Come on in, get yourself a nice cup of coffee or tea and pull up a chair.
Autumn is here, though we haven’t had the storms yet that Paula has been experiencing in Belfast. It’s mild here, a nice bit of sunshine and falling leaves. And early nights, perfect for gaming!
Anyway, here’s this week’s news.
Station to Station Voxel-art Story Mode
Station to Station, an upcoming indie title from developer Galaxy Grove, announced that a new mode will be available upon release. This train-themed city builder simulation was ranked the 13th most popular demo during its last Steam Next Fest as it showed off a few levels of its incredible Voxel-art story mode. But in addition to this, players will also be able to experience something called Custom Mode when the game releases on October 3, 2023.
Custom Mode will give players the opportunity to create their own levels. They will have the option to influence the size of the map, the difficulty, the budget, and other elements to make this train line builder even more relaxing or more challenging. In other exciting news, the developer hinted during a press conference on September 20th that the company is “looking into” putting this highly-anticipated title onto consoles as well as Steam. You can expect our review here shortly!
Tales of the Shire
Now this news sure caught out attention! A new game for Middle Earth fans has been announced by Private Division. Tales of the Shire is due out in 2024 on console and PC, featuring your cozy Hobbit Life. They promise us a heart-warming new Lord of the Rings game, and my imagination is working overtime. I would be perfectly happy with a sim game living in the Shire! But, not much info is known, though it might still take another direction entirely. Nothing to do but wait, but get this: the developer is Weta Workshop!
Remastered Version of The Legend of Legacy
News a lot of fans are over the moon about, I’m sure: The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered is coming in early 2024 on Switch, PS4, PS5 and PC! First released on the 3DS in 2015 and made by FURYU, it has a turn-based fighting system and classic RPG gameplay.
The game features battle formations, combat roles, and forging contracts to channel the power of elementals. It’ll be interesting to see what the remastered version ads!
Demo for Projected Dreams Live
We were fortunate to have a first look at a demo for Projected Dreams a couple of weeks ago. In this game, you have to place and stack objects on a table to create a silhouette matching the challenge provided. As you advance, you’re rewarded with more things to use in your efforts. The silhouettes are inspired by children’s toys from the early 2000s, so you might well feel some nostalgia here!
The demo is now live on Steam, so if you like what you see, check it out!
Handheld Consoles Dedicated to Tetris
From October 1st, My Arcade partners with the Tetris Company Inc. to bring four new handheld consoles to the market. Tetris Micro Player Pro, Tetris Pocket Player Pro, Tetris Go Gamer, and Tetris Gamer V will be available for $ 24.99. For more information, I want to point you to the My Arcade Gaming website for additional information.
Cities: Skylines II Xbox and PS5 Delayed
As you can imagine, Paula is gearing up for a grand gaming time with Cities: Skylines II getting close to its release on October 24th. In a news update, the developers Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order have made this statement:
“While being hard at work for the upcoming release, we have come to realize that we need more time to reach the quality targets we have set. As we want to provide the best experience for our players, we are updating the release window for Xbox and PS5 to Spring 2024. The additional time allows us to focus on matching the quality and performance across all platforms.
We’ll share more updates on the console release window soon. As work on optimization continues, we’re also updating the minimum and recommended PC specs. If you have more questions, our FAQ is here.”
Milestone Downloads for Polytopia on Mobile
We can testify that we loved Polytopia and rated it with two thumbs up. And though it’s available on the Switch and Steam, it’s most successful on mobile since its release in 2016. It has been downloaded over 20 million times!
Polytopia’s success on mobile is unusual for a 4x strategy game, a genre which has mechanics more commonly found in desktop gaming. Likewise, Polytopia monetizes differently to most free-to-play mobile games where the game only offers expansions and cosmetics that players get to keep forever and has no in-game currency. The game is purely skill-based and does not force players to buy anything at any point in the game. The title has been celebrated by critics and gamers alike, receiving the ‘Excellence In Gameplay’ title from the International Mobile Gaming Awards and labelled as ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ by Steam users.
Fae Farm Tops Charts
It’s not a surprise for us, as we love Fae Farm, but the game is currently topping the eShop charts! We liked it a lot and wrote a guide for it, too, to get you started.
It has a new trailer, just in case you’re still in doubt!
Pokémon in the Van Gogh Museum
If you happen to live in the Netherlands or are visiting, there’s a unique opportunity to see a collaboration between Pokémon and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I must say, Pikachu looks good in the hat!
Pikachu, Eevee, Snorlax and many other Pokémon are at the Van Gogh Museum until 7 January 2024! Let’s go on the Pokémon Adventure at the museum and get a special promo card to add to your collection, or join many other activities. Don’t miss out, book museum tickets in advance.
Ikonei Island Ready for Full Release
Ikonei Island: and Earthlock Adventure has been in Early Access on Steam since August 2022, and is gearing up to leave EA on October 9th. So if you want to get the game at the EA price of $14.99 instead of the full price of $24.99, now’s your chance! Until October 9th, there’s a new demo up on Steam as well.
Plus, not only can your friends try out the solo version of the game, but up to 3 of them can join you in online co-op mode and play the entire game FOR FREE if you own the full game. The whole thing as long as at least one of you owns the game.
We had the chance to interview the people behind Ikonei Island, so check it out if you would like to know more!
That’s it for this week; thanks for reading!