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The Pier Arcade is a collection of physics-based and digital arcade games built from scratch and made to mimic the games you’d play in an arcade or pier.

The Pier Arcade can be wishlisted on Steam now: The Pier Arcade on Steam (steampowered.com)

The Pier Arcade will offer 12 arcade machines at launch, based on real-world classics, to test your skills and reactions. With its mixture of physics-based skill games and digital arcade games, The Pier Arcade is sure to keep you entertained for hours.

Outside of playing the arcade games, you’ll also be able to wander the pier performing chores – like picking up litter, refilling vending machines, and repairing faults – to earn money, then spend that money in the arcade. Earn tickets on the arcade games to purchase unique items that can aid you in your chores, or simple to show off your perseverance and arcade playing skills.

The Pier Arcade has a free demo live now as part of the Steam Fest event with the full version releasing on Steam in November.

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Through accessible turn-based competitive gameplay, ongoing content releases, and deep customization, Moonbreaker will offer a variety of gameplay experiences, especially for fans of tabletop and collectible card games. Players will be able to lead their Rosters – which are made up of Captains, Crew and Assists – in fast-paced, turn-based encounters with a variety of gameplay possibilities. With more than 50 Units (Captains, Crew, and Assists) available at Early Access launch, the Roster combinations are endless.

Every aspect of Moonbreaker is designed to capture the feel of a physical miniatures game without the real-world limitations. With detailed, intuitive and constantly evolving painting tools, players can take their Unit customization to the next level. Custom palettes, beautiful finishes, customizable roster banners and professional digital painting tools create the perfect space for player expression. Players can paint their Units using traditional painting techniques (but with an undo button!) or marvel at beautiful paint jobs created by professional miniatures painters.

“Moonbreaker was born out of a natural passion for tabletop gaming many of us share at Unknown Worlds,”

said Charlie Cleveland, Co-Founder and Game Director at Unknown Worlds.

“Our aim with the game is to reduce the traditional barriers associated with tabletop gaming and miniatures while retaining the hobbyist appeal that makes that genre so special. After several years in development, we’re thrilled to officially reveal Moonbreaker and look forward to working with the community to evolve the game while it’s in Early Access.”

“With Moonbreaker, we are offering a wholly unique gaming experience that combines the depth of traditional tabletop gaming with the convenience of modern video game technology,”

said Mike Silbowitz, Head of Americas Business Division at KRAFTON, Inc.

“Our partners at Unknown Worlds have a strong history of taking bold creative swings based on their success with the Subnautica and Natural Selection series, and we expect Moonbreaker to continue this tradition. The game’s launch into Early Access is just the beginning as we are thrilled to support it through ongoing seasons and content updates.”

Moonbreaker is set in an original sci-fi world crafted by renowned author Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn series, Stormlight Archive, Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time). Players will battle in various locations across the Reaches – a tiny solar system with moons held in orbit by a scarce resource called Cinder. Players will also be able to learn more about the world of Moonbreaker and its characters through upcoming audio dramas that will release closer to its Early Access launch.

Celebrate the announcement of Moonbreaker with exclusive access to a commemorative ‘Gloomside’ Crankbait Paint Job via the Moonbreaker Premiere Program. Those who register their KRAFTON IDs by September will be guaranteed access to the exclusive paint job when the game launches for PC and Mac via Steam Early Access on Sept. 29.

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True Fear Forsaken Souls – Part 2 is a psychological horror title offering multiple locations to explore in the continuing quest to uncover what happened to your sister and unearth secrets from your family’s past. It’s a classic point and click adventure from a first-person perspective, think hidden-object game with less hidden objects. Beautiful, highly detailed and creepy stills, with the odd animation and particle-effect, alongside some 3D cutscenes for story-heavy sections, visually entice you into this adventure and mystery. It’s a good horror tale with exceptionally good atmosphere and immersion that’s hard to put down once started.

