Cog Connected previewed a new action adventure RPG called Fimbul.

Fimbul Preview

Norse mythology is always a great subject to base a video game around – we all can name at least one game that uses this background as a great point to build a world off of – but indie developer Zaxis went one step further in the creation of their upcoming title Fimbul, crafting a unique blend of history and mythos in a third person action RPG akin to the Dungeon Siege or Baldurs Gate series.

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Thanks Farflame!

A new trailer for Warhammer: Chaosbane called 'Rise of Chaos'.

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Rally under the banner of Magnus the Pious, as you and your friends, become the bane of Chaos. Battle across the Old World in the first Hack N' Slash set in the Fantasy Battles universe, Warhammer: Chaosbane.

Thanks Farflame!

Starflight 3 has entered its final week of crowdfunding. The latest update shares an interview with Chris Taylor about Starflight.

Final Week!

Posted: 09/22/2018

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The Home Stretch!

This is it, folks! We’re six days out and we have a long way to go to reach our goal. It’s not looking good for our friends at Interstel but crazier things than an 11th hour funding win have happened! We’re doing our best to get the word out and we really appreciate the support, help and love you’ve shown for one of our favorite games of all time!

Chris Taylor Talks Starflight

For a little inspiration we got to catch up with Chris Taylor. Chris is an industry legend having designed some of great games including Dungeon Siege and Total Annihilation. Chris took some time to talk about what Starflight gave to him early on in his gaming journey!

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Thanks so much for your support! And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Instagram (@Starflightgame)!

Sincerely,

The Starflight 3 Team

@Wccftech Some new video for Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition which showcases Patty.

New gameplay footage is now available for Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition, the upcoming remaster of one of the best entries in Bandai Namco’s JRPG series.

The new footage, which can be checked out below, showcases a mix of old and new content. The new footage is also the first time we are able to listen to Patty’s English voice, which is quite faithful to the Japanese one.

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A book about the story of Ultima, Origin and Garriott, named Through the Moongate, is currently on Kickstarter for the final steps of its release.

If you have played a computer role-playing game (CRPG), chances are Ultima played a part in its inspiration. Created by visionary Richard Garriott, and produced by his company Origin Systems, Inc., Ultima is one of the most important and influential CRPG series in the world. Through the Moongate illuminates the path of the Ultima games' history and the creative people behind this landmark series. It also covers some of Origin's other games, especially Wing Commander, and touches on several contemporary titles. Many of these tales have never before been told.

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As I traced the paths of the Ultima games and those who worked for Origin Systems, I began to realize the multitude of games that would not be possible without the influence of Richard Garriott, Origin Systems, and Ultima series upon the industry. To ensure their place in history, I've included special coverage of the Wing Commander and Ultima Underworld series, plus significant CRPGs of the era such as Star Trek (PDP), Empire and other PLATO games, Escape! and RobotWar by Silas Warner, Temple of Apshai, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds, Escape from Mt. Drash, Moebius: The Orb of Celestial Harmony, Autoduel, Ogre, 2400 A.D., Questron, Tales of the Unknown: Volume I, Wizadore, Dungeon Master, Times of Lore, The Black Onyx, Dragon Quest, and Xanadu.

Twinfinite lists 7 RPGs with old-school combat.

Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius

In truth there are quite a few Final Fantasy mobile games that have achieved huge success; Mobius Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Record Keeper, Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia, and most of all, Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius.

As of April 2018, Brave Exvius has hit 30 million downloads, no small feat for any mobile game, and it continues to enjoy an active user base. Brave Exvius sports an original story and turn-based combat that has you collecting characters from across the Final Fantasy universe. There have been collaborations with other Square Enix games like Just Cause, Deus Ex, and Valkyrie Profile and even a few collaboration out of left field like Ariana Grande. The bite-sized gameplay of Brave Exvius works perfectly for quick turn-based battles. Combat is a little simplified from what a normal RPG would have, but the hardboiled nostalgia of Brave Exvius works well alongside a combat system designed to be quick.

Thanks Farflame!

A gameplay video for Torchlight Frontiers from PAX West.

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Join Tyler (Echtra's Product Lead) and Jared (Perfect World's Community Manager) as they feature the Gamescom / PAX West demo of Torchlight Frontiers!

Thanks Farflame!

A new update for Starflight 3 announces an interview that was conducted on Reddit and another update announces addons.

You Spoke and We Listened!

We’ve been keeping an eye in the comments section, reading every tweet and basically scouring the internet for what folks are saying. And we think you could use some options! So, today we posted 3 new add-ons for people who want to add some of the sweet backer-exclusive items to their pledge. Check em out!

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Greg’s Doing a Reddit AMA This Thursday! Limited Run Fulfilling Box Copies!

Posted: 09/11/2018

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Join our AMA This Thursday!

This Thursday, September 13th at 11AM Pacific, Greg will be doing an AMA on Reddit! Got some burning Starflight questions that have haunted you since childhood? Want some sort of hint to Starflight 3’s story? Curious about whatever happened to the Red Herring? This Thursday is your time!

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Liberty Prime is a hack and slash RPG releasing onto Steam Early Access September 21st.

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Liberty Prime is a beautifully rendered ARPG thanks to the Unreal Engine technology. Join this dynamic hack’n’slash and its fast-paced combat based on elemental powers. There are no limits to character build, you can choose your path as you level-up and play your character the way you want. Dodge, dash, hack, slash, and unleash fury on your foes!

The environment will react to your actions and the elemental based spells you might use to vanquish your enemies. Soon, co-op will be added, and players will be able to combine spells to create chain reactions, in order to overcome greater challenges.

You’re a former captain of mercenary band forced to liberate 13 nations of the Drotus Empire in order to regain the lost "Glory". Your path will lead you on an epic and unexpected adventure with your companion, as you wander in this shattered world. Join the dark journey and experience overwhelming enemy encounters, diabolical hazards, and the unrelenting challenges.

Key Features

• Explore the Apocalyptic Fantasy World – Take a hero's journey through deserted Medieval World settings crafted in stunning, realistic, 3D detail
• Action-Packed Battles – Players will switch between elemental powers in battle against hordes of enemies and challenging bosses across a variety of open field maps. The tight controls and incredibly fluid combat are simple to learn for newcomers while offering plenty of depth for more experienced action gamers. Players can perform high-speed battle actions combining light and heavy attacks while evading enemies with speed and style.
• A labyrinth of monsters & bosses – Immerse yourself into mind-bending environments filled with new twisted monsters and deadly bosses over more than 100
• Elements of an RPG – Players will obtain a variety of items and runes over 200, manage inventory, level up in battle and customize a loadout and status that caters to their playstyle.
• Procedurally Generated Enemies – Larger amounts of content, and randomness for less predictable gameplay. If the enemy is too hard for your current build? Come back to challenge the different enemies.
• Replay Value – The game's not over until you say it is. You can replay the level you have already cleared to build your even character further without consistently encountering the same enemies.
• Complex AI – All the enemies have various skills and patterns. Defeating a Boss is a real phased challenge you will only defeat with strategy.
• Free character development – No character build limitation. You can develop any elemental powers that suits your playstyle and ability to switch between them.

TechQuila reports that Tales of Verperia: Definitive Edition launches January 2019.

Bandai Namco announced that Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition will launch for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch on the 11th of January, 2019 in the Americas and Europe.

Below is a teaser image of the special edition that will be available at launch:

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Thanks trespasser!

@Rock Paper Shotgun Abandon Ship has received a hefty patch which introduces sea forts, shady outposts and 'wanted' levels.

FTL-but-pirates roguelike Abandon Ship just sailed over the edge of its own world. A big update has added sea forts and floating outposts to the game of high seas and low life, along with a bunch of other stuff. There are new weapons, a bigger crew size, trade routes to raid, and the added danger of being marked as “wanted”, leading to bounty hunters being dispatched to chase you down. In other words, you’re going to be looking at the world as a chance for loot. Developers Fireblade Software are calling it the “Perilous Bounty” update, instead of the “Pirate’s Eye Patch”. The fools.

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Thanks Farflame!

rjshae noticed that Xoreos has received an update. Xoreos is an open-source reimplementation of the BioWare Aurora Engine which includes games like Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age and Knights of the Old Republic.

xoreos 0.0.5 “Dawn Star” Released

Fashionably (?) late, but still finally there, a new release of xoreos arrives! xoreos 0.0.5, nicknamed “Dawn Star”, coming with xoreos, xoreos-tools and for the first time, Phaethon, an in-progress graphical resource explorer.

A lot has happened in the last two years. A busy real life unfortunately made me miss the yearly “Not-Thanksgiving” progress report last year…so this here will be a kind of combination release post and progress report. Buckle up, this will be a long one. If you’re only interested in the short release notes, move on to the GitHub release pages linked above and again at the bottom of the post. Cool? Cool.

So, continuing from the last progress report in 2016, what exactly has happened?

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Phantom Brigade has a new teaser trailer.

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Phantom Brigade is a cinematic turn-based mech tactics game, with innovative combat.

Wishlist now on Steam!: https://store.steampowered.com/app/553540/Phantom_Brigade/

Lucah: Born of a Dream was released recently on Steam and Itch.io. IndieGames reported on it positively, liking its vivid art.

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Lucah's inner demons have this nasty tendency to be real, physical things that can hurt the young boy, and his only means of getting rid of them is by journeying into his dreams and lifting the curse himself. These beasts aren't exactly inclined to let this happen, so you'll need to equip several attacks, creating your own array of combos to use on these dangerous visions. You can further customize yourself by making friends with familiars you meet throughout the game to borrow their magic, as well as tack on some special movement styles like slow-mo dodges, allowing you to create a unique battle style.

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Niche Gamer shared their opinion on why games are not art and had a bit to say about RPGs as example.

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To put it bluntly without all the hyperbole and analogies, the “new gaming media” now had absolute power to influence the hobby in a way that would have made Jack Thompson cackle with delight.

They were the sole influencers now, setting up vast, interconnected “Web 2.0” communities that steered discussions in ways they wanted that only benefited them and their interests.

They could destroy a developer, attempt to squash a game’s success, and dig up dirt on anyone who went against their interests, and nobody had any kind of power or oversight to keep them in check. Well, that is, until GamerGate happened and became that oversight. They didn’t like that.

Getting back on track though, the “games are art” idea had another even worse effect on the industry, and that was the dumbing down of the hobby – most noticeably in the RPG genre.

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Age of Gladiators II: Rome released recently on Steam.

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Age of Gladiators II: Rome is a single-player strategy game set in the twilight of the ancient Roman Republic; a violent and unpredictable time when gladiatorial games were nearing the height of their popularity.

Hire scouts to scour the continent for potential prospects – once you have recruited your gladiators, you will need to manage their morale and personality while equipping them for battle. Recruit support staff, upgrade your gladiator school, collect bounties, research technologies, partake in side missions, and manage the wealth and reputation of your ludus as it grows each day.

As your fighters win battles and increase in level, it will be up to you to decide how to focus their abilities by spending attribute, weapons, and expertise points. Compete, trade, and interact with other in-game owners as you advance through various cities of the empire before achieving enough fame to compete in the grand coliseum of Rome herself.

Build your story. Build your empire.

