Prepare to re-engage your thrusters and pilot your very own spaceship through the depths of the great beyond as the iconic Flash game from Wx3 Labs revives itself in, Starcom: Nexus.
For those unfamiliar with the wildly popular 2008 web browser action game, and one of the 2 million players fondly recalling endless hours poured into the space odyssey, check out the trailer below:
After ten years of existence, Starcom is back with a stunning reinvention as a standalone PC game after the original Flash game went on to create a cult following.
“…I didn’t think to give players a channel to reach out to me at the time. Still, many did find a way and asked if I had any plans for a sequel.” – Kevin Lin, Starcom Creator
What’s New In Starcom: Nexus?
Through a long development cycle started in 2014 and several closed betas since August 2018, Starcom: Nexus is ready to enter Early Access – and with it comes a variety of engaging features:
Players will take control of an agile spacecraft in a scenic top-down view and engage in heated space battles, universal exploration and riveting alien interaction.
With slick customizing options, pilots will equip their combat ships with bullet deflecting armour, powerful engines and devastating weaponry like plasma cannons, missiles and other fiery projectiles.
Communicate with other alien species in hopes of acquiring new allies, or stay wary of enemy hostiles when scouring the vast darkness. Use rich dialogue options to create a rewarding narrative between you and other sentient beings.
The action-adventure RPG provides a near-limitless sandbox of space exploration, planetary interactions brimming with tons of anomalies and other peculiar discoveries.
Officially opening up to the public, Starcom: Nexus enters Early Access on Steam on December 12th, 2018.
Players familiar with the survivalist nature of the post-apocalyptic world in Entrada Interactive’s Early Access game, Miscreated, will be delighted to know the title is entering its official launch this December.
With the announcement comes the launch trailer which shows off the adventurous gameplay and devastatingly brutal enemies that await:
The launch of Miscreated 1.0 arrives after a solid four years of testing, bug fixes and growth while in Early Access on Steam.
“Miscreated has been such an amazing journey – we have created such a wonderful community who has driven the design of this game in so many ways(…)The launch of Version 1.0 is guaranteed to have features the community has been asking for as well as some additional features. We also have some exciting new content planned post 1.0 launch.” – Terry Evans, CEO and Owner at Entrada Interactive
Miscreated 1.0 Details
So what separates Miscreated from other survival games, and what’s new in the upcoming full release? Check out the details below:
Players will dive into a vast, gruelling open world filled with mutated beings which were “miscreated” by the inevitable fallout. The post-apocalyptic world is brimming with exploration in a diverse setting from lush forests to soaring cityscapes.
The dynamic weather system makes survival even more unforgiving as players can carelessly find themselves in the midst of blinding fog to furious tornadoes to radiated thunderstorms – the world is teeming with surprises.
Players will literally build within the world around them using hundreds of craftable solutions, traverse the map on foot or in one of the 15 different operable vehicles to discover and battle it out against mutated beasts or fellow online survivors with a wide range of combative weapons to equip.
The 1.0 launch includes a flurry of new updates including survival tactics like cooking your food, regulating body temperature, new weather systems like acid rain and blizzards, an expanded map, player hosted servers, as well as much more to come in the future.
While still currently in its waning Early Access stage, Miscreated is set for its full release on December 18th, 2018 on Steam for the PC.
Prepare for a night of haunting chills as players take on the role of a paranormal investigator on the prowl for eerie and dangerous horrors that creep in the dark in the recently released spooky indie game, Apparition.
Fear not, with the Early Access launch comes a short, but fright-filled trailer:
Detective Horror, Early Access, and More
Played in a terrifying first-person view, Apparition will have players facing their fears in order to collect ghastly evidence from the spirit world or meet their demise.
Polish publisher, Fat Dog Games, has released the game in official Early Access on Steam to gather horror-loving fans before the official launch.
There are loads of spooky features packed into Apparition, so check out what to expect from the haunting release in the list below:
With a tense atmosphere, players will explore dark and terrifying areas in search for clues showing proof of the afterlife. The more evidence you find, the better equipment you’ll earn.
