Metroidvanias, Metroid-likes, and Castlevania-likes are games that heavily feature non-linear exploration and cool discoveries that open up parts of an interconnected map. Otherwise known as good game design. A new Humble Bundle has now compiled seven great Metroidvanias for the low price of £12/$15, available here from now until June 20th.
]]>Developer The Game Kitchen first stealth-announced the sequel to their hard as nails Metroid-like Blasphemous back in 2021 to coincide with a free update for the original game. Now, though, after a long wait, we have the first proper trailer for Blasphemous 2 showing off tons of platforming action, unholy Catholic iconography, and other such sinful stuff. Take a look below, if you dare.
]]>Gruesome side-scrolling Metroidvania Blasphemous is a pixel art game where a burly man in a very pointy hat smacks the daylights out of unholy monstrosities, from Spanish devs The Game Kitchen. Now they’re back – the devs, not the monstrosities – with something a bit more than a game. It’s a VR platform for co-op board games called All On Board!, and its Kickstarter launches today. Have a 2D-looksie in the trailer below, but maybe mute it or you’ll have the song stuck in your head all day.
]]>Blasphemous has just received its third and final free content update, Wounds Of Eventide, which introduces new levels, bosses and much more. See it all in action in the brand new trailer, including a few hints about the upcoming sequel. Blasphemous is out now on Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store.
]]>The third and final big free content update for Blasphemous launched this morning, introducing new levels, bosses, and more. Named 'Wounds Of Eventide' (love a few wounds with my Catholocism), the update brings the story to a point that the upcoming sequel will pick up. Here, come watch the trailer to meet some of the new monsters, including a giant snake. No room for subtlety here.
]]>If you're a fan of roguelikes and metroidvanias (hello), then you might be pleased to know Dead Cells added a bunch of weapons, skins and skills from loads of good'uns. The Everyone Is Here update went live yesterday, bringing new challenges to Motion Twin's soulslike that will let you unlock characters from Blasphemous, Hyper Light Drifter, Guacamelee, Skul: The Hero Slayer, Curse Of The Dead Gods, and, most importantly (for me), Hollow Knight. Hooray for Hollow Knight content!
]]>The dark gods of survival horror smile on you this day, child. Resident Evil Village is out now, beckoning you into its township like a big church bell. But wait, before you go tip-toeing through the disturbing cabbage patches of these zombievamp wolfpeople, or whatever they are, please come this way. I have a map for you. An itinerary of other small settlements. Here are the 8 creepiest villages in PC games.
]]>The grim Catholic fantasy world of Blasphemous will get slightly more cheery and colourful with a free update bringing over Miriam, the kickwizard from Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night. Launching Thursday, the free 'Strife & Ruin' update will add a new mission to help her return home. It'll also bosh in a new Boss Rush mode and a retro-styled 'Demake' hidden area. Have a peek at it all in the new trailer, below.
]]>New storylines, new bosses, new NPCs, New Game+, new areas and even a new dog you can pet are what await you today in Blasphemous, because the Stir Of Dawn DLC has arrived. The Game Kitchen's excellent gothic metroidvania has absolutely tons of new stuff to get your hands on today, and it's all part of a free update that's available to download right now.
]]>The delightfully Catholic metroidvania Blasphemous will add New Game+ mode in a big free update on August 4th, developers The Game Kitchen have announced. Named 'True Calvary', for extra Catholicism, the NG+ mode will not only do the usual 'start a new game after beating it to continue with your old gear' dealio, but include a new quest line with new bosses and items. That's nice, that. Though for people who can't even beat it the first time, good news: the update will also bring changes include a new map and more fast travel points.
]]>The greasy realm of the videogame is not always the best place to look for good writing. For every Disco Elysium there are roughly 800 Detroit: Beyond Humans. But it is a good place to look for wondrous, over-the-top nonsense. I’m talking about character dialogue so flamboyant and exaggerated, you could insert some line breaks and it would instantly become a verse in a glam rock anthem. Here are the 12 most extravagant, exuberant, and intense lines of dialogue. In games, subtext is just whatever’s written on the side of the nuclear submarine.
]]>The yearly speedrunning event AGDQ is nearing its end but there are still a lot of PC runs to watch tomorrow, many of them new releases from 2019. The week-long winter edition of Games Done Quick is always fascinating even for older games with established speedrunning strategies. For new PC games, it will be a treat to see the earliest methods and discoveries that speedrunners have concocted.
]]>The winter half of the yearly charity speedrunning marathon Awesome Games Done Quick kicks off this Sunday, January 5th. Donations to Games Done Quick will benefit the Prevent Cancer Foundation. The week long marathon will cover a bunch of speedrunning mainstays along with some new additions from 2019.
]]>Game subscription services are everywhere these days but Humble Bundle have been doing this for a while. Their former service Humble Monthly is being replaced with the fresh-faced Humble Choice which comes with the ability to choose the games you get, but a higher price tag as well. The service launches today under its new name.
]]>Sorry, definition nerds. 'Soulslike' is a word now. Disgusting, I know, but this is how genres are made. Along comes a giant like Dark Souls that everybody won't stop bleating about and soon it has copycats. Before you know it, a swarm of games like Dark Souls with sparse checkpoints and lethal attacks are scuttling around, leaving slime trails and biting your ankles for surprisingly massive damage. Ugh, Soulslikes. But stoop low to appreciate these little monsters, and among them you'll find some very good games about dying.
]]>It's been a tiring week, viewers. Lying on the floor going "uuuugh" all weekend, instead of merely for most of it, was not enough to dispel the curse I placed on myself last Friday. I did not know I was still able to dance for that long and not die. So. I don't know about you, but I've been particularly sedate this week.
Which is lucky, because it's been another week for Unknown Pleasures, our regular round up of the best spewings from the Steam hose that not enough people are playing.
Scraping the key against the outside of the lock for the ninth time while sobbing this week: puzzling spies, pinball mountains, and pseudocatholic guilt.
]]>If there's one thing that a Souls-alike needs to get right (Soulsyvania, in this case), it's evocative boss names, and Blasphemous clearly has it all worked out. Featuring the likes of "Expósito, Scion Of Abjuration", "Three Anguishes" and "Our Lady Of The Charred Visage" in its new trailer, it's no surprise that The Game Kitchen's grim platform hack n' slasher has attracted publisher Team 17. While neither publisher or developer want to guess at a release date, we can at least see it in motion. Below, a trailer dripping with blood, holy viscera and all the trappings of ecclesial horror.
]]>There's no shortage of great Metroidvanias out there these days, so to help narrow your search for what to play next, we've put together this list of the very best Metroidvania games to play on PC right now. Metroidvanias can be a little tricky to define at times. Most have big, knotty worlds to explore that often require the use of specific abilities to access its farthest corners, but while some put a greater emphasis on slow and methodical combat, others stuff every pixel with rock hard platforming challenges to test their players' mettle. We like to keep an open mind when it comes to these things, but that does mean our list of the best Metroidvanias may include the odd controversial choice or two. What's important, though, is that all of these games are brilliant, and come with our seal of approval.
]]>Sometimes a game can sell itself to me with a single image or animation. Blasphemous [Kickstarter page], a non-linear 2D platformer from the creators of The Last Door, is one such game. It's like Hieronymus Bosch and Castlevania had a baby, and the baby was gigantic and it tore the arms off any pilgrims who wandered too close. There's a Kickstarter running but even at this early stage, the $50,000 target is within touching distance. That doesn't surprise me at all because it really does look gloriously horrible.
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