Bernband is a simple game, but its effectiveness cannot be overstated. It is, essentially, just a game abou??t walking around. A walking simulator that is actually just walking. No puzzles, no objectives, just walking.

What makes it meaningful is its atmosphere. It takes place in a small chunk of a futuristic city. A commercial center of bars and shops and narrow corridors and walkways. You can't talk to anyone or interact with anything; you just wander aimlessly. You might discover a raucous bar, then wander lonely, empty corridors looking for whatever else might be happening. Many of the rooms and hallways are empty, simple, and grey. But, through the? use of vivid lighting and surreal atmospheric sound, it made the alien seem familiar and weird. It tangibly conveyed? a hot summer night after leaving a venue.

I had never heard of Grunn until it released. Somehow, after watching the initial trailer, I saw Bernband in it. Maybe it was the protagonists' strangely placed hands or the gaze of random strangers, but I somehow knew it was from the same creator. And while it’s an entirely different beast than Bernband with a totally different focus, you c?an see where the lessons have been app??lied.

Grunn (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Sokpop Collective, Tom van den Boogaart
Publisher: Sokpop Collective
Released: October 4, 2024
MSRP: $12.99

In Grunn, you wake up on a bus in the countryside. After following the only route out, you find out that you’re a gardener. You’ve been hired to maintain the yard around a house, but suspiciously, you??’re told that you’re not allowed to actually go into the house.

You quickly find that the only tool you have available is a pair of hedge trimmers. Clearly, the yard needs more work than that. Your only choice is to go?? out looking for more tools, but first, you nee??d to get out of the yard, as a waist-high fence blocks your egress. It won’t take long before you notice that you’re being watched. You only catch glimpses, but you’re definitely being followed. And while there are townsfolk around to talk to, you can’t understand a word that any of them are saying.

The town is?? a dangerous place. If you stay outside too long after midnight, the darkness will swallow you up. Touch something you’re not supposed to, and things might end poorly for you. And death is death; you’re sent back to the start of the game to try again, though each one counts as an “ending.�Grunn keeps track of all the endings you’ve found, so collecting them all is a goal if you think repeated failure is something to shoot for. Otherwise, there is a good ending.

Permadeath may sound pretty harsh, especially when it means you’ll be re-cutting the grass every time it happens, but Grunn only takes place across three-ish days. It is, to be honest, somewhat annoying to have to trim the same hedg?es every time the game kills me for my curiosity, but not enough to really ruin the experience. A loop takes about 45 minutes, and it took me around 6 hours to hit the good ending. I just became rather proficient at speedrunning my chores. Reminds me of when I was a teenager.

The multi-day loop works in Grunn’s favor, as it forces you to look at the cause and effect of your actions. There isn’t a whole lot of branching, but you may not recognize exactly what caused a mysterious portal to open in the garden and give you a quick way to the park. Af??ter a few laps through the game, you will.

The overall goal of the game is unclear. It isn’t actually just to ensure the yard is in top shape for when the owners get back. You’re not trying to escape the town. The only way to discover what you should be doing is by just poking at things until something happens. Yo?u eventually learn to quiet the ghosts of the dead, and you may learn what the hell is up with those kids on the ferry. Many of the items you pick up don’t have an immediately discernable purpose, so much of the discovery is rubbing things on? other things.

To help you figure out what can and should be done, you come across a number of polaroids scattered across the world. They don’t reveal what you should be doing with the subject depicted, but they at least let you know to take a ??closer look.

It’s an odd formula that may sound mundane, and that’s because it is. You’re essentially a stranger to a quiet town. There’s weird stuff happening, bu??t nobody else seems to really notice or care. Not that you can ask them. There’s obviously something dark going down, but rarely does it attack you directly. Most of the scares come from catching brief glimpses of someone watching from out of sight.

You’re sort of just existing in the snapshot of a world, at?tempting to pre??serve it as it is and exorcise the evil from it. You know, while also keeping the flowers watered and the hedges trimmed. It isn’t exciting. It doesn’t have to be.

I’m not sure that Grunn is going to remain cemented in my mind the same way Bernband is. The goals here are a lot more modest and less bold. On the other hand, it is an enjoyable experience. No matter how many times I woke up in that seat on the bus, I was always ready to take on the game again. Gradually unraveling its mysteries while keeping the hedges trimmed kept me engaged. Without thinking too hard about it, Grunn is probably the most ??relaxi?ng horror game I’ve ever played.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer.]}

The post Review: Grunn appeared first on Destructoid.

The NES version of Maniac Mansion was censored in North America. One of the few Game Over screens you could get required you to microwave a guy’s hamster and then sho??w him the results. The ability to microwave a hamster was taken? out. Had I not been told that, I would never have found out. Why? Because I’m not a fucking monster.

Anyway, Creature Packets is a game about microwaving small creatures. Not only that, you also put them in a blender together. It was developed in three days by KenForest as part of the Ludum Dare 56 game jam. The prompt was “tiny creatures,�so I’m not entirely sure how we wound up locked in a d?irty room with small appliances and a vending machin?e.

Creature Packets is available on Itch for the price of “name your own price.�It took me less than 20 minutes to complete. You may wonder what you can do in such a sh?ort time, and the answer is not a whole lot.

You play as someone arriving for their first day on a creepy job. You’re given a list of tiny creatures (insects to start out with), and that’s about it in terms of instruction. However, there’s a vending machine in the corner that dispenses packets marked “Microworm,�which sounds delicious. If you look around, you will find various memos telling you that if you combine some of these creatures, you wind up with different creatures. Two worms? make a scutigera. Ew! Ew!

Scutigera are house centipedes, and they give me the willies. Weird-ass monsters. Few insects can get such a visceral response from me. Gosh, I feel twitchy just thinking about them. Thankfully, you don’t have to touch them. Creating a new creature magically adds them to the vending machine, so you don’t need to concoct new ones each time. Th??e packets are simply full of some sort of fluid, and they don’t actually come to life un??til you microwave them. It’s like a digital Creepy Crawlers oven. Those were so cool.

Wait, there is one moment where you need to touch house centipedes. Fulfilling an order requires you to m??icrowave each of the listed creatures, which then dumps the living thing into a terrarium. Once you have them all??, you press a button, and the terrarium gets sucked out to be delivered. A new one comes back, and it often has errant creatures still in it, which you need to squash before continuing. Screw the sanctity of life, it comes in packets now.

You might expect that Creature Packets would require a lot of experimentation, but it doesn’t. Each recipe required for the jobs can be found on po??st-its around the room. This is probably a good thing since there are o?nly so many possible recipes and far more possible combinations.

However, it does make Creature Packets seem rather sparse. It was created in three days, so it’s hard to expect much more. It has a horror vibe but never really tries to scare. It is very literally about the job put in front of you. Once you’ve made every creature and completed every job, i??t just ends.

I know that is entirely a limitation created by its brief development deadline, but I’m somewhat grateful for it. I gener??ally like working a job while scary stuff happens around me, but it can get predictable. Just once, I’d like to do a creepy job w?here I clock in and then clock out, and here it is. There are no sudden sounds of doors slamming. No one is staring at me through the window. There aren’t any windows. It’s that kind of establishment.

But while it’s brief and not a whole lot happens, Creature Packets is worth experiencing, if only because the job is really satisfying. The environment is pleasingly cluttered, and the?? experience of punching a series of two-digit codes into the vending machine and then stuffing the results into the microwave one by one has a great feel to it. It’s not exciting, but it is enjoyable, and there’s nothing to get in the way of that.

More importantly, it’s a unique approach. Tiny creatures coming disassembled in packets? Blending them together to make new ones? It’s an interesting way to wear God’s dress. It could conceivably be extrapolated into a longer experience like Happy’s Humble Burger Farm did, but for now, it’s a nice tactile experience. It’s a lot more sanitary than that sick filth Maniac Mansion.

The post Creature Packets makes putting sma??ll crea??tures in small appliances comparatively wholesome appeared first on Destructoid.

Europa is a beautiful indie gem with its illustrious visuals an??d environmental storytelling. While the gameplay might be lacking in some parts, the narrative journey certainly makes up for this aspect.

This game tells an emotional story with stellar voice acting from the narrator Earl Fisher, who plays the kid protagonist's father. As we continue through the game, we get more information about the lore by picking up notes, and the plot has a great flow with twists and turns towards the end. It also t??ells an environmen?tal message but it doesn't strike at the heart enough to be effective.

