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[Rolan7]

Iji got another update back in July.  From a glance at Reddit it's not as extreme as the 2017 update that allowed true pacifism and so much more dialogue, but a few comment do hint that there might be subtle changes.
If nothing else, there's a special high-quality download for the soundtrack.  I haven't checked it out yet - I'm afraid that I won't be able to tell the difference, especially since I "Welcome To the Party Pal" myself every month or two.

(And Dan really needs to stop asking me about the ceiling lamps.  The ceiling lamps.  The ceiling lamps.)

[Salmeuk]

Iji got another update back in July.  From a glance at Reddit it's not as extreme as the 2017 update that allowed true pacifism and so much more dialogue, but a few comment do hint that there might be subtle changes.
If nothing else, there's a special high-quality download for the soundtrack.  I haven't checked it out yet - I'm afraid that I won't be able to tell the difference, especially since I "Welcome To the Party Pal" myself every month or two.

(And Dan really needs to stop asking me about the ceiling lamps.  The ceiling lamps.  The ceiling lamps.)

holy crap I used to play that game a really, REALLY long time ago. what an indie darling!

[Egan_BW]

High quality soundtrack has always been an optional download since I first played the game, way before the 2017 update.

Seems Iji 1.8 didn't add anything quite worth starting a new playthrough over, found a changelog

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

===== IJI =====
-Switching weapons now only takes half a second, unless the reload timer has
  over half a second left. Previously it took as long to switch to a weapon as
  it took to reload it with a minimum of one second.
-Doubled the active duration of Shock Barrier.
-Ansaksie's voice lines now play correctly in the Sound Test.
-Added a page to the Cracker's hideout logbook to give a hint to the room above.
-Fixed wording of a logbook (changed "resource ineffective" to "resource
  inefficient").
-Made the endgame rankings information a bit more clear to avoid confusion about
  the Immortal rank (take 99 damage or less). The rankings themselves have not
  changed.
-Moved the logbook about Sentinel phrases in Sector 7 to a more easily
  accessible place.

[Robsoie]

Spent some time the epic store freebie of this week "Guild of Dungeoneering", here's my two cents.

The initial concept seemed nice , guild management sending adventurers to their death or unlikely victory to increase the guild money so they can expand more.
From the concept there is then a lot of potential, unfortunately in practice it is very far from living up to half the potential.

The problems i had were many :

The game is -very- heavy on luck, on a same fight you can either easily win or lose without hope depending on your luck on yours and the monsters order of card random picking. It's very frustrating to have the card battle system being entirely out of the players hand like that depending on if you're lucky or not, as unlike a normal card game you can mitigate this by building your deck , there your deck is dependant on the guy class + whatever loot you can do (and cards can be really poor) and optimising your deck requires you to grind again and again as your deck is reset to what it was once you leave a dungeon.
Managed to beat a boss with a underleved guy , just because i had incredible luck with picking my best cards while the enemy had crap after crap each rounds.
And lost another guy that had a superior level to a basic enemy because i experienced just the opposite.



To make sure you don't want to get attached to an adventurer, everyone you send to a dungeon (only 1 , can't send a party regardless of how many guys are in your guild) is completely expendable : his level reset to 1 once he complete a dungeon and all the equipment he found disappear and in the case he dies there's a new one replacing it after the next dungeon expedition.

If a guy survive a dungeon, he can gain a trait that can give him a bonus or two , usefull but considering adventurers are dying by dozens easily in some dungeons until you get the perfect "luck" , those character development are basically useless as they don't stay for the adventurers replacement and your guy with his traits will die soon enough anyways.

Now the dungeon exploring, the idea to put tiles yourself to build the dungeon, place enemies and treasures is nice (some of them having time limit requires you to build it efficiently, assuming you have enough luck to have the good tiles coming and not lot of dead end or corridors that don't fit) but out of specifics configurations there's absolutely no real use to develop the dungeon much (out of grinding some levels for your characters) as out of the pre-placed enemies and treasures, the ones you can place yourself aren't varied enough to provide some exploring fun.

The bard singing the situation when you upgrade your guild, send a guy to a dungeon , then lose or win, at first i found this funny and very original but after you start losing lots of people this is easily getting on your nerves and you just turn that off (fortunately you can).

Money (even despite the guys dying) flow quickly enough, until you have all the tier 1 guild upgrades , the tier 2 are a very lot more expensive and it takes a lot of grinding to get enough for one. It's just not fun anymore at that point.

