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Game Updates

Oblivion Remastered gets unlimited elixir and staff crafting thanks to a massive mod that makes the Mages Guild all about “unraveling the mysteries of magic”

by admin May 22, 2025

If you’ve ever thought Oblivion’s Mages Guild questline didn’t do enough to help your roleplay as a proper scholar of magic, a new Oblivion Remastered mod that casts an alteration spell on the faction looks like it’s got you covered. It adds a bunch of new systems, including infinite elixir and staff crafting.

It’s the latest entry in modder ColdTyrant’s Infinitum series, which has seen the modder overhaul all of Cyrodiil’s major factions by introducing radiant quest systems that let you take on, for example, as many Dark Brotherhood contracts or Fighters Guild monster hunts as you like. They’ve already taken on those two factions. plus the Thieves Guild and Arena.

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That said, their Mages Guild overhaul ‘Mages Guild – Infinitum’ seems to be the most ambitious of the lot, adding six new systems to deliver infinitely repeatable activities designed to help the faction feel like it’s actually all about “unraveling the mysteries of magic”.

There’s elixir crafting that sounds like alchemy on steroids, staff making that lets you “craft a variety of different staffs of different skill levels across all six different schools of magic” in a fashion that’s far more in-depth than that one quest in the base game, and skill studying that’s lets you get better at magic by reading tomes once a day, rather than having to stand around spamming fireballs.

The mod also has some activities aimed at more outdoorsy magic users. There’s a “beast research system” that sees you harvest “Unaspected Essences” from creatures you encounter, which can then be logged in a special tome, rewarding you with boosts to major attributes.

If you’re in the mood for more of the kind of magical admin the base game has in spades, you can take on elixir deliveries and recycle the robes of necromancers you defeat by popping them into bins the mod adds to each guildhall. Both of those are ways to earn some extra gold and in the case of the latter, soul gems. I’m very much now wondering which poor Mages Guild members have to put the bins out.

“The Mages Guild has always been a weird faction,” ColdTyrant wrote, “Depending on how you progress the Mages Guild in Morrowind, you could find yourself performing any number of unseemly tasks. In Oblivion, you spend much of your time performing chores or odd jobs – confronting poor leadership or cleaning up the messes of irresponsible peers.

“It was difficult to decide what direction I wanted to take with Mages Guild – Infinitum, especially since being a Mage has always been my favorite. I decided to add as many endless or nigh endless and engaging systems as I could, to pump just as much exciting content into this major faction as I have for all the others.”

If you fancy giving the mod a go, you’ll need to grab its requirements – Oblivion Remastered’s UE4SS and UE4SS TesSyncMapInjector.

Make sure to check out the interviews we’ve been doing with Oblivion Remastered modders who’ve been pushing the boundaries and working on interesting stuff. The next entry in that series is a chat with ColdTyrant, so look out for that coming to the site soon!

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May 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Dreamspring is an open world RPG inspired by Morrowind and King’s Field

by admin May 22, 2025

The Steam trailer for open world RPG Dreamspring contains: shooting spiders with a revolver. Hanging out near a green ocean. Fighting green skeletons. Most curiously, it features an armoured knight convulsing on a bed as if being shocked, from the inside, by some sort of magical electricity disease. Did this knight eat an entire pack of bad batteries? Do batteries even exist in this world, described as “a realm in ruins…beneath a twilight sky”. It’s a damn hell ass bum mystery, and mystery is exactly what I want from a game that lists both Morrowind and King’s Field as influences.

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“As a spellsword gunslinger,” – truly, the millionaire astronaut cowboy DJ of RPG classes – “you’ll explore ethereal landscapes shrouded in twilight, battle fearsome creatures, and uncover ancient secrets. Explore the dying Kingdom of Mortis and its different realms in first person action combat, in a world mixed with retro and vaporwave aesthetics”.

Despite the FromSoft influence, Dreamspring is aiming to be “a less punishing type of Souls/Scrolls-like game,” which I reckon is something that gets more important the bigger your world is. Otherwise, it looks to have most of the stuff you’d expect – branching dialogue, branching storyline, branching trees with branches branching toward an uncaring skyline, all the classics. It’s in early access at the moment, with the “core loop” apparently done, and the main quest and world still being worked on.

