history’s defining RPGs with completely overhauled graphics, sound, and expanded musical score.

The year is 2087, nearly a century after an all-out nuclear war turned vast swaths of the Earth into a radioactive hellscape. You are a Desert Ranger, a band of stalwart lawmen who are the only hope left in what was once the American southwest, and good people’s last defense against hunger, sickness, ravaging raiders, and mutants.

Now something more secretive and sinister is menacing humanity, and it's your job to investigate. Recruit help and follow leads—the choices you make will shape the world around you. Choose wisely, your life and the lives of those you’re sworn to protect depend on it.

Features:

• Wasteland Remastered retains the spirit of the original game while updating visuals and audio.
• The original game’s physical storybook is available in-game, fully illustrated and with full voice over.
• An expanded musical score from the "Wasteland 1 - The Original Classic" release.
• Old bugs that have been around since Reagan was president have been fixed.
• Survive the apocalypse from the comfort of your couch with game controller support.
• Quality of life improvements that make the post-apocalypse a little friendlier.

The tactical RPG Broken Lines has been released today:

Broken Lines

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Your squad has crash-landed behind enemy lines, in the heart of an alternate history Eastern Europe. With no intel or leadership to support them, these soldiers must fight their way back home before the horrors of war break them. Teamwork and strategy are paramount…

Each soldier has their own personality and ideas on what needs to happen next. Some want to investigate what caused the crash that left them in hostile territory, while others want to lay low and wait for rescue. There are even whispers of desertion.
You are the “unseen hand” that guides this ragtag group of soldiers to safety and possible rescue. Whether it’s as simple a choice as to which way to go next, or something as serious as how to engage their mysterious foes, every decision you make is serious and significant.

Broken Lines combines a tactical RPG with story-driven gameplay. As your soldiers battle the mental strain of war, you’ll need to command them in combat— will they avoid the enemy, or go head to head with their foes?

Combat is similar to that of a turn-based tactical RPG, but soldiers move only when action phase starts. However, when new enemies and hazards appear, the game pauses to allow you to plan your reaction to this new change. Will you continue to charge forward, or back off and seek cover?

Choices you make will shape the story to your liking leading to a different campaign endings. Choose wisely as your progression through the game will affect not only soldiers you command but also a whole region and everyone who happen to live here. But you should also keep in mind that your soldiers have their own opinion on what is good for the squad so you have to maintain a balance between what you want them to do and what is good for keeping the squad in high spirits.

DasTactic checked out the tactic RPG Urtuk: The Desolation:

Urtuk ~ 01 How to Play

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Urtuk The Desolation is an awesome indie title with great yet simple tactical battles and a beautiful art-style. Thoroughly enjoying my time with this game. The campaign map and tactical maps are all procedurally generated.

Segment Next reports that Obsidian Entertainment is working on a next gen AAA RPG.

With The Outer Worlds done and dusted, Obsidian Entertainment is switching gears to move onto a triple-a role-playing game for next-generation platforms. The unannounced project was already known to be in the works but now, an indirect confirmation has arrived alongside some minor details.

Earlier today, Obsidian Entertainment updated its careers website to open over two dozen job listings across the board. Many of the senior positions mention an unknown next-generation role-playing game that will feature both melee and ranged combat, as well as “exceptional” gunplay, in first-person perspective. Multiplayer elements have also been mentioned and in traditional Obsidian Entertainment fashion, the upcoming triple-a project will have voiced characters and branching dialogues to make a “fun” narrative.

[...]

Turn-based strategy game HUMANKIND has a new video talking about reimagining terrain.

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Thanks Farflame!

PC Gamer reports on a new trailer for tactical RPG Broken Lines.

We were pretty intrigued about Broken Lines when it was announced last year, and we’re definitely more intrigued now that we’ve seen more of it. Broken Lines is a tactical RPG with an emphasis on story that’s set in an alternate history World War 2, due to release on February 25th.. It’s supposed to be quite character focused, and much of the story is about the eight soldiers who form your makeshift and leaderless squad—their interactions, conflicts, and personalities. A new trailer really drives home that this isn’t an average RPG. 

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[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Gamingbolt reports on a new update for Age of Wonders: Planetfall which features more difficulty settings and a no colonizer mode.

Triumph Studios’ Age of Wonders: Planetfall made a pretty decent impact at launch but has somewhat fallen off over the months. Fortunately, the new Tyrannosaurus update is here to spice things up, granting more customization for difficulty settings, new features, improvements and more. Check out the release trailer below.

[...]

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Thanks Farflame!

1428: Shadows over Silesia is described as a dark action adventure game set within a background of true historical events that occurred in Medieval Europe. The game features challenging puzzles, difficult battles, and stealth passages.

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Story

Europe is in the middle of religious upheaval and many preachers predict that the end of the world is near. The year is 1428 and the Hussites have just set out on their Silesian campaign. These heretics appear to be the biggest threat in the kingless country. But true evil of a completely different kind is lurking nearby and it will not engage in religious disputes.

