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Dark Souls is known for its punishing difficulty just like its big brother, Demon’s Souls. Set in the fictional town of Lordran, Dark Souls sees the player traveling to this forgotten land infested with gargoyles, wraiths, and all kinds of nightmare inducing creatures. The new trailer that Bandai Namco shared this morning showcases a shiny new coat of paint and a few of the monstrous bosses that lurk in the shadows. You can take a look at it below, if you dare.

I tell ya, May 25th cannot get here soon enough. That’s the day that the highly anticipated Dark Souls: Remastered hits store shelves for the PS4, Xbox One and PC. Just to whet the appetites of long-time fans, Bandai Namco has released a new trailer that gives you just a little taste of what this remaster has to offer.

A very cool thing that Bandai Namco and Steam is doing will allow PC players that have purchased the Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition to receive a 50% discount on DS:R. And if you would rather play the game on a PS4 or Xbox One, you can now pre-order the game so that you can download it as soon as it goes live in each console’s digital marketplace. Just as a reminder, on May 8th, the Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition will be removed from Steam and only those that have previously purchased it will still be able to re-download and play it.

Just to make sure that the game runs as it should on launch day, Bandai Namco plans to hold a network test for PS4 and Xbox One versions. A date and time for the network test hasn’t yet been revealed, but the publisher promises to share those details ASAP.

Switch fans, don’t think that Bandai Namco has forgotten about you, because a version of the game is also in development for Nintendo’s very popular console. It was also originally planned to be released on May 25th but the developer From Software is taking a little more time to get the game to run a little smoother on the handheld console and will release it in the summer. In addition, the Solaire of Astora Amiibo has been delayed, as well as the Switch network test.

For those that are as big of Destiny fans as I am, you know that the team at Bungie has really been dropping the ball on Destiny 2. That’s why we should be excited to see the answers to some of the game’s problems with the upcoming DLC. Join the developers from Bungie and Vicarious Visions as they reveal the second downloadable content release for Destiny 2, titled “Warmind”.

The stream begins at 10AM Pacific Standard Time and can be watched on Twitch HERE.

If you’d like to watch the trailer for the upcoming DLC, that an be viewed on YouTube below:

Those of you who enjoy bathing in the warm glow of nostalgia, listen up. As of right now, an official release date for Four5Six Pixel and Huey Games’ retro arcade space shooter Hyper Sentinel has been announced: the game will be launching on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on May 11th. It’s a trip down memory lane, a step backward into the Good Old Days; hell, it’s a painful reminder that I am way too young to remember when gaming looked like this.

Here’s a luridly coloured and unavoidably cringey trailer for you old people to enjoy:

If Phil Connors died every 60 seconds, only to wake up again the next day to the sounds of Sonny & Cher blaring on the radio, Groundhog Day wouldn’t be a very good movie. But Minit does just that, minus the “I’ve got you babe’s” and the self-improvement plotline and it manages to be a refreshing, if short, addition to the adventure game roster. From publisher Devolver Digital, and developed by Jan Willem Nijman, Kitty Calis, Jukio Kallio and Dominik Johann, Minit puts you in the unfortunate shoes of a duck billed adventurer, who happens upon a cursed sword that kills him every 60 seconds. Players must navigate Minit’s stark, monochromatic landscape, searching for the factory that is producing these swords en masse in hopes of shutting them down, lest any more of the whimsical denizens of the world fall prey to its sinister magic.

I will admit, the 60 second gimmick had me balking at first. I didn’t understand how a game with such a rigid time constraint could be fun, and instead went into it assuming (I know, I know… what an ass, right?) that I would end up frustrated and disappointed. This was even despite the fact that one of my favorite games of all time, Majora’s Mask, was also based around a similar time-looping, change the past to fix the future mechanic, because I (arbitrarily) figured that three days was an acceptable time limit. I mean, what can you get done in a minute?

A lot, apparently.

