Classic survival horror has seen a resurgence in recent years, aiming to capture the essence of the old style of gameplay made popular in the late 90’s and early 2000’s through titles such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill.

More than ever, we’ve seen authentic new takes on this format crawling from the grave, with games like Tormented Souls, Signalis, Crow Country and most recently Hollowbody, crafting dreary atm?ospheres within grungy, un?forgiving worlds.

This same DNA is wrought throughout Becrowned, a new psychologic?al horror game from the team at 13th Street Studio, founded by its lead developer, Earnest Anpil??ov.

“We are a small indie studio, and we are making the ??game of our dreams,�said Anpilov in an email interview.

“We've been developing the game for several years in our free time, which sometimes isn't enough to fully commit to the project. It's a hard and lengthy process.�/p>

First conceived in 2021, Anpilov began working on Becrowned on his own, introducing ??more people to the team as the project took shape.

“The best part of development is interacting with the team. Each o?f us is passionate about this project.�nbsp;

The game features classic survival horror gameplay, including clunky combat, constrained camera moveme??nt and, of course, traditional tank controls - although a more modern control scheme is also availabl??e.

But most importantly, Becrowned is faithful to the genre in its atmosphere, with a haunting soundsc??ape that compliments the stylistically antiquated visuals.

“Thanks to a special rendering style, the graphics have a classic PS1 - PS2 aesthetic while still incorporating modern technolog??ical advancements,�said Anpilo??v.

A demo is available on Steam as of Sept. 27, taking place during a chapter from the middle of the main game in which t?he protagonist, Richard, finds himself trapped in the run-down Karpenter Asyl??um.

This mental hospital previously treated patients with psychosis and other illnesses, including Richard’s father, Clint, who suffered from severe C-PTSD upon returning home fro??m military duty. The further Richard delves, the more details he uncovers on unethical experiments run on the patients, as well as his own family’s history and trau??ma.

As players step forth into the dilapidated halls of the abandoned facility, they are greeted by the eerie soundtrack that creates a sense of discomforting calm, reminiscent of the early Silent Hill games; a tranquility that could be disturbed at the drop of? a hat.

“We are heavily inspired by old-school survival horror games like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Alone in the Dark,�said Anpilov.

“We also draw inspiration from old horror films, and our writer is a huge fan of Lovecraft and similar literature.�/p>

Amid the bizarre puzzles and punishing difficulty, there are a number of thoughtfully placed scares and?? tense set piece sequences that mak??e your skin crawl as you escape enemy pursuit.

Resources are extremely limited but tightly balanced, keeping even the most ca??reful player under tension to scrape up enough ammo and healt??h pickups between each of the conventionally janky enemy encounters.

However, not all of the demo’s jank is quite so intentional or charming. Fights with enemies are unbalanced, as the attack patterns of close-combat foes are easy to exploit, while ranged enemies are instead?? rather difficult to avoid and can wipe out a full health status in only a couple of hits.

In addition, the demo still has a few bugs to iron out, ranging from small UI error??s, to loading glitches that can soft-lo?ck your save file.

But a??ll of these issues are easily exc?usable from a demo version, especially from such a small indie game developer.

“There are var??ious challenges, ranging from the technical difficulties of imp?lementing certain mechanics we want in the game, to the simple lack of resources,â€?explains Anpilov. 

With over an hour of gameplay, the demo provides a surprisingly succinct and contained story, but Anpoliv expressed that “this is just one of many locations.�/p>

“Becrowned will feature a dark fantasy s?etting with the ruins of majestic castles, industrial horror with concrete jungles, and classic Lovecraftian horror with sea monsters. All of this is connected by a grand narrative,�said Anpilov.

“This year, we all got together to film video material for in-game live-action content. It was amazing! We had very little time for the shoot, and each of us worked perfectly as part of a big, well-oiled machine.�/p>

Becrowned is targeting a release on Windows and macOS, with full Steam Deck optimization. The team hopes to be able to bring the game to Ni??ntendo Switch in the future as well.

The post Becrowned is the manifestation of fans’ love for old-school horror appeared first on Destructoid.

The Wholesome Games Steam Celebration is underway on Valve's storefront until August 21, with tons of demos? to try and sales galore.

For those who don’t know, Wholesome ?Games is a community lead organization that lifts up indie devs creating wholesome games. I spent the last few days playing a couple of the demos a??vailable, and put together a list of cute games with demos you should try right now.

Europa

My favorite demo I played had to be Europa. It is a gorgeous 3D exploration platformer akin to Journey, b??ut ins?tead of a desert, you explore a lush alien planet as a little robot boy.

The whole feel of it is stunning and almost brought me to tears with its astounding music, art, and story. The demo left me wanting more and I am so ready to experience the rest. Europa doesn’t have a release date, but will be coming to PC and Nin?tendo Switch.

Mika and the Witch’s Mountain

If you ever wanted a Kiki’s Delivery Service video game, this is it! In Mika and the Witch's Mountain, you'll have a blast delive?ring packages on the bac?k of a magical flying broom.

It’s very charming and just fun to fly around, although the broom you start with doesn’t fly very high. To fly higher, you'll have to deliver more packages to get better brooms. You won’t have to wait long for the full game, as Mika and the Witch's Mountain is out on August 21 on PC and Nintendo Switch.

Misc. A Tiny Tale

I’m a sucker for 3D platformer collectathons and tiny characters in a big world. Fortunately, Misc. A Tiny Tale combines those two so well, alongside some Chibi-Robo! vibes.

The demo has the first two chapters, where you run aroun?d as a tiny robot collecting golden gears and solving problems for the residents. There’s even some challenging, but not-required, platforming levels �it has a bit of everything for every platforming fan.

Misc. is aiming for an early 2025 release date for PC, and the new demo will b??e available until August 21.

Bubblegum Galaxy

Bubblegum Galaxy is a combination o??f an office sim and grid-based strategy, where y?ou try to rebuild a galaxy. How do you do this? By sitting at a laptop, placing down tiles, and matching shapes to get as many points as possible.

In between building the galaxy, you can talk with your co-workers around the office. It’s all really fun and works well together. If you like cutesy art styles, endearing humor, strategy puzzles, and a little bit of weirdness, this one's for you. Bubblegum Galaxy doesn’t have a release date, but the demo is playable now until August 21. It’ll be???? available on PC first, with possible console ports.

After Love EP

After Love EP threw me for a loop. I was not expecting a rhythm game and vis??ual novel that tackles the heavy tones of grieving after the loss of a ??loved one.

But despite the dour tone, its upbeat art and indie rock music really drew me in, alongside fantastic writing. After Love EP comes out Q3 2024 and will be availab?le on PC, Nintendo S??witch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S/X.

Detective Dotson

Got a random c??ase or random task that you need solved? Dotson is on the case.

I loved the humor of this detective game set in modern-day India, where you’ll be solving various cases in weird ways, such as going to a party disguised as someone who did not want? to. As you listen to people or complete their tasks, you’ll get different clues to solve different case?s on a corkboard, or maybe get a new disguise to get into new areas.

It’s a lovable and short slice, and I’d recommend it??????????????????????????. The demo is available now until August 22 and the full game will relea??se in Q4 of 2024 on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and mobile.

Aloft

Aloft is an exploration survival game that takes place on islands in the sky. While I am not a survival game fan myself, Aloft hooked me with its beautiful colorful art style (albeit with some frame drops) and its focus on creat?ing a meditative experience.

You can play t??he demo alpha version right now, which includes up to eight player multiplayer. Early access will be available Q3 2024 on PC.

On Your Tail

On Your Tail is an open-world story detective game th?at also doubles as a card game. You play as Diana, a detective who is trying to also have a peacef??ul summer vacation.

You’ll gather cards by talking with the townsfolk, exploring new locations, and gathering clues, all to figure out different mysteries. But don’t worry, you’ll have time to relax by doing things like fishing as well. On Your Tail is?? coming to Nintendo Switch a?nd PC sometime in 2024 and you can play the demo now.

Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island

Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island is a self-described “friend-em-up�that has an?? interesting premise. You play as Alex, an explorer whose boat crashed onto a mysterious island that is inhabited by Greek gods who don’t really remember who they are.

The demo had me bouncing around the island to help Hermes feed some birds and gather some apples. The gameplay is very focused on having deep conversations and making friends with odd characters, making it a total delight. MythWrecked is available 2024 on PC, Xbox One and Series S|X a?nd the demo is a??vailable now.

Arctic Awakening

A survival game with a story as the focus and it has a friendly drone comp?anion? Sign me up!

This demo sees a disgruntled pilot crash landing in the Alaskan wilderness, where he has to rely on an overly-friendly drone to survive. I loved the humorous, fully-voiced dialogue; excellent work from the voice actors. Arctic Awakening will be out on Steam in Early Access sometime in 2024 and the ?demo is out now.

The post 10 demos ??to try during the Wholesome Games Steam Celebration appeared first on Destructoid.

Gaming’s indie horror scene has hit it off strong in 2024 with the likes of Crow Country and Withering Rooms making a great impression among critics and players alike. But the second half of the year is stacked wi??th even more excellent looking horror games on the horizon from smaller publishers and independent development teams.

The following games have been lurking in the shadows for long enough. Here's a spotlight on what's to come for in??die horror fans during the rest of 20??24.

CONSCRIPT

Unlike any of the other games listed here today, CONSCRIPT does not feature supernatural entities or undead gho??uls. Instead, it focuse??s on the atrocities of war, and the toll it takes on the soldiers ordered to conduct it. The game is played from the perspective of a French soldier during World War I attempting to survive in the trenches over the course of the years-long conflict.

Inspired by the likes of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, CONSCRIPT adapts the combat and puzzle mechanics from classic survival-horror games in its portrayal of the historical horrors. After seven years in the making, CONSCRIPT is finally available now as of July 23, 2024, as well as a demo currently availab??le on Steam.

Zoochosis

Anybody yet unfamiliar with Zoochosis would have thus been unable to draw obvious comparisons, so now is as good a time as any to head that off at the pass: if John Carpenter’s The Thing was set in a zoo, you would have Zoochosis.

