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A Very Larian Holiday Shanty

We gathered our party to bring you this very traditional holiday shanty.� From our crew to yours, Happy Holidays!
Dark Envoy VFX Update - Development Update

My name is Stachu, and I am responsible for the design and creation of the VFX for Dark Envoy. Before I got into the video game industry, I worked as a fashion photographer, but one day I realized that I did not feel challenged anymore. I started learning how to program, and my goal was to become a game developer. After months of practicing and gaining experience, I joined one of the biggest game modding projects, Fallout Cascadia. I went on a few different adventures until I ended up working with the Dark Envoy team. So, here I am - a guy who traded taking pictures of beautiful people in nice clothes, for a deep RPG with guns and spells!
Exoplanet: First Contact - BUILD 0.63
Hey folks! It is almost Christmas, and there's no better time to take a breath after this tough and exhausting year. We were working hard to release our biggest update ever , and we've put a great deal of effort into delivering as much content as possible to please everyone who fancies trying a space cowboy outfit on this holiday. So yeah, it is another regular monthly update.
The Nier series is Finished - PCGamesN
Nier creative director Yoko Taro has a Christmas message for fans: The Nier series is now finished!Yes, folks, never mind the success of Nier Automata and Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139, it's all over. In a special holiday video from some of the series key developers, Yoko Taro says in very serious, not-at-all joking terms that Nier is done. (Unless he gets paid.)
Skyrim. No, Rift Apart. No, wait…Skyrim - Gamesindustry.biz
Under normal release date rules, my game of 2021 would be Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. Aside from it being a complete visual showstopper, a triumph of design and a total delight to play, it was the first release in many years to make me feel like a wide-eyed kid, sat cross-legged on the floor in complete awe. However, as the GamesIndustry.biz team's Games of the Year picks have historically shown (and continue to do so), we can't always keep up with modern churn -- so I'll take a rare opportunity to own some personal truths. My actual game of the year is Skyrim.
 
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A Very Larian Holiday Shanty

Now that was quite funny !
But also quite fast. I have took (and listen) to it again …
Has Larian really expanded THAT wide ? O_O

Edit : You should really close your eyes and listen to the song. I like it. :)
 
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Six studios and hundreds of employees. Wonder were the funding is coming from? Maybe past game sales, whats left from EA, and other investors? Anyway it must cost a lot.

Sorta ties into the other discussion on the news-bit.:p

Yep, maybe. And they Gent's offices are regularly flooded, too. :p
 
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Top 5 NEW RPGs of JANUARY

In this series, we highlight the Top 5 RPGs for the upcoming month. In this edition, we’re going to take a look at each of the titles, talk a little about each, and then explain why we think they deserve to be on the list. So join me now and find a mixture of some hidden gems and old favorites given a shiny new coat of paint.
Age of Darkness: Final Stand Gameplay Impressions – An RTS Survival Hybrid!

Age of Darkness: Final Stand is a dark fantasy survival RTS where you must illuminate, build and defend humanity’s last bastion against hordes of Nightmares. Set in the remnants of a kingdom consumed by a deadly fog, you decide. Will you hide in the light? Or take back your world.
ELEX II Interview with Creative Director & Game Designer - Twinfinite
With ELEX II‘s March 1 release date inching ever closer, we thought that now would be a good time to sit down with the veteran action-RPG outfit best-known for their work on the acclaimed Risen and Gothic series, and find out more about their upcoming open-world sci-fi fantasy sequel. We had a chance to chat with ELEX II’s Creative Director, Björn Pankratz, and ELEX II’s Game Designer, Jennifer Pankratz. So, without further ado, let’s get into it, shall we?
Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness Update - Happy Böoreste!
The Festival of Böor has begun! Every year, the nation of Isilmerald celebrates Böoreste, the Night of the god of Cold. Men and women prepare for the heart of winter with warm blankets and strong drinks. Bundles of sticks are collected by children, to be burnt as offerings to Böor to protect them from the cold. People build massive effigies for Böor, and burn them at the stroke of midnight on Böoreste to ensure the god's favor in the upcoming months.
 
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Well, I enjoyed the Skyrim article, @Couchpotato;!
 
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Weird West, that must have been made just before they changed their release date :(

I wonder how MHR will be received.

I assume MH:R = Monster Hunter: Rise?

If so, it will be received very well - its been released on switch a while back and a lot of MH fan base love it. Personally, my interest in this diminished a lot - apparently it "went back to its root" and more like the older MH games which I couldn't get into. I really hope Capcom will work on MH: World 2 eventually.
 
