MEGASPHERE - New trailer for this promising "Roguevania" with destructible environments!

Very ambitious one-Russian-man project "Megasphere" gets a new satisfying looking trailer, showcasing the gorgeous lighting engine, intense gunfights, and "NewRetroWav-ish" music!

MegaSphere is available right now for Early Access on Steam, Itch.io and Humble Store! 
Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/386340/MegaSphere/ 
Itch.io: antonkudin.itch.io/megasphere 
HB: www.humblebundle.com/store/megasphere

Hazelnut Bastille: first trailer and a playable demo of this action-RPG inspired by Zelda: A Link to the Past!

The new Zelda on PC and Switch! 

Scheduled for 2019, Aloft Studio unveils a first official video of its game "Hazelnut Bastille" and offers you to try a playable demo!

A worthy heir to Super Famicom games like "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past"(from which it borrows the overworld, dungeons and progression system) and "Seiken Densetsu", Hazelnut Bastille, a top-down view 2D action-RPG game, looks like it came to visit us right from the early-to-mid 90s.

While waiting for a more accurate release date, the developers offer a playable demo in exchange for an inscription to their newsletter.

The first official trailer does not try to hide its obvious resemblance to Zelda 3! 

Review - TIMESPINNER - Successor of Symphony of the Night?

A bit disappointing, but still an enjoyable Metroidvania.

Well, Although it didn't take as long as Iconoclasts(10 years) it still took the developer Lunar Ray Games 4 years to complete "Timespinner", which is out now on Steam!

A bit like the recent - underappreciated - Chasm, it's clearly inspired by old-school PS1 castlevania games(Symphony of the night), and how about the ones on Nintendo DS too? (Especially Order of Ecclesia, for the glyph system!)

So, will it become a classic like its grandpa, or will it fall in the bottomless pits of bad Castlevania clones? let's find out!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• 1 Introduction
• 2 Gameplay
• 3 Graphics
• 4 Music and SFX
• 5 Conclusion

Review - DRAGON QUEST XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age - The best JRPG ever made is here.

 Eternal rival of Final Fantasy, which tries to renew itself every year, Dragon Quest has always made the safe and intelligent choice to remain true to itself over three decades, culminating in this new release called "Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age", improving on the perfectly refined old-school open-world turn-based RPG gameplay, which we already enjoyed immensely in Dragon Quest VIII.

 Get ready to play Square Enix's latest masterpiece, Dragon Quest XI, like a fine aging wine in a bottle made of gold with a diamond cork.

PROJECT LAMBDA: Half-Life is remade in Unreal Engine 4, and you can play the first chapter FOR FREE!

 In 2012, Half-Life, cult FPS developed by Valve, was being remade with the source engine under the name of "Black Mesa", and it's still being developed as I write! The game is already playable and completable(is that a word?), but the final Xen levels are still missing.(In the case you haven't noticed, we actually use a screenshot of Black Mesa in our banner, since we consider it's the best FPS game ever made.😉)
 
Well, anyway, this didn't stop some hardcore fans to undertake the colossal task of completely redoing the game, AGAIN, this time with the impressive Unreal Engine 4.
Welcome to PROJECT LAMBDA.

For now, only the first chapter(Black Mesa Inbound) is available!

Review - STEEL EMPIRE - Remastered 1992 steampunk shooter!

 Steel Empire(in Japan: Kotetsu Teikoku (鋼鉄帝国)), originally developed by Hot-B, is a shoot'em up which first came out in 1992 on Sega Megadrive, then ported to GBA in 2004, and finally remastered for the 3DS in 2014, by Starfish and Mebius. And today, we're reviewing the recently released PC version, which is based on the 3DS one, with almost no changes. And yet, this is the best version of Steel Empire ever released.

Review - WIZARDS AND WARRIORS - One of the rarest RPGs ever made finally on GOG!

A true cult classic, Wizardry-like first-person RPG, Wizards & Warriors(Formerly called Swords & Sorcery), makes a triumphal return on GOG! 

"Wanna be an elephantoid Omphaaz, a feline Whiskah (night vision baby) or a boring human? Form a six-person team, then roam the land of Gael Cerran searching for an evil that's been going unchecked for too long and maybe lost treasure as well. Set those dungeons ablaze with magic and a mix of real-time and turn-based combat. Like old times."

It's very difficult(almost impossible) to find a proper trailer for this game, but I found this nice video(thanks, Demiath!) showing you the first minutes of the game.
(And I agree with one of the comments saying that the trolls sound like they say the "n word" all the time. 😂)

MOD: Commandos 2 - Destination Paris v1.46

 "Destination Paris" is a must-have mod for all Commandos 2 fans! It changes almost everything in the game, adding lots of new stuff to the original missions, increased difficulty(actually too much!), and TONS of new missions!

You can get the mod on MODDB (2GB!) => https://www.moddb.com/mods/commandos-2-destination-paris/news/commandos-2-destination-paris-146-released

Note!

You must own the original game to play this mod! You can get it on GOG here.