I write this review a humbler person, now knowing that Minit is fully aware of how short those precious 60 second intervals are and has taken steps to ensure that the “I live, I die, I live again” cycle stays novel. My first concern was addressed right from the get go, in that certain things you change and goals you reach persist past your death. This isn’t your traditional Groundhog Day rotation after all, since instead of falling asleep at the end of the day, you die when the clock hits zero. Sure, the crabs you kill respawn and the boxes you moved move back, but any progress you made in the actual story line of the game stays progressed. This removes one major stressor and introduces immediately that the purpose of the time constraint in Minit isn’t to punish its players, but to add a new dimension to the puzzle solving aspect of your traditional adventure title, in the same way A Link Between Worlds allowed you to merge with your surroundings.

My second concern was addressed soon after this discovery, when I made my way to the desert and discovered an abandoned campsite. I entered the trailer with a measly ten seconds to spare, the clock ticking down louder and my poor adventurer starting to sweat in anticipation of his very timely death, when I was notified that my home base had changed. I then died and respawned in the trailer, closer to the area I needed to explore and no longer on the fringes of my time limit. Minit employs multiple checkpoints just like this one throughout the world which are integral to your progress, making it clear to players that each section of the map is its own microcosm of puzzles, narrowing the scope of the game and making it more manageable.

Its also worth noting that Minit never tells you more than you need to know. If you receive a coffee cup that lets you push around heavy objects, a line of text will appear on screen until you use that skill for the first time but even then, there’s no explanation as to how to use it or where or why. When you find the sword and discover it’s cursed, a helpful delivery man tells you to go to the factory and complain to management, and that’s it. You need to find out where that is, how to reach it and what to do once you’ve arrived. This is a game that doesn’t hold your hand, but neither does it leave you in the lurch. There were only a handful of times in which I got stuck, and that was either due to not having explored previous areas thoroughly enough or my own lack of focus, not any fault in the game. Minit seems to pride itself on just how accessible it is, despite the aforementioned time constraint, and its difficulty really boils down to how quickly you can get into the rhythm of dying, respawning and memorizing the map.

Minit is not a long game, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it feels just long enough to afford players the chance to explore and enjoy the core mechanics of the game without them growing stale. While there are a few puzzles that are built specifically with the 60 second time limit in mind, after the midway point they start to taper off, and thankfully the game finds a satisfying end before the schtick gets old. One particular moment, which was honestly so cute and clever it sold me on the game almost immediately, starts with an old man by a lighthouse and relies on the time constraint as not only a function of the game itself, but as an intrinsic piece of the puzzle you are trying to solve. I won’t go into detail for those of you who haven’t played the game, but it takes the hectic pacing inspired by the ticking clock and turns it on its head, forcing players to really take into account how time functions as a mechanic to be utilized within Minit in a really funny way.

That being said, for $10 US ($13 Canadian) it feels really short. This may benefit the story, and it definitely saves the game from feeling like a kitschy one-trick pony, but there is little if any replay value in exchange for the price tag. I got most of the secrets and power-ups on my first play through (a benefit of getting lost and wandering through puzzles only tangential to the main storyline), and I still spent at most two hours in game. There is a new game plus option upon completion, and you can go back and play through your old save if you feel you missed something, but to be honest, I didn’t want to. I felt that I got the most I was going to get from Minit the first time around, which is not a detriment to the game in itself. I do feel that for $13 I expect a little more meat on a video games bones, and since Minit would only be doing itself a disservice by extending its amount of gameplay, I feel the price could better reflect what you get out of the finished product as a whole. However, I also understand that people gotta eat and if $13 helps to create inspired little puzzlers like this one, that’s money even the cold-hearted miser in me can be convinced to part with.

In early Zelda-esque fashion, Minit boasts an endearing blend of “get the sword, go on the quest, slay the villain” adventure game with a cast of quirky characters very reminiscent of Undertale. From the security guard who wishes he could be a photographer, to the dude in the pub who wants to listen to “real” music (and we all know that guy) the NPC’s strewn throughout the world are charming and likeable, making it fun to explore and inspiring a desire to speak with everyone you meet. The plot is simple, short and sweet, with nothing more going on behind the scenes than necessary and when you finally come to the end of the game, it feels satisfying. You accomplished what you set out to do, and the rest is non-obligatory completion material: there if you want it, but nothing you need to bother with if you don’t.