This is a puzzle heavy experience, comprising of you travelling between scenes in a location, finding objects and solving puzzles to unlock more object, more puzzles, and – of course – more story. This time around the puzzle variety has been improved a little, offering more inventive puzzles and several interconnected puzzles where one scene’s puzzle helps solve a different scene’s. Moving between scenes is fast and intuitive: hitting directions on the d-pad moves you around logically within the space – a room on the left can be accessed by pressing left on the d-pad – or you can drag your cursor and click where you want to go. Additionally, you can call up a map of the scenes in an area and travel quickly to any part. It’s well-designed and makes traversal effortless, making the frequent backtracking less of an inconvenience, and allowing you to focus more on the puzzles.

These puzzles are mostly varied and clever, involving mechanics such as finding missing pieces, finding objects to remove obstacles, piecing pictures together, repairing, or combining multiple objects together, etc. Moreover, there are some puzzle sections that are self-enclosed puzzle box style challenges that don’t require items collected anywhere outside of that particular puzzle area, which makes for some brilliantly focused Rude Goldburg-like experiences.

As with many point and click adventures games, True Fear Forsaken Souls – Part 2 does occasionally suffer some developer logic issues, whether with an obscure solve – which there are seldom of here to be fair – or more commonly, objects that should be fine to solve a problem not matching the very specific object that does in fact solve the puzzle. It’s not too egregious though, although it does mean the game is strictly linear.

True Fear Forsaken Souls – Part 2’s scene stills are wonderfully detailed and creepy, imitating lighting splendidly to give off a very unsettling atmosphere. Meanwhile, a little cliched but nonetheless very effective music helps sell the horror even more. Furthermore, occasionally a 3D cutscene will play that ramps up the horror and bit more. The animation is a bit stiff, and the protagonist is expressionless, which gives it an early 2000s feel about it, but this proves less jarring than you might think, and in fact feels nostalgic. It’s very much an adventure game of yore, with some convenient mod-cons.

The aforementioned quick travel is complimented by a hint system that points the way if you get stuck, and even the ability to skip puzzles. True Fear Forsaken Souls – Part 2 doesn’t leave you pondering a puzzle or where to go next without offering a helping hand if you want it, making it one of the more player-friendly point and click titles on the market. It’s not perfect, items you need to collect easily blend into the environments and colour-based puzzles may prove unsolvable to colour blind players, but certainly the developers have attempted to make the title accessible.

True Fear Forsaken Souls – Part 2 really hasn’t changed much from the previous part. It continues to offer a creepy but never downright scary experience, with wonderfully unsettling atmosphere. Smart puzzles and exceptional art makes this experience memorable and the story is progressing nicely. The puzzle variety is stronger and more interconnected than it was but it loses its lustre a bit after a while, but the story is intriguing enough to keep you engaged. This is a strong point and click adventure for those looking for a less confrontational horror experience, and hopefully the promised third part will prove to be a satisfying ending.

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Vampire the Masquerade: Swansong is a narrative-focused, RPG, which puts you in the shoes of three vampires. Gameplay switches between these characters, each of which have their own abilities, personality, extensive lore, and current object. It’s your task to investigate areas, people and other vampires to initially find out about a breach of security and massacre at a vampire party, and to meet the expectations of the Camarilla prince of Boston, Hazel Iverse, who has tasked you with solving the debacle.

There’s a lot of lore to get your head around when it comes to the World of Darkness and the masquerade that hides the existence of vampires and other supernatural forces from humanity. Learning it all greatly informs you on how you should conduct yourself in the world and what burdens of history are relevant, as well as what other creatures and vampire sub-species you should be aware of. Fortunately, you don’t need to know anything going in. Swansong gradually reveals things to you either directly through conversations and tutorials, or through an encyclopedia that collects information that you can peruse at your leisure. The universe is intuitive enough for you to immediately feel familiar with it but has hidden depth that vastly improves the enjoyment if you have the inclination to learn more. It’s a balancing act that Swansong pulls off effectively, giving you enough to navigate by and build intrigue without hitting you over the head with too much information.