With that established, this first-person simulation game casts players as a night-shift zookeeper while an infectious disease spreads among the animal residents, ?causing them to undergo a macabre metamorphosis into hostile, disfigured abominations. Job responsibilities involve socializing with the animals, feeding them, cleaning up their spaces, and monitoring them to ensure they don’t grow an excess of limbs and scale the walls of their enclosure. Standar??d procedure.

In order to ??prevent? further loss of life - be it the animals or their own - the protagonist must develop vaccines to spare the animals from transforming. The player’s decisions will affect whether or not they can be saved in time, as well as which ending they receive.

Prepare to capture all the grisly body horror through the body camera lens when Zoochosis is freed from its cage on September 23, 2024.

Post Trauma

With its unsettling designs and focus on psychological horror, Post Trauma is shaping up to be ?a very promising debut title from Red Soul Games.

Our protagonist, Roman, is a heavy-set tr??ain conductor in his late 50s, who finds himself trapped in a warped subway system inhabited by disturbed creatures and infested with malignant tendrils, lining the dismal tunnels the deeper he explores.

The cryptic puzzles and fixed-camera angles are inspired by classic horror franchises, with the setting in particular evoking the opening hours of Silent Hill 4: The Room. Post Trauma is on schedule for a fall 2024 arrival, but for those eager to get on board, a demo for the game is available on itch.io.

Clock Tower: Rewind

The Clock Tower series has a storied history as one of the original gaming horror franchises that ended up fading into obscurity. The premier game in the series, Clock Tower, was released for the Super Famicom in 1995 by Human Entertainment, but now WayForward is debuting it outside of Japan for the first time with Clock Tower: Rewind, an enhanced port for modern platforms.

This point-and-click adventure horror title puts players in the role of a young girl named Jennifer, who is among?? a group of orphans that have recently been adopted and sent away to an old Norwegian mansion. However, shortly after their arrival, the children find themselves pursued by a half-pint killer wielding a set of scissors twice his stature. With the aptly named Scissorman stalking the manor halls, Jennifer must locate the rest of her adoptive siblings? while evading the murderous prowler.

Get your oversized scissors ready, the ribbon cutting for the game’s release is set for October 31 in Japan, with other regions listing a October 11 - November 11 shipping window.

Bye Sweet Carole

Developer: Little Sewing Machine - Meangrip Studios
Publisher: Maximum Entertainment
Platforms: PS5, PS4, XSX|S, XBO, Switch, PC (Steam)
Release: 2024

On the subject of Clock Tower, this twisted take on a classic Disney animation blends the run-and-hide gameplay and side-scrolling perspective of the former with the aesthetic of Snow White or Alice in Wonderland. From the creator of the Remothered series, Bye Sweet Carole’s authentic hand-drawn presentation appears pleasant and inviting, starkly juxtaposing its dark them?es and violent imagery.

When a young girl named Carole goes missing from an orphanage, her fellow resident and friend Lan?a goes searching for her, and in the process finds another world unlike her own full of strange creatures and homicidal hares that will hunt Lana throughout the game.

Be prepared to get lost g??oing ??down this rabbit hole when the game releases later in 2024.

Hollowbody

At first glance, Hollowbody presents itself as a sci-fi noir story, starring an illegal smuggler named Mica in search of their partner Sasha, who went missing on a dangerous job in a restricted area alone. Mica attempt??s to follow after her, but upon entering the restricted airspace, her flying vehicle malfunctions and crash lands amid a dilapidated suburb hidden beneath the clouds. With the futuristic-cyberscape veneer stripped away, Mica is left stranded in a morose town full of plague-ridden monsters.

Emulating the aesthetic of a PS2-era horror title, Hollowbody features a mix of dynamic- and fixed-camera angles alo??ng with traditional survival-?horror combat and puzzle solving.

Hollowbody will only be roughly three hours long, aiming to be a short-story, b??ut players that are on the fence can try out a newly updated demo on Steam before the game releases l?ater this year.

Sorry We’re Closed

A vibrant standout from the pack, Sorry We’re Closed is no less rife with macabre creatures, rustic environments ?and unholy imagery.

A curse has been placed on our protagonist, Michelle, that threatens to cut her life short in a manner of days; however, the demon that inflicted the curse barters an opportunity to lift it if Michelle ventures into the dangers of the demon world to fulfill their bidding. Sorry We're Closed is played from a fixed-camera perspective and, with the use of a Third Eye granted to her, Michelle can peer into the parallel reality of the demon world. This vision can also expose weak points on enemies, allowing her to dis??pose of enemies in first-person combat.

With numerous diverse characters to ??en??gage with and influence, player’s choices will lead to multiple outcomes in determining the fate of Michelle’s story.

A demo is availa??ble on Stea?m now, with the full release expected for some time in 2024.

Echoes of the Living

Perfectly encapsulating the visuals and atmosphere of the Resident Evil (2002) remake, Echoes of the Living is a love letter to the clas??sic franchise, with two playable characters, zombie filled streets, fixed camera angles, and elaborate puzzles.

The plot is a direct homage to Resident Evil 2, right down to the dual protagonists of a young lady looking for her brother father and a new guy in town looking for a fre?sh start right before a zombie outbreak sweeps through a small town, all set in the late '90s.

While it may not be an original idea, it is certainly a welcome one if it can pull off the same level of tension and design as i?ts inspirations. A playable demo was previously available d?uring the October 2023 Steam Next Fest, so hopefully the game will receive another demo prior to launch, which is listed for release in 2024.

Tormented Souls 2

Keeping in theme with Resident-Evil-like games, the original Tormented Souls from 2021 garnered attention for its traditional approach to survival horror, including restrictive fixed-camera exploratio??n and combat paired with perplexing puzzles, all set in a detailed and claustrophobic hospital.

Tormented Souls 2 retains these core elements as it furthers the story of protagonist Caroline Walker, who now must seek out a cure for a supernatural illness that plagues her younger sister, Anna. Her search brings her to the South American town of Puerto Miller that harbors a deranged cult with a dark and storied history.
Although details are still scarce, this up-and-coming horror franchise is set to arrive later this year.

Fear the Spotlight

As part of the Blumhouse Games publishing initiative for smaller horror projects, Fear the Spotlight leads the pa??ck with an impressive start. This polygonal adventure garbs itself with a retro aesthetic, but features a mode?rn third-person perspective with a fully voice-acted narrative.

The story follows a young girl named Vivian, who has been convinced by her friend Amy ?to break into their school after dark in order to perform a hokey séance for fun; that is, until actual spirits are summoned forth, and Amy’s demeanor changes from thrill-seeking teen to an indoctrinated acolyte of dark forces. Now pursued by a spotlight-head monster, Vivian must hide from its gaze to survive, all the while solving puzzles, uncovering mysteries, and trying to find Amy to escape the school with their lives.

Although Fear the Spotlight was originally released in 2023, the developers removed this version in order to ??undergo a major overhaul of features and con?tent before re-releasing in 2024.

The post 10 promising indie-sized horror ??games slated for the second half of 2024 appeared first on Destructoid.

Fans of Crypt of the Necrodancer don't have the biggest catalog of games that bear strong similarities, but Freaked Fleapit is a new title that appears interested in being that, and then some. Two weeks ago, the demo released for this title, and it seems like Freaked Fleapit might be onto something.

The premise of Freaked Fleapit is simple, a??t least for a video game. Andy just died and went to Hell. He wants his soul back, and has to fight through 9 circles of Hell to reclaim it. In the meantime, he can chat with the stylized anime girls who also happen to be there, and pick one to join him in his attempt to escape.

Fleapit aims to entice its players with procedura?lly generated levels and exploration that leads to the discovery of secret rooms, side quests, and mini games. Side quests lead to the opportunity to take the player's preferred "Lady of the Fleapit" on a date. And then there's the combat.

Freaked Fleapit has players tap to the beat, and developer Finch Bird Studio has consistently noted the game's Multilayered Music System, which appears to function similarly to games like Crypt of the Necrodancer. The music also dynamically shifts based on the situation the player is in, such as the type of room and combat. There is rogue-ish progression similar to Enter the Gungeon and The Binding of Isaac, where players can customize a build based on upgrades they pick up each run, such ??as a skill that multiplies damage by x1.5 when health is at down to one, or another that unleashes AOE damage every hit you take.

The style of this game is hard to overlook, which can be attributed to the talented team of artists working on the game, such as the game's lead artist, a popular digital artist known as Mr.Psina, flashy pixel art done by Todo Asano, and excellent music by Magnetude.

Additionally, Freaked Fleapit features a stacked cast in both English and Japanese. The English cast includes the likes of LilyPichu, as well as Chloe Eves, Sarah Ann Williams, Crystal Lee, Melissa Medina, Kelsey Jaffer and Steven Kelly. The Japanese cast has well known actors like Jun Fukuyama, Shiori Izawa, Ami Koshimizu, Sayaka Ohara, Yumi Hara, Rie Kugimiya, and Uesaka Sumire. Japanese-speaking players seem to be loving the localization, too.

Crowdfunding for Freaked Fleapit closed after an Indiegogo campaign raised â‚?4,606 EUR, and while the exact release date is unknown, publisher Critical Reflex plans to release Freaked Fleapit on PC and Switch. A demo is available on Steam.

The post Freaked Fleapit is an interesting spin on the Necrodancer style of rogue-rhythm dungeon cra?wling appeared first on Destructoid.

Helldivers 2 is a somewhat ?unexpected success, cu??rrently sitting at the top of the PSN charts and taking over the hearts and minds of gaming everywhere.

Unfortunately, it may be taking over too many hearts and minds, as developer Arrowhead Game Studios has found out with a slew of crashes and server instability issues. It's a good problem to have, but a problem nonetheless, which is why the devs have taken a drastic st?ep to fix the problem.

Helldivers 2 caps player count at 450k

Announced in the official Helldivers 2 Discord and reported on Twitter by Wario64, Helldivers 2 concurrent playe??r counts have been capped at 450,000.

