The post Indie Game The Pier Arcade Out Now On Steam appeared first on THUMBSTiX.

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.

The post The Arcade Pier Announced for PC appeared first on THUMBSTiX.

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.

The post Turn-Based Tabletop Tactics Game Moonbreaker announced during Gamescom appeared first on THUMBSTiX.

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)

The post Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun announced appeared first on THUMBSTiX.

Elite allows you to explore the Milky Way like never before, experiencing a scientifically accurate representation of the galaxy made tangible through clever procedural systems for handling the four billion star systems. It’s a remarkably vast game that focuses on three core experiences: ship combat, trade, and exploration, and each of these experiences are deep and rewarding, keeping you busy for countless hours. Elite Dangerous: Odyssey means to enhance the Elite package with on-foot exploration of planets and instillations with first-person combat and exploration.

Initially this is a wonderfully refreshing change, allowing you to explore from a different perspective and engage in different missions based around the core concepts. You might pick up a mission to steal something, requiring you to acquire a temporary identity so to move freely around an installation. Get caught, however, and it becomes a frantic rush to escape, first-person combat kicking in and the excitement building to a triumphant getaway in your ship, or (more commonly) you being killed or you ship being destroyed.

It’s a great potential enhancement to the experience that came before, all from a new perspective, and making the game feel more alive, and more of a complete sim. Unfortunately, there’s a whole heap of problems with the new content that threatens to utterly ruin your enjoyment.

The aforementioned scenario ending in your ship being destroyed is a frequent problem. The problem isn’t that your ship can be destroyed but that your ship can be destroyed so easily by ground forces. It hurts the illusion of the sim. More egregiously, mission rewards are poor, giving you a poultry amount of credits for highly dangerous missions. Moreover, missions are also a repetitive grinds, especially the alien biology sample collecting, which has you gather samples from organisms across a planet’s surface but with so many organisms providing poor sample data this mission takes forever.

Then there are the bugs. Collision detection is spotty, leading to enemies and players bouncing around on a planet surface. Some mission’s completion doesn’t trigger correctly, forcing you to abandon a mission in progress. Other times progress wasn’t saved correctly or server failures kicked you out of the game. Performance was also an issue, especially when multiple players are in the same area. There’s also an issue with repetitive locations, specifically interiors. You’ll travel hundreds of light years only to end up in a room that looks identical to the room you left, even down to the NPCs.

Frontier have made a public apology for the expansion’s state at release, and have shared their intention to resolve the issues and further enhance what’s on offer, and based on the rest of the Elite experience I’m inclined to believe that everything will be alright in the end. Right now what’s on offer is a teaser of what could be with ‘space=legs’ and all the experiences this opens up. The bugs need squashing, more variety is longed for, and rewards could be made more generous, and with a little luck we’ll see these in the near future. Until then, unless you’re absolutely desperate to experience ‘space-legs’, it might be worth holding off on the Odyssey upgrade.

The post Elite Dangerous: Odyssey Review appeared first on THUMBSTiX.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition brings all three games together into one neat package, giving you access to all three titles from a single screen. For newcomers to the Mass Effect you play as Commander Shepard, their story and appearance are defined by you. You and your crew are out to protect the galaxy from the Reapers from commiting galactic genocide.

The story still stands up brilliantly and as you play through Mass Effect 1 you’ll build a huge understanding of all the different species that coexist and the tensions that have bubbled up between the different factions. You’ll learn all of this through conversations aboard the Normandy and CIA the various missions you undertake. As you expect there is a main set of missions but there is plenty to enjoy through the different side quests that appear through scanning planets and talking to people on the citadel.

Generally the upgrade to the graphics is impressive, even in the first game, although the character models are let down by the lifeless animations. This all improves as you move through the other games of course. The various planets you visit look that much more interesting, the cutscenes are smooth and detailed and the whole experience is a big improvement.

The gunplay is still good and spending on what sort of character you have created your biotic abilities are still great to experiment with. As you move through 2 and 3 that gameplay improves, especially as it becomes easier to direct your squad in battle. Getting a mix of abilities in your squad allows you to create combinations, for example having a biotic character that can throw a group of enemies in the air so the other two in the squad can shoot them down like clay pigeons never gets old.

The various enemies you come up against are intelligent for the most part, although you’ll still come across opponents who get stuck or won’t move from their position. Some of the larger enemies are great to go up against and Saren, the major villain is an excellent opponent.

