#steam sale is epic

[zmbieprty]

AHHHH AHHHH!!!!!(the sound of my brain being activated via cosmic radiation)

[rhinco]

wat is ultrakill

it's a first person shooter game about robots and blood and the divine <3 the tagline of the game is "mankind is dead, blood is fuel, hell is full" which sums it up pretty well. you play as a robot who's venturing into hell to get blood. it's a deeply silly game that is also about the horrors of war. there's an angel who wants you dead. it's everything to me

i was worried i wouldn't like it at first because ive never really liked fps games before but i love the gameplay in ultrakill. however there's also lowered difficulty settings if you wanna focus on the story and stuff

[oktobearfest]

lol forgot gamescom started today and all i saw is that borderlands 4 is coming out in 2025. so that means it'll come out in 2026 since it will 100% release in a broken unplayable state, will have 2-3 DLCs released and then will be discounted during a seasonal sale.

[permanentlylatetotheparty]

new hyperfixation who dis

[syrasenturi]

Starting up fragmentary passage and immediately remembering the dumbest retcon in kingdom hearts for making mickey shirtless in the realm of darkness

[andromedasummer]

Good morning, today im going to pirate 5-7 videogames made by small indie game devs who are heavily dependent on sales 😚✌️

in WHAT world is the sims 4 or fucking crusader kings 3 an INDIE GAME

[chaotictomtom]

feeling super blurry rn i just need to PICK A GAME TO PLAY...to lose myself in it........ bought a bunch thanks to the sales on steam but now i'm even more overwhelmed that i already was by the amount of cool games i want to play or try out for the first time

[lucifer-kane]

every borderlands game+dlc+anything else is currently 60 bucks on steam (91% discounted) and uh. I might already have a handful of these games. but to be able to play with friends (bc you can't crossplay on ps4, where i have two of the games) that's. honestly worth it. especially bc it has all the dlc

[edgy-ella]

IDW SONIC READERS, PLEASE READ THIS!!!!

I am begging you. On my hands and knees. Begging. More so than anything else I’ve asked of this fandom.

Please please buy the Fang miniseries when it comes out

Don’t just read it. Buy it. I will admit that I’m very guilty of reading through a lot of IDW Sonic through…less than legal means, and I know I’m not alone in that regard. But I think it’s really important that for this miniseries in particular, you actually go out and buy the damn thing. Show your support with your dollar.

Really think about it for a second—they gave Fang his own miniseries. Fang! An underutilized, underrated fan favorite for sure, but hardly a mainstay of the series. I’m sure that this was at least somewhat prompted by Superstars, where Fang is a major antagonist…but Bean and Bark weren’t in that game, and it already received its own online promo comic prior to the game’s release (notably, with Fang as the star).

Classic Sonic stories have also exclusively been relegated to one-shots in IDW, not a full on miniseries like what Fang is getting. Basically all of the IDW Sonic miniseries we’ve gotten so far have been plot relevant side stories to the main IDW comic that focus on side characters with little to no involvement from Sonic himself. Tangle and Whisper, Bad Guys, Impostor Syndrome…the only odd man out besides this Fang miniseries is Scrapnik Island.

Really think about it for a second. FANG is getting his own focus comic BEFORE KNUCKLES.

And that’s why it’s so important that we buy it.

I think Sega is using this comic to test the waters to see if people like Fang and want to see him in more future projects—be it comics, games, or even cartoons. But there’s more to it than just that.

See, Superstars hasn’t been doing that great. I know I said in an earlier post that people seemed to like it, but I retract that statement. It was damned by faint praise at launch, and now most of the discussion I’ve seen surrounding the game revolves around its flaws (chief among them being the middling OST and that the Steam version stealth installs an Epic Games service along with the game). No sales numbers have been projected as of writing, but it’s definitely been beaten out by Mario Wonder and Spider-Man 2.

So, Classic Sonic games aren’t doing too hot right now (I’m sure that many modern fans are jumping for joy at the prospect). But the classic characters are.

People really like the extended classic Sonic cast, just as much as they love the extended modern cast. From my experience, the two fan favorites are Mighty and Fang. Fang stands out to me in particular for a couple reasons: people were really upset that Sega specifically said no to Fang, Bark and Bean coming back after Ian snuck in a reference to them in IDW Sonic #3 (using their old team name from Archie, the Hooligans), and the fanmade 16-bit remake of Triple Trouble, Fang’s debut game, received private praise from many members of Sega and Sonic Team. People like Fang and the media he’s in, and Sega is starting to take notice. That’s why we’re getting this miniseries.

That’s why it’s so important that the miniseries sells well. If the big boys at Sega and Sonic Team see Superstars’ iffy reception but see Fang’s comic sell above expectations, then Sega will want to continue to use Fang (and potentially other “classic” Sonic characters as well) in more narrative driven projects. That means modern Sonic.

