Considering the rather lengthy journey Wreckfest took from early access to full release, I was quite surprised to find that it has a sequel, Wreckfest 2, now also in Steam early access.

This sequel has the backing of THQ Nordic, which helped developer Bugbear finish the first game after an extended development period.

Like its predecessor, Wreckfest 2 is a no-holds-barred racing game very much in the vein of the classic Demolition Derby on the original PlayStation. With physics-based impacts, cars become twisted metal, and the circuits littered with wrecks and debris.Even as an early access game, I found Wreckfest 2 to be a bit sparse, content-wise, at launch. Of course, I’ve been spoiled by the original Wreckfest, which, although it started much the same way, is now a very polished and fully featured banger racing game.

A couple of months in and Bugbear has started to populate Wreckfest 2 with more circuits and cars. There are currently seven track locations to choose from, offering fourteen circuit variations. Fincross is a banger racing track available as a circuit and a reverse circuit. Savalax Sandpit is a quarry banger racing track, again, with a main circuit and a reverse circuit. European Rally Cross is a banger racing circuit.Speedway can be selected as an oval, figure eight or as a demolition derby arena. Scrapyard has a main route, demolition derby arena and a criss-crossing circuit called bonebreaker.

UK Banger 1 has an oval circuit, a figure eight circuit and a demolition derby arena. Finally, there’s an area called Testing Grounds with all sorts of ramps and devices that show off the game’s amazing physics.

From the above, depending on the circuit, players can select from straight-up banger racing and last man standing or deathmatch demolition derby events. The game has eight vehicles from American muscle through European compact to a motorhome.Vehicles can be painted to create custom looks. Like the tracks, the variety of cars is likely to continue to expand. There’s the option from the main screen to select a quick match and jump right in with a single-player race around the Savalax Sandpit circuit or select the custom race option and make your own single-player event. Multiplayer races can be selected either by matchmaking or the server browser. There’s no indication of ping or location on the server browser, but I never had a problem with latency.

The races are bound to make you smile with circuits designed to encourage absolute carnage. From the figure of eight layouts to lethal trackside detritus, players can find themselves in the middle of a pile-up at any minute.Other racers, as well, see no problem in pushing your car off the road. But revenge is sweet, via the guilty pleasure of giving your opponents a little tap that’ll see them careen off the road and into the tyre wall.

Just as with the original game, the physics and spectacle make the game. Be it the superb handling of the cars or the bouncing tyres and other objects spilling across the tracks, Wreckfest 2 is a rather unique racing experience.

The visuals on PC are next level, updating the graphics of the first game and bringing them in line with the virtually photoreal look expected of modern racers. The game uses AMD’s FSR 3.1.3 upscaling but has no Nvidia DLSS. The game did tax the review rig’s Nvidia RTX 4090, with all the settings maxed out when things got busy.There’s plenty of visual customisation options that’ll get the game running smoothly even on more modest machines. When Wreckfest 2 first hit early access, it was a bit lean, but now with more tracks, it’s worth jumping in.

As the game develops, we will likely see more tracks, more vehicles and hopefully a campaign mode. If you like the first game or racing games in general, I certainly recommend jumping in early with Wreckfest 2.

The post Wreckfest 2 (PC) Early Access Preview appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Ubisoft and Evil Empire announced that The Rogue Prince of Persia, a 2D action-platforming rogue-lite game, is available worldwide in Early Access on Steam.

The game is also available to play on GeForce Now service.

At the start, The Rogue Prince of Persia Early Access will include 6 biomes, 8 main weapons and 6 powerful tools, two boss encounters, as well as 30 trinkets for endless combinations to suit all playstyles.

Leading up to its full 1.0 launch, players can expect more content to arrive: new levels, bosses, weapons, enemies, and upgrades, as well as additions based on community feedback.

“I am extremely excited to show The Rogue Prince of Persia to the players, and I’m really looking forward to the game becoming not just ours, but a project between us and the community!” says Lucie Dewagnier, Game Director at Evil Empire.

In The Rogue Prince of Persia, players will be transported to a mythical version of Ctesiphon, once the thriving heart of the Persian Empire. The Prince must act as this grand city stands on the brink of annihilation since its invasion by the ruthless hordes of the Huns, commanded by the wicked chief Nogai.

