برچسب: Steam

Vampire Survivors dev is publishing a $4 action game, and it’s out on Steam now

Since it launched in 2021, Vampire Survivors cannot be stopped. Poncle’s phenomenal bullet hell roguelike is one of the most successful indies on Steam, amassing a 98% positive user rating from nearly 240,000 reviews across its lifetime. That’s for good reason, too, as not only is the core experience infinitely replayable, but a collection of updates and DLC have vastly expanded what’s on offer. Vampire Survivors is easily one of the best value propositions available on PC today, and now Poncle has another one for you. The studio is publishing the incredibly vibrant and kinetic Berserk or Die, which has a truly bizarre control scheme, and it’s available right now.

You’re the last soldier left on the battlefield, and with enemies approaching from all sides, you’ve got one job: survive. Set on a gorgeous 2D plane, that’s the core premise of Berserk or Die from Nao Games, a new action indie game all about chaining together flashy moves.

This isn’t like Castlevania, Contra, Ninja Gaiden, or any manner of classic platformer, though, because in Berserk or Die, you can only move by attacking. Hitting the left or right side of your keyboard attacks in that direction, and the more keys you press at once, the wilder and more powerful your moves. That’s right, you’re encouraged to smash your keyboard to bits with as big a strike as possible. Once you’ve obliterated enough enemies your special gauge will fill up, and you can then shake your mouse and unleash a move that’ll wipe through all the enemies on the screen.

With multiple characters to choose from, and an array of weapons to equip them with, you’ll have more than enough ways to keep gameplay feeling fresh. If you manage to survive until nightfall, you can then visit a lone peddler to sell your wares, heal your wounds, and buy upgrades. You’ll do all this to a soundtrack from Vampire Survivors composer Filippo Vicarelli, too, so you just know it’s going to get your blood pumping.

“Nao Games shares the Poncle spirit of making games that are immediately accessible, affordable, and a bit out of the ordinary; for fun.” Poncle’s Luca Galante says. “When I first met Shibata-san and played Berserk or Die, I knew this was a game that deserved to be seen and played by more people. I’m really happy we got to support Shibata-san and hopefully make that happen.”

Berserk or Die is available on Steam right now, for $3.99 / £2.99. Just head here.

We’ve also got all the single-player games and best PC games you’ll want to keep an eye on as well.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.

Source link

09/06/2025
Undertale spinoff Deltarune soars on Steam as Chapters 3 and 4 finally arrive

One of the most surprising, out-of-nowhere indie hits of the 2010s was undoubtedly Undertale, but its episodic spinoff, Deltarune, is just as highly regarded and beloved. Developer Toby Fox already released the first two episodes of Deltarune in 2018 and 2021, but the wait for Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 has been a long one. Now though, they’re both here as part of the complete and ‘final’ version Deltarune. While it was always going to be a momentous occasion for the pixel art RPG, I’m completely blown away by just how high it’s flying on Steam right now, rising above recent behemoths like Elden Ring Nightreign on the platform’s best sellers list.

Undertale is a cherished indie game thanks to its visuals, soundtrack, and choice-influenced story. However, being worked on even before Undertale came out was Deltarune, a spinoff that takes a lot of the same gameplay formula (and even some of Undertale’s characters) and transplants them into a “parallel” narrative and world.

Fox has been chipping away at Deltarune since 2012, but so far only two episodes have seen the light of day. The developer promised that Chapter 3 and 4 would arrive at the same time – bundled together with 1 and 2 – in the future, and after 13 years of work, that day has finally arrived.

Deltarune’s complete collection of Chapters 1-4 is now available on Steam, and fans of Fox’s work have flocked to it in their droves. At the time of writing, just over 133,000 people are currently playing Deltarune on Steam, and that number could rise by the end of today. Right now, more people are checking out the new chapters than are playing huge hits like Marvel Rivals, Apex Legends, and Helldivers 2.

It’s also shot straight to the top of Steam’s top-sellers charts, sitting above the likes of recent megahit Elden Ring Nightreign and the imminent Dune Awakening.

While Chapters 1 through 4 are available in the new release of Deltarune, Fox has already pledged that a fifth chapter will arrive as a free DLC for anyone that owns the game. If you want to try before you buy, a free demo will let you play the previously released first two chapters. You can grab Deltarune or download the demo right here.

For more, check out our lists of the best RPGs and best story games.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.

Source link

05/06/2025
Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2 have a fresh rival as pixel-art ARPG soars on Steam

Diablo 4 Season 8 is perfectly fine, but feels safe and more of the same. Path of Exile 2’s Dawn of the Hunt has improved dramatically since its rocky release, but the early-access ARPG still has a long way to go. Last Epoch Season 2 is strong, but by now you may be looking for something fresh. Enter The Slormancer, a pixel-art indie ARPG from Slormite Studios that was launched out of early access at the start of this week, and has since built up impressive momentum with very positive Steam reviews and an ever-growing player count.