Europa (PC [Reviewed], Switch)
Developer: Helder Pinto, Chozabu (Alex PB), Novadust Entertainment
Publisher: Future Friends Games
Released: October 11, 2024
MSRP: $14.99

Flying through the air is bliss in Europa. You get a real thrust of power from the jetpack, letting you leap high distances. It controls very well too. You'll be able to get collectible crystals from the top of wrecked buildings ??in the environment and find other secrets around each level with the jetpack.

Most of the game involves you collecting objects like a flicker of light energy or interacting with mechanisms in each area to move forward. They're fairly easy to spot most o??f the time, but it still feels rewarding to spot everything you require, especially with the exhilaratin?g flying mechanic.

Fun, yet easy puzzles in Europa

There are some puzzles here and there. There's a fun, albeit easy, puzzle, which has you rotate blocks in a clockwise manner to reach three areas of the map. Additionally, there are platforming challenges that involve blocks disappearing after each second jump. Europa won't challenge you, but they're rewarding to complete just like finding each object in the levels. I'm not usually a fan of puzzles in games, but even I have to admit, it would have been great to have more difficulty in Europa.

One of the weakest parts of Europa is i?ts enemies. They seem thrown in as the main character only gets dazed, not knocked out by his foes. There are turrets that fire projectiles at you but they're fairly easy to dodge. Whenever they do occasionally land a shot, it feels so weird when a huge projectile hits the child and it barely p??hases him. Some stingrays shock you and do nothing else other than being a mild inconvenience. The enemies are just annoying and ruin the flow of the gameplay. It gets repetitive too and can be quite annoying to get interrupted when you're trying to push an object into the correct place.

While the enemies do get repetitive, the game's environments do manage to change up the formula when you head into a new biome. There's enough added to the mechanics to keep Europa fresh for its 3-4 hour playtime.

A stunning game through and through

The game runs surprisingly smooth, and throughout its 3-4 hour length, Europa didn't have any noticeable bugs, framerate drops, or any other graphical issues. There are big environments with little pop in here and there, and some particle effects hang around the character's jetpack that pop on screen. Europa does something very similar to Journey, in which you can see the end ??????????????????????????goal, the human civilization on a floating island, on almost every level. As you proceed through the story, it gets closer and closer, leading you up to the wintry top of the mountain.

Europa is gorgeous. The visuals are bright, the torn architecture and robots that remain from a war years ago stand out, and the artistry of the game's skylines like the Northern Lights-esque night are breathtaking. There are some wonderful set pieces as well like seeing the island of Europa in the distance, flying sections with a colossal robotic creature, and visages of a war gone by. It certainly gives the fantastical vibes to Studio Ghibli's work, especially Castle in the Sky.

While not as compelling as Austin Wintory's Journey soundtrack, Europa has a stirring score to complement the beautiful visuals. The piano-led music leads to how you're supposed to feel in the moment, and towards the end, it genuinely gave ??me goosebumps in my arms.

Europa is a delightful work

Overall, Europa is a wonderful indie title that is a breath of fresh air from the triple-A fare of this busy season. The art style is striking, the storyline is intriguing, and moving around in the sky is satisfying. While the game can be repetitive at times with its annoying enemies (that only stun your character), Europa is worth your time if you want to take your gaming slow for a few hours. It is fairly short at 3-4 ?hours, but there are collectibles you can try to find that can extend your playtime.

[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]

The post Review: Europa appeared first on Destructoid.

PowerWash Simulator lives in a niche all of its own, and it sure manages to dominate regardless. Over the past couple of years, FuturLab's surprisingly engaging wash 'em up has played host to all manner of wild DLC, but the new Shrek DLC may well top it all.

"Playtime is ogre," says FuturLab's latest Steam announcement. Featuring pixie-dust cleaners, faerie soap, and the good old-fashioned mops, PowerWash Simulator's new Shrek Special DLC pack takes players on a romp through a classic fantasy franchise. The gist of it all is still much the same, of course, but who could say no to an opportunity to pow??er-wash Shrek's Swamp?

Clean up Shrek's swamp in PowerWash Simulator... for $7,99

Priced at $7,99, Shrek Special is actually seemingly quite loaded with cont??ent. The??re are five maps to clean up in total:

• Duloc
• Hansel's Honeymoon Hideaway
• Shrek's Swamp
• Fairy Godmother's Potion Factory
• Dragon's Lair

Of course, included is the aforementioned roster of magical cleaning tools and supplies, which puts this DLC at roughly the same ratio of content-per-dollar as all the other PowerWash Simulator DLCs.? Content-wise, it seems pretty solid??, but there are some problems to keep in mind for the time being.

As of October 10, the current build of the game wil??l apparently lock up and make it impossible to do much of anything in-game if you try to actually clean up any of Shrek's unlikely mud palaces. Even entering menus becomes impossible, so it may pay off to wait until the developer can patch things up. FuturLab has historically been quite good with the?se matters, so it won't take long before the problems are properly sorted out.

Once that's all been sorted out, though, I've no doubt that Shrek Special will take its rightful place as a worthy alternative to the prior Warhammer 40K, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Tomb Raider DLCs, just to list a few.

The post De-Shrekify Shrek’s legendary swamp and cabin in new PowerWash Simulator DLC appeared first on Destructoid.

Whereas Anger Foot might've cornered one sub-sub-sub-genre of door-kicking games, the venerable Early Access hit Door Kickers 2: Task Force North is going in a wholly diff?erent direction. While the developer KillHouse Games might not have had an update in a year, a new blog claims 1.0 is coming still.

Door Kickers 2 is a known quantity in the turn-based/timeline-based tactical gaming circles. Already enjoying some stellar reviews even in its Early Access form, Task Force North hadn't received any meaningful content updates in about a year now, which might've eaten away at some fans' goodwill. Thankfully, KillHouse Games' delightful new blog post on Steam claims not only that the development is progressing well, but also that Door Kickers 2 will "feel like a new game once released."

Door Kickers 2 1.0 is going to be loaded with content, Steam Deck support confirmed

According to KillHouse Games, Door Kickers 2 is due to launch from Early Access in the relatively near future: "We ??can't commit in advance to a certain release date - quality is paramount so it will be done when it will be done," says the studio's latest blog post, adding that "we're definitely not far now!" The reason why we haven't had a meaningful content update in so long makes sense, too: "We [reckoned] it would be more efficient to have one release instead of countless cycles of building, testing, announcements, bug fixing, and so on."

While I'm not all that good at Door Kickers, I have spent a whole lot of time playing the original title and the Early Access sequel already. I can personally vouch for the game's quality, and even if you somehow manage to burn through Door Kickers 2's content in a short time, there's over 7,500 maps available on the Steam Workshop. To say nothing of other similar titles, such as No Plan B.

I'm bringing this up because we're still almost certainly months away from the 1.0 release: KillHouse Games hasn't mentioned that the game is coming out in 2024, so early 2025 at the earliest is a safe bet. If you're intrigued by the prospect of Task Force North, it's still worth jumping in whil??e Early Access is ??up.

On the flip side, the 1??.0 build of the game is bringing with it a truly?? impressive roster of goodness:

• 6 total Campaigns

  • 2 Tours of Duty: procedurally-generated campaigns
  • 4 Operations: hand-crafted narrative campaigns

• Doctrine progression system
• Unique Battle Honor gear unlocks (exotic firearms, etc.)
• At least 90 one-off Single Missions
• 5 different enemy Factions
• Full modding support (no longer limited to maps only, will support weapons, units, etc.)
• Native Mac support
• Custom Steam Deck control scheme, touchscreen support, and more
• Over 80 Steam achievements
• New music
• New gear, weapons, tweaks, etc.

KillHouse Games claims that "the new content is mostly finished, what remains is mostly tweaks, recording new voices and translating the game to other languages," which certainly tracks with the studio's belief that the 1.0 release isn't too far in the future.

The post Door Kickers 2 dev issues a new update on 1.0 progress, and it’s good news appeared first on Destructoid.

Have you heard of Grunn? It’s the gardening? game from Sokpop Collective and Tom van den Boogaart,? where you do some light gardening and try not to succumb to the lurking horrors beneath. I hadn’t heard of it either, but it looks cool, and it’s out now.

With the exception of �or perhaps illustrated by �the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake, big-budget horror games are in a rough place. Not completely gone, mind you, but a lot of what we get these days are remakes from better eras of horror titles. And yet, horror in video games is the best it’s ever been, and that’s because of the indie and alternative markets. A lot of small or solo developers are dipping their toes into the horr??????????????????????????or pie, and they have some unique and daring ideas for how to do it right.

Grunn fits into a few specif?ic niches. First, it’s lo-fi, employing a low-poly art style with bright colors and analog effe??cts. Second, it has the grounded, cozy element of working in a garden. Then it twists things�oh, my gosh.

