Category: Previews

Outpost Zero is now out on Steam, but it plays a little differently than the other survival games you’ve played before. Red Thomas presents ten tips to help players get started on their new robotic empire.

Elder Scrolls Blades is the new offering from Bethesda on mobile phones. The success of Fallout Shelter has made them build on the Elder Scrolls property and bring it with you anywhere. Sure, you can already do that with the Switch and Skyrim, but you get the idea. Here are the highs and lows of the game.

Maple Story 2 Closed Beta Test is in full swing this week and the kind folks over at Nexon invited us in to look. This gamer has a long standing, love-hate relationship with overly-cute and voxel games. Trove has helped soften my need for MMORPG realism preferences, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp also offered some resolve but I’m still not completely at ease and need to know: Is Maple Story 2 enjoyable for someone like me who’s also never played the original? I couldn’t wait to jump in and see!

We all know the Maple Story 2 CBT has started and, as a long time player of the first MapleStory, I was lucky enough to get the chance to play this and write my impressions. I’m going to give you a rundown of my thoughts and things I noticed in the beta.

Many, many moons ago a man by the name of David Brevik helped to create a little game. That game was Diablo, it was somewhat successful. Over the course of Brevik’s history he would also help with Diablo 2, now he’s back with his own company Greybeard Games with their first game It Lurks Below. It’s themed as a retro-styled, 2D, action-oriented, survival RPG that is currently a part of Steams Early Access program. This is our preview of It Lurks Below.

Eden Rising from Nvizzio is definitely a novel idea. Nvizzio is comprised of many ex-Funcom Montreal folks, and though they’ve done a fair bit of contract work in the past, Eden Rising: Supremacy is their first wholly original offering and it’s based on their own brand new Sci-Fantasy IP. It’s part online RPG, but survival game, part tower defense, and all kinds of awesome looking.

Sword Art Online is one of those enduring anime series that so many people are familiar with. The best part is that the IP has come out of passive viewing and into the realm of gamers. Sword Art Online: Integral Factor is a new free to play mobile online RPG that brings many of the most familiar aspects of great RPGs to players around the world.

Vox Machinae is a mech gaming fan’s wet dream. Sorry, that was probably gross. But for real, Vox Machinae is three-faction mech battler that’s very much in the same vein as MechWarriors of old. Built primarily by a two-man dev team at Space Bullet, it was one of the best things I played at PAX East. Playable in VR, with a controller, or with the ol’ mouse and keyboard, it’s definitely one to watch.

2Dogs Games is making something that’s never been tried before in the MMORPG space. Destiny’s Sword is a futuristic combat/strategy MMORPG. But what sets it apart isn’t that you control a squad as a commander – it’s that your characters will feel, suffer, and deal with real emotional issues and strife caused by the war you fight in.

A lot of JRPG fans lament to this day that the ultra popular Final Fantasy XV was more action RPG than traditional turn-based affair. Many gamers long for the days when the FF series was more about limit breaks and menu surfing than four bros on a journey in their kickass car. For them, Square Enix is bringing the first mainline game in the Dragon Quest series stateside since 2010.