Author: [email protected] (Wes Fenlon)
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‘The gold rush is over:’ Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon devs say that big Game Pass and Epic exclusive deals have dried up for indie devs
In an interview at last week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the developers behind indie sensations Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon said that the deal some small developers have come to rely on for funding in recent years—like Epic Game Store exclusives and Xbox Game Pass—are no longer what they once were. “I…
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Midnight Suns devs ‘absolutely’ knew cards would be a controversial choice, but they were also ‘absolutely the right fit for this game and our design goals’
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In a talk at last week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Firaxis game director Joe Weinhoffer broke down the evolution of Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ tactical combat and explained the thinking behind the game’s most polarizing element: using cards to represent superhero powers. “Is it odd that we have cards in a tactical superhero game?…
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I’ve now played exactly one bullet hell FPS, and I’m ready for this to be the next big genre
Luna Abyss violates the #1 sacred tenet of PC FPS design the second it gives you a gun: it’s a first-person shooter, but it doesn’t care about aiming. The left mouse button fires a beam of red energy out of your starter gun, but the right mouse button is far more powerful. It locks onto…
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Lucas Pope’s new Playdate exclusive is a delightful riff on Papers, Please, but for farty Martians and sad cyclops
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It took Mars After Midnight six seconds to make me laugh. Before starting a new save file I checked the settings menu—always check the settings menu—to find only a single option with a check box: “Mirth.” Uncheck it, and Mars After Midnight’s playful squiggly text stops shaking about so much. I wouldn’t dare, to be…
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Thousands of players gather online in Final Fantasy 14, Dragon Quest 10 and more to mourn legendary artist Akira Toriyama
After the surprise death of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama at age 68, players across online communities have gathered together to pay tribute to Toriyama’s decades of beloved and influential work across manga, anime and videogames. Alongside Dragon Ball Z, Toriyama is well-known for his iconic designs for the Dragon Quest series—including the cover art…
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Hold on, is Capcom pulling a Brutal Legend with its new action game?
Capcom’s latest trailer for Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, included in Wednesday’s Xbox showcase, started how I expected. The character, creature and environmental designs are all pulling heavily from Japanese mythology, as we’ve seen in previous teasers for the game. There’s some third person action reminiscent of Capcom classic Onimusha. But then the surprises start…
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There’s a rare kind of magic in Dragon’s Dogma 2’s blend of old-fashioned roleplaying and peak Capcom combat
I learned from the movies that the best way to unearth a criminal conspiracy is to follow the money. That advice also applies to understanding videogames: feel out where a game dedicated the big bucks and you’ll get a sense of where its heart truly lies. In Baldur’s Gate 3, the money went into the…
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After focusing on Devil May Cry and Dragon’s Dogma for 20 years, Capcom’s Hideaki Itsuno says ‘it would be fun to create something new’
Going by Capcom veteran Hideaki Itsuno’s resume as the director of multiple fighting games and steward of Devil May Cry since 2003, it’s clear he loves action games, and is very good at making them. But Dragon’s Dogma, an RPG, was his true passion project—a game he originally came up with the concept for in…
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Dragon’s Dogma 2 director says the secret ingredient to the sublime action combat in Devil May Cry, Monster Hunter and Dragon’s Dogma is simple: Capcom’s arcade DNA
Asking someone to pick the best-feeling Capcom action game is like asking a parent to pick their favorite child: they absolutely have one, but singling one out just feels wrong, y’know? (The correct answer is God Hand, btw). Today Capcom is riding high on the consistently great Resident Evil series and the absolute juggernaut that…
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Switch emulator Yuzu is dead: abruptly settles lawsuit with Nintendo for $2.4 million in an enormous blow to console emulation
Last week Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Switch emulator Yuzu, blaming the emulator for mass piracy of 2023’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and declaring “there is no lawful way to use Yuzu to play Nintendo Switch games.” The developers of Yuzu hired a lawyer, seemingly setting the suit up for the…