Teamfight Tactics Set 18 , also known as " Enchanted Wilds ," is going live on Wednesday, Aug. 26 with patch 18.1.
You might recall the trailer for Join Us being featured in the Xbox Showcase back in June. It depicts a darkly comic co-op cult simulator, with robed cult members riding around on pigs and loosing off machine guns, before ending on an image of Cthulu-like giant tentacles. Not shown was the snake gun, says Joe Dietsch, CEO and creative director of Join Us developer Wolf Haus Games. Read more
This follows recent proposals to ease fundraising and improve risk disclosure to support debt mkt
Games publishing and investment agency GYLD has raised $1 million in funding to support its proprietary games research system Critical Compass. Read more
The fintech is expanding its efforts to market local restaurants using its point-of-sale system across Cash App’s user base.
India's forex reserves jumped USD 9.905 billion to USD 716.907 billion during the week ended August 14, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday. In the previous reporting week ended August 7, the overall kitty had jumped USD 14.136 billion to USD 707.002 billion. Reserves had expanded to an all-time high of USD 728.494 billion during the week ended February 27 this year before the onset of the Middle East conflict that led to several weeks of a drop as the rupee came under pressure and the RBI had to intervene in the forex market through dollar sales. For the week ended August 14, foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased USD 7.225 billion to USD 581.851 billion, the central bank's data showed. Expressed in dollar terms, foreign currency assets include the effects of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units, such as the euro, pound, and yen, held in foreign exchange reserves. The RBI and the government had launched a series of measures to att
This Christmas, Save the Children will launch is first game and streaming fundraiser called Save Point. Read more
Finnish companies are looking to expand their India presence from next year, though local manufacturing requirements could pose challenges for some high-end products
Deus Ex creator Warren Spector has announced his retirement after over forty years in game development. Read more
Back in February Epic Games told us about its plan to overhaul the Epic launcher , with an update in June mentioning it would start up five times faster on average . That technical overhaul will apparently be accompanied by changes to the storefront including personalized game recommendations, quick-access categories, and patch notes right there on the shop. All stuff that would have been nice to have at the end of 2018 when the Epic launcher arrived, but is it too late for a recovery? I asked Emmanuel Rosier, director of market intelligence at industry analysts Newzoo . "I don't really see how they can turn that around," Rosier says, "because Steam has become so inevitable. The Epic Games Store, they get players by giving free games, but people just go, they log in, they get the free games, they don't even play them. You know, it's almost like collecting games rather than actually playing them." On a sample size of one I am the person who actually plays some of the free games I've been given by Epic over the years, and without that program I probably wouldn't have tried Guardians of the Galaxy, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Vampyr, Control, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, or Kardboard Kings. But whether most people play them or not, it's telling that a free giveaway can actually boost sales on Steam, as it did for Blood West , thanks to players not wanting to split their library. "The challenge I think Epic is facing is that they try to win everywhere in the past few years," Rosier says. "They try to win against Steam, they try to win against Apple, against Google Play, and probably they run out of steam on where they cannot fight all these battles at the same time." Rosier is more positive about the outlook for Epic as a game developer than as a storefront. "They probably need to focus on what really matters," he says, "which I think is Fortnite. You can see they put a lot of thought in Fortnite right now. They are doing everything they can, and I think it's working better when y
