But where's Lupin III?

Nacon has announced the arrival of a new DLC expansion for its robo-revolutionary RPG Steelrising �T Cagliostro's Secrets story expansion is a??vailable to purchase now on PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X, priced at $14.99. The new gameplay can be accessed once the player has completed the "Bastille" mission.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbfkLMOqw-o

Cagliostro's Secrets throws a little more heavy metal action in the divine Aegis' path. The DLC includes a new area, Hôpital Saint Louis, which features a new questline and several brand new enemies, along with variants on some of Steelrising's already established mechanical nightmares. In addition, the DLC drop adds five new weapons to our girl's arsenal of death, and includes several brand new side-quests that can be found and completed in Steelrising's other districts.

While Steelrising was not quite the gemstone it might have been, I still found it a gorgeous-looking and very challenging adventure, that rose above its budgetary shortcomings thanks to its classy visuals and in-depth combat mechanics. While certainly not for ever??yone, the ambitious adventure is a sign? that, as a developer, Spiders is growing with each successive release, and I hope that a future sequel could really deliver upon the game's compelling premise.

Steelrising is available now on PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X.

The post Delve into Cagliostro’s Secrets in new Steelrising DLC appeared first on Destructoid.

Bad Brains, Broken Frames

Good morning, my dear friends, and welcome to Whatcha Been Playing? I hope that the week has treated you and yours kindly, and that the weekend brings you some cheer. I have little qualm in admitting that my week was wei??ghed down by a particularly powerful bout of depression, the worst?? in many, many years. And, (because when it rains, it pours), I also dealt with a hospital visit, some work strife, a couple of ugly encounters, and a bathroom flood, the latter of which actually led to me breaking my glasses. What a comedy! The kind of comedy that leaves you in tears and requiring supervision!

But I do not want anybody to worry, and I appreciate that this column gives me the freedom to talk about weeks good and bad, both in and out of the digital sphere. It's important to exorcize this stuff sometimes. So, if this week has been a bit of a struggle, then I hope?? that the weekend will offer up some rad times. Importantly, I hope that you have somebody you can reach out to, even if just to v??ent a little and reduce the pressure. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: You are among friends here.

Cheers for hearing yer boy out, and here's ???to you and your Saturday morning!

Robot Girls, Juri's Whirls

This week has seen me bouncing between two specific titles, namely Spiders' robo-revolution Soulslike Steelrising, and a preview build of Asobo Studio's ratty sequel, A Plague Tale: Requiem. You can check out my review for the former right here, while my thoughts on the latter will be gracing the site with their presence very soon. They're a little late, unfortunately, but I'm in A Hell. Aside from my own gaming adventures, I've also been picking over the brand new footage of Street Fighter 6 characters Kimber?ly and Juri.? Of course, they both look marvelous, and my girl is ready to rock.

St. MK is b?ack. And, once again, it's cancel??able, baby. I can't wait to get my hands on her! (respectfully)

Dtoid Crew, Weekend's Due

But now, 'tis Saturday, and while you (unfortunately) cannot get y?our hands on me, you can still cheer me up and entertain your fellow community members by filling us all in on Whatcha Been Playing. It doesn't matter if you're rocking brand new or old-school titles, backlog mainstays, or the summer's hottest ??releases. This is more than just a matter of gaming, this is a social gathering, a meeting of minds, a good-hearted get-together. It means a lot to me and, apparently, a lot to many of you too �so let's make this another stellar entry and get all of our weekends off to a rollicking good start.

Have a wonder?ful weekend, from ??all of us at Destructoid.

The post Whatcha been playing this week, Destructoid? appeared first on Destructoid.

Liberty, equality, fraternity... or death

Par?is. 1789. The Renaissance was so very long ago... Did it even happen?

Looking around the fallen capital, one would fairly assume not. The City of Lights, a place celebrated for its art, invention, culture, and architecture now resembles The Gates of Hell, a vision soon to be crafted by Rodin himself. The streets are awash with blood and bodies �innocent civilians, rebellious conspirators, an??d even the king's own army lying in miserable piles of broken flesh.

And the king himself? This citywide massacre is his doing, the heart of his capital torn in two by a seemingly unstoppable army of robotic soldiers. Far from being the loyal guardians and entertainers of Paris, as initially designed??, the automaton army has instead become her oppressor, stalking the cobbled streets and killing those who would stand against the bereaved monarch with extreme prejudice. Starving, scared, and cowering within their own homes, the city's populace has neither the weaponry nor the knowledge to take on The Clockwork King's footsoldiers, let alone flee the city for safer ground.

