Xbox Game Pass for PC continues to collect some absolute belters, with the likes of Doom Eternal, Va-11 Hall-A, Yes, Your Grace and Call Of The Sea headlining its new additions this month.
There's loads more coming throughout December, too. Looking down the list we've got Greedfall, Unto The End and Yooka-Laylee And The Impossible Lair. Genuinely, if you've been looking for a good time to try out the Game Pass for its cheapo £1 / $1 first month deal, I think now might be your chance.
]]>I didn’t sleep well last night, but the sight of my brand new synthetic potted plant as I woke up at least made it a bit more bearable. I’ve just come back from my smoke break, and I’m mixing a drink called a Crevice Spike. The recipe calls for 2 Powdered Delta, 4 Flanergide, and optional Karmotrine, an alcoholic component. I’ve accidentally put 14 lots of Karmotrine into the drink. My client is a 24-year-old sentient humanoid robot sex worker with the body of a 13-year-old. She’s conversing with a talking Shiba Inu called Nacho Tumbleweed Jr. This is VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action, a visual novel mixed (HAHA) with a bartending minigame. Only, pretty much the whole game is bartending.
]]>Sukeban Games are returning to the cyberpunk world of bartending visual novel RPG doodad VA-11 HALL-A [god, please call it Valhalla -common sense ed.] with a sequel named N1RV ANN-A [oh for... I've had enough -former ed.] due in 2020. We'll play a new bartender behind a new bar in a new city, listening to new people's woes while mixing them drinks that will surely will bring only comfort and no further woes at all nuh uh. Meet some of the weirdos we'll be serving in the announcement trailer below.
]]>Cyberpunk bartending game VA-11 Hall-A [official site], which Sin Vega quite liked, has launched a free update adding new story chapters. Well, old chapters. Renovated old chapters. With lots of dogs. The three-day prologue, released two years before the full game but kept separate from it, sees the run-down bar hosting a private party for adorable intelligent corgis with cute names and digital voiceboxes. Let me tell you, those woofy lads cannot handle their drink.
]]>I hesitate to call V4l... Va11 ha1... Val1... Valhalla [official site] a visual novel, which is ridiculous. It wears its influences on its sleeve, sometimes to a fault, and though its most 'gamey' aspect is that of a bartending sim, that's really just a well-integrated excuse for telling a humble story. Is it a good one?
]]>I don't understand why Papers, Please didn't begin a flood of games in which you learn about a world through the performance of an odd job within it. I don't want to be a hero, I want to be a cobbler carving wooden shoes in medieval Europe, and a museum tour guide in a rich fantasy world. I also very much want to be a cyberpunk bartender, which is what VA-11 Hall-A is offering when it releases for PC, Mac and Linux on June 21st. The game's final trailer is below.
]]>I quite enjoyed being a cyberpunk bartender mixing exotic and dangerous cocktails for talking corgis and androids in the free prologue to VA-11 HALL-A [official site] last year. It has a horrible name, but the visual novel-ish mix 'em up was fun and interesting.
A new demo serves up a look at how it's come since then, switching to a new engine and showing off a different slice of story. No dogs this time. Nab it from Itch.
]]>Some of my favourite people in the world have been bartenders. I mean, I didn't speak to many of them for more than ten minutes, and I know how it works - I used to tend bar too - you flirt for tips and for kicks. But a bartender has an uncanny way of being able to flip a switch in you. Not just with their sticky fluids, but also with their damn fine smiles, the ability to pay you attention for just those five minutes you want to order a drink after work. Sometimes you can make up stories about them, that the smile was really because you are the most handsome thing in the world, and they are going to Tom-Cruise-in-Cocktail you after their shift.
But ah, being the bartender. It's a different sort of thing all together. It's a real performance.
]]>Who cares about future-dogs? Call of Duty: Ghosts mind-controls its dog, Westwood's Blade Runner game blew its up, and Dog of Dracula, well, just look how he turned out. Is life so grim for all future-dogs? Not if you're any good at cyberpunk bartending game VA-11 HALL-A (or Valhalla, because that's just awful). Sukeban Games have released a prologue chapter of their tend 'em up for pre-orderers, which has you mixing drinks for a load of adorable talking corgis. They run their own dog toy company and have hired your bar for a private party, see.
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