The game whose full name I forget and have to copy-paste every time—here goes, it's called Rizz Dungeon: Skeleton Key to My Heart—was scheduled to release on September 17. It's been delayed until next year because developer Snoozy Kazoo's previous games—hang on, let me warm up Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V again—Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion and Turnip Boy Robs a Bank have sold better than expected. Now Snoozy Kazoo can afford to make Rizz Dungeon the game they really wanted it to be from the start. "This delay allows us to both add more content and avoid crunch. As a tiny studio of five people, there were quite a few features (and Monster Girls!) we were cutting in order to hit this September 17th release date, and we were starting to crunch to ensure this game was something we were proud of," says Snoozy Kazoo's founder and director Yukon Wainczak. "While we understand the delay likely comes as a disappointment, we hope that you can be reassured by the fact that we are making a better—and healthier made—Rizz Dungeon with this delay." Rizz Dungeon is an RPG about exploring a dungeon to get loot from a dragon, only the dragon is your ex-girlfriend and the loot is all the stuff she took. Also, you have put all your points into Charisma instead of combat stats and have to charm your way out of fights until you can recruit monster girls to handle the fighting for you. It sounds kind of like Pokémon if the creatures you were collecting were hot. (If you think Pokémon are hot already I don't want to know about it.) Given that September still has—don't give up on me now, copy-paste friends—The Blood of Dawnwalker, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Silent Hill: Townfall, and a bunch of other games coming out, and I'll probably still be playing Star Wars: Zero Company as well, it's going to be a busy month. Probably a good thing Dawn of War 4 has also shifted out of September , though presumably in that case it's not to add more monster girls. (If you think necrons are hot I don't want to k
The beta for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 kicked off in earnest this weekend, with Infinity Ward commencing public testing of what we all hope is a return to form after the disappointment of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 . And changes are already being made, with the developers releasing a new patch that makes a couple of mechanical tweaks while also adding a new map and mode. We'll deal with the latter additions first. The new map is called Cachette, and it is truly a new map, making its debut in Modern Warfare 4. It's a compact, 6v6 affair set on the outskirts of a French rail terminal, where some military types have made an armoury out of an old mechanics garage and an abandoned wine warehouse. The new mode, meanwhile, is called Inflation, and it is a cash grab in the most literal sense. Eliminating enemies during a match gives you cash, while players with the most cash become marked as high-value targets. If you get the better of a high-value target, you get to steal their cash and, presumably, become an HVT yourself. I always think Call of Duty shines brightest when it adds a little bit of structure to its inherently frenetic nature, and this sounds like the right balance of the two. (Image credit: Activision Blizzard) As for those mechanical adjustments, footstep volume has been reduced after players complained it was too loud. On top of that, Infinity Ward concurs with players that "time-to-till [TTK] isn't quite right yet" and as such has "turned down the lethality of some of our guns." Oh, and map voting has been introduced, with Infinity Ward stating that the system needed four maps to work effectively—which it now has with the addition of Cachette. Infinity Ward says it will continue working on the beta throughout its runtime, so further patches may be waiting in the wings. The early access beta ends on August 25, with a second, open beta arriving on August 28. Alongside the multiplayer modes and playable campaign mission made available this weekend, the op
Global gaming software revenue has grown at a compound annual rate of 3% over the past four years and is expected to continue at this pace for the next four years. But two-thirds of players prefer familiar games or sequels, and only one in five seek new titles. Read more
Honestly, I'm surprised nobody thought of this sooner. Via Kotaku , Stray Dog: Nobody Cares is a soulslike directly inspired by Dark Souls , which asks: "What if you played as Great Grey Wolf Sif?" It's an idea that seems painfully obvious in hindsight, and I can only credit developer Parry Frames Studio for doing the hard work of making it a reality. Obviously, you don't actually play as Sif in Stray Dog: Nobody Cares. But Knight Artorius' lupine companion is clearly the archetype behind Parry Frames' four-legged protagonist. Even the backstory is similar, with you playing the faithful friend of a knight-errant in a dark fantasy kingdom. When its master is captured, the hound takes it upon itself to track him down and release him. In its basic structure, Stray Dog appears to be a straightforward dark-fantasy soulslike—offering a world of crumbling ruins, undead enemies, bonfires and boss fights. Much like Sif, your hound fights with a sword in its mouth, and its acrobatic combat style strongly recalls Sif's own balletic sweeps and pirouettes. Developer Parry Frames says there will be "multiple" combat styles that players can learn, and they'll be able to parry, backstab, and perform deathblows on enemies in the classic Dark Souls style. Stealth will play a role too, though Parry Frames doesn't provide much detail on this front. Indeed, the announcement of Stray Dog appears to have caught Parry Frames off guard. In a Steam post , the developers explain that the game "suddenly became popular on X" , after the studio posted some early test footage of the game to its account. Parry Frames released its debut game— the soulslike Crimson Oath—earlier this year, which it has been making over the course of eight years and was partly funded by an Epic Megagrant. Crimson Oath has a 'very positive' rating on Steam, with some players praising how it harks back to FromSoft's earlier titles, while others compare it to Sekiro and even Piranha Bytes' Gothic. At the very least, it d