But there is one hope. One automaton that is not under the command of King Louis XVI but is, ironically, guided by his own lady wife, Marie Antoinette. She is the Queen's personal bodyguard, bu?ilt to withstand the mos?t brutal of assault, outfitted with a devastating arsenal of weaponry, and blessed as one of the only automatons in France to possess anything close to free will.

She is Aegis, and she is come to ??open the purple testament of bleeding war.

Steelrising (PS5 [reviewed], PC, Xbox Series X/S)
Developer: Spiders
Publisher: Nacon
Released: September 8, 2022
MSRP: $49.99

Steelrising is French developer Spiders' first title since colonial RPG GreedFall, which launched to middling praise back in the fall of 2019. Much like that title, Steelrising focuses on an alternate retelling of another specific moment in human history �namely the French Revolution, which waged its bloody, class-based warfare in the late 1700s. Steelrising takes the framework of this tumultuous, world-shaping event and uses it as a backdrop to tell its own fictional tale, blended with a phantasmagoria of anachronist?ic technology to create a fictional retelling of these dark days of cake and head severings.

In Steelrising, players step in??to the delicate chassis of Aegis, a high-level automaton who serves as bodyguard to Marie Antoinette, currently residing in "protectio??n" (see "relative captivity"), at the Chateau de Saint-Cloud. Aware that the streets of Paris are torn asunder, Queen Antoinette orders Aegis to travel into the heart of the capital and find her creator, Eugene de Vaucanson, who may hold the key to stopping the increasingly unstable Louis XVI and his battalion of automatons. Automatons that are already leading a campaign of death and violence throughout the capital.

Politics is politics, however, and every actor on this stage has a part to play. Queen Antoinette, King Louis, Vaucanson, the members of the Estates General, the mysterious Comte Cagliostro, and, of cour??se, the sublime Aegis herself �who will emerge the victor when the gears finally stop turning?

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-pii4ZK6wg

Rise of the Robots

For all intents and purposes, Steelrising is a Soulslike �its gameplay typified by map exploration; deliberate, brutal combat; the accessing of stat-building checkpoints; and the mastery of ??both alchemic weapons and long-winded attack animations in order to win the day, whether stood against the lowliest of guard bots or most terrifying of titans.

Strangely, however, the chosen genre does not synergize wholly with the universe Spiders has created. There is an ever-present impression that the developer should have crafted Steelrising as a straight action-adventure, akin to Horizon: Zero Dawn, or the Batman: Arkham series.

While Steelrising does offer a solid and capable Souls experience, some of its brilliant conceptual capability is certainly lost in its slow-paced, measured, and deliberate approach to world traversal and in-game action. By choosing to jump on the, shall we say, Soulswagon? Steelrising leaves some of its own potential on the table, wearing the Souls genre in an admirable, but ill-fitting fashion. One wonders what might have been had Spiders chosen to go with a different vibe for the chrono-b?ending adventure.

Still, while I do think that the world and its engine do not entirely sync, it must be noted that Steelrising is most certainly?? a fine �and pret??ty darn classy �adventure title in its own right.

I love my 18th Century Goth Robot Wife

When your protagonist is an indebted roboservant, you run the risk of alienating the player due to a lack of character relatability. Blank-gazing automatons can fe??el a little flat, after all.

Fortunately, Aegis is a marvel of design, as achingly beautiful as she is painfully deadly, with a surprisingly engaging personality despite her dry, staccato line delivery. Aegis is no 2B of NieR fame �her gears and cogs crunch and grind as she runs, her engine sputters and chokes, and her vocal tone is reminiscent of the "What is this thing you call "'love'?" lore of old-school sci-fi. But despite �perhaps because of �her fundamental flaws, we like her. We like her very much?. Additionally, a selection of customization options allows us to tune Aegis' design. T?his includes her skin tone. An important touch, even for automatons.

As Aegis, the player journeys through several quarters of Paris, each defined by its own style, atmosphere, and variety of intriguing �and very dangerous �enemies. The automatons themselves are a veritable circus of iconic 18th-century design, from rickety, inelegant, sword-swinging guards, to fanciful trumpet-playing clowns, frightening feline scouts, and bulbous, heavy-hitting giants. In typical Souls fashion, each of these enemies is a legitim??ate threat to Aegis, and must be closely studied for its vulnerabilities, so that our girl may strike hard, fast, and with finality.

