Helldivers 2 and Horizon Forbidden West have disappeared from the Steam store in the UK, something that's happened rather out of nowhere and looks like it might've even taken publishers PlayStation by surprise. Said publishers have issued a statement noting that they've already reached out to Valve to get the games back up.
Do I need to explain how Cyclops from the X-Men's powers work? I'm going to anyway just in case. He shoots beams from his eyes! More or less, I think it's technically energy from a punch dimension? I'm not an X-Men nerd though, so correct me in the comments. Main point is, he can never stop shooting those beams, which is why he has to always be wearing glasses at the very least. Which, as it turns out, makes for a fun video game concept, as it's now been manifested in the form of Laser Guy, a twin-stick "anti-shooter" all about not killing your co-workers.
Steam's latest head-scratching hangout game (don't call it friendslop, you will rekindle Discourse) is How to Fish, a macabre novelty in which hideous worm people boat out to small cursed islands, reel in angry sealife, and blast the creatures into submission with golden sniper rifles, spending the proceeds on weapons and gadgets. I could be misinterpreting, but I don't think the idea is sincerely to teach you How to Fish.
I think it would be a tad fair if you heard that Thimbleweed Park 2 is in the works and thought, "who funded that?" Not because it doesn't deserve funding, but because adventure games aren't exactly in vogue (even though it's not as dead a genre as many think), and also there's that whole video game industry crumbling around us day by day thing. When it was announced last month, creator Ron Gilbert said that it was thanks to the help of a private investor, and now the developer has shed a bit of light on how that came to be, and how that relationship works.
It is time to confront the terrible truth that I once took part in a school fashion show. I ran in two categories, Ballroom and Street, a serious test of range for a kid who had only just mastered the daredevil technique of wearing a shirt without a tie. In the Ballroom bracket, I was asked to do a waltz in an Indian wedding gown provided by a local sponsor who, I can only assume, immediately went out of business after the event. In Street, I had to wear a Gap hoodtop and shoot a fire-eater (one of the Cool Teachers) with a Super Soaker, while some other lost soul moonwalked down the runway in a golden suit.
In retrospect, I am filing all this under the secret umbrella category of God's Greatest Mistake. There is exactly no photographic evidence, and I will thank you not to search for any on Facebook. It's so much less upsetting being a fashion model in Dance of Theseus, which might sound weird given that in Dance of Theseus, you don't just swap outfits – you graft on new heads, arms and legs, either bought from sniffy griffon dressmakers or moulded together out of seashells, horned skulls, and scraps of shimmering hide. Created by Shanghai-based Citreat Studio, it's a cheerful, colourful and somehow unrevolting life sim RPG with a kind of Balatro-esque Frankensteinmaxxing element. I've been playing the demo, and it's both entertaining and a source of endless inspiration. Argh, if only I'd had access to this, when I was 16!!!
The secret of the floating bear is revealed: Helldivers 2 is gearing up for an assault on the Void, that icky hellmouth gobbling up a chunk of Illuminate-controlled space. The co-op shooter’s big new update, Devoid of Liberty, sees the intergalactic nasties throwing out two new mutant enemies to fight on the field, while your bosses on Super Earth deploy better equipped, better trained, generally less all-round useless infantry troops to help you out.
I think about Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak, a GBA game that has never seen a release outside of that platform, probably more than I should. That's primarily because my experience of it is solely relegated to occasionally (very occasionally) playing a friend's copy on the way to school, I never actually owned it. There's just something so vibey and hangoutable about it that I've never really seen captured in another game before, except for maybe the upcoming Danchi Days. Which, thankfully, has a release date at long last!
Tonally mercurial co-op shooter Helldivers 2 is boosting its level cap, again, in another hint that something big is brewing in the blackness of its endlessly war-torn galaxy. Following a previous increase from 50 to 150, developers Arrowhead are bumping the cap to level 300 in an upcoming patch, with any XP that you would have gained since hitting the previous limit set to apply retroactively. I wonder if any dive-happy souls out there have banked enough well-done points to instantly jump from 150 to 300 the moment they log in? No judgement here. Questions, maybe, but not judgement.
The announcement post doesn’t specific a date or patch number for when the higher cap takes effect, though the announcement itself comes just a day after this curious teaser video, showing a teddy bear in Helldiver garb having a rather nasty time after floating into some kind of open spacetime wound. Which means – that’s right – it’s time to pointlessly speculate!
Well, it's happened. EA's thumbs up from the European Commission, the $55 billion leveraged buyout by Saudi Arabia, Silver Lake and Jared Kushner-founded investment firm Affinity Partners has gone through. With the publishers now privately owned and saddled with a bunch of debt, questions loom about what their future will look like.
The CEO of Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead, Shams Jorjani, hopes the answer won't be EA narrowing further into "a sequel-and-mega-franchise machine".
There is an obvious humour to be found in the contrast between the visual presentation of Mario Party and the agita and unbridled rage it brings out in people. This is not a game about violence, yet it pulls it out from people nonetheless. So, how about something that leans into this violence, while still retaining the jovially competitive nature? Enter Machine Party, the latest from Buckshot Roulette developer Mike Klubnika, made alongside GDeavid, a party game "where failure is lethal."
After tease upon tease upon tease, Helldivers 2's Warhammer 40k crossover warbond will finally arrive on August 12th. If you splash out for it, you'll get a box of gear, stratagems and cosmetics inspired by the Astra Militarum's elite Cadian Kasrkin troops.
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