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Medieval Dynasty - The Winter Update

It's that time of the year, winter has arrived, and you'll have some time to play games, hopefully! The denizens of your town report the appearance of snowmen around the settlement, it looks like the children went outside and created them. But considering the scarecrows and the piles of leaves could it be possible that the snowmen are the ones trying to have some fun too?
Elden Ring Edge Interview and Overture Book Announced - Fextralife
Good news for Elden Rings fans! The wait could not feel any longer as a slew of new information was revealed to the public via Reddit posts last night. A few pages of the developer interview Hidetaka Miyazaki had with Edge Magazine were released. Alongside this, The Overture of Elden Ring was also announced, which will feature art, lore and more from the titular game and other FromSoftware games that came before it.

Without much further ado, let's dive right in as there is a lot to unpack in this update. Warning to those who wish to go into the game blind: we will be discussing lore and gameplay aspects in this article. Potential spoilers ahead!
Why So Many Vampire: The Masquerade Games Are Delayed - Gamerant
The video games based on the Vampire: The Masquerade franchise have faced a number of high-profile delays over the past year, with Bloodhunt and Swansong recently being pushed back to 2022, and Bloodlines 2 having no release date at all. This isn't to say that the franchise hasn't seen any video game releases at all, as there have been several well-received Vampire: The Masquerade visual novels released on multiple platforms over the past few years. If the greater World of Darkness franchise (which Vampire: The Masquerade is part of) is considered, then there has also been two Werewolf: The Apocalypse games and one Wraith: The Oblivion game released.
Final Fantasy XVI Development Delayed - Gematsu
Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida has published an update on the games development, announcing that complications stemming from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have delayed production by almost a half year, and confirming that the next big information reveal is planned for spring 2022.
New mod called Arcanum3D is Remaking Arcanum in Morrowind - Nexus
This project is an attempt to recreate a faithful experience to the 2001 CRPG Arcanum. This is an early alpha state, it does contain some quests, new races, new armor sets and weapons, the level design of the city of Tarant, and a dungeon (H.P. Schuylers).
Happy Birthday Diablo - GOG
Diablo, the game that changed the RPG landscape forever, was released 25 years ago on 31st December 1996. This anniversary is a great opportunity for you to find out that even after a quarter of a century this unique game still holds up to its huge legacy.
ConcernedApe's Haunted Chocolatier Interview - VGKami
Now Barone has recently announced an entirely new game in the works Haunted Chocolatier. From what we know so far, Haunted Chocolatier revolves around creating chocolates and maintaining a chocolate shop, while living in a haunted castle.

What made Stardew Valley's success truly impressive was Barone's sole development of the game without any prior experience in game development. He'd crafted everything himself, from sprites and art to music and coding. And just like Stardew Valley, Haunted Chocolatier will be developed entirely by him.

I conducted an interview with Barone about the development of Haunted Chocolatier, its potential inspirations, and the challenges of creating a new game from scratch.
Knights of the Chalice II Update - Bug Fixes and New Options
Hello everyone! Version 1.21 of KotC 2 Augury of Chaos is now available for download here for both Windows and macOS. This is another relatively small update. I spent about half of the month scripting the Steam and GOG achievements and the other half fixing bugs and adding new options.
 
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Vampire Gangs of MoonFall an Isometric Cyberpunk Vampire RPG

Vampire Gangs of MoonFall is an old-school cRPG set amidst the vampire-dominated crime syndicates of a cyberpunk city. As a Familiar of one of the ancient vampire lineages, you have been tasked by your undead masters to expand their criminal empire.

If you play your cards right, that criminal empire may one day be yours; along with eternal youth and power beyond the imagining of mere humans.
GeForce Powered Low Latency in God of War

NVIDIA Reflex delivers the lowest latency and best responsiveness in God of War. Powered by GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs and NVIDIA G-SYNC monitors. NVIDIA Reflex delivers responsive gameplay allowing you to beat the boss with tighter dodges and combos, available in GeForce 900 Series GPUs and newer.
Dying Light 2 Stay Human GeForce RTX Official 4K RTX ON Gameplay Trailer

Dying Light 2 Stay Human will be enhanced with NVIDIA DLSS, ray-traced global illumination, ray-traced reflections, and ray-traced shadows, giving GeForce RTX gamers the definitive experience. Watch our World Premiere RTX ON gameplay trailer!
Valheim is PC Gamer's Game of 2021 - PC Gamer
I didn't expect to devote hundreds of hours to Valheim when I first picked it up. I went into it with fairly low expectations, but I can honestly say that I haven't been that excited to get back to playing a game since World of Warcraft first got its hooks into me years ago. I swear the game has some kind of time-warping capabilities, I'd load up my Valheim world at say, 8 p.m., intending to play for a couple of hours, then look up to discover that it was well into the early hours of the morning.
Path of Exile A 2021 Retrospective - Grinding Gear Games
It's hard to believe that we've already made it to the end of 2021! As we start to welcome in the new year, we wanted to take a moment to look back on the year that was.