“But Sega won’t let any classic Sonic character into a modern Sonic project!” I hear you thinking. And to that I say, so? Sega changes its mind all the time. Remember that whole two worlds nonsense? That was thrown out with in Tailstube. Characters debuting in Boom and the comics were previously barred from the mainline games, but they’ve broken that “rule” in both Speed Battle and Frontiers. Hell, they’ve even been talked out of some of their sillier comic mandates, like characters not being able to wear different clothing.

For all their flaws, Sega does listen, and money speaks louder than anything. If this miniseries fails, Sega will just assume that people aren’t hot on Fang or the extended classic cast anymore and throw them back in the bar. But if the comic sells well, then Sega might take it as a sign that, hey, people like this character (and his two lackeys), we should put him in projects that fans are more interested in. Mighty and Ray probably wouldn’t be too far behind, especially given Mania’s success. Whether that means comics or games, modern or classic, who knows. What’s important is that it sends the right message to Sega, and they will listen to their consumers. That means us. If we don’t support this miniseries now, we might have to wait another thirty years for another chance.

[hpowellsmith]

Choice of Games titles in the Steam Summer Sale!

I hope you're having a good week! If you fancy a little treat for the weekend, titles from Choice of Games, Heart's Choice, and Hosted Games are on sale on Steam, including my and my wife's games...

Crème de la Crème (40% off): Climb to the very top of the class at your exclusive private school for socialites! Will you study hard, find a perfect match, or embrace scandal? A 440,000 word interactive novel.

Noblesse Oblige (40% off): Spark romance amid secrets in a crumbling mansion! What will you sacrifice for love? Can you trust your own heart? A 180,000 interactive gothic novella.

Royal Affairs (40% off):At your exclusive boarding school, will you rule the roost or be a royal disaster? Court publicity, sway the fate of nations, and find love! A 440,000 word interactive novel.

Blood Money (35% off): By the power of your blood, you and your ghosts will take over your crime family! A 290,000 word standalone dark fantasy interactive novel.

Heart of Battle (35% off): Battle for love as a gladiator in this epic romance! Win glory, victory, a better life - or spark a revolution! A 220,000 word interactive novel by Fay Ikin.

Asteroid Run: No Questions Asked (35% off): captain a freighter across the Solar System and keep your mystery cargo and your crew safe in the face of corruption, cultists, and revolutionaries! A 325,000 word interactive novel by Fay Ikin.

And while you're on Steam, please wishlist Honor Bound, fourth in the Creme de la Creme series, which is coming soon!

Enjoy, and I hope those of you in hot weather aren't getting too overheated!

[felassan]

Snippets.  🐺💜

The DA:TV release date reveal trailer is considered to contain only mild story spoilers [source]

In the week of August 19th (week of the High-Level Combat & PC Spotlight), specifically the gameplay will be "high-level warrior combat gameplay" [source]. The Rook shown will be a Warrior Elf [source]

User: "Morrigan 😍" / Dragon Age on Threads: "She 💜" [source]

User: "Will there be any other editions of the game or just the Standard and Deluxe?" / Dragon Age on Threads: "We have a collector's edition too! [link]" [source]

User: "Everyone greatly approves 💜✨" / Dragon Age on Threads: "Rook's feeling especially approved-of today 💜" [source]

BioWare: "We can't wait for you to jump into the role of Rook and embark on your journey to save Thedas." [source]

BioWare describe the physical merch/bonus items that come with Rook's Coffer as Rook's personal effects, and the tools of their resistance [source]

User: "Id love to preorder if the bloody website worked!" / BioWare on Twitter: "Sorry about that, the page is working now! [link]" [source]

User: "WHERE IS THE COLLECTOR EDITION????? 😭😭" / BioWare on Twitter: "Right here! [link]" [source]

User: "Will there be a physical version purchasable in stores ? My internet is slow lol I would need almost a week to download the game via internet" / BioWare on Twitter: "Yes, retailers will have physical copies available :)" [source]

User: "Thank the whole team from the bottom of my heart… Dreams come true… Trailer is amazing 💜" / BioWare on Twitter: "Thanks for being a fan, we appreciate you too!" [source]

User: "Is it just digital or will there be physical copies (I'm fine with either, but if a physical is going to be available, would want that)?" / BioWare on Twitter: "Physical copies will be available for PO through retailers :)" [source]

User: "where can we preorder a physical copy for consoles?" / BioWare on Twitter: "Retailers will be offering physical copies for PO, the Game Stop page is already up!" [source]

User: "It’s also being released on my birthday!!!!! 🥳🥳" / BioWare on Twitter: "🎶Happy birthday to you!" [source]

User: "Omygoddess….!!! I am so happy…. This was even better than I could have imagined. Thank you thank you thank you!!!! ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥" / BioWare on Twitter: "You are so welcome!" [source]

User: "Pre-ordered!" / BioWare on Twitter: "Can't wait for you to play it! Is it October yet!?" [source]

User: "Can't wait!! Bought my copy. I am so psyched!!" / BioWare on Twitter: "We can't wait for you to play it!" [source]

User: "Asdfghh finally😩 [image of Mass Effect Space Hamster bursting out of their cage]" / BioWare on Twitter: "Please return the space hamster to the Normandy before it gets lost!" [source]

Also, some recent snippets from the official BioWare Discord server:

Platform-specific pre-order links: PlayStation Store, XBox Store, Steam, Epic Games storefront Standard edition, Epic Games storefront Deluxe edition. Also [this] is the GameStop pre-order link. The GameStop one is physical

User: "Will [Rook's Coffer] be for sale by Canada retailers?" / Community Manager: "Please check in with your local retailers as I do not have this information, sorry!"

