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1 CommentNight in the Woods launching in late February
Night in the Woods, the Kickstarter-funded adventure game from Infinite Fall, will be released Feb. 21, the studio announced today.
Infinite Fall first informed Night in the Woods’ Kickstarter backers, sending out a backers-only update with the release date. In the post, which was obtained by Polygon, the studio said, “We are excited and actually almost done which is kind of nuts.”
The three-person development team added that their “grueling final testing/polish period gets rolling next week.”
Infinite Fall
Infinite Fall announced the release date for Night in the Woods with this artwork.
A date of Feb. 21 doesn’t quite meet the window of “somewhere in the first part of February” — the time frame that Infinite Fall gave last month, when it announced it had to...
News
3 CommentsVampire DLC bringing creepy fiends to The Sims 4
The Sims 4 is definitely taking a darker turn with its Vampires Game Pack, due out on Jan 24.
Players can take on the form of vampires, with special abilities, such as turning humans into vampires, and moving around using different forms. Vampires are powered by "plasma" which can be purchased, grown or harvested from human characters.
The Sims 4 is an open-ended life simulation for PC in which characters work, socialize, procreate and acquire goods. Previous expansions and game packs focused on relatively tame themes, such as outdoor adventures, fine dining and spooky costumes.
Vampires do not thrive in sunlight, so publisher EA has added a creepy new world to the game, called Forgotten Hollow, where nights last longer. Players can also try to raise their own families of vampires....
Cover Story
Issue
25
January 9, 2017
Final Fantasy 7: An oral history
30,000 words! 35 interviews! 4 videos! A trivia minigame! We take an in-depth look back at Square’s breakthrough role-playing game.
Read moreBest Games
62 CommentsBest PC games for new owners
You just got a new PC, packed full with terabytes of storage space, a top-of-the-line graphics card and more RAM than is legal in most countries. Congratulations, and welcome to the gaming platform that has the most choices across the widest variety of games.
But maybe all that choice is too much? Perhaps you find yourself paralyzed with indecision? Allow us to help. We've put together a list of some of the most must-play games on the PC, both recent and classic.
A couple notes before we get started. First, this list is not necessarily focused on stuff that will push new hardware to the limits. Certainly some of the games on here are gorgeous on their max settings, but some have retro stylings; some can even be run on a mid-level laptop. The point is to share the best and most...
Explainer
7 CommentsHow to protect your gaming accounts with two-factor authentication
Cybersecurity is of paramount importance these days, considering our ever-increasing dependence on cloud-based services. We store more and more data online, often for convenience but often because there is no other option, and we trust giant corporations to safeguard our sensitive private information — passwords, addresses, credit cards, Social Security numbers and more.
But paradoxically, our reliance on these systems is increasing exponentially even as our faith in them is dropping. It seems like reports of massive hacks are coming more and more frequently.
To hear our next president tell it, we live in challenging times.
Cybersecurity is of paramount importance
“I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly,” said President-elect Donald Trump last Wednesday, speaking to...
News
31 Comments5 Steam alternatives you can trust
If Steam is down, there is no reason to fret!
The internet is filled with alternative services worth throwing your wallet at. Each have their own unique advantages, deals and community. Whether Steam is down or you’re looking to try out a new service, here are five you can check out:
GOG.com
GOG.com
Some of your favorite AAA game franchises are on on GOG, like the Witcher and Walking Dead games, in addition to some of your favorite developers like Bethesda, Double Fine and more. Not only that, they regularly sell games in easy-to-buy, discounted bundles.
Origin
Origin
If you’re in the market for AAA games, Origin has you covered. Huge titles like Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, FIFA 17 and the Mass Effect franchise are all one click away. Like...
Deals
12 CommentsSteam Winter Sale: Best deals on new games
The annual Steam Winter Sale is on right now, which means there’s a ton of cheap games to sift through and spend all that holiday money on. But with price cuts offered on hundreds of games, figuring out what’s worth buying can be a challenge.