So as a conclusion, the game is a good 15mn fun (for those 15mn i truly enjoyed it) , but ultimately the lack of depth and things to do, along the previously mentionned problems will make Guild of Dungeoneering not something you'll come back to play more than once or twice more as the grinding when you progress does not offer enough in term of gameplay to keep the game fun.
There's an "ultimate edition" coming (the freebie on the epic store is actually used as a promo for that new edition, it even appears in the game main menu). No idea if it will fix my annoyances with the game and i'm not really interested to know more after my session with it.

[Akura]

Factory Town left Early Access yesterday, and is on sale for 50%. It's a belts-and-factories game like Factorio, plus town-building management. I've only played the first two campaign missions so far, but it seems pretty good. The goal seems to build up a town, using various factories and shops to supply your houses with different goods, while your houses provide your worker pool. This is important, because you need workers to run your factories. Early on, your workers will also be needed to move goods manually and collect resources. Later on, you'll get conveyor belts and the like to transport goods and automated producers to collect resources - they still need workers to run, but produce faster(and possibly infinitely) than having the workers collect it.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Halo Infinite multiplayer is actually pretty darn good--for those of you who like Halo or are still playing FPS games. I am obviously not the best guy, but I found both the 4v4s and the 12v12s to be very fun. Mechanically, it feels great--much closer to the older Halos than 4 and 5. Warthog is still badass and the Wasp feels like they finally nailed the UNSC aerial vehicle. I've got some nitpicks here and there, but so far probably the best Halo game in 343's repertoire (which I mean, dubious, but maybe this is the start of the golden era yea?)

The campaign releases on Dec 8, with presumably some more content and forge? I am still quite worried about the singleplayer. On one hand I hear promising things, but then I hear stuff like "haha, lore was never why people like Halo in the first place" which I mean is not true. So I am LEGITIMATELY hopeful, but the jury's still out.

[Iduno]

Factory Town left Early Access yesterday, and is on sale for 50%. It's a belts-and-factories game like Factorio, plus town-building management. I've only played the first two campaign missions so far, but it seems pretty good. The goal seems to build up a town, using various factories and shops to supply your houses with different goods, while your houses provide your worker pool. This is important, because you need workers to run your factories. Early on, your workers will also be needed to move goods manually and collect resources. Later on, you'll get conveyor belts and the like to transport goods and automated producers to collect resources - they still need workers to run, but produce faster(and possibly infinitely) than having the workers collect it.

I was going to come by and ask if anyone had tried it. Looks like the half off sale also extends to itch.io. $10 for the game and it includes a Steam Key. It was just updated 2 days ago there, so I assume it's the most recent version.

[Jopax]

I snagged it, no particular interest in the game before this, saw some lets plays of earlier versions over the past year I think.

It's nice, I don't wanna say it's factorio lite because that doesn't do the game justice but it's probably the most apt description. It isn't terribly complex, at least the first several hours aren't, maybe it gets complicated further down the line. But just because it's somewhat simple doesn't mean it's bad, it's easy to pick up and a fairly satisfying little town/factory builder. Setting up multiple different chains of production ends up giving you a neat little bustling town feeling with workers and stuff zipping around the place.

That said, it has some UI/UX issues, nothing too major, but for how long it spent in early access you'd think they'd figure out that hiding something as important as deleting/moving structures behind two menus would be a bad idea. You can probably drag them out to the hotbar, but that has limited space and these functions are kinda important enough that I'd reckon they deserve their own separate buttons on the main game window.

Still, fairly relaxed and not terribly complicated little game, well worth the price if you're looking for something of a factory building game but can't be bothered with something as massive and in-depth as factorio or dyson sphere program.

[Persus13]

Halo Infinite multiplayer is actually pretty darn good--for those of you who like Halo or are still playing FPS games. I am obviously not the best guy, but I found both the 4v4s and the 12v12s to be very fun. Mechanically, it feels great--much closer to the older Halos than 4 and 5. Warthog is still badass and the Wasp feels like they finally nailed the UNSC aerial vehicle. I've got some nitpicks here and there, but so far probably the best Halo game in 343's repertoire (which I mean, dubious, but maybe this is the start of the golden era yea?)

The campaign releases on Dec 8, with presumably some more content and forge? I am still quite worried about the singleplayer. On one hand I hear promising things, but then I hear stuff like "haha, lore was never why people like Halo in the first place" which I mean is not true. So I am LEGITIMATELY hopeful, but the jury's still out.