User: "When are the physical edition preorders going up?" / CM: "this is retailer dependent so you'll need to check in with your local retailer! there will be physical discs available for consoles."

EA's own buy page for DA:TV was broken (led to 404) but is now working for both digital standard and digital deluxe pre-orders

User: "What’s the Vyrantium pack? Is that the steelcase version?" / CM: "you'll need to check in with local retailers on that one!"

CM: "There will be a physical edition for consoles. I've seen the preorders go up on Game Stop, but please check in with your local retailers!"

CM: "Some retailers haven't stood up their buy pages yet (Barnes and Noble, Amazon) so keep checking back!"

CM: "I am working in the background on just more emotes [for the Discord] in general"

User: "just to be sure i dont buy the wrong thing. thers no collectors edition with the game. deluxe is the highest and then the coffer is extra but no game right?" / CM: "thats correct, everything is pretty laid out here [link]"

User: "For "Rooks Coffee Edition" it says the game isn't included. Does that mean I need to buy this edition and the game separately?" / CM: "correct"

For a while Steam said that the game's release date was October 10th. This was incorrect and a CM let them know, it has since been amended to the real October 31st date

User: "What would be the storage size for the game for consoles and PC?" / CM: "100gb approx"

User: "So the roadmap said release date trailer and announcement, do we know what the announcement is?" / CM: "release date announcement" / User: "Is the “announcement” from roadmap just that we’re getting blood dragon armor? Or am I missing something" / CM: "release date trailer + release date announcement"

User: "do we know when preorder date ends? i might have to wait until october 1st paycheck" / CM: "When the game comes out! (the Rook's Coffer is limited amount, but the digital game should be available until Oct 31)"

Violet: "Whoever wants to know - this is my first blog at EA that I have authored - [link] (thats my fun tidbit)"

User: "Will the rooks coffer edition be available after release or is it only preorder?" / CM: "its limited run, so itll be available until it sells out"

User: "is the artbook on the bioware store the same one as the one on dark horse?" / CM: "there's 3 editions, but its all the same book"

User: "not sure if you can talk about this (either because Bioware isn't ready or because you personally don't know), how will the cosmetics be delievered in game? IIRC, there is no online connection" / CM: "wdym? Its just there when you start it up or it isnt (like if you dont preorder)" / User: "In DAI it was stored in a chest in Haven and later at Skyhold (the armors)" / CM: "It's just in your inventory I think? I don't remember like "picking it up" or anything."

[character limit text break!]

User: "One last question about the specs! Does anyone know if GeForce GTX™ 1660 Ti will be good enough for Veilguard? I feel like it's a lot worse than required" / CM: "Obv I can't really say much yet but let me quell your fears a touch - it looks NICE. game is BEAUTIFUL"

User: "If you guys win [Game of the Year at TGA] we demand an award speech in here 😆" Violet: "I'll be at TGAs in person this year, so wont be here in the discord"

CM: "Retailers like gamestop are selling physical editions. Think you'll just have to find a retailer in your area that has some ordered (I dont have links for that)''

CM: ''all pre-orders should receive the Blood Dragon cosmetic armors''

CM: "Still a LOT more info coming before launch 👀"

User: "i always played dragon age on pc... looks like this one is meant for console. anyone knows if its more controller oriented or stick to pc" / CM: "we have a whole PC spotlight coming if you want to wait for that to decide."

[source: the official BioWare Discord server]

[thankskenpenders]

Sonic Superstars!

Superstars is out! And guess what? It's good! It's a worthy new entry in the series, and I mostly like it. Mostly. Except for the handful of parts I don't. As usual, allow me to share my thoughts.

(For the record, I got the PS5 version of Superstars. I can't speak for how it plays on older hardware like the Switch, or how the weird Steam version that seems to make you log in with Epic runs. But I encountered zero performance issues, personally.)

General thoughts

The thing is, aside from two notable flaws I'll discuss in greater detail below, I can sum up my feelings on most of Superstars quickly. You see, it's... a Sonic game. This will either be a blessing or a curse depending on who you ask. It's not a bold new take on the series that'll blow you away, but they also didn't fuck it up. There's no catch this time! There's something refreshing about that straightforwardness, given how rare it is to get a regular-ass New Sonic Game from Sega. It's just a new classic-style game where you can play as Amy, set on a new island with all new zones, and Fang is in it! This might be damning with faint praise, but that's what it says on the tin, and they did a good job overall.