Features:

• Control your gladiators with the new 3D isometric turn-based combat system, where fights can have hundreds of different outcomes. Utilize different combat styles and abilities – employ unique ethnic abilities, salves that increase physical stats, and special equipment such as bandages, stim salts, and more.
• Construct a ludus to your exact specifications in order to maximize the efficiency of your operation. Hospitals, sparring mats, barracks, armories, workshops, and more.
• Gladiators are born with their own dynamically generated physical attributes, classes, and personalities. It is up to you to shape your gladiator into the most proficient killing machine possible.
• As your gladiators level up, they gain points to spend on their attributes, weapons training, and expertise. Expertise allows you to build and customize your fighter according to their appropriate strengths. Weapons training allows you to specialize your gladiator with a specific weapon. The physicality of your gladiators will increase or decrease with age, depending on if they are in their prime or declining.
• Hire trainers to help your gladiators level faster, doctors to keep them healthy, scouts to find new fighters, and blacksmiths to improve weapons and armor.
• Manage your gladiators carefully – their morale, greed, injuries, fatigue, weapons training, and more must be taken into account before sending them to battle.
• As your gladiators gain glory from battle, they will become more widely recognized and adored by the crowds. Win enough battles and they may even get voted into the pantheon of heroes after they retire (or die).
• Become a mogul outside of the arena. Purchase property for fame or businesses through which to further increase your fame across the empire.
• Rob caravans, guard wealthy land owners, assassinate your debt holders and more with the proactive mission system. Increase the odds of success by sending reliable gladiators on the mission as well. Lawfully aligned gladiators will only partake lawful missions, while criminally-inclined gladiators will assist in unlawful activities.
• Engage in five different branches of research: combat, medical, weapons, armor, and scouting.
• Search for deals on weapons, armor, special equipment, and loans on the marketplace.
• Strive to become the wealthiest individual in the Roman empire. There are quick and underhanded ways to make money, but your reputation and fighter’s morale may suffer as a result.
• Receive taunting messages from opposing bosses as well as various other messages from your fighters, staff members, and different characters as you progress through the game.
• Rename your gladiators in order to increase your attachment toward them.
• Bet for or against your gladiator based on the odds generated by bookmakers in-game.
• Fight purses and betting is based on the hype associated with each match. The greater the hype, the more lucrative the fight purse and betting market will be.
• Each game is dynamically generated and different each time.

@PC Gamer The crowd-funding campaign for Starflight 3 has started today on Fig with a goal of 800K.

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Vaughn said he's been poking at Johnson to return to the series for years now—Starflight 2 is his "number-one game of all time"—but it's only now that their workloads have allowed them to get together on it. And while these old-time game resurrections are sometimes hamstrung by hassles over rights and ownership, getting the green light for Starflight 3 was no problem at all: Rod McConnell, another designer and programmer on the original Starflight, owns the property and was happy to see the project go ahead. 

"I called him up and said, 'Hey, we want to do this, would that be cool?' And he just laughed and said, 'Haha, you are Starflight, of course, do whatever you want—it's yours'," Johnson said. McConnell still owns the Starflight property, but getting the Starflight 3 ducks in a row was "super, super-easy."

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@OnlySP The Alpha for Last Epoch is now available.

Developed by Dallas-based Eleventh Hour Games, Last Epoch’s Alpha build is now available for Elder tier and higher Kickstarter backers. Several more supporter tiers are available to get either a preorder of the full game, Alpha access, and cosmetic upgrades including Primordial Turtle pets and the Ancient Portal skin.

Last Epoch tasks players with an open-ended quest through time to prevent their world of Eterra from being swallowed by The Void. As the Traveler, players must hop-scotch across the history of Eterra all while learning the origins of, and how to prevent the havoc already wrought by, The Void.

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Thanks Farflame!

The Last Remnant will become unavailable on Steam as it is being delisted. You have until September 4th to purchase if you are from NA or EU.

Important announcement regarding The Last Remnant

25 AUGUST - SUNILG
Hi everyone,

We will soon be discontinuing digital and physical sales of The Last Remnant on PC.

Sales will cease at the times below:-

Japan region: Wednesday 5th September, approximately 2:00 (JST)
NA region: Tuesday 4th September, approximately 10:00(PDT)
EU region: Tuesday 4th September, approximately 17:00(GMT)

Anyone already owning the game will still be able to play as per usual.

Thanks to everyone who's adventured with the Mitras, Yamas, Qsitis and Sovanis!

Thanks Couchpotato!

@PCGamesN Desperados 3 has been announced by Mimimi.

Characters old and new

The Desperados games stood apart from the Commandos series by putting its characters in the limelight – while Commandos had a varied cast of heroes, you never learned much about who they were. Desperados, on the other hand, told the story of gunslinger Cooper, and the likes of explosives expert Sam Williams, safecracker physician Doc McCoy, and gambler Kate O’Hara.

Desperados 3 won’t bring them all back, but Cooper will, at least, be on your team once again. He returns with his six shooter, silent throwing knives, and the classic coin flip – a tool to lure guards away from their post.

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Thanks porcozaur!

@DSOGaming Bloody Spell is an action RPG which will release for PC in 2019.

Chinese studio Yi Long Games is currently working on a new action RPG, called Bloody Spell, and released a new gameplay teaser trailer for it. While we don’t have enough information about this game, we do know that it will be released initially on the PC and that the team targets a 2019 release date.

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Games Industry talked to Techland's Adrian Ciszewski regarding Dying Light 2 and detailed how the upcoming 'narrative sandbox' enables players to manipulate a zombie-filled city.

"You can learn more by exploring the world, talking with people, reading stuff - there are a lot of different options when it comes to learning those systems."

Learning to manipulate Dying Light 2's various factions and gameplay systems also opens up new possibilities for players to tackle situations in different ways. Ciszewski describes a castle filled with hardened foes, very difficult for a starting player to contend with. But learn their motives and trigger a particular conflict on the other side of the city and they will redeploy their troops, lowering the security at the castle and making it possible to sneak in quietly.

"That's the shortcut you made, because you understand the rules of the world," says Ciszewski. "Otherwise you need to level up your character, do certain side quests, learn new skills and eventually kill all the guys in the castle. But that's up to you."

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Cyberpunk adventure game State of Mind has been released recently.

Comicbook: 4/5

But I will tell you why it’s so excellent. For starters, the writing is simply of considerable quality, which isn’t very surprising when you consider Martin Gantefohr is the pen behind it. Many adventure games are riddled with filler and congested with forgettable and inconsequential conversations. But I never felt this was an issue in State of Mind. Almost everything I read or listen to felt like it served another narrative facet: whether world-building, character development, or enriching the story. And it's all helped along with excellent pacing, and a story that takes its time to unveil itself, but also is mindful of your time.

[...]

Well Played 8.5/10

Despite the incessant gushing over the story this game tells and the topics it delves into, I do have a couple issues with State of Mind. The first would be that the game doesn’t really have any indicator of your current objective, meaning it is easy to end up cluelessly meandering around the areas available to you, interacting with everything in the hope of pushing the story forward. It can be argued that not explicitly telling me where to go encouraged me to interact with things I may have otherwise avoided, but it does feel like a small oversight that could easily be alleviated by adding a current objective indicator. It also needs to be said that controlling your character can sometimes be a bit odd and finicky, but this only occurs in small instances, mainly when you’re stuck in a narrow area.

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PSU 8/10

Likewise, the level of challenge that players will encounter in State of Mind is hardly prohibitive. Puzzles, such as they are, are immensely straightforward affairs and hardly require either previous genre experience or a sky-high IQ to solve, lending credence to the fact that State of Decay is more concerned with players completing the narrative journey more than anything else.

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BagoGames 7/10

State of Mind is more about the journey than the destination. Soaking in the atmosphere and passively accepting certain absurd plot developments is key to appreciating the game for what it is. It may have some baggage, but at the end of the day, it’ll keep you invested in Richard and Adam’s plight.

[...]

Invision Community 8/10

While State of Mind doesn’t have incredible, photorealistic graphics or fast-paced gameplay, it offers an interesting and engaging story, with fascinating characters and beautiful stages. At £25.99 at full price (10% off until August 16th) I would recommend State of Mind to anyone looking for a new, unique story game. State of Mind will release on PS4, XBox One, PC and Switch on August 15th.

Thanks Farflame!

Barbearian is a hack 'n' slash RPG reviewed by PC Invasion featuring a bear.

Some of my most favorite video games don’t fit into any one specific genre. I have fond memories of arcade shooters like Total Carnage and even strategy games like Lemmings. Barbearian takes tidbits from a few genres, including the games mentioned, to create an isometric hack’n’slash with a Warriors feel. There are also light RTS and bullet hell elements to round out this hand-drawn adventure.

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@PC Gamer The first development diary for Torchlight Frontiers introduces Echtra Games.

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“We felt like there was a lot more to do with the Torchlight universe,” he says.

After providing a tour of Echtra’s new studio, the video goes on to provide more detail about Torchlight Frontiers, which has attracted some scepticism due to it being described as a Torchlight MMO. Schaefer emphasises that although Torchlight Frontiers does take place in a shared world, it’s not going to adopt the mechanics of a typical MMO.

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Wildermyth is described as a character-driven, procedurally-generated tactical RPG. You lead a band of unique heroes as they grow from reluctant farmers into legendary fighters.

NBC News argues that games don't need to be long to be worthwhile.

The debate about the length of games has been around almost as long as the games themselves. Before save files and more powerful consoles, gametime was artificially lengthened by repetitive, difficult obstacles that required perfect timing and memorization. By the mid-90s, longer games were shipping on multiple discs to accommodate the lengthy narratives. With every passing console generation, advances in technology allowed for bigger, longer, more epic adventures. A user could easily spend more than 100 hours in the nuclear wastelands of the “Fallout” series or finding shrines in “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.”

“Adding in filler or repetitive content in order to hit a certain playtime was a practice I didn't love from the big games I'd worked on,” said Sam Barlow, writer and director of the 2015 indie hit “Her Story.” Instead, he wanted to make an experimental game that was approachable, accessible, and free of unnecessary fluff.

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Thanks Farflame!

@PC Gamer Let It Die is a hack and slash game that originally released on the PS4 and is now coming to PC sometime in Autumn.

You're tasked with climbing a tower packed with monsters and traps, starting off with no armour or weapons and gradually building a powerful character. The focus is melee combat, but you'll also grab flamethrowers, crossbows and other projectile weapons.

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Deiland is an adventure RPG that has been released on Steam today.

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Deiland is a single-player adventure RPG with several sandbox elements, such as farming, crafting, and building.
Put on the mantle of the Little Prince of Deiland and rule over your own planet!

Tend Deiland
Your planet is your home, turn it into a unique and special place. Improve your skills, craft tools, cook delicious food, brew potions, and create many more items that you can manage and trade.

Enjoy the story
12 available characters and over 100 quests. Your little planet will attract lots of neighboring merchants wishing to trade materials and rare ingredients.

Play and relax
Smooth and cute graphics as well as a relaxing soundtrack to ease up the bustling everyday routine. Experience the nature's versatility in the form of storms, hurricane winds, Aurora Borealis, meteor showers, and shooting stars.

A new hack and slash game has been announced called Torchlight Frontiers.

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REKINDLE THE FLAME IN 2019!

www.torchlightfrontiers.com

Torchlight Frontiers combines the heart of the beloved Torchlight series with a shared, persistent and dynamically generated world. In true Torchlight style, players will team up with friends and devoted pets to hack and slack their way through a vibrant world, discover ancient ruins of lost civilizations and brave dungeons filled with riches and dangerous creatures.

Here is a list of the 10 best story-rich games, put together by Techquilla. You might have a personal list that is different from this one.

BioShock Infinite

Ken Lavigne’s BioShock Infinite is one of the most popular story-driven games out there. The game follows gun-for-hire and brute Booker de Wit who supposedly owes some dangerous people a lot of money. Now he’s been given a chance to clear all his dues and perhaps even redeem himself of his past sins.