As either a Mighty Knight, Fierce Huntress, or Mischievous Mage, it’s your job to put a stop to an evil warlock called The Slormancer and his hordes of troublesome minions. It’s got everything that makes the best games like Diablo tick. Fast-paced action that sees you dancing through environments and blowing up dozens of hostile goons in quick succession, pouring damage numbers across the screen. Over 200 abilities, upgrades, and passives to create near-limitless build variations. An endless hunt for perfect loot with 200 legendary affixes, 120 game-changing unique weapons, and the ability to keep boosting your gear’s power as much as you want.

Slormite Studios emphasizes its focus on “collection and progression,” meaning you’re able to switch at any point between absolutely anything you’ve unlocked. That includes all skills you’ve gained access to, any items you’ve previously found, and even the very classes themselves. This creates a level of flexibility beyond what you’ll find in most other ARPGs, encouraging and rewarding experimentation.

Don’t worry about losing all your hard work when you switch builds, either; from loadouts to loot filters, The Slormancer has lots of welcome quality-of-life features. It even boasts a sprawling Ancestral Skill Tree that could give Path of Exile a run for its money, with more than 150 element-related skills and passives available to unlock. Your journey will take you across seven environments with a ton of visual variety, and its brief campaign is just the beginning of a much longer quest for power.

First launched into early access in 2021, The Slormancer is now out in full, and it’s quickly beginning to snowball as word of mouth spreads. What began as a gradual climb has escalated to a weekend high of 10,989 concurrent Steam players. The user reviews are filled with praise, too, with particular love given to the freedom of experimentation on offer and the ability to create weird and wacky builds on a whim based on just one small starting idea.

The Slormancer 1.0 is out now on Steam. Developer Slormite Studios is offering a 25% discount until Tuesday May 20, meaning you’ll pay $14.99 / £12.56. If you’re reading this early on and fancy yourself a new adventure, there’s still time to grab it at the lower price, so do so while you can.

For more stat-based satisfaction, here are the best RPGs on PC right now. Alternatively, take a look through the best indie games in 2025 to make sure you aren’t missing any hidden gems.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.

Source link

19/05/2025
Steam Deck gamers are playing Oblivion Remastered in droves, despite controversy

As a new month dawns, we’re taking a look at the most played Steam Deck games for April 2025, and it’s surprising to see Oblivion Remastered storm up the charts despite having become a bit of a meme for its poor performance. In the monthly data, however, Balatro still reigns supreme.

Each month, it’s fun to look at which games are performing well on the best handheld gaming PC and look for any surprises. The chart of top played games on Steam Deck lists, quite simply, the games with the most hours played from one to 100, and there are some big debuts in this month’s list.

In April, while it’s no great surprise to see indie games such as Schedule 1 and R.E.P.O continue to climb the rankings, the inclusion of Oblivion Remastered is somewhat puzzling. This is because of the ongoing performance issues affecting the game on the Steam Deck. It’s even become a meme, with players posting to Reddit saying they’ve finally got Oblivion to run well on the Deck, before posting a screenshot of the original game.

While players were always going to try to get Oblivion Remastered running on the Steam Deck, the controversy comes from Valve’s decision to give it a Verified rating, despite it failing on the core criteria that a game needs to earn this status.

We already tested the best Oblivion Remastered settings and found that, on the Steam Deck, you need to at least consider changing the upscaling method, as well as the level of upscaling from balanced to performance. This crucial change alone should relegate Oblivion to a Playable rating, but this hasn’t happened.

Despite the Oblivion Remastered system requirements suggesting that the game would be difficult for the Steam Deck to run, players are clearly just pushing through and running the game however they see fit. Given that the game only released late in the month, the fact that it’s already the number two game on Steam Deck is quite the achievement. It didn’t have quite enough plays to dethrone Balatro for the monthly stats, but it is currently the most played game over the last week.

Other notable inclusions on this month’s top-played list are Clair Obscur Expedition 33 at 26, a game that launched as Unsupported but has already been upgraded to Playable. The Last of Us Part 2 has debuted at 41 while the first game has reappeared at 60, likely due to renewed interest thanks to season two of the TV show.

Finally, there was another strong indie debut in the list as Blue Prince, the intriguing roguelike puzzle game, debuted at 16 for the monthly list, although it did appear inside the top 10 briefly during its release week.

If you want to read more about some of the Steam Deck’s biggest competition, check out our Ayaeno 3 review and Asus ROG Ally X review to see where they Windows handhelds stack up.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.

Source link

01/05/2025