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Peak is a small, goofy co-op climbing game from the devs behind Another Crab’s Teasure and Content Warning

by admin June 15, 2025

It’s a crossover episode! Like the great team-ups of the past (Scooby-Doo and Batman, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Batman), Totally Accurate Battle Simulator and Content Warning developer Landfall, and Another Crab’s Treasure developer Aggro Crab have come to make Peak. As in it’s literally called Peak, not a qualitative descriptor that’s been more widely adopted into Gen-Z slang that you have to Google because you’re not a spring chicken anymore.

Peak is an aptly named game too, as it’s all about climbing mountains. This being a game made by both Landfall and Aggro Crab, this obviously comes with a certain amount of silliness. Your virtual avatar is one that I can only describe as a “little guy”, who you can apparently customise with different outfits and accessories. It’s also playable in co-op, in fact that kind of seems to be the main selling point, but you can go solo too.

our new game PEAK is a climbing game with friends where the slightest mistake can spell your doom🗻

reach the top of the mountain as a group of scouts when it drops JUNE 16‼️ pic.twitter.com/5EADzD6gWd

— AGGRO CRAB 💥 (@AggroCrabGames) June 13, 2025

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The whole goal is to get to the top of the mountain (otherwise known as the peak of the mountain, if I need to spell it out for you), in hopes of being rescued after having crash landed on a mysterious island. There’s four biomes to wade through, and along the way you’ll have to pick up food to keep yourself going. You can get injured too, so unlike the example provided in the trailer above, you probably shouldn’t punt your med kit off the side of a cliff.

Interestingly, a majority of the game was made within a one month game jam, so you shouldn’t necessarily expect infinite content or whatever it is shareholders want these days. It just looks like a silly, goofy way to hang out with some friends for a few hours. It’s also out really soon! June 16th to be precise, so you’ve only got a couple of days to wait. You can wishlist it on Steam here.

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June 15, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Overwatch 2 devs reveal major buffs for every DPS hero coming in Season 17

by admin June 14, 2025

Overwatch 2 is giving DPS heroes some significant buffs in Season 17 to better compete with supports and tanks.

Season 17 of Overwatch 2 is set to arrive on June 24 and the devs have revealed an assortment of global buffs coming in a patch once S17 is live.

In a blog post, former Overwatch pro turned dev, Scott ‘Custa’ Kennedy, delved into how the team plans to adjust certain characters and how some of the data from hero bans will influence their decisions.

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The DPS role in particular is getting some upgrades that should greatly switch up how the game is played.

blizzard

OW2 DPS heroes getting global buffs in Season 17 patch

According to Kennedy, the damage hero role passive in which dealing damage to enemies lowers the amount of healing they receive is getting increased in the upcoming patch.

“One big adjustment heading to Season 17 is increasing the damage role passive healing reduction from 25% to 30%, which should help damage dealers better contend with the amount of healing that support Heroes are churning out,” he explained.

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Furthermore, the global passive in which health regenerates after not taking damage after a certain amount of time is getting increased from 5 seconds to 6.

These two changes combined mean that heroes will be far easier to eliminate when DPS deal damage to them and make the role more impactful.

That’s not all, though. Kennedy also revealed that on an individual level, Bastion is getting some improvements to make him more survivable.

Instead of increasing his armor or health, the devs are reducing his size by 10%. Originally, they wanted him to be 15% smaller, but this apparently made the Omnic too “cute.”

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Blizzard EntertainmentBastion is getting his size reduced by 10% in Season 17.

“It’s a testament to the many different ways we can change and balance the game for every hero,” he noted.

Furthermore, while it’s not coming when Season 17 debuts, the devs have taken note of how often Sombra is banned in matches and are planning yet another rework with discussions ongoing.

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“She’s a complex case that can’t be solved overnight, but know the balance team has her in their sights.”

We’ll have to see exactly how the devs adjust her kit yet again, but don’t expect to see it anytime soon, as reworks can take a lot of time, especially if new abilities or VFX are required.

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Season 17 is also set to introduce map voting, a long-awaited feature that will finally put more control in players’ hands as to what map and mode they compete on.