(It also has co-op. That's nice. I didn't play it in co-op.)

It plays exactly how it should. At no point did anything feel Wrong. The graphics might not have the absolute highest fidelity, but I think the character models look really nice, and the levels look appropriately good with vibrant color palettes. A couple zones like Sky Temple gave me Klonoa vibes, which I like. One zone is an absolutely incredible homage that I won't spoil. The story here is minimal (as expected), but there are a few good moments of telling the story through the gameplay, particularly one very cute sequence with Trip. I did find a couple stage gimmicks moderately annoying (Speed Jungle 2 and Press Factory 2, looking at you), but like... I could say the same thing about Mania, and also damn near every other Sonic game ever made. There's always That One Level. Superstars may not raise the series to new heights, but it generally executes well on the standard beats of the series. It's an easy recommendation for all fans of 2D Sonic.

Really, aside from the two big flaws (we'll get to them), this game's greatest crimes are simply not being quite as good as Mania, and also coming out the same week as the more creative and polished Super Mario Bros. Wonder. If we hadn't gotten Mania, I would easily be calling this my favorite 2D Sonic game since... what, the Advance trilogy 20 years ago? I like the Rush games, but if you asked me to replay one or the other, I might have a better time with Superstars. And, yes, it beats the hell out of Sonic 4. It's not even close. Anyone who says this game is exactly like Sonic 4 is just being a hater.

...I guess I would say that $60 is a bit steep for this, but you know it'll be on sale for a more appropriate $30-$40 in a few months. This isn't a Nintendo game we're talking about here.

Nice little tweaks

Superstars also features a number of welcome quality-of-life updates over Mania, bringing it more in line with the design ethos of modern platformers.

You have infinite lives! No more getting a game over on the final boss and having to redo the whole final zone - or, god forbid, the entire game

Time overs are gone! It'll warn you before you go over ten minutes, but I have no idea why because it doesn't kill you anymore

The game features a hub from which you can easily replay previous levels, rather than needing to beat the game or put in a cheat code to unlock the level select

This means you can easily go back and hunt for any special stage rings you missed. However, as a tradeoff, it seems like you can only get one Emerald per zone now, rather than being able to get Super Sonic by the end of the first or second zone

You can swap characters between levels! No more having to start a whole 'nother save file to play as Tails

And those characters even have optional little movement tutorial rooms available from the hub, which is great for new players who may not know about things like the Drop Dash

And, finally, checkpoints now feature arrows pointing in the direction you were supposed to be going, in case you forget upon respawning

Of course, while you might not be getting game overs, Superstars certainly compensated with some bosses that kicked my ass.

Bosses

Here's what I would consider notable flaw #1.

I have mixed feelings on the bosses in Superstars. I don't think many of them are poorly designed - in fact, a lot of them are good, and offer fun moments of spectacle. But for a 2D Sonic game, they're REALLY long and drawn out, and by the late game this was starting to get draining.

Bosses tend to be the type where you have to dodge their attack patterns for a while until you get the chance to hit them exactly once, MAYBE twice. A few bosses seem to have quicker options if you abuse your post-hit invulnerability or play as a character with a double jump, but many will either be completely invincible or run away to the background for long periods of time, making it impossible to damage them outside of the allotted windows. And even if it seems like you'll be able to get in a second hit, many bosses turn invincible and skip ahead to the next attack pattern as soon as they take the first hit. Again, most of these fights aren't BAD, but because of this behavior they sometimes take almost as long to beat as the entire levels preceding them. This didn't bother me much early in the game, but against the more challenging bosses towards the end that kept killing me several minutes into a long fight, it got tiring. The final boss of Story Mode probably took me like an hour.

While this certainly isn't an uncommon style of boss design, part of me suspects they did this for the sake of co-op players. For one, playing in co-op means that you don't necessarily have to start the entire fight over if one person dies, so I assume the length is less of an issue. But in particular, true classic-style Sonic bosses that you can just hit repeatedly with good timing would go down in a few seconds against a team of four players. Likewise, the swarm of clones from the "Avatar" Emerald power would probably obliterate every Genesis era boss with one button press. So I get why every boss needs all these invulnerability periods, but still. I at least wish they'd made some of those attack patterns shorter and given you more frequent opportunities to deal damage.

Emeralds and their powers

Speaking of the new Chaos Emerald powers: they're neat, I guess? They're fine. I didn't use them much. Actually, I kept forgetting I even had them - although the game will play a noise and show an icon in the corner of the screen to remind you any time you reach a spot where a specific power is useful. Avatar, the first power you get, is at least good for getting a couple free hits in on the trickier bosses. Yellow's ability to slow time is obviously good, but, again, I always forgot I even had it and made it through just fine without it. I was also pleased to realize that the swimming power is useful for the water levels and not just for climbing up waterfalls.

Oh, and the new grappling-based special stages kind of suck, but they're not the worst, and I'll at least give them credit for trying something new. (Motion Sickness Zone from Sonic 1 does return as a bonus minigame, but I only did it once lmao.)