I like thinking as much as the next guy. It can be really fun to play a videogame that challenges your mental prowess, as it encourages you to weigh up every strategic shred of dialogue or split-second decision. But, counter to this, I also really like not thinking in videogames, and just riding the wave of adrenaline, muscle memory, and bloodlust. Usually, when I want to scratch this itch I play something like Ultrakill , but now I can add another game to the rotation: Gunstoppable. And let me tell you, it lives up to the name. (Image credit: CAGE Studios) It's an action roguelike in which you grapple, slide, and wall run around various maps killing whatever poor robot falls into your path. You're ultimately doing this to save your family and take down the evil billionaire ruling class, one of which is the CEO who made you into the killing machine you are today. Ok, so the story isn't going to win any Pulitzers, but that's fine because the action is where it's at. You can dual wield weapons, whether that be automatic rifles, knives, or rocket launchers, and as you progress through the levels you also get the chance to upgrade said weapons from a pool of randomly selected bonuses. Some are pretty basic, like Adrenaline Shot which grants you double attack speed after taking damage, or Rocket Recoil which upgrades any attack so it launches you back when you fire a gun (and also adds force per stack). But there are other more niche upgrades like building into your grapple hook with Supply Hook, which restores ammo. (Image credit: CAGE Studios) On my first run, however, I decided to build into power (obviously) but also sliding, because running is such a cliche way to move when you can infinitely slide on your knees and look like a badass. So with this in mind, I spent the rest of the run sliding around across the floor. Not only am I a harder target to hit, but I also got a perk which meant if I did get hit while sliding I'd take less damage, I built into that and soon
Teamfight Tactics Set 18 , also known as " Enchanted Wilds ," is going live on Wednesday, Aug. 26 with patch 18.1.
You might recall the trailer for Join Us being featured in the Xbox Showcase back in June. It depicts a darkly comic co-op cult simulator, with robed cult members riding around on pigs and loosing off machine guns, before ending on an image of Cthulu-like giant tentacles. Not shown was the snake gun, says Joe Dietsch, CEO and creative director of Join Us developer Wolf Haus Games. Read more
This follows recent proposals to ease fundraising and improve risk disclosure to support debt mkt
Games publishing and investment agency GYLD has raised $1 million in funding to support its proprietary games research system Critical Compass. Read more
The fintech is expanding its efforts to market local restaurants using its point-of-sale system across Cash App’s user base.
India's forex reserves jumped USD 9.905 billion to USD 716.907 billion during the week ended August 14, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday. In the previous reporting week ended August 7, the overall kitty had jumped USD 14.136 billion to USD 707.002 billion. Reserves had expanded to an all-time high of USD 728.494 billion during the week ended February 27 this year before the onset of the Middle East conflict that led to several weeks of a drop as the rupee came under pressure and the RBI had to intervene in the forex market through dollar sales. For the week ended August 14, foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased USD 7.225 billion to USD 581.851 billion, the central bank's data showed. Expressed in dollar terms, foreign currency assets include the effects of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units, such as the euro, pound, and yen, held in foreign exchange reserves. The RBI and the government had launched a series of measures to att
This Christmas, Save the Children will launch is first game and streaming fundraiser called Save Point. Read more
Finnish companies are looking to expand their India presence from next year, though local manufacturing requirements could pose challenges for some high-end products
Deus Ex creator Warren Spector has announced his retirement after over forty years in game development. Read more
