"Meta-narrative surrealist boomer shooter" is a game description we've not come across before, and we've been at this caper awhile. So our interest in this so-called meta-narrative surrealist experience was piqued, and upon first glance, Ghostware: Arena of the Dead is nothing if not unique.
Which is to say it graduated from its preview program to become a fully fledged retail release. Published by PLAION and developed by Australian-based Playcorp Studios, Beyond Contact is a sci-fi survival game set on a hostile alien world that, much like Australia, is always trying to kill you.
Must be an inside joke from the devs.
Overnight Microsoft revealed new games coming to Game Pass (console, cloud and PC) that include a now cult classic, a fresh-to-Xbox release, a sporting title with a niche but dedicated following here in Australia, a tower defence title from Double Fine and a Microsoft staple played by millions the world over.
You could almost make a case for this announcement timing itself perfectly given we're basically in the domestic off-season for cricket. And with a June release window, it gives cricket fans plenty to salivate over before it's bowled into our lives, let's just hope its pitch is a bit less wonky than what the Aussies faced earlier this year on the subcontinent.
And it's a match-4 puzzler, just in keeping with the studio not always doing things as you'd expect. A new demo for the game is also available now on Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store for free, while the game proper is intended for release sometime this year on the above platforms, as well as the main consoles.
And I say that from the perspective of being a Diablo super-fan. After seeing the news that there was an "Xbox Series X – Diablo IV Bundle" coming June 6, 2023, for AUD 849, my mind quickly wondered what the console would look like. And if it would be coming with one of those new red Xbox Elite Wireless controllers.
The recent Diablo IV beta was the largest in franchise history, with Blizzard revealing some of the tasty stats from two weekends of access to Sanctuary. The result was close to 62 million hours played and 3 billion monsters slayed. However, the Butcher did his best to even the score by butchering 1.7 million players.
One of 2023's darling indies, Dredge is out today, capping off a successful demo, preview and review period among media, content creators and the community alike.
A debut original IP from New Zealand-based Black Salt Games, Dredge immediately grabbed us with its focus on fishing with an eldritch twist, and we can't recommend it highly enough for its tone and the simple joy of taking your boat out each and every day to challenge the seas around you.
Despite constant updates from new custodians of the E3 brand and expo, ReedPop, surrounding the 'full steam ahead' mantra of E3 definitely happening in 2023, the company overnight confirmed that it won't be taking place at all, including any all-digital form of it as well.
Major publishers and companies such as Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft never committed to the event leaving a gaping hole in its potential for the traditional 'showcase', with many other big publishers also shy on jumping on in.
PlayStation Plus subscribers will have access to a few games over the month of April with Sony revealing three new PS4 and PS5 games coming to the service, headlined by Sackboy: A Big Adventure. Sony also reminds us you still have until April 3 to download March's PS Plus titkes, so get in quick if you haven't already.
New DLC for the critically acclaimed Forza Horizon 5 has recently dropped, and its title says it all -- Rally Adventure. The new content takes place in Sierra Nueva and features six unique biomes and myriad challenges as well as all the open-world driving any good offroader can handle.
In a lengthy interview with Tekken boss, Katsuhiro Harada, one of our very own in Adam "Griz" Mathew" got to ask the chief about a number of things for the upcoming Tekken 8. Among the take-aways expect new character models, new hairstyles and a renewed focus on what makes the fighting game genre so great.
Theme park sims and tycoon games are a subgenre unto themselves, and have proven very popular over the years. I mean, who doesn't at one time or another in life dream of not only owning their own theme park, but also designing it?
Park Beyond from Bandai Namco is a theme park sim that lets you do all of the above, in a very pretty game-world, as witnessed at the game's recent showing at the Future Game Show.
It'll be a bit of a race between a handful of the most anticipated games this year, but if we're being honest, we're putting our money on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom taking out top honours as, at the very least, in the top three games of theyear and likely the biggest seller among the lot.
Here's an all-new gameplay video showing just why we think that.
In the age of big-screen, 4K TVs, there's still room for that classic home theatre projector feels. The XGIMI Horizon Full-HD Smart Home Projector is an impressive and affordable 1080p option that delivers smart features and decent gaming performance.
From the classic OG in Mario Party to the more recent runaway success of the likes of Fall Guys, Among Us and Overcooked, to name just a few, the multiplayer party game is something of an ever-delivering unicorn where more often than not there are no bad ideas, only bad players. And with that sentiment in mind, we'd like to introduce you to Screaming Chicken: Ultimate Showdown -- a game designed to tear your friendships asunder.
Choosing the right router for gaming devices and streaming and even work-for-home tasks can be daunting as no two devices ever perform the same. The new ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 Gaming Router is a premium device with a price to match, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a more impressive router in 2023.
In a unique setting, After Us sees players taking on the role of the Spirit of Life, Gaia, as she's awakened to find her world is in a state of bleak decay and where once bustling life has been reduced to near nothing barring angry enemies and cold remnants of the past.
Continuing on with the Lovecraftian theme enveloping AusGamers at the moment, publisher Rogue Games dropped a recent combat trailer for its upcoming "supernatural action-platformer", The Last Case of Benedict Fox, which itself leans heavily into Lovecraftian and atmospheric horror tropes, but as per this new video, it's also full of awesome combat.
It's as if March were "Lovecraft Month"... Lovemarchft, or something. Ahem, Frogwares has just dropped its newest trailer for its upcoming Sherlock Holmes meets Cthulhu Mythos detective psychological adventue, Sherlock Holmes The Awakened, which the studio has worked tirelessly on in spite of the war in Ukraine, with one half of the team being based in the embattled region. And boy is it looking mighty fine.