Exploration, collecting information, puzzle solving, and conversations are the primary components that makes up the experience of Vampire the Masquerade: Swansong. Thanks to the three different characters you play as, you manage to see a pleasant variety of locations and interact with many different individuals. There’s a huge amount of dialogue and voice acting on offer that, for the most part, carries the story and characters along nicely enough, but does stumble occasionally. Conversations aren’t always the most engaging, with a lack of emotion making them dull and lifeless. When conversation is such a big part of the experience, it’s a letdown when those conversations are less engaging and enjoyable. It’s partly due to tone. There just isn’t a character with a sense of humour to help alleviate and add contrast to the serious parts of the narrative. Meanwhile, as varied as the locations are, there’s very few that offer anything interesting or unique. There’s no sense of you being in Boston at all, it could easily be any American city.

The narrative has an intriguing premise and some nice twists and turns, but its delivery isn’t great. The conversations and dialogue are certainly the biggest issue with it, but even still it’s not the grandest of tales. What it does well is give you the opportunity to play vampire-detective; exploring areas and talking to people to uncover information is enjoyable. Moreover, your decisions affect the story in big ways, giving you strong agency across the ten to fifteen hour experience. However, you’d be forgiven if you forget this is a game about vampires. You can occasionally feed on people to boost your abilities, and your abilities play a part in manipulating conversations and maneuvering around the environment, but a lot of the puzzles require nothing supernatural, and even the abilities used in conversation can feel a bit speechcraft more than mind control. You also don’t always have the best abilities going into a situation. Upgrades are handled at the end of each scene for each character, and the points you can spend on them are determined by how well you’ve done in the scene. A bad scene can really limit your character’s potential.

Vampire the Masquerade: Swansong suffers a little from an identity crisis. It’s a talking-simulator, stealth game, detective game, Hitman-lite, puzzle game, adventure game all rolled into one, with no particular mastery of either. A lot of the stealth sections are forced and frustrating, the puzzles are uninspired, and there some odd adventure game style sections that feel incongruous with the vampiric natural and powers of the characters. It feels a little half-baked, like a mishmash of ideas not fully formed. This sense of unpolished carries over to the visuals, were characters look lifeless and lack facial details, have terrible mouth flapping animations, and the occasional wild physics with hair. Meanwhile, plenty of texture pop in leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Environments on the other hand, look fantastic, with smooth frame rate throughout.

Vampire the Masquerade: Swansong suffers from lackluster dialogue and some scatterbrain gameplay but makes good use of the already existing lore to present an intriguing story with some really enjoyable sections. It feels unpolished but there’s certainly a lot of potential here, and for fans of the World of Darkness, Swansong is absolutely recommended. For new comers, the issues with Swansong are more of an obstacle, but playing vampire-detective is still an enjoyable experience if you can manage to look past them.

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Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun will offer a single-player, good old-fashioned sprite-based, hardcore experience in the boots of the ultimate killing machine: a Space Marine. You can check out the reveal trailer below:

Load up your Boltgun and plunge into battle headfirst! Experience a perfect blend of Warhammer 40,000, classic, frenetic FPS gameplay and the stylish visuals of your favourite 90’s retro shooters. Play a battle-hardened Space Marine on a perilous mission across the galaxy, as they battle against the Chaos Space Marines and daemons of Chaos.

In glorious boomer shooter style, unleash your devastating Space Marine arsenal as you blast through an explosion of sprites, pixels and blood. Run, jump and charge across huge levels to shoot, shred and slice the worst heretics across the galaxy!

“We are delighted to be working on this fast-paced indie FPS alongside the talented Auroch Digital studio, and our long standing partner Games Workshop,” announces Dessil Basmadjian, Chief Creative Officer at Focus Entertainment. “We are excited by Boltgun’s skilful combination of iconic 90s style, the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and thrilling gameplay that is sure to delight all kinds of players.”