While I was typing out the description, a game crossed my mind: Bernband, an older (2014) shortform indie title that was entirely about drinking in the atmosphere of its world. It left an impact on me and the way I think about world design in video games. With the thought crossing my mind, I quickly opened a tab to find it and see if the developer had ever released the follow-up they were working on. Didn’t see much on Gamejolt, so I clicked through to their YouTube channel and into their recent videos. Right on the top is Grunn. Tom van den Boogaart is Tum, the creator of Bernband.

It’s not just a coincidence. This is the benefit of following small publishers; their specific fingerprints get all over their creation. Bernband and Grunn are entirely different games, but something about their art style, their philosophy, and their approach linked them together in their mind. Now I understand why Grunn outwardly appealed to me.

Now Iâ€?™m more curious. Because it’s not just gardening and lurking horrors, you also get to explore the town around the house that you’re gardening at and can talk to the locals. You’re encouraged to do so in order to find tools and, I’m guessing, the horr??ible truths start leaking in from there.

So, I’m guessing that town is pretty atmospheric, right? Weirdly so? Payday is comi?ng up. It’s apparently 4-6 hours, and my schedule is tight, but I will make it happen.

Grunn is available for PC today via Steam and Itch.

The post Try not to die while gardening in Grunn, which I’m just hearing is out now appeared first on Destructoid.

My dream game would be one that captures the feeling of a road trip. It’s more than just driving a car somewhere; there’s a vibe to it. It comes through in being connected between a familiar car on an unfamiliar road, the ??sign??s of a distant gas station, the buzzing fluorescent lights of some 24/7 diner, moments of contemplation, or waking up in a new place every morning.

There have been a few games I can point to that have somewhat succeeded, sometimes without trying. Jalopy, for example, even if the final product was not quite what was envisioned. Sitting at the pub My Summer Car captured part of the feeling, watching the drunks have a spirited conversation over a beer and a greasy meal. But nothing that fully landed directly on target. Heck, Final Fantasy XV might have been p?erfect if it didn't dump the car halfway t??hrough the game.

Keep Driving is an unexpected attempt from the developers behind Post Void and The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human. I maybe didn’t expect my envisioned road trip?? game to be in the form of a 2D game, and that’s probably because it’s not, but it’s pretty c??lose nonetheless.

Keep Driving has more in common with Oregon Trail than it does with any driving game. It’s depicted from a side-on perspective. You don’t actually drive the car; you just stare at the passenger door while it travels the roads. While it drives itself, you can fiddle with the radio or?? just watch the scenery go by. Then, every so often, you’ll find a hitchhiker or reach a road event.

Road events are where the meat of the game is. Each one presents a different problem, ranging from potholes to a slow-moving tractor. You then have to use your skills and tools in your car to mitigate the harm caused by these hazards, whether they threaten to damage your car, exhaust you, or drain your fuel. This is done using cards that can eliminate these dangers before they can affect you (or your car). It’s not the deepest system, but it’s relati??vely quick, allows fo??r variety in challenges, and works for its purpose.

After completing a stretch of road, you arrive in a town with various services. Sometimes, it’s gas. Other times, you can pick up an odd job for money. Occasi?onally, you’ll find a forested path that allows you to plumb a dungeon-like 3D environment for items, and if you’re lucky, there’s an inn if you need it. You’ll come across stores and garages where you can buy upgrades for your car or supplies for your trip. Once you’re prepared, you check the map, choose your next destination, and head out.

The goal is to reach your friend’s house to play your favorite video game together. Apparently, you jus?t graduated high school and you can feel your youth reaching its end, and you want to go out in the phosphor glow of a turn-of-the-millenium TV and the company of a distant friend. I can relate. This was clearly in the days before the internet poisoned everything meaningful in the world.

There’s a character creator where you choose your face, your relationship with your parents, and your occupation. This isn’t far off from Oregon Trail’s character setup, where your occupation would define your readiness for the trip. A difficulty setting of sorts, or maybe more of a modifier. In any case, once you’ve found yourself, you can set off to?? the tune of some Swedish rock, which helps set the tone beyond what I could possibly believe.

That’s largely all there is to it. Your job is to prevent yourself and the car around you from falling to pieces. That may sound simple, and that’s because it is. This early demo of Keep Driving is easy as pie. I mean, I’m playing the pre-release version of a demo right now, so it’s hard to really ju?dge where it will end up, ?but right now, its biggest problem is that there’s nothing to it.

I’m making a pretty big assumption that I’m not just really skilled at Keep Driving??, which I think is a safe thing to assume because I’m not skilled at anything. Finding myself prodigious at this would be really disapp??ointing because I’m not sure where I’d apply it elsewhere in life.

I didn’t come close to losing my run. There aren’t many needs that require constant attention. As long as you spend your skill points and buy extra supplies for your glove box, it’s easy to get through the various road encounters. Fuel isn’t that expensive, and for being a poor high school graduate, I was strangely loaded with cas?h most of t?he time. It got to the point where I was trying to get rid of it, buying car upgrades I didn’t need. I just picked my route based on what I needed at the time and still made it to my friend’s place with time to spare.

Maybe that’s something that is also inspired by Oregon Trail. In most versions of that game, you could just do the hunting minigame and lay waste to the animal population to store up embarrassing amounts of food. That makes the game really simple, and I have to wonder why so many children died of dysentery. Were they unable to shoot the virtual bears? Is this another thing I’m inexplicably prodigious at? Are my talents all related to Oregon Trail derivatives?

I only picked up one hitchhiker the whole way. He was pretty depressing. He recently lost his job and is feeling pretty directionless. Whatever.?? He didn’t drug me and steal my kidneys. Maybe that’s where the challenge is supposed to be. I’m just really good at keeping my kidneys in my body. Very wel??l practiced. I doubt it, though. I’m pretty sure this is supposed to be a chill game, and not chill in the way that you’d feel after waking up in a bathtub full of ice.

I had problems with bugs, as well, but between ??when I first started playing and today there was already a patch that fixed some of the weirder ones. As I said, this is an early demo. It even warns you when you start it up that some elements are just placeholders. I didn’t see anything that makes me truly concerned about where the quality will be on the final product.

Balancing happens over time. A game might be too hard to begin with, so advantages are added to make things a bit more friendly, and the same can happen the opposite way. If the game is too friendly, certain aspects can be changed to make it stiffer. The release version will have multiple endings, maybe arriving at a friend’s house and playing Halo on Legendary difficulty ??is actually the worst one.

There are many places where Keep Driving finds success. While the fact that you aren’t truly behind the whe?el takes some of the road trip feeling away, it gives you a chance to just sit back, listen to the radio, sip your tea, and plunge your hand into a box of Frankenberry. There’s still a feeling of directionless freedom and self-reflect?ion, even while you know there are problems on the road ahead that you’ll need to deal with. There’s clear intent here, and a lot of it gets across. It’s obvious that Y/CJ/Y Games knows what they’re doing, and it’s not too hard to imagine them being able to reach their vision.

The release date for Keep Driving is still TBA, but there will be ?a demo available ??this coming Next Fest (October 14).

The post Keep Driving captures the calm of the open road but could use a few mo?r??e potholes appeared first on Destructoid.

Rangatang and Glowfish Interactive have revealed their first game together: Nubs. Sorry, that should be Nubs!. You have to shout it. It’s a multipl?ayer brawler com?ing to PC in 2025.

Rangatang is formed by a crew from the core team at Ronimo, the folks behind Awesomenauts and Swords and Soldiers. Ronimo went bankrupt in 2023, with Atari scooping the rights to their old properties. And that’s how we got to Nubs!.

As I’ve already mentioned, Nubs! is a multiplayer brawler. Not like Smash Bros, mind you. Looking at it, it reminds me of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords; that awesome four-player coop GBA spin-off that would later get a standalone upgrade on GameCube, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures. Not that you would typically fight with your friends in Four Swords unless someone refused to share and ?tempers began to run hot.

It’s a top-down game, but where it really reminds me of Four Swords is its weapons swinging and bouncing physics. There ??are also wands, boomerangs, and bombs. I’m pretty confident in my comparison. Check out the trailer and tell me I’m wrong.

Also, it’s weird. The whole trailer starts off with a grotesqu??ely swollen head that inhales and then lasers a person. The art style is detailed and fun. Both Rangatang and Glowfish seem to have a very art-forward focus, and it shows.