The art style is simple black and white, with objects and characters a stark relief on a black screen, almost as if Space Invaders and Pokémon Red/Blue had a baby. Seemingly mirroring the minimalism that strikes through the heart of the game, players are left to decide for themselves how to interpret the cartoonish world of Minit in the same way we were left to our own devices on our first foray into Hyrule. Simple does not equal boring, does not imply laziness or a lack of substance, and coupled with how polished the game feels as a whole (due in part to the impressive group of developers at its helm, I’m sure), Minit stands as an example of what can be accomplished when a neat idea and a keen attention to detail run head first into each other.

Minit is available now across the board on PC, Xbox One and PS4, and I would recommend anyone (specifically those of you interested in game design) check it out. It’s a quick game that’s fun and interesting, casual enough that you can knock it out in a few hours with minimal difficulty and illustrates that a game doesn’t have to be all flash and pizazz to make an impression. Sometimes all you need is a hook and the means to apply it, letting the mechanics make up the substance, bells and whistles be damned.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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Those of you that love a good western shootout will need to get ready to draw. I’ve just come across some news of a new Switch release and it’s all about bringing out the cowboy (or girl) in you. Giving you the chance to have that all important old school saloon brawl, Wild Guns Reloaded is appearing on your Switch screens.

Are you tired of the Deviljho handing your ass to you on a platter? Had enough of the Springtime festivities? Well, I’ve got good news. As of today, Monster Hunter: World is playing host to a fearsome new Elder Dragon, in a limited-time event that introduces an enormous amount of new stuff. DLC season is well and truly underway, folks, and if you weren’t already excited now might be a good time to squeal like a frightened poogie.

Ahem. The newest addition to the Monster Hunter: World roster, Kulve Taroth, is the beast you’ll be tasked with defeating. She’s big, she’s golden, and she’s wearing a gown of molten metal; I’m not going to do her justice with words, so check out this trailer instead:

Enjoy deals up to 85% off in GOG’s newest slew of sales. Wish-lists are a great way to keep track of the games you want to play one day (or buy and never get to) and GOG is rewarding gamers with its current sale for keeping their lists stocked.

GOG has begun a sale on more than one hundred fifty of its top most wish-listed games by users.

Games taking the top spots are The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Game of the Year ($19.99), Planescape: Torment – Enhanced Edition ($6.59), and Baldur’s Gate II – Enhanced Edition ($4.99).

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt base game received a perfect 10/10 in our review, though the Game of the Year Edition also includes the highly regarded expansions Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine, which are sure to add tens of hours to your journey.

Grab these games and more before the sale ends April 23rd, 10 PM UTC.

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Well, this is fascinating … I appear to have found a game that is actually capable of doing more than one thing well. Unless they’re really masterful, when a development team tries to throw too many concepts into one game, they’re likely to end up with a colossal bloody mess. And yet I’m currently having fun with an early release of Lunarch Studios ‘ Prismata, a resource management game, a CCG and a board game. It’s like the holy trinity of strategy; getting two of these concepts to balance together properly is an achievement, but three is a minor miracle.

In the main campaign of Prismata the fun isn’t in summoning and fighting with solitary but wickedly powerful creatures but rather commanding swarms of relatively little ones. The strategy here isn’t “build big, hit hard,” but rather, “think smart, spend wisely.” If you go spending all your resources on big stompy units, you’ll get overrun and out-gunned in no time flat. Actually, thinking about it, the amount of resources powerful units cost, you’d probably be dead before you accrued enough to get off the ground.

You play a Swarmwielder. You’ve basically been sidelined and left in charge of the security of a little planet where nothing interesting ever happens. The problem comes when the planet’s robots contract a virus called VILE and go completely nuts. It becomes apparent that someone elsewhere is controlling them and they start attacking. Even your own AI assistant gets sick; the character that’s taken you through all your tutorials suddenly needs dismantling before she kills you. I can’t actually give you any spoilers because I don’t know what’s coming yet, either. The next chapter of the campaign isn’t out yet so I’m waiting to pick up more story beats as well. All I can say is that it’s humorous and really well written so I’m looking forward to seeing what’s coming next.