There’s no demo, although developer Billyfighter’s previous game Necroslayer is roughly the price of Greggs’ bake at the moment. Will you feel good after playing it? I can’t say. But you will likely feel better than after eating a Greggs’ bake.

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May 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Stellar Blade Developer Plans To Release A Sequel Before 2027

by admin May 22, 2025

Korean developer ShiftUp released Stellar Blade last year, and it quickly became a hit. In roughly one year, it has brought in more than $48 million of revenue for the developer, so it won’t be a surprise that the team is working on a follow-up game. However, according to a Q1 2025 fiscal year presentation from ShiftUp, the developer plans to have a sequel before 2027.

In the presentation, which is where ShiftUp reveals Stellar Blade has brought in 68.1 billion KRW (or $48 million), there’s a slide titled, “IP expansion on its way with high visibility.” We can see the 2024 release of Stellar Blade on PlayStation 5, additional strategy for ShiftUp’s mobile gacha game, Goddess of Victory: Nikke, and “Platform Expansion” for Stellar Blade. This likely alludes to the upcoming PC release. However, beyond that, the slide also shows “Sequel” for Stellar Blade before the year 2027, which is represented as the cutoff for the slide’s timeline.

Though there aren’t any accompanying details, given the reception to Stellar Blade, it makes sense ShiftUp is planning a sequel for the action game.

Elsewhere on the slide, there’s mention of something called “Project Witches,” which gets its own color and is separate from Nikke and Stellar Blade, as it’s likely a new IP.

While waiting for a Stellar Blade sequel, potentially next year, read Game Informer’s Stellar Blade review. After that, read about why it’s Game Informer’s best action game of 2024, and then check out the PC specs required to play Stellar Blade when it launches there next month.

What do you want to see in a Stellar Blade sequel? Let us know in the comments below!

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May 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Mario Kart World was first developed for the original Switch, but 60fps only possible on Switch 2

by admin May 22, 2025

Mario Kart World was originally in development for the original Switch, but Switch 2 has allowed the developers to realise their vision of an inter-connected world.

Nintendo began prototyping for the new Mario Kart game back in 2017, even during development of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Development then began at the end of that year.

“I felt that in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, we were able to perfect the formula that we’d been following in the series up to that point, where players race on individual courses,” explained Mario Kart World producer Kosuke Yabuki in a new interview from Nintendo. “That’s why, this time, we wanted the gameplay to involve players driving around a large world, and we began creating a world map like this.”

Mario Kart World – Nintendo Direct | Nintendo Switch 2Watch on YouTube

Programming director Kenta Sato continued: “When we were developing for Nintendo Switch, we often worried whether we could find the right balance between planning and performance. Of course, the Switch system’s performance is sufficient for developing different kinds of games, but if we had included everything we wanted to in this game’s vast world, then it wouldn’t have run at 60 fps and would have suffered from constant framerate drops.

“I think there were a lot of people on the team who were worried about whether we could really manage it. But once we decided to release this game on Switch 2, we expected our worries to evaporate all at once. I remember being overjoyed when I discovered we could express even more than we’d originally set out to.”

Yabuki noted that had the idea for the game just been more courses it would’ve been called Mario Kart 9, but the new approach led to the name Mario Kart World. In fact, that name was added to concept art in the early stages of development.

“In previous Mario Kart games, after finishing a course, you’d move on to the next course,” said Yabuki. “However, I thought that with modern technology, being able to seamlessly transition between courses and realise a single, vast world wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility. So, with this in mind, we set out to create a new kind of Mario Kart…And that’s when all our troubles began.”

Image credit: Nintendo

Sato had heard of difficulties in creating open world games and felt pressure to achieve this with Mario Kart, especially as Nintendo considers 60fps to be important for the series, as well as split-screen multiplayer. It seems the power of the Switch 2 allowed for this to happen.

The move to an open world also led to the increase of 24 players instead of 12, which was decided fairly early in development.