Nubs! is probably not for me, though. I’m not much of a multiplayer, and when I am, brawlers aren’t usually what I reach for. The people who will actuall??y pick up a controller around me are mostly my family, and regardless of what we’re playing, my beefy gamer thumbs would wipe the floor with them at anything competitive. So, I typically push toward coop. Even if I was making an exception, it being PC only at the start wouldn’t suit my group. It is coming with an online mode, but multiplayer is mostly for being soci??al in my family.

However, there is a roguelite progression mode. The details on it are a little vague right now, but here’s what it says on that: “Stay on your toes with a variety of game modes and a roguelite progression system that ensures no two play sessions are the same. Dive in and see what surprises await!�/p>

Nubs! is planned for release on PC sometime in 2025.

The post Ex-Ronimo devs’ multiplayer brawler Nubs! looks like a feverish Four Swords appeared first on Destructoid.

I’m not sure where to begin with Judero. To quote Marty MacChicken, “It’s so ART, I’m scared to have an opinion.??�I was going to take a pass on it entirely after recognizing that it is heavily Scottish, and I know very little of Scotland. But I can, at least, tell you that I didn’t have to know anything at all.

It’s not about Scotland. I’m not even entirely sure what it is about. It might be, quite literally, about reaching the Glass Mountain for some reason, but it’s laid beneath cryptic, ornate dialogue about life and living. But while I’m somewhat embarrassed that I didn’t quite grok Judero’s meaning, I don’t think Judero would care. Judero knows what ?it’s about, and it’s not afraid to have fun ?with it.

Judero (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Talha and Jack Co
Publisher: Talha and Jack Co
Released: September 16, 2024
MSRP: $17.99

Front and center with Judero is its art style. I’ve said before that I hate the sudden trend of games that use a stop-motion style where frames are removed to make it look like the physical animation style. It’s something that cropped up in the wake of Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, and it doesn’t work well unless the entire game has a diorama aesthetic. But Judero isn’t stop-motion in that style. Judero is literal stop-motion.

Every 2D object in the game has been hand-crafted and animated. Hundreds, perhaps tho??usands of photographed models in front of a bluescreen and animated a frame at a time. When you walk indoors, this, for some reason, switches to hand-drawn figures. It creates a very surreal and unique look, and I can honestly say I’m not a fan. 

I saw videos of Judero pop up quite a few times while it was in development, and I found the aesthetic off-putting. It has a sloppy, uneven quality to it. It may be intentional, as the lighting isn't e?ven consistent, but that doesn't make it easier to look at. Many of the characters are dolls with visible joints and ugly piles of clay for faces, and others are hastily hand-drawn. They clash against the simple 3D backgrounds and there is no thought given to perspective correction. It looks horrendous, and I really wouldn’t have it any other way.

Judero re?minds me of the argument some AI grifters have about generative AI “democratizing�art. That’s idiotic. Art is already "democratized." There are no barriers to expressing yourself. If you wanted to tell a story, you could draw faces on your thumbs and film them acting it out. Don’t have a camera? Then just perform for your friends. Or even just yourself �art has nothing to do with popularity. You don’t even have to be good, and you don't need to learn a thing or practice; you just need that spark of creativity. You need something to say??, but if you were tragically born without a personality, then I’m sorry, a robot won’t replace that for you.

Judero is a game made of programming, crafting supplies, and something to say. The developers had an idea, and they ran with it. The fact that the visuals are so repulsive not only gives the game a surface identity but also lays bare the intention beneath. What exactly it’s trying to say, ?again, I’ll ?admit that I don’t really know.

There is potentially a lot of Scottish folklore here and maybe some history, but I wouldn’t recognize it. However, as I mentioned, you don’t need to be familiar to get absorbed into the world. It takes place in an undefined time period in a placeless area that can only be defined as “Scotland.â€?Walk into any house, and you never know what youâ€??™re going to get. You might discover three women singing “House of the Rising Sunâ€?while sewing. Maybe there’s a freakish person outside who tells you about microdosing hallucinogenic mushrooms. Other times, you’ll hear a fairytale or just an unprovoked sad story.

Much of the time, it’s poetic, but not always. Much like the art style, the writing is uneven and lackadaisical. It just tarries wherever it feels, fulfilling whatever whim s??eemed to be on the artist’s mind at the time. It’s unmoored, which makes it difficult to ev?er feel fully invested.

And don’t look to the gameplay to save you. The world is sparse and full of invisible barriers. Judero can possess creatures to solve puzzles, but you’re often just whacking them with a stick. There’s perhaps less depth in combat as, say, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but without the interesting world and puzzle design to hold it up. It’s nev??er uncomfortable to play, but it’s hardly a foundation to build a tonal miasma on top of.

At the very least, it’s paced well. Each of its four acts is comprised of a large, open environment, usually with each objective branching off in its own direction. The third is the largest and has you sailing a ship ??from island to island with an orangutan at your side. The variety and rate at which it changes does a lot to ease getting through?? the 5-6 hours that it will likely take you to see the end.

That’s rather key since the narrative doesn’t have enough comprehensible depth. There aren’t really any characters that you can get to know, aside from the hyper-competent Judero himself, a practical Scottish Kazuma Kiryu. The world is so bizarre that it’s difficult ?to really find grounding. The main conflict is someone straight-up telling Judero what he should be doing and him going to do i??t.

That makes it very difficult to really tell you why Judero is such a successful game and why you should play it. It might be because its anarchic and chaotic design is an antidote to the impersonal and overly polished games that make up the largest sector of the market. There are enough “inspired by�games that try to replicate the successes of others and few that are as nakedly human. Judero says a lot in its tumultuous mix of sadness and whimsy, thoughtfulness and playfulness. What it’s saying is ??a bit of a mystery to me, but I hear it talking, and I could listen to? its voice all day.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Judero appeared first on Destructoid.

Witchfire has come a long way since the d??ay it was first shown off to the general public, though many of us might've missed that. Notably, the game made its w?ay onto Steam only recently, and the developer already has a big content ro??admap for us to dissect.

Those who were particularly intrigued by Witchfire have probably already been playing it over on the Epic Games Store, where it made its exclusive debut. The game's production pipeline has recently expande??d to include Steam, too, and the full release is now finally on the horizon.

Witchfire's future is bright and bold, with lots more on the horizon

The roadmap above promises five major content updates coming to Witchfire over the course of the next fifteen months, with the fina?l 1.0 launch slated for late 2025. They are as follows:

• October 2024: Fast Response patch, focused mainly on improvements for the prior High Stakes content update.
• December 2024: new areas, supposedly a major step forward in the endgame department.
• Early 2025: new region, new enemies to go along with it.
• Mid-2025: final region, game is feature-complete.
• Late 2025: polishing and 1.0 launch window.

Throughout these updates??, The Astronauts aims to implement all? of the following features:

• Stats 2.0
• Alchemy system
• Witch Mountain
• Calamities 3.0
• Extraction 2.0
• Research 2.0
• Prophecies 2.0
• Melee Weaponry
• Quests, both repeatable and one-off

The Astronauts have almost certainly deliberately not separated these features and content batches into any specific update, as it seems these systems are somewhat modular and can be worked on more or less independently. Thus, if one of them ends up misbehaving, it could get nudged further down the line. We do know that Witchfire is supposed to be content-complete by mid?-2025, so ?we should have access to all of the above by then.

Since the game makes a big deal of its fantasy-based gunfightin?g system (and for good reason, too, as it's phenomenal), weapons are a major concern. As it currently stands, we only have 16 armaments in total, though The Astronauts promises that there will be at least twi??ce as many in the game on launch day.

In general, then, The Astronauts still has a long road ahead before Witchfire could be considered a finished product. The good news is that the game already feels and plays remarkably well, and so the lack of content doesn't bother all that much. Within a year, we should be able to assess Witchfire in a more concrete sense, though, for those who are still on the fen??ce about it.

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A gumshoe simulator of the highest order, Shadows of Doubt was slowly making its way through Early Access, only to release in 1.0 a tad too quickly.

Certainly, the developer Fireshine Games has delivered a unique and engaging game where virtually everything is procedurally generated, and the 1.0 build is no worse than any of its prior ones. This detective-based immersive sim presents you with proc-gen cases that you may or may not be able to solve, depending on where the simulation takes you. There's plenty of depth to be found here, and the 1.0 build of the game features body-dragging, some new suspect interactions, and a bunch of other goodies. The thing is, the player base doesn't seem to be too happy about a??ny of this.

Shadows of Doubt releases from Early Access on Steam, but players claim it should have waited

Following its 1.0 release, Shadows of Doubt has received a substantial ingress of 'Mixed' reviews on Steam, many of them citing the idea that the game wasn't ready to make the jump. Even some notable positive reviews recommend the game with the caveat that Shadows of Doubt isn't quite where ??it needed to be to warrant a full launch.