Journeying through vibrant biomes, the Prince must deploy his full range of acrobatic talents to navigate safely across the procedurally generated levels, acquire and refine an arsenal of weapons, equip new trinkets, unlock new equipment at the Oasis, and gather allies to stand a chance in saving the city. To master the game’s platforming challenges, players will get to use the signature wall run, for seamless traversal over gaps, avoiding traps and outmaneuvering enemies. But the environment will not be the only peril players will have to face, as they will engage in combat with a variety of foes: the Huns, armed with dark shamanic magic, and the beasts tainted by this nefarious power.

The game’s soundtrack also plays a major role to immerse players into a modern and epic vision of Persian folklore with an original soundtrack produced and composed by ASADI, a Persian-American Electronic Music Producer and Performance Artist. The Rogue Prince of Persia’s Original Soundtrack is a fusion between traditional and modern sonorities, with rhythms supporting the moves and flow of the Prince.

The OST will be available on May 31  on Ubisoft Music, and all streaming platforms.

The post THE ROGUE PRINCE OF PERSIA RELEASED EARLY ACCESS ON STEAM appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Merge Games is excited to reveal the first official gameplay trailer for their open world, survival, online multiplayer, adventure game SMALLAND.

Arriving on PC in early access later this year. In addition to a brand new trailer reveal, Merge is delighted to announce that Smalland will be releasing on the Epic Games Store at the same time.

Epic users interested in playing in this giant world can wishlist Smalland right now.

Discover what became of the surface world as you and your comrades explore this vast open world. In Smalland players will be tasked with the expansion of their peoples’ territory across a wild, unforgiving, and ever-changing world where everything is overgrown by plant and animal life.

From the perspective of a tiny insect, players will experience life from the bottom of the food chain, foraging for resources from local flora and fauna to survive.

Players will climb skyscraper-sized trees, build rudimentary shelters (at the start), craft powerful armor with unique abilities, complete quests to aid their people, and discover seemingly abandoned locations now reclaimed by nature.

SMALLAND will have its next beta round at the end of July 2021. People hoping for the chance to participate should go to the official Smalland Discord.

SMALLAND is set to launch into early access this year on Steam and Epic.

The post SMALLAND Resurfaces With a New Gameplay Trailer appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

There are now enough first person shooters that ape the aesthetics, gameplay and level design of mid 1990s shooters that they have been given the somewhat-derisive nickname of “boomer shooters.”

I have looked at a number of these titles, praising them for resurrecting mechanics, design considerations and aesthetics lost in the transition to more cinematic experiences pioneered by titles such as Medal of Honour and Call of Duty.

3D Realms has been at the forefront of this revival, with previous hit Ion Fury (nee Ion Maiden) taking on the Duke Nukem-style heritage. Now, they are back with the first sections of Graven, a spiritual sequel to the legendary Hexen II.

The setup to Graven is relatively simple.

You are a priest, outcast from society, and find yourself in a slowly-disappearing town in the dark swamp. With only the vaguest of directions, you are set upon a cursed world where you will use magic, swords and an assortment of other unique weapons to take down the terrors devouring the landscape.

The fantasy setting for Graven is straightforward, though does leave an impression.

In this initial early access release there isn’t much to do in town or to people interact with, except for the slightest of conversation to set you down a path into the first few areas. Instead, what strikes you is the visual style – a unique mix of PS1-era graphics with modern lighting techniques and gameplay accommodations. Out of all of the boomer shooters I have played, Graven has what I feel is the best mix between the old and the new (though Amid Evil’s ray tracing update certainly is impressive on the right hardware).

At early access launch, the game contains four quests to complete, which took me about 2.5 hours to finish up.

It isn’t a huge amount of content, but does cover a number of large areas and puzzles. It slowly introduces new weapons and mechanics, and by the end I felt I had a decent range of capabilities that gave me a bit of an insight into what to expect in the full game.

In Graven you’ll have to switch it up between melee and ranged combat relatively frequently, and with this comes strategic decisions about which enemies to take out in which order.

I did have a number of issues with the game at launch, but happily since finishing the early access content and writing up this piece, the developers have gone back and addressed nearly all of them, and the team seems to be genuinely looking at playing feedback and impressions when considering further refinements.

For example, the Discharge spell has been added back to the game after making an appearance in an earlier public demo of the game on Steam.

As with all these early access games, how the final product evolves is still to be seen. So far, this has been a small but intriguing taste of what the full game may offer.

Wide environments, environmental puzzles and metroidvania style gating of progression all come together to make for a very different type of shooter than most on the market today.

Excellent entries such as this is why boomer shooters have had a marked resurgence, and why I am excited for Graven’s future.

The post Graven Early Access Impressions (PC) Preview appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Last Friday aired another information-packed Resident Evil Showcase program including new information on the upcoming highly anticipated survivor horror title Resident Evil Village.

