Most Recent: PC

Pharaoh: A New Era will rebuild the classic city builder in 2021

Following on from the success of Caesar, 1999’s Pharaoh helped form a core of historical city builders that were very popular on the PC throughout the decade. After the launch of Zeus: Master of Olympus in 2000 and Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom in 2002, the subgenre mostly faded away over the 20 years that followed, but Dotemu is hoping to bring it back in grand fashion in 2021 with Pharaoh: A New Era

First released in 1999 by Impressions Games and published by Sierra Entertainment, Pharaoh puts players into the role of an Egyptian ruler. Plan and execute the construction and management of cities as well as settlements in ancient Egypt and oversee every aspect of life within your borders. Juggle resources and strategize the administration of your empire to ensure that citizens are fed, employed, healthy and protected.

Remade “from the ground up” by Triskell Interactive (their joke, not mine), Pharaoh: A New Era will feature “all-new 2D graphics with brand new UI and improved mechanics.” The package will also include all of the content from Pharaoh’s expansion, Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile, which was originally released in 2000.

A teaser trailer for Pharaoh: A New Era has been embedded above.

Posted in News, PC |

Version 1.0 of Hades will come to PC, Switch this Fall

Supergiant’s Hades will be leaving Early Access on the Epic Games Store and Steam this Fall, but the developer also confirmed that the roguelike action RPG will be making its way to the Switch at the same time.

The game’s new destination was revealed during today’s Indie World presentation from Nintendo, along with a promise of cross-save compatibility between the two platforms:

Hades is a god-like, rogue-like dungeon crawler that combines the best aspects of Supergiant’s critically acclaimed titles, from the fast-paced action of Bastion to the rich atmosphere and depth of Transistor. As the immortal Prince of the Underworld, players will wield the powers and mythic weapons of Olympus to break free from the clutches of the infamous god of the dead himself, while growing stronger and unraveling more of the story. Thousands of viable character builds and a fully voiced cast of colorful, larger-than-life characters ensure each and every escape attempt through the ever-shifting Underworld is unique. Hades will feature cross-saves with the PC version when the game comes to Nintendo Switch this fall.

Supergiant also unveiled a new trailer for Hades this morning, and it’s been embedded above.

Posted in News, PC, Switch | Tagged

Twin-stick shooter Funtime launches today from Quantum Astrophysicists Guild and One Guy Games

Publisher Quantum Astrophysicists Guild and developer One Guy Games have announced that Funtime (officially rendered #Funtime with a hashtag symbol, but we’re not doing that) will launch sometime today for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. Fusing the neon-drenched color palette of Geometry Wars with the color-swapping mechanics of Ikaruga, Funtime looks to be a… well… a fun time.

Here’s what the developer had to say about their debut game:

Bright lights and space fights! Blast your way through grids of multicolored madness while changing color to adapt to your environment and overcome the digital hordes. Persistent ship upgrades will keep you going further and longer into the great unknown. Can you survive the full spectrum of challenges, claim the high score, and show your dominance on the leaderboard?

A Launch Trailer for Funtime has been embedded above and it’s filled to the brim with geometric explosions and bright colors (and and even a few jokes about that hashtag in the title).

Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One |

Netflix shares a short look at The Cuphead Show!

It was about a year ago that Studio MDHR announced they were working with Netflix to bring The Cuphead Show! to our streaming screens. The animated adaptation would expand the world of Inkwell Isles, and feature visuals inspired by the same Fleischer Studios cartoons that the brothers used when creating the game.

Since that initial announcement, Netflix would go to say that The Cuphead Show! was “Coming Soon,” and while “Soon” still appears to be at some indeterminate point in the future, the streaming service did recently share a short look at the show on Twitter:

Fast & Furious: Spy Racers‘s Tru Valentino will voice Cuphead, while Frank Todaro (who was most recently credited as “Creature Sounds” in Dolittle) will voice Mugman. A quick montage of beautifully-animated scenes also introduces us to a handful of new characters, as well as King Dice, The Devil, and Elder Kettle.

The Cuphead Show! is still “Coming Soon,” and hopefully Netflix means it this time.

And don’t forget that The Delicious Last Course, an expansion for Cuphead, is still on track to launch for the PC, Switch, and Xbox One before the end of the year.

Posted in Etcetera, News, PC, Switch, Xbox One | Tagged

Knight Squad 2 will bring its brand of medieval mayhem back to PC, Xbox One this Fall

Chainsawesome Games is heading back into the multiplayer arena later this year, as they’ve announced plans to launch Knight Squad 2 this Fall for the PC and Xbox One (it’ll also be playable on the Xbox Series X via backwards compatibility).