The problems are serious enough that 54% of? the recent reviews have been negative. This s?its in stark comparison with the game's previous 'Very Positive' review rating on Steam, which is sourced from over 10,000 reviews in total.

Here's the thing about Shadows of Doubt, though: it's almost entirely unique. Whereas most other ImSim games are perfectly happy with letting players take the violent path forward (even if it is shrouded with the thin veil of non-lethality), Shadows of Doubt veers away from that. Instead, it's all about traversal, expl??oration, and PI sleuthing.

The game's voxel-based visuals and striking setting ensure that virtually any case you come across is engaging, even if you can't solve it in its entirety. Besides, no other modern title leans quite so heavily into the noir detective fantasy as Shadows of Doubt does.

So, even though Shadows of Doubt might not have reached the incredible heights that it might've reached with a few ?more years' worth of development, there's something special to be found here. From persona?l experience, I do recommend it. Besides, the game is priced at $25, with a 20% release discount in place until October 3. All in all, then, it's a pretty darn good deal, however you flip it.

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Most video games are for most players, that's just the state of things and the industry. Some games, though, like Forever Winter, aren't that. Having just released in Early Access, Forever Winter is still in a rough spot, ??yet there's the faintest glimmer of something?? special present, even now.

Forever Winter is a co-op extraction shooter with no PvP elements. Set in a world that's literally in a state of perpetual warfare, this game is about as awfully bleak as it gets. Those who are familiar with media such as BLAME! or the works of Mike Mignola and Katsuhiro Otomo will have a pretty good idea of what to expect out of Forever Winter. The big catch is that ??you, the player, do not take control over one of the super-special cyborg field operatives chewing their way through the trenches (sometimes literally). Instead, you're the poor sod attempting to salvage what you can from their leftovers.

Forever Winter is a terrifyingly brutal vision of a permanent state of war, but it's still a tad rough

In broad strokes, then, Forever War puts you into the ??rotten shoes of a survivor stuck deep between two extremely militarised nations that have been at each other's throats for 40-odd years. Your job? To make it out alive, slowly upgrade your hideout, and maybe even try to make life a tad less miserable for the people in your hidey-hole. Gener?ally, though, you'll mostly be trying not to get eaten by killbots.

It's all great on paper, and I'm honestly a huge fan of both the concept and the artwork on show in Forever Winter. In practice, this is a prime Early Access release with all the caveats t??hat it brings with it.

Forever Winter is currently stuck with a 'Mixed' review rating on Steam due to how rough it is. Expect oodles of jankiness and some questionable gameplay decisions. Like, for example, one of the things you'll constantly be doing in Forever Winter is sourci??ng water for your hideout, which is sensible enough. Yet, should your water level drop to zero, your entire stash will be cleared out for good. Combine this with the fact that your water level will continue to drop even when you're not logged into the game, and you get th??e idea of what's up.

Forever Winter is also beset by other, less specific problems. Enemies will sometimes spawn out of thin air just to grin?d you down to bits in seconds, for example, and the AI struggles to keep up with the giant battles that are supposed to be happening all around you.

It's great to see Forever Winter in a playable state, as I've been keeping a close eye on it for literal years now. I'm a huge fan of the game's broad concept and would love to play it once it's closer to the full 1.0 release. For the time being, however, the fact that it's toying with FOMO to such an aggressive extent has put me off, and the general grit of being in Early Access will take a while to clear up. Do I still recommend you keep an eye on this one, though? Oh, for sure. There's something genuinely special about Forever Winter, now we just ha??ve to see if it'll materialize over the course of its Early Access stint.

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The Amazing Digital Circus, the indie animated web series that completely took off, is touring through a streaming service near you. This is not a digi?tal hallucination, folks: Glitch Production's unhinged ?horror dramedy is coming to Netflix this October.

Glitch Productions' indie animated smash-hit will hit Netflix right after the newest episode's YouTube premiere

News of this show-stopping turn of events comes straight from Netflix itself. On an announcement page posted on their Tudum website, Netflix outlined that all three episodes of The Amazing Digital Circus will be available for streaming on October 4, 2024. Glitch Productions confirmed their new partnership with Netflix in a heartfelt post on their official YouTube page and X account, thanking viewers for their support while confirming that new episodes of The Amazing Digital Circus will premie??re on ?YouTube before they become available on Netflix.

October of this year is the perfect month for The Amazing Digital Circus to take such a spectacular, dare-I-say acrobatic leap forward. Not only will this October mark the series' official first anniversary, but The Amazing Digital Circus' horror-themed third episode will hit YouTube on October 4th. 2024. The undercurrent of horror running beneath The Amazing Digital Circus' cutesy aesthetic has always been part of?? the series' appeal, so why not lean into ??it by having the show hit streaming weeks before Halloween?

Some of The Amazing Digital Circus' fans aren't happy the show's coming to Netflix

Fans' response to The Amazing Digital Circus' impendi??ng Netflix debut has been ?pretty positive. Fans have filled the comments sections of Glitch's announcement posts with compliments and well wishes for the series animators, writers, and voice actors. However, some onlookers aren't as thrilled by the news.

Less-than-happy responses to The Amazing Digital Circus' jump to streaming are popping up all over social media, but r/TheDigitalCircus on Reddit seems to be their most prominent congregation spot. Many of the show's fans have expres?sed skepticism and dismay over the announcement. Some take issue with Glitch's decision to keep The Amazing Digital Circus exclusive to YouTube. Others have expressed concern that Netflix will exert creative control over the series or, worse, cancel it like they have other animated series.

Fortunately, Glitch has been pushing back against the idea that their deal with Netflix cost them even an ounce of creative control. Glitch and Gooseworx, The Amazing Digital Circus' showrunner and lead animator, have confirmed that the deal they stuck with Netflix is purely about licensing. If what they're saying is true, the show's still being funded by merchandise sales through Glitch Production's online store, so Netflix has no leverage over it.

Speaking for myself, I'm incredibly excited about this. The Amazing Digital Circus is a prime example of indie animation's potential, and it's fantastic to see a big-name streaming service pick it up. If the series does well, other animated pilots like Lackadaisy or Ramshackle could also find their way onto streaming services. Glitch has s?aid they want to put indie animation on the map, and with this deal, they've made much progress on that front.

The post The Amazing Digital Circus is coming to Netflix appeared first on Destructoid.

Nothing terrifies me like ?tight spaces, heights, and never-ending seeming dark holes. Also, there are few games I’ve been wanting more than a serious platformer capable of making older audiences feel the childlike wonder provided by the classics.

I read that Lorn's Lure could be that g??ame. The first video I saw of it sho?wed the main character getting ready to make a deliberate plunge into a hole in the ground; one I feared could be long enough to cross the entirety of the Earth.

Lorn's Lure seemed like a challenge I’d have to go throu??gh, to?? get the platformer I’d been hoping for.

Lorn's Lure (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Rubeki Games
Publisher: Rubeki Games
Released: September 20, 2024
MSRP: $14.99

Upon first glance, Lorn’s Lure is very simple. You can jump, slide, and climb over platforms until you reach the place the game wants you to get to. From the outset, the only tool at your disposal is climbing ge?ar you'll use t??o somewhat freely climb many walls in the game.

I say somewhat freely because, like where Portal only lets you portal on white walls, Lorn’s Lure only allows players to climb on vertical walls made of climbable rock. The pickaxes allow you to move up, down, left and right for a limited time while you put yourself in the right spot to safely drop down ??or jump onto the next platform.

This alone would’ve been good enough to keep me engaged till the end of the game, but I was pleasantly surprised to unlock more more mechanics that enhanced my climbing abilities and the fun I had climbing. There's wall running, wall jumping, and a grappling hook to traverse the areas like Pathfinder from Apex Legends.

The rest works just as you’d expect. Fall into a bottomless pit, or onto the ground from a high en??ough altitude, and you’ll get the option to restart from the last good position you were in, or from the start of the chapter.

On the graphical front, Lorn’s Lure cold trick you into thinking it’s a PS1 game with upscaled textures. Still, the humongous size of the play areas would likely melt Sony’s OG console in one second. Lorn’s retro look only adds charm and a welcome sense of eeriness, to a game th??at wants the player to feel like they’re trapped in a??n infinitely alien, indifferent, and sometimes surprisingly beautiful world.

Lorn’s Lure also takes a cool minimalistic approach t??o storytelling. The set-up is done by small cutscenes show the vastness of this world. Then, you can scan areas of interest to learn more about the haunting mega structure where your character �and many others before them �have found themselves trapped for hundreds of years.