Battle Mode

I haven't played Battle Mode. Couldn't tell you if it's good or not. It did, however, give us official designs for Metal Tails and Metal Amy after all these years, and also it let me make this:

...Okay, enough beating around the bush. Let's talk about the thing that REALLY drags down the experience.

The soundtrack...

(This lengthy section on the music will feature some light spoilers for things like zone names and themes.)

Now, don't get me wrong. There are some bangers in here that I've been listening to on loop. But this is one of the most inconsistent soundtracks I've ever heard, and I'm not sure I've ever played another game where the music has such a sharp dip in quality in the back half.

As anyone following this blog knows, prior to release I was a little obsessed with trying to gauge what the soundtrack would be like. "Jun Senoue" and "new Classic Sonic game" naturally evokes the memory of Sonic 4, but from the start we knew Tee Lopes was involved as well, and almost all of the music previewed before released leans more towards the sound of Sonic Mania than anything else. I was hopeful! I was excited! Jun deserved another chance at doing another classic Sonic OST, and Tee is one of my favorite game composers of all time between his Sonic material and other works like the TMNT: Shredder's Revenge OST. I frequently thought back to this Sonic 4 remix medley by Jun and Tee as a reminder that these two could really be the dream team, bringing out the best in each other's work.

Sure enough, the front half of the game is largely dominated by the Mania sound, whether it's a track by Tee himself or one by an in-house Sega artist that's compatible with his style. Pinball Carnival Act 1 by Rintaro Soma (an up-and-coming composer who wrote a bunch of the Cyber Space themes in Frontiers) takes obvious inspiration from Mania's Studiopolis Act 1, to the point that I was shocked when Sega posted the track and revealed it wasn't written by Tee. Act 2, however, forges more of its own sound by leaning into the act's spooky haunted carnival theme. And despite being the music lead, the only level theme that I know for sure was written by Senoue in the front half of the game (Bridge Island Act 1) was actually arranged by Tee Lopes to give it more of that Mania sound. Hell, the level clear jingle is literally just the one from Mania. A few level themes by other composers don't quite match that style, but they fit in well enough.

But there are early signs that this sound won't be consistent throughout the game. Our first warning of things to come is the boss music:

When early copies started floating around and the soundtrack leaked, many, many people hoped that this was merely a placeholder, like the literal Sonic 4 Episode II music used in the earliest previews of Speed Jungle, and that it'd get replaced with a day one patch. Oh, those poor, innocent fools...

Even if you don't mind the poor production with the returning Sonic 4 faux-Genesis sound, this is a very simplistic thirteen second snippet of music that then plays a second time in a higher key before it loops. This wouldn't be the end of the world if the bosses were as short as the ones in the Genesis games, of course, but they're not! This theme is used for a ton of lengthy fights throughout the game, including an EXTREMELY long and tedious autoscroller boss at the end of Golden Capital Act 2. Maybe I would've enjoyed the bosses in this game more if they were paired with some earworms that'd get me hyped up and sell how cool and exciting the fights are supposed to be, but grating songs like this just made the minutes spent fighting those bosses feel like an eternity.

Still, boss music (and menu music) aside, all of the level themes in the front half of the game ranged from decent to great, with the peak easily being the phenomenal Lagoon City Act 2 by Tee Lopes. And then... I got to the back half of the game. And the Mania style completely disappeared, replaced largely with the dreaded Sonic 4 sound. That isn't the style for EVERY song in the back half, but even the ones that try something different tend to be weaker than the material from the first six zones, with less engaging melodies and less intricate arrangement. Many sound straight up unfinished, leaning on extremely basic synth patches with no personality. And there isn't a single track from Tee in the back half. He just disappears from the project altogether.

What this means is that we go from this absolute banger by Tee Lopes in zone 6, which elevates what's otherwise a bog standard desert level to a thrilling adventure:

To... this, in zone 7:

It's EXTREMELY jarring!

The thing is, this is actually one of the better tracks in this style. I have to assume this is by Senoue, because you can totally hear a good Adventure or Heroes era Senoue track in there once you get past the crude synth replication of the Genesis era Sonic sound. Senoue is still a great composer, as you can hear clear as day with Bridge Island, but he's working with a restrictive sound palette that doesn't play to his strengths at all. If only he'd bust out that damn guitar, or at least pick some better synths.

(And no matter what people will tell you, no, this is not an accurate recreation of what the Genesis's YM2612 chip really sounded like, nor is it representative of what it CAN sound like at its best. Go back to the Streets of Rage 2 or Ristar soundtracks if you need a reminder.)

While I can at least see what the Press Factory tracks were aiming for, some other faux-FM synth tracks are just really bland. They don't have anything interesting going on, and they also don't seem particularly tailor made for the levels they accompany. They're just attempts to mimic what Sonic 1-3 sounded like on a very literal level. Take, for instance, the Golden Capital Act 1 theme, AKA "we've got Sky Sanctuary at home." While the better level themes in this game enhance the mood or even completely carry the vibes of a level, the weaker tracks can really suck all the air out of the room and make a level feel like more of a slog.