The Mass Effect series is all about the relationships, sometimes you are relieving tensions between the different alien races and other times you are helping your fellow humans.As you level up Shepard you’ll unlock new conversation arcs and depending on whether you play as a good guy/role model or a Badass who doesn’t care what people think the different characters you meet will react to you in different ways. As you play through ME2 you’ll learn a lot more about the characters you first met in ME as well as meeting some excellent new people that you’ll go on one hell of a journey with. Some you’ll get on with , some you won’t but that’s the beauty of the excellent dialogue and choices you are forced to make.

Load times are much improved, though it’s sort of spoiled because you have to load the game to a main menu where you then have to select which game of the three you want to play.

The post Mass Effect Legendary Edition review appeared first on THUMBSTiX.

Lost Words: Beyond the Page

Release Date – April 7^th

Platforms – Stadia, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam

Twitter – @LostWordsGame

An atmospheric narrative adventure written by Rhianna Pratchett. Set between the pages of a diary and a fantasy story where you run on words and use them to interact with the world around you.

Cozy Grove

Release Date – April 8^th

Platforms – iOS, Switch, PC, Xbox or PlayStation

Twitter – @CozyGrove

Welcome to Cozy Grove, a game about camping on a haunted, ever-changing island. As a Spirit Scout, you’ll wander the island’s forest each day, finding new hidden secrets and helping soothe the local ghosts. With a little time and a lot of crafting, you’ll bring colour and joy back to Cozy Grove.

Say No! more

Release Date – April 9^th

Platforms – PC, Nintendo Switch, and iOS

Twitter – @SayNoMore_Game

SAY NO! MORE is the world’s first NPG (NO!-Playing Game). Play as an intern with a burning desire to say NO! to everything and everyone. Customize your character, say NO! in different styles and languages, clap back at mean colleagues and change the world!

Wave Crash

Release Date – March 11^th

Platform – Microsoft Windows and macOS

Twitter – @flyover_games

A puzzle game that packs a punch! Match blocks to send waves at your opponent! Dodge their waves or crash them head-on to survive. Unleash unique super attacks and explosive Hype Mode to tip the scales. It is a back-and-forth struggle for arcade puzzling dominance!

Emily is Away 3

Release Date – April 16^th

Platforms – Steam

Twitter – @KyleSeeley23 @emerz35

Emily is Away <3 is a brand new story set on an old-new social media. Sign up for Facenook, send some friend requests, and choose your way through the branching narrative.

Emily <3 strives to tell a story that can only be experienced on Facenook. Interact with friends via wall posts, poke wars and of course, cryptic statuses. Customize your profile and see how other characters react. Chat with multiple friends both new and old. Everything you do will help determine the outcome of your senior year.

Don’t Forget Me

Release Date – April 20^th

Platforms – PC, Mac, and Linux

Twitter – @TheMoonPirates

A jazz-punk adventure game with a twist. Don’t Forget Me is a new breed of puzzle game. Dive into the memories of your patients, use your own observations to unwrap their minds and uncover a dark conspiracy set to claim dominion over humanity.

Buildings Have Feelings Too!

Release date – April
Platform – Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One
Twitter – @MergeGamesLtd

Buildings Have Feelings Too! is an exciting new city management game about buildings and the city they inhabit. You must grow your city to a bustling metropolitan centre with an array of shops, offices, entertainment facilities and amenities, to help your buildings thrive; or risk them being demolished…

The post Indie Roundup April 2021 appeared first on THUMBSTiX.

In Click and Collect, you’ve been hired as a Customer Service Assistant to serve customers as they enter your store, handing them boxed items from the conveyer belt before they fall off and break, stuffed toys from shelving, and jewellery from a display counter.

You’ll need to stay alert and keep your wits about you to provide customers with the correct order while avoiding hazards such as fires, puddles, thieves, electrical malfunctions and your manager, as well as overcoming surprise special challenges that really push your management skills and reactions. All in an attempt to score three stars in each level.

Serve enough customers and you’ll be rewarded with in-game currency to buy Assists to aid you with the hazards, allowing you the opportunity to retry levels and earn the maximum three stars for each, unlocking more challenging levels.

Once you’ve conquered the sixteen standard levels, four Endless levels unlock to test your reactions and management skills further.

Can you keep your calm and manage customer orders effectively enough to earn all three stars on each level?

Click and Collect will be available for Android via Google Play and PC via Itch.io from Thursday February 18 2021.

You can follow Peacock Pie Productions on Twitter to learn more: https://twitter.com/PeacockPieProd

The post Click and Collect announced for PC and Android appeared first on THUMBSTiX.