The world of Lorn’s Lure will seem familiar to anyone who’s read BLAME. Just like Tsutomi Nihei’s manga, it puts the main character in a high-tech hell-scape vast enough to make any being, living or imaginary, feel tiny. I love that choice for a platformer. It conveys a grandeur never before seen in the likes of Tomb Raider or Uncharted. Those series have shown us a fair amount of large areas, but they have always been just as focused on showing us tiny details. In Lorn’s Lure, you never feel like you’re just exploring a ?level �you feel like you’re exploring a planet.

Like Chained Together, Lorn’s Lure could probably prove a hit among the speedrunning community. I don’t doubt it will, because this is a better looking and much more mechanically challenging title. Still, I was a bit surprised to learn Lorn's Lure actually feels like a puzzle game of sorts. It starts off as simple as any other platformer. Then, it has players clearing the way of obstacles, or finding ever-more intricate ways of comp?leting the supposedly simple task of getting from point A to B.

Even with its awesome mechanics, what makes Lorn’s Lure truly shine is?? its level design. Its dauntingly vast spaces make the player feel helpless when thinking of a way to get to the next checkpoint. Then, once they clear their minds, the game makes players feel like a true post-apocalyptic sci-fi raiders once they've finally overcome yet another obstacle??.

Lorn’s Lure will need you to be quick on your feet, to be precise in both the spacing and the timing of your jumps. Even if you’re just trying to escape the megastructure, Lorn’s Lure will provide quite the challenge. But, once you’ve already beaten its main chal??lenge, the game is still filled with collectibles placed in even harder-to-access areas.

Fortunately, Lorn’s Lure doesn’t waste your time. The developer knew this would be a very intense trial-and-error affair. Players can, at any point, restart their run to the last time they had secure footing on the platform closest to the objective, with no loading screen involved. I’ve tested the restart option a lot �you guess whether I did so intentionally or not �and it works very well. Too many platformers struggle to record the player's last good position before a fateful misplaced jump, or record a platform where they'd been previously, wrongfully making it the restart position. Lorn's Lure is free from that sin.

As for what I didn’t like, the massive size of the play area makes it sometimes difficult to understand where to head next. The game’s plot con??veniently introduces a guiding glitch i??n our character’s eyesight, but it isn’t visible at all times. Players can toggle a marker at all times to know exactly where they need to go, but I’d rather just have a diegetic cue like the one the game intended.

Still, that’s more of a nitpick than a huge problem. In terms of what I liked but many might not, well, Lorn’s Lure is very challenging. The trial-and-error nature of the entire game might put some off. I totally understand players might not want to die more times to one single jump than they would to a boss in Elden Ring. Even I felt deeply frustrated at so?me points, but the frustration would vanish as soon as I'd found myself past each of the most demonic jumps. Many players may not re-energize so easily, and I totally get that.

But, if you’re into challenging platformers like the remaster of the original Crash Bandicoot, then you’re very likely to enjoy this one. Alongside with the aforementioned Chained Together and Jusant, Lorn’s Lure proves that the world of platformers still has a lot o?f mechanics to be tried out. It’s also revealing just how inhospitable and utterly terrifying platformers can be �in the coolest of ways.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Have you ever played a game that delivers on its core concept so thoroughly that you don’t think it could possibly be improved? It doesn’t necessarily have to be the most compelling concept; it could be quite mundane, but it convinces you that no matter how much budget could get thrown at the idea, there’s no way to top it. That’s Parking Garage Rally Circuit.

I’m not trying to tell you that this is the best racing game of all time. I rarely speak in such enthusiastic hyperbole. However, I will say, with some confidence, that Parking Garage Rally Circuit is the absolute best Sega Saturn-?style parking garage drift racing game ever released.

Parking Garage Rally Circuit (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Walaber Entertainment LLC
Publisher: Walaber Entertainment LLC
Released: September 20, 2024
MSRP: TBA

Parking Garage Rally Circuit is what I’d describe if you asked me to guess the synopsis of The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift based on what I remember from the trailer I saw b??ack in high scho??ol. The only image I have of that movie is cars drifting up a ramp in a parking garage. I’m not even sure if I’m remembering that correctly.

I love drifting. Or, at least, I love arcade-style drifting. I mostly judge racing games entirely by how well the drifting in them feels. But as much as I love drifting, I love retro hardware more. More specifically, I’m passionate about people’s passion for older hardware. I love to hear people tal??k enthusiastically about old consoles and computers, even the crappiest ones imaginable. I love it more when people try to represent it as authentically as possible.

One of the first things that greet you upon starting up Parking Garage Rally Circuit is a number of graphical preset options presented like different versions of the game, such as the original hardware or PC port. While this essentially just changes options like scanlines, aspe??ct ratio, and draw distance, it puts those things in the context of the time period. If you don’t care for authenticity and want to be boring, you can individually tweak settings to your liking.

However, even if you widen your screen, you’re not going to fully lose the aesthetic of chunky polygons, fake transparency, pixelated textures, and a selection of ridiculous ska tunes. Parking Garage Rally Circuit is really committed to mid-�0s racing games. It’s not Sega Rally Championship �it’s not trying to be �but it looks the part.

But looking the part is one thing. Racing games need to play well. It’s not really the sort of genre that can get by on artistic intent. Unless it’s Road Trip on PS2. Thankfully, Parking Garage Rally Circuit is like butter.

As I mentioned, I’m a bit of a drift queen. In video games, anyway. I don’t even have my license in reality. However, I was able to get a feel for Parking Garage Rally Circuit very quickly and was drifting up parking garage ramps like that Tokyo Drift trailer in no time at all.

As the name implies, each of ?its 8 tracks are set inside parking garages. Sort of. I think the last level is technically a ferry, but I digress. You might wonder how much variety y??ou could possibly get from that theme. As it turns out, it’s a lot. Each parking garage is in a different city and range from simple two-story structures to sprawling complexes. Hazards like snowplows and falling boulders mix up the tight cornering, and hazardous jumps across towering structures keep you concentrated on your steering.

You don’t race against live competitors, just their ghosts. That is to? say, it’s a time trial, with your goal being to reach the top time. As much as I like running people off the road, I’m not sure a grid would really work in such tight environments. The challenge of carefully drifting through extremely narrow turns is enough to keep you focused. If you’re feeling competitive, there is multiplayer, but, again, it’s all ghosts.

The only real downside I can point to in Parking Garage Rally Circuit is its brevity. Ther?e are eight tracks, and after you get a medal on each one of them in a class, you are provided with a new car with different performance and pushed through the tracks again with slight variations. It’s decent on paper, but it only took me a little under two hours to clear. I had a healthy pile of gold under my belt, but still more to clear. Your mileage will vary.

On the other hand, there are also secret cheat codes buried in the game. I’m told there are 10 of them, but I was only provided with two. I was not able to guess any others, but they’re supposed to be discovered and proliferated by the community. These unlock “secret cars, tracks, or gameplay modifiers.�/p>

Despite its brevity, Parking Garage Rally Circuit packs a huge punch. It’s not just its perfectly emulated retro aesthetic or its near-flawless execution of its central concept, either. It’s just so damned happy to be here. You can feel the passion behind it, and that energy is felt in all its facets. It knows what it is, and it’s laser-focused on presenting it in the most finely-tuned way possible. I cannot fathom any game topping it in the niche of racing games contained entirely within parking garages. I’m not really sure what the best way to wrap up this review is, so let’s try this: Parking Garage Rally Circuit is miles more fun than parallel parking.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Cruelty Squad’s aesthetic sure was a thing. It presents this tone evocative of a K-Mart bargain bin that has awoken with an appetite for human flesh. A lot of that was its insulting visuals, but it was backed by the most uncomfortably bizarre music. Well, you can just listen to that music if you want. If you want.

That’s because the Cruelty Squad soundtrack has penetrated streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. I’m listening to it right now and have been transported back to a particular pocket of Web 1.0 where teenagers attempted to recreate video game music while chewing on their grandmother’s prescription drugs. It haunts me. It’s both nostalgic and agonizing. I feel like I could end this article just by typing out the screams inside of me. But I won’t. Here’s what I said about it in my coronavirus-trapped 2021 review:

“It’s this mix of low-quality MIDI and uncomfortable sounds. Disturbing is probably the best way to describe it. Even at its most musical, it tends to clash with the murder on screen. Sounds just creep into the background, and it’s hard to be sure if they’re part of the music or something in the environment is about to jump you.�/p>

Does that sound like something your kids would listen to? Is this what?? passes for music these days? It’s 27 tracks and 49 minutes long. What’s the opposite of meditation? That’s what this is. Listen to such hits as, uh, “Combat Cocktail�which begins with what sounds like someone chewing on a live eel; a sound that bleeds into the background to support the percussion. It's the perfect way to let your gu??ests know that it's time to leave.