It's a drastic step for a game that relies on multiplayer and may only further compound issues that have been frustrating players. Server failure errors and long log-in queues have been the name of the game for Helldivers to date. The game is actually just winding down a bonus XP weekend an??nounced held to compensate players who had been impacted by previous server instability.

Addressing these stability issues has been the top priority for Arrowhead, who rolled out a patch as recently as February 14 to attempt to further optimize matchmaking.

Wh?ile the cap may not be the best news for pl?ayers, they can find some solace in that Arrowhead regards it as a temporary issue, and are working to raise the cap further to allow for more players and better stability.

Helldivers 2 is available now on PlayStation 5 and PC.

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Forget The Walking Dead?; now it's The Playing Dead, as The Walking Dead: Betray?al is being pulled from Steam and offering a refund.

The game's being pulled after Skybound Games and Other Ocean Interactive were "not able to find a path to build the spirited community of backstabbers we originally envisioned," the developers said in a blog shared to the game's Steam page.

The game, which has been available in Early Access since September, never received a full release. It's the second stumble for the otherwise popular Walking Dead franchise this year. The Walking Dead: Destinies, which was release?d earlier in December, was the subject of minor co?ntroversy surrounding its graphics.

What was The Walking Dead: Betrayal?

Announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2023, The Wal?king Dead Betrayal was a social deduction game that blended elements of? The Walking Dead and Among Us.

Players would work together in teams o??f Survivors to escape hordes of walkers. However, the social element came into play via "Traitors," Survivors whose goal is to sabotage the team for their own success.

As of the announcement of its closure, the game sits at a "mixed" rating on Steam, across a meager 111 reviews. Many reviews regard the game as fine, though several lament the waning player base. Others draw attention to the similarities to Other Ocean's previous game, Project Winter, which had a similar gameplay loop.

How to get a refund for The Walking Dead: Betrayal

For players who purchased the game through Steam, getting ??a refund for The Walking Dead: Betrayal is as simple as requesting one through Steam.

Users who purchased the game through a retailer will need to contact that retailer. More information is available on the game's store page.

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Halloween is upon us, and Steam is still going strong with?? a spooky weeklong sale. If you're not in the mood ??to wear a costume and consume a questionable amount of candy, you may find entertainment in Steam’s latest deals until November 2.

Steam Scream: The Revenge �the sale's formal title �lets players get up to 90% off on a wide selection of scary games. Although these deals end soon, the daily free rewards from the Points Shop as well as the discounted video games are wort??h a look if you haven't glanced at it yet.

While there are many standout video games you can purchase in thi?s sale, here are 10 titles I recommend for those looking to get the most scares for their buck:

• Inside - $1.99 (90% off)
• Black Mesa - $3.99 (80% off)
• Amnesia: The Dark Descent - $3.99 (80% off)
• Back 4 Blood - $11.99 (80% off)
• Pathologic 2 - $6.99 (80%)
• Darkwood - $3.74 (75% off)
• Duskers - $9.99 (50% off)
• Rusty Lake Hotel - $1.19 (40% off)
• Amnesia: The Bunker - $18.74 (25% off)
• Signalis - $15.99 (20% off)

If nothing listed here interests you, Steam will host some other larger scale sales in the near future. On November 21, Steam will launch its Autumn Sale. Furthermore, the famous Ste??am Winter Sale starts on December 21, just before Chris??tmas.

??Steam Scream: The Revenge is live now, take advantage of it!

The post 10 games to grab before th??e Steam Halloween sale ends appeared first on Destructoid.

Publisher tinyBuild and developer Scythe Dev Team, the developers behind popular creepy restaurant simulator Happy's Humble Burger Farm have revealed their new title, Return to Northbury Grove. Those interested in some spooky goodness don't have to wait long because the new title is out...well...now. Players can download the free Action Adventure title for free on Steam.

VR Only

It appears VR is required to experience Return to Northbury Grove, as the notice on the Steam page indicates a VR headset is requir??ed. For now, it looks like OpenXR, Oculus XR, SteamVr, and WMR are the supported platforms.

In Return to Northburgy Grove,? players take on the role of Liam Murphy, an aspiring actor determined to land the role of a lifetime at the infamous Rock the Warehouse music festival. When he gets there though, the concert grounds are desolate and Liam gets kidnapped and thrown into the basement of the Spector Forest Slasher's kill-house.

In classic Scythe Dev Team fashion, the visuals and audio are chilling, to say the least. According to the ??Steam Page, choice??s matter and can impact your survival in real time. Adaptive AI makes no two playthroughs the same.

I'm not quite on the VR train just yet, but this is certainly the kind of game meant for VR. It's like a slasher horror movie except in VR. After playing HHBF I know that Scythe kno??ws how to nail a creepy a??tmosphere, so I'm sure it's a journey.

Return to Northbury Grove is available now for free on Steam.

The post Happy’s Humble Burger Farm devs release free VR title Return to Northbury Grove appeared first on Destructoid.

It's been twenty years since Valve launched Steam. Devised as a way to push updates for games online, Steam blossomed into the juggernaut PC gaming storefront it is today, including hardware like the Valve Index and the Steam Deck. Now, Valve is celebrating its 2??0th birthday with a sale, commemorating the storefront's legacy, and the ?biggest games on the platform throughout the years.

Steam's Anniversary Sale scores deals on games of yesteryear

Booting up Steam, players will be greeted on the store with a banner for Steam's 20th anniversary celebration. Valve also redesigned the website's homepage with a 2003 look. The celebration itself includes heavy discounts on all Valve titles. Alongside this, players will be able to look back on some fun facts from Steam's history throughout the years. All of which, is accompanied by special art showcasing Valve characters re-enacting notable memes and pop culture references throughout history. Notable pieces on the page include Scout from Team Fortress 2 as Rick Astley and a Keyboard Cat Headcrab. There's also Chell from Portal speaking her first words ever, those being "I'm sad, Wheatly play Despacito", and two Counter Strike characters mimicking the Barbie movie mugshots.

There are plenty of Steam sale titles added straight from Valve's library, of course. Portal, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, and others are among those listed for 90% off. That leaves some of them discounted to less than a dollar, while Half-Life Alyx sits at $20.39.

However, the sale doesn't only celebrate Valve titles. Under each fun fact from 2003-2023, players will see a list of the top-selling games of that year. Aside from the Valve titles, players can score discounts on games like Arma 3, Total War Rome II: Emporer Edition, Watch Dogs, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!, Assassin's Creed Origins, and all Call of Duty titles (except Modern Warfare 3 (2011). The ever-popular Battlebit: Remastered is discounted as well.

Valve also took to their official Steam YouTube channel to deliver a thank yo???u message to everyone, which also showcases a Halloween costume of a seductive Steam Deck. Steam's 20th-anniversary celebration will continue from today until September 19, So players have a chan?ce to celebrate for the rest of the week??.

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Everyone relates with a sad trombone

A couple of times a year, a "Phenomenon Game" pops up out of nowhere and is suddenly the talk of the town. Trombone Champ fits that description. It became a viral meme seemingly overnight, but this genius comedy game didn't come from nowhere. The people who made Trombone Champ had to stick with it for three difficult years, working only on nights and wee??kend??s, to put it all together.

The game was created by industry veterans Dan and Jackie Vecchitto. They've been self-publishing games for about a decade, and most of their projects have been free. Trombone Champ is actually the first title they've ever sold on Steam, so you can imagine their surprise when it went on to sell 20,000+ copies in its launch window, prompting NBC, The New York Times, and the CBC to all come calling for interviews.

[embed??]//www.youtube.c??om/watch?v=mOaYsW-Q1lU[/embed]

Much to my surprise, they were also willing to talk to me for my Talking to Women about Videogames podcast (also on iTunes and Spotify). It's a small-time show by NBC standards, but since they had an OK time on Sup, Holmes (an interview live stream show for game devs I used to do), I guess they didn't mind coming back for another talk eight years later. I've been rooting for these two ever since then, long before I knew they were the people who made Trombone Champ, and it's been so great to see those roots grow into a tree made of trombones, thousands of dollars, an??d mainstream media attention.

We got into all that plus the couple's love of Star Trek, D&D, gno?mes, my theories on the autobiogra??phical nature of their gameography, and a lot more. Thanks again to Dan and Jackie for taking the time, and doing it on video to boot. It was (ahem) a "hoot."

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After 10 years can't we make Guild Peace instead of Guild War?

If you started playing Guild Wars 2 back in 2012, did you ever think you'd still be playing today? Hell, I can't make it ten hours through a game, let alone spend a whole decade playing through! But I digress �I still pop in Skyrim from time to time, so I think I know what all you warring guild fans g??o through. I feel your pain.

Well, today you can turn that pain into pleasure by winning a Steam copy of Guild Wars 2 Complete Collection! This new bundle just dropped featuring all three main expansions, all five ep??isodic seasons of Living World, and more than 10 years' worth of story and content! So if you're an old vet or new to the series, you've got plenty of game waiting for you! Come win it, y'all.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0x1qgygPto

Guild Wars 2 Complete Collection

My guild, The Lollipop Guild, discourages m??e from promoting?? other guilds so you'll have to let this official write-up do for now.

That’s right! The award-winning Guild Wars 2 is live on Steam, marking the first time the critically-acclaimed MMORPG will be available on a third-party platform. To coincide with the launch, a content bundle, the Guild Wars 2 Complete Collection, is now available and Destructoid is giving away five codes to five lucky winners. Priced at $99.97, the bundle lets players experience the first 10 years of Guild Wars 2 in one package, including; all three expansions (Heart of Thorns, Path of Fire, End of Dragons), and al??l five seasons of the game’s episodic Livin??g World content.

Take a quick tour through Tyria’s history and catch a glimpse into what the Guild Wars 2 Complete Collection has to offer in this lat?est trailer.

I've never played this one but I watched the trailer, and there's a lot going on! You can pick between five races, including but not limited to Human, Ember, and Refrigerator with Helmet, which I think is really forward-?thinking. There are also a dozen jobs to take on, such as Paladin, Lancer, Firefighter, Sous Chef, and my personal favorite, Secretary to the Historian. They really went all out with this one, folks!