“By creating long routes in a vast world, you could end up with players spread out in various places, which could diminish the sense that they’re racing against each other,” said Yabuki. “So, we figured that by increasing the number of racers, you’d be sure to see some competitive action here and there.”

Added art director Masaaki Ishikawa: “I felt like the 12 players we had previously was a lot, but as Yabuki-san said, once players spread out, the course starts to look sparse, and the visuals give off a sort of lonely feel. So, I thought that 24 players would be better because there’d be more interaction between various players. That said, it was quite challenging once we got going and the volume of design work increased. But it was worth it.”

Speaking of art, the team wanted to recapture the “lively, bustling atmosphere” of Super Mario Kart on the SNES, with a key phrase being “playfulness”. This led to the more rounded, cartoonish designs of Mario Kart World.

“The characters in the Super Mario series have a rounded look, so we wanted to give the vehicles a rounded design too, to match their appearance,” said Ishikawa. “We also wanted to give the characters a livelier look even while they’re in their vehicles, so we put everything together in a way that gives off a sense of playfulness through the combination of the characters’ rounded designs, soft facial expressions, and rich movements.”

The open world design means courses are now inter-connected across the world, but Yabuki said adding up all the possible variations would “easily exceed 100”.

Image credit: Nintendo

Lastly, the developers discussed the creation of Mario Kart World’s meme-worthy new character, Cow.

“Each new Mario Kart game features new characters to race with, but since we added so many to the previous game, we wondered where we could go from there,” said Ishikawa. “And then one of the designers came up with that silly sketch of Cow cruising along, and I thought to myself, ‘This is it!’ So that’s when we realised the course surroundings actually contained a lot of untapped resources.

“The character designer quickly put together a prototype of Cow that could race, and surprisingly it didn’t feel out of place at all. So we thought maybe we could include other obstacle characters, and decided to add Cheep Cheep and Pokey as racers. As a result, the idea of taking obstacle characters, usually found in courses in past games, and having them participate in races made sense to me in terms of an interconnected world.”

Mario Kart World will launch alongside Nintendo’s Switch 2 on 5th June as a key game in the launch lineup.

Earlier this month Nintendo responded to the suggestion it had used AI-generated images in the game.

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May 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Stephen Chow fans won’t want to miss this sci-fi time-travel comedy

by admin May 22, 2025

Cineverse dropped a first trailer today for the American release of Escape From the 21st Century, Yang Li’s frantic time-travel comedy movie about three hapless teenage nerds who mysteriously gain the ability to jump forward into their future adult bodies whenever they sneeze. The film, released in China in 2024, is the kind of goofy, high-energy, effects-driven mayhem that used to be the specialty of Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer producer/director/star Stephen Chow, but with a twist: This movie was more expressly made for a generation that grew up with video games.

That aspect of the story comes across most clearly in a subplot that turns an old Street Fighter II game cartridge into the movie’s central McGuffin. But it plays out on the screen as well, via comic overlays, anime-style splash screens, pop-ups that emphasize the action, and a training montage designed to turn the central threesome into video game characters. The story mostly plays out in live-action, but stylized animation gives the story some texture as well. Here’s Cineverse’s summary:

Escape from the 21st Century is a 2024 action sci-fi film from China that follows three teenage boys — Wang Zha, Chengyong, and Pao Pao — who stumble upon a time-traveling phenomenon after falling into a lake with mysterious colors. With every sneeze, they leap 20 years into the future, only to discover a world under threat by a powerful crime syndicate. As secrets unravel and loyalties are tested, the trio must train for two decades to return stronger and save humanity.

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May 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

A Beginner’s Guide To Verso

by admin May 22, 2025

Note: This guide contains light spoilers for the end of Act I of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

The Top 10 Most-Played Games On Steam Deck: June 2023 Edition

It’s Act II. The plot thickens. Big Daddy Gollum’s still wreaking havoc on your damn team, and the role of Gustave will now be played by Clive Rosfiel—er, Verso. Despite trading the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen for Final Fantasy VIII’s number one simp, it’s a relatively easy transition, but not one without its quirks—and a whole new gimmick to learn. Once you learn that gimmick, and get into some of the deep skills in his tree, though, Verso can become the linchpin of your team. We’ll show you how.