Evening the odds, Aegis can head into battle with a variety of bladed and blunt weaponry including swords, polearms, chains, fans, and mallets, as well as firearms and rudimentary explosive devices. Each weapon has its own range of weak, fierce, and charged fierce attacks, as well as special skills including aerial strikes, parries, or shielding options. In addition, "An??ima Essence" (XP) can be spent on increasing a given weapon's statistics, or on upgrading Aegis herself, affording her a stronger moveset, better armor, elemental resistance, or fine-tuning for her offensive a??nd defensive animations.

Ultimately, the playe??r is encouraged to build "their" Aegis, from her abilities in battle and her aesthetic presence, to her internal build, weapons of choice, and her decidedly dapper robo-fashions.

Fetch the WD-40

As I noted in my review for another mid-budget Soulslike, Thymesia, control and combat are the beating heart of the genre. The core of any given example's gameplay experience. In this regard, Steelrising is, unfortunately, nothing to write home about. It is solid, but it is not great. It is precise, but it's not polished. Controls can feel a little sluggish at times, and even unresponsive on occasion, while the game's lock-on system, (which is a "Must Use" feature), can be woefully unreliable and cost me more than a few lives. Aegis, by design, is balletic chaos, a finely-honed machine of death that moves with all the grace and beauty of a dancer, but this wondrous design simply isn't reflected in Steelrising's mechanics.

When cornered, or when fighting several opponents in close proximity, Aegis is less Battle Angel: Alita and more Metal Mickey, stumbling between PoVs while the camera dawdles behind a nearby hedge. Steelrising's combat works. It's solid and it serves. But it falters under pressure, with lock-on fumbles, spinning camerawork, or obstacles posted frustratingly just out of frame aren't on a player's side. As a rule of animatronic thumb, Steelrising's combat mechanics are acceptable, but in a genre that requires scalpel sharpness, they need a little tw?eaking, lest Aegis break down like yer boy Moyse on Twitte?r last week.

Perhaps hoping to corral players who do not sport the required Souls Sadist Streak, Steelrising features a clever "Assist Mode" option. This feature can be used to fine-tune the difficulty to your own personal level, with sliders available for enemy damage and endurance regeneration speed, as well as an option to retain all unbanked XP on death. I found that the Assist Mode offered excellent training wheels while I got to grips with Steelrising's function �switching it off once I'd cleared the first chapter. Steelrising also features three console modes, tuned for Performance, Resolution, and Graphics. I chose Performance for my playthrough (and for these screenshots) because I like it when video games ?play.

Oh, there is also a toggle for "Hat Visibility," which I want to see in every single? game fro??m now on.

Eyeful Power

Steelrising looks marvelous. From shadow-strewn woodland, mud-filled ghettos, and palatial estates to the carnage of The Bastille itself, Spiders' masterful eye for exterior locations �honed in the equally attractive GreedFall �is in full effect here. Sharp lighting, shadow, and other effects bring each location to life, while smartly shifting moods give each quarter its own distinct vibe. One moment you're taking in the opulence of The Lourve,?? and the next you're headed to Luxembourg, where the game goes full horror. In addition to the environmental design, clever concepts such as the Horseless Carriage, the "Vestal" checkpoints, and Aegis' death-dealing weaponry will please steampunkers.

Add to this Steelrising's cavalcade of memorable and disturbing automatons, (yes, of course there are arachnids), and there's no doubt that both historical concepts and slick visual design are assuredly Spiders' strong points. This is a studio of ambition. An ambition that often outweighs budget, mind, but ambition nevertheless. Even when Steelrising disappoints, it works to win back the player with a creepy new enemy, a haunting vista, or a satisfying ins??trument of destruction �ready and wa??iting to be brought down on the noggin of a sleazy conservative bastard.

Steelrising, ultimately, plays tug-o-war with the player, repeatedly swinging between "alright," "good," and "great" on an hourly basis. Some of its design is disappointing, such as the clunky menu system, a genuinely funny mechanic whereby Aegis converses with NPCs through closed doors (likely due to a lack of character models), and an emphasis on rooftop traversal with a character that... well... isn't exactly Ezio Auditore. Most shockingly of all, Steelrising lacks a French dub, meaning that the ?dialogue proffers London East End accents for its peasants, while the aristocracy relies ??on the time-tested "half-language" gimmick:

"Mon Dieu, I do not know what it is that we shall do next, c'est fini!"