We’re digging through the discounts to find some of the seasonal event’s best deals. If you need to catch up on the year’s biggest games, keep reading — Steam has many of them at some pretty stellar prices, just in time for Game of the Year season.
As always, feel free to pitch in with any other Steam Winter Sale highlights you find in the comments below.
Stardew Valley ($9.99, 33 percent off)
Chucklefish Games
The most common refrain heard this year — this very, very trying year — was “fuck 2016.” That’s precisely why Stardew...
News
27 CommentsSteam Winter Sale 2016 is now live
Valve just launched Steam’s annual Winter Sale, offering a wide variety of deals alongside the kickoff of voting for the first-ever Steam Awards.
The Winter Sale runs from now until 1 p.m. ET on Jan. 2. Here are some notable deals available now:
Hyper Light Drifter for $11.99 (40 percent off)
Cities: Skylines for $7.49 (75 percent off)
Doom for $19.79 (67 percent off)
Stardew Valley for $9.99 (33 percent off)
Just Cause franchise sale (up to 75 percent off)
Mortal Kombat XL for $13.59 (66 percent off)
Street Fighter 5 2017 Deluxe Edition for $47.28 (57 percent off)
Tom Clancy’s The Division for $24.99 (50 percent off)
Voting in the 2016 Steam Awards also went live today. For the next 24 hours, Steam users can vote on the first of 12 awards — today’s category is the “Villain...
News
9 Comments2016 Steam Awards finalists go all the way back to 2006
The finalists for the first-ever Steam Awards are in, and it’s clear that the Steam community still loves plenty of older titles that may not have gotten their due back in the day.
Valve did not restrict the field of potential nominees to games that debuted in 2016. As such, the majority of nominated titles were released prior to this year, including veritable classics like 2011’s Portal 2 and more niche titles such as 2013’s Euro Truck Simulator 2.
The Steam community’s memory stretches even further into the past, with one of the nominees — Facepunch Studios’ Garry’s Mod, a Half-Life 2 mod that became a stand-alone product — having been released a decade ago, in November 2006. And another game on the list is Age of Empires 2: HD Edition, a 2013 remaster of a game that debuted all the...
News
2 CommentsNight in the Woods delayed to February
Night in the Woods, the gorgeous adventure game from Infinite Fall, has been pushed back to “somewhere in the first part of February,” the studio announced today.
That represents a delay of a few weeks from the previously given release date — Infinite Fall said in late October that it planned to launch Night in the Woods on Jan. 10, 2017.
“Some last minute things have come up suddenly over the past few days and we have to push back the [Night in the Woods] release by a few weeks,” said Infinite Fall in a Kickstarter update. “It’s all normal stuff, nothing is on fire, and it’s all to do with the fact that we’re a tiny team making a big game and doing a multi-platform launch is a whole *waves hands around* thing.”
It’s rough timing for Infinite Fall: Last week, the studio released the f...
News
0 CommentsLeague of Legends’ maker inks rich broadcast contract, with an eye on premium content
Riot Games will rake in $50 million a year — at minimum — under an arrangement with Major League Baseball's online streaming operation to monetize and commercialize League of Legends competitions.
The deal between Riot and BAMTech, which is a subsidiary of MLB Advanced Media, runs through 2023. MLBAM handles MLB.tv, the online streaming network showing the leagues' games throughout the season. Clients such as Disney, HBO, the WWE and the PGA Tour also use BAMTech for their premium content offerings.
In an interview with Yahoo! Sports, Riot representatives said the deal will not change or end the current supply of free League of Legends content found on Twitch, YouTube and other streaming platforms. However, with a $50 million minimum guarantee per year, it's obvious some kind of premium...
News
3 CommentsNight in the Woods has knife fights and creepy platforming
Indie adventure game Night in the Woods has received its official trailer, and it’s here to prove that there’s more to this stylish game than meets the eye.
Night in the Woods is the story of Mae, a cat who returns home from college to her beleaguered rust-belt town. We’ve spent time with this game’s E3 demo, which was lavish in presentation and dense with dialogue. But from the looks of this trailer, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It shows off the game’s many other characters, and also teases a few more mini-games including what appears to be a knife fight.
