I recently got a chance to play around in an early build of Ark’s second expansion, Aberration, which takes place in a series of underground biomes and introduces new movement systems like wingsuit gliding, rock-climbing, and ziplines. Originally planned for an October release, Studio Wildcard has announced that Aberration will now arrive on December 12. Along with the new environments, and the new tools to get around in them, Aberration will of course arrive with new dinosaurs (or are they alie

I bought a Steam Link just a couple months ago, so it naturally makes sense that it would go on sale for a fraction of what I paid. And I do mean a fraction: the Steam Link is on sale at GameStop for a surprising 90% off, dropping the price from it’s usual $49.99 down to a measly $5 (though you’ll have to pay shipping and handling as well). If the GameStop link sells out, it’s also available direct from Steam. It’s quite a deal for a device that I’m pretty happy with and use semi-regularly to st

The Gwent single-player campaign Thronebreaker, which had been slated to come out by the end of the year, has been delayed into 2018. “I would like to apologize everyone who planned to play Thronebreaker over the Holidays—I assure you that we will do our best to make the final game worth the additional wait.” On the upside, the pace of Gwent multiplayer updates will be increased, to help attract new players to the game. “We want you to have more fun playing, but we also want to welcome new gamer

To the Moon developer Freebird Games dropped some big news for fans today: It’s time to gun up, buckle in, and hang on, because on December 14 you’re going… 2 The Moon. I’ll admit it, I was thoroughly confused by this trailer all the way to the midpoint, and the announcement that came with it—”Freebird Games unleashes To the Moon 2 trailer with fury”—sure didn’t help. Did I read something the wrong way? Was I thinking about the wrong game? Finding Paradise is listed on Steam if you’d like a cl

I finished my first run through Nier: Automata this weekend, and it’s one of the best games I’ve played this year. I just wish that Nier: Automata on the PC wasn’t still in need of a patch, eight months later. When Andy reviewed Nier: Automata back in March, he wrote “cutscenes are locked to 30fps, which make them look distractingly jerky. Thanks to the mod community, the PC version of Nier: Automata plays well. In May , Kotaku wrote that it was ridiculous Nier: Automata hadn’t been patched on P

Du Lac & Fey: Dance of Death is a story-driven adventure game set in 19th century London. It stars Sir Lancelot Du Lac, immortal knight, and Morgana Le Fey, a sorceress cursed to inhabit a canine form. Du Lac & Fey is fundamentally a point-and-click mystery about tracking down Jack the Ripper during the height of 1888’s famous Whitechapel Murders. Some of them have prominent voice actors as well, with Gareth David-Lloyd of Dragon Age: Inquisition voicing Du Lac himself. Although contingent on th

The backlash against loot boxes has now reached all the way to Australia: Responding to an inquiry from a redditor named -Caesar, a strategic analyst for the Compliance Division of the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation said that “what occurs with ‘loot boxes’ does constitute gambling by the definition of the Victorian Legislation.” Watching recent Reddit activity certainly indicates the majority of the gaming community is at odds with decisions made by certain companies.” H

Spoilers for the first half of Battlefront 2 ‘s campaign follow. Star Wars Battlefront 2’s campaign took me around five or six hours to finish, and the people on How Long To Beat say they’ve done it in 4.5. The thing is, though, you only really get the Empire’s perspective for the prologue and first four missions of Battlefront 2. Committing to evilYou’re not really getting the Empire’s point of view, then, so much as some Rebels who are a bit regretful about their past deeds. Either way, though

Epic Loon is a seriously retro 2D platformer from French developer Macrales Studios. It features several playable characters, local co-op and battle modes, as well as over 350 levels, but its standout quality is its setting. The sights and sounds of Epic Loon help sell its VHS campiness. The playable aliens are squishy little abominations who stand out against the stark, CRT-set levels, and the main characters in each movie satire sound well-voiced. Epic Loon is slated to release by the end of 2

My Uncle Merlin is an adventure game starring Eddie, a novice wizard raised by orcs, and his titular uncle Merlin, who are adrift in space on a dragon-powered rocket. It’s currently on Kickstarter, with developer Pocket Mana asking for $22,000 to bring it to life. Pocket Mana describes My Uncle Merlin as an adventure game “enriched with a few RPG elements.” For starters, there’s a stat system: the BDSM system, to be exact, which represents Eddie’s body, soul, and mind aptitudes, and nothing else

EA acknowledged last week that the progression was underpowered, and said that changes to increase both Rep and Bank awards were in the works. Bait crates now reward increased REP.Bait crates now reward increased Bank. Competing against a Roaming Racer will reward you with increased REP. Competing against a Roaming Racer will reward you with increased Bank. Slightly increased REP and Bank for finishing an event outside of first place.