I've been having a blast in Halo Infinite too. Really feels like a proper successor to the older Halo multiplayer experience while still having new weapons and modern shooter QoL stuff.

[Akura]

Still playing Factory Town. On the fifth campaign level, I'd say about 3/4ths done. Just started unlocking magic techs, which is needed to finish the mission. I do like that the game really doesn't hold your hand to get the objectives done, letting you build the way you want. Judging from the achievement stats, I'm pretty much one of the only people bothering with the campaign.

I agree the UI could use some work, but it's not game-breaking. You can hotbar everything in the build menu, which is helpful. There's a lot of things that aren't adequately explained, for example a very common complaint I'm seeing is that the game doesn't tell you that chutes and minecarts can only take a limited selection of items. Mainly raw resources; stones, logs, crops for the most part. Not refined goods such as planks and cloth. Another basic thing that you'll probably quickly find out is that if you're using wagons(and later, caravans) to move stuff around - which you will in the beginning or if it's awkward to use conveyors - make your roads two, or better, three, tiles wide. They can't occupy the same tile, and need a space to maneuver around.

Today I found out you actually require building farm tiles/tree planters on crops in order to be able to water and fertilize them. I also just realized there's a lot of potential for vertical construction. Houses only need to be in the town center area, and have a road connection to the various shops(or can be supplied directly, but that's dumb). As far as I know, there's no vertical limit on the town center area, so there's nothing stopping you(besides building materials) from just building a big tower with houses on each "floor" with ramps connecting floors.

[Aoi]

Ancient Gods... how does an StS-esque card battler end up so far off? On the bright side, it's still in EA, and a lot of the problems are still things that can be worked out... though it means changing a few major systems. The fundamentals and production are actually pretty good, though.

Spoiler: "Short version: Not recommended at this time." (click to show/hide)

So the good: Art's pretty good, if you like the style. Audio is fine. Play is mostly not buggy (and nothing run-breaking).

The bad: It's like they took the negative elements of a gacha game, shoved it into a second-rate card battler, and gave it a nice coat of paint (as above).

The bad, gacha side: You need to grind to unlock alternate characters... then level them up. And this process is the good ol' 'pay points to draw 10x' stuff that makes sense for monetization, but in a B2P? Ehhh. A 5*+10 has literally about twice the stats of a 5*+0, and remember, this is nominally a card battler, where you should be focusing on deck composition to outplay the opponent. Making this even worse: Optimal grind is pretty much exactly opposite from optimal gameplay. You can get 10 gems per battle (or something like that) or 500 gems for taking 15 dead cards in a fairly common event.

The bad, card battler side: Your character just impacts what passive you have and your stat distribution... card effectiveness is tied directly to stats and you combo for using the same base-stat card, so statistically 2/3rds of the cards you'll see in a run you'll just ignore. Pretty much no cards unique to your character (excluding those tied to passives), so it's basically just the three archetypes, with 2-3 flavors of them.. And with the bad from the gacha side, you can just out-stat everybody... or in infinite mode, outstat everybody until you have a deck that has an irresistable combo, or they just overpower you with bigger numbers. So the deck building stuff isn't very interesting.

So... totally not worth cost of entry in its current form.

[Robsoie]

Played a bit with "theHunter : Call of the Wild" , this week epic store freebie and found it to be an excellent walking simulator, very nice large environment and really good looking (even on my old system with half graphic options turned down) and is running very well (i guess your character walking very slowly + not much AI walking around helps performance a lot) .

Managed to hunt 3 deers so far (either got lucky or the game has been very generous in making the preys rather dumb at my start), and nearly got a black bear (missed it and it ran away) on my first exploration of the Layton Lake map while following the missions given. But more than the actual hunt i oddly enjoy a lot walking around the scenery.

Recommended even for those not fan of hunting games, as it's rather relaxing to walk in such very well modelled environment.

For some reason the game crash every first time i try to launch it, then on the 2nd time always have no problem.

edit : you have a camera that can be used to take photos (some missions you're getting use that feature).
the photos/screenshots took with it are saved in :
C:\Users\YourUserName\Pictures\Epic Captures\

"YourUserName" being of course whatever is your window 10 user name.

edit 2 : as you probably know Call of the Wind is one of those game filled with features cut from the game so they can sell them as DLC.