Night in the Woods won’t be available until its launch date, Jan. 10, 2017, when it will be out on itch.io, Linux, Mac and Windows PC via Valve’s Steam platform, and PlayStation 4. But there’s a few ways you can experience it...
News
13 CommentsYooka-Laylee launching in April, Wii U version canceled
Yooka-Laylee, the spiritual successor to colorful 3D platformers like Banjo-Kazooie, made by alumni of the original series, will launch on April 11, 2017.
The Wii U version, which had been part of Yooka-Laylee's crowdfunding promises since its Kickstarter began in May 2015, is formally canceled. This isn't much of a surprise as Nintendo's newest console, the Switch, is due to launch sometime before the game's release date.
Those who donated to the project on Kickstarter to get the Wii U version may choose another version of the game, or may wait until a Nintendo Switch version is developed.
Playtonic Games said "we are now working very closely with Nintendo to look to bring Yooka-Laylee to the upcoming Nintendo Switch," and will have more details on that arrangement later.
Donors who...
News
14 CommentsDota 2’s big update goes live tomorrow. Here’s what’s in it.
Monkey King, a brand new Dota 2 character teased back in August, headlines a comprehensive update arriving tomorrow for Valve's free-to-play MOBA. Changes to Dota 2's game interface, gameplay, and a talent tree for heroes, also are forthcoming.
The talent tree is probably the broadest-reaching gameplay update in Dota 2 version 7.00. With it, players can select talents for their heroes at levels 10, 15, 20 and 25 to equip them with new augmentations to their powers and abilities. As it is a skill tree, each skill taken opens a new branch, and once taken, other branches are no longer available to the hero.
This example, for Wraith King, explains what Dota 2 is getting at. Much more is available at the Dota 2 site.
Monkey King, the new hero, is a melee character who plays in...
News
2 CommentsDota 2’s 7.00 update announcement breaks Dota 2’s official site (Update)
Update: The announcement site is live; go see it for more info. (The main site still seems to be in trouble.)
Dota 2 was supposed to reveal what is in version 7.00 — it’s been 11 years since version 6.00 — at noon today but, 30 minutes later, the site is still crashed, presumably by all the interest.
The update was announced last night at the finals of the Boston Major, in a way overshadowing the very compelling 3-1 championship won by OG over Ad Finem. But right now, we can’t tell you what’s coming in the 7.00 patch. Other than this guy (rimshot)
Both the countdown site and the Dota 2 blog are currently borked. We’ll update when they are unborked.
Update: Well, they got this up, at least.
Valve Corp.
News
1 CommentFacing down copyright claims, Doom roguelike fan game goes open-source (correction)
Rights holder ZeniMax Media slapped DoomRL, a popular fan game based on the classic first-person shooter, with a cease-and-desist order earlier this week, but co-creator Kornel Kisielewicz chose to keep the game available online. To do so, DoomRL — now called DRL — has gone open-source.
ZeniMax Media took issue with DoomRL, as Kisielewicz revealed to fans earlier this week. He shared a letter from the company’s legal team, asking that all references to the Doom property be removed from the fan project.
After weighing whether to ignore or comply with the takedown request, Kisielewicz decided to strip the Doom branding from the game and open it up to other players. The designer told Polygon this week that this was “always the plan” for the free roguelike version of Doom, which has been...
News
1 CommentAlmost two-fifths of Steam’s entire library was released in 2016
If it seems like Steam’s list of new releases has been getting more and more cluttered lately, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. More than 4,200 games have been released on Valve’s digital distribution service so far in 2016, according to Steam Spy — a figure that represents a whopping 38 percent of the service’s entire gaming library.
Yesterday, Steam Spy tweeted a pie chart of Steam games organized by their year of release. Today is the first day of December, so the exact number of 2016 titles listed in the chart — 4,207 — doesn’t even include the last month of the year. We just checked Steam’s list of new releases, and as of this writing, 33 games arrived on the service today.