[caption id="attachment_341348" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] _{This is my character, an Accoutred Canine named Bharkin, and my trusty manservant Luis de Gallo.}[/caption]

How To Win

Entering to win is easier than firing up ??this free-to-play game an?d hopping into the fray �all you have to do is leave your name and email address below. That's it. You can earn bonus entries by completing other steps, and by sharing this contest with your friends.

We have five Steam copies of the complete collection to give away; you must have a Steam account and functioning soul to redeem. It is not recommended you play ??as a Human wit?h a job in IT. Trust us on this one, you're in for a bad time if you go this route.

Guild Wars 2 Complete Collection is available now for Steam.

Contest: Win Guild Wars 2 Complete Collection ?for Steam

The post Contest: Win Gui?ld Wars 2 Complete C??ollection for Steam appeared first on Destructoid.

We all have a hunger

What's the hungriest you've ever been? If it came down to it, would you eat trash? The family pet? Your cousin Pat? These are the questions posed by multiplayer survival game Dread Hunger. As I don't know how to cook I'd probably be screwed either way, but now you can exp??erience for yourself just how far you'd go to survive!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI-3h0JXjic&t=1s

Well, this is a new one to me! Dread Hunger is an eight-person survival game with a twist -- two players are traitors, sent to kill the others using any means necessary. Like sabotage or magicks or outright murder. Then, I guess you can eat them! Ya gotta survive, right? Th??at's kinda the point of the game.

Read these bullet points I copied from Steam:

• Survive the Arctic
  Build fires to stay warm, fend off wolves and other predators, and hunt for food to stay alive in the brutal and unforgiving Canadian Arctic.
• Betray Your Friends
  Feed them tainted food, lure animals to attack them, hex them with blood magic, or if all else fails�just shoot them in the back.
• You Are What You Eat
  In the Arctic, you’ll have to make some grim choices to stay fed. Butcher bodies and use the pieces as weapons - or food.
• Captain a Ship
  Steer a 19th century warship around (or into) icebergs. Find coal for the ever-hungry boiler to keep the ship moving... or blow it up.
• Brave a Perilous World
  Plan around a full day and night cycle, contend with unexpected whiteouts, and try to outrun a massive blizzard that looms over the expedition.

It must be popular as according to my sources, it's had over 60 thousand concurrent players on Steam o??ver the last 24 hours. Also! T??hese little tidbits in the Mature Content Description always make me giggle:

Sometimes dead people have willies.

Sometimes they do, my friends. Sometimes they do.

To enter to win your copy of Dread Hunger, us?e the contest widget below to leave your name an??d email address. You can enter daily. There are also ways to earn bonus entries, so play along if you're not chicken. Turkeys are cool, and geese and pretty sweet, but we do not suffer chickens.

We have 20 Steam keys to give away. We'll draw winners around this?? time next week. Or maybe a little later. I have a job and a family to run here, people.

Dread Hunger is available now on Steam.

Contest: Sate your appetite and win Dread Hunger on St??eam

The post Contest: Sate ??your appetite and win Dread Hunger o?n Steam appeared first on Destructoid.

And maybe also some coffee

The demo for Cafe Owner Simulator just kept getting more confusing for me. For starters, it has a header that looks suspiciously like the one used by House Flipper and its various DLC. However, it’s ??not related to that developer or publisher. Then you ge??t into it and it tells you how your freakishly proportioned father used to run restaurants and you’re taking over that dream.

Wait, weren't we talking about cafes?

No, that’s plainly a bar in the image. Then you get to the point where you actually pick the menu and you’re given opt?ions like lasagna and various Japanese dishes. So I looked up the definition of cafe because I’m pretty sure “cafe�is just French for coffee. It seems Americans use it to describe everything from nightclubs to diners. I’ve probably never seen that here in Canada because it would confuse the French-speaking population.

In any case, Cafe Owner Simulator is a first-person restaurant manager and its demo is available as part of the Steam Next Fest. I just wanted to get that out of the way.

The demo for Cafe Owner Simulator starts off about as predictably as you can get. You’re in front of a derelict building that is covered in garbage, and it’s up t?o yo??u to click on all that trash to get rid of it. Replace the windows, catch the rats, reshingle the roof; then it’s time to decorate.

Cafe Owner Simulator: Prologue shows off a lot of options for indoor decorations, but the ones that you can purchase in the demo are pretty limited. One inte?resting facet is that appliances have to be plugged into an outlet, but you can slap those outlets anywhere, like, say, directly above the sink. You build your menu, but I’m not sure why you’d pick one dish over the other at this point. You order groceries, but don’t order more than four at a time, because any boxes beyond that will just disappear.

I slapped down some tables, hired a dude, then opened the place up. Customers started arriving one at a time. I just�watched as they slowly loped their way down the path to the restaurant. You take their order, then the dude starts making it; eventually delivering it to your register so you can ta??ke it to the customer to poke at.

[embed]//youtu.be/ZIi06c3z5mI[/embed]

You can only queue up one order per employee, which is baffling to me. I’ve never worked in food services, but I know that orders are queued up on ticke??ts, however many people cooking be damned. So you just sit there, staring at the customer until your dude finishes with the last person’s meal. You can buy a second prep table and hire another dude, which would have been nice to know before I opened the restaurant.

Eventually, the gods tire of your worthless endeavor and you’re hit by some sort of storm. It looks like ??a sandstorm, but your eatery is surrounded by coniferous trees and a wandering moose, so that seems unlikely. It does, however, fade the game to black. Thank goodness, I was getting tired of the slow service.

Cafe Owner Simulator needs a lot of work. Not just squashing bugs, but also fleshing out some of the mechanics. The developer is collecting feedback, so hopefully, some of the many wrinkles can be ironed out. I like first-person builder games and I like management games, it’s just that Cafe Owner Simulator’s demo doesn’t make a good case for their marriage. I’ll be watching thi?s one, so I hope it doesn’t get performance anxi??ety.

The post Cafe Owner Simulator needs a lot more renovation appeared first on Destructoid.

A heaven for those who gotta go fast

Neon White was already pretty high on my own list of most-anticipated games this year. The indie project from Angel Matrix and Donut County creator Ben Esposito looked like a fast, gorgeous shooter.

The good news is that it's just that. But I can also confirm, after playing the Neon White demo currently available as part of Steam Next Fest, it's a little bi?t more. The game isn't just about taking out demons, but doing it fast. And it's built to make you keep w?anting to reset the level for a new time.

The story pin of Neon White is that you're a badass who's died and gone to not-quite-heaven. Recruited to be one of many demon hunters called "Ne?ons" by heaven's angels, you—Neon White—compete with other Neons to earn a ticket into the more pleasant side of the afterlife.

These competitions take place in stylish but easily readable levels, where you run from start to finish line, extermin??ating every demon and finishing as fast as possible. At the conclusion of the run, you get a grade. Bronze simply counts as a clear, and is usually pr?etty forgiving. Silver gets a little tougher, but adds a special gift to the level, usually off the beaten path. Gold unlocks some helpful speedrunning hints, and Acing a level opens up the global leaderboard.

The ranking system is one of several reasons why Neon White feels like the perfect entry point to time-trial competition and speedrunning. The staggered approach makes it easy for those who want to just clear levels to keep moving on, while those who want to really jockey for a top spot get more tools as they shave seconds off their times. The hints system is particularly effective, and restarting a level has a snappiness that reminds me of Hotline Miami.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lUw7fMdNKE

Neon White is also pretty easy to pick up. On a keyboard and mouse, it's mostly just WASD and Space to move around, with an extra key dedicated to swapping your soul cards (weapons). Each card has a main fire and alt-fire; a reusable damage source and a one-off ??utility effect that "burns" the card. The pistol is a standard, semi-auto pistol, but sacrificing it gives you a double-jump. The ma??chine gun launches a delayed-detonation grenade, which can also damage boost you across gaps.

What's great is how simple and clean this movement feels in the moment. There is no crouch-jumping or weird reaches across the keyboard. Neon White does an impressive amount with its inputs.

This extends out to the levels, where different routes are made apparent through repeat runs. I might take the long way aroun?d the first time, before realizing that I could use a damage boost to skip a major portion of the level. Demons tend to mark the critical path, but geometry is at your discretion. The hint markers really help get y??ou in this mindset too, pointing out some clever skips to help reach an Ace.

While the vaporwave heaven of Neon White was visually appealing all on its own, this Steam demo has really brought another strength to the fore: its speedrunning potential. Speedrunner Bryonato showed off some of its potential in a sho??rt segment on the Next Fest st?ream, and it already looks great.

Already, I'm st?arting to trade times with friends and compete for hundredths of a second's advantage. The leaderboard that pops up after every clear amps up that drive, egging me on ??with every inch I gain on friends' times.

Neon White looks pretty interesting visually and conceptually, and it's good to know now that the gameplay matches up too. If the fin??al version keeps the same energy and drive of its opening levels, this could be one to watch.

Neon White is coming to Nintendo Switch and Steam sometime this year. You can find the Steam page and demo here.

The post Neon White speaks to my inner speedrun?ning sicko with its demo appeared first on Destructoid.

Extra launchers are like per-channel streaming services: not needed

Another launcher bits the dust. The Bethesda launcher is no more by the time May 2022 hits, and you can transfer to S??team a month early in April.

Here's the gist, and the bolded part is important?:

"We’re saying goodbye to the Bethesda.net Launcher this year. We would like to thank you for your support and assure you that all of your games are safe. If you’re not playing PC games through the Bethesda.net launcher then your work is done here. Thanks for reading! If you do have games through the Bethesda.net launcher, don’t worry. Starting in early April you’ll be able to migrate your games and Wallet to your Steam account. For more details on what this process will look like, read on. You have plenty of time to plan and begin migrating your Bethesda.net library to your Steam account. The migration to Steam will include your game library and Wallet �meaning you will not lose anything from your Bethesda.net account."

Basically everything will transfer from the Bethesda launcher. Saves, character progress for Fallout 76, atoms (microtransaction currency), seasonal progress, friends lists, the works. The only game saves that cannot transfer, curiously, involve Wolfenstein Youngblood. This seems to be as painless as possible, which is a hu??ge plus.