Gosh, this is great. This is music to work to. I’m so glad that Consumer Softproducts sold out to Big Streaming. Now I can feel uncomfortable while cooking or organizing my collection of toenail clippings. Listen to the Cruelty Squad OST on Sp?otify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, ?and maybe other places where music is streamed.

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Tick Tock Interactive has announced that their shortform anthology, Miniatures, is releas??ing on November 14th. It’s coming to Switch, PC, and Mobile (?iOS).

Miniatures defines itself as an “arthouse experience�which is maybe why I’m having so much trouble explaining it. You can watch the release date trailer. It presents an unsettling but serene tone as things happen. Here, I’ll tell you what the press release say??s:

“Explore, interact, and watch the world shift. In this peculiar, artist-led experience, reconnect with the wonder, magic, and loneliness of childhood through four handcrafted, visually captivating stories based on the strange objects found in an old wooden box. Open the box and open your mind - who knows what curious things you’ll discover in there?�/p>

Discover where? In the box or my mind? Because I’ve seen what’s in my mind, and it’s no vacation home. The box seems to contain puzzles. The game part of Miniatures has you “build unusual objects, inspect curious items, and untangle the threads of lost memories.�/p>

While it’s not necessary, the press release also mentions that playing on a tou?chscreen (Switch, Steam Deck, iOS) adds “an additional tactile dimension.â€?Touch screen and I have never been on good terms, but have at it.? The game itself looks interesting, though. I like loneliness, and my childhood was a safely mundane experience that, in retrospect, that’s way preferable to adulthood.

Miniatures launches on Switch, PC, and iOS November 14th.

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It’s hard to really figure out what Starstruck: Hands of Time is about based on trailers or screenshots. Half of it is a rhythm game. Half of it is an adventure. The other half is ab??out smashing things as a giant hand. Actually having played through it, I still don’t really know what it’s about.

Starstruck: Hands of Time (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Createdelic, LLC
Publisher: Createdelic, LLC
Released: September 16, 2024
MSRP: $19.99

Starstruck has you sent back from the future to try and prevent a somewhat-unexpl?ained apocalypse. Your robot companion hones in on a pair of humans, both aspiring musicians. One is Edwin, who lives in the shadow of Dawn. The other is Dawn, who lives in the shadow of her brother.

Finally, there’s your hand, which you use to interfere with the flow of time. Do you remember that Simpsons Halloween special where Homer travels back in time and, while he initially tries not to affect the future, eventually gets frustrated and just starts smashing things? That’s what you’re doing with your hand. Initially, your computerized companion says something about not creating a paradox before realizing that, wait, you’re actually trying ??to create a paradox, so you might as well smash everything.

It’s fun. It’s barely necessary in terms of narrative, but just being able to lay waste to the environment is fun in a Katamari way. It even challenges you to destroy as much as possible and locate hidden things in the environment, which? encourages you to just replay these segments. Messing with the timestream? could have been depicted in a number of ways, and this is such a great way to do it.

The most immediately striking thing about Starstruck is its art style. Most things are presented as a diorama that mixes mundane objects, disparate toys, and plasticine figures. But it gets even better than that, as it also incorporates video elements, laying them behin??d the player-controlled models, which gives them a surreal effect.

There is some unevenness to the art style, but it makes good use of it. I think that, at least once, it uses the fact that you can’t really t?ell why something looks the way it does to ??later reveal what it represents.

When I played the demo of Starstruck: Hands of Time a couple months back, I was deep into packing for a move. Now that I have room to breathe without inhaling cardboard, I got out my Rock Band 4 Fender Jaguar. It made me want to play Rock Band 4 more t?han anything, but it also improved t??he feeling of the game. Sort of.

There’s no strumming. You just press the fret buttons in time with the prompts. I’m not sure how much you know about playing a guitar, but it’s very much not that. You lift and press the strum bar to move to the higher and lower pitches. It’s kind of awkward, especially at higher difficulties where you’re pressing chords, er, multiple buttons at once. It’s still fun to play, regardless of whether you’re on keyboard (that is, a computer keyboard, not the piano type) or a Rock Band/Guitar Hero guitar.

Speaking of which, it looks like the Guitar Hero 2 (360 version) Xplorer guitar ge??ts recognized by the game and bound automatically. For my Fend??er Jaguar, I had to bind the buttons, but it wasn’t difficult and worked fine.

I was actually excited every chance I got to pull out the guitar, which, t?hankfully, comes up rather frequently. It’s a major part of gameplay. I said in my write-up of the demo that I hated the music, but thankfully, it turned out to only be that one song that I didn’t like. I mean, I still didn’t like the lyrics much whenever they came up, but the soundtrack, in general, is really enjoyable. You can play the songs separate from the story, and I would totally do that.

The adventure aspect of the Starstruck, on the other hand, is a smidge weak. I wasn’t looking for things to rub on other things, but there isn’t a tonne to really do ?in the world. There are guitars that you can find and equip for visual reasons, and there are optional songs to take part in (at least one, that I recall), but not a whole lot. And I think thereâ€??™s a bit of a missed opportunity to get more intimate with the game world.

Which actually leads me to my main issue with Starstruck: its story isn’t entirely well told. I really want to temper my words, because I want to be clear that it isn’t bad. It has a lot of value and inventivenes??s. It’s just that it seems unfocused. S??o much so that, when all is said and done, I’m not sure what the core message is supposed to be. Was there just one? If not, then the other themes get diluted, and nothing gets full closure.

There’s symbolism like the heavy presence of ouroboros, the illusion of immortality through art, and being true to yourself. It brings up so much and explains so little. It spins its tires on plagiarism and by the end of it, I wasn’t sure if it was saying that it’s bad or unavoidable. Or maybe I’m not supposed to focus on that. Maybe it’s about the fact that you need to be yourself, because becoming famous by simply copying someone already successful will leave ??you feeling hollow. Or that all your heroes live in the shadow of someone else. Or maybe it’s both, as well as some sort of statement on the difference of fame and infamy.

The fact that it doesn’t really punctuate itself might have a lot to do with the fact that the narrative can’t tell if it’s more interested in the characters or the message. The characters themselves are all unique, and their problems are clearly stated, but you don’t live with them. You don’t really spend enough time with their issues to get a good understanding of their problems. I’m curious about Edwin’s TV-addicted parents. You see Lucy’s problem demonstrated, but the depths of he?r despair was a complete mystery to me. Likewise, I don’t understand the antagonist. I don’t get their motivations or their, er, status.

Not understanding or not being able to fully grok the point could just be me. I feel I’m typically receptive enough to recogni??ze artistic intent, but I c??an’t possibly say how others will connect or interpret it. However, I still think that better attention to the characters would have paid off massively.

With that said, it’s told with enough visual and verbal flair that it doesn’t significantly matter. Starstruck knows how to set a scene effectively, so regardless of whether you fully understand the subtext, it’s easy enough to? follow the grander plot and be entertained by its storytelling.

I’ve played and reviewed a lot of games this month, and there was a point where I felt breathless beneath a pile of them. However, the one I wanted to play most after starting it was Starstruck: Hands of Time, but it was also the one I needed to push d??own in priorities since I had more urgent deadlines. I think it says something that I had to restrain myself from playing it too soon.

It wound up being 4 hours for me, and that includes a bit of time I spent just playing the songs, searching for guitars, and repeating the smashy sections. There are multiple endings, but they are based mostly on decisions you make toward the end ??of the game, rather than any sort of branching narrative.

It wasn’t until the last act of the game that the fires of my enthusiasm met with a damp log. It wasn’t enough to put me out entirely, but it did take down the heat. Starstruck sets itself up for a homerun and winds up just making it to fourth base. It filled out the paperwo??rk correctl?y, but forgot to sign and date the bottom. Uh, what I’m saying is that with a bit more time dedicated to its storytelling, it could have been the complete package. As it stands, you might be impressed by its personality, but you won’t necessarily be starstruck.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Starstruck: Hands of Time appeared first on Destructoid.

In Fields of Mistria, Saturday might be the best day of the week, because that’s when the Saturday Market comes to town and you have a chance to get your hands on it?ems that you can’t usually get. 

The Saturday Market can also be incredibly?? helpful if you have request items to hand in, or simply want to get your daily conversation in with each villager, because everyone congregates in t??he middle of town to do some shopping. 