In addition to a new trailer with gameplay footage featuring new enemies and areas of the mysterious village, Capcom confirmed the popular “The Mercenaries” game mode returns with added features in Resident Evil Village.

Capcom also confirmed details for the limited time demo coming to all platforms on May 2nd 2021 with PlayStation players getting early access available now. Celebrations marking the Resident Evil 25th anniversary this year also continued with new ways to experience the franchise across several content partners.

The latest trailer for Resident Evil Village pulls fans deeper into the enigmatic locale with a peek at the diversity of environments and enemies players will encounter.

New footage provided clues to an immense underground factory possibly mass producing humanoid creatures, and a vast man-made lake barely concealing what appears to be a colossal aquatic monster.

The mysterious man from the January Resident Evil Showcase is revealed to be Heisenberg. Though his name is now known, his role remains unclear in protagonist Ethan Winters’ quest to find his daughter. Series veteran Chris Redfield also makes an appearance with questionable motives, creating more mystery as to what his role is.

The heart-pounding action does not stop once Ethan’s story concludes.

The fan-favorite game mode, “The Mercenaries,” makes its much requested return with rich content and rewards, providing variety and replayability beyond the main gameplay in Resident Evil Village.

Players must complete increasingly challenging objectives before the clock runs out in this additional game mode, which is unlocked by completing the main campaign.

The Duke merchant from the main game appears in the mode, offering weapons and upgrades to help tackle the challenges. Additionally, players can acquire abilities that enhance their weapons or physical abilities. It will be up to each player to strategize which load out will be the most effective for each objective.

Intrepid players are invited to get an early taste of the action-packed horror that awaits when Resident Evil Village launches on May 7th 2021.

Players can explore the village and castle areas of the game for up to 60 minutes in a limited time demo for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Steam and Stadia. This multiplatform demo will be accessible for 24 hours starting May 2nd 2021 at 8:00 PM AEST , with a pre-load option already available.

In advance of the multiplatform demo, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 players will have two early access opportunities, where they will have an 8-hour window to play 30 minutes for each section.

The first date will offer the village portion starting April 19th, 2021 at 3:00 AM AEST. A second date will offer the castle area starting on April 26th, 2021 at 3:00 AM AEST with a pre-load option already available.

The post RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE DEMO REVEALED appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Capcom’s genre-defining survival horror franchise reaches a monumental milestone today with the 25th anniversary of Resident Evil.

Over the years, the popular series has shipped more than 107 million units, introduced some of video games’ most iconic characters and gameplay systems, and transcended beyond games to become a cornerstone of entertainment.

The next hotly anticipated entry in the game series is coming soon with Resident Evil Village releasing worldwide May 7th, 2021 on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Steam and newly confirmed Stadia.

Ahead of the launch, Capcom confirmed a new Resident Evil Showcase digital event will be coming in April and announced details for an open beta test for the upcoming multiplayer experience Resident Evil Re:Verse.

New game details will be revealed in a new Resident Evil Showcase digital event in April, giving fans a look at what’s in store for them when Resident Evil Village launches on May 7th, 2021.

The Resident Evil Showcase in January revealed information on significant new gameplay features and characters for Resident Evil Village as well as other brand updates, and the April event will follow suit with new game content and 25th anniversary news to share.

An all-star roster of fan favorite heroes and bioweapons come together to celebrate 25 years of Resident Evil in the upcoming multiplayer experience Resident Evil Re:Verse.

In Resident Evil Re:Verse, players start as human characters, hunting each other and collecting virus vials scattered across the map. When they are taken out, they resurrect as bioweapons to enact revenge. The more vials they collect, the stronger their bioweapon transformation will be – it will be up to each player to strategize between vial collection and a full-on offensive strategy. This thank you to fans will be available for free for those who purchase Resident Evil Village.

Today Capcom announced PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam players can participate in an open beta test for Resident Evil Re:Verse taking place April 7th at 23:00 h PDT / April 8th 07:00 h BST / 08:00 h CEST / 16:00 h AEST, through to April 11th at 22:59 h PDT / April 12th 06:59 h BST / 07:59 h CEST / 16:59 h AEST.

Players who participated in the earlier closed beta test and still have the game installed on their hardware can play via a game update once the open beta is live. New players will be able to pre-load the open beta content starting April 5th, 2021.

All open beta participants will need a registered Capcom ID to play.

The post RESIDENT EVIL TURNS 25 TODAY! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Open-world space combat game, Everspace 2 is now in early access for PC on Steam. We check it out.