More balance updates are expected to be revealed ahead of Season 17’s launch on June 24, but a full trailer for all of S17’s offerings is scheduled to be unveiled on June 17.

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June 14, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Awakening Devs Work To Fix ‘Goomba Stomping’ Ornithopters

by admin June 13, 2025

In a crowded field full of online survival sims, Dune: Awakening is kicking up storm. The adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novels lets players build bases, rid sand worms, and smash Ornithopters into one another. That last part has become a problem, and the developers are already looking into a fix.

10 Minutes From The Last Of Us Part II’s Roguelike Mode

Dune’s Ornithopters are helicopters shaped like dragonflies. In Dune: Awakening, they’re one of the many vehicles players can build that serve as both a resource and an end-goal of sorts. They require a lot of equipment and resources to craft if you’re playing solo, which is why most of them belong to players working in groups. It turns out that they’re pretty indestructible too, making them lethal weapons for ramming enemy players with in PVP.

Reddit user Bombe18 shared his run-in with Dune: Awakening’s man-made scourge in a recent clip that blew up on the subreddit showing him repeatedly being accosted by multiple Ornithopters. Shooting at them does nothing. They’re unscathed by constantly smashing into the ground on top of him. At one point, he tries to wall-jump off a ledge and stab one. “Yeah sorry about this,” wrote game director Joel Bylos. “We have people working on fixing the goomba stomping ASAP.”

Players have been debating the role of Ornithopters in Dune: Awakening since its beta tests last year. On the one hand, they’re a lot of fun and a cool reward for players to build toward. On the other, they sort of trivialize trying to travel around the desert and survive, the two things the game is supposed to be about. They can also shoot missiles, completely dominating the ground game. Now that’s real desert power.

In terms of stopping players from griefing one another with Ornithopters, there are a few different suggestions. Some players just want the vehicles not to be able to be used as weapons at all. Others want them isolated to specific PVP areas. Another solution is to make it easier to destroy them. “Seems like they should just make guns deal more damage to them,” wrote one player. “They’d think twice about doing this if their orni could get wrecked by gunfire.” Another wrote, “Make Deep Desert crashes do significant damage. Two crashes or something past a certain physics threshold should disable the vehicle.”

However the developers decide to address the recent outbreak of Ornithopter “goomba stomping,” Dune: Awakening is having a great launch so far. Out earlier this week on PC, it’s nearing a 90 percent positive rating on Steam with almost 20,000 reviews. The concurrent player-count is very healthy, too, peaking at just under 150,000 heading into the weekend.

Unfortunately, console players will have to wait a bit to build Ornithropters of their own. A PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S release isn’t planned until sometime in 2026.

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June 13, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Mio: Memories in Orbit has all the wonder of playing Inside for the first time and its devs are working hard to make it even better

by admin June 13, 2025

To say that I had absolutely no idea what was going on the first time I played Mio: Memories in Orbit is probably an understatement. I was far too busy admiring and exploring the beautiful if slightly creepy landscape to pay much attention to any greater goal. But after getting smacked around by a couple of robots I came to my senses.

You play as Mio in this metroidvania, who has woken up in an enormous technological ark which is floating through space. The catch being you don’t really know what it is or what you’re doing there at first. So the only thing to do is to explore and figure it all out as you go along.

“As you progress into the intricate environments of the Vessel, you’ll be able to unlock new memories,” a news blog says. “Strike enemies that block your way and meet with different powerful guardians, holders of the spaceship’s darkest secrets. These encounters will make you grow into a formidable force.”

The more I think about it, the more I realise that I play a lot of games where the main character starts off with no knowledge of what’s going on and has to grapple with a new mysterious environment at the same time I do. Playing through Mio felt like the first time I picked up Inside or Limbo—dropped in a kinda unsettling world, clambering around, trying to make it out somewhere safe and maybe piece together what was going on as I went.

My favourite game last year was Ultros which had the same premise of landing on an odd spaceship full of psychedelic plants, masked travellers, and godlike creatures, and exploring it to uncover its odd secrets. I’m thrilled to be able to walk down that path again with an equally stunning metroidvania, even if I’ve traded the vibrant plants for a techno-dystopia.