“Auroch Digital is proud to be working with Games Workshop again and Focus Entertainment on Boltgun. As a team of massive Warhammer 40,000 fans, this game has been brewing since 2018 and we’re so excited we can FINALLY shout about it from the rooftops! We can’t wait for players to get their hands on it and to see their reactions” says Nina Adams, Operations Director at Auroch Digital.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is being developed by Auroch Digital and published by Focus Entertainment with a planned release date of 2023 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. It can be wishlisted on Steam here: Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun on Steam (steampowered.com)

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This is a puzzle heavy experience, comprising of you travelling between scenes in a location, finding objects and solving puzzles to unlock more object, more puzzles, and – of course – more story. Moving between scenes is fast and intuitive: hitting directions on the d-pad moves you around logically within the space – a room on the left can be access by pressing left on the d-pad – or you can drag your cursor and click where you want to go. Additionally, you can call up a map of the scenes in an area and travel quickly to any part. It’s well-designed and makes traversal effortless, making the frequent backtracking less of an inconvenience, and allowing you to focus more on the puzzles.

These puzzles are initially varied and clever, involving mechanics such as finding missing pieces, finding objects to remove obstacles, piecing pictures together, repairing, or combining multiple objects together, etc. Moreover, there are some puzzle sections that are self-enclosed puzzle box style challenges that don’t require items collected anywhere outside of that particular puzzle area, which makes for some brilliantly focused Rude Goldburg-like experiences.

As with many point and click adventures games, True Fear Forsaken Souls does occasionally suffer some developer logic issues, whether with an obscure solve – which there are seldom of here to be fair – or more commonly, objects that should be fine to solve a problem not matching the very specific object that does in fact solve the puzzle. It’s not too egregious though, although it does mean the game is strictly linear.

True Fear Forsaken Souls scene stills are wonderfully detailed and creepy, imitating lighting splendidly to give off a very unsettling atmosphere. Meanwhile, a little cliched but nonetheless very effective music helps sell the horror even more. Furthermore, occasionally a 3D cutscene will play that ramps up the horror and bit more. The animation is a bit stiff, and the protagonist is expressionless, which gives it an early 2000s feel about it, but this proves less jarring than you might think, and in fact feels nostalgic. It’s very much an adventure game of yore, with some convenient mod-cons.

The aforementioned quick travel is complimented by a hint system that points to way if you get stuck, and even the ability to skip puzzles. True Fear Forsaken Souls doesn’t leave you pondering a puzzle or where to go next without offering a helping hand if you want it, making it one of the more player-friendly point and click titles on the market. It’s not perfect, items you need to collect easily blend into the environments and colour-based puzzles may prove unsolvable to colour blind players, but certainly the developers have attempted to make True Fear Forsaken Souls accessible.

True Fear Forsaken Souls is never downright scary, but it’s definitely creepy and unsettling. This is a highly atmospheric adventure game that can really lure you in. Smart puzzles and exceptional art makes this experience memorable and hints at a promising future for the series. The puzzle variety loses its lustre a bit after the first act, but the story is intriguing enough to keep you engaged. This is a strong point and click adventure for those looking for a less confrontational horror experience.

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That’s not to say Far Cry 6 isn’t enjoyable and well-crafted, there’s a huge amount to explore on Yara, with its towns, jungles and mountainous areas offering a rich tapestry of missions and characters to enjoy. Meanwhile, the ruthless dictator Antón Castillo is an exceptionally good villain for the piece, it’s just that some of the charms the series has enjoyed for a good decade now are getting old and tired.

Once again, you’re an underdog fighting against an all-powerful presence. Castillo’s control of Yara is strong and vast and only small groups of freedom fighters have taken up arms to revolt against the injustices suffered by the people. It’s undeniably satisfying taking away Castillo’s control and turning those red points on the map blue, but it’s a mammoth task in a huge environment.

Indeed, this is a Ubisoft open-world, one absolutely full of things to do, and it’s overwhelming. There’s some variety in the first half-dozen hours of playtime but afterwards the repetition sets in. Fortunately, the AI has stepped things up a bit and keeps you on your toes. Assaulting or sneaking into a location is made all the more interesting by the enemy flushing you out of encroached positions with things like airstrikes, and reviving their fallen comrades if they come across them. It means you have to adapt and consider your next move a little more carefully and make use of your weapons and tools more efficiently.