"Calm yourself, Maitre, maybe this automaton will adiez nou."

So, here we are on jour du jugement dernier, and where does Steelrising stand?

I've personally been looking forward to this title since it was first revealed in the summer of 2020, and while I will admit that the final product is not quite the game I was hoping for, I still found it an enjoyable and challenging action RPG, despite its disappointments. We're not looking at your newest Souls obsession here, but Spiders has made a solid and agreeable title. Anyone with an interest in Steelrising's classy aesthetic and interesting take on history will enjoy guiding Aegis to her rise to glory, standing proud and tall over the aimless meat bags that make up the human race. ??Vive la roboluti?on!

Though slightly wanting when compared with its Souls contemporaries, Steelrising still offers up challenging combat, inventive enemies, and an attractive and atmospheric take on 18th-century Paris at a time of great upheaval. Much like its previous release, GreedFall, you can see Spiders' ambition, passion, and talent at play here, and while the final product is not quite the success it could have been, Steelrising's robot revolution is still worth its weig?ht in cake.

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

The post Review: Steelrising appeared first on Destructoid.

Rats to That

Good morning, one and all, and welcome to Whatcha Been Playing? It's been a bit of a quiet week in the industry, given that we are in the strange period between summer showcases and the Holiday release season. But that's fine. We can just entertain ourselves with endless stories of mergers and acquisitions. Why won't somebody acquire me? I could really u?se the dollarydoos (o?r Renminbi, or whatever).

Why won't somebody merge with me? Like Rebecca Ferguson, or you, reading this. I guess that's a form of merging. You're merging with my psyche... Just without the internal screaming and bedtime crying... Erm?... Anyway, it is the weekend! And I hope that it is a wicked one for you, for me, and for all of us. Thanks a ton for joining us this Saturday morning, and I hope we can get your day ?off to a grand start.

Rats 'n' Robots

It's been a particularly French week for yer boy Moyse, as I have been engaged with two upcoming titles focused on la République. The first title is the dystopian tale of animatronic anarchy, Steelrising, of which my full review will be available on this here website in a few short days' time. In addition, I have managed to get a couple of hours with one of my most anticipated sequels of the year: A Plague Tale: Requiem. So look forward to my thoughts on these two tales of rats and revolution, both of which will be hitting the front page next week... I also played some Street Fighter. Well, it was the 35th anniversary.

Labor of Love

We ain't here to talk about me, we're here to talk about you. You reading these very words. ??So, before you head on into your weekend, (a Labor Day long weekend for some of you!), I would really be stoked if you could spend a couple of minutes in the comments and share with us Whatcha Been Playing? While I'm undeniably proud that this article has since been adapted/adopted by other gaming websites, none reach the same volume of inter-reader engagement as we are blessed with. So let's keep this party rolling with another friendly, welcoming, and interesting thread of fun gaming experiences.

Have a w??onderful weekend, from all of us at ?Destructoid.

The post Whatcha been playing this week, Destructoid? appeared first on Destructoid.

Stay out of trobble

Nacon is getting set to kick off its summer Nacon Connect live stream, offering updates, trailers, and reveals perta??ining to the publisher's upcoming wares. The action will kick off in about 15 minutes' time and is expected to run for around an hour in length. You can check out the action in the stream below.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwkTwMa3c-A

Nacon has been pretty forthcoming about the titles it will be spotlighting during the stream. We can expect new updates on robo-revolution title Steelrising, Lord of the Rings adventure Gollum, racers Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown and WRC Generations, and Games Workshop's ultra-violent sports sim Blood Bowl III. We will also be hearing about several new Xbox accessories in development in Nacon's hardware division, including the Daija Arcade Stick and the snaz?zy Pro Compact Colorlight controller.

Perhaps the most intriguing title on the lineup is RoboCop: Rogue City, which was first revealed during last summer's Nacon Connect live stream. Developed by studio Teyon of Terminator: Resistance fame, we still know so little about Alex Murphy's latest jaunt into the digital realm. Though RoboCop, as a franchise, seems custom-designed for video games, the brand has always struggled to truly recreate the cinem??atic excellence of Paul Verhoeven's 1987 classic.

While Teyon's Terminator title admittedly left something to be desired from a gameplay standpoint, it was clear that the studio does understand the potential buried within these enduring cinematic licenses. Fingers crossed that the developer will deliver the goods with RoboCop: Rogue City, and that we'll see some promising gamep??lay foot?age today.