(Image credit: Focus Entertainment)

It took a little getting used to but the platforming and fighting is also a ton of fun. There’s not just a bunch of different enemies for you to take on, some of which pack a real punch. My advice is if you see a little dude with a hammer, don’t get swept up in how cute it looks, because they are aggressive little critters who’ll bonk you on the head at first sight.

To help deal with the more aggressive bots in Mio you can collect a couple of useful abilities. With the grappling hook you can spring around the place like a robo Spider-Man and the glider makes me feel like one of those flying squirrels.

Mio may be a ton of fun right now but it’s still just in its demo phase. Developer Douze Dixiemes has promised players that it’s going to keep working hard to make sure it’s in its best possible state for launch.

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(Image credit: Focus Entertainment)(Image credit: Focus Entertainment)(Image credit: Focus Entertainment)(Image credit: Focus Entertainment)(Image credit: Focus Entertainment)

“We’ve already collected some feedback, and it seems that you particularly appreciated the art direction overall, the boss fights (especially when they gave you a hard time) and the soundtracks,” the blog post continues. “This is exactly what we were going for.”

So far the bug reports which you can log on the game’s Discord server have been few and far between. There is a log of the game refusing to launch, which I haven’t personally had any issue with. Then there’s a complaint about the jump button on both a controller and keyboard not working when you have both plugged in and an issue with someone fixing a plate with nacre (a resource you collect by killing robots) and then coming back the next day and finding it all broken up again. But it seems that the majority of players are loving their time with Mio’s demo.

The devs even compiled some of their favourite fan responses they’ve received so far. “Demo before [Silksong]! And it’s really good,” one player says. “So much love for this game that I stayed more than three hours inside, [mostly] just afk listening to the Satuary soundtrack,” someone else commented. I’m certainly excited to carry on my adventures, encounter more angry bots, and just marvel at this absolute work of art.

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June 13, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Silent Hill f devs discuss new themes, setting in new Konami interview

by admin June 13, 2025

Silent Hill fans just got a peek behind the scenes of the next title in the iconic horror franchise, Silent Hill f, via Konami’s Press Start livestream on Thursday, during which the game’s developers provided a detailed look at the major theme of the game: beauty in terror.

“The setting of Silent Hill f has shifted from the town of Silent Hill to Japan,” series producer Motoi Okamoto said. “But it remains a psychological horror experience where one confronts themselves within a mental world. Taking into account that it is psychological horror, we sought to enhance the essence of Japanese-style horror. The hallmark of Japanese horror is not simply grotesqueness, but the coexistence of beauty and the disturbing. We are creating this title with the concept: ‘Find the beauty in terror.’”

First announced during the Silent Hill Transmission livestream in October 2022, Silent Hill f is the eighth mainline Silent Hill game, and the first to release since 2012’s Silent Hill Downpour. It is also the first Silent Hill title to take place outside of Maine, where the fictional town of Silent Hill is located. Instead, Silent Hill f is set in 1960s Japan, during the Showa Era, and follows high school student Hinako Shimizu, who must navigate her (fictional) hometown of Ebisugaoka, which has been overtaken by mysterious fog and strange monsters.

The game’s developers described Hinako as an “ordinary person,” in Silent Hill’s tradition, adding that they tailored the game’s combat to be simple and believable — after all, you are playing as a teenage girl armed with nothing but a steel pipe — while still challenging the player to face off with powerful (and often beautifully horrifying) enemies.

“A key concept in Silent Hill f is the idea of beauty in terror,” game director Al Yang explained. “We created our visual designs to have a distinct uneasiness to them, but also [to] have a horrific charm that would make it so you just couldn’t stop staring.”

As for the game’s major change in setting, scriptwriter Ryukishi07 — who goes by his pen name and is well-known in Japan for his When They Cry visual novel series — explained that 1960s Japan was chosen for a very specific reason.

“Regarding the setting, we carefully considered which era would provide a stage and environment that could depict the theme of the story with a higher contrast, and I chose it accordingly,” scriptwriter Ryukishi07 shared. “The Showa Era, though just half a century ago, feels like a different world — one that remains connected to our present, yet preserves customs and superstitions long-forgotten in modern life.”

