When I spoke to Obsidian studio design director Josh Sawyer earlier this year, I got his take on the apparent ultimate victory of turn-based combat over real time with pause (RTWP), as well as why he thinks turn-based fell off in the first place.This begged the question: With both Baldur's Gate 3 and Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity games serving as successors to the original, RTWP Baldur's Gates, how was Larian...

The first patient I killed was a mistake. A burly fellow named Victor Harlow walked into my surgery complaining about fatigue, but I was distracted by the little pig popping in and out of my cuckoo clock. This isn't a euphemism for anything—there really was a small pink pig where the cuckoo should have been.Anyway, I downed an entire bottle of laudanum and the pig went away. I gave Victor...

Free-running zombie survival extravaganza Dying Light is 10 years old this year, a fact that my rapidly rotting brain simply refuses to accept. Developer Techland is determined to hammer the news home though, dedicating an entire year to anniversary celebrations. Back in January, the developer gave away its first DLC for the game in four years. Now, it has given the game a big lick of graphical paint in what...

Two Point Museum is already one of the most enjoyable management sims I've played, spinning its theme down some wonderfully silly avenues that let you curate exhibitions of ghosts and giant carnivorous plants. Now, publisher SEGA has announced an expansion that will add another range of bizarre artifacts to discover and display, this time with the theme of swords, sorcery, dragons and quite possibly dungeons too.The Fantasy Finds DLC adds...

I missed Atari's announcement that it's bringing back Fatal Run, a post-apocalyptic racer released when Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome was still a relatively new film. Not that I was eagerly anticipating it—Fatal Run was only released in Europe during the death throes of the Atari 2600, so it isn't exactly a world-renowned phenomenon. According to Fatal Run's Wikipedia, Retro Gamer reflected upon it back in 2016. They claimed the best...

Angsty Icelandic hiking simulator Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 will get an enhanced edition in August, adding yet more graphics to Ninja Theory's visually stunning, mechanically wanting sequel. But it also brings back one of the more controversial features from the first game, namely, the icky black rot that crawled up Senua's arm each time she died."The Dark Rot from Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice has returned and offers an additional challenge for...

Following a week of online criticism, world's-most-popular-YouTuber MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, has removed a new generative AI tool from his Viewstats platform, a suite of tools made to "help creators grow YouTube channels."Available as part of an $80/month package, the AI tool promised to "generate viral thumbnails" and received some positive reactions, but also a thunderingly negative response from those who view generative AI use as wasteful, tacky, and unethical.In...

Unlike the creator of Balatro, I haven't 100% completed Balatro, but I'm still kinda done playing Balatro for the time being—at least until the creator of Balatro delivers Balatro 1.1, which will infuse Balatro with more Balatro.In the meantime, I'm on the hunt for some new roguelikes to wile away my life with—as long as those roguelikes have a heavy dose of Balatro in them, of course.There have been a...

Phasmophobia's Chronicle update added even more spooky sounds and voices for ghosts to make, but what good is that with no audible evidence to sell at the end of a contract? Fortunately, the patch also reworked how the Journal records and reports media, leading to the introduction of a new Phasmophobia tool, the Sound Recorder.I tinkered with it in my Phasmophobia update preview and found just working up the nerve...

Before a recent interview with Obsidian studio design director Josh Sawyer, I was tasked with a crucial mission by a different games industry Josh. PCG news writer Joshua Wolens wanted Josh the Elder's take on the apparent final victory of turn-based combat over real time with pause, as represented by recent hits like Baldur's Gate 3, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.A quick definition for those who are less...