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is really good: “A fun and frantic FPS,” we said in our 81/100 review, “even if it doesn’t feel quite as fresh as The New Order did.” But if you’d prefer to give your own opinion a chance before you make the purchase move, a free demo is now available on Steam. The trial version covers the full first level of the game, during which BJ is forced to rely on alternate modes of transportation to get around. And if you choose to upgrade to the full version of the game,

Empire Divided is a $15 / £12 DLC for Total War: Rome 2 set in the fractious era of the late third century. The Empire Divided campaigns feel like they start mid-flow; most of the factions start with plenty of territory. In the case of the Sassanids and Rome this feels like having a binder of info dropped on your desk. Empire Divided from feeling like a remix rather than a renovation, and it doesn’t offer a substantially new experience to Rome 2’s other campaigns. It certainly feels a lot freshe

The 2017 Steam Autumn Sale is a go! Also back for another go-around are the Steam Awards, with 13 different categories now open for nominations and badges up for grabs for everyone who takes part. First things first, let’s check out some deals:The Steam Awards categories are a little different this year, but they retain their sheen of… eccentricity, let’s say. The “ The World Is Grim Enough Let’s Just All Get Along ” Award” Award The “ Choose Your Own Adventure ” Award” Award The “ Haunts My D

Click for original. (Image: © Flickr via USDA)In all likelihood, the FCC will soon strip away net neutrality rules that were introduced under the previous administration. To make matters worse, the commenting period that was to allow Americans to share their thoughts and feedback on the FCC’s proposal to remove net neutrality rules may have been corrupted by what New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman called “fake comments.” “In May 2017, researchers and reporters discovered that the F

We may never see a third Half-Life game, but Half-Life 2 continues to thrive—not least by way of its ever-intriguing community and catalogue of player-made mods—despite its age. Gunship Mark II’s work-in-progress Half-Life 2: MMod has been around for some time, however is now gearing up for release and has a new trailer. You can guess, I was devastated, as many of us were,” says Gunship Mark II on the mod’s ModDB page. “People were saying ‘That’s it, Half-Life is over, Half-Life is dead’. More c

Ascent is disappointingly chained to its MMO roots and its airship combat isn’t nearly as exciting as my first impression implied. It’s the exact same MMO combat you’re familiar with (and bored of) but now you’re a giant airship instead of a paladin. The fight turned into a tense tug of war as my team struggled to push forward and the enemy team pushed back. My particular mech came equipped with a flamethrower, which I used to bathe the enemy team in fire, dealing substantial damage. That’s real

Later, capture the flag turned up as a mode in multiplayer games like Unreal Tournament, Halo, and Quake, but even the oddest Quake mod didn’t reinvent capture the flag quite as strangely as Oh My Godheads. I talked to developer Federico Sauret about the origins of Oh My Godheads, and why it has giant feet as well as heads. We actually came up with this idea because we were already playing a lot of local multiplayer games, even sometimes gathering with other friends and playing super old games,

Silver Vanguard is a 7-Mana neutral minion with 3/3 stats, and let’s be clear up front that those stats are absolutely terrible. So the immediate question is what are the juiciest 8-cost minions you can get from your Silver Vanguard. Priest could also use Shadow Essence and Barnes to cheat a copy of Silver Vanguard out, but both classes have few good 8-drop creatures. Again, Rag has to be an auto-include in Wild Silver Vanguard decks. Let me know what you make of Silver Vanguard, and what combos

Last week, IO Interactive described its decision to part ways with Square Enix earlier this year as a “watershed moment” for the studio. Now, Square Enix’s CEO Yosuke Matsuda has praised IO’s treatment of the Hitman series, but says SE could no longer “continue sufficiently investing” in it. “Whether it’s our Western studios or Japanese studios, at Square Enix we sometimes end up with conflicts or shortages in terms of resources. IO of course went independent in June and have since confirmed a n