Back in February Epic Games told us about its plan to overhaul the Epic launcher , with an update in June mentioning it would start up five times faster on average . That technical overhaul will apparently be accompanied by changes to the storefront including personalized game recommendations, quick-access categories, and patch notes right there on the shop. All stuff that would have been nice to have at the end of 2018 when the Epic launcher arrived, but is it too late for a recovery? I asked Emmanuel Rosier, director of market intelligence at industry analysts Newzoo . "I don't really see how they can turn that around," Rosier says, "because Steam has become so inevitable. The Epic Games Store, they get players by giving free games, but people just go, they log in, they get the free games, they don't even play them. You know, it's almost like collecting games rather than actually playing them." On a sample size of one I am the person who actually plays some of the free games I've been given by Epic over the years, and without that program I probably wouldn't have tried Guardians of the Galaxy, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Vampyr, Control, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, or Kardboard Kings. But whether most people play them or not, it's telling that a free giveaway can actually boost sales on Steam, as it did for Blood West , thanks to players not wanting to split their library. "The challenge I think Epic is facing is that they try to win everywhere in the past few years," Rosier says. "They try to win against Steam, they try to win against Apple, against Google Play, and probably they run out of steam on where they cannot fight all these battles at the same time." Rosier is more positive about the outlook for Epic as a game developer than as a storefront. "They probably need to focus on what really matters," he says, "which I think is Fortnite. You can see they put a lot of thought in Fortnite right now. They are doing everything they can, and I think it's working better when y
The game whose full name I forget and have to copy-paste every time—here goes, it's called Rizz Dungeon: Skeleton Key to My Heart—was scheduled to release on September 17. It's been delayed until next year because developer Snoozy Kazoo's previous games—hang on, let me warm up Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V again—Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion and Turnip Boy Robs a Bank have sold better than expected. Now Snoozy Kazoo can afford to make Rizz Dungeon the game they really wanted it to be from the start. "This delay allows us to both add more content and avoid crunch. As a tiny studio of five people, there were quite a few features (and Monster Girls!) we were cutting in order to hit this September 17th release date, and we were starting to crunch to ensure this game was something we were proud of," says Snoozy Kazoo's founder and director Yukon Wainczak. "While we understand the delay likely comes as a disappointment, we hope that you can be reassured by the fact that we are making a better—and healthier made—Rizz Dungeon with this delay." Rizz Dungeon is an RPG about exploring a dungeon to get loot from a dragon, only the dragon is your ex-girlfriend and the loot is all the stuff she took. Also, you have put all your points into Charisma instead of combat stats and have to charm your way out of fights until you can recruit monster girls to handle the fighting for you. It sounds kind of like Pokémon if the creatures you were collecting were hot. (If you think Pokémon are hot already I don't want to know about it.) Given that September still has—don't give up on me now, copy-paste friends—The Blood of Dawnwalker, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Silent Hill: Townfall, and a bunch of other games coming out, and I'll probably still be playing Star Wars: Zero Company as well, it's going to be a busy month. Probably a good thing Dawn of War 4 has also shifted out of September , though presumably in that case it's not to add more monster girls. (If you think necrons are hot I don't want to k
The beta for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 kicked off in earnest this weekend, with Infinity Ward commencing public testing of what we all hope is a return to form after the disappointment of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 . And changes are already being made, with the developers releasing a new patch that makes a couple of mechanical tweaks while also adding a new map and mode. We'll deal with the latter additions first. The new map is called Cachette, and it is truly a new map, making its debut in Modern Warfare 4. It's a compact, 6v6 affair set on the outskirts of a French rail terminal, where some military types have made an armoury out of an old mechanics garage and an abandoned wine warehouse. The new mode, meanwhile, is called Inflation, and it is a cash grab in the most literal sense. Eliminating enemies during a match gives you cash, while players with the most cash become marked as high-value targets. If you get the better of a high-value target, you get to steal their cash and, presumably, become an HVT yourself. I always think Call of Duty shines brightest when it adds a little bit of structure to its inherently frenetic nature, and this sounds