It's very playable without any of them, as the game comes with 2 reserves (that are very giants maps to explore, walk and hunt on).
There are a lot of DLC reserves, and if you play in multiplayer you can join a session that happens in a DLC reserve without having it yourself.

[Blue_Dwarf]

I picked up Spire of Sorcery a while ago. It's a turn-based roguelite/strategy about mages and spell combination puzzles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlF9TwOO414

It's in Early Access, but the main game loop is already pretty finished, they just need to add the remaining chapters of the content. The three chapters they have already are enough for about 10-15 hours at least.

[Akura]

A Hat in Time has a new DLC - Vanessa's Curse. It seems to be a solely a PvP mode.

It's also part of their new Creator DLC program. They claim it's not paid mods, and in fact their support page states that previously free mods will not be put into this program. But it also doesn't say who gets what of the price($3 for this one).

The reviews on it are mixed at the moment, from what I'm reading in the comments it's because public matchmaking is broken. Which is a shame because it looks fun. On the other hand, this DLC also gives access to Online Party mode(the base game's co-op), even if you don't have the Nyakuza Metro DLC.

The base game and all the other DLCs besides this one are all half off right now, and the full bundle is 65% off.

[Robsoie]

Having a lot of fun wandering around theHunter:Call of the Wild , it has really superb and atmospheric environments (even on lower res settings) , at least the 2 gigantic reserves that are included the base game, they both have a very different vibe too so you really feel like you're not on the same continent and make using the game as a walking simulator rather refreshing.

Some observations regarding the actual hunting :

On average i observed that walking on Hirschfelden Hunting Reserve produce more noise than walking on (roughly as vegetation and soil aren't really the same) similar grounds in Layton Lake District.
Meaning that hunting in the german reserve is harder as you really need to move slower and find good spots to wait , while hunting in the american reserve allow for more mistakes.

I felt like in Layton Lake when i was taking cover in a bush or thanks to a tree, my visibility gauge was making me a lot more stealthy than in Hirschfelden , allowing me to sneak around the bush without my cover being blown, while in the german reserve my visibility gauge wasn't allowing for moving a lot around my cover without getting more exposed.

Basically, in term of hunting it's better to start on Layton Lake than on Hirschfelden , it will be less frustrating and you will learn the gameplay basics and the stealth faster.

Hirschfelden has a, actual shooting range, so you can train your aiming there , ammo being free there
https://thehuntercotw.fandom.com/wiki/Rathenfeldt_Schiessstand

On both reserves walking while standing is never a good idea unless you're crossing areas you are sure there's no game to target (or if you just aren't in the mood to shoot), it will produce 1 red bar in the noise gauge (and usually 2 on the german reserve), and on heavy vegetation it will produce 2 red bars and you don't want that if you're trying to get closer to an animal, in that situation it's better to crouch and move like that.

If you find a good spot, that keeps you very hidden (check your gauge) and have a good view on a feeding/drinking/resting zone you discovered, learn to be patient and you'll be rewarded if you came there at the correct time.

When i started playing there was an extra rifle in my inventory, a .270 gun, the ammo isn't free (unlike the "normal" starting .243 gun ) but the .270 ammo has better penetration (good for larger animals and piercing more organs) and "expansion" (that seems to be linked to how large a bleeding can be)

So basically unless for some reason you're very short on ingame money (you shouldn't really, just don't buy those hunting cabin to build yourself that you find regularly on the maps as they're not very low on price and not that usefull) there's no real reason to use the .243 gun that is outmatched in every ways by the .270 (hurting more means the prey will die faster so you will not have to follow it for as long as if you were making it bleed with the .243)

In the game there's the concept of "pressure zone" , basically when a prey dies, it generate a pressure zone what it means is that animal smell death and will start to avoid the area, the more overlapping pressure zones there are, the more chance an animal will not enter it.
Too many overlapping pressure zones will lead to the feeding/drinking/resting areas disappearing from that high pressure zone. 

The only way to lower a pressure zone, is to killl a lot of preys in another area to make a stronger pressure zone there.

Another alternative is to delete all the "animal_population_X" (with X being a number) you can find in your
C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents\Avalanche Studios\Epic Games Store\COTW\ 
saved game folder (on steam it may of course be somewhere else)  , there may be more of those files in subfolders there.

Doing this will reset the animal population like it was originally and will also remove all the pressure zones