Month: October 2024

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Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred will continue a Diablo tradition of letting you recruit a team of mercenaries to help you slash through hell. A shieldbearer, scoundrel, berserker, and a literal demon are teased in the latest trailer that debuted during the Gamescom Opening Night Live stream.

Details on the mercenaries are still fairly sparse, but each of them neatly fits into an archetype that synergizes with Diablo 4’s existing classes. The shieldbearer, for example, holds up a magical barrier over a necromancer as they’re surrounded by monsters. Some of the mercenary’s skills mirror ones players have been using in the game already, like the berserker lady’s ability to yank monsters toward her with ropes that look very similar to the barbarians’ steel grasp.

I can already see a dozen ways the mercenaries will supplement existing builds. Sorcerers who frequently freeze packs of demons would surely love to have a demon child who can launch a wave of fire toward them as a follow up. And as someone who never plays barbarian, I’ll gladly hire a buddy to taunt and whirlwind through enemies for me.

The trailer is too brief to get into what kind of ways we’ll be a…

Bay 12 and Kitfox have released a new preview for Dwarf Fortress’ upcoming revamped adventure mode, the classic top-down RPG side of the famous colony builder slash fantasy world simulator. The preview itself focuses on the combat menus and actions, with Dwarf Fortress creator Tarn Adams taking the viewer through the basics of the UI and how it works.

The preview shows off a party of three adventurers—Dwarf, Human, and Wombat-Man—out to battle a camp of goblin bandits harassing local trade.

Of especial interest for those entertained by how detailed Dwarf Fortress is would be the menu for wrestling, popping up at about six minutes, that shows off a pretty exhaustive list of things to grab on the bad guys. Normal stuff like their hand, their weapon, and the like of course, but also very, very specific things. Things like the individual fingers, for example, or perhaps specific teeth. Nothing like ripping out a goblin’s molars to start your day.

On a more serious note the preview also shows how you control your team in tactical mode, where you’re able to give each member of an adventuring party orders and have them play out at the same time. It seems p…

GOG is giving away Sigma Theory: Global Cold War, a strategy game set in a future where global superpowers compete over technological advances by sending agents and drones around an XCOM-style hologram of the globe. It’s a game of turn-based espionage that lists Tropico, Armello, Civilization, Plague Inc. and the board game Pandemic among its inspirations.

Sigma Theory was designed by Mi-Clos Studio, the creators of the Out There series, which is reflected in its regular transformations into a choose-your-own-adventure game—when you’re commanding agents in the field, for instance. Each of those agents comes from a selection of 50 named spies, all with their own backstory and personality traits that influence how well they perform and suggest which course of action you should tell them to take when being chased through the streets or trying to hijack secret documents.

There’s also diplomacy and research, with tech trees that might unlock hypnotic indoctrination, combat robots, accurate prediction of the stock market, alternative energy sources, or straight-up immortality. The Sigma Theory of the title is a scientific breakthrough that makes all this possible, pu…

At a press event following the Xbox showcase on Sunday, head of game partnerships Sarah Bond announced that the PC Game Pass library is soon going to be available as part of Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service. Just a few months ago, we called GeForce Now’s new ultimate tier (which streams cloud games from systems outfitted with beefy new RTX 4080s) one of the most effective and affordable ways to upgrade your gaming experience.

“In the coming months, you’re going to be able to play your PC Game Pass catalog leveraging GeForce Now,” Bond said. “You’re going to be able to do that on all the devices where GeForce Now is: low-power PCs, or Macs, or Chromebooks.”

A post on the Xbox website adds a bit of an asterisk to that quote, however, noting that “Game Pass members will soon be able to stream select PC games from the library through Nvidia GeForce Now.” There’s no indication of how many games “select” encompasses. The announcement expands on an Xbox-Nvidia partnership launched in May, with first-party Xbox PC games available on the streaming service.

GeForce Now currently lets you stream a selection of games you own via your Steam library through deals Nvidi…