Nuts

Release date – February 4^th
Platform – Apple Arcade / Steam / Switch
Twitter – @NoodlecakeGames

Gear up your research caravan, boot up your GPS, spread out your map and head for the depths of Melmoth Forest. As a rookie field researcher, you’ll place cameras during the day, and watch the footage at night, tracking the movements of a scurry of squirrels.

Where do they hide their nuts? What puzzling routes do they take? And why do they behave so strangely?

Detours

Release date – February 10^th
Platform – Steam

It is time to move across the country, and the only person with a car is your ex-partner. Suck up your pride and play through your trip and relationship’s road bumps, obstacles, and detours. Witty dialogue and moments of quiet, human connection are interspersed on a trip that reflect the oddities and struggles of Midwestern drives.

Little Nightmares II

Release date – February 11th
Platform – PC / Nintendo Switch / Xbox One / PS4 / PS5 and Xbox Series S/X later in the year
Twitter – @LittleNights

Little Nightmares II is a suspense-adventure game in which you play as Mono, a young boy trapped in a world that has been distorted by the humming transmission of a distant tower.

With Six, the girl in a yellow raincoat, as his guide, Mono sets out to discover the dark secrets of The Signal Tower and save Six from her terrible fate.

But their journey will not be straightforward as Mono and Six will face a gallery of new threats from the terrible residents of this world.

Will you dare to face this collection of new, little nightmares?

Wave Crash

Release date – February 13th
Platform – Microsoft Windows / macOS
Twitter – @flyover_games

A puzzle game that packs a punch! Match blocks to send waves at your opponent! Dodge their waves or crash them head-on to survive. Unleash unique super attacks and explosive Hype Mode to tip the scales. It is a back-and-forth struggle for arcade puzzling dominance!

LATE ENTRIES – JANUARY

SuchArt: Creative Space

Release date – January 21^st
Platform – Microsoft Windows
Twitter – @SuchArtGame

What would you do if you were provided with your very own art studio? SuchArt: Creative Space gives you an opportunity to find that out!

Let your imagination run wild and paint whatever you want, complete commissions, decorate the studio with your art and furniture, buy tools and experiment with them – you’ve got 3 rooms and an infinite amount of time, and only you decide how to handle them!

Rain City

Release date – January 22^nd
Platform – Steam / Nintendo Switch / PlayStation 4

Rain City: a city where rain always pours. This puzzle game features warm, picture book-like graphics and a story with lifelike animals.

The game begins with the main character, a cat, who embarks to Rain City to find his sister. The story is both bizarre and exciting making players get lost in a mushroom field, search for a secret passage, and run experiments in a laboratory. The reason rain continues in Rain City is uncovered when players find his missing sister…

Players control the main character to look for his sister in the city. The story moves along while meeting various characters, gathering information, solving puzzles, and clearing minigames. There are elements that test skills including memory and observation, and the many items that appear add to its appeal to the game.

The picture book-like graphics and the story about animals who live like humans will draw you in to the world of Rain City.

Tiny Lands

Release date – January 22^nd
Platform – Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows
Twitter – @Hyper3Studio

Have you ever played the old puzzle games in which you had to find all the differences? Well… Tiny Lands uses the basic concept of this idea, but with a new twist.

TOHU

Release date – January 28^th
Platform – Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh operating systems
Twitter – @Fireartgames

TOHU is a brand-new adventure game set amongst a world of weird and wonderful fish planets. Explore beautiful environments and solve intricate puzzles as a little girl, joined by her mechanical alter-ego, Cubus. Together they will discover the truth about themselves and the mysterious Sacred Engine that powers their world.

The post Indie Roundup – February 2020 appeared first on THUMBSTiX.

At this stage the VR support is for PSVR only, but surely its only a matter of time before it comes to other headsets.

I won’t give any spoilers away, but I am really interested to see how the cliff-hanger plot twist at the end of the main campaign of Hitman 2 is resolved. Unfortunately, the multiplayer “ghost” mode has been removed from this game entirely, so this time around there is no competitive player vs player action to be had.

Hitman 3 is the best place to play every game in the World of Assassination trilogy. All locations from the previous two titles can be imported and played within Hitman 3 at no additional cost for existing owners – plus progression from Hitman 2 is directly carried over at launch.

Hitman 3 is the third, and last in the World of Assassination trilogy and is released on January 20th 2021 for Xbox, Playstation and PC. It features six new locations such as Dubai, Dartmoor, Berlin, and Chongqing.

For more information, please visit the official website.

You can read my review of Hitman 2 right here!

The post Hitman 3 comes to VR appeared first on THUMBSTiX.