If you're impacted, you?? can find the entire article here with all the details. Fallout 76 has its own FAQ here, which is relevant because testing took place in the Bethesda launcher exclusively. According to the publisher, "going forward, playtesting ??for all?? future PTS phases will only be available on PC through Steam." Again, easy!

As for the closure; competition is good, in theory. Steam is a monolith, and if someone wants to come along and provide products in a different way, with advantages (like how GOG provides DRM-free games), so be it. Competition benefits ??everyone, as Steam has added consumer-friendly features in direct response to other services in ??a bid to stay relevant.

Having said that, not? every publisher needs their own launcher, especially if it's adding nothing of value.

The post The Bethe?sda launcher is dead, everyt?hing will move to Steam appeared first on Destructoid.

A single-sitting journey that'll stick with you

I want to tell you all about How Fish Is Made, a weirdly tense narrative-horror-flopping-sim-adventure game that's free on Steam (and itch.io) and can be cleared in 15 to 20 minutes without breaking a sweat �but at th?e same time, the less said, the better.

[caption id="attachment_309137" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{The opening moment of this game is already such a mood.}[/caption]

Do these screenshots conjure anything ins?ide you? Are you down to clown as "a sardine in a machine"? Is the trypophobia warning on the store page a deal-breaker?

If you're game, How Fish Is Made is worth a look �it's tense and strange. It's should click with you if you're open to the surreal (in gaming or otherwise), are okay with video games that aren't meant to be "fun" or mechanically "challenging" (so long as they have a point), and aren't too stressed out by (very effective) atmospheric sound design. Again, you're playing as a sardine in a wretched machine �it's not a pleasant experienc??e!

There's one standout moment with a certain unset??tling real-world creature I won't spoil that's just so wonderfully out-there. I won't soon forget it! And I also lik?e the way the game gnaws away at you. In the end, you'll make a choice, but will it be the right one?

[caption id="attachment_309160" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{You'll chat up lots of peculiar fish along the way.}[/caption]

How Fish Is Made was a collaboration between Johanna Kasurinen, Jeffrey Tomec, and Martin Halldin "as part of the FutureGames education in Sweden."

A big chunk of the free releases on Steam aren't as interesting as their thumbnails might suggest. How Fish Is Made sure is though. It even got a coveted Kojima thumbs-up.

_{[Nice find, hlarge4]}

The post How Fish Is Made is a freaky horror-adventure game that’s free on Steam appeared first on Destructoid.

Is the PC Port any good?

After about a year of exclusivity, Monster Hunter Rise is finally available on Steam via Capcom's new PC port. After Monster Hunter: World had an incredible showing on the PC platform, (especially when looking at sales and player count), one can only hope that Rise can impress. While not as technically impressive as World, it does run pretty great on PC. But is it enough for you to buy it again on PC? With the?? expansion co??ming up this year, it's time to decide which platform you want to play it on.

I figured I'd address some of the most important questions anyone might have when considering this, even if you aren't a double-dipper.

[Header image courtesy of this mod]

Tested on: Ryzen 3600X 3.8 GHz, 16GB of RAM, Geforce RTX 2070 Super, Windows 10. Framerate measured with NVIDIA GeForce Experience and Steam

How is the PC port, overall?

It's great! Monster Hunter Rise is not quite the high-fidelity game that World was, which makes i??t innately run a lot smoother on PCs. I mean, this is a Switch game, after all. Wi?th all the settings cranked up to High, my rig, which is definitely aging at this point, was able to consistently run at around 110 FPS (though I personally capped it while playing instead of leaving it unrestricted). While I never saw the framerate tank, there is noticeable screen tearing.

It's also worth mentioning that, while installed on an SSD, the load times are near-instant. It feels so great to just load right into a zone when launching into a new que?st. In fact, the increased framerate and load times are probably two of the biggest factors that would lead anyone to double-dip, along with mods. Everything is just so crisp and blazing fast, I love it.

Speaking of mods, there are already plenty of mods that will help hunters get to a level that is more consistent with what they might have on the Switch. I am, of course, referring to cheat engines and item-creation mods. While yes, this is, essentially, "cheating" your way through goals, I absolutely understand the allure of just granting yourself that Talisman that you love on Switch but simply don't feel like grinding for. And of course, it wouldn't be a blossoming mod scene without at least one Thomas the Tank Engine appearance.

When I played the port of World, I mentioned that I actually preferred playing with a mouse and keyboard; I don't think that is still true for me. I think it plays alright, and I do still prefer it for ranged weapons, but I do find myself going back to the comfort of a controller. The controls can be re-bound to basically anything, including side mouse buttons, which ??is great for a?ccessibility.

I have had issues with it launching onto either the wrong monitor or in weird pseudo-borderless mode until I fix the issue in the main menu. Other than that? I haven't noticed any bugs, glitches, or other oddities that would make me feel as if this port was sloppily done. That being said, scouring the negative reviews on S?team does show many use?rs with crashing and/or saving issues. This is clearly a minority of players, however, as it still maintains a "Very Positive" rating on Steam, with over 11,000 reviews in total as of now.

Can I transfer my save from the Switch?

No, but with mods, it is relatively simple to create a version of yourself that resembles what you may already have on Switch. Though you will have to play through the missions again. This can hurt, but at least the Monster Hunter franchise offers the ability to specialize in a new weapon type and increase your skills with that if you ?have to start all over again. So if you find yourself in this situation, why not just experiment with a weapon type you've always wanted to try?

Is it up-to-date with the Switch version?

As far as I can tell, yes it is. The PC port has the added benefit of having the event quests that came as a slow drip to the S?witch all at launch. This helps to break up some of the clusters of samey or boring standard quests Switch players had to deal with. The expansion is coming out this summer and will release simultaneously for both platforms.

It also launches with literally 100 DLC microtransactions, but really I've come to expect this from Monster Hunter by?? this point. And to be honest, some of them are pretty cool!

Can my PC even run it?

Very probably, yes! Here are ??the specifi??cations from the Steam store page:

Again, it's important to note that this is a Switch game and has no interest in pushing your PC to its limits, especially if you don't care much about what framerate it runs at. Limiting the FPS to 30 or 60 will ensure smooth game??play as long as your PC is alright-at-best.

If you aren't sure your rig will run it or just want to get a taste, there is a demo available on Steam!

Are there any PC-specific features?

As is expected of PC ports, the options menu has a plethora of things available to tinker with in order to get the best possible performance. There is even a spot in the Advanced Graphics settings that shows your Graphics Memory Usage and CPU Load. On PC, Monster Hunter Rise does support ultra-widescr??een monitors, HDR, and up to 4K resolutions (I have not personally tested these). Other than that, the aforementioned uncapped framerate and PC-specific mouse and keyboard controls are also available.

And of cour?se, all you have to do is scroll up to the top image in this post to be reminded about how amazing the modding ??community can be when it comes to PC games.

Does it have any type of DRM?

As expected, Monster Hunter Rise has Denovo, just like World did before it. World also removed it eventually, so anyone? looking to avoid this purchase until Denuvo is? gone, it's likely just a matter of time.

How will it work on the Steam Deck?

As of now, Monster Hunter Rise is not one of the verified games to run super smoothly on the Deck. Now, the Deck hasn't even been released yet and I'm sure the number of verified games is sure to skyrocket over time. I'm also pretty confident that Rise will end up runn?ing just fine on the Deck, but only time will tell for sure. Assuming it does, you won't even lose the idea of portability when playing the PC version if you own a Steam Deck!

I'm not double-dipping, should I buy the game?

If you enjoyed World, then I'd say that Rise is very likely also up your alley. If you were one of the few who thought that World was a step in the wrong direction after so many hardcore entries into the series, well Rise only makes things easier and simpler. If you have never played a Monster Hunter game before, then I think Rise is a great place to start. It's pretty easy, all things considered, and a bit light on content compared to previous entries (including World). The addition of the Wirebug has dramatic effects on the game in terms of combat, and all of the weapon types have new moves and alterations. If you're like me, you may find yourself upset at some of the cha?nges (RIP my beloved Hunting Horn playstyle), but just think of it as an excuse to branch out and try something new!

Check out our original review of Monster Hunter Rise, and if it sounds good, just know that it's even better when runn??ing on PC??.

_{[These impressions are based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Is it worth double-dipping for Monst??????????????????????????er Hunter: Rise on P??C? appeared first on Destructoid.

But might not appeal to anyone else

I have so many vivid memories of Monster Rancher growing up. For those unaware, this was a monster-training game (and anime!) in which players used their real-life CDs (those things before MP3s took over) to generate monsters. So imagine a who?le generation of gamers rifling through their collection of Backstreet Boys and Sum 41 CDs to find out which ones would provide the coolest and most powerfu??l monster in the game. Or maybe asking their dad for every AC/DC CD (that's fun to say!) in hopes that "Back in Black" might yield something other than another Suezo (the one-eyed poster child for the series).

It was an absolute blast and one that just hasn't been replicated for obvious reasons. Actually, I guess there was that one Digimon handheld device that scanned barcodes in the store to give you different Digimon. That was also really neat! But herein lies the problem: this shit is so late-1990s, and to be honest, I'm not really sure Monster Rancher holds up for anyone completely new to the idea.

Serio?usly, does anyone under the ag?e of 24 own a single music CD?

With the new DX version of these games, CD??-hunting has gone by the wayside.

Instead, Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX players simply type in an artist or album they want to use, and then click on the CD they want �and off it goes. Again, it's fun to be a millennial and think back to all those amazing artists we used to (and probably still do) jam out to. I didn't need a reason to recall Blind Melon's self-titled album and see what a??bomination the game spit out at me, but I sure as hell enjoyed doing it! But would anyone else who doesn't have nostalgia for the game and the time period? Probably not.

So, for the uninitiated and soon-to-be-disappointed, after generating a monster using masterpieces like No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom, players take their monstrosity bac??k to the ranch (hence the title) and train it. This is a very passive event; players simply pick a training program, then watch the monster do it. Sometimes they fail, sometimes they cheat, the little bastar?ds. Stats go up and down depending on the training program, and every once in a while, monsters can go on bigger training programs to learn new moves.