How to unlock the Saturday Market in Fields of Mistria

Before you can peruse the stalls of the Saturday Market and spend all of your Tesserae, you’ll need to repair the bridge. When you first begin a playthrough, the bridge that you hop over with Balor has been damaged in the recent earthquake, and without the bridge, t??he vendors for the Saturday Market can’t ge??t into town. 

The quest to repair the bridge will arrive in the mail on Spring 3 of t??he first year, and you’ll need the following resources to complete it:

• 60 Wood
• 60 Stone

How many stalls are there at the Weekend Market?

Currently, there are four stalls at the Weekend Market in Fields of Mistria:

• Merri’s furniture stall
• Louisâ€?clothing stall
• Vera’s hair salon
• Darcy’s cafĂ©

Items available at each stall will vary week on ??week and both Louis�and Vera’s stalls will stop selling items once you’ve purchased everything that’s currently on offer. Darcy and Merri will continue selling their ready-made items, but they will stop selling recipes once all currently available ones have b?een purchased.

Everything sold at Merri’s furniture stall at the Saturday Market

Merri has, by far, the most items available for purchase of all the Saturday Market vendors. There’s a lot of furniture and decorative items to choose ?from, as well as a lot of crafting recipes available. 

Furniture and decor items

The following items will permanently be available from Merri’s stall, but exact stock for sale will vary week on week. Each item comes in a few diff??erent colors, with each option being sold separately:

Crafting recipes

Each item sold at Merri’s stall also has a corresponding crafting r?ecipe, which she also sells for 300 Tesserae each. 

Unlike the ready-made items, purchasing and unlocking a crafting recipe will allow yo??u to make all of the different col??or versions of each item, making the recipes much better value than buying the items outright even if the recipe is more expensive than the item.

Everything sold at Louis�clothing stall at the Saturday Market

Louis is a legendary tailor who, if the villagers are to be believed, has filled their wardrobes with everything they wear. Once you’ve purchased anything from Louis, it will disappear from his rotation, until you eventually clear out his entire stock.? At this point, his stall will remain empty each week unt?il further items are added in future patches. 

When you’ve purch??ased an item from Louisâ€?stall, you’ll need to use it from within your inventory to learn it. After this, i?t will become available as an option in the character customization menu. 

The following items are available to purchase from Louis, each costing 5??00 Tesserae:

Full outfits and dresses:

• Maid Dress
• Overalls
• Overall Shorts
• Overall Skirt

Tops:

• Buttoned Tanktop
• Ringer Tee
• Striped Long Sleeve

Skirts:

• Scalloped Skirt
• Short Pleated Skirt

Socks and shoes:

• Dressy Stockings
• Sneakers

Hats and accessories:

• Cat Ears
• Devil Horns
• Hoop Earrings
• Lily Pad Hat
• Striped Bow
• Striped Bucket Hat
• Tangerine Hat

Everything sold at Vera’s hair salon at the Saturday Market

Vera sells additional hairstyles and accessories, each of which costs 500 Tesserae. As with Louisâ€?clothing stall, items? will disappear from her rotation when they’ve been purchased, eventually leading to her selling nothing at all. 

Once you’ve purchased an item from the following list, you’ll need to use it from your inventory to learn it and unlock ??it in the character customization menu:

Hairstyles:

• Afro Puffs
• Short Parted Curls
• Straight Pompadour
• Straight Buns Fringed
• Rounded Afro
• Wavy Rugged
• Medium Half Bun Fringe

Accessories:

• Moon Hair Clips
• Bat Wing Hair Clips
• Strawberry Hair Clips
• Angel Wing Hair Clips
• Star Hair Clips

Everything sold at Darcy’s café at the Saturday Market

Darcy sells a range of sweet tr?ea??ts and drinks, as well as a selection of cooking recipes. The ready-made items that she sells will permanently be available, although stock will vary week on week. 

If you’re hoping to make the most of the fact that all of the villagers are in one place, buying liked or loved gifts at D??arcy’s stall is a good way to get a boo??st of friendship points each Saturday. 

Food and drinks

Recipes

As soon as you purchase a cookin?g recipe from Darcy’s café, it w?ill disappear from her rotation of stock, eventually leading her to selling no recipes at all.

Will we get more vendors at the Saturday Market?

According to the early access roadmap from NPC Studio, there will be more Saturday Market vendors? coming to Mistria at some point in a futur??e update, but it’s not been confirmed when this will happen. 

It’s not due to arrive as part of the first planned ma??jor update, which is expected before the end of 2024, but it is included in the future update plan. There is some knowledge of who these vendors will be, but more information will become available closer to the time they’re added. 

The post Fields of Mistria: Full Saturday Market guide, in?cluding all vendors and stock appeared first on Destructoid.

There seems to be something of a tidal wave of cozy farming sims hitting the market currently, and it can be hard to tell what makes one stand out against all the rest. Back in June, I played the demo for Garden Witch Life, and fell in love with it.

Garden Witch Life is out now on PC (via Steam and Epic Gam??es), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. If you play on any of the mentioned platforms and have been looking for a new cozy game to dive into, you should give it a try. 

After losing your job to mass layoffs and realizing that you’re not quite ready to head home to your parents and admit defeat just yet, you bump into May, who is a rather lovely anthropomorphic cactus with a café on Moonflower Island. Not only does she give you cake (which makes anyone instantly likeable in my eyes) and ?good life advice, but she goes out of her way to let you stay with her overnight. This cactus lady is very trusting of strangers.

Then, in what is perhaps the most generous move anyone could possibly make, she gives you the keys to an ?entire (admittedly run down) treehouse, along with a bunch of land that you can?? do with as you please. Apparently nobody else wants it, for reasons which are left unsaid, and of course you bite her hand off because who wouldn’t? If only real life were more like a farming sim. This is the first step in a massive life change, and we've all needed one of those at some point.

You’re then left to pretty much fend for yourself. Of course you have regular interactions with the many anthropomorphized townsfolk, and you have to do quests for them a?s well, but it’s very easy to forget about that aspect of the game entirely. There are endless corners of the map to explore, items to be foraged, and eve??n a few animals to be petted. You’ll keep going until you pass out. No, literally, but more on that later.

One of the best things about Garden Witch Life is the decoration aspect. In a move that makes me more happy than I could ever say, you’re not limited to right angles or a grid system when it comes to placing furniture. You can more or less freely rotate everything, and place it where?ver you want. Items can slightly overlap to prevent irritating gaps, and squares are a thing of the past. It’s beautiful. 

I will say that Garden Witch Life is not my ??perfect cozy sim game. There are things not currently in the game which definitely should be, such as crafting from storage. In order to craft or cook anything, you have to have the necessary resources in your inventory. It’s not that much of a big deal, and you can easily work around it by placing chests close to the crafting bench, but it does add an unnecessary extra step.

Crafting or cooking anything, especially early on in a playthrough, will unlock more recipes. Turning logs into planks will provide the recipe for a wooden storage chest, for example. Gathering items works in very much the same way, with everything you pick up unlocking some form of recipe. It’s always exciting to see the pop-up telling you what you’ve learned, and I’v??e found that I’m more driven to craft, knowing that I’ll get new recipes from doing so. 

The cooking mini-game is a joy in itself. It reminds me of my dearly beloved Cooking Mama. You use the chopping board to prepare ingredients and then you need to cook them in the cauldron. You control the temperature, add ingredients one at a time, stir the mix, and eventually end up with a fully cooked meal to increase your stamina. All that’s missing is an i??nteractive blow feature.

One of the things I’m hoping is added in future updates is some kind of warning before the end of the day. It’s very easy to lose track of time in Garden Witch Life, and I’ve found myself passing out at the end of the day multiple times simply because I forgot to look at the clock. I pride myself on my ability to never pass out fr??om exhaustion in cozy games, so this has been a humbling experience. 

I’ve only just started my play through of Garden Witch Life, and I know that I am very far from unlocking and understanding all of the features that await me, but I know that I could throw hours of my life into creating the perfect hideaway treehouse and exploring everything Moonflower Island has to offer. I think the things ??that make me love Garden Witch Life are the very issues that I've mentioned above.

Life isn't perfect, but sometimes it throws you curveballs taking you in a direction you never imagined you could go. That's the lingering thought when playing, and I happen to love it when games impart valuable wisdom without really even trying. While Garden Witch Life might not be perfect, it's beautiful, charming, and it feels... Free. You can b??e whoever you want to be on Moonflower Island, and? we all need more of that kind of freedom.

The post Looking for a?? new cozy game? Try Garden Witch Life appeared first on Destructoid.