Far Cry 6 certainly has some neat toys for you to play with. The usual array of weapons are, of course, available, ranging from simple handguns and rifles to flamethrowers and rocket launchers, all of which can be modified and enhanced. Meanwhile, Resolver and Supremo weapons offer makeshift weapons, smashed together with everyday objects you find lying around for the former, and devastatingly powerful backpacks which act as an ultimate ability, and recharge over time after use, or by killing more enemies, as the latter. Supremos offer things like firing a salvo of homing rockets, generating healing fields, EMP blasts and can help turn the tide of battle when things get hairy.

Stealth is also a viable option and can be an enjoyable challenge, but your vast arsenal of weapons certainly feels like they are encouraging you to be noisy. This is also the feeling you get from the vehicles you can use; these can be outfitted with various turrets, countermeasures, and defensive options to give you an edge against anything that come up against. Furthermore, you have your Amigos, unlockable animal friends that can help you out in battle. Chorizo the sausage dog can distract enemies, allowing you to get close and take them down. Meanwhile, Guapo the alligator is a little bit more direct, chomping down on your enemies, and a few more can be unlocked as you progress through the story.

Far Cry 6 has done away with the RPG-like ability tree and instead has equipment that grants passive abilities and buffs. You can equip gear to your head, chest, arms, legs and feet, with each providing unique perks. Managing your gear and their perks to suit the situation you find yourself can become frustrating, especially as there no favouriting pieces of gear, or creating multiple loadouts, but at least you can change the appearance of your gear to your liking, you know, to avoid any embarrassing fashion upsets, or to make the third-person perspective cutscene less silly.

Indeed, Far Cry 6 gives your character, Dani Rojas, much more screentime than in previous titles, thanks to cut scenes having a third-person perspective, fleshing out Dani and giving them more personality. In fact, Far Cry 6 attempts to do a little more with the story than previous titles, mentioning social and political issues, including a transgender issue with a transgender actor lending their voice. It is, however, only an attempt, and the tone still shifts quite jarringly between serious discussion and emotion, and ridiculous cartoon violence and silliness.

The supporting cast are nicely fleshed out at least, giving you more investment in their stories. This can’t be said for Castillo’s team of goons, who are one-dimensional, cliched villains with less convincing motivation. This is in sharp contrast to the much more well-realized Antón Castillo, who is a splendidly vile, calculating, and menacing antagonist.

Antón Castillo is less eccentric than antagonists from the series past, and whose motivation of noble ends justify horrendously evil means is more realistic and relatable. Of course, Giancarlo Esposito’s (Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian) performance is terrific, really selling the character. It’s especially fun to witness the distain Castillo has for most people and yet the love he has for his son, although there’s malice enough between them as well. There are layers here, and the voice acting, as well as the wonderful facial animations, do a great job portraying it all.

Treasure Hunts, collectables, animal hunting, fishing and cockfighting minigames and more, try to entice you back into the island paradise after the story has wrapped, and for some this will be a treat, but it’s very much a Ubisoft level of endless exploration that struggles to shake the repetition. The story is where the fun is, exploring the revolution and guerrilla warfare with an interesting cast of characters. It’s compelling story within an attractive location with some interesting themes, but it’s not wildly different from other titles in the series and it feel like a big shake up is what the series needs to evolve.

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Aliens Fireteam Elite is a three-player cooperative, third-person shooter where you take on hordes of xenomorphs and Weyland-Yutani synthetics in intense firefights. It’s very much inspired by the more action orientated Aliens film, although with a wonderful sprinkling of lore that points to the other films in the franchise and adds interesting story hooks to encourage and reward exploration and engaging in conversations with NPCs between missions.

It’s a smart mix of authentic Aliens action and intrigue. Moreover, the focus is entirely on the action, the story elements can be ignored if you’re more interested in shooting ferocious xenomorphs and unfeeling synthetics. As such there’s reason to play the game solo as well as cooperatively, allowing you to slow the pace a little and discover more lore on your own, while keeping the adrenaline pumping during coop sessions.