This all culminates wi?th the monster fighting in tournaments. The fighting itself can be passive or active, but even the active method isn't very mechanically engaging. Mon?sters go monstro a monstro (please laugh) and shimmy back and forth while executing attack moves. Players can tell their monster which move to use, but only if they are at the right distance apart from their opponent. Early on, monsters will occasionally not listen, making it all the more...exciting? To be honest, it's kind of lame to describe, but dang if I don't get hyped up while yelling at my little shit for not listening or missing a key attack. There is a hard-to-describe riveting nature of it all.

//youtu.be/LQRhmzimAIE

And that's kind of it? Eventually, monsters will die from old age, or even run away. They can be frozen and fused, in line with the monster-seeking madness of the 1990s, but it's still a very passive game. To me, though, this is perfect. Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX is a low-stakes, chill-out ki?nd of game that fits perfectly with lazy afternoons and vacation days. The music is boisterous and fun (and remastered!), while the PS1 aesthetic brings me back to my youth in all the best ways.

Maybe I'm wrong �maybe a new generation can stumble onto this one day and appreciate it for all that it is; there is someth??ing to be said for watching your monster grow up, stop cheat??ing on its training, and reap the benefits in future tournaments.

I think it's important to note that I'm honestly not sure there is any appeal in playing the first Monster Rancher. Playing ??it now, I'm prett??y confident I have never even played the original before. It just feels like the second game, only worse.

Outside of your nostalgia coming from the OG Monster Rancher, the only real draw here is the second, more robust sequel. The DX version auto-saves frequently, which is wonderful, as well as having a fast-forward feature (not as useful as those in many of Square's ports) and monster sharing and battling online. Great features, but other than the better auto-savin?g, none that I personally am too interested in. I just want my little weird??-ass monster to eat his fish, punch rocks over, and fight giant crabs.

The Nintendo Switch port is fine, if not a bit disappointing. There are buttons in the margins that make up for the aspect ratio difference, but you can't actually touch them on the touchscreen. You have to push the associated button.

It's worth noting that the screenshots in this article are from the Steam port, and from what I understand those buttons are clickable with a mouse, though I can't comment personally on the usefulness of the mouse and keyboard control scheme �reading Steam reviews, it's not great. Even the fast forward operates from a menu only. So either everything is in fast forward, or it isn't. Not to menti??on I had no idea that it was actually the fast forward option because it's just called "FF" with no context.

So while I don't think that Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX is here to sweep up a new generation of fans and propel the series into a second wave of popularity, I do think it hits all the right nostalgia buttons for my generation. This isn't a case of a bad game that we now realize is bad because we're older; it still has that same charm and wonder that it used to, I just don't know if it translates well to a new audience without the physical media and monster-collecting craze as context. But, to borrow a phrase from the younger generation, playing Monster Rancher again while cozy in my pajamas is definitely a vibe.

_{[These impressions are based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Monster Rancher 1 and 2 DX is the perfect cozy gam???e for millennials on winter break appeared first on Destructoid.

This article contains themes of trauma, mental illness, and sarcasm

In summer 2020, I had to reassess my situation. The year had been rough on me, as it had for a lot of people, and I was bottoming out. My solution to keeping myself going was to start looking to the future, so I dove into writing reviews for Destructoid. One of the first I picked up was for Rainswept. It starts off with a content warning: “This game contains references to topic??s such as suicide and trauma which some players may fi?nd distressing.�Somewhere around halfway through the game, I wished I had heeded that warning because I wasn’t in a good place to be distressed.

It had a noticeable enough effect on me that my husband then mandated that I stay away from depressing games �formerly my bread and butter �at least until I was in a better place. That can be difficult these days, as more and more games incorporate heavy themes into their storytelling. Chicory: A Colorful Tale, for example, gave me mild panic attacks as it unraveled my insecurities about the creative process and my future. I recently reviewed The Kids We Were, which, despite having a sunny exterior, might as well have been called, Sorry Kid, Sometimes Life Just Shits On You.

The thing is, Rainswept had a warning before beginning. Chicory has an option to give running content warnings to prepare you for when it’s about to introduce a sensitive topic like depression. For those games, I was warned about the distress they could cause and it was my choice to, well, be distressed. For The Kids We Were there was no warning ??that I was going to get kicked in the biological clock.

Discussions about censorship have been around for about as long as the video game industry has. Nintendo of America went as far as forcing developers to fit a series of strict standards if they wanted to be licensed for the NES. In the early �0s, games like Mortal Kombat, Doom, and Night Trap were used in conversations about whethe??r or not video games could influence young minds into violence. Decade??s later and the jury is still sort of out on that. Either they do or they simply agitate pre-existing conditions.

Western society has progressed to a point recently where we’ve begun noticing that certain people don’t respond well to certain stimuli. A sexual assault victim, for examp?le, can easily be disturbed by depictions in media, or worse, it can trigger flashbacks in people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It’s not that this wasn’t an issue before, it has just become more prevalent in media while today’s connectivity has given people with these sensitivities a platform to express their discomfort.

One solution to this, of course, is to remove the d??epictions from media entirely. While I certainly wouldn’t miss some of it, I would wonder where the line is drawn. Is it a good idea to fully stop talking about suicide, depression, and anxiety? No, I don’t think so. But there is an effective middle-ground.

In 2018, Valve lifted a lot of its restrictions on its Steam storefront to allow pretty much anyone to publish practically anything on the platform. There was a?? lot of concern that Steam would then become an unnavigable, toxic cesspit. The toxic cesspit part is definitely true, but it’s not?? quite as unnavigable as people feared.

Largely, this is helped by the sometimes hilariously abused community tagging. You can filter out certain types of content such as nudity, hentai, and Rogue-lite. Another ignorable but important facet is their requirement that people publishing on the platform include a content warning for anything questionable in their games. That’s a pretty swell idea. It means I can look at a game like The MISSING and see that it has “This game contains explicit content, in??cluding extreme violence, sexual topics, and depictions of suicide�and know that I’m not in the right place?? for it.

This is limited, however. It’s on the developer to create their own disclaimer, and some like to gloss over details that might be important. Killer7, for example, has the warning “Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Strong Language.�That’s nice, but it’s also leaving out depictions of suicide, descriptions of pedophilia, and, my favorite, Kaede’s use of self-harm to reveal s?ecrets. Technically those are all covered under the broader labels, but it would be more helpful if it was more specific.

I want to make it obvious that I’m not protesting the use of this content, nor the availability of it. If you want to dig through Steam’s adult tags, prepare yourself to be introduced to questionable kinks you might not have known existed. Whatever. It can be filtered out entirely if it bothers you, and I can’t fault?? you if some of them raise all of your eyebrows. Otherwise, if you find it suitable for your tastes, go find yourself some titillation. What-the-heck-ever.

Being able to see a game’s ques??tionable content is more important to me. I may choose to ignore the warnings and traumatize myself, but at that point, the hazards were clearly marked. It’s like getting on an amusement park ride that causes people to void their bowels. If I get on, I’ve only myself to blame if I shit myself. Trauma is a useful ??character-building and storytelling tool, but people who see their own struggles reflected in those narrative facets aren’t to blame for their reactions. The bare minimum we can do is warn them that the product they’re looking to buy might tap those sore spots.

What I’d like to see is every storefront adopting this. If on Steam, Paradise Killer has to warn of “Cursing and Crude Language, Blood, Veiled Nudity, Mention of Suicide, and General Mature Content�why not on GOG? Why not on the Switch eShop?

A lot of companies try to hide behind the ESRB or similar rating systems for this sort of thing, but I think it’s about time that we acknowledge that there’s more than just "mature content." Blood is something we see all the time in the media, most people are desensitized to the depiction of it. Blood coming from a wound that someone opened on their own body in a period of distress is something entirely different to some people. Likewise, sexual themes are one thing, while non-consensual sex is a completely different situation. One might offend, the other might put someone in a crushing mental state. Another word for it, as used by Chicory, would be sensitive content. Someone may be able to handle gore, but there are a lot of different types of violence that ??go unlabeled.

Beyond that, content warnings empower the consumer to take their own risks. It’s like putting the calorie count on food packaging, it gives the buyer enoug??h information to know that subsisting on a diet of only Two-Bite Brownies could be harmful.

Not only would I like to see more storefronts making content warnings mandatory, but it would also be more helpful to see developers step up and add warnings themselves. Or better yet, make questionable scenes optional; something that even Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number did back in 2015. If removing a theme would kneecap the narrative,? then a warning is just fine. I’m just tired of spending evenings avoiding sharp objects because I got b??lindsided by an otherwise innocent game.

The post Content warnings need to become standard appeared first on Destructoid.

Strange we never got a Persona 5 Arena

I'm not much of a fighting game fan (at least when compared to other writers for this site) and yet, somehow, my Xbox Series S is starting to fill up with them. There were so many from the last generation of consoles I missed that I keep scooping them up every time there's a sale. Case in point: Persona 4 Arena, which I picked up for about $5 just a few weeks after getting my Series S. And wouldn't you know it, it's probably the most played of the six or seven fighting games I've bought over the last year. It's so good, I'm considering double-dipping with Persona 4 Arena Ultimax on Switch, PlayStation 4, or Steam.

As announced during The Game Awards, Ultimax is making its triumphant return to relevancy early next year. The fighter is a continuation of Persona 4 Golden, which was released t??o great success on Steam last year and which I would really like to get on Switch.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=znZJLRW8v4w

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax will release on March 17, 2022. Anybody who owns Persona 4 Golden on Steam can get a 30% discount on Arena Ultimax for a limited time. Additionally, Atlus has confirmed this version of the game will be version 2.50, a version that has never before been releas??ed ?on consoles.

The post Persona 4?? Arena Ultimax lands on Steam, Switch, and PS4 next year appeared first on Destructoid.

See for yourself

[Update: Valve has actually provided a centralized location for Steam Deck info for studios to potentially show off more stuff like this Devil May Cry 5 Steam Deck clip.]