Once again featuring a style very similar to Bomberman, Knight Squad 2 will embrace the wackiness of its premise with a medieval arsenal that includes swords and crossbows, as well as bazookas, laser pistols, and ghosts. The final package will feautre more than 13 competitive modes, including a few returning favorites (“Capture the Flag” and “Soccer”) and several new experiences (“Payload” and “Minion Master”):

Join the fray with up to eight players and duke it out across more than 13 competitive modes. Fight to become the last one standing in free-for-all events such as Battle Royale or squad up to take on all comers in old favorites like Capture the Flag and new game types including Payload, which sees teams clash in an explosive tug of war to deliver powder kegs to the enemy base, and Minion Master, where rivals raise armies to besiege and topple opposing fortresses.

No matter the arena, the knights always wield a wild arsenal of weapons and powerups, ranging from traditional medieval arms to more absurd ones like ghosts, land mines, and laser guns. Knight Squad 2’s over-the-top action brings a signature element to the table, transforming even the likes of Soccer into a full contact combat sport and emblazoning an element of turbulent fun onto an accessible, simple-to-understand experience that brings people together.

The first trailer for Knight Squad 2 has been embedded above.

Posted in News, PC, Xbox One |

World Video Game Hall of Fame welcomes its Class of 2020: Minecraft, Bejeweled, Centipede, and King’s Quest

After selling more than 200 million copies over the last decade, it’s hard to remember a time when Minecraft wasn’t nearly synonymous with the entire medium of video games. And though it was only available in an unfinished form from 2009 to 2011, it seemed to emerge from Mojang’s offices as a fully-formed phenomenon even in its earliest days.

So as players continued to flock to its Lego-like world in droves, it was a bit of a shock when the game was denied entry into the World Video Game Hall of Fame three separate times. Shortlisted as a finalist in 2015, 2016, and 2018, the title was passed over again and again and again. But Minecraft’s creative sandbox become too big to ignore this year, and it has finally been enshrined among gaming’s greats.

In a stunning upset, three unlikely candidates also garnered enough support from the Hall of Fame’s Selection Advisory Committee to join the Class of 2020. A genre-defining match-3 puzzler from PopCap (Bejeweled), a classic coin-op from Atari (Centipede), and one of earliest adventure titles from Sierra (King’s Quest) won out over more popular titles such as NBA Jam, GoldenEye 007, and Guitar Hero.

While this year’s class might look a little surprising, historians working at the Hall of Fame’s parent organizations, the Strong Museum and the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, helped put their importance into perspective. (more…)

Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged , , ,

Resident Evil Village brings back Chris Redfield and Ethan Winters in 2021

Capcom has always had a strong connection to the PlayStation brand, and the publisher used Sony’s Future of Gaming event to unveil the next mainline entry in the Resident Evil franchise.

Resident Evil Village (stylized in some promotional material as, and I’m not making this up, Resident Evil VIllAGE) will serve as a direct sequel to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. Utilizing a first-person perspective, Ethan Winters will return as the playable protagonist, and a hulking Chris Redfield is back in the fray as well. Chris is possibly the villain of the piece as he appears to by murder Ethan’s wife in the closing seconds of the Announcement Trailer.

Here’s what the Capcom-Unity blog had to say about Resident Evil Village:

Taking place a few years after the critically acclaimed Resident Evil 7 biohazard, Ethan Winters and his wife, Mia, seem to have finally found peace after the horrifying events they endured at the Baker family’s plantation house. Despite putting the past behind them, a surprising yet familiar face returns in the form of Chris Redfield… whose shocking actions ultimately cause Ethan to end up in a mysterious, snow-covered village.

Unlike the claustrophobic hallways of the Baker mansion, Resident Evil Village provides a different kind of terror: The fear of the unknown. Each encounter is another fight for survival, with a first-person perspective making things that much more personal as you chart unknown territory. There’s much more to the village than what you see on the surface.

Resident Evil Village is currently in development for the PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X… though fans are in for a bit of a wait as the game is set to launch sometime in 2021. But that just means you’ve got plenty of time to pore over that Announcement Trailer for more clues.

Posted in News, PC, PS5, Xbox Series X |

Final Fantasy VII Remake is unsurprisingly the best-selling game of April 2020

The public has been anxiously awaiting the launch of Final Fantasy VII Remake ever since it was first announced all the way back in 2015. Well, it finally arrived on store shelves last month, and fans eagerly emptied their wallets to return to the world of Midgar.

According to The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella (via Twitter), Final Fantasy VII Remake was far and away the best-selling game in April 2020. The game’s exceptional sales also pushed it to become the biggest launch in Final Fantasy franchise history.

Strong sales across the board for software ($662 million), hardware ($420 million), and accessories ($384 million) were recorded by The NPD Group. Added together, the video game industry racked up revenues of $1.467 billion last month, a whopping 73% increase over April 2019. The total also surpassed April 2008’s previous record of $1.2 billion.

An expanded list of April 2020’s best-selling games (featuring Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Resident Evil 3, and many others) can be found after the break. (more…)

Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch, Wii, Xbox One | Tagged ,