Booker is send to the floating city of Columbia which is ruled by one Father Comstock, who manipulates people into following him in the name of religion. Booker’s objective is to abduct Comstock’s daughter Elizabeth and take her back to New York with him. However this simple task turns out to be far more complicated than he initially anticipated.

Indian Noob has a write-up on the JRPG Persona 5.

As a video game journalist I am supposed to nitpick in otherwise entertaining games. On another note did you know that you cannot record gameplay or take Screenshots while playing Persona 5. Crazy right?

Anyways Persona 5 is all over the place.

Everything it does is near perfect. The story is great. The characters are cool. The gameplay mechanics are robust and well balanced. The Loading Times are insanely good for an RPG (I mean impressive level good). It has that sweet spot between too less and too many places to explore and it offers romantic relationships with multiple characters.

Great right? But then why is it so schizophrenic?

One day you will get 3 opportunities to work on your relationships or to hone your skills. But it could be followed by a week of pre-decided cutscenes that will have you doing nothing but going to sleep at the end of the day. Why?

Sometimes the cut-scenes are Anime and fully voiced. Other times they are in-engine but voiced. But mostly they are in-engine and not voiced. Why?

Sometimes you can rank up your relationship with other NPCs by 4-5 points in 1 week, sometimes it doesn't rank up even after 3-4 meetings with them. Why?

The thing is Persona 5 is impossible to plan. You don't know what the next day is going to bring. If you would be able to sit on the subway, or if you would be getting another request from the NPC to visit you if you say no right now.

DSOGaming reports on action RPG Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, which has a new trailer.

Edelweiss has released a new trailer for its upcoming action RPG that combines side-scrolling action with deep crafting and farming simulation, called Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin.

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Porcozaur noticed Moonfall Ultimate, which is a side-scrolling action RPG due 4th September.

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Moonfall: Ultimate is the latest addition to our 2D side-scroller dungeoneering rpg series. Published in cooperation with Wales Interactive it builds upon the hand-painted fantasy world with original soundtrack of Moonfall with exciting new features.

You are brought back into the world of Terra Nihil, to defend The Empire and its mysterious resource of Lunarium from the threat of Savages, striking from the edges of The Empire borders.

Choose your own playstyle from a roster of 3 different classes, each with specific, active and passive abilities. Bulky Vanguard, agile Shadow or mysterious Elementalist. Streamlined fight-loot-upgrade system, you will be progressing in no time through the span of 13 campaign levels and an Endless mode of different enemy types, difficulties, classes and abilities.

    Features:

• The all wanted local multiplayer for up to 2 players.
• Endless mode for both single and multiplayer experience!
• Interface optimization
• Combat tweaks
• Full Console and Linux support
• And everything else you’ve loved on previous versions of Moonfall! Such as hand-painted graphic style, original soundtrack and immersive story.

 Experience your adventures within The Empire alone or with your friends! Moonfall Ultimate offers co-op campaign and endless modes as well as unique combat mechanics with compact interface for smooth gameplay experience. Start your journey on Steam,PS4, XBox and Switch from 4th of September 2018.

Project Shore: Crucible of Blood is described as a single player tactical RPG in a low fantasy medieval setting.

Project Shore (working title) is a single player tactical RPG in a low fantasy medieval setting, currently in development using Unreal Engine 4 for Windows PC platforms. You play as a newly-made leader of a mercenary company after an assignment gone wrong. Having barely escaped from a deadly encounter with a friend-turned-backstabber, and then another one with an unknown otherwordly force, you need to lead what is left of your squad through the times of tumult while searching for hidden truth of what had really transpired to you.

Game features

• Original combat system supporting scalable battles ranging from basic 1v1 encounters to massive skirmishes with dozens of characters participating
• Indirect control: instead of micromanaging each character, give orders and units will automatically assess what ability to use depending on the situation
• Adaptive character advancement system: characters get better and learn new skills depending on what they do in combat
• Squad customization: you have full control on what characters you send into battle and what equipment and abilities they will have at their disposal
• Event driven storytelling with emphasis on player choice: choose your friends and choose your battles. Everything you do in-game advances time and affects the world

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Thanks rjshae!

@IGN Gloomhaven is a very popular board game which is now getting a video game adaptation. There are screenshots at the link provided and a Steam page.

By Tom Marks Gloomhaven, one of the best board games around right now and the top rated board game of all time on BoardGameGeek, is getting a video game adaptation.

Announced at Gen Con 2018, developer Asmodee Digital said that it won’t be trying to make a direct digital translation of the board game, but an actual adaptation. They are working directly with Gloomhaven creator Isaac Childres as part of that.

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@Techraptor Noahmund is a strategy RPG released on Steam.

Strategy RPG Noahmund will be released for Steam on August 2nd.

The game was originally a Kickstarter project and was successfully funded via the crowdfunding platform in May 2017. Shortly thereafter, Noahmund was accepted into the Square Enix Collective, a curated collection of indie games put together by Square Enix.

To commemorate the release date of Noahmund, developer Estudio Ábrego released a new trailer on its official YouTube account. You can check out the trailer here:

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Radiant One is an RPG adventure with mystical elements that released yesterday on Steam.

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About This Game

A story of awakening

Radiant One is an illusory, story-driven adventure with mystical elements.

Trying to escape from boring life and social media, one day Daniel found a mysterious book about lucid dreams. Very quickly he was able to do incredible things, create amazing worlds and fly during sleep until one day his dreams fell under the power of something inexplicable, something terrible conceived by the Universe itself… Help Daniel survive, pass the test and get enlightenment.

Radiant One inspired by minimalist 3D design, is a unique, hand-crafted world of Daniel to explore. It’s designed to be easy for everyone to pick up, enjoy and complete.

@Retcon Raider Phantom Brigade is a turn-based, tactical RPG, focusing on in-depth customization and player driven stories, which now has a Steam page.

Rising Lords is a medieval turn-based tactical strategy game with board game elements, set for 2019.

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Rising Lords

Rising Lords is a medieval turn-based strategy game with card and board game elements. Send your serfs to fight and die in your name... or let them prosper, and use them to your advantage!

Collect taxes and resources. Dictate rations and field work. Forge weapons, reshape the battlefield, raise armies, and build mighty fortified cities. Help your people become knights, or dump them on a battlefield far away, but be careful: even the most humble peasants will revolt eventually…

In addition to its campaign mode, Rising Lords features robust multiplayer functionality. Play a quick game, or settle in for an evening or more. Play mind games with your friends with Rising Lords’ advanced social interactivity, and let them pay for their insolence in questioning your right to rule!

Features
● Find the perfect balance - juggle production, resource gathering, diplomacy and treason, tax and rations - all vital in the success of your provinces
● Strategic battles - besiege your enemy’s cities to starve them out, go all-out attack, or wait for them to come to you
● Up to 4-player simultaneous multiplayer - no need to wait for each individual player to take their turn
● The psychology of war - Play mind games with your opponents with advanced social interactions
● Subtle variables - Morale, terrain and fortifications have a huge impact on battle, and the tide can turn quickly
● Customisation - Tailor your leader’s look and skills, and craft your perfect cities and troops
● Risks and opportunities - React to figures that visit your province. Find ways to take advantage, and work quickly to eliminate threats!
● Take your pick - React to 50 different events and collect unique cards to surprise your enemy!

Adeptus Titanicus Dominus is currently under development on Steam Early Access. One of the developers was interviewed by Vibrid about what they are currently working on.

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ATD discord: https://discord.gg/KEPSX36

Hope you Enjoyed!!

Leave any thoughts or questions in the comments!

Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus, the 3D turn-based strategy PC game adaptation of Games Workshop's Titan Legions tabletop game, puts you in control of the greatest weapons available to the Imperium of Man, the mighty Titans of the Adeptus Titanicus!

Gamewatcher reports that JRPG Kingdoms of the Dump has been announced.

There is no doubting the fact that good-old JRPG titles have a place among the classics of the genre. Similarly, there's no doubting the fact that, perhaps, it is time to iterate on the winning formula and come up with something new and even a tiny bit different. This is where Kingdoms of the Dump comes in.

Kingdoms of the Dump is an upcoming RPG set in the Lands of Fill, where players will take control over a trashcan knight in the making - Dustin Binsley - and make an attempt at helping him in saving the Five and Half Kingdoms of the Dump. The game is about trash, if you haven't quite nailed that down just yet.

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Gamewatcher reports on MechCorp, which is being described as an XCOM/FTL hybrid, and which will be releasing 2nd of August on Steam.

MechCorp is what happens when a single game developer is thoroughly and in equal measure enchanted by XCOM and FTL, and when they take three years of their time to develop a mech-focused amalgamation of these two modern classics.

This turn-based tactics game with a strategic meta-layer of gameplay will have players take command of a mercenary mech squadron as they duke it out with foes both planetside and in open space. As you might expect, the XCOM portion of MechCorp's pedigree kicks in when fighting, whereas FTL rules supreme during the meta-play.

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Starflight 3 is coming soon to Fig and is available to peruse if you have a backstage pass. For now check out this video.

And now, Starflight 3 is on @PlayFig! https://t.co/lksH3AZbNPhttps://t.co/J2kd52IySh

It’s like the Shivans have returned to obliterate both Star Control combatants. Who will win this growing battle royale? And how long till Solar Winds III??

— Wormwood Studios (@WWSGames) July 17, 2018

The Fig funding campaign for Starflight 3 by HumaNature is coming soon.

Thanks to you!

Techquila compared The Witcher 3 to Skyrim in a number of categories.

The Witcher 3 vs Skyrim: Exploration

Ah exploring! Something RPG’rs absolutely love. Both Skyrim and The Witcher 3 have massive open worlds, but this is Bethesda’s territory. There’s nothing like exploring the dungeons and caves of Skyrm infested with deranged falmers and leaden with rare and legendary equipment.

The Witcher 3 is no push-over though. You’ll always find something in every nook and cranny of the map, and not just some measly quest written in a hurry, but a memorable experience that’ll make you want to explore every inch of the world. In the end though, CD Projekt just couldn’t get to that level of atmospheric goodness Todd Howard and his beloved Elder Scrolls games are known for.

Winner: Skyrim

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Thanks Farflame!

DSOGaming reports that Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity is now available on Steam.

XSEED Games today launched Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity, the action-RPG take on the legendary danmaku series developed by indie studio Ankake Spa, for PC on Steam. The title is now available globally for $14.99, €14.99, and £12.99, with a 10% discount off the regular price throughout its launch week.

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Octopath Traveler is a classic style JRPG that has been previewed by Shacknews.

Depth Without Complication

The familiar map overview and easily digestible mission structure both help make Octopath Traveler remarkably easy to play. Those who want to level up their heroes need only seek out the nearest unexplored passage or instead find a nearby path with a danger level slightly higher than the characters' current levels. Similarly, jumping to the next story element is as easy as traveling to green-hued cities on the map, then choosing to continue the chosen character's next chapter.

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Shining Resonance Refrain has been released onto Steam to positive reviews.

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ABOUT THIS GAME

Play as Yuma Ilvern and stop the Empire from exploiting the power of the ancient dragons, including the soul of the Shining Dragon within you. With the help of your friends, realize your destiny, save Astoria, and unleash the strength you've always had locked away.

In the original game, previously released only in Japan, Imperial Princess Excella was an unplayable character, but in the new "Refrain Mode" in Shining Resonance Refrain, both she and Dragonslayer Jinas can be added as party members for a new experience - just be sure to save this for your second playthrough to avoid any spoilers! As an added bonus, all of the extra cosmetic items and side quests are included in this remaster.

Dragons were long thought to be extinct, and because Yuma holds the ability to transform into the Shining Dragon, he was taken as a captive of the Empire. With the help of the Dragoneers, Sonia, princess of Astoria, pleads with Yuma to aid them in their fight to save their land from the Empire's dominion. Typically timid, will Yuma find the courage to realize the strength he has within him?