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June 13, 2025 0 comments

Esports

MindsEye devs “working around the clock” on fixes after disastrous launch

by admin June 12, 2025

MindsEye devs are “working around the clock” to fix the numerous bugs and crashes impacting players across all platforms.

Since its release on June 10, MindsEye has received a lot of criticism. The GTA-style game has been slammed for its bugs, poor performance, and crashing issues. Things have gotten so bad that players have already requested refunds, much like they did with Cyberpunk 2077.

PlayStation has even said that they are currently investigating the situation surrounding MindsEye, while some Xbox players have found themselves unable to refund the game. However, despite the ongoing issues, the devs have assured players that they are actively working on fixes.

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MindsEye devs are working on fixes

Posting on the MindsEye Reddit page, Build a Rocket Boy addressed the issues surrounding the game, stating:

“Thank you kindly to all of you who joined us as pioneers on day one! We understand that the current minimum spec requirements are very high, but our engineering team are working around the clock to improve performance on mainstream hardware as well as consoles by integrating the performance improvements in Unreal Engine V5.6,” wrote the devs.

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MindsEye is a complete technical DISASTER.

Avoid this game right now at ALL COSTS.

– Locked to 30FPS across all consoles and suffers from constant stutter issues
– Messy performance on PC (Unreal Engine 5)
– Very buggy across the board
– Crash issues for many people on both PC… pic.twitter.com/9zKlEghXD1

— Synth Potato🥔 (@SynthPotato) June 10, 2025

“We will provide patch 3 update timing, including these improvements, within the next 24 hours. In addition to the main campaign, we would also value your thoughts on Build. Mindseye.”

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MindsEye update schedule for June

On Thursday, June 12, an update was posted to the MindsEye Discord server that revealed what the developers have in store for the next month’s worth of updates.

“We are heartbroken that not every player was able to experience the game as we intended. Our priority is optimizing performance and stability so that every player, across every device, can enjoy an equally high-quality experience,” they said in the post.

“We are fully committed to ensuring all our players have a great experience, and we will continue to provide frequent and transparent updates. We will do our best to respond to all your comments and feedback.”

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Build A Rocket BoyMindsEye follows Jacob Diaz as he looks to uncover his lost memories.

You can see the full roadmap of when you can expect to see changes below:

June 13-15 – Hotfix 1: PC & Console
- Initial CPU and GPU performance improvements, along with memory optimizations,
- Reduced difficulty for the CPR mini-game,
- A new setting to disable or adjust Depth of Field
- Fix for missing controls in the MineHunter and Run Dungeon mini-games,
- Pop-up warnings for PCs with Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling disabled and for PCs with CPUs prone to crashes,

Week of June 16 – Hotfix 2: PC & Console
- Continuous incremental performance and stability improvements,
- Fix for the buggy wheels not visually spinning while driving
- Fix for areas in Car Manufacturing where players could fall through the world

By end of June – Update 3: PC & Console
- Ongoing performance & stability improvements,
- Rebalanced “Hard” difficulty setting
- Animation fixes
- AI improvements

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June 12, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Directive 8020 devs explain how it’s even more chilling than Until Dawn & The Quarry

by admin June 12, 2025

Directive 8020 marks a stark turn from Supermassive Games’ usual fare of interactive drama experiences, this time set in space with far more player agency in how events unfold.

I got the chance to speak with developers at Supermassive Games about their forthcoming horror title, and even got some hands-on time with an early version at Summer Game Fest.

I’m very familiar with the rest of Supermassive’s lineup — my friends and I love playing the Dark Pictures Anthology together on game nights — so I was confident that I knew what I was in for when I sat down to give Directive 8020 a go.

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As it turns out, I was wrong. After a brief cutscene, I was dropped head-first into a conflict between two characters and their mimics, alien beings who have altered their appearance to look exactly like the human crew members aboard the colony ship Cassiopeia.