Basic kit

Screenshot: Sandfall Interactive / Justin Clark / Kotaku

So, one of the things right upfront that eases the Gustave-to-Verso transition is the fact that he immediately inherits all of the weapons you collected as Gustave. Remember back in the day when a party member left, and they’d take all the good armor and weapons with them? God, we lived as savages in the 90s.

Anyway, that means you’ve got a nice deep armory of sword options to start with. That said, sticking with Verso’s basic loadout for a bit is the best way to go, given that he’s the only character who can wield Light magic right out of the gate without having to prime the skill (i.e. Lune’s Mayhem).

Read More:A Beginner’s Guide To Mastering Lune In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

This is handy as all the enemies in the first major area you get to after Verso joins up are weak to Light. You’ll get plenty of practice if you just stay the course of the main story. In addition, it’s not quite his default loadout per se, but the Dualliste boss at the end of that area drops the Dualliso sword. This allows Verso a second turn after a basic attack To get such a weapon so early after obtaining him makes it worth mentioning as a crucial part of his kit, especially because of his…

Special mechanic: Perfection

Screenshot: Sandfall Interactive / Justin Clark / Kotaku

Devil May Cry fans will be right at home with this mechanic. Verso basically just has that game’s ranking system as a gimmick. Very simply, you start at grade D, and landing attacks, dodging, and parrying all add a certain amount of Perfection Points that raise the grade from D, C, B, A, all the way up to S, with points taken away if you take a hit.

If you’re willing to take a risk, you can build Verso into a devastating glass cannon.

The twist, however, is that while all of Verso’s skills get a damage boost depending on his rank, many of them also have a specific rank where they are enhanced even further. Using an ability tied to a specific letter rank that Verso has achieved enables a secondary effect. This can be anything from earning more Perfection if the attack hits, to dealing more damage, or it can even make expensive skills cheaper.

An excellent example here is Verso’s Perfect Break Skill. By itself, it’s a pretty powerful Light attack. However, if you hit it while you’re exactly at Rank B, it only costs five AP to cast (down from seven). So, while getting to rank S does have its benefits, building your offense around specific ranks—especially in the early goings of Act II—is where the real fun lies. It’s not always about racing to get an S lined up for him.

Recommended builds and synergies

Screenshot: Sandfall Interactive / Justin Clark / Kotaku

There’s another running aspect of Verso’s skill tree that, while not necessarily a core gimmick, does deserve shouting out. That’s the fact that there are quite a few skills predicated on sacrificing either health, status, or rank to either benefit the party, or dealing absurd amounts of damage. That’s actually a really well-implemented way to tie combat in with his place in the narrative, but it also means that on top of being able to build a character based around skills hovering around a certain rank, if you’re willing to take a risk, you can build Verso into a devastating glass cannon.

Even if you don’t go fully down that road, Berserk Slash should be a permanent skill for any Verso player. It allows him to deal more damage the less health he has left. If you feel like getting extra nuts, pair that up with Overload (gives nine AP, immediately jumps Verso to Rank S, but drops his health to one point), and watch Berserk Slash send your enemies screaming into the goddamn Shadow Realm.

This is a safer strategy once you get ahold of the Cheater Picto from beating Sprong (the massive Nevron hanging out in the ocean)—and it’s one of those combos that can utterly break the game once you get the Painted Power Picto that removes the 9,999 damage cap. There’s glory waiting for those who can walk the edge of life and death with Verso.

But hey, if you’d like to keep your boy safe and still do a number on enemies, there’s plenty of options for that too. As mentioned, the Dualliso blade you get from the Dualliste grants a second turn after a basic attack, Pair that up with Energizing Shots (20-percent of Free Aim shots go back to you in AP) and Blitz (grants another turn), and you can absolutely monopolize an enemy if you get lucky enough. Pair Strike Storm up with any Pictos that enhance critical hits, and you’re almost always guaranteed to hit Rank S in no time. Once you get into the latter portions of Act II, you can basically just spam that and Perfect Stars—his most powerful Light attack—and you’ll put a whole lotta Nevros in the dirt.