J?oin us on Destructoid this lunc??htime and we can see what's in store. You have 15 minutes to comply.

The post Dead or alive you are w?atc?hing the Nacon Connect with me appeared first on Destructoid.

Stay Out of Trobble

Nacon is joining the long list of publishers dropping dates for its own summer live stream presentation. Nacon Connect 2022, which is scheduled to take place on July 7, will feature a slew of reveals, updates, and trailers pertaining to the company's catalog of upcoming ga??mes, accessories, and development projects.

"This year, NACON Connect is reinventing itself in its format and will feature even more content for?? gamers," said the company in a press release. "Two pre-show and post-show sessions will be added and hosted by renowned influencers. The conference will be the occasion to announce several major projects?, reveal new trailers and exclusive gameplay, and introduce new accessories that will delight all gamers."

While Nacon is expected to reveal the show's itinerary at a later date, we can snugly assume that we'll be seeing updates on the cyber revolution RPG Steelrising, Daedalic's action-adventure title The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, and Teyon's previously teased RoboCop: Rogue City. Nacon promises new trailers, excl??usive gameplay footage, and the debut of several new accessories from the company's hardware division.

Nacon Connect 2022 will go live on July 7 at 10:00 PT / 13:00 ET / 18:00 BST and can be watched on the official Nacon YouTube and Twitch channels. I may not be a "renowned influencer", but I'll also do my best to bring you any pertinent news ??from the stream right here on Destructoid.

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The robo-revolution is on hold for now

As some of you may have read previously, I've been pretty fascinated with Spiders' upcoming alt-reality adventure Steelrising, currently in development for PC and new-gen platforms. Unfortunately for interested parties such as myself, the fascination will need to hold a little longer, as publisher Nacon has officially delayed the launch of Steelrising to September 2022.

To help soften the blow and tide fans over, Nacon supplied Game Informer with a six-minute gameplay video, giving us our first real-time look at Steelrising in action. You can check out the new gameplay video below, courtesy of Game Informer. Commentary is provided by Spiders CEO and Steelrising lead writer Jehanne Rousseau, alo?ngside design director Sebastien Di Ruzza, and localization lead Ciaran Cresswell.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl7vozWD94M

Set agai??nst the backdrop of the French Revolution, King Louis XVI has managed to oppress the will of the people with a seemingly insurmountable mechanical army. The last hope for La Resistance comes in the form of Aegis, a delicate, but inc??redibly deadly automaton, whose precision movement, balletic acrobatics, and razor-sharp combat abilities could see the revolution turned in the favor of the downtrodden.

Players will guide Aegis through The City of Light, undertaking covert missions of subterfuge, sabotage, and assassination �pulling at the threads that will bring the monarch's fascistic reign tumbling down around his very ears. Steelrising launches Septem??ber 8 on PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X.

The post Nacon’s Steelrising has been delayed to September 2022 appeared first on Destructoid.

Let Them Eat Swarfega

For me personally, one of the most intriguing and exciting announcements made during last year's summer of livestreams was the reveal of Steelrising, an action-RPG currently in production at Greedfall developer Spiders.

My interest immediately piqued at the project's concept: a retelling of The French Revolution, but with an army of lavish, creepy, and sentient androids as the main players in this particularly grim moment of human history. For the reveal, we were given a teaser trailer showing off Steelrising's concept an?d steampunky aesthetic, but things have been very quiet since then, though I've remained very curious about the project.

It seems that development has steadily continued, and Spiders is now ready to start playtesting basic builds of the strange release. The studio will be testing internally, but is also opening up Steelrising to members of the public, offering them an early look at what could prove to be one of 2021's most unique releases. Interested parties can sign up by filling in this short questionnaire, which asks for the participant's platform of choice, as well as their experience with titles such as Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Darksiders - which somewhat suggests the gameplay style Spiders is aiming for with Steelrising.

GreedFall launched in 2019 to a mostly positive but mixed reception. Critics and players appreciated the world and characters Spiders created in its doomsday exploration adventure, but criticized the title for being rough around the edges and inconsistent with some of its mechanics. Hopefully, with the experience of developing GreedFall and the power of next-gen tech under its belt, Spiders can ensure that Steelrising delivers upon its fascinating premise, pe?rhaps even becoming one of the best sleeper titles of 2021.

Regardless, I'm up to throwdown with Marie Androidette.

The post I can’t wait to take part in Steelrising’s robot revolution appeared first on Destructoid.