Directive 8020 forces players to fight or flee from aliens

In this section of the game, I fully controlled my character, who was hiding from a mimic that’d let its monstrous true form show. While most conflicts in Supermassive’s games resolve with quick-time events, this time, players are fully inserted into an action-adventure experience, forced to fight, flee, or distract the mimics to get away safely.

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It places far more responsibility into the hands of the player, which I was clearly not anticipating. I could use a scanner to see where the monster was skulking in the darkness, as well as a cattle prod to shock it if I ended up in an encounter.

“We call this ‘threatening exploration,’ and we’ve been trying to get there for a number of years, but if you try and force it into a game after it’s been designed, it comes with a whole host of problems. So we’ve had to stop ourselves every time.

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“Now, you’ve got direct control of the character, and when something happens, it can feel much scarier and it’s a chance to do different stuff. You can see the Hunter appear through the floor and, ’cause it can move through the growth and stuff. It’s a big step forward for us. It’s something we wanted to do for a long time.

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Supermassive GamesDevs at Supermassive told us they describe Directive 8020 as ‘The Thing’ in space.

There were also options to distract the mimic and keep it busy while the player scuttles off to a safer area. I chose the more violent route, although I ended up dying anyway.

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My character finally made it to the rest of the squad, where I was then tasked with choosing whether or not a certain crewmember — who was, by all rights, acting mad sus — lived or died. Was he a mimic, or was he a human? I chose to get rid of the possibility altogether, and it turned out he was actually a human… but, depending on my choices earlier in the game, his identity could have been completely different.

“We keep saying this is our version of The Thing in space,” McDonald continued.

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“How twisted that is, the body horror elements. We’ve changed the design of the monster. We gave ourselves an extra couple of years in this game to really take the time to iterate and make it as good as it needs to be.

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“We’ve changed it over time, and there’s actually different versions of the Hunter you’ll see. And there’s also like half-versions where it’s half-transformed into a human and it’s really nasty. There’s a lot of variation.”

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Supermassive GamesThe team at Supermassive Games took inspiration from a ton of popular horror films and games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and more.

During our chat, McDonald referenced movies like Event Horizon and the Alien films, making sure to mention that the entire team at Supermassive are big fans of the Resident Evil and Silent Hill games.

Directive 8020 has eight, hour-long episodes with many branching paths

As told by Supermassive’s Dan McDonald, players’ choices directly impact events that happen later on in the game, opening up new paths that they can navigate to and from at any time. Directive 8020 boasts a Turning Point menu not unlike that of Detroit: Become Human, allowing players to look back at their choices and drop in the timeline at any point to see what happens if they pick a different option.

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This, McDonald said, is part of what makes the game so long. He told us that Directive 8020 will have eight episodes, which are about an hour long each. But given all the branching paths, it could take you much, much longer to see the full story.

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“We’ve got huge amounts of branching, and with the turning points, we expect players to get to that branching a lot more easily. It’s not that they have to go and do a whole ‘nother playthrough to see it all — they can go back to a moment and make a different choice and move on with it.

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“The way that we’ve structured it, and you might have seen it briefly in the Turning Point screen, there’s eight episodes. Now, we’re more mimicking a high-end TV series, like an HBO, Netflix, or Amazon Prime show. Those are around an hour long each, and there’s eight of them. We’ve done that for a whole host of reasons, but also when you’re playing with your friends, as it’s a bigger game now, maybe you wanna stop before you play tomorrow or next week.”

Supermassive GamesPlayers’ decisions early in the game will affect the storyline later on.

Play with up to five friends on one console or online

This multiplayer experience is very important to Supermassive for Directive 8020, which is why they’ve implemented several difficulty levels and options for players who might be new to gaming or want a simpler experience.

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“You can change the settings and have a much more classic experience,” McDonald said. “You saw the moment where you had the wedge tool, and you can fight off the monster. If you have it on hard, it’s gonna work once, and then that’s it. But on easy, it will keep recharging really quickly, and you can keep reusing it. Then, if you change the accessibility options, you can make it so it never fails.

“The crew is about 10 people. There’s only five playable characters, plus there’s actually another one in the prologue that’s part of the mission as well. Of course, they die — we always do that, kill off the early ones.