What kills me is that there are, in fact, a couple examples of how to do throwbacks to classic Sega FM synth music well on this very soundtrack! They're just not the Sonic 4 type tracks. I love the Frozen Base Act 2 theme, presumably composed by legendary Sega composer Hiroshi "HIRO" Kawaguchi, who's responsible for all-time classic arcade soundtracks like Fantasy Zone, Out Run, Hang-On, After Burner, and more, as well as the hacking and pinball themes from Frontiers. Maybe to an untrained ear this doesn't sound all that different, but it has a catchier tune, better instruments, and stronger production overall. I'm also a fan of the track for Sky Temple, which isn't perfect, but it blends a few Genesis-esque instruments like the Sonic 1+2 snare with other instruments for a richer sound. If the whole soundtrack sounded more like these examples, I'd definitely be complaining less.

I really just have to wonder... how did this happen? How did this end up being so inconsistent? Many fans on social media are jumping to the conclusion that Senoue is just extremely stubborn and refuses to ditch the style from Sonic 4. I can't deny this possibility, but some things just don't add up. The almost complete lack of "retro" style music in the promotional material. The fact that the style just suddenly shifts halfway through the game, then disappears for the final zone, as if that's not the note they want to end on. The complete lack of any tracks by Tee Lopes in the back half. The focus on the Mania-style tracks in the bonus "mini soundtrack." And most perplexing of all, the fact that three of the first tracks you hear in the game were Senoue compositions that were given extra attention with arrangements from Tee Lopes.

This is pure speculation on my part, but it almost seems like they straight up ran out of time.

Perhaps Jun wanted more of his tracks to get full arrangements from Tee, or for Tee to contribute more songs, but things were down to the wire and they chose to leave in some of the raw Sonic 4 style demos. The soundtrack being crunched out in a matter of months at the end of development would certainly explain why Speed Jungle had to be demoed without its music a mere four months ago. It'd also explain why a game that's only a few hours long needs NINETEEN composers listed in the credits. And also the fact that multiple zones just have completely different, unrelated music by different artists across their acts. Did they need multiple artists working on different acts simultaneously, completely independent from each other with no time to cross reference each others' work, due to extreme time constraints? I'd buy it.

Ah well. It's not the end of the world. I've heard worse Sonic music. But I'll always think of what could have been...

At least the final battle with Eggman at the end of Story Mode has a pretty kickass boss theme, which ALMOST makes up for how bad most of the preceding boss music is (and the fact that that very difficult fight doesn't have a checkpoint between phases and took me like an hour to beat lmao). It even seems like it might be written by longtime Phantasy Star Online composer and recurring Sonic contributor Hideaki Kobayashi. That's the guy who wrote NONAGRESSION!!!!!!!

The postgame

Speaking of beating Eggman! It turns out Superstars has a good deal of postgame content, as merely beating the last zone with all the Chaos Emeralds doesn't take you to the true final boss. In order to do that, you'll need to do something else.

Before we hit the big spoiler warning, I'm going to give any future players who are still reading a warning. If you value your sanity... don't force yourself to do all the postgame stuff. Don't make the mistakes I did. It's not worth it, and it may very well knock your personal score for the game down a couple points.

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SPOILERS FOR THE STORY, UNLOCKABLES, AND THE POSTGAME BELOW THIS POINT

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED

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The bonus scenario

Sonic Superstars has a big surprise in store for anyone who beats the main story. For the first time since... what, Silver? In 2006? We finally have a brand new playable character in a new Sonic platformer! (I wouldn't count the player avatar in Forces as a full-fledged New Character.) Yes, after the credits roll, you unlock Trip as the super-secret fifth playable character. I was really excited to see this. Trip is cute, even if her masked appearance from early in the game is perhaps a more unique design than a Sonic-ified lizard girl who can only vaguely look like a real sungazer lizard. She IS the first new Sonic character Ohshima has designed since the '90s, though, so she gets points for that - and she gets even more points for literally turning into a dragon when she goes Super. We love a girl who can turn into a dragon, don't we folks? And her playstyle is fun, too, with a double jump and the ability to roll along walls and ceilings.

But Trip isn't just playable. Like Knuckles before her, she gets an entire alternate story mode of her own, which somewhat remixes the level layouts, generally makes things more challenging, and swaps out Eggman for Egg Robo. I was so excited to see this! It really felt like the game had so much more in store for me than I'd anticipated.

...Then I spent probably around three hours attempting to beat the new final battle with Fang at the end of Trip's Story. And it made me regret doing Trip's Story at all.

Once you learn the patterns, a lot of them are actually piss easy. But the difficulty comes down to a few misguided factors:

The fight is LOOOONG. On a successful attempt the whole thing will probably take the average player about, like... seven or eight minutes? Maybe longer? This is where I really started to get pissed at the game for making me wait through these stupid attack patterns before I could attempt to hit the boss once.