Review - GRAVEYARD KEEPER - Bring out your dead!

You have enough of the cheery atmosphere of Stardew Valley? You'd like to imagine that for once, you would play a bad guy doing terrible stuff instead of being your little goody two-shoes? 

 Then, look no further and give a try to Graveyard Keeper, in which you'll carve into warm corpses and feed their rosy ass-cheeks to innocent villagers, before digging graves and throwing extra corpses in the nearby river.

A nice program, isn't it? Say thanks to Lazy Bear Games, a great young developer which already gave us Punch Club a few years ago! (nice but grindy "fighting/management" game!)

THE MESSENGER - Ninja Gaiden Demastered

The Messenger has started showing itself in the past few months. We already saw some very promising gameplay videos during the E3 2018, but the developers unveiled a bit more recently and it's starting to look like what could be one of the best indie games of this autumn.  

Developed by Sabotage Studio and edited by Devolver Digital, this pixel art ninja platformer lets you dive into a nostalgic past reminiscent of the great old days of the Nes, AND the Super Nes, since the game lets you "switch" in-game smoothly between 8-bit and 16-bit style!

The Messenger should be available on 30th August 2018 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

JAGGED ALLIANCE: RAGE - Expect the worst, hope for even worse

  This seems like good news for all fans of Jagged Alliance and Commandos-like games: A new game of the famous series is underway at the developer "Cliffhanger Productions", thanks to THQ Nordic and its HandyGames label. Right? 😊 WRONG.🤬

Review - DEAD CELLS - A Dark Souls "Roguevania" equivalent?

  Already perfectly playable and immensely satisfying since more than a year, Dead Cells is now officially released and, no surprises, it's as incredible as we knew it would be.

Get ready to jump, doublejump, run, climb, dodge, roll, slash, dash, duck, evade, air-roll, and parry in what might be the best mix of roguelite and metroidvania game you've ever seen.

The Commission: Organized Crime Grand Strategy - The Don has landed!

  "The Commission - Organized Crime Grand Strategy" (let's just say "The Commission" from now on), is a strategy game coming from the little indie studio 302 Interactive, which gives you the opportunity to control a mafia family in the 1930s city "New Shore". 

  Sharpen your bullets and iron your fedoras, it's time to explain our little friends the physics of cement and water!

Review - CHASM - A convincing pseudo-RPG Metroidvania with randomized maps!

There's an old Irish saying: "There's many a good tune played on an old fiddle", and it fits well Chasm, an old-school Metroidvania which has been in development during around 6 years, since 2012. 

  "Bit Kid, Inc.", the developer, doesn't promise us innovative gameplay mechanics, but a very well-made addictive platformer/adventure with a nice twist: randomized maps!

RETURN OF THE TENTACLE - Play the unofficial sequel of Day of the Tentacle for FREE!

  Since the timeless Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle, many point-and-click fans have waited for a third game, with the same tongue-in-cheek and witty humor. Unfortunately, LucasArts had surprisingly abandoned this franchise and we had to wait during two decades to get only a mildly satisfying HD remaster, released in 2016. 

God bless independent German developers, as the studio "Catmic" brings us its own unofficial adventure, very well done in the Unity engine! 

NO MAN'S SKY - Will the "NEXT" update finally make it worth playing?

UNLIMITED SPACE EXPLORATION, NOW WITH FRIENDS!

 Released in August 2016, No Man's Sky was a HUGE disappointment, becoming the game with the largest number of negative reviews on Steam. Despite all of the harsh critics, the studio Hello Games didn't let go of the project, and worked very hard to improve it since then, and will soon release one of the biggest updates yet, which COULD potentially make this game hold its initial promise.

Review - OVERLORD II - It's good to be bad, and back on GOG!

  It took almost 10 years to be on GOG, but let's look at the bright side: this game improved on its predecessor in every way possible, and has aged nicely!

- Gameplay is more fun
- AI is more responsive and aggressive, making the game more challenging in general
- It's fun to battle against the "Roman-like" empire! 

Now, let's have fun pillaging innocent villages!😋

Silent Hills P.T: A new PC remake in development! Yay!.... ALREADY CANCELLED.

  Still considered by many as the scariest "game" ever made, Silent Hills P.T. might finally get a proper port on PC! Originally a demo "episode" that managed to bring together Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro on a major video project, it was downloaded more than a million times in a few days! 

Unfortunately, the game was very quickly removed from the Playstation store after a strange decision by Konami. And strangely, this "curse" seems to concern EVERY unofficial remake which has been made in the past few years.😁

Review - CRASH BANDICOOT N.SANE TRILOGY - Triple Woah!

If you were born in the 80s/90s, this is a dream come true. Are we exaggerating? 

Not that much, considering how much this crazy marsupial entertained us in the mid-90s on the legendary PS1, in three timeless 3D platformers called "Crash Bandicoot", "Crash Bandicoot 2 - Cortex Strikes Back", and "Crash Bandicoot 3 - Warped", here all bundled in an all-in-one collection, with fully upgraded graphics, and remixed OSTs!