The percentage alone doesn’t tell you a lot, as indie developer Tony Gowland points out. But the actual number...
News
6 CommentsErotic adventure Ladykiller in a Bind adds Christmas sweaters to make sex scenes SFW
Christine Love’s erotic visual novel “about crossdressing, social manipulation and kinky lesbian sex,” Ladykiller in a Bind, is now safer to play at work, thanks to the game’s latest update that lets players skip sex scenes and wear festive knits over their BDSM gear.
Version 1.10 of Ladykiller in a Bind adds new options for players who’d prefer to enjoy the visual novel with far less nudity, Love said on Twitter. New players will be given the option to skip sex scenes on their first night in the adventure, while existing players with save files will need to enable the option, Love said.
A new “safe for work” preference can also layer Christmas sweaters over the nudity, just in time for the holidays. Love warns “I can’t promise Twitch won’t ban you anyway!” (Ladykiller in a Bind is not...
News
4 CommentsKoji Igarashi’s Bloodstained adds two new developers
Ex-Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi is bringing on two additional development teams to help complete his next project, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, according to an update on the game’s Kickstarter.
Originally in development at Inti Creates, best known for its work on Mega Man, Azure Striker Gunvolt and Mighty No. 9, developers DICO and Monobit have recently joined the project. Based on the update, it’s not clear whether Inti Creates is still involved in the project or in what ongoing capacity. We’ve reached out to the developer and publisher 505 Games for clarification.
In the development update, DICO is described as “a studio with a long history of localization and global development work.”
“We've gathered a lot of reliable core team members for the project—in fact, one of...
Deals
6 CommentsSteam’s Autumn Sale is live with Black Friday-style deals
Steam’s annual Autumn Sale is live, running from now until Nov. 29. This year’s discounts include some of 2016’s top games, along with other favorites that are available on the cheap.
There’s more than 12,000 games on sale, which means there’s a ton to comb through. Here’s just a sampling of games worth checking out, preferably while wearing a cozy sweater and drinking something pumpkin spice-flavored — because, y’know, it’s the autumn sale.
Hitman Intro Pack (Prologue and Episode 1): $7.49 (50 percent off)
Sid Meier’s Civilization 6: $53.99 (10 percent off)
Inside: $14.99 (25 percent off)
Icey: $9.89 (10 percent off)
Quantum Break: $29.99 (25 percent off)
Tom Clancy’s The Division: $13.39 (50 percent off)
Stardew Valley: $10.04 (33 percent off)
Dark Souls 3: $38.99 (35 percent...
News
17 CommentsValve introduces Steam Awards, chosen by the community
Steam’s annual Autumn Sale is now live, and along with it comes something new: the Steam Awards.
“For the first time in human history, our Steam Community will decide the nominees for the prestigious Steam Awards,” says Valve.
During the Autumn Sale, Steam users can head to the store page for any game — not just titles released in 2016 — and nominate it for one of eight awards. Instead of bog-standard fare like “Best Action Game,” Valve came up with quirky categories such as the “Best Use of a Farm Animal” Award and the “Villain Most in Need of a Hug” Award.
Those fields are joined by a ninth award for which the community will determine both the category qualifiers and the nominees. Steam users will submit their suggestions, and Valve says “senior members” of the Steam Award Selection...
Report
5 CommentsBuying condoms is awkward — in games and in real life
There are few games like Well This is Awkward, which tackles the discomfort of buying condoms from a teen’s perspective. Yet, as lead designer and University of Baltimore senior Emma Kidwell told Polygon, this free-to-play comedy about contraceptives is actually quite mundane.
“It’s relatable, which is the goal,” she said via Skype earlier this week. “I wanted to make something really weird and relatable.”
Well This is Awkward definitely fits into the latter camp. Kidwell — who writes for Kill Screen and has written for Polygon before — designed it in Twine, a format popular with narrative designers. It tells the story of one uncomfortable night when a couple just wants to get it on ... except they’re missing just one important thing.
It sounds like it could border on preachy — Don’t...
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