Armed only with your bravery, wit and camera players are rendered defenceless when face-to-face with a horrifying discovery.
The longer you take on investigating an area the more evidence will be captured. However, the area also becomes increasingly more dangerous with spiritual activity – and you can’t keep what you’ve captured you don’t live to tell about it.
Using an Ouija board, players can communicate with the dead leading to groundbreaking evidence, unlocking advanced equipment further allowing players to explore more haunting areas.
Stay updated with news on the game’s official Discord channel and don’t forget to keep your head on a swivel for the things that go bump in the night.
Suit up and hop into the latest mech destroying, tactical shooter from Octobox Interactive, Blazing Core – Knights of the Future.
Check out what you’ll be getting yourself into in the alpha gameplay footage shown below:
Blazing Core offers players a variety of gameplay elements in a strategic 3v3 or 6v6 competition. Customize your deadly mech suit with a wide array of weapons and equipment, enhance your experience with unique abilities and take on one of the many roles offered in battle.
An Updated Blazing Core Experience
Here’s everything new you can expect in the latest build of the game:
Tear the environment apart in the completely reworked Maya map offering destroyable objects, reworked lighting effects and new locations like shelters and unique lore opportunities.
A brand-new quest system has been added offering players the chance to earn special rewards for completing daily and weekly jobs.
Modified rewards system which allows players to earn greater rewards the better they play.
Knights no longer bear their own banner as they enter battle, now utilizing the newly added banner-bearing drone to escort you in combat.
You can sign up for the Early Access phase which will last for a total of six months by purchasing a copy of the game for £13.99 / €17.99 / $17.99.
Head on over to Blazing Core’s Steam page and get started in the mech crushing, tactical shooting mayhem.
A grizzly survival horror packed with an MMO punch hits Early Access on Steam next month in the latest from indie developers Creaky Corpse: Dead Frontier 2.
Dead Frontier 2
Slay tons of gruesome abominations and survive in an online world where pairing up with friends may be your only hope of staying alive. Check out the battered and exceedingly bloody trailer for Dead Frontier 2 below:
Along with the announcement of the August Early Access period are tons of gameplay revealing features covering the infected-slaughtering cooperative game, such as:
Players will need to make every shot count and scavenge for every viable resource in this massive online survival shooter pitting the player against waves of zombie-infected horrors in a dark and twisted atmospheric environment.
Player driven economy has players trading with one another for survival supplies, rare equipment and weapons, or perhaps teaming up with each other to fight off the hordes of undead.
PvP action and punishing cooperative global events are coming soon to Dead Frontier 2, featuring both unreal boss battles and outpost defending carnage – or take on the hordes alone. The team also plans to bring in the option to barricade safe houses to keep what you don’t want in out.
Take advantage of a true free-to-play game with the option to upgrade your uniquely customized character with rewarded skills and abilities, or make them stand out with purchasable cosmetic wardrobes and other items.
Dead Frontier 2 will have players slaying and slaughtering hordes of deadly infected together come August 31st, 2018 via Steam Early Access.
From the developers of the puzzle platformer, Never Alone, E-Line Media in collaboration with Endless Interactive has officially announced their next project titled The Endless Mission.
The Endless Mission – Use That Imagination
Along with the official announcement, we were also teased with a riveting trailer showcasing a bit of the distinctive gameplay found in The Endless Mission:
Here are a few takeaways from the recent announcement:
The sci-fi sandbox game allows players to create an experience using the full flexibility of the Unity engine, manipulating everything down to the code in the game.
It’s from the writing staff of big games like Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Crew.
The first person rogue-lite adventure game – City of Brass – combines the exhilarating nature of becoming a swift thief with the action of first-hand combat involving whips and swords.
You make your way through the turbulent ruins filled with valuable riches and treasures in the next release out of Uppercut Games. Backing up the release date announcement, the developers have also released a slick new trailer for us:
Takeaways – City of Brass
A few takeaways from what we know about the whip-lashing, treasure thieving rogue-lite are:
City of Brass is a first-person adventure game giving players the unique combination of handling a bullwhip and a blade to strike down, disarm or trip-up enemies, as well as using the whip to swing to safety or grab out of reach items.