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“But yes, you have that cast of five characters, so you can have a five-player movie night. But we’ve changed it this time so that now, you can do that online, as well. You can have five people
on one machine, or five people on five different machines, or any combination. We really wanna facilitate how you wanna play with your friends and family.”

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Supermassive GamesSupermassive Games is making playing with friends easier than ever.

“We’ve always wanted to go to space”

Of course, one of the most pressing questions on our minds was about the decision to take the storyline to space. All of Supermassive’s games are connected in some way, and that hasn’t changed in Directive 8020.

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In fact, they told us they’d always wanted to go to space, and said that they made sure to connect the game to real-life events like all their other titles.

“All of our games have real-world connections. Even this does. When we started the series, we knew in a good level of detail what the first four games were gonna be. But we also had a high level of detail for the next four. And we were working on some even further beyond that, as well. But we’ve moved some of those around and twisted it, and changed the order a bit. But we always knew we were going to space. We always knew.”

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“There are a couple of real-world links for this game. [Directive 8020] is a real-world directive. It’s really quite hard to find now. And it might have been NASA just doing a thought experiment, you know? We’ll never know. It’s to do with, if you have contact with an alien presence and creature quarantining and not bringing it back to earth.”

Supermassive GamesDirective 8020 is aiming to be more frightening than any of its predecessors.

McDonald also mentioned the US’s first space missions, citing Apollo 10, which was a ‘dress rehearsal’ for the eventual moon landing, saying the crew of the Cassiopeia was given a similar order.

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“They had the capability to land on the moon, but they didn’t have the fuel to land on the moon. They were supposed to fly by and then come home. And it purposefully wasn’t fueled up. That’s the same for this mission — they’re not supposed to land.”

From the small snippet that I got to experience at Summer Game Fest, I found Directive 8020 to be a far more terrifying experience than other Supermassive games. Being in full control of your character completely changes things and offers far more ways to get scared. I anticipate that this will be a big hit at game nights — and since it drops on October 2, 2025, you’ll have the entire month of spooky season to enjoy it with your buddies.

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June 12, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Few trailers were as cool as Stranger Than Heaven’s Summer Game Fest reveal, and not just because the Yakuza dev’s DNA is all over it

by admin June 9, 2025

Though you may not vibe with every one of their games, it’s hard to deny that the people behind the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series have an abundant sense of style. It’s not every year, however, we get a new franchise from the legendary Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, but damn if this next title doesn’t look special.

Initially teased at The Game Awards 2024 as Project Century, the studio has now given the game an official title: Stranger Than Heaven.

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Stranger Than Heaven’s debut was on the Summer Game Fest event stage, and it was hard to guess just what game we were looking at initially. The trailer starts off with the character sitting at a live musical performance in what looks to be 1940s Japan, before they exit the bar and we get the iconic Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio logo.

There are, of course, plenty of trademark RGG elements in this one. Combat looks about as brutal (and silly) as the older Yakuza games, and the exploration and city life side does show up in the footage, too.

There appears to be more of a puzzle-solving, and choices focus in this one, however, which isn’t typically what you come to Like a Dragon for. Something else well worth mentioning is that the game takes place over multiple eras. The initial reveal trailer showed a 1915 setting, whereas today’s re-reveal takes place in 1943 – which is a massive jump.

Watch on YouTube

If the game’s working title holds true, the game may let us experience a story that takes place across the entire 19th century, but we’d be happy to just see pre and post-World War 2 Japan. There’s clearly a lot going on in this; not least of which the American influence element, and what seems to be a supernatural side to our hero.

Stranger Than Heaven does not yet have a release target, nor do we know which platforms it’s going to be coming to, yet. Considering how cool this re-reveal is, however, the game already has fans eager to see what RGG Studio will show of it next.

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June 9, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Bitcoin Core Devs At Center Of Heated Debate

by admin June 8, 2025

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

According to a joint statement released on June 6, 2025, 31 Bitcoin Core developers have taken a clear stance on how the network should handle non-monetary uses. They stressed that their role is not to support or block data inscriptions and other non-financial activities.