Key characteristics

• An interesting story, with true historical events in the background.
• Linear gameplay based on chapters and levels.
• Challenging riddles and puzzles in the style of classic adventure games.
• Exploration of underground dungeons, caves, monasteries, or castles.
• Isometric, stylized, slightly fairytale-like, but mostly dark low poly graphics.
• Stealth passages.
• A combat system where being outnumbered is a problem.

Thanks Farflame!

Screenrant checked out Conglomerate 451:

Conglomerate 451 Review: Nothing to Write Home About

Conglomerate 451 is a cyberpunk dungeon crawler that commits no major sins but fails to rise above its betters, making it a forgettable experience.

The cyberpunk genre is very much in the cultural eye at the moment, at least in the video game industry. CD Projekt Red's upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 remains one of the most anticipated video games of the year, despite release delays. To pass the time, RuneHeads has developed a different cyberpunk experience in the form of Conglomerate 451, a roguelike dungeon-crawler which illustrates the grim, dehumanizing nature of privatized technological progress but which fails to use that technological progress to make a memorable game.

[...]

Ultimately, Conglomerate 451 is a hard game to recommend. It's not a bad game, it's just too average for its own good. Just about everything the game does is done better by someone else. If you want a first-person dungeon crawler, there's Legend of Grimrock. If you want an RPG with a large roster of characters and permadeath, you're better off with Darkest Dungeon or something similar. Even the out of combat progression systems are better handled in games like X-COM. Conglomerate 451 is playing in a crowded space, and like the corporate drones in its own cyberpunk dystopia, it just can't establish its own identity.

Score: 2.5/5

RPG Site has reviewed KATANA KAMI: A Way of the Samurai Story:

Katana Kami: A Way of the Samurai Story Review

Another boss defeated; the mighty Nue fell to my feet. Seeing that my only path forward was to escape the mysterious Jikai dungeon that night, I entered the golden aura thinking my exit was secured. I was wrong.

My screen fell under a sepia tone all of a sudden. I transported to a familiar place, yet something felt off. I wandered toward the faint sounds of a baby crying. A samurai stood in my path. Before I gave him any time to respond, I unsheathed my blade and started my assault but quickly realized he was too much for me!

His health pool was massive. His strikes hurt a lot. I was outmatched, but lady luck blessed me that day. I noticed that my sword was able to make him flinch for just a second if both strikes connected.

I wouldn’t last for another minute so I had to think fast. I scurried over to the side of this man’s home into the bushes. Somehow, I was able to position him toward a corner that he’d have no escape from; it was like trapping a boxer at the corner of a ring and making sure he didn’t have time to catch his bearings.

Stab. Stab. Dodge cancel. Stab. Stab. Dodge cancel.

This slow, but steady onslaught wracked up my combo. A higher combo count meant a higher rate of experience gained and an increased drop rate for items to appear. The man fell to my blade that was on the verge of breaking. The combo count was at a little over 200 meaning that I obtained an absurd amount of experience and the drop rate was at around 95%, so I saw a sword flying out of his body falling to the ground.

It was one of the best swords I found in my entire playthrough of Katana Kami: A Way of the Samurai - and I just barely started it. I wasn’t sure if I was meant to beat that puzzling man at that point, though the whole sequence of events just had me thinking “Yep, this is certainly Way of the Samurai alright.”

[...]

This is pretty much Katana Kami’s gameplay loop and doesn’t deviate from it all that much. There are multiple endings, albeit not as much as past titles. Its biggest selling point is how engaging the combat can be once you’ve found a set of weapons that you enjoy controlling. Being a small-scaled spin-off did hamper some of its more ambitious ideas. Nevertheless, Katana Kami: A Way of the Samurai Story isn’t quite the Way of the Samurai game I wanted but that doesn’t make it terrible; there is just an untapped well of potential that it ultimately fails to reach though.

Score: 6/10

BellofLostSouls reports that Baldur's Gate 3 will be available in Early Access. This was discovered during a Hasbro held investor event at the New York Toy Fair where Wizard's of the Coast unveiled their digital plans for D&D for the next five years.

Specifically there are 7 games in development: Baldur’s Gate 3 and Dark Alliance are the two that have already been announced, but according to Hasbro, we should be seeing at least one new D&D video game every year from now until 2025. And while there was no mention of the newly opened Archetype Entertainment, the WotC owned game studio working on its own sci-fi project, it was revealed that Baldur’s Gate 3 is scheduled for Early Access later this year, so players will be stepping into the world of mind flayers and Minsc a lot sooner than you might have thought.

[...]