In 2021:
  • We launched four expansions: Echoes of the Atlas, Ultimatum, Expedition and Scourge!
  • Despite New Zealand borders still being closed due to COVID, we expanded from 149 to 165 in-house staff members. In fact, we have so many people now that we are renovating a third floor of our office building! Photos coming in a few months when the space is ready.
  • We've been continuing to work on Path of Exile 2 and have released another trailer and gameplay preview.
  • We deployed more than 100 updates/patches to our realm.
  • We posted 442 news articles - an average of 8.5 posts per week.
  • We set a record number of players online (265,250 on our server alone - up by 11% from our previous record of 237,160).
  • Around 5.3 million different players played Path of Exile on our international realm.
  • 2021 had the second-highest overall playtime per year, with over 483 million hours played on our international realm
  • We reintroduced Path of Exile: Royale.
  • We ran two Twitch Rivals Tournaments.
  • We hosted another Halloween meeting.
  • We improved clicking.
  • We celebrated the 15th anniversary of Grinding Gear Games.
  • We introduced the best bug of all time.
Siege of Shadowdale and Crimson Tides of Tethyr getting Enhanced Editions
A little while back, Beamdog's Derek French confirmed that they'd like to add the modules to the Curated Content section of the main game. Now's the perfect time to give them a new coat of paint and ensure they play well with the latest version of NWNEE. What does a new coat of paint entail? Firstly, I want to ensure they're compatible with the new HD Models and Texture Pack. This means stripping out some of the older custom content that conflicts with the pack. I'd like to use ProjectQ to enhance the creature art in both modules. I may add some additional content depending on time restraints. Finally, I'll be fixing any bugs or issues I encounter. This is where I could use your help: if you've played these modules (either in 1.69 or EE) and you recall any bugs or issues (poor design, etc) that could use addressing, I'd be very grateful if you could post on this thread on Reddit, or else e-mail me at creativetitan@gmail.com
Announcing Doom of Icewind Dale for NWN:EE
Hello to all! So, in the six months since I originally announced this project, I've had the opportunity to re-think a few things. For a while it looked like there may be an opportunity to develop another Premium Module for Beamdog and WotC. Unfortunately, that didn't work out. Then I convinced myself that trying to produce 60 hours of gameplay for a story in which the PC began at level 17 would be an exercise in pain and frustration, and that naturally led to worries about whether reducing the starting level would anger fans. This led to some brief consideration that perhaps NWN2 would be a better platform for this campaign. Finally, I flirted with the idea of adapting the 5th edition adventure Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus as a way of producing more frequent content, which would helpfully grow my subscriber base while I worked out exactly which direction I wanted to go in.
Yakuza series sold over 2.8 million on the PC platform - Sega
"Due to the expansion of reach to users, as we started the support of PC platform with this series from FY2019/3, we recorded quite strong sales result with unit sales of approximately 2.80 million units worldwide."�
New Starfield Leaked Screenshots from 2018 Build - Reddit
Reddit's member Yes1SNo has shared three leaked screenshots from the 2018 build of Starfield. These three screenshots showcase some of the game's assets. However, and since they are from an old build, they are not indicative of the quality of the final version.
 
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2D souls-like Watcher Chronicles Launches January 19 - Steam

Oh, ye poor gamer, I pity thee.. for in your journey through Steam, you have found yourself on a dark page where the straight way is lost. You can not turn back, for you've found the suffering you yearn for. Prepare thy thumbs and trigger fingers for your penance has begun.
Solasta: Crown of the Magister - Matt Chat

This episode features Solasta: Crown of the Magister, an awesome turn-based tactical CRPG by Tactical Adventures. If you like games like Temple of Elemental Evil and Pathfinder: Kingmaker, but want to play with the D&D 5th Ed ruleset--BUY IT NOW. Just make sure you're careful with your saved games!!!
Medieval Dynasty - Update v1.1.1.1 available for PUBLIC STAGE
Hello everyone! We hope you have enjoyed your holidays so far and we have a new update available for the Public Stage. IMPORTANT: the snowmen are removed from the Public Stage version.
Xenonauts 2 - New Year Update
Happy New Year and all that! Here's a quick update from the Goldhawk team on work that took place in December - this was a slightly short month owing to team holidays but we're back and on track now.
Cyber Knights: Flashpoint - Alpha Has Launched!
Happy new year and we wanted to shoot a quick note to share our excitement -- Alpha Phase 0 launched last night on January 4th as planned. We wanted to post a quick update in case anyone missed the email.
 