Chasm is a metroidvania roguelike that is launching July 31st.

Chasm Launches July 31st!

Unlike some other games that are developed in secret and then announced about 6 months before launch, Chasm has been in the public eye pretty much from the beginning. Our first post about the game was on IndieDB.com back in January 2013, and we launched a successful Kickstarter campaign just a few months later. It is with a combination of pride, exuberance, relief, and fear that I am hereby officially announcing that we will be launching on July 31, 2018 for $19.99! We’ll be doing a week 1 discount on Steam so keep an eye out for it. And if you haven’t done so already, please add us to your wishlist! (And be sure to tell your friends!)

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As you probably know, one distinctive feature of Chasm is that the world map is procedurally generated when you start up a new campaign. That feature has led to a lot of questions and confusion, so I’d like to address exactly how it works and why we designed it that way. The latter part is easy to answer: Our entire team is composed of Metroidvania fans! Whether it’s Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or Axiom Verge, we’ve played through our favorite games so often that we’ve long since memorized the maps. We love how those games play but wish we could wipe our memories so we could get that experience of exploration all over again. It’s our hope that people who love Chasm the way we love our favorite games can play it over and over and still have it feel fresh. But at the same time, people who only play the game once should have no idea that there’s anything procedural about it.

But that’s not to say that everything’s completely random. The way our system works is that there is a fundamental structure to the game that never changes. If you’re familiar with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night you may recall that first you get the Jewel of Open, then the Leap Stone, then the Soul of Bat - in that order. As you get these upgrades, new areas of the map become accessible. Chasm, like all Metroidvanias, follows this structure. When you start up a campaign, the game always has these key upgrades and plot points in the same place. What’s different is how you get from one key point to the other. Chasm has a bunch of pre-designed rooms that are slotted in modularly in different combinations. So you won’t have any rooms that feel like they were designed by a computer - instead, you’ll encounter rooms in a different order and even encounter new rooms you never saw the first time, and your path will be different each time you start up a new campaign.

Getting that to feel right was way easier said than done. There was a ton of balancing we needed to make sure the procedural engine took into account when it builds a world map. There’s pacing - you don’t want to have a string of combat rooms with lots of enemies and no platforming to break it up, nor do you want the opposite. You don’t want the system to block your progress by requiring a certain ability upgrade that you don’t have yet. You don’t want to have the save points too far apart. (To address a common misconception, Chasm is not a roguelike with permadeath, though there is an option for that for veteran players. Permadeath combined with the changing dungeons makes for a tense experience since you never know how many more rooms you need to make it to the end.) And you want to make sure that there’s just the right amount of treasures and surprises along the way to encourage exploration of every little nook and cranny of the game.

There are some people who like the comfort of getting to know a single map by playing it over and over or being able to follow their favorite YouTuber’s walkthrough of the game. We have an option for that too. Everything randomly generated by the game engine is based off of a seed number. If you enter a specific seed number, you can guarantee a specific map. So if you want to follow a walkthrough, just check their seed number and enter that when you set up your campaign.

We’re very excited - and not a little bit nervous - to send our baby out into the world. We’ve polished and fine tuned every little bit of that game to make sure there were no compromises to our original vision over 5 years ago. We can’t wait to hear what you think on July 31st!

CramGaming has a list of new cyberpunk games to look out for.

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First up and releasing later this year is Daedalic’s futuristic 3D thriller – State of Mind. Set in Berlin, 2048 you play as a journalist Richard Nolan one of the few criticizing the current state of affairs. A world on the brink with the usual lack of resources, mass illnesses caused by pollution, high crime rates, War, controlling Governments and mega-companies , drones and humanoid robots replacing humans, surveillance reigns supreme – you get the picture. Having mysteriously lost his wife and son, Nolan must delve deeper behind the scenes to uncover a worldwide conspiracy whilst investigating sci-fi themes. Sounds good and releases on consoles and PC in 2018.

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Thanks Farflame!

Techraptor takes a look behind the creation of Monomyth, a first-person action RPG that takes after Arx Fatalis and is being developed by one person called rattower on Twitter.

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As usual with complex RPGs, Monomyth will have variable playtime. The developer’s initial estimate was about 10-20 hours, “which is roughly what it takes to finish a King’s Field game.” However, after the first few gameplay tests, he realized that this will depend on the player and the playstyle. Depending on the player, levels in games such as Thief can be finished in a few minutes. Monomyth will feature three major areas, which are split up into smaller sub-areas. The design is spiral, so that backtracking happens through shortcuts. “Some secrets and passages in earlier areas can only be accessed later in the game.”

Interactivity is a must in a game like this. Not only it will include dialogue with NPCs, it will also offer an item combination system similar to Arx Fatalis and Ultima Online, so that basically every item can be combined with every other item or interactive element within the world. One example of this is that you can bake bread by combining water and flour, then leaving the dough close to a fire, which is openly borrowed from Arx Fatalis. You can also draw water from wells, break and/or lockpick doors, lift heavy objects to use as weapons. You can even throw objects at levers and buttons to activate them. AIs can be lured into certain directions by throwing items, and so on.

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Westboro is an isometric action RPG with a real-time combat system where water is scarce.

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ABOUT THIS GAME

2039. Water is no longer environmentally sustainable supply.
Most of it is too contaminated and toxic to be suitable for any use by humankind.
As the global population has grown to 12.4 billion, the water crisis became front page news.
The remaining fresh water will not last forever; it will become depleted.

Transnational Corporation SICON holds world domination and control over fresh water resources for several years.
The complicated and unstable situation resulted in violent uprisings among themiddle-class across the globe.

The world approaches its first week in state of emergency...

Westboro is an Indie Point'n'Click Action RPG with a unique real-time combat system.
It is easy to play, but hard to master. Use your abilities and variety of weapons to defeat enemies. Rely on armor or be quick enough to keep yourself in safety. Be stealthy or try to gundown everyone. Fight enemies at long-range or force them to engage in close quarters combat. ...Choose your own playstyle!

DigitalFoundry looked at Dying Light 2 and interviewed the developers.

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We had the chance to take a look at Dying Light 2 at E3 and to discuss the game with the developers! Here's our report.

@DSOGaming Orange Cast is an action adventure RPG inspired by Mass Effect.

Team Rezy is currently working on a new action adventure RPG that is inspired by the Mass Effect series, called Orange Cast. This little gem looks cool – though still rough around the edges – and its development team has released a new gameplay trailer that you can watch below.

Orange Cast is described as an action/RPG atmospheric adventure that is set in a large-scale setting where Soviet and Western science fiction are combined itself.

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VG24/7 talked to Chris Avellone and Techland about Dying Light 2.

Some of this was helped along by Avellone, who has learned a thing or two over his years of working on RPGs about the unexpected things players can do to mess with your carefully crafted narrative.

“The big one is learning that you shouldn’t funnel the player – they’re here to explore the space; let them, don’t shackle them,” Avellone says. “It can be a challenge to tell an open-world story if you’re not considering what the player brings to the equation and allowing them to assume an equal role in the events taking place and even better, causing the events that lead to the story progression.

“It’s easy to imagine a story that takes from A to B to C with a set series of events, but in an open-world game, you have to put the player agency and their ability to affect the world at the forefront. So for example, rather than A to B to C, you take a step back, assume the player starts at ‘A’, and then can do all manner of events to cause ‘B’ to come to them through the actions they do in the open-world – or, a number of different ‘B’s, not just one. Or even better, the player creates ‘B’ all on their own, and the entire world reacts to it. When a player can literally see themselves as an agent of change, it empowers them even more.”

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@TheEgg Roguelike action RPG Lovecraft's Untold Stories has been released onto Steam Early Access.

The ROGUELIKE ACTION-RPG “LOVECRAFT’S UNTOLD STORIES” is Now available on Steam.

Press release:
Welcome, investigators. You already know: the universe is not what it seems. Lurking in its deepest shadows, hiding behind imposible corners, bubbling and crawling in the cracks between dimensions, sleeping lifeless dreams under the waters, there are ancient terrors that once ruled the Earth — and that will come back some day to claim what was theirs. It is imposible to defeat forever such powers as the Old Ones and the Outer Gods. We all know that, in the end, death and madness awaits us all. But maybe we can delay the inevitable…

Lovecraft’s Untold Stories, the action RPG with roguelike elements, is now available on Steam Early Access for $12.99 / €12,99 / £10.29. Lovecraft’s Untold Stories is an action RPG with rogue-like elements. You explore randomly generated levels based in H.P. Lovecraft stories, fighting cultists and all kinds of monsters from the Mythos, improving your skills, weapons, and gear, looking for clues and information about the Old Ones and the Outer Gods, and solving puzzles and challenges. Review keys are available, ask us for yours!

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Thanks Farflame!

DSOGaming reports on a new science fiction RPG in development called Planetrism. There are some screenshots at the link.

Mika Laaksonen and Kimmo Kaunela are currently working on an amazing sci-fi role-playing game where you experience the life of a colonist on an exoplanet light years away from Solar system, called Planetrism. The game is powered by Unreal Engine 4 and below you can find some stunning screenshots.

Planetrism aims to combine personal experience of adventurous colonist life with leadership and management of whole colony. The key to survive in Planetrism is to understand environments, collect data and always be ready for different situations. Dynamic weather will make it hard and challenging to build and run colony and its people.

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There is an interview with the devs of SINNER: Sacrifice For Redemption at Gamingbolt. The game itself follows in the footsteps of Dark Souls but with a unique twist of levelling down as you go.

SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption may remind you of the Dark Souls games with its brutal difficulty and boss battles. However, this game comes with its own unique twist: with every boss battle that the player wins, they must then level down their character. This means that the game will keep on getting more difficult as the player character gets weaker, and your skills will be put to test.

To learn more about the game and its development, Gamingbolt reached out to the developers with some questions and they provided the following answers.

"We wanted to have a non-linear game allowing for people to play the game’s content in any order they chose but we also needed to have the difficulty increase."

This game seems to tie in some grand themes into the gameplay itself, with Adam’s trials against the Seven Sins eventually leading to his redemption. Was this something you aimed for from the start?

Absolutely- We always wanted the game to be about the character’s redemption and the seven deadly sins provided us the structure needed to tell Adam’s story.

What inspired the idea of leveling down which is one of the main new features of this game?

We wanted to have a non-linear game allowing for people to play the game’s content in any order they chose but we also needed to have the difficulty increase. The sacrifice system allowed us to do that while being true to the game’s theme and style.

What would you say are some of the inspirations for this game?

Souls games are a massive inspiration but we also feel that Team Ico had a big inspiration on our character designs and our boss structure.

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Thanks Farflame!

The Forgotten City was originally a mod for Skyrim but is now a standalone game and was revealed during E3.

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http://forgottencitygame.com
Add to your Steam wishlist here (https://goo.gl/BR7kT4) or register your interest in a console version here (https://goo.gl/HcQybF)

The Forgotten City is a time travel murder mystery in a mythological city. Deep underground in an ancient Roman city, 26 trapped explorers lay dead because one of them broke a mysterious law. A portal leads back to the past, allowing you to change their fate - or witness their deaths in a time loop for eternity.

Key features:

• Investigate a dark, gripping mystery full of twists and intrigue

• Solve problems your own way, with reason, charm, bribery, stealth, threats, violence - or cleverly exploit the time-loop

• Explore a stunning and intricate city rendered with Unreal Engine

• Interrogate richly detailed characters with interwoven lives

• Grapple with moral dilemmas which have life-and-death consequences

• Choose your own gender, race, and backstory

• Listen to an achingly beautiful orchestral score and first class voice acting

Thanks Farflame!