Curious about how Devil May Cry 5 Steam Deck plays? Well, Ca??pcom has off-screen gameplay for you as you wait for your pre-order to get in.

Uploaded on the Devil May Cry YouTube channel, we have off-screen gameplay footage of the game running on the Steam Deck, flipping through various points in the game. Clocking in at just under a minute, the clip gets the job done, giving you an idea of what to expect in terms of play control and framerate. Out of all the underwhelming marketing we've seen for this thing so far, this is one of the more interesting videos, and it's barely 60 seconds. It reminds me of downloading 360p files of Devil May Cry 4 and watching them over and over until I found something interesting. It's something to do during the wait for the Steam Deck.

That wait might be a bit, too, even without further delays. Valve was originally looking to ship the first wave of Steam Deck devices by the end of the year, bu??t it looks like that February 2022 is now the target. Val??ve cites the same "material shortages" as the rest of the industry, which makes sense, as the initial target was extremely optimistic given the situation even at the time.

Until then, you can studiously look over individual footage of off-screen Devil May Cry 5 Steam Deck tests and see if it's up to par.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxekE_wMGGw

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There's another one in October, one in November, and another in December

So we pretty much know when Steam is going to have sales: it's like clockwork at this point. And really, Steam is having sales every day. But it would be nice to know the full official holiday sales dates in advance, just for planning purposes. I mean, people travel! Well, Valve did just that this past week, publishing Steam sale dates for the rest of the year, ending on January 5, 2022.

Right on the above page, you'll find info for the following (we have omitted prior sales? that have ??ended):

Steam Halloween Sale | Oct 28 - Nov 1, 2021

Join the Halloween Sale, with a special focus on content updates and in-game events in celebration of the theme. Resources for more information regarding the Halloween discount event and related promotional opportunities are now available. No reg?is?tration required!

Steam Autumn Sale | Nov 24 - 30, 2021

Resources for more information regarding this Autumn discount event and Steam Awards nominations are coming soon. No registration required!

Steam Winter Sale | Dec 22, 2021 - Jan 5, 2022

Resources for more information regarding this Winter discount event and Steam Awards voting are coming soon. No registration required!

All of the info comes directly from the SteamWorks resource site, which is primarily in the business of helping developers put their games on Steam: but everyone has access to it, including these public sale dates. If you recall, some folks have the Steam Deck shipping in December, so a few of these might be relevant info. And with the Steam Deck verification program, you won't have ?to do a lot of guesswork to tell whether or not it'll play nice with your new device.

The post Valve ?published the full ??Steam sale dates for the rest of the year appeared first on Destructoid.

Aw, I can't stay mad at you, Doom

Twenty-twenty was a pretty crap year for myself and, well, basically everyone. I don’t like looking at years -- perfectly innocent spans of time -- as something that can be containers for misery, but a lot of terrible things happened to the point where I’ll join in and sa??y, yeah, 2020 sucked.

Doom Eternal (and Animal Crossing: New Horizons) came out at the cusp of everything going to crap. We’d just stepped through the threshold of the year and before we could even find the disappointing snack tab?le, here comes Doomguy with his new game.

As if things weren't already bad, I bought Doom Eternal on Steam and found that my decade-old processor had been deprecated and it wouldn’t even launch. I got a refund and put that money towards the PS4 version. That just led to further disappointment. Certain things were just rubbing me the wrong way; this was not Doom 2016, this didn’t feel like the next evolution of it. I found myself struggling to enjoy it, p?ushing through it out of the obligation of money spent, and then I dropped it a little past the halfway point.

It’s over a year later and I’ve got a new processor. I impulsively picked Doom Eternal up on Steam for some reason, and immediately jumped back in for some carnage. But this time, I felt something differe??nt.

I’ve been a Doom fan since time immemorial. I remember being awestruck by it as I played on my uncle’s computer. A bit later, I played the hell out of the SNES version when my parents finally caved and got it for me. I recall having a High School friend turn his nose up at me when I said I’d rather play Doom than Halo. In college, I carried a copy of ZDoom around on a USB drive (a whopping 1GB of storage, this was 2004) and played it on the school’s c?omputers in my spare t??ime.

Doom 2016 was a dream come true. It washed away my skepticism and presented me something that wasn’t Doom but knew how to stick to the Doom philosophy. I fell in love with the new depiction of Doomguy, the little secrets and throwbacks, and just the game’s general att??itude. It felt like a modernization of the old titles, embracing the ridiculousness of it and just trying to entertain.

Imagine what it would have been like if we got what was shown off in the Doom IV prototype instead; just another violent, brown/grey war shooter. Instead we got a fast-paced murder s??print that pushed the series f??orward and renewed it.

The first thing that struck me about Doom Eternal is how mechanical it felt. To be fair, both games have basically the same formula; corridors full of platforming and fodder demons separating open arenas against larger threats. Both of them took a level-based and largely linear approach with secrets interspersed arou??nd.

Something about Doom Eternal just felt like cement. While Doom 2016 had you progress from area to area, Doom Eternal has you teleport to the ??next level, essentially disconnecting everything. Likewise, it seemed a little less flexible in its placement of combat arenas. You can practically tell when you're entering a heavy combat arena, since it contains ramps, jump pads, and pick-ups scattered in obvious spots. The demons start queuing up to spawn in, and it just feels a lot less organic.

Likewise, there’s a big tonal difference between the two games. You could hardly call Doom 2016 a horror game, but it did lift heavily from the darkened corridors of Doom 3 and still attempted the odd jump scare. By comparison, Doom Eternal feels? very much like a comic book. The environments feel less threatening, and there’s more of a light-hearted feel in general. Some of the monsters seem downright goofy, and the environments are less believable.

Don’t get me wrong, Doom 2016 was a pretty far cry from reality, but it was more, I don’t kn??ow, grounded.

Perh??aps my pettiest complaint was how they ruined Doomguy’s mystique. He’s still the unstoppable force of rage that he always w??as, but then in his Doomcave, he has a selection of guitars, toys, and a portrait of him and his bunny. People speak of him in awe, demon’s fear him, women want him (probably); he’s just been further inflated to the point where no imagination is needed to fill in the gaps.

In retrospect, I don’t know why these thin??gs bothered me so much that I’d give up on the game and walk away. They didn’t even make an impact on my opinion this time, I was too busy kick??ing ass.

Suddenly, I was loving Doom Eternal’s enhanced mobility as I sped? around the chaotic b?attlefields, shoving my Super Shotgun down the throats of the various demons. I was Doomguy, I was power incarnate. Rip through this demon with the minigun, run out of ammo and chainsaw that one, realize I’m running low on health, so I flame belch on another and blood punch the ones next to it. Fracture and eviscerate!

Even the platforming felt empowering as Doomguy would stick his big?? meaty paws in obviously communicated walls, then swing, double-jump and airdash to the next. I began laughing every time someone would tell Doomguy he couldn’t do some?thing, only to have him immediately prove them wrong.

I loved taking down massive demons with instant kills, meat hooking across arenas to blast my shotgun right into the face of a bloated Mancubus. Prioritizing targets on the fly, there’s an Archvile about, it must die! I don’t have my blood punch charged to annihilate that cyber?? Mancubus, I’ll just dash to the other side of the arena, glory kill some fodder, then come back and wreck him.

There were so many combat options that it was difficult to keep track ??of them all (I rarely used grenades). I developed strategies for defeating particular crowds and alternate strategies for when I realized one of my weapons was out of ammo. By the end of the game, I was Doom Incar??nate!

Let’s not kid ourselves: Doom Eternal was received enthusiastically. There were some complaints, and others, like me, didn’t click ?with it, but to say it was a failure would be inaccurate. Simply, based on my expectations, it wasn’t what I wanted.

Or it seemed like that at the time.

Playing it again was an entirely different experience. I was so in love with it, I began thinking Doom 2016 would feel slow and lack impact by comparison. The combat was just so overwhelmingly exciting and satisfying. I still don’t think it’s perfect, make no mistake, but I feel I understand it better. Like Doom 2016, it knows what it is. It embraces its ridiculousness, and just tries to entertain. I don’t know why I took it so seriously before, but I’m ?glad I gave it a second chance.

The post I’m glad I gave Doom Eternal a second chance appeared first on Destructoid.

Cosmic horror and shotgun punks

Death Trash looks like a mix of a lot of things: punk, cyb??erpunk, horror of the cosmic variety, and the post-apocalypse. It's also mixing old-school role-playing with modern action gameplay. And later this month, we'll get a chance to see how it all comes together.

Developer Crafting Legends announced today that a Death Trash demo is coming as part of the Steam Next Fest, running from June 16 through 22. It'll be available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and support both mouse/keyboard and?? controllers.

//twitter.?com/DeathTrash/status/1400535371973?337097

The demo is set to be about one to two hours long, representing the start of the full game, and will also let you tackle things solo or with a local pal. T?he Steam store page notes local co-op is planned for the full release as well, and online will be possible through Steam Remote Play? Together.

Death Trash is set on Nexus, a wasteland taken over by outcasts, machines and offspring of the worm, where people have fled into enclosed habitats after unearthing ancient secrets. It sounds a little Fallout, and it shares more similarities with that series in its gameplay too; Death Trash will?? let you leave dialogue at any time, and you can kill (or not kil?l) anyone you want.

Mix in some fast action gameplay, and it certainly seems like Death Trash is one to keep on your radar if? you're looking for a wasteland RPG with some fresh ideas. Watching some of these pixelated flesh creatures move and animate in the trailer is unnerving, but I can't stop watching them.

It'll be part of the Steam Next Fest, Valve's big summer festival that's coming right after E3 2021 and is set to feature a number of limited-time demos alongside Death Trash. The schedule for the summer might be looking packed, bu?t I'll take it if we get some?? chances to see more intriguing games like this one.

The post Post-apocalyptic adventure Death Trash is?? getting? a demo this month appeared first on Destructoid.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild meets *everything*

I'm not sure how I managed to avoid crossing paths with Craftopia until today – an abundance of Steam Early Acc?ess games and bad timing, I guess? – but one look at this trailer from June, and wow. I'm calling it: this is the most bewildering combination of video game concepts and inspirations I've seen.