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Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic Remake - EVERYTHING We KNOW So Far

Get your shovels! We have some scoops. What I aim to do in this video is revise every piece of concrete information surrounding the upcoming remake of Star Wars KOTOR. Beyond that, I have some additional info I've learned and have sat on where I felt comfortable sharing it at this point.
New CRPG Expeditions: Rome (Gameplay Demo)

Playing the Expeditions Rome demo to see if this is a game I want to jump into on its official release Jan 20th 2022. This is a new upcoming tactical turn based rpg.
Horizon Forbidden West - Tribes of the Forbidden West

The inhabitants of the world of Horizon are divided into tribes, each of which has its own history and traditions. As Aloy travels to the Forbidden West, she will encounter even more compelling characters, In this special short, learn more about the rich and authentic tribal cultures Aloy finds in Horizon Forbidden West.
Days Gone Sold One Million on PC
At the time I left Sony, Days Gone had been out for a year and a half (and a month), and sold over 8 million copies. It's since gone on to sell more, and then a million+ on Steam. Local studio management always made us feel like it was a big disappointment.
BioWare Talks Mass Effect, Dragon Age, And Pandemic Challenges - IGN
As Mass Effect and Dragon Age fans anxiously await concrete details about the new games currently in production, developer BioWare has provided a brief development update for both projects, along with a tease that will keep Mass Effect fans busy for a while.

In a new blog post about the state of BioWare, General Manager Gary McKay provided brief updates on both of its highly-anticipated RPG sequels, while also addressing the toll the pandemic has taken on development.

"And of course, we remain hard at work on the next iterations of Dragon Age and Mass Effect," McKay said. "I'm seeing some incredible work from both teams."
Project Zomboid's Chris Simpson talks about a decade of Zomboid, and Build 41
Judging by the explosive popularity of Project Zomboid right now, you’d be forgiven for believing the game is newly launched and full of fresh (un)life. Despite sitting comfortably as one of Steam‘s most-played games and having upwards of 60,000 concurrent players, Project Zomboid is far from new – in fact, the hardcore zombie survival sim has quietly spent nearly a decade in Early Access.
 
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Yeah, it's relatively easy for small companies to work from home and synchronize but there's a threshold. I saw that with all the communication channels, all the groups that were forming, it's not easy to follow and to get organized past a number of employees.

From a company like BioWare, that must be difficult.
 
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Why would there be a threshold, @Redglyph;? The company has to be set up to take the bandwidth needed for Zoom/Teams/Whatever meetings and far more people working online, and you really should have at least a cheap microphone for everyone to use. Once that's set up, though, you're good to go for development work, aren't you? Well, mo-cap needs a studio and sound recording might, but what else?

There's other business work that needs people in person (signing where electronic signatures can't be used, receipt handling, maybe repairing equipment), but it seems like the lion's share of development work can be done from home.
 
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Why would there be a threshold, @Redglyph;? The company has to be set up to take the bandwidth needed for Zoom/Teams/Whatever meetings and far more people working online, and you really should have at least a cheap microphone for everyone to use. Once that's set up, though, you're good to go for development work, aren't you? Well, mo-cap needs a studio and sound recording might, but what else?

There's other business work that needs people in person (signing where electronic signatures can't be used, receipt handling, maybe repairing equipment), but it seems like the lion's share of development work can be done from home.

Because in large companies you are usually involved in more different groups, which tend to have their own, individual preferences and practices. In person, it's not a problem, I used to go and visit them and informally exchange information. Remotely, I just can't imagine to make it work (I had left a big company to join a small one long before this sad COVID affair). And that's without counting execs that have the bright idea to impose a methodology after a while, with good intention but without understanding the needs of individual groups.

In smaller companies, people tend to align naturally to fewer communication channels and to know the habits of everyone else. At least that's my experience. Although at the beginning there was a lot of experimentations with different tools, but after a few months it settled down.

Of course the impact is less obvious if you're only involved in your own group and rarely with others.
 
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