Rock Paper Shotgun says big dense CRPGs have a bright future:

Clear 100 hours in your calendar, ‘cos CRPGs are here to stay

In the mid-to-late 2000s, publishers abandoned the CRPG genre – an acronym describing the very specific genre of video games adapted from tabletop RPGs to be played on computers – which a decade earlier had been a cornerstone of PC gaming. They were more interested in accessible, console-friendly series like Mass Effect and The Elder Scrolls, and PC-centric RPGs all but died out.

Then, around 2012, RPGs made a comeback, largely thanks to the rise of crowdfunding and an endless well of nostalgia. Since then we’ve been treated to heaps of good ones – Divinity: Original Sin, Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland 2, Torment: Tides of Numenera – and there are plenty more in the works. But there’s no guarantee that CRPGs are back for good. Some, such as Torment, haven’t sold well. The future of crowdfunding remains uncertain. And asking fans to commit 50 hours to a single story is more difficult than ever, given the volume of great games that release every month. So how can developers ensure that the genre stays relevant?

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Thanks henriquejr!

The first episode of Life is Strange 2 will be available on September 27:

Life is Strange 2 Release Date Reveal

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Episode 1 of Life is Strange 2 will be available on September 27th 2018. Further information about DONTNOD's #LifeisStrange2 will be revealed this August.

ChristopherOdd played through Wizard of Legend and shared his gameplay impressions.

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Wizard of Legend Gameplay. Unlock over 100 unique spells and discover powerful spell combinations allowing you to create a style best suited to you. MORE INFO DOWN BELOW 👇🏻 Buy on GOG and support Odd too ► https://odd.gg/wizardoflegend

A hands-on impression of Warhammer: Chaos Bane from Entertainment Buddha.

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Enter Warhammer: Chaos Bane, which is a game that I know absolutely nothing about, the only game I’ve played in the franchise is Vermintide. Thankfully, that doesn’t matter in the slightest, because Chaos Bane is pretty standalone in and of itself, and is answering my prayers. If you’ve played Diablo III, you’ll feel right at home with this game, right down to the button shortcuts and potion shortcut for when your healing skills ain’t cutting it. The visuals are halfway between beautiful and disgusting, it’s like they looked at Diablo and said “yeah, but how can we gross you out more?” I loved playing it, though, there weren’t as many enemies on screen at one time as I’m used to, but I think it was made up for in the fact that it was harder. Smaller enemies are a lot meatier in this game, or at least in the demo that I played, but this is balanced with a new feature.

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Thanks Farflame!

@Worthplaying The Guild 3 development has been taken over by a newly formed developer called Purple Lamp Studios.

To make sure, The Guild 3 will leave Early Access In due course, an additional development Studio, called Purple Lamp, which is based in Vienna, will add its expertise to the project. Purple Lamp is a newly formed studio, consisting of veteran developers, who have worked on various titles before at Austrian publisher/developer Sproing, among others.

Based on the work GolemLabs has done so far, the new studio will solve any problems as well as integrate planned features such as multiplayer, societies and the sovereign-mechanic into the game in the following months. Harald Riegler, CEO of Purple Lamp, says „The Guild is a fantastic franchise and we're proud to contribute both our experience and our personal passion for strategy games to deliver the game that fans are hoping for.“

Jean-René Couture, CEO GolemLabs Studios Inc., adds: “For the past few years, the folks here at GolemLabs had the huge honor to work on The Guild 3. However, the very last remaining stretch of development will be done under the care and reigns of THQ Nordic. So, from now on, GolemLabs will eagerly and proudly be waiting for the release of The Guild 3. For us here at GolemLabs, it is time to embark on new and exciting adventures.“

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Thanks Farflame!

Babylon's Fall is an action RPG that was announced during E3 and is expected to release 2019.

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PCGamesN

When is the Babylon’s Fall release date? The upcoming action game from Platinum Games is shrouded in mystery but already has plenty of lore.

Revealed during the Square Enix E3 2018 showcase, Babylon’s Fall was unveiled with a rough release date, but scarce few details to go on apart from that. There was no gameplay on display, and no subsequent explanation of what the new IP is all about. After the disappointing lack of reveal for Life is Strange 2 and Square Enix’s Marvel project, an announcement trailer for a new series seemed like yet another let down, that was until Platinum Games appeared on screen.

So what is Babylon’s Fall? We dig through the reveal trailer in search of details that tell us what kind of game to expect when it comes out - from its extensive timeline to the snippet of CG combat. Here are all the latest details on Babylon’s Fall.

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Thanks Farflame!

Capsella The Lights of Lucern is an action RPG releasing on Steam early access 22nd June.

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About This Game

Capsella The Lights of Lucern is an action RPG that takes place in Galad, a mysterious and magical universe.
Four heroes were chosen by the goddess to hold the Capsella, an artifact that is capable of dispelling the darkness cast on the Link Crystals that is breaking the balance between light and darkness.
The heroes will face multiple dangers across the land to dispel the Crystals and find out who is behind the attacks.
Featuring a local multiplayer cooperative with four unique heroes, explore the dimension of Lucern in an top down action driven adventure!
You can play as Ambar, Aran, Laurina and Lucas! Each with an unique set of technics and gameplay style!
Ambar is a powerful mage that can cast powerful spells!
Aran is a mighty brawler that can unleash swings with his two handed sword!
Laurina is a swift and skilled archer!
Lucas is a fierce swordsman that can take a blow and protect the group!
Fight enemies, earn experience to gain levels and unlock new technics! Get stronger by upgrading your equipment and use elemental properties to be more effective and defeat your enemies!

Titan Outpost is an isometric, single-player RPG set on Titan. The latest update shows off some screenshots and reports that all core systems are in place and ready for testing.

Features

Titan Outpost is an isometric, single-player role-playing game set on Titan, the sixth moon of the planet Saturn. Humanity is engulfed in an energy crisis and you are there to harvest the moon's precious resources and uncover its mysteries.

There is no combat in the game. Titan itself is your biggest enemy and your character will need to use a variety of skills to handle missions. In an atmosphere so uninvitingly cold that methane is a liquid, every choice matters and every step counts.

• The PICA character system features four attributes -Physical, Intelligence, Charisma and Awarenss- and six skills, ranging from science to exploration.
• Branching storylines and multiple quest solutions.
• Discrete time system, where every passing second determines unfolding events and the game world continues while your character sleeps. The game would be considered turn-based if it had combat.
• Logistical elements , think original Dune adventure meets the strategic layer of X-com.
• A rich backstory with a combination of realistic science-fiction and cold war tension.
• Over twenty locations, a hundred if you count all the lakes.
• Build and expand your base, it's not called Titan Outpost for nothing.
• Research exciting new technologies, ranging from new ways to keep warm, generating more power or making Titan ever so slightly more like Earth.
• Multiple factions: You can decide to join the Chinese, work for independent contractors or stay loyal to your employer.
• 70s aesthetic.

@VG24/7 Dying Light 2 has some of the writers that worked on Witcher 3.

Techland is taking the story, writing and quests for upcoming zombie parkour game Dying Light 2 very seriously.

Not only has it hired the talent of designer Chris Avellone to shape the game, but it has also hired writers from CD Projekt RED who worked on The Witcher 3’s Bloody Baron quest.

[...]

Maneater released a trailer at E3 and has a Steam page with no release date as yet.

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About This Game

Maneater is a Single-Player Action RPG, set in the unforgiving waters of the Gulf Coast. Fight to survive in the open ocean, with danger lurking at every depth. Your only tools are your wits, your jaws, and an uncanny ability to evolve as you feed. Anything and everything is on the menu... kill or be killed.

Become a MANEATER

Play as a giant Bull Shark and terrorize the coastal waterways. Tear swimmers and divers limb from limb, give the humans a reason to fear you.

Explore a massive open world

Immerse yourself in a living, breathing world full of threats, and rewards. Explore sunken wrecks, lurk in swamps, or just cruise the open ocean looking for whales to feed on.

Deep Stats and Role Playing

Role-play and customize your shark with a variety of stat driven systems. Evolve different parts of your body to improve how they function, or pump up your ferocity to enter brief feeding frenzies.

Experienced Team

From the minds behind Depth and Killing Floor, our goal as an early access game is to push the feeling of playing as a shark to new heights, developing a strictly single-player experience that will challenge and engage the player from start to finish. Gritty, visceral, heart-pounding action games are our calling.

Dying Light 2 was shown off at E3.

Announcement Trailer

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The fate of a decaying City is in your hands. Every choice matters. Discover the bold sequel to a best-selling open-world phenomenon.

Gameplay Demo

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Chris Avellone introduces Dying Light 2 in a narrated gameplay demo that shows off parkour, branching choices, and combat.

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition has been announced at E3 with a trailer.

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Tales of Vesperia is back with Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition. A remaster of one of the most beloved roleplaying games ever created! Experience a story like no other, complemented by a robust combat system, a memorable cast of characters and a soundtrack that you’ll be humming for a long time. Dive into the definitive version of Tales of Vesperia with characters and content never before seen in the west! Look for Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition, this winter.

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@OnlySP The first character design for Project Wight has been shown.

Former Battlefield designer David Goldfarb tweeted out the first character design from Project Wight, an upcoming title in development by his co-founded studio The Outsiders.

The tweet, embedded below, appears to show a menu screen with, according to evidence seen in a previous trailer, the playable character. The main character is a wight, which translates to an undead creature that specialises in fast-paced combat:

In the spirit of E3, here is something from #projectwight. We are still hard at work here at the Outsiders making this monster game. And I wish you could hear the incredible soundtrack that @BjorkmanElvira and @nhjertberg have made. Chills. pic.twitter.com/qaXmMnTcKb

— David Goldfarb (@locust9) June 8, 2018

Thanks Farflame!

The Hand of Merlin is a turn-based Arthurian RPG aiming for late 2019.

About This Game

There are as many worlds as there are stars in the sky. In each stands Camelot; in each there is a Grail. But there is only one Merlin, and his eternal burden is to stand against the horror from beyond. Each world that is saved is saved forever; each world that is lost is lost for good.

The Hand of Merlin is a turn-based rogue-lite RPG in which Arthurian legend clashes with cosmic horror. Recruit a company of up to four mortal heroes and guide them in spirit on a desperate journey from Albion to Jerusalem. Explore a richly-imagined medieval setting on the brink of apocalypse. Trade with merchants, improve your heroes, and unearth ancient relics. Search for the lost fragments of your soul, scattered across the multiverse - and save as many worlds as you can.

KEY FEATURES:

A Roguelike Experience

Carve a path across the lands of Albion, Marca Hispanica and Al-Andalus. Will you take a dangerous route, risking life and limb in pursuit of a legendary relic? Or will you choose a safer path? Plan and prepare. Negotiate, barter, fight. Tackle challenges. Suffer losses. Recruit new Heroes. Earn Gold, Supplies and Renown. Be careful: your choices are permanent, as is death. But don't tarry - evil never rests.

Tactical Turn-Based Combat

Master the tactics of squad-based and turn-based combat to conquer both human and demonic foes. Your enemies will be tough and ruthless; make use of high ground and cover, set up ambushes and coordinated attacks, harness synergies between different Hero classes and skills.

Non-Linear Narrative

Enjoy a compelling story inspired by Arthurian legend, the Matter of France, and the history of Al-Andalus - with an unusual twist. Make choices in interactive encounters that change every time you play. Written by Jonas Kyratzes (The Talos Principle, Serious Sam 4) and Verena Kyratzes (The Lands of Dream, Serious Sam 4).