Whilst still only in early access, Everspace 2 is already shaping up to be so much more than its predecessor. Whilst I found 2017’s Everspace fun to play, it wasn’t the open-world space game that I thought it would be. For Everspace 2, developer Rockfish have embraced the genre to bring us what could be a spiritual successor to Freelancer.

Everspace 2 plays a bit like a less complex and more immediately rewarding Elite: Dangerous with the flight characteristics of a less pedantic No Man’s Sky. Really though, it’s neither of those open-ended games.

Early access only gives players a slice of what the full game promises, but it’s still a vast part of space. The mission-based gameplay requires players to fly from location to location across large distances. Locations are reached using the ship’s jump drive. It takes a little bit of time to travel to each new location, but nowhere near as long as it does in Elite: Dangerous. Once there, activating cruise quickly gets you to where you want to go. Then the controls become more akin to that of a regular shooter.

The game pacing is pretty good, with a nice mix of mission types. Whilst there’s a good amount of combat, some missions are more like puzzles, with players exploring installations and wreckage, unlocking puzzles, and retrieving items.

There are also plenty of ports and bases that players can use to patch up their ships, restock and purchase equipment. Some of these ports will have side-missions on offer.

The third-person view of your spaceship puts the game in arcade territory rather than that of a simulator, and I’m happy with that. Whilst I love Elite: Dangerous, it can get a bit mealy. Everspace 2 seems to rely less on a procedurally generated universe. The result is a more sculpted environment that offers players a hand-curated space adventure.

The visuals are clean and very polished. It would seem that by early access the developer means that the engine and gameplay has been refined to a release standard and that they are just working on content. If only some retail releases were this refined.

Even location in deep space features environmental effects with the light from distant suns silhouetting asteroids barely visible through celestial clouds. The locations look pretty stunning.

As well as locations on atmospheric planets, Everspace 2 has players visiting bases tucked away on the surface of asteroids and investigating giant wreaked space hulks. Even at this early stage, the developers have given players a fully-formed part of the galaxy to explore.

The various outposts and bases, along with the huge wreckages all look spectacular. The animations when landing and taking off look very cinematic, as do the cut-scenes with their Firefly / BSG-style use of focus.

The game has all the staples of a role-playing game. Players are tasked with upgrading their ships’ armaments and hulls by purchasing hardware, salvaging, or looting it from fallen enemies. The XP system unlocks perks that can also be applied to the ship.

The combat is slick, aided by smooth and easy-to-understand controls.The vast array of weapons and customisable load-outs makes encounters fun.

Credit must go to the collision detection. The game rewards pilots’ fancy flying by enabling them to traverse through debris and the wrecks, if skilled enough, without hitting invincible objects. The ships handle well with finely tuned and very responsive controls.

Enemies have a skill rating that needs to be watched else you get into a firefight that’s out of your league. You need to switch weapons to take out shields before pummelling their hulls to oblivion. With a bit of fancy flying and a few mines, I didn’t have too much trouble thinning the enemy squadrons when things started getting out of hand. A few times, though, I did find myself pursuing side quests and exploring to get some better equipment to get past a tricky situation.

The early access gives players about six hours of content if they burn through it. But there is a sizable area to explore. It should be noted that the game is currently in development. Savegames may not carry over to new versions, so there’s a good chance that you’ll lose all your progress at some point.

Everspace 2 is in pretty good shape for an early access game.

It’s actually more polished than some of the recent AAA releases of late. If you are a fan of the original or space combat RPGs, in general, you should check it out.

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The post Everspace 2 Early Access (PC) Preview appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

2020 has been a year of absolute horrors, and if you told me in advance that PlayStation having Early Access games was going to be a thing then I would have said that belonged right there.

Well that was until I started playing Temtem, and along with Immortals: Fenyx Rising this may be the best way to end this horror year.

Temtem is a Pokemon clone and, well, do you know what? I could probably finish the review there, 8 out of 10.

But seriously it is an unabashed Pokemon clone in so many ways, and despite Pokemon having two home console released games now on the Switch this may actually be the one we were waiting for. The gameplay is classic Pokemon through and through.

You create your character who is a Temtem trainer. You go to the professor’s lab to choose your starting Temtem. Then you head out to learn about the world of Temtem and start getting your catching on. There is a light story, but it is as paper thin as original Pokemon games, but it’s that gameplay loop that keeps you hooked.

You run around taming wild Temtem in tall grass by weakening them and throwing Temcards.  They have elemental strengths and weaknesses, and you heal your Temtem at  Temporiums. I mean I can go on and on about how much inspiration it has taken from Pokemon, but that is boring. How about what the game does better?