The fast-paced hack and slash gameplay will have players fighting their way through damned souls of the ancient ruined city in hopes of discovering the hidden treasure all packed into an Arabian Nights-style setting.
The rogue-lite style of gameplay allows every playthrough to play differently from the last with shifting streets and the ability to use knowledge from previous playthroughs to push further into the city.
Unique Blessings and Burdens system allows players of all skill levels to adjust various optional modifiers in the game to tailor the experience to the players liking.
Players may also use Microsoft’s streaming service, Mixer, to see themselves involved in live-streamer’s gameplay by either spawning additional enemies or helping out by giving gold or other useful items.
City of Brass has officially been announced for release on May 4th, not long, and it’s coming to the PS4, Xbox One and PC.
The ex-Bioshock developers at Uppercut Games have City of Brass in an Early Access stage for anyone eager for a jumpstart in the quick-thieving action.
While not quite a new Command & Conquer game, (remember that series?) Forged Battalion aims to be a fresh take on the real-time strategy genre and it comes from C&C veterans Petroglyph. So it’s close. The better news: it’s out now on Steam Early Access.
Forged Battalion – Command & Conquer Returns?
In Forged Battalion you can build and customise different factions as they fight in a variety of skirmish, solo and multiplayer battles. You will also be able to create, customise, and develop the blueprints of emerging factions too.
Using resources gained from each battle (sadly we don’t believe harvester units are in it), you can unlock new options through the tech tree allowing you to choose the archetype, and an array of armours, locomotors, weapons, and special abilities such as stealth and regeneration.
Oh, and Frank Klepacki from C&C fame worked on the sound design, voice-over, and music for the game. Here’s that trailer you’ve been waiting for:
The Early Access period for Forged Battalion will run for several months if all goes to plan, during which there will be “regular content” updates and players are encouraged to give feedback to the developers.
“We want fans to truly help forge what the game becomes…” Chuck Kroegel, CEO of Petroglyph.
The Early Access launch content available now is as follows:
Campaign missions comprising the first act of a multi-act storyline
Skirmish maps supporting up to eight players
Multiple Skirmish game modes including HQ Destruction and Annihilation
Dedicated servers to support multiplayer
Five customisable archetypes of vehicles (infantry, light vehicle, heavy vehicle, air and turrets)
Resource management of tech tree points earned in tactical battles
You can try out the Team17 published Forged Battalion on Steam for £15.49 – there’s a 15% discount if you purchase it during launch week. You know, mankind has forgotten you, Kane…
Some of the best ‘tycoon’ games put you in tough spots and force you to make decisions. Theme Hospital and Theme Park would ask you to make choices about what items you wanted to buy and where you wanted to place them whilst also asking you to take care of hiring staff and dealing with events, like flu pandemics or broken down rides before they got out of hand.
Party Hard Tycoon is aiming to capture that Theme Hospital vibe here. It asks you plan a party, get the right equipment, food and entertainers into the right venue and then place them accordingly so your bash goes off without a hitch. Sadly, the game is littered with problems, the worst being that there’s no interesting decisions to make and throwing parties isn’t as fun as curing someone of ‘Bloaty Head’.
Some positives firstly though. Party Hard Tycoon sure has a style to it, similar to the developer’s previous game ‘Party Hard’. The characters are tiny, pixelated caricatures that are pretty recognizable even though they’re barely larger than 20 pixels tall. Punk rockers, the members of The Village People and a whole host of pop culture icons are recognisable as they rock up to your rocking party.
Throw a party that’s ‘hype’ enough and you’ll eventually have Darth Vader turn up.
The loading screens also contain some lush visuals and the music is pretty good too. Which is handy given that this is a game all about partying, where music is vital, and also given the fact that you’ll be hearing the same tracks quite a few times over.