In the early going, though, your options will be a bit more limited. Depending how not-adept you are at dodges and parries, it’s perfectly viable to build Verso’s whole loadout around staying at C rank. Berserk Slash and Strike Storm both benefit at that rank, which helps the case, but you can also build Verso as a support character using Leadership and Paradigm Shift (both granting AP to the rest of the team). In which case, you’ll want to pick up the Lanceram sword at some point in your journey, since it guarantees you’ll never drop lower than C.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs.

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May 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Ace Ventura Limited Edition 4K Steelbook Preorders Restocked At Amazon

by admin May 22, 2025

If you weren’t a regular moviegoer in 1994, then it must have been a confusing year, thanks to everyone around you peppering their speech with “Alriiiiiiighty then” catchphrases. Jim Carrey’s breakout year at the box office started with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and at long last, that comedy classic is releasing on 4K Blu-ray on July 29. The Limited Edition Steelbook version is available to preorder for $33 at Walmart or $36 at Amazon.

Amazon has sold out of preorders once already (at full price), but if it remains in stock this time, we’d expect the retailer to match Walmart’s price prior to launch. That said, it’s also possible that the price-matching will go the other way, and Walmart increases its price to $36.

$33 at Walmart | $36 at Amazon (was $45) | Releases July 29

The 4K Blu-ray edition of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was created using the original 35mm camera negative. It supports Dolby Vision with HDR10 and DTS-HD 5.1 Surround Sound. There aren’t any new bonus features, but the audio commentary with director Tom Shadyac is included on both the 4K Blu-ray disc and remastered 1080p Blu-ray disc. The latter should offer better visual and audio quality than the original Blu-ray release since it is based on the 4K transfer. The Blu-ray disc also has the theatrical trailer.

The original 1997 laserdisc release of Pet Detective had three episodes of the Ace Ventura animated series, but unfortunately those episodes have never been included with subsequent Blu-ray releases.

The steelbook case features original artwork of Ventura’s signature hairstyle and a pigeon worth $25,000 resting on Jim Carrey’s head.

$40 | Releases July 29

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is also getting a standard edition 4K Blu-ray release on the same day. Though it’s officially called a “Collector’s Edition,” make no mistake that the collectible version is the aforementioned Steelbook Edition. This edition includes a standard plastic case and cardboard sleeve with one of the promotional images for the theatrical release.

At the time of writing on May 21, this edition is actually more expensive than the Limited Edition Steelbook at both retailers.

Ace Ventura was one of the biggest comedy films of the mid-1990s, thanks mostly to Jim Carrey’s wild performance as the titular pet detective. While the movie does have some content that is very dated when viewed through a modern lens, it’s still a laugh riot thanks to the constant flow of one-liners and a solid mystery at its core. A sequel would arrive a few years later and it saw Ventura travel to Africa–much to the relief of several dozen Buddhist monks–but this one hasn’t received a 4K Blu-ray release yet. You can find it on Blu-ray, or as part of an Ace Ventura Blu-ray double feature.

To complete the set, you can also pick up Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Jr. on DVD. We’re not saying you should avoid it, but this prequel can induce a level of cringe so bad that it generates its own gravity. It’s a soulless cash-grab at best, and if you watch it, you might need to buy a new Blu-ray player because you’ll likely fling yours through the nearest window after watching just a few minutes of this movie.

In related Jim Carrey news, you can pick up Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on 4K Blu-ray right now. The threequel saw Carrey star once again as Dr. Ivo Robotnik and his character’s grandfather, Gerald Robotnik.

There are two different steelbook case designs to choose from: Sonic and an Amazon-exclusive Shadow variant. You can complete the Carrey trilogy with Sonic the Hedgehog Bonus Stage Steelbook Edition for $28.30 (was $30.46) and the Sonic 2 Steelbook Edition for $18.45 (was $29).