Your Temtem can have up to four moves equipped at a time, and battles are arranged with up to two Temtem on the field on each side at a time. The game already smokes Pokemon out of the water with one feature, the ability to switch your Temtems moves. Instead of having to forget a move when they learn a new one, in the menu you can swap all your learned moves in and out without having to track down some random guy on the map to remember old moves. It’s sooo good.

The other major feature Temtem has going for it is that instead of moves having a limited number of uses until you next find a recovery place, Temtem have a power meter for the moves they can use before they start damaging themselves to use an attack. Different moves use different amounts of exhaustion, and the bar refills for every fight.

The game is technically a MMO and you see other people walking around the world with you.  The interactions are limited with the exception of specific ways to have battles, but it’s a MMO lite. Temtem is fundamentally a single player game with people around, and that makes it kinda great.

The other thing that kicks ass is the complete lack of history. Because Pokemon iterations have a bunch of old Pokemon, you can’t help but look for ones you know. Temtem regains that feeling of total discovery. I don’t know what a Temtem is going to be like or evolve into until I try, and that is awesome.

Temtem is in Early Access and the game crashed plenty, but I never lost progress and I can’t see how they continue to enhance it. As it stands now this game is well worth checking out if you want to play a Pokemon clone on your PS5 as it is that pure simple JRPG fun that we have loved for so many years.

The post Temtem (PlayStation 5) Preview appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

What if you took Diablo, but made it multiplayer by default (how many play anyway) and 2D? That’s what Blightbound Unleashed is trying with this new game in early access.

Choose from a range of heroes to take part in online multiplayer dungeon crawling. With a gorgeous animation-style artwork, reminiscent of Darkest Dungeon, you run through levels taking down various actors of evil, collecting loot and eventually upgrading your hometown. Each hero has their own abilities, and they synergise well with each other, with more to come as development continues.

Played with either a controller or on a keyboard and mouse, this is a promising game that has the serious limit of needing three people to all play at once. Without an offline mode or drop in / drop out single-player online mode it seriously limits who, and when you can play this game.

At least in my region, at times it was impossible to find other adventurers online to play, so I hope this can be changed in the future, as I take it as a good sign that I wanted to play more.

The post Blightbound Unleashed (PC – Early Access) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Perfect World Entertainment and Echtra Games are excited to announce the Relic Subclass update, the highly-anticipated update that brings a revamp of the Relics system, is available now for Torchlight III in Steam Early Access.

The Relic Subclass update is the final major Early Access update prior to the light-hearted dungeon crawler’s official launch later this year on PC and consoles. With this update, it adds another dimension to character building by introducing a completely new and improved Relics system that includes a vast Relic skill tree, along with five powerful Relics, each with reworked Relic Activation skills. In addition, one of the Torchlight III Early Access community’s major requests, having additional skill slots, is included in this latest update as players now have nine total skill slots, all with controller support.

“When we first launched Torchlight III into Steam Early Access, we received great constructive feedback pertaining to skills, more specifically Relic system skills” said Max Schaefer, CEO of Echtra Games and co-founder of the Torchlight series “To make the most accessible and exciting Torchlight adventure yet for all ARPG fans, we’ve been working closely with the community to learn exactly how they’d like their adventure to be expanded on. The Relic Subclass update is a prime example of just that – as it delivers incredible base gameplay improvements that make hacking and slashing goblins even more fun than ever before.”

With the revamped Relics system, it provides a wide range of options for character-building, giving players the option to create an epic character that best fits their playstyle. After players select a class, they are able to choose their own unique Relic, a special item which has a powerful subset of both active and passive skills. With five powerful Relics to choose from that have their own unique elemental association and strengths — like “Bane,” which summons a cluster of spiders that cast forth volleys of deadly poison – players must choose a Relic wisely as once one is chosen, it permanently becomes a part of the player’s character build.

Torchlight III is the latest successor to the ARPG cult classics, Torchlight I & II, originally developed by Runic Games. This fast-paced dungeon crawler brings fans back to the beloved Torchlight universe to hack and slash their way through a brand new world filled with hordes of goblins, undead and other dangerous Netherim creatures. Adventurers can party up with friends or venture into the vast wilderness alone, where they will find loot, explore dungeons, collect epic gear and build their very own fort to show off to the world.

Torchlight III features four unique hero classes (Dusk Mage, Forged, Railmaster and Sharpshooter), plus a myriad of new and familiar combat pets to help players fight their way to fame and glory.

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