The campaign is expansive and offers a lot of fun for PVE fans.

You have a bank of blueprints. These are effectively your pool of cards.

It might look like there is a lot going on but this is actually a very intuitive game.

Defense has to be considered and calculated properly if you are to win.

A lot of thought and work has gone into making the story art interesting and colourful.

The 2018 Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo is in the books. Both comics and entertainment were in full swing again this year, and TVGB was right there catching the action. First, I want to get this out of the way by saying kudos to the organizers for rearranging the show floor this year, which featured gaming more at the center than it has in years past. Its prominence on the floor also meant that it was insanely packed at times, where attendees had to squeeze through bodies to get to what they wanted to see or play – which is not so different from walking around the show floor.

I Play Games (IPG) was back this year to bring gaming to the masses, both new and old school. Flat screens and CRT TVs were lined up on tables with every major console represented back to the 16-bit era. The Nintendo Switch also made its debut on the show floor this year! IPG always does an excellent job bringing together attendees to play games and take a break from perusing comics and attending panels. They also hosted a couple of tournaments, so there were even more reasons to hang around the area.

Do you remember Mutant Football League? Well it has officially made a comeback on both PS4 and Xbox One. Demos of the game were set up to test out the new version whose license had been dumped by EA when they took on the exclusivity of the NFL rights. My first impression was that MFL mixes in a heavy dose of NFL Blitz. Controls are easy enough and similar to what you’d expect in Madden, except that throw to Rob Gronkowski was actually to a mutant named Throb Brawnkowski. And yes, this game is riddled with mutant knock-off names for both players and teams. This seems to be a fun arcade style football game to play with friends, and fits the $20 price tag.

Magic: The Gathering had a big presence this year with tournaments happening all weekend. There were both amateur and league play going on, and I would have loved to have hung around for an entire day’s worth of Magic. A tabletop area was set up next door to the Magic area for those looking to sink an hour or two into trying out a new board game.

Wandering around the gaming area, I came upon some interesting looking pinball machines. When you are walking up to the Zen Studios PinballFX booth, it looks like these are actual mechanical pinball machines, but it quickly becomes apparent that this isn’t the case. These machines use flat panels and mechanical components to make it feel like you are playing the real deal. I jumped on and played a Marvel table that heavily featured the X-Men. The buttons and lever pulls respond to your every action, almost like the machine has a built in rumble pack feature. There was even a tilt button if you are into that. These machines feature over 50 pinball games, ranging from video game-specific boards like Skyrim and Doom to entertainment-specific boards like Family Guy. You can check out their info at blog.zenstudios.com.

Lastly, there was an VR arena set up near the autographing area. Knowing my motion sickness, I dared not enter the arena for fear of losing my lunch (that consisted of a pretzel with cheese because convention food is the pits). MassVR put up the arena and from pictures I’ve seen online and on their website, this looks like a really cool experience if you are in the Chicago area. Check our their info at massvr.com.

What was missing this year? Twitch not being there was noticeable. Their broadcast brought more excitement to the floor with tournaments and game demos. SyFy took up where Twitch left off, but there wasn’t anything there that centered around gaming. There are more than a couple Chicago game developers that were also absent. The indie developer scene in Chicago has always been active, but it would be nice to see BitBash or another group show up and represent. Understandably, this could be an expensive event for exhibitors, but the amount of exposure possible is astronomical. I’m okay with BitBash doing its own thing, but would love to see some representation at the biggest entertainment convention in the Chicagoland area. My guess is that it didn’t help that PAX East was going on simultaneously in Boston.

In the end, I still had a great time. I’ve also come to expect this level of gaming at C2E2. We’re lucky to have other smaller events mixed in the Chicago area so satiate the hunger, but let’s wait and see what’s in store for next year at C2E2 2019.

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Blades, brides, and bribes. No, it’s not a night out in the recesses of South East London: it’s the catchy tagline for Thrones of Britannia, a Total War spin-off that is sporting a new feature video packed with detailed exploration of the game’s more interesting mechanics. I’m not going to mess about here, folks. Check it out: