Some of the best games of recent memory have been deceptively simple, and Kill the Brickman looks like it might just scratch that itch for arcade-inspired fun. Published by Vampire Survivors developer Poncle and developed by Doonutsaur, Kill the Brickman is a turn-based roguelike brick-breaker game, and it's out now on PC and Xbox consoles.

The goal here is simple, as each run will see you blasting your way through chapters, powerful bosses, and bricks featuring leering faces on them. How can you not want to smash them?

The catch here is that you'll need to build bullet-blasting loadouts by combining relics, clip layouts, and variant rounds, experimenting to find the perfect synergy to work your way through each level. If you feel like a real challenge, you can also grab an extra mission from the intergalactic bounty board for extra rewards.

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Remember earlier this week when The Pokemon Company put out a teaser image for Pokemon Legends: Z-A that looked like it could legitimately be from something like the Blair Witch Project? Well, the full trailer is out now, and unsurprisingly it isn't actually all that scary--apart from that one bit with the Espurr. That thing still is terrifying. Still, the trailer is a fun riff on the found-footage genre, and it even revealed a completely new Mega Evolution Pokemon.

Titled The Case of the Sweet Scent Incident, the trailer follows a couple of people exploring an abandoned building as they come across more and more mysterious happenings. Surprising mirrors, mysterious purple sludge, that titular sweet scent, some Pokemon-oriented jump-scares--all of it builds towards the reveal of Mega Victreebel. And it's looking … large.

Victreebel's Mega form essentially looks like a giant water balloon with some leaves growing out of it, and it bounces around the place as it moves. Over on the official Pokemon Legends website, a description explains, "It has so much acid that even closing its mouth tight isn’t enough to hold it in, so it contains the acid by wrapping its own vines around its throat." It certainly paints an uncomfortable picture.

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This week Steam made a small change to how it displays reviews and will now show a score for reviews in your language instead of an "all reviews" score. One game that has benefited from the change is Palworld, which now shows Overwhelmingly Positive for all English reviews.

Palworld has been the source of some controversy since it first came to the public's attention, with some claiming the monster-collecting title is a direct rip-off of Pokemon--an opinion that seems to be shared by Nintendo, who eventually sued developer Pocketpair for patent infringement. The game has still proven popular with players, reaching huge player numbers in its first month of release.

While Palworld used to show an all-time review rating of Very Positive on Steam, the reviews update has given the game a small boost in English, granting it the coveted Overwhelmingly Positive rating. The upgrade was celebrated by Pocketpair's communications director and publishing manager John "Bucky" Buckley, who posted to X about the milestone. Bucky clarified in the comments that Palworld isn't rated particularly low in any language--it "just happens to be higher in English," he said in a reply.

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Hell Let Loose is getting a sequel that takes place during the Vietnam War. At Gamescom, Team17 and Expression Games announced Hell Let Loose: Vietnam, a platoon-based "hardcore" FPS featuring 50v50 multiplayer battles focused on team play and strategy.

"Retaining the gameplay base that fans loved from the first title, this is a brand-new experience, utilizing combined arms, with air, water, armor, infantry, and support weapons that encapsulates the theatre of war feeling beloved by fans of the original title," the publisher said.

Hell Let Loose: Vietnam will have six maps, pilotable helicopters and patrol boats--including the famous PBR--and a tunnel system for another layer of strategy.

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Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time has a new patch on all platforms, bringing a brand-new photo mode, new abilities for mounts, a wide camera angle for the Base Camp, and a heap of other quality-of-life upgrades.

Version 1.5.0 is out now, bringing with it a brand-new photo mode that can be accessed directly from the Weird Pad. The photo mode looks pretty thorough, including plenty of options for posing multiple characters in a scene, as well as a multitude of emote expressions.

The update also adds a new item called Pride of the Mount, which can be unlocked by completing a quest from Monsieur Cobra. Once acquired, Pride of the Mount will unlock a dash-speed upgrade for your mounts, as well as two new mount abilities--double=jump and cliff climbing.

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California governor Gavin Newsom has reacted to the PlayStation 5 price hike in the US, jokingly thanking US President Donald Trump for making it happen via his controversial tariff strategy.

Re-sharing a news story about the PS5 price hike, Newsom, a Democrat, posted on social media, "Great work, Donald Trump!!"

On August 20, Sony announced a price hike for the PS5 in the US, with all models of the console going up by $50 effective today, August 21. PS5 accessories, however, will hold their prices. With the price hike now in effect, the cheapest PS5 model is $500. The PS5 Pro, meanwhile, now costs $750.

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About a week ago, on the same day I started playing Okomotive's Herdling, I accidentally hit a squirrel with my car. The critter darted into the road, and I tried to evade them, but I failed.

They died. It devastated me.

I called my wife, physically shaking and tearful, to tell her what happened. I sat in my car for a bit when I got to my destination, needing to regain my composure. Though I knew my intent was pure, I found it hard to accept that I had taken their life away. To no one's surprise, if you're familiar with my work, I saw them not as "roadkill," but as a being with their own interests and goals, however simple those may seem compared to those of humans. It wasn't an ideal starting point for heading into Herdling, a game about trying to guide a family of vulnerable animals out of the city and return them safely to their natural habitat. But I'm sure, even on a normal day, Herdling was going to connect with me deeply on account of its moving depictions of human-animal kindness and companionship.

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Ahead of its release next year, The Blood of Dawnwalker developer Rebel Wolves revealed more details on the dual-gameplay loop that will drive this experience. Set in 14th-century Europe, players will step into the boots of Coen as he works to save his family from a local vampire warlord.

The catch here is that Coen has two sides to him, as his Dawnwalker abilities allow him to unlock vampiric powers at night. Daylight hours make Coen revert back to his human side, and Rebel Wolves says that players will be able to experiment with different approaches and discover how the world reacts to their actions.

"Choices and consequences in our games have three layers," game director Konrad Tomaskiewicz said in a gameplay deep-dive video shown during the Future Games Show at Gamescom livestream. "First, is quite traditional. Similar to other RPGs, you make choices and then deal with the consequences. The second layer plays into our dual-gameplay loop. Day and night often present different choices. And finally, not making a choice is also a choice. You can choose not to react, and the world will react in ways that are often hard to predict."

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Mafia: The Old Country's Sicily's turn-of-the-century setting was getting a little more explicit than Take-Two Interactive would like. The publisher has issued a takedown notice to Nexus Mods to remove a pair of custom nude mods that left the game's lead female character, Isabella Torrisi, without anything to wear.

Nexus Mods acknowledged the request from Take-Two (via PC Gamer), and complied by removing the Nude Isabella mod and the Extended Textures for Nude Isabella mod, both of which were created by a user known as norskpl. PC Gamer speculates norskpl may have used Isabella's model from her love scenes in the game. Norskpl's non-nude mods created for The Old Country appear to have been left intact. That includes a few mods that let players assume the role of other characters from the Mafia franchise.

In the context of the game, Isabella is the daughter of Don Torrisi, the boss of the player's character, Enzo Favara. Although the Don is fiercely protective of Isabella and has his own ideas about who she should marry, she and Enzo have a clandestine affair behind his back. That's the primary romantic relationship in the game, and the source of inevitable conflict.

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Earlier this week, 2K Games acknowledged a shake-up at Cloud Chamber--the studio behind BioShock 4--following reports that the game failed an internal review. Now, a new report suggests that the game could have come out as soon as next year if BioShock 4 had been more favorably received by the company.

According to Bloomberg, BioShock 4 was planned for a debut in either late 2026 or early 2027. However, the subsequent layoffs at Cloud Chamber will likely delay the next BioShock game even further. Bloomberg notes that 80 employees from Cloud Chamber were let go, leaving approximately 170 people remaining at the studio.