Dynamic Leveling

Use Renown to level up your Heroes, and choose between a randomized set of new skills or improved attributes. But choose wisely! Select skills with great synergy and balance your party for the road ahead.

Equipment Upgrades

Seek out towns to improve your arms and armor, or stumble upon hermit artisans in the wild. With every day that passes, the world plunges deeper into darkness, and you will need all the equipment gold can buy.

Relics

From a peasant's humble luck charm to the legendary sword wielded by Arthur himself, items imbued with magical power are scattered about the world. Some you will be able to purchase from merchants and collectors, but others will have to be earned through acts of heroism - or displays of wit.

Spells

Rain thunder and brimstone upon your foes! Seek out and gather Soulstones to restore your power and unlock new Spells. Even if defeated, your spirit will retain all of your collected arcane knowledge as you jump into the next dimension.

Alternate Dimensions

As you jump from one parallel dimension to the next, history is reshaped. Different kings rule the land, changing the encounters, characters, and events. No two worlds are ever quite the same, and each journey will be unique. And should your heroes fall, remember: defeat is not the end, only a new beginning.

Gematsu has discovered the website for the RPG Tales of Vesperia 10th anniversary remaster.

Gematsu has discovered tov10th.tales-ch.jp—a password-protected website presumably for the Tales of Vesperia remaster Gematsu has heard is in production in celebration of the RPG’s 10th anniversary.

[...]

The Mercury Man was released on Steam recently

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About This Game

The Mercury Man is an isometric game in the action genre with some adventure elements. It is set in the far grim dark future of its unique sci-fi world.

In the year 2310 people on Earth discovered a new way to cure all deadly diseases. By 2315 the technology reached Russia. The point of this medical procedure was to replace patient’s blood with mercury. In the first years only the richest could afford it, but сlandestine clinics that provided blood replacement services for little money gradually emerged. At the same time, the number of ordinary people who contracted incurable diseases grew bigger and bigger and the mercury treatment no longer helped them. Soon it became clear that being around «mercuries», that’s how people who passed the transfusion were called, is dangerous. As a result, the world government introduced a complete ban on mercury operations, special police units of hunters were created, who sought out and eliminated mercury people. But the politicians and the rich continued to carry out transfusions. In the end, all this led to civil riots.

The law enforcement sided with people and all mercuries were gathered and sent off to Mars. Earth was ruled by the police government. Mars was divided into two zones - the outer zone, to where the poor who had procedures in the сlandestine clinics were sent, and the inner zone where former cream of society lived. Since the inner zone was organized by the politicians themselves and not policemen, it was heavily guarded against any intrusion attempts, and it was possible to get there only for a huge amount of money after passing the loyalty test. If less than a month had passed since the transfusion, mercuries were sent to the outer zone. If more than a month had passed, then mercuries were accused of concealing their status and were liquidated. Substandard procedures and lack of normal air on Mars led to the fact that people began to mutate in the outer zone and turned into horrible monsters. Nevertheless, the mercuries who were caught on Earth by hunters were sent there. You were one of those hunters…

- A unique world from the Mehsoft team
- Stylish hand-drawn graphics
- Original soundtrack
- Breathtaking plot
- Black humor, which skillfully fits into the dark and depressive mood of the game

@DSOGaming Warhammer: Chaosbane is a new action RPG game that has been announced today. Screenshots at the link.

Bigben, Games Workshop and Eko Software today revealed the name of the game based on the famous Warhammer license: Warhammer: Chaosbane. This adaptation of the franchise will be the first Action-RPG to take place in the Warhammer Fantasy world.

The development of the title is being done by Eko Software, a French studio who has demonstrated great skill in the hack’n slash genre with How to Survive 1 and 2, a series which captivated millions of players.

[...]

@hardcore gamer A new cyberpunk RPG has been announced, that has been born out of personal tragedy, called NOTHING.

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Additionally, initial details for the game promise a meticulous RPG for fans of the genre. In the year 2108, players can drive motorcycles, fly cars, hack systems, hack brains and a myriad of other abilities in order to control the future. Walsh promises twelve possible endings and a plethora of side missions. There are zero building facades which mean that if you can see it, you can enter it. Underground sewers, tunnels and other environmental elements add more depth to the world. Upgrade your protagonist with cybernetic augmentations, in-depth crafting systems and tons of personal and vehicle upgrades. More than anything, Walsh is committed to a story-driven adventure that will challenge your emotions. Currently, there is no release date information other than 2019. Walsh hopes to have a small showing at this year’s E3 and plans to set up a Kickstarter soon for release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

PC Gamer asks Josh Sawyer, Swen Vincke and Robert Kurvitz about CRPGs future.

It wasn’t so long ago that the isometric CRPG seemed like an endangered species, consigned to annals of video game history, or at least the '90s when classic like Baldur's Gate were released. With the rise of crowdfunding and indie developers, however, the genre has returned in a tidal wave of spiritual successors and fantasy romps. So much of this resurgence is tangled up in nostalgia, though, begging the question: how does the genre move forward? 

The friction between nostalgia and innovation is an obstacle inherent in any game trying to evoke the classics. In RPGs, it’s even more apparent because an overwhelming number of them are set in high fantasy universes full of elves, dwarves and handy magical swords. When an RPG does eschew the fantasy setting, it usually leans into science fiction. 

 

“I don’t think RPGs are really shackled to sci-fi and fantasy, it’s just tradition,” says Josh Sawyer, most recently Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire’s game director. “I think a lot of it comes from the background of roleplaying games. Dungeons & Dragons started as Chainmail, which is really a fantasy wargame, and since then a lot of RPGs have been fantasy, trying to ape the experience of D&D.”

[...]

Siliconera reports on Dungeonhaven which is a third person action game.

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Dungeonhaven is a challenging third person action game, one where a knight born from stone can switch back to their rocky form in order to make themselves safe from damage as they battle their way through living dungeons.

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Features

• Explore sentient dungeons as a knight who can turn to stone
• Drain dungeon cores of their elemental powers and wield them as your own
• Discover shortcuts and secrets as you traverse passionately hand crafted levels

Combat

• Deterministic combat is challenging, but you will master it in time
• Reveal the distinct uses of a wide variety of items, which can be consumed or thrown at enemies to identify their effects

Kotaku UK asked Chris Avellone and George Ziets what is an RPG today.

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Ziets recalls that early computer RPGs like Wizardry and the original Bard’s Tale essentially ported the most popular editions of their tabletop progenitors like Dungeons and Dragons to the personal computer, eschewing epic tales of sword and sorcery to focus on the tactical guts of the pen-and-paper experience. “Originally, most RPGs were Tolkienesque, monster-slaying fantasies,” Ziets says. “Now we have RPGs set in science-fiction worlds, modern times, etc. Similarly, most early RPGs had some version of D&D stats and skills, but many are now evolving away from strict adherence to those rules.”

To Ziets, this slow expansion beyond the realm of twenty-sided dice and Vancian magic reflects the advance of video games as a medium, in the same way as early television programs like The Twilight Zone resembled theatrical productions more than the elaborate multi-camera setups of later decades. “As the art form evolved, and creators discovered techniques that were unique to television, that gradually moved further and further away from the techniques of theatre,” says Ziet. “TV got better and came into its own because creators learned what worked best for their medium, but in the early days, they had to start with what they knew. I see RPGs in much the same way.”

[...]

Gamingbolt reports that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was announced early to try and get publisher interest.

According to Epic Games’s director of publishing Sergey Galyonkin, the game is currently only in the design doc phase- so it hasn’t even properly begun development. The only reason it was announced as early as it was was to generate some publisher interest for it this E3. Which makes sense- but which is likely to make the wait for the fans brutal and unrelenting. Just as Square Enix fans how they feel about games tat take years to come out because they were announced before they properly began development.

[...]

Die for Valhalla! has been released on Steam.

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About This Game

Die for Valhalla! is an action RPG where you hack, slash and crush your enemies! Possess and take full control of heroes, monsters and other things to help Vikings save their realm!

You are a Valkyrie, a supernatural maiden bestowed with the ability to possess fallen warriors. You embark on a quest that will lead you through strange lands where Norse Mythology collides with Lovecraftian mythos. Sounds Weird? Well, because it is!

You can play solo or locally with friends (up to 4 players).

Two ways to enjoy the story:

The game offers two story modes with procedurally generated worlds: Beat ‘Em Up and Rogue-lite.

Beat ‘Em Up mode creates a larger world for you to explore with a more relaxed difficulty curve. You can revive your friends and the potions you find have useful or hilarious effects (or both).

Rogue-lite mode generates a smaller world featuring steeper difficulty curve and permadeath. Some of the potions you find have malicious effects - you have to learn which ones to avoid in each run!

Key Features:

• An action-packed hybrid of Roguelike and arcade Beat ‘Em Up.
• Unique Possession mechanic.
• 10+ Viking Clans to discover and unlock. Each Clan has a special bonus and access to different Viking Classes.
• 7 Viking Classes, each with its unique playstyles and combos.
• Over 80 skills to choose from when leveling up your Valkyrie.
• Cute but bloodthirsty creatures will become your companions. Each has a different ability to aid you on your journey.
• Deathmatch and Survival Challenges: Test your skills and compete with friends.

And more!

Unworthy has been released on Steam.

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About This Game

At Death's Door

Robbed of life and unworthy of death, a nameless warrior wanders a ruined landscape in search of meaning...

A Hardcore Metroidvania...

UNWORTHY is a hardcore combat-focused metroidvania without jumping. You play a warrior, risen from the grave. Equipped with sword and shield, you must traverse a bleak and hostile world swarming with creatures of nightmare. Your patience, determination and skill will be put to the test, as you fight against epic bosses, uncover powerful weapons and abilities, and attempt to prove your worth.

Gamewatcher reports on A Long Way Down which is a strategy RPG game.

Seenapsis Studio has announced that it's working on a new Strategy RPG called A Long Way Down, which is about taking a group of characters through a dark maze filled with monsters and an evil mastermind.

Players will need to survive the maze by using special cards that allow you to fight and build your way out, when A Long Way Down releases sometime this year for the PC and Nintendo Switch.

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Age of Gladiators II: Rome is an isometric RPG Strategy game releasing August 15th.

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ABOUT THIS GAME

Age of Gladiators II: Rome is a single-player strategy game set in the twilight of the ancient Roman Republic; a violent and unpredictable time when gladiatorial games were nearing the height of their popularity.

Hire scouts to scour the continent for potential prospects - once you have recruited your gladiators, you will need to manage their morale and personality while equipping them for battle. Recruit support staff, upgrade your gladiator school, collect bounties, research technologies, partake in side missions, and manage the wealth and reputation of your ludus as it grows each day.

As your fighters win battles and increase in level, it will be up to you to decide how to focus their abilities by spending attribute, weapons, and expertise points. Compete, trade, and interact with other in-game owners as you advance through various cities of the empire before achieving enough fame to compete in the grand coliseum of Rome herself.

Build your story. Build your empire.

Features:

• Control your gladiators with the new 3D isometric combat system, where fights can have hundreds of different outcomes. Utilize different combat styles and abilities - employ unique ethnic abilities, salves that increase physical stats, and special equipment such as bandages, stim salts, and more.

• Construct a ludus to your exact specifications in order to maximize the efficiency of your operation. Hospitals, sparring mats, barracks, armories, workshops, and more.

• Gladiators are born with their own dynamically generated physical attributes, classes, and personalities. It is up to you to shape your gladiator into the most proficient killing machine possible.

• As your gladiators level up, they gain points to spend on their attributes, weapons training, and expertise. Expertise allows you to build and customize your fighter according to their appropriate strengths. Weapons training allows you to specialize your gladiator with a specific weapon. The physicality of your gladiators will increase or decrease with age, depending on if they are in their prime or declining.

