VR studio MyDearest is best known for branching narrative games like Tokyo Chronos and Altdeus. Its next game is a bit of a departure then, being a three-on-three multiplayer punchyshoot where you can use super-gauntlets to send people into orbit.
15.09.2023 - 15:13 / rockpapershotgun.com / Can
One of the things I like best about Die Gute Fabrik's forthcoming Saltsea Chronicles is an optional feature. It's a card game, Spoils, which you can play while sojourning upon the game's islands and searching for clues about your ship's missing captain, Maja. Here's how it works: two teams of two characters take turns to play cards, moving in clockwise around a table. Player must follow the lead player's suit, and the highest-scoring card wins the trick, with four tricks comprising a round. It might sound like a straightforward competition, but different islands offer different house rules, and there are twists that reflect the game's ethic of community, mutual respect and diversity, and help animate the detail of its gently post-apocalyptic oceanic world.
The winning card from each trick is handed to the loser, so victory is, in its way, an act of generosity. Score more than 100 points in a round, meanwhile, and the "Hoarding" rule means you must relinquish those points to the other team. As Die Gute Fabrik's CEO and creative lead Hannah Nicklin observes, this fits the post-capitalist politics and mythology of Saltsea, in which "hoarding is sort of seen as the apocryphal cause of the flood". The Spoils tutorial menus riff on this with a cute but mildly unsettling image of a sinking ship.
I've barely scratched the surface of Saltsea Chronicles, which Katharine has written about in depth. I'll confess, I have yet to play Die Gute Fabrik's previous Mutazione, either, though not for lack of interest. But I'm already in love with Saltsea Chronicles' card game, which feels like that special variety of mini-game that unobtrusively binds the micro and macro of a sumptuous fiction together, its mechanics supporting and reinforcing those of the overarching, chapter-based narrative.
The resonance of the Hoarding rule aside, I enjoy how pairing the game's neurodivergent, queer, multilingual and multi-ethnic cast into teams echoes the act of choosing who will visit each island. Much as islands appear different, depending on the people sojourning there, so it feels like games of Spoils play out differently, depending on the participants. When teaming up with the eager and energetic Sanni, for instance, I felt the need to hedge my bets to allow for the fact that she would probably overreach herself. It's hard to gauge how much of this is my own projection, but either way, it's delightful to think about.
Spoils isn't Nicklin's creation. It's the work of Alexandra Labusová and Daria Radu, two students at IT University of Copenhagen, who joined Die Gute Fabrik in 2021 as interns. "[They] said, 'Hey, we're looking for an internship,' and normally that doesn't fit into our plans and we can't support it. But in this
VR studio MyDearest is best known for branching narrative games like Tokyo Chronos and Altdeus. Its next game is a bit of a departure then, being a three-on-three multiplayer punchyshoot where you can use super-gauntlets to send people into orbit.
's long-awaited DLC, is finally nearing its release. The expansion will launch exclusively on current-gen devices such as Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5, as well as PC, unlike the original which attempted to launch on last-gen consoles with disastrous results. It will also be coupled with a massive 2.0 update, making CD Projekt Red's first and last DLC for its 2020 ARPG a huge overhaul for the title, bringing it more in line with the experience many expected from at launch.
There are a lot of easter eggs and oddities in Baldur's Gate 3 and it seems like there's plenty left to uncover yet. For instance, one dataminer has just managed to trigger a dialogue scene in which bestest barbarian Karlach becomes aware she's a character in a game and looks right through the screen into your soul.
Investors fretting that Nvidia Corp.'s massive stock buyback allocation would leave it short of funds for vital research and development should take heart from the chipmaker's swelling free cash flow.
Baldur’s Gate 3 continues to surprise us with all manner of unique, clever, and terrifying ways to play, and this particular trick combines all three to create one of the most devastating Baldur’s Gate 3 weapons we’ve seen in the RPG game to date. It’s as darkly sinister as it is deadly in its effectiveness, so this might not be for everyone, but if you’re eying up the most evil things to do in Baldur’s Gate 3 then you’re in for a treat.
This adorable ocean clean-up game, which I've been watching for a while, has finally got a release date, and I can't wait to care for all the critters.
Nintendo seems to be all in on the nostalgia at the moment, as it recently announced a remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door during the latest Nintendo Direct, a game that some consider to be the pinnacle of Mario's RPG outings. The announcement came with a chunky gameplay trailer, in which we see multiple location from across the game gussied up for Nintendo Switch.
In a time where hard copy games are starting to thin out, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Collector's Edition promises two honest-to-god discs, a steelbook case, and hold-in-your-hand goodies like an art book and a hefty Sephiroth figure.
It's because it doesn't like you.
Yesterday Unity announced big changes to its pricing system that, among other things, will see developers charged on a per-install basis once certain thresholds are met. Developers are up in arms about this and not shy about cutting the crap: Tom Francis, the developer of Heat Signature and a PC Gamer alumnus, described the change as "an astonishing scumbag move."
Now that the iPhone 15 series is out, the obvious thought in many people's minds is whether it is a better proposition than the Samsung Galaxy S23 lineup that was released earlier this year. And considering the next Samsung event is likely to be in January or February 2024, many also wonder what will the S24 lineup bring to compete with the iPhones. The Apple vs. Samsung rivalry goes way back and the fans on the respective sides never hesitate to hail their side as the one with the best smartphone in the world. But that often does not tell us the truth from a neutral and objective perspective. While the iPhone 15 lineup has not even opened for pre-orders, it will be a while before people can test it out against the Samsung counterpart to really know the truth, but that does not mean that experts have not built up an opinion. Let us take a look.
Techland says it's aware of the negative feedback and is plotting some changes.