And the adrenaline sure does pump. The xenomorphs comes at you waves, crawling on walls and ceilings, coming out of vents, pouncing from the shadows. They are a swarm of death and it’s brilliant. You’re forced to engage with as much firepower as you can muster, firing your authentic looking and sounding weapons, such as the pulse rifle and smart gun, as well as deploying sentry turrets, mines, and other devices to give you an edge. Meanwhile, each class of Marine has their own special ability that can aid themselves and their teammates with buffs, as well as their own unique equipment they can deploy. It makes for a fast paced, exhilarating and intense experience that will fill your headset with nervous laughter from your teammates in coop sessions.

You’ll encounter a nice mixture of xenomorphs as well. Cannon-fodder xenomorphs that are weak but come at you in swarms, spitters that can attack you from range, exploding xenomorphs that can shower you in acid, as well as armoured xenomorphs that can take and dish out huge amounts of damage. It’s a nice variety that keeps you on your toes, with new variants added as you progress.

Kitting yourself out to handle whatever fight you find yourself in is as simple as choosing a class from a fairly traditional set of healer, DPS and tank options, modifying the weapons, equipment and abilities of your chosen class, and rolling out. As you fight with a particular class you’ll gain experience, equipment and currency that allows you to further modify them and improve them. Similar to titles such as Destiny, there is a combat score that missions suggest you meet, and through the new equipment you find and purchase, as well as your class levelling up and gaining new buffs, your combat score will steadily increase to be able to meet any new challenge. There are some cosmetic changes you can makes as well, but these are limited.

However, as engaging as Aliens Fireteam Elite is, there’s certainly some flaws holding it back. Mission variety is a bit disappointing and largely boils down to exploring an area and kill everything that you come across. Furthermore, the locations look samey, although there are a few location changes that help with that. Additionally, the animations a bit stiff for the player character, while NPCs lack any facial animation at all. The lighting is also bland and feels antiquated when compared to modern offerings.

Aliens Fireteam Elite is over with quite quickly, offering around five hours of content to experience, but replayability is pretty high, especially if you can find some friends to play with. This also means that it doesn’t overstay its welcome, and at the price point it’s at, it feels fair. While it doesn’t feel next generation in any way, lacking the visuals of modern titles and features such as crossplay, it’s still an excellent action game that knows and celebrates its source material and offers exciting and highly enjoyable cooperative combat.

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However, while Nightbook is supposed to be a horror experience, it’s just not scary. It tries valiantly to create a creepy and mysterious supernatural force to carry the experience and act as the antagonist, but ultimately fails to make it frightening. At times it’s almost comical, which threatens to take you out of the experience, despite otherwise believable and entertaining writing and acting.

A lot rides on the script and characters when the gameplay is so restricted, and indeed the writing and acting are noteworthy. Well-paced and logical writing helps make the characters believable and a strong cast brings them to life. A smart framing device of a home security system and video chat helps sell the idea of camera watching everything, and the protagonist portrays a smart, resourceful, scared but strong character that’s easy to like and root for. Meanwhile, her support play their roles splendidly and keep the story engaging for its 45 minutes to one hour playtime.

Of course, one playthrough isn’t enough to see everything. With 223 distinct scenes to witness and 15 endings, there’s plenty to keep you coming back to see how the story plays out with different decisions. These decisions steer you in one of two ways at certain junctions in the tale and affect the story’s path and the protagonist’s relationship with the other characters. You’ll have to make your decision quickly as well, encouraging a gut response from you. The first time through it’s a compelling combination of excitement and stress making these decisions so quickly and seeing the results.

The aforementioned lack of scares does dampen the experience a bit, especially on subsequent playthroughs, and it’s a weak enough antagonist to reduce your compulsion to see all the endings. Realistically you’re only likely to stomach two or three playthroughs before leaving Nightbook alone, although one particular ending teased by the achievements might encourage an extra attempt or two.

Nightbook is a well-made FMV game that doesn’t overstay its welcome and has high enough quality writing and acting to make the experience entertaining even when there are no decision to be made. It’s greatly let down by the lacklustre horror theme, making it a hard sell to people looking for a frightening of tense experience. For those curious how far FMV games have come, however, Nightbook is a strong example of the concept well-realised.

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