• Hire trainers to help your gladiators level faster, doctors to keep them healthy, scouts to find new fighters, and blacksmiths to improve weapons and armor.

• Manage your gladiators carefully - their morale, greed, injuries, fatigue, weapons training, and more must be taken into account before sending them to battle.

• As your gladiators gain glory from battle, they will become more widely recognized and adored by the crowds. Win enough battles and they may even get voted into the pantheon of heroes after they retire (or die).

• Become a mogul outside of the arena. Purchase property for fame or businesses through which to further increase your fame across the empire.

• Rob caravans, guard wealthy land owners, assassinate your debt holders and more with the proactive mission system. Increase the odds of success by sending reliable gladiators on the mission as well. Lawfully aligned gladiators will only partake lawful missions, while criminally-inclined gladiators will assist in unlawful activities.

• Engage in five different branches of research: combat, medical, weapons, armor, and scouting.

• Search for deals on weapons, armor, special equipment, and loans on the marketplace.

• Strive to become the wealthiest individual in the Roman empire. There are quick and underhanded ways to make money, but your reputation and fighter's morale may suffer as a result.

• Receive taunting messages from opposing bosses as well as various other messages from your fighters, staff members, and different characters as you progress through the game.

• Rename your gladiators in order to increase your attachment toward them.

• Bet for or against your gladiator based on the odds generated by bookmakers in-game.

• Fight purses and betting is based on the hype associated with each match. The greater the hype, the more lucrative the fight purse and betting market will be.

• Each game is dynamically generated and different each time.

@DSOGaming Action-RPG shooter Immortal: Unchained is releasing September 7th.

Sold Out and Toadman Interactive confirmed today that hardcore action-RPG shooter Immortal: Unchained will launch worldwide on September 7th. Immortal Unchained can be easily described as “Dark Souls with guns” and had a closed alpha phase in March 2018.

Sarah Hoeksma, Marketing Director at Sold Out, said:

“With its focus on brutal ranged combat, we hope that IMMORTAL: UNCHAINED will stand out among this emerging, unforgiving genre and prove a challenge to even the most hardened players.”

[...]

After failing its crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, Dolmen is now trying the crowdfunding platform Crytivo.

The team at Massive Work Studio has pulled a few strings and is proud to officially announce that DOLMEN is still happening despite missing its initial Kickstarter goal. DOLMEN will continue crowdfunding on Crytivo! The crowdfunding platform, like Kickstarter, offers players the option to back games that interest them most, but with a nice twist; Crytivo does not endorse games that feature exploitative loot boxes, microtransactions or pesky day-one DLC.

Take a look at what some of the press had to say about DOLMEN after getting a taste of the cosmic horror ARPG:

"For an Indie Sci-Fi Shooter,  DOLMEN has a Lot to Offer" - Bleeding Cool

"...at first glance, the game resembles a curious hybrid [of] Dark Souls and Dead Space, so if you liked these two IPs you will surely be intrigued by DOLMEN." - Eurogamer

"Combining Lovecraftian horror with a science fiction theme, DOLMEN is a nightmarish horror set on an alien planet." - Flickering Myth

"DOLMEN plays on the third-person action genre, but draw the game's inspiration from HP Lovecraft mythos..." - PlayStation Lifestyle

"Developers Massive Work Studio have a plan to fill in the [Dark Souls] gap ... with a new sci-fi horror take called DOLMEN." - PCGamesN

For readers just now tuning in and curious about what DOLMEN is, just try to imagine a SoulsBorne-esque title that features hardcore survival elements. Cool, right? Well, Massive Work Studio tops it all off with some major Lovecraftian and H.R. Giger horror vibes. Be prepared to encounter and battle some of the most ghastly creatures deep space has to offer.

DOLMEN presents players with a one-of-a-kind experience that boasts an enthralling storyline, chilling yet beautiful alien world, and behemoths that are sure to knock your socks off more than once. 

PCGamesN reports on an RPG called Tetra: Elemental Awakening which is currently in development.

When was the last time you thought about the periodic table? While game developers at large have been sleeping on the potential of the catalogue of elements, Ocean Spark Studios have been going hard on zinc and magnesium. They’re forging an entire world in Unreal Engine 4 based on not just fire, air, earth, and water, but a chart’s worth of real-world materials and their reactions. The result is an RPG called Tetra: Elemental Awakening.

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Sirus Gaming says that people should stop comparing hard games to Dark Souls.

People should start realizing that Dark Souls is its own thing, while other games are their own thing. Dark Souls was meant to be that way so that it could cater to those players who crave that kind of extreme gameplay. Other games, like God of War, while presenting a somewhat similar experience, has allowances provided because it was not meant to give an extreme experience, and you have the option to make it harder or easier for you depending on your preference. But that doesn’t mean it is a Dark Souls game.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Little Witch Academia has been released on Steam. The game is about uncovering the mysteries at Luna Nova Academy.

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ABOUT THIS GAME

Uncover the mysteries at Luna Nova Academy and experience the magical world of Studio Trigger style Japanese animation.
Join Akko and her friends to work as a team - exploring dungeons, casting magical spells and using witchcraft to ultimately discover the seven wonders and solve the mysterious shift in time.
Believe in the magic and utilize power and friendship in this side-scrolling action RPG beat ‘em up.

• Studio Trigger Style Animation - Get a glimpse into the world of Little Witch Academia from the world renown Studio Trigge, with Exclusive cutscenes made directly be the Anime Studio!

• Simple and Fun Gameplay - RPG elements and side-scrolling action allows fans to level-up their characters and find drops that enhance builds while exploring.

• Live the Anime - Follow the familiar storyline, a Heart-warming, funny and cute story for the entire family.

Wizard of Legend has been released on Steam. The game is described as a no-nonsense, action-packed take on wizardry that emphasizes precise movements and smart comboing of spells in a rogue-like dungeon crawler featuring over a hundred unique spells and relics.

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ABOUT THIS GAME

Wizard of Legend is a fast paced dungeon crawler with rogue-like elements that emphasizes dynamic magical combat. Quick movement and even quicker use of spells will allow you to chain spells together to unleash devastating combinations against your enemies!

Gameplay
Battle your way through each challenge by defeating powerful conjured enemies! Collect valuable spells and relics and build up your magical arsenal to fit your playstyle! Achieve mastery over magic by chaining spells together to create devastating combinations! Face and defeat council members in magical combat to become a Wizard of Legend!

Tons of Unlockables
Unlock over a hundred unique spells and discover powerful spell combinations and synergies! A wide variety of elemental spells allows you to create a hand best suited to your playstyle. Dive head first into the fray or stand back and let your minions do the work for you, the choice is yours!

Story
Every year in the Kingdom of Lanova, the Council of Magic holds the Chaos Trials, a gauntlet of magical challenges put forth by its strongest members. Contestants that successfully complete all of the challenges and demonstrate superior wizardry earn the right to become a Wizard of Legend!

Local Co-op
Grab a friend and tackle the Chaos Trials together in Wizard of Legend's couch co-op mode! Jump head first into the action in an all out offensive or strategically equip your wizards with spells and items that compliment each other's playstyle. The battle is not over when your friend is downed in battle. Defeat multiple enemies in a display of skill to grant your partner a chance to rejoin the battle!

Features

• Fast paced spell slinging combat
• Use powerful spell combinations to destroy your enemies
• Procedurally generated levels mean a new challenge every time
• Over 100 unique spells and items to fit your playstyle
• Local multiplayer allows you to play with or against a friend
• Full gamepad and controller support

arhn.eu looks at the history of Dink Smallwood.

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A short documentary on the rich history of an obscure RPG. Dink Smallwood is 20 years old, and yet its devoted community still creates new stories for the game and shares them via a specially crafted ecosystem. In recent years, a whole generation of gamers, who grew up living out the pig farmer's adventures have rediscovered the title and with that, have rekindled the long forgotten dream of fame and glory.

Download the game for free at: https://www.rtsoft.com/

Dink's Community: http://www.dinknetwork.com/

"Crazy Old Tim Plays All The D-Mods": http://www.dinknetwork.com/news/book/

@Worthplaying Grimmwood is described as a challenging social multiplayer RPG experience that blends elements of survival, roguelike and exploration.

You’re in a village in an ageless, mystical forest, together with up to 30 other strangers all of which are real, live players. Together you need to defend your village against the merciless monster hordes who unleash their wrath against your shelter every night.

Use the daytime and your stamina points to explore the procedurally generated forest, repair, find weapons, useful items, collect food and gather resources to upgrade and forficate the village. But to be able to do all that you have to eat, drink and rest, because every action in the game takes its toll on your stamina and sanity. Share tasks and decisions with the other players and work together, because night by night the monsters attacks will become more fierce… And the village must survive at all costs!

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Thanks Farflame!

Dragon Cliff has released on Steam. The game is described as an RPG/Town Management game. Players are to recruit adventurers, kill monsters, hunt treasures, craft armories, accommodate residents and finally reveal the great mystic behind the Dragon Emperor.

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ABOUT THIS GAME

Dragon Cliff is an RPG/Town Management game. Players are to recruit adventurers, kill monsters, hunt treasures, craft armories, accommodate residents and finally reveal the great mystic behind the Dragon Emperor.
Features

• Up to 25 adventurer classes to choose from. Every class has its own unique battle ability and talent profile. Whether it's a Young Warlock, Element Wizard, Drunk Reader, Fire Charger or a Soul Thief, they are all ready to server your town with their cool tactics and strategic abilities.
• Time Based Command battle system: During battles, adventurers automatically perform actions when their Turn Progresses are fully charged, and players can unleash powerful tactics at any time by spending ‘Rage Points'. This frees players from micromanaging repetitive turn-based commands and allows fast paced and intense battle fights!
• There are almost 100 different active and passive skills to be explored with. Every skill has its distinguishable strategic pros and cons, and begging for players' experimentation.
• Hundreds of equipment and scrolls to be discovered and crafted. A flexible Effect System allows endless customization of your adventurers!
• Enchant, Reforge and Effect Transfer systems allow high customization of adventurers' equipment.
• A deep gem system and a variety of set bonuses to further expand your strategy.
• More than 200 types of monsters among 7 different maps waits for your exploration.
• Attract residents and conduct explorations to further expand your town!

ValeGuard has released on Steam Early Access. The game is a mix of tower-defense, turn-based strategy and RPG.

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About This Game

The quiet hamlets of the Vale stand defenseless... No walls, no moats, not even a presentable fence. You'll have to use your resources wisely to transform each village from farm-town to fortress. Build defenses, train troops, and hold the line with powerful heroes in ValeGuard, a Defensive Strategy game.

Gameplay: Valeguard is part "turn-based-strategy" and part "tower-defense". Each day you construct your defenses, train troops, and prepare for attack. When enemies come in the night, you defend with RTS-style combat using troops and heroes with powerful abilities. Save as many towns as you can, while you travel through the Vale. Choose wisely, because each town unlocks unique assets and a hero to aid in future battles. Defeat is not the end in Valeguard. Each play you can unlock more heroes and discover new strategies to achieve victory.

Features

 

• - Build in the day and defend at night
• - Gather resources, craft weapons, and train troops
• - Trade with merchants and buy items on the black market
• - Build your party of heroes with each successful defense
• - Random events and levels make each play unique
• - Hop from town to town as you travel across the map of the Vale
• - Build walls, towers, and traps to defend your village
• - Acquire new technologies depending on what towns you visit
• - Unlock new heroes through special events and quests
• - Confront the dark generals in a final epic battle

Thanks Darkheart!