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May 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut Red Light Raid Mode is baffling, totally on-brand, and a weirdly good fit as part of a Nintendo Switch 2 launch game

by admin May 22, 2025

In Sega’s offices, seated in front of a Nintendo Switch 2 console running Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut, I was told: “Right, now it’s time to make a lobby.” Jesus. I don’t know these people here at the event with me (I’m pretty sure I’m the only member of the UK press, actually). This is going to be awful. S**t. S**t. S**t.

The PR comes over, loads me into one of the most rudimentary lobbies I’ve seen in a game in the last 20 years, and we get going. I’m presented with a screen that looks like something from a 00s fighting game (no shame there, Tekken is great) where I’m asked to select one character from the entire Yakuza 0 roster. I choose Goro Majima, obviously.

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The lead player boots us into a game, and we’re off: four ragtag Yakuza 0 models – antagonists, people you’ll see in side missions, and major characters all together – start fending off waves of hired goons. It’s stupid: four men yelling, powering up, and battering wave after wave of leather jacket-wearing thugs in the middle of a Japanese street in the 80s. Someone gets pile-drivered into a bin. Someone spins around whilst brandishing a knife until they fall over. This is Yakuza, alright, and it works weirdly well in multiplayer.

And there’s the thing, then. This version of Yakuza 0 is a Switch 2 exclusive (for now, at least). So if you want to try out this baffling rumpus of a mode, you’re going to need to shell out the £45 asking price. Is it worth it? Probably not on its own, but it is a fascinating insight into how Sega, and probably Nintendo, sees what the Switch 2 is putting down for consumers.

This mode, Red Light Raid, is silly fun. It’s an arcade-inspired, wave-based curio that focuses solely on the game’s esoteric combat and pushes the brawling mechanics of the game to breaking point in makeshift arenas that can barely contain the game’s burgeoning chaos. I imagine that with a fully-working GameChat function, you and your mates can have a blast in this mode; shouting about taking down bosses, squabbling over who gets to keep which item as they fall on the floor, jostling over weapons dropped by thugs. It’ll be fun.

It’s also a fascinating way for the RGG Studio folks to reuse assets in a fun way; the character select screen is huge. It’s got 60 playable characters! And you can level up each of the fighters, too. Completionists, watch out. I imagine it’ll take forever. Notably, if you’re playing as either Kiryu or Majima, you’ll have to choose just one style. Otherwise you’d have an unfair advantage via style switching, especially over characters like those found in the fight club that are limited to quite a small selection of moves. Then again, Ginger Chapman has a knife, and Vengeful Otake has a gun. So.

Get ready for a new challenger. | Image credit: Sega

I really can imagine whole nights of sitting in this mode and working through the various courses RGG has set you as a gauntlet. It was all a bit braindead in the early levels I played with my erstwhile colleagues at the event, but I should hope that the later levels ramp up the challenge to some degree, at least.

Chatting with mates, thumping waifs and strays over and over again, and being able to see their little low-res faces as they get their asses handed to them by shirtless men with back tattoos… is that Nintendo’s vision for the Switch 2? To have us all collected in a little lobby like the Uno/Xbox 360 days, gawping at cartoonish hyperviolence on our tiny little 4K monitors? If that’s what Ninty is putting down, I guess that’s what I’m picking up. It sounds great.

But it’s weird that it’s on Sega and RGG to release a game like this – as a launch exclusive – on Switch 2. There are other draws, sure: 26 minutes of never-before-scene cutscenes (though that’s not much in the scheme of things), and a French, Italian, German and Spanish text option now, too (this was missing before). As well as an English voiceover. So there are small temptations for you to double-dip on this, but as a locked exclusive it feels peculiar.

Watch your back. | Image credit: Sega

But isn’t it that exact sort-of off-beat weirdness that we all love Nintendo for? In a way, it reminds me of the bizarre bonus content that Tekken Tag Tournament 2 got for the Nintendo Wii U that never made it to other platforms: Mushroom Battle mode and Tekken Ball, which were sorely missed elsewhere. But it wanted to play into the Wii U’s ‘social’ side more, similar to what RGG and Sega is doing here with Red Light Raid mode… I just don’t really know who it’s for.