The move has stirred strong feelings across the community, with debates touching on freedom, fees, and the very purpose of Bitcoin.

Developer Stance On Data Policies

Based on reports, the Core team said they won’t step in to stop “harmless” data from entering the blockchain. They pointed out that Bitcoin’s main strength is its resistance to censorship. So, any user-driven software choices must stand.

A statement on Bitcoin Core development and transaction relay policy – https://t.co/K4AaPPqTSD

— Bitcoin Core Project (@bitcoincoreorg) June 7, 2025

They made it plain: it’s up to node operators to pick what they accept. This approach aims to keep the network free, even if that means it carries extra data.

Community Voices Split

Following the statement, reactions poured in. Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3, called the developers’ tone hollow and said recent changes have “opened the floodgates” for spam. He argued that removing technical barriers encourages unwanted data.

Bitcoin Core devs have been changing the network gradually to enable spam and now seem focused on also removing barriers for spammers. It’s disingenuous to just say “it is what it is now, too bad.”

This statement itself is also inappropriate. Feels like an NYA from Core devs. https://t.co/ACIqyvK12f

— Samson Mow (@Excellion) June 7, 2025

On the flip side, Jameson Lopp of Casa praised the clear explanation of relay rules. Lopp pointed out that a unified voice from developers helps to cut down on past confusion over policy.

Recent Upgrade Sparks Worries

On May 8, 2025, Core developers removed a long-standing limit on transaction data size. That tweak lets anyone include bigger chunks of information in transactions. Critics worry this will drive up blockchain bloat and push fees higher.

BTC is now trading at $106,052. Chart: TradingView

Supporters say predicting what miners will include—and passing that info along—is key to keeping Bitcoin running smoothly. They claim this neutral relay policy helps miners and users alike, even if not everyone buys into it.

Future Forks And Layer Solutions

Looking ahead, some think a new fork could split off a “pure money” chain that blocks data inscriptions. Others foresee layer-2 networks or sidechains taking on the heavy lifting for art, messaging, and other uses.

Either way, most agree that wallets and node software will soon offer options: one for clean, finance-only transactions, and another for those who don’t mind extra data. This choice will let users vote with their settings instead of relying on developers to make the call.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.

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June 8, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Neverway continues to make a compelling case for horror farming-sims in a new showcase from its devs

by admin June 8, 2025

I don’t think you can more easily sell me on a game than by saying it was made by one of the artists behind Celeste, and has music from Disasterpeace, i.e. the composer behind Fez, Hyper Light Drifter, and It Follows. But that’s exactly what Neverway is, a horror RPG in the vein of Stardew Valley first announced back in April, back with a nice little look-in at yesterday’s Day of the Devs presentation.

Pedro Medeiros, the Celeste artist in question, and programmer/ writer Isadora Sophia gave a great little rundown of Neverway, explaining that you play as Fiona, a character who much like the player character in Stardew has just quit her dead end job. She’s trying to start over on a farm, live the quiet life, except she ends up having to serve as a herald for a dead god because of some debt she owes. Awkward!

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That kind of life does end up leading towards the need to fight in a classic Zelda-ish 2D action combat kind of way, but you do have to balance all of that adventuring with your regular life too. That means farming, paying your mortgage, making friends, maybe even falling in love. Those bonds can lead to new combat abilities too, something I wish my own relationships offered me.

Time works a bit differently in Neverway too, as rather than the day slowly tick tocking away, it moves from morning, to afternoon, to night when you do things like eat, sleep, or read a manual of some sort.

After a while, you’ll end up searching for the titular Neverway, a “decaying nightmarish reality that is slowly leaking into yours.” This is where you’ll learn about the game’s post-apocalyptic world as you pay off your debt.

I know “farming sim but dark” isn’t exactly a new concept, it’s just that Neverway is doing so with such eyecatching style I can’t help but be won over by it. It looks like there’s a real sincerity to the life-sim elements as opposed to them just being slapped into some dark themes. That’s the ticket to my heart honestly, a good bit of earnestness goes a long way.

Neverway doesn’t have a release date just yet, but you can wishlist it on Steam.

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June 8, 2025 0 comments