As Destructoid reader Roager put? it this afternoon, "There is a LOT going on in this trailer."

I wasn't sure what to expect – the thumbnail and name didn't exactly fire up my imagination beyond the usual survival-game fodder – but then I got to the 20-second mark, in which foxes, deer, and elephants stroll on wheels en masse to generate power. Then I saw the protagonist spin their sword into a group of comically tall skeletons. Then I saw her catch a giraffe, Pokémon style, and hoverboard with friends.

That's to say nothing of the player-crafted conveyor-belt machine shuffling cows int??o a soup cauldron.

Will I play Craftopia while it's in Early Access, which is where it has been since September 2020? No. I'm not convinced I'll enjoy playing this in the best possible conditions, l??et alone in an unfinished state.

Will I continue to be fascinated by its audacity and flip through community screenshots? Hell yeah.

The post Craftopia is the most bewildering video game mash-up I’ve ever seen appeared first on Destructoid.

Available now in a beta update

I may not use every last bit of the Xbox Elite controller, but my original pad is still hanging in there, and it continues to be m?y go-to controller for PC gaming (although I'm warming up to the DualSense).

If you're a fan of the Xbox Elite's rear paddles and wish they were better supported on PC with little to no fuss on your end, you'll want to download Steam's new beta update – it added a controller configuration setting so you can b?ind the paddles. There'?s also an option to bind the Series X "share" button, as well as support for trigger rumble "in games using Windows.Gaming.Input API."

On the DualSense front, the Steam beta client has added a way to disable the PS5 co??ntroller's "player slot" LED as needed. To access the option, look for a drop-down in the personalization menu.

If needed, you can access the Steam client beta using these instructions.

January 5, 2021 controller update for the Steam client beta:

• Added a setting for extended Xbox controller support. The option can be enabled in the General Controller Setting section of your Steam settings and requires a driver installation and restarting your computer.
  Extended Xbox features include:
  
  • Support for more than four Xbox controllers.
  • The ability to bind the Xbox Elite controller paddles in controller configurations.
  • The ability to bind the Xbox Series X controller share button in controller configurations.
  • Support for trigger rumble in games using Windows.Gaming.Input API.
• Added a drop down in the personalization menu for the PS5 controller player slot LED allowing the player to disable it, enable it only when multiple controllers are connected, or to enable it at all times. This setting defaults to enable the LED only when multiple controller are connected.

• Added support for the Wooting Two keyboard.

• Non-gamepad input devices like the HOTAS and G15 are now available to games when Generic Gamepad Configuration Support is enabled in the Controller Settings.

[Via The Verge]

The post Steam got some nice new Xbox Elite and ?DualSense controlle?r options appeared first on Destructoid.

There's likely a range of reasons for this

So, Cyberpunk 2077! I hear crickets and groans. Sorry folks.

A lot of people are still digging it (particularly on the less-glitch-ridden PC), but a lot of folks are exasperated by it. It turns out that feeling is spilling over on Steam, and is quantifiable, according to the folks over at GitHyp.

Based on new data scraped from St??eam, GitHyp suggests that the "one million concurrent Steam player" number has dropped significantly. That makes sense! It's been a little while, and it's a single-player game. But GitHyp notes that this 79% drop isn't as typical for CD Projekt Red, who usually has a stron?g long-term playerbase.

According to the data, The Witcher 3 retained over 50% of its (lower) player base within the same time period, and it took three full months to get to the numbers that Cyberpunk 2077 is at. Okay, so having exhausted most of the content Cyberpunk 2077 has to offer, there's a??? few logical explanations for this.

One, Cyberpunk 2077, to a lot of people, just isn't as good as Witcher 3: even without all of the bug baggage. It's also significantly shorter if you opt for the critical path (something a? lot of casual players often do), and with the current global situation, people have more time to blaze through single-player games.

That said, anecdotally, Witcher 3? did have much more staying power in my household.

Cyberpunk 2077's player base [GitHyp]

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This is perfect for stuck-at-home life

If you're looking to unwind with a few relaxing rounds of simple Solitaire, Nerts! Online won't fit the bill at all – but it sure is chaotic fun. It's a free competitive card game on Steam from Zachtronics, the creator behind brainy puzzle games like Opus Magnum, Exapunks, SpaceChem, and Shenzen I/O.

You might know Nerts as Pounce, Racing Demon, or another variant – it goes way back. The game pits players against each other in a race to clear out cards, Solitaire-style, in their are?a or the shared space.

As the d?evelopers explained today, "we did not invent Nerts. We learned about it from our artist Kyle, who has played it for years, and started playing it after lunch in the Zachtronics office. Over time we added more to it, including house rules [like players being allowed to mov??e cards between their Nerts pile and their tableau after Nerts has been called], longer tournaments, and even a theme song."

Nerts! Online supports six players and it's free free – no strings. As Zachtronics puts it, you'll "unlock card backs by owning our other games, so let's prete?nd that's a legitimate monetiza?tion strategy."

This is a great gift. Check it o?ut the next time you need to bring something new to virtual game night.

The post Nerts! Online is a competitive Solitaire game from puzzle fiend Zachtronics and it’s free on Steam appeared first on Destructoid.

Red Dead Redemption 2 took Game of the Year

After almost two weeks of voting, the polls are closed and the tallies are finalized. We now know the winners of the 2020 Steam Awards, from Game of the Year to Best Soundtrack to Labor of?? Love.

I knew there was a not-insignificant chance Red Dead Redemption 2 could win Steam's 2020 Game of the Year – it was a finalist alongside Doom Eternal, Hades, Fall Guys, and Death Stranding – but still! I didn't think it would actually pull through. Among PC players, I would've put my money on Hades.

If you're curious like I was: Red Dead Redemption 2 launched on Steam on December 5, 2019, and given that the Steam Awards are a fixture of late Decembe?r, the timing just worked out that way.

Here's the complete list of finali??sts and winners for?? 2020:

Game of the Year

• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Hades
• Doom Eternal
• Fall Guys
• Death Stranding

VR Game of the Year

• Half-Life: Alyx
• Phasmophobia
• The Room VR: A Dark Matter
• Thief Simulator VR
• Star Wars: Squadrons

Labor of Love

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• Among Us
• Terraria
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
• No Man's Sky

Better with Friends

• Fall Guys
• Sea of Thieves
• Borderlands 3
• Deep Rock Galactic
• Risk of Rain 2

Most Innovative Gameplay

• Death Stranding
• Control
• Superliminal
• Noita
• Teardown

Outstanding Story-Rich Game

• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Detroit: Become Human
• Mafia: Definitive Edition
• Metro Exodus
• Horizon Zero Dawn

Best Game You Suck At

• Apex Legends
• Crusader Kings III
• Ghostrunner
• FIFA 21
• GTFO

Outstanding Visual Style

• Ori and the Will of the Wisps
• Battlefield V
• There Is No Game: Jam Edition 2015
• Marvel's Avengers
• Black Mesa

Best Soundtrack

• Doom Eternal
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection
• Helltaker
• Need for Speed Heat
• Persona 4 Golden

Sit Back and Relax

• The Sims 4
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Satisfactory
• Untitled Goose Game
• Factorio

The people have spoken. I'm happy for Ori – what a sight it is – and the eccentric Death Stranding.

The post The 2020 Steam Awa??rds ended up with some unex?pected winners appeared first on Destructoid.

Chinese New Year?

In today's contest you can win classic beat 'em up 9 Monkeys of Shaolin for PS4 or Steam!

It's almost the New Year! In most of the world, anyway. I ??think Chi?nese New Year is still a few months away, so there goes my good segue for this one. Oh well, just pretend my idea was clever and timely.

We've got some copies of classic beat 'em up title 9 Monkeys of Shaolin to give a??way, just in time for the [not] Chinese New Year!

Read all about it while I put my drago??n suit back in storage.

9 Monkeys of Shaolin marks a true rebirth of the iconic beat-em-up genre in the vein of old school arcade games. If you had fun playing beat-em-up videogames for hours as a kid, crushing foes left and right, then this new title from the creators of hardcore brawler REDEEMER is definitely for you.

Playing as the simple fisherman, Wei Che??ng, you must avenge the death of your friends and family who were slaughtered during a pirate raid of your peaceful village. The game’s main villain is quite a tough nut to crack as he knows the ba?sics of ancient martial arts only mastered by legendary Shaolin monks. Get your trusty battle staff ready for a challenging adventure in Medieval China and for merciless fights with hordes of various enemies.

Action-packed battles, user friendly controls and incredible atmosphere of great kung-fu movies of the 1970s – all this makes 9 Monkeys of Shaolin a perfect choice for every true f??an of hardcore brawlers.

• 3 unique fighting styles - Fight on earth, in the air, or use mysterious magic seals. Combine these elements to defeat every enemy in your way
• Captivating narrative - Discover the fascinating story of Wei Cheng and follow him as he rises from a simple fisherman to the master of Shaolin martial arts
• Stunning visual style - Unique combination of historical and mystical elements gives you an exciting experience from every scene appears on screen
• Co-op play - Invite your friend to help you fight through growing waves of enemies and complete the game together
• Extensive character development system - You learn multiple paths to victory as you discover various unlockable perks, items and fighting styles
• More than 25 different levels - Chinese villages, pirate ship, Buddhist monasteries, Japanese mansions, ancient ruins and many more

I wish I had a pirate ship.

To en?ter to win, use the widget below to leave your name and email address. You can enter daily. Click around for ways to earn bonus entries, and be sure to comment below telling us what you'd do with your own pirate ship!

We have five copies each for PS4 (NA) and Steam to give away; winners will be? dra??wn next year! Our copies are split between Dtoid and sister site PC Invasion. It'll be ok.

9 Monkeys of Shaolin is available now for PS4 and Steam.

Contest:?? Win 9 Monkeys of Shaolin for PS4 or Steam

The post Contest: ?Win 9 Monkeys of Shaolin for PS4 or Steam appeared first on Destructoid.