It’s a setup
So the setup is that you’re a party planner, new to the scene, and you’re looking to make a name for yourself. You set about doing this by… planning parties, obviously. You’ll start with small venues, like houses and rundown squats where only 10 or 20 people will show up.
Along the way, you’ll get some messages from random people who are all about partying and will want you to throw a shindig that meets their certain criteria. For example, some woman wanted me to throw a party that had 2 laser projectors installed at the venue whilst another time a Rastafarian chap wanted me to throw a reggae-themed party that had 4 dining room tables placed for the party goers.
You see, these challenges aren’t really complicated and they don’t force you to do anything ‘exciting’. Placing laser projectors and dining room tables is all about clicking twice and making sure you have enough money to buy the items in question. They don’t really change anything.
Which can be said of pretty much every decision you make in this game. Sure, you’re tasked with hiring a venue, selecting a theme and then hiring three members of staff to help you with the party, but these decisions aren’t interesting. They all make basic sense – if you’re hiring a rundown squat, a punk theme will be good. If you’re hiring a fancy country house, maybe a more ‘classical’ theme would be better suited? The obvious answer is yes.
You’re then also asked to place some decorations if you want, but I couldn’t see any tangible benefit to this. Green lines were drawn between the two palms tree I just plonked down, which I assumed was good, but I honestly had no idea.
Buying better gear means you can throw better parties. Which isn’t really much of a strategy, is it?
More importantly, you need to place music equipment and food stations. This is also a boring decision to make because it’s not much of a decision at all. If you can afford a better speaker and if your venue has enough electricity to power it, then you buy the better speakers. If you can buy the fancier food table, do that. The more expensive lasers are more ‘effective’ so grab them. There’s no trade-off, no tough dilemma and no engagement from doing any of this. The better things are better, so it’s better to use them.
Let’s get this party started
After you’ve placed all this stuff you click ‘start party’ and watch as those nicely drawn pixel partiers strut into the venue. This is where a frantic game of plate-spinning kicks off as you try and keep the party running smoothly, right?
No.
The party takes care of itself as whether it goes well or not has been decided already. Remember those ‘better speakers’ I mentioned? They add to the ‘hype’ of the party, with more hype leading to happier revellers. So if you could afford the better gear, your party will be better and if you couldn’t then it won’t. Simple as.
You can do a bit of fudging to make your party go better by telling your staff what to do, but this is, again, a totally unfulfilling series of clicks.
There’s just no reason not to keep telling your photographer to keep taking photos as soon as his cooldown stops. There’s no strategy to ‘using him at the right time’. None. Keep snapping away, Mr Photographer. Keep dancing for everyone, Mr Dancer. Keep refilling the tables, Mr Waiter. Keep on keeping on.
After the party’s finished you get told how many people ‘liked’ it and as a result, you can ‘level up’ as a party planner. This means you can unlock a new venue, a new theme or a new member of staff to use at your next party. This could be interesting, but whilst the venue, theme and staff members differ from party to party, the game never changes.
Does it matter what day you throw a wild party out in the middle of the woods? Yes.
On top of the throwing parties, part of the game has another layer where you stare at a calendar and a map. The idea is that on different days there are different ‘types’ of partier ready to have it large in different parts of the town. So this would be an exciting chance to plan just where you’re going to throw a party and just what sort of party to throw, right? You can see that all of the rich kids are going to be up for it on Tuesday, in the Upper East side of the city. Time to plan a big bash!
Nope.
Waiting to throw the perfect party isn’t actually a part of this game at all. This is because the ‘hot spots’ of where people are actively are pretty random, meaning there’s no planning and no decision making. Also, the venues you have at your disposal don’t move about, meaning that if there’s a large crowd of punk rockers looking to mosh in the South of the city, that’s tough luck. Because the ideal venue is located in the North. So there.
In the end, you’re left with a game that’s really repetitive and doesn’t ask you to do anything of real consequence. There’s no strategy, no decision making and very little impact to your actions. You simply throw bad parties until you can afford better speakers.