Studio head Kelley Gilmore was ousted from Cloud Chamber after the game's internal review, according to the report. In his place, 2K Games has hired Rod Fergusson to take over the studio following his own departure from Blizzard. In addition to leading the Diablo franchise for Blizzard, Fergusson previously worked on BioShock Infinite and helped get that game's production on track.

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This is a role-playing game released in Japan by Humming Bird Soft in 1987. This first-person 3D RPG has players form a party of unique characters - detective, journalist, scientist, psychic, and dilettante - to challenge the haunted Weather Top Mansion. It features turn-based combat with physical and mental attack elements, some enemies vulnerable only to the latter. At the start, you find yourself suddenly trapped inside the mansion, and your first challenge is figuring out how to escape. The mansion is full of traps that can drive you insane, and you can take photos of monsters and sell them in town. With its strong horror elements and puzzle-solving game, this title offers a rewarding challenge for those looking for a deep and atmospheric 3D RPG experience.

The Girl from Arkanya is a retro-inspired, action-packed adventure game for those who know heroes don't always work for free. Join Marisa, a young treasure hunter trying to make a name for herself, as she ventures across the land of Amazonia searching for a lost priestess. Help her find fame and (more importantly) fortune, and claim the title of the world's greatest treasure hunter! But this job is too big for any one treasure hunter to do alone, so you'll be joining forces with Kapi, a magical capybara! Work together with Kapi to defeat terrifying foes, solve ancient riddles, and navigate mysterious temples! Gather adventurer's supplies and powerful artifacts, unlock bonus upgrades while learning about the citizens of Arkanya and Marajo, and seek out the blessings of the Amazonian priestesses! Each step along the way will help your odds of surviving the punishing trials ahead...

Amy's brother is dead. She hadn't even seen him in years. Thomas has always been a little eccentric. Obsessed with lucid dreaming and the concept of other worlds. All a little too fantastical for a small town vet like Amy herself. But then Amy comes across his journals. And what at first seems like the ramblings of a troubled mind slowly begin to seem more and more plausible. Maybe her brother was right about everything. And maybe, just maybe... he isn't actually dead. Deep Sleep: Labyrinth of the Forsaken is a point-and-click horror adventure from veteran developer scriptwelder, and a standalone entry into the cult classic Deep Sleep series. Guide Amy deeper into the world of dreams, using the power of her mind to shape her surroundings and overcome challenges and puzzles. Explore landscapes both beautiful and terrifying in your search to uncover the truth about her brother.

Manage your own discount supermarket! Get caught up in small-town drama, organise and plan your shop's layout, and strike lucrative trade deals as you expand your secretive aunt's business empire. Selling more frozen fries will surely heal this broken community...right? Step into the quirky harbour town of Blomkest, where your aunt has entrusted you with managing its only supermarket. Design and organise your shop, manage stock levels, work the checkout, and strike trade deals. Build relationships with the charming locals, and grow your business empire while navigating community dynamics. Use every tool at your disposal to expand your business, but be mindful: rapid growth might ruffle a few feathers in this tight-knit community. Will you pursue endless profits, or find a way to benefit everyone in Blomkest?

After losing her mother to an ancient evil, Lili doesn't want anything to do with her mother's legacy of being a Guardian. However, when Lili rescues a Monk-in-training named Sadi, the latter urges her to revive the traditional partnership of Guardians and Monks and help him save their home from the mysterious corrupting Void. But the world of Atarassia is a dangerous place, filled with monsters and obstacles spawned from the Void, all deadly to a reluctant and unprepared hero. Lili and Sadi will need to combine their wits, their wills, and their strength of arms and magic to defeat the Void's corruption, and finally confront the god that took their families from them. Take on dungeons full of mechanical puzzles to be solved, Void monsters to battle, and friendly spirits to rescue as Lili and Sadi discover what it means to truly be partners, and to assume their heroic destinies as Guardian and Monk.

Defeat the hordes of monsters alongside your Bean Beasts in this cute but challenging Tower Defense Game featuring evolving creatures, upgrade paths, enemy pathing and boss encounters!