Review - GARAGE: BAD TRIP - Rat-burping cannibal corpses!

Directed like a 80s zombie movie shot through a surveillance camera, and all tinted with vibrant and glitchy colors seen on your old beloved VCR, Garage: Bad Trip lets you explore the dark corners of an underground parking, in which you'll find yourself constantly attacked with zombies and other various mutated monstrosities. 
What the hell happened in here?

Grab your fire axe, I get my shotgun, and let's go bring freedom to these zombies!

Review - DOOM - THE GOLDEN SOULS 2 - The toughest FPS-platformer mod ever created?

  The Golden Souls 2 is the sequel of the groundbreaking mod which transported the player into a Super Mario-themed world, which we loved immensely and reviewed a few months ago.

  Basically, this is like the Golden Souls 1, but unfortunately, we can't say "except everything better". The developer went for the "harder, better, faster, stronger" approach - in an EXTREME way - , and we're going to explain to you why this is might be a problem for some gamers...

Review - RAIDEN V - Director's Cut - Great, but not as good as Raiden IV!

  Raiden V is the latest iteration in this 28 years old classic shoot'em up series. After a successful release on Xbox, a "Director's Cut" version has been released on PC and PS4, containing some VERY welcome additions like local co-op mode(we like to say "couch mode"! lol), and a few extra levels, making it one of the longest shoot'em up ever made. (around 1 hour to beat it!)

Review - FAR CRY 5: HOURS OF DARKNESS should be renamed "Hour of darkness"

Gooooooood morning Vietnaaaaaaaaaaaaam! 

Of all the places, the first DLC for Far Cry 5 is sending us from Montana to VIETNAM. Seriously. Oh well, after all, Far Cry 3 was sending us from a tropical paradise to a neon-lit apocalyptic and "unapologetic" 80s world with laser-firing robots, so... Why the hell not?
You can pretend you're Rambo, coming from British Colombia in Rambo I to Vietnam in Rambo II.😁

Review - OVERLOAD - A Decent successor of Descent!

Remember the first Descent game, released in 1995? At the time, this mix of flight simulator and FPS was revolutionary. Strangely, despite its massive success, it spawned only 2 sequels, and then NOTHING since the 90s.

We kept dreaming about a modern "remix" of Descent, and here it is.

OVERLOAD is the game Descent fans have been waiting for since the last Descent 3 in 1999, and even though it doesn't have the Descent name, it does have its developers, and not only it feels great, it actually feels even better than any of the Descent games.

Review - CAVEBLAZERS - Spelunky with better combat?

  Caveblazers look like your average platformer-roguelite, which doesn't really seem different from every other roguelite released in the last 10 20 years. 
Ripping shamelessly its entire content from its more successful peers, it tries to be different by adding some mildly advanced fighting mechanics.

Unfortunately, you're going to find out very early that it's extremely badly executed.

Review - JURASSIC WORLD EVOLUTION - Pretty dinos are shallow

  
  Announced last August at Gamescom 2017, Jurassic Park franchise is back in the rather forgotten "park management" genre, with "JURASSIC WORLD EVOLUTION". 

Accompanying the release of the movie "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom", Frontier Development puts you at the head of the famous park and lets you rewrite its history.

  Until now, Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis was the best "management" Jurassic Park game ever made, although quite overlooked at the time of its release. (Get it on Amazon!)

Let's find out if Jurassic World Evolution proves to be its true spiritual successor, giving us the Operation Genesis 2 that we always wanted.

E3 2018 - Top upcoming PC games 2018-2019 (+TRAILERS!)

Each year, E3 delivers more and more confusing and cryptic videos with no explanations whatsoever, childish trailers with loud music to amuse kids, cringy one-man shows, and once more, we weren't disappointed.

Here's a selection of what MIGHT be the TOP 10 most interesting games coming to PC!

Review - VAMPYR - So, is it better than "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines"?

Time to sharpen your teeth and drink your Bloody Mary, we're reviewing Vampyr, one of the most awaited releases of 2018!

Coming from the froglings behind the ultra-cringy teen-angst-ridden narrative adventure Life Is Strange, Vampyr has been compared since the beginning to the timeless open-world RPG Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. 

Vampyr similarly lets you explore their secret underground world as one of them, joining their clans and sharing their existential questions, but very rarely is it as enjoyable.

Review - STREET FIGHTER 30TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION - The Super Mega Ultra Version Prime+!

  For once, a Capcom compilation which is not a shoddy cheap cash-grab port! 
The Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection is a great example of HOW a great port should be done, paying tribute to the best 2D Street Fighter games of the whole series. 

  You're getting no less than 12 Street Fighter arcade ports, whom 4 of them have been updated for online play. 

Get ready for the best roundup of 2D fighting games ever made! 

(Note: the screenshot above is a recreation of the original arcade game. This game doesn't have screen curvature, and the artwork on the sides is different.)