like the right balance of the two. (Image credit: Activision Blizzard) As for those mechanical adjustments, footstep volume has been reduced after players complained it was too loud. On top of that, Infinity Ward concurs with players that "time-to-till [TTK] isn't quite right yet" and as such has "turned down the lethality of some of our guns." Oh, and map voting has been introduced, with Infinity Ward stating that the system needed four maps to work effectively—which it now has with the addition of Cachette. Infinity Ward says it will continue working on the beta throughout its runtime, so further patches may be waiting in the wings. The early access beta ends on August 25, with a second, open beta arriving on August 28. Alongside the multiplayer modes and playable campaign mission made available this weekend, the op
Global gaming software revenue has grown at a compound annual rate of 3% over the past four years and is expected to continue at this pace for the next four years. But two-thirds of players prefer familiar games or sequels, and only one in five seek new titles. Read more
Honestly, I'm surprised nobody thought of this sooner. Via Kotaku , Stray Dog: Nobody Cares is a soulslike directly inspired by Dark Souls , which asks: "What if you played as Great Grey Wolf Sif?" It's an idea that seems painfully obvious in hindsight, and I can only credit developer Parry Frames Studio for doing the hard work of making it a reality. Obviously, you don't actually play as Sif in Stray Dog: Nobody Cares. But Knight Artorius' lupine companion is clearly the archetype behind Parry Frames' four-legged protagonist. Even the backstory is similar, with you playing the faithful friend of a knight-errant in a dark fantasy kingdom. When its master is captured, the hound takes it upon itself to track him down and release him. In its basic structure, Stray Dog appears to be a straightforward dark-fantasy soulslike—offering a world of crumbling ruins, undead enemies, bonfires and boss fights. Much like Sif, your hound fights with a sword in its mouth, and its acrobatic combat style strongly recalls Sif's own balletic sweeps and pirouettes. Developer Parry Frames says there will be "multiple" combat styles that players can learn, and they'll be able to parry, backstab, and perform deathblows on enemies in the classic Dark Souls style. Stealth will play a role too, though Parry Frames doesn't provide much detail on this front. Indeed, the announcement of Stray Dog appears to have caught Parry Frames off guard. In a Steam post , the developers explain that the game "suddenly became popular on X" , after the studio posted some early test footage of the game to its account. Parry Frames released its debut game— the soulslike Crimson Oath—earlier this year, which it has been making over the course of eight years and was partly funded by an Epic Megagrant. Crimson Oath has a 'very positive' rating on Steam, with some players praising how it harks back to FromSoft's earlier titles, while others compare it to Sekiro and even Piranha Bytes' Gothic. At the very least, it d
I like thinking as much as the next guy. It can be really fun to play a videogame that challenges your mental prowess, as it encourages you to weigh up every strategic shred of dialogue or split-second decision. But, counter to this, I also really like not thinking in videogames, and just riding the wave of adrenaline, muscle memory, and bloodlust. Usually, when I want to scratch this itch I play something like Ultrakill , but now I can add another game to the rotation: Gunstoppable. And let me tell you, it lives up to the name. (Image credit: CAGE Studios) It's an action roguelike in which you grapple, slide, and wall run around various maps killing whatever poor robot falls into your path. You're ultimately doing this to save your family and take down the evil billionaire ruling class, one of which is the CEO who made you into the killing machine you are today. Ok, so the story isn't going to win any Pulitzers, but that's fine because the action is where it's at. You can dual wield weapons, whether that be automatic rifles, knives, or rocket launchers, and as you progress through the levels you also get the chance to upgrade said weapons from a pool of randomly selected bonuses. Some are pretty basic, like Adrenaline Shot which grants you double attack speed after taking damage, or Rocket Recoil which upgrades any attack so it launches you back when you fire a gun (and also adds force per stack). But there are other more niche upgrades like building into your grapple hook with Supply Hook, which restores ammo. (Image credit: CAGE Studios) On my first run, however, I decided to build into power (obviously) but also sliding, because running is such a cliche way to move when you can infinitely slide on your knees and look like a badass. So with this in mind, I spent the rest of the run sliding around across the floor. Not only am I a harder target to hit, but I also got a perk which meant if I did get hit while sliding I'd take less damage, I built into that and soon