The RPG Crawler checked out the enhanced version of Castle Torgeath:

Indie Game Friday - Castle Torgeath Redux

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The action RPG KATANA KAMI: A Way of the Samurai Story has been released:

KATANA KAMI: A Way of the Samurai Story

The Way of the Samurai is forged in battle!
Play as a ronin during Japan's Meiji Restoration in the volatile Rokkotsu Pass.
The swordsmith Dojima falls into debt and his beautiful daughter is taken as collateral.
Help repay the debt by crafting swords by day and exploring the mysterious, twisting dungeons of the Ipponmatsu Cave for valuable materials at night.

Key Features

• Hone Your Skills - Over 100 different weapons and 9 fighting styles means you can fight any way you please!
• Mysterious Dungeons - An isometric hack and slash with randomly-generated dungeons to explore in a historical Japanese setting.
• Two Swords are Better Than One - Explore dungeons with others
• Balance of Power - Ally, betray, or maintain neutrality in dealing with the town's three factions. The fate of Rokkotsu Pass is balanced by the tip of a blade!
• Familiar Faces - Featuring fan favorite characters from the Way of the Samurai series!

The dungeon crawler Conglomerate 431 has been released:

Conglomerate 451

Conglomerate 451 is a grid-based, dungeon crawling first-person RPG with roguelike elements set in a cyberpunk world.

You are the CEO of a Special Agency, instructed by the Senate of Conglomerate city to restore the order in sector 451, where corrupted corporations have established their turfs. Thanks to the last constitutional decree, you are allowed to create human clones. Build your own team, manipulate DNA, train your agents, equip them with high-end weapons, choose what cyberlimbs to implant, and send the squad to the field with only one goal: eradicate crime and restore order at any cost.

Key Features

• Manage your resources - Make use of your own personal R&D department to research advanced technology, unlocking new features, powers and options for progression
• More than just body mods - In addition to upgrading weapon and armor proficiencies, augment your body with interchangeable cyber implants that completely change your agent’s skills and utility
• Pain and Trauma system - Even the smallest wounds can have a lasting impact. By taking damage in combat, agents risk generating permanent Traumas that will follow them between missions
• Procedural cyber dungeons - Experience the dungeon crawling you love, mixed with future technology as you take on procedurally-generated dungeons and missions
• If you die in the game... - Each mission could be your last thanks to agent permadeath. Consider every move, because if an agent dies in battle, they will be lost forever
• Hack the world - Enter cyberspace mid-mission and hack your way ahead of the competition to get crucial intel and give yourself the advantage

Hellpoint has been previewed by Escapist Magazine who call it Dark Souls meets Event Horizon.

You play as a humanoid creature known as a “spawn,” newly manufactured out of some sort of goo and ordered by an ominous voice to head to the observatory. The game has the celebrated “figure out the lore through exploring” shtick, and in a fun twist, it actually makes figuring out that lore your main goal. After reaching the observatory, you’re tasked with getting as much information as possible about what went wrong and reporting back to the disembodied voice so that the “experiment doesn’t go to waste.”

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Gamedec was previewed by GamePressure who call it Disco Elysium meets Cyberpunk.

Gamedec won't be about just talking to people and collecting evidence. The creators are well aware that then the players would be killed by the monotony, regardless of how well-written it would be. They try to diversify the gameplay with various interactions with the environment and non-invasive arcade stages. I had the opportunity to collect some hay in Harvest Time, a farming RPG game, and play other activities specific to F2P games (for example, facing a paywall and having to collect enough money). Then, there was a sneaking stage. I had to avoid being spotted, and distracted guards with different noises. Simple, intuitive. It works.

There should be more of these diversions. Rybinski admitted with a laugh that at first, he'd thought that the game would be easier to produce without the combat system, because there would be no formulas, comprehensive inventory systems, and balancing issues, but then it turned out that compensating for it isn't very easy. Well, the toys I've already seen do work. They fit well into the narrative and the tone. We'll learn about the rest when the game comes out.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

In a new devblog for Vagrus: The Riven Realms crew combat is discussed.

Disposition

Each Crew Combat encounter identifies the two sides as either the Attacker or the Defender. The player's comitatus can typically be the attacker when they raid small settlements or prey upon other travelers, while they are often found as the defender when getting accosted by monsters, outlaws, or worse.

Ambushes

When you are the defender, a hidden test is made based on your comitatus' vigilance against the attackers ability to ambush (various stats govern this test). If you are ambushed, there are serious penalties on your Combat Strength, representing your inability to set up your fighters properly. Other than that, you will be restricted in the use of Combat Actions when they are added later to the game.

Whether you are ambushed or not, a fight is about to go down.

 

Appeasing the Attacker

In the current builds, the only option is to fight. At a later stage, we intend to add a Flee option, though it will not be a reliably successful option. You can increase the chance of success with offering what the attackers demand, like offering 'bribes' to bandits, or leaving supplies for monsters. Appeasing the enemy will not always be an option: mindless Undead or motivated bounty hunters can not be bargained with.

Nevertheless, fleeing results in losses, but - in most cases - less so than trying to defend yourself in an unwinnable fight.

[...]

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord will release on Steam Early Access March 31st.