The fight is divided between two phases, one with Fang in a vehicle and another with him in a giant robot, with no checkpoint between them. Dying to one of Fang's bullshit attacks on the second phase means having to redo the ~5 minute first phase all over again. And, worst of all...

Fang has multiple projectile attacks that are guaranteed instant kills, even if you have rings.

Also there's a stupid desperation headbutt attack that can really easily catch you off guard and kill you, but I only got that far in the fight once.

It's the instant kills that got me. If those fucking immobilizing net attacks just made you drop your rings, or you could at least wiggle out of them by mashing buttons (EDIT: apparently you CAN do this but you literally have to button mash so rapidly that it's a crapshoot whether or not you'll physically be able to do it), it would have been totally doable! Kinda fun, even! Slow, but pretty cool in terms of spectacle. But nope! Three hours! Three hours on this! This is, without a doubt, the hardest boss I have ever faced in any Sonic game, period, and one of the hardest bosses I've ever seen in ANY game. All because of one attack pattern where making a tiny mistake means starting over.

The glitches didn't help, either. Something about the way the circular boss arena was set up in both stories' final battles seems to make the floor intangible sometimes for non-player objects. Occasionally my dropped rings, enemies I was supposed to knock towards Fang, or one of Fang's insta-kill projectiles would just fall through the floor randomly. This definitely wasn't my main problem, but it helped drive home the idea that this fight just wasn't worth my time.

After three hours of attempts, I gave up. I just went and looked up the ending of Trip's story, as well as the contents of the Final Story, on YouTube. Turns out I made the right call, because boy, that true final boss looks like dogshit. It's just a very dull fight against a big generic cartoon dragon. Apparently this is the thing Eggman was looking for. It appears and is defeated with little fanfare. I think I liked it better when I assumed the scary dragon being foreshadowed was just Super Trip.

...Also, hey, what's up with The End being very conspicuously visible in the background of the last zone?? I know it's just a cheeky cameo, but, like... isn't it supposed to be sealed away in Cyber Space right now? Should I be taking this literally? Does this have lore implications? This is one hell of a way to remind people that the timeline's been reunified, I guess

Closing thoughts

I really hate to part ways with Superstars on a sour note like this, because like I said up top, I mostly enjoyed my time with it! It's really just a small handful of particularly frustrating bosses and the inconsistent soundtrack that drag it down. Other than that, it's solid as a rock. Maybe wait for sales if you're not dying to play it, but it's definitely worth playing for any Sonic fan. Just... skip the true ending. I would have stepped away MUCH happier with this game if I'd done that.

I wanna try to end this on a more positive note but I'm tired, so, uhhhh... look, you can unlock a Metal Nights skin for your Battle Mode bot!!

Anyway back to jamming to about half the soundtrack on loop while pretending the other half doesn't exist, and looking forward to the continued Fang Renaissance with his upcoming IDW miniseries

[multidimensionalsock]

Games engines and their pricings for Indie Devs

Based on Unitys recent changes to their pricing model, I thought it would be useful to put together a list of different game making softwares and their pricing models to compare which would be best for you.

Unreal

Programming language: C++ and visual scripting.

Dimensions: 3D, VR and AR

Platforms: all platforms

Standard license: free to use, pay 5% of your revenue over $1 million over the lifetime of the game, due each quarter (as long as the game is still for sale or generates more them $10k per quarter)

Enterprise: $1.5k+ per seat per year, includes premium support and private training and/or custom licensing terms

Custom licenses: larger developers can renegotiate with epic for lower or waived royalty fees.

More about their licensing here

Gamemaker

Programming language: GML and visual scripting

Dimensions: 2D

Gamemaker doesn't require any royalties made off of your game no matter which license youre on.

Free: access to gamemaker and export that can only be used on their games website (GX.games)

Creator: access to game maker, GX export and desktop export $4.99 a month

Indie: access to the above with web and mobile exports, $9.99 a month.

Enterprise: all of the above but with console exports as well $79.99 a month.

Godot

Programming languages: GDScript, C# and C++

Dimensions: 2D, 3D, AR and VR

Platforms: Not able to port to console due to it being open source unless you develop it yourself or via a third party.

Royalty free and free at point of purchase.

RPG maker

Programming language: Java and visual scripting

Dimensions: 3D (in some), 2D

Platforms: windows, mac, web

Doesn't ask for royalties from games, has a 20 day free trial. RPG maker MZ costs £66.99 initial purchase, costs may vary by which engine you buy.

CryEngine

Programming language: C++

Dimensions: 2D, 3D, VR and AR.

Platforms: Windows, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Oculus Rift, OSVR, PSVR, and HTC Vive. Mobile support is in development.

5% royalty fee over $5k a year, free to download and use.

Cocos2D

Programming languages: C++, C#, Lua and javascript

Dimensions: 2D

Platforms: android, mac, linux, and win32.