It’s not bad. It’s fun! And it plays really well. But you have to assume it’s going to come to other platforms, too, hopefully alongside a cheaper upgrade option so that you don’t have to buy the full product just to get the ‘definitive’ version of the game (Sega’s words, not mine). As a product on Switch 2, it looks, plays, and feels great… but let’s just hope it’s not locked onto the platform forever.

Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut launches alongside Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5. Yakuza 0 originally released in 2015 on PS3 and PS4, later coming to Xbox One.

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May 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Military Incremental Complex is freeware classic Dope Wars for arms dealing

by admin May 22, 2025

Oh, Dope Wars ’98, let me count the ways you moulded me into the man I am today, buying extra large trench coats in which to store my 100 units of acid. Military Incremental Complex riffs off that game’s unmistakably ’98 interface, but instead of playing a cool and aspirational heroin entrepreneur, you play a dastardly bullet merchant. Begin crafting artisan handmade farm-fresh shotgun shells, work your way up to nukes. Typical woke renewable energy propaganda. Can’t even sell massive bundles of dynamite with ‘TNT’ written on them anymore in case it offends the coyotes.

You’ll “produce multiple different weapons, research upgrades, manipulate the stock market, and lobby the government for favours”. It’s from Space Kraken, makers of Squeebing Up The Tower Of Friendship, a game I have not played but enjoy saying the name of aloud. Squeebing. Squeeeebing. “6 hours in the demo and another hour in the released game, I still have no idea what squeebing is,” reads one review. UrbanDictionary defines ‘squeebing’ as … actually, I’m not repeating what UrbanDictionary defines squeebing as. Here’s a trailer with wholesome god-fearing guns in it instead.

Watch on YouTube

Demo? Yes, here. Features? You bet your squeeb there are.

Hand Crafted: 11 different weapons to produce, each with their own unique way of being made
Automate Production: Expand your means of production, automating and speeding up the process, so you can focus on other things to make your company grow
Research New Weapons and Upgrades: 100+ upgrades to research, including new products to produce, better methods of making them, helpful UI additions, ways of increasing your prices, and much more
Global Supply Chain: Set up 18 types of mining operations around the world to extract base ores, buy factories to refine those ores into useful materials, and own your entire supply chain
Capital Gains: Buy shares of 7 different companies on the stock market, unlocking powerful bonuses once you own certain threshold amounts
Get Political: Lobby politicians and spend favors to radically upgrade your other systems
Do It All Over Again: Earn enough profit and you can prestige to unlock 16 game-changing abilities that allow for a variety of different builds for each new run
Overall, make ridiculous amounts of money as you flood the world with more and more weapons

This one’s out ‘Q3 2025’ if you end up liking the demo. I learnt today that I’ve been calling ‘incremental’ games ‘factory sim-likes’ and I’m not sure which one is more awkward. Number go up em’ ups it is.

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May 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 Enhanced Comes To PlayStation This Summer

by admin May 21, 2025

Between Forza Horizon 5, Doom: The Dark Ages, and Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, Xbox’s exclusives aren’t so exclusive anymore, as all three games have made their way to the PlayStation 5 in the past few months. Today, we learned that Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, the harrowingly beautiful action game from Ninja Theory, will be joining their ranks, making its way onto Sony’s platform sometime this summer. You can hear it announced by the team itself in a new trailer below.

On the same day it comes to PS5, Hellblade II will get some “exciting new features” across all platforms as a free update. This new iteration is known as the “Enhanced” version, though it’s unclear how exactly the game will be improved. The newly published PlayStation Store page mentions “added features and immersive haptic feedback,” so we can probably expect some new features to tie in with the Dualsense controller.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II originally launched a year ago today on Xbox Series X/S and PC. Reviewer Marcus Stewart gave it a 9 out of 10, writing that, “gripping storytelling, refined gameplay, and a jaw-dropping presentation make for a more wholly satisfying sophomore outing.” For another of his Xbox reviews also on PlayStation, you can read (or watch) what he though about Doom: The Dark Ages.

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May 21, 2025 0 comments