@beinformedgaming Smoke and Sacrifice is being released on PC and Switch May 31st.

Smoke and Sacrifice is coming to PC and Switch this month with a discount!

Smoke and Sacrifice is a hand-illustrated RPG made by Solar Sail Games. Set in a dark world filled with evil creatures that inhabit the land, players play as Sachi, a mother trying to discover the truth about what happened to her child. Sachi must “tame the game’s wilds” to find out what truly happened to her son.

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Battle for Wesnoth has been released on Steam. The game is a fantasy turn-based strategy which is free.

About This Game

The Battle for Wesnoth is an open source, turn-based strategy game with a high fantasy theme. From the plains of Weldyn to the forests of Wesmere, from the mines of Knalga to the soaring peaks of the Heart Mountains, take part in over a dozen adventures spanning centuries! Play as a young prince as he flees the encroaching forces of the Lich Lords to a new home across the sea... Delve into the blackest depths of the earth to craft a jewel of fire itself... Travel the continent in a daring quest to reclaim your rightful throne from a usurping queen... Step into the shoes of a young mage, his village beset by orcish invasion, as he seeks vengeance and immortality... Battle the undead hordes of a foul necromancer as he marches upon your capital... Lead a daring group of survivors across the blazing sands to a final confrontation with an unseen evil... The choice is up to you.

Then take the battle online! Choose from seven fully-balanced factions and duke it out with your friends in over 50 multiplayer maps for parties of all sizes!

Explore hundreds of creative community-made campaigns, maps, and factions for both single and multiplayer, and try your hand at crafting your own! Wesnoth features a built-in map editor, a highly moddable engine, a simple and intuitive scripting language, and a friendly and dedicated modding community. There's no telling what adventures you'll bring to life!

Final Equinox: The Arrival is a turn-based space RPG which has been in active development since the middle of last year.

Dev Blog 1# An Introduction

Dev Blog 2# Crew Morale and Choices

Dev Blog 3# Sam Baker

Dev Blog 4# End of Year Wrapup and Arpawn

Description

Final Equinox: The Arrival is a turn based space combat sci-fi role playing game set in a unique and interesting Universe. The player is a newly appointed star ship admiral whose fleet encounters a new enemy in deep space. The game takes place in a complex world filled with multiple different races, in the midst of political upheaval. Rules and feel of the game hark back to the days of old school role-playing games,where combat is difficult and the game forces players into morally compromising situations.

Company Information

Frozen Wasteland Entertainment was founded by two friends during the cold the Wisconsin winter. Jonathan and Kevin had decided that they would undertake the great challenge of creating a role playing game.

Setting

Explore a new and unique setting. An empire transitions, while another race attempts to hold on to remnants of its past. The world of Final Equinox is unlike anything else. Religion, politics, and cultures clash, in a world where conflict is prevalent and the scars of a violent history are still visible.

Final Equinox: The Arrival takes place in the Outerworlds, a newly colonized area run by cruel warlords or governors who have been appointed due to political favors. The past remnants of the Krum Rebellion still exist in the outer worlds, and have either gone into hiding or are planning their next strike.

System

Final Equinox: The Arrival has a unique combat system, which will affect the dialogue choices of the player, as well as the stats of the ships. Throughout the game, the player will be able to rearrange his crew members in different positions on the ship, which will affect the ship’s movement, firepower, as well as other special abilities. Our system is fundamental to the overall feel of the game. Crew members became very important as they gain experience and increase their skills as time goes on. If a ship is lost in combat, the player is not able to get the crew on that ship back.

Player Choice and Agency

Player choice and reactivity is one of the core pillars of Final Equinox: The Arrival. We enjoy putting the player in difficult positions and seeing how they react. The choices the player makes will affect the way others perceive them. Throughout the game, the choices the players make will be questioned by their crew. Certain choices could also affect the morale of the ship, which will then affect how the fleet performs in battle. As a leader in the Galactic Fleet, the choices of the player will have far and lasting consequences.

The RPG Codex has interviewed Chris Avellone about all things RPG.

Since you can't comment on PoE's case in particular: is having similar lengths and amount of voiced lines a priority for you in companion design? In Torment and KOTOR2 some companions didn't have nearly as many lines as others, but neither game suffered for it, if you look at how they were received.

I can confirm some of the elements - there’s still people I can ask, so if I can’t remember, it’s easy to find someone who can jog my memory (I can’t check the details on my own). I also managed to get some clarification on some of the points, which was welcome, so…

Of those three reasons, the first was the only one I ever recall communicated to me (I had to get confirmation on it and these other points, since it’s been a long time). The other two reasons weren’t, and I actually got multiple other reasons from multiple people – and some of those people admitted they were just the messenger. This confused things, since they couldn’t articulate what the critiques were since they either didn’t understand them or hadn’t read the material (both our CEO and Parker among them – ironically, after a long speech ending with his admission he hadn’t even read what he was arguing against, Parker did go back and read the companions and found nothing to object to, which cost even more time – to his credit, he did admit his error, but things like that happened a lot).

There were other people who apparently didn’t like Durance’s swearing (easy fix), and the original tie in the GM and Durance backstories were they had violated each other physically and mentally and that’s what broke both of them, which I then cut – although I don’t know if the GM one got removed completely – the intention was the Watcher could fix it mentally by repairing their souls by walking through their minds in stages. I think some of this is still mentioned in the strat guide.

[...]

A new release is a rare thing for NetHack which is now at version 3.6.1.

The NetHack DevTeam is happy to announce the release of NetHack 3.6.1.

3.6.1 is a general patch release. It includes a large number of fixes to the 3.6.0 version, all of which have been incrementally published on the public Git repository for the game.

The DevTeam has decided that 3.6.1 will be the final "official" 3.6.x version, barring some sort of major issue that requires a new release.

After this release, 3.6 will continue to be maintained in our Git repositories, however the team will focus on a new major release. Another 3.6.x release and packaged set of binaries, is not anticipated.

Here's a synopsis of some of the changes we've made in the past two years (approximately) since the release of 3.6.0 in December 2015:

1. Personnel changes

We've added some additional members to the team since the 3.6.0 release:

Alex Smith and Patric Mueller joined the team in July 2016.

Alex created the AceHack and NetHack 4 variants and is an expert on the inner workings of the game and the ways in which they can be exploited.

Patric is probably best known as the creator of the UnNetHack variant. He also created NetHack-De (a German translation of NetHack) and has considerable involvement in the Junethack tournament.

2. Gameplay changes

There are fewer gameplay changes in 3.6.1 than in 3.6.0, but still over 500 items. Here are a few, though not necessarily the most important, examples:

General New Features

• Naming Sting or Orcrist now breaks illiterate conduct
• Poison breath leaves a trail of poison gas
• Allow knife and stiletto as possible tin opening tools
• New status line conditions Stone Strngl Deaf Lev Fly Ride
• Swallowers can't re-engulf hero immediately after spitting him/her out
• Allow taming monkeys and apes with bananas
• Ray bounceback chance depends on the wall type
• Undead #turning takes less time at higher experience level
• Peacefuls may react when you attack other peacefuls
• Prevent diagonal jumping through open doorways
• Give feedback just before timed levitation runs out
• Blinded hero or monster who eats a nurse corpse will have blindness cured
• Wielding *bane have additional effects
• "Elbereth" must now be the only engraved text on a square to function
• "Elbereth" now erodes based on attacks by the player, not monsters scared

NetHack Community Patches (or Variations) Included

• Malcolm Ryan's improved tin opener
• Ray Chason's keyboard may stop responding after locking or unlocking a door when using altkeyhandler=nhraykey.dll
• Ray Chason's fix: window interfaces that support transparency may give away unseen parts of the map
• Ray Chason's xprname should honor iflags.menu_tab_sep
• Ray Chason's punctuation for "That foo is really a mimic."
• Ray Chason's proper background tiles for lava and water
• Ray Chason's MS-DOS port restored to functionality with credit to Reddit user b_helyer for the fix to sys/share/pcmain.c
• Ray Chason's MSDOS port support for some VESA modes
• Ray Chason's Qt4 windowport
• Darshan Shaligram's pet ranged attack
• Jason Dorje Short's key rebinding
• Maxime Bacoux's new DUMPLOG: compile-time option to enable logging of end-of-game information into a text file

For a complete, very granular, but not necessarily clear list of the changes incorporated in this release, please take a look at the file doc/fixes36.1 in the source distribution. This file has a full list of all changes to the game.

The text in this file is populated automatically for the development team's own use and is provided "as is", so please do not ask us to further explain the entries in that file. Some entries may also be "spoilers", particularly in the "new features" sections, so read at your own risk.

3. Deprecations announced post NetHack 3.6.1

3.6.1 is essentially a maintenance release and as such doesn't change much in terms of what is or is not supported. However there will be some significant changes to support in the next major release.

The following ports will be dropped from the next major release unless someone comes forward to maintain them:

• Amiga
• Atari
• Macintosh Classic
• BeOS
• OS/2
• 16-bit MS-DOS
• Floppy disk support for all platforms

Starting with the next major release, we will be dropping support for most K&R and pre-ANSI C features, including:

• The Bitfield macro
• K&R function definitions

Starting with the next major release, we will start using ANSI C features; which ones have yet to be determined.

If you are actively running NetHack on a system that cannot handle full ANSI C, please let us know some details and we _might_ be able to accommodate you.

Save File Portability

Save files should be portable between version 3.6.0 and 3.6.1.

We did, however, identify a bug early in the 3.6.0 release that may affect some score files. For full instructions on how to deal with this bug, please go to: fixrecord.html Yes, this is in the 3.6.0 tree as it is a 3.6.0 bug.

As with all releases of the game, we appreciate your feedback. Please submit any bugs using the problem report form.

Also, please check the known bugs list before you log a problem - somebody else may have already found it, after all.

Happy NetHacking!

For the DevTeam...

Mike Stephenson

Fort Triumph has launched onto Steam early access. The game is described as a party based tactical RPG that emphasizes the use of environmental interactions.

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About This Game

Fort Triumph is a tactical RPG emphasizing the use of Environmental Interactions to create rich, challenging and rewarding tactical gameplay. In the game, you command a party of chosen heroes who set out to change the world, one quest at a time. On your path you will explore the world, discover ancient secrets, and face down any enemy who stand in your path to glory through turn based tactical combat.

In Fort Triumph, every crate and every tree is a potential weapon in the hands of experienced tacticians: in order to succeed, you will have to burn, freeze, topple, kick around or outright destroy the scenery at the right moment.

Our game includes:

• Hardcore tactical turn-based gameplay - You lead a chosen party of heroes, each with a different set of abilities and a unique playstyle. Your party of heroes will face challenges and win missions by completing diverse objectives in tiled procedural maps. Many will fall, but others will rise to take their place!
• Fully Interactive environments at your disposal - push, topple, grapple, burn, freeze and crash your way through interactive levels that play into your tactics.
• Heroes evolving by learning new abilities from their class skill tree - As they gain experience, your heroes learn new skills and abilities, making them more versatile in combat. Since each hero is unique, the right combination of heroes in a party is crucial to victory and you will need to balance your heroes' strengths and weaknesses to bring out their full potential.
• Contextually generated encounters and quests - Fort Triumph features flexible campaigns with changing locations, events and quests influenced by the player’s choices. Tactical Missions are procedurally generated to ensure each battle is unique and calls for a new plan.
• Strategic gameplay and world map exploration - Fort Triumph is set in an original fantasy world, one being warped and changed by magical forces threatening to consume it. Between one battle and the next, you will explore and discover the world to learn its secrets.

Original music in the game created by Marco Valerio Antonini.