Free to use, no royalties

Cocos creator

Programming languages: TypeScript and JavaScript

Dimensions: 2D and 3D

Platforms: IOS, android, windows, mac, HTML5

Free to use, no royalties

Defold

Programming languages: Lua 5.1 and LuaJIT

Dimensions: 2D and 3D

Platforms: PlayStation®4, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, macOS, Linux, Windows, Steam, HTML5, Facebook, Q3 2023 PlayStation®5, Q2 2024 XBox

Free to use, no royalties

Phaser

Dimensions: 2D

Programming languages: JavaScript or TypeScript

Platforms: Web (HTML5)

Free to use, no royalties

Unity

Programming language: C#

Platforms: all platforms

Dimensions: 2D, 3D, VR and AR

Edit: unity has changed their policy you can see the new one here

[gravitycircuit]

Gravity Circuit has recently hit 60K total units sold!

Never in our wildest dreams did we expect the game to sell as much as it has done in just a few short months. As such, we thought this was a moment to celebrate, with new art provided by @jmanvelez!

Now, you might be asking: why are we taking a moment to celebrate such a specific number? Well, in truth, we were planning on doing a celebratory announcement earlier, at 50K. We were on track to hit that in December, but then the holiday sales happened. Thanks to the holiday sales on various storefronts, we essentially skyrocketed past 50K, climbing all the way up to 60K before the sales were over, so didn't have the time to prepare for it! Goodness, the sales performance just continues to surprise us. All in all, the reception and feedback we have received over these past months have been overwhelming, and we can't thank you, the players, enough. You are the best. Now, you might be curious about the sales distribution among the platforms? Fret not, we have prepared a pie chart for you (based on sales as of January 18th, 2024):

Note: PS4 and PS5 are coupled together due to crossbuy. This means that if you purchased the game on one, you can download it on the same account for the other at no extra cost.

On PC, the game is available on Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store, as well as Stove (Korea). Out of these, Steam is the most popular storefront.

On consoles, the game is available on Nintendo Switch and Sony's PlayStation 4 and 5. The game is also physically available on afore-mentioned consoles, by Pix'n'Love (PEGI), Red Art Games (ESRB) and Oizumi Amuzio (Japan).

Given the amount of wishlists on Steam before the game's release, as well as us getting Steam Deck verified by Valve, PC outselling the other platforms is not a wholly unexpected outcome. Steam is a huge storefront, after all.

But after all the sales across these platforms, what about the reception? Well, even on that front, Gravity Circuit has performed better than even our wildest expectations, as shown by the collage below:

Truthfully, before the game's release some six months ago, we weren't sure about what the reception ultimately would be. As a developer, it can be difficult to distance yourself from whatever project you have been working on for so long, to see the game for what it is. So, ultimately, it was up to you, the players, to determine the game's overall quality. Needless to say, we didn't expect the majority opinion to be this good, both from critics and players alike!

To provide some background: throughout the development, there were a plentiful of sleepless nights, fueled by stress, energy drinks, boatloads of work, and constant lingering doubts about the game's potential success. Creative endeavors while on a deadline are never easy, but we soldiered on, so to try and complete the game to the best of our abilities. Now, months after release, it has been a truly humbling experience that players have enjoyed Gravity Circuit as much as they have. Such a warm reception has made all that effort behind the game worth it. Again, we can't thank you all enough.

Of course, it might go without saying that even with all this positive feedback, the game hasn't been without its own sets of issues. Especially around the game's launch we had to do multiple quick rounds of bug fixes, so to address various situations and oversights that had slipped past us during development and Q&A. While doing all this was taxing, it's perhaps thanks to these rapid, quick responses that have helped minimize any lasting impact that the various game crashes and bugs could have otherwise had.

Essentially, on that point, our policy has been to accept any and all feedback from players with open arms. Whether positive or negative, we have read all points of feedback, and even responded to them wherever we have been able. Ultimately, this back-and-forth discussion with players has then resulted in us implementing various additions and changes post-launch (Speedrun Mode, Armor Paints, Boss Rush, small quality of life additions, etc), completely free of charge. And while we do try, it's not exactly realistic to act or respond to every bit of feedback without fundamentally changing some of the game's DNA. Nevertheless, we do try our best -- and perhaps hold onto the lessons learned for any future endeavors.

In the meanwhile, we at Domesticated Ant Games want to thank you all for all the support so far from the bottom of our hearts -- and we wish you all a good start to 2024!

[demilypyro]

Hey new vegas ultimate edition is free on the epic store

Isn't that game on Steam for like 10 bucks and on sale all the time anyway

I'd rather pay 10 bucks than use epic

[chipper-smol]

DAMMIT AUTOCORRECT!!!

isat! the one with the person reaching up

OH

yeah that makes more sense!

Isat is an RPG called In Stars and Time where you follow a sillay little guy (the one reaching up) and his party on the last two days of their epic adventure! Except our sillay little guy gets himself stuck in a timeloop and ends up repeating those last 2 days over and over :D

its a fantastic game with great quality of life measures and distinct characters that you will get attached to

its only $20 on steam, but its currently on sale!