DominicTarason

@RTGX That's the best thing about a really good brawler. At the lower settings they're casual, mindless fun. The really good ones let you keep dialing things up until they're skill-based exercises in focus and precision, but still fair.

Also yes, I am aware that the demo trailer uses awful AI voice-acting. I place the blame for that purely on the publisher. The game itself has some really solid voicework, and the developers seem to be very artist-led.

I've been told (by an ex-Pathologic developer, even) that the lead gameplay designer on this made the Pathologic board game. This goes some way to explaining why the game is so mechanically weird. Anyone who would look at Pathologic and think 'yes, this is something you could play with friends at the table' is a sicko after my own heart.

@Katosepe Oh, these games take themselves very seriously. It's just that they're also completely bonkers sci-fi action stories. And that's what makes them so compelling, because they're delivered completely earnestly.

@DuckMadeOfMeat Yeah, it's very much in the vein of Capcom's arcade best - Aliens vs Predator, Dungeons & Dragons, etc. You can consistently 1CC those games with a bit of practice, as there's real depth to the combat, not just button mashing.

Streets Of Rage 4 comes very close too though. Again, fully doable even on the highest settings.

@yomavai It's not made with RPG Maker, but many of the art assets are straight from stock RPG sprite packs frequently used with it. I've seen a bunch of the enemies in other zero-budget RPGs. A bunch of the monsters are clearly meant to be Dragon Quest style 'facing the player' sprites, too.

A few pieces of bespoke art aside (by one of Vanillaware's artists, even), it's mostly made out of free or nearly-free scraps. And it's still one of my favorite games of the past decade.

@Darkstorm556

It's a great game! Flew under the radar because you can't really understand just how MUCH game there is until you've done at least two playthroughs, making different decisions and sometimes losing at key moments. I really cannot emphasize enough how it saves some of the most interesting plot branches for when you fail.

@topher6490 Those are just on Steam and very cheap. Currently 90% off, even! £1.69 for all three.

@JJtheTexan My version would look like Dynasty Warriors, only every enemy is Lu Bu.

@Titntin And we've got an archive of it, too!

https://www.steamhype.com/categories/steam-hype-weekly

@Bilstar The second game lets you join multiplayer directly through Steam - no fancy stuff needed. But it's still a bit cursed, UI-wise. Under the hood it really is the stock Quake engine being asked to do some freaky stuff.

@NathanUC Wherever humanly possible, I try to feature titles and details in the headline. I (and the rest of the crew, of course!) want to make this the kind of site that I'd love to read if I wasn't writing it.

I've been playing this one over the past few days and it is a TRIP. I honestly would recommend anyone just go in completely blind and feel their way around it.

Not to spoil too much, but:
There's more musical numbers than I expected.
It kinda reminds me of Mario 64 B3313... If you know, you know.
There is no such thing as a 'game over' in dreams.

@PanFriedSoup That fortunately is a completely different problem that doesn't have anything to do with adult content flagging - that's all on Valve. It's just dumb that people can stick 'psychological horror' on anything they don't like.

@Glassneedles The first new map for MGS4 just rolled out a few days ago - a port of Grozny Grad from MGS3. So yeah, the future's bright and sneaky.

@LanternNOH Ugh. Yeah, nobody likes being on the Discover feed. I've had it happen once and I got a week of the most boring responses imaginable.

@BenAV Yeah, it's built specifically for mouse and keyboard. You can always plug both INTO your Steam Deck.

Still, at lower difficulties I can see a Steam Input profile that uses the touchpads or gyro for the analogue stuff working. But higher levels are going to be demanding.

@Dodoo Always interesting to be compared to Edge! Also, I've written for them too a couple times.

@RazielReaver Oh, we're peasants here too, but it's a bit more egalitarian.

@RTGX Yep! It's one of the areas I want to expand this. But only so much time, and only one writer to go around. Any particular suggestions are always appreciated!

@Banjo- It's a matter of practicality for the most part. The vast majority of the money spent on PC games happens on Steam, although we'll mention deals on other sites when appropriate. But also Steam narrows things down enough so that we can possibly keep up with things. We've got one full-time writer (me!) and 100+ game releases EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Did you know that some days, Itch gets 5000+ from a single game jam? That's one day in gaming. Unless you've got the means to clone another fifty of me, that's a no-go for now.

Yep, this one's a living document and will likely grow far past 100 games. I just figured that was a nice round number to start on.

@Glassneedles MMOs in general might be something we tackle in time, but that's a very tall order to cover. I only play three on-and-off and I'm one full expansion behind on Final Fantasy XIV, almost three on Guild Wars 2 and who KNOWS how much more of Elder Scrolls Online I've got to dig into.

For the next roundup, I'm thinking something smaller. Literally. Like shmups.

@Glassneedles Oh, for sure - the high price tag is not surprising, but the lack of discount for owners of either earlier version stings.

But at least we know that it'll eventually go cheap. This publisher like their deep discounts on their back-catalogue.

@Glassneedles It was a combination of us doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work and doing less news than we'd normally be doing, combined with this week being ABSOLUTELY NUTS.

The roundups should get shorter once we're fully up to speed!

@Glassneedles Beyond Sunset's a good'un! It's just that there was only so much space here - this is a starter pack, not a definitive all-encompassing showcase of the genre.

@Glassneedles Such is the curse of being in my proximity. Just imagine how bad it is actually BEING me.

@Glassneedles Not available to BUY again, but there's PC ports of both Doom RPGs! And the Wolfenstein RPG, too.

Also Dungeons Of Dusk is coming out soon and is a tribute to those three! - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4176460/Dungeons_of_DUSK/

@Penguinpengy Yeah, if this were dedicated piece on Doom there'd probably be more engines mentioned, but UZDoom is the swiss army knife. Compatible with everything but a handful of maps that rely on hyper-specific quirks of other map formats. And most people aren't going to want to deal with more than one engine replacement - convincing them to get that one is enough work!

@Penguinpengy Congrats on finding Steam Hype early! We've only had the doors open for a few days now - a 'soft launch' to build some runway and a head of steam (pun shockingly not intended) before our full unveiling.

Thanks for being the first reader to comment! Feel free to hang out here, tell your friends and get cozy. We've still got plenty coming before our official launch.

@Penguinpengy Congrats on finding Steam Hype early! We've only had the doors open for a few days now - a 'soft launch' to build some runway and a head of steam (pun shockingly not intended) before our full unveiling.

Thanks for being the first reader to comment! Feel free to hang out here, tell your friends and get cozy. We've still got plenty coming before our official launch.