Free Games

• Epic Games

  • Next Up Hero

    • 2018
    • Action dungeon crawler featuring an eclectic cast of heroes, where each time you die you can bring yourself back as an AI companion

  • Tacoma

    • 2017
    • Exploration game set aboard a seemingly empty space station in 2088 that has you using an augmented reality device to see the actions and conversations of the previous crew to solve puzzles and gather information

• Twitch

  • Dungeon Rushers

    • 2016
    • Tactical RPG combining turn based combat with dungeon-crawling gameplay, that also includes the ability to build your own dungeons filled with creatures and traps to challenge other players

As part of the Twitter hack we reported on last week, it looks like the direct messages of 36 accounts were accessed as part of the breach

• The hack used internal employee tools to target 130 accounts, and for 45 of those they used a password reset to get full access to the accounts and their information
• And for eight of those, the hackers used the “Your Twitter Data” tool to download a full archive of the accounts’ details and activity
• Twitter is apparently working directly with the impacted users and is further securing its systems to prevent future attacks

Apple’s launched a new Security Research Device (SRD) program to give bug hunters more access to find vulnerabilities

• The new devices will be licensed to security researchers on a year-by-year basis and include not only normal iPhone functions but also additional shell access to run extra toolsets
• While the devices aren’t meant to become anyone’s daily driver, the goal is to give these researchers more tools and access to be able to track down bugs and vulnerabilities quickly and effectively
• Anything found using these tools must be reported promptly, and along with the bug bounty program already offered by Apple could qualify for a payout of up to $1M

After about 5 years and billions of soccar matches played, Rocket League is going free to play

• Later this summer we’ll see the same core gameplay with refined menus, revamped tournaments and challenges, and cross-platform progression, all coming to the Epic Games Store
• Once this hits, anyone who owns Rocket League on any platform (including Steam) will be able to play the game with full support for future updates and features
  • The Steam version won’t be available to new players though, so anyone that doesn’t already own it will need to go to Epic Games
• On top of all that, anyone that’s played Rocket League online before the launch will get Legacy status, which includes
  • All RL branded DLC previously released (sorry folks, no Batmobile)
  • Est 20XX title that shows the first year you played
  • 200+ common items upgraded to Legacy quality
  • Golden Cosmos boost
  • Deici-Oro wheels
  • Huntress player banner
  • And if you’ve played online before this was even announced you’ll also get the Faded Cosmos boost

Microsoft dropped a bunch of announcements on us this week in their Xbox Games Showcase

• As part of Microsoft’s new console launch, Game Pass Ultimate subscribers are getting access to xCloud
  • Coming this fall, it’s Microsoft’s cloud gaming platform that will let you stream the entire Game Pass catalog, and eventually your personal Xbox library, to your smartphone or tablet
  • This has a huge advantage over Google’s Stadia because they already have the gaming services on lockdown, and adding it on top of Game Pass is going to make it really accessible with a huge library of titles
  • And as opposed to Sony’s strategy of keeping people locked in with triple-A exclusives, Microsoft is taking an almost Apple-like approach in getting people into an entire ecosystem instead
• Microsoft also showed off a bit of Halo Infinite, showing Master Chief with a grappling hook, and saying that though the game is expected to pick up where Halo 5 left off it has apparently been described as a spiritual reboot for the franchise and a “perfect starting point of new players”.
  • The developer also said that it will still “respect and continue threads that led to this point”
• They showed off a little bit of Psychonauts2, which looks like more of the first game in a good way
• Fable is coming to the Xbox Series X which seems to be the fourth game in the series and may be a reboot?
• And finally, in the trailer for upcoming shooter CrossfireX, they introduced us all to a trailercore version of X Gon Give It to Ya, featuring a powerful score with haunting melodies about how first we gonna rock, then we gonna roll

Hello Games is bringing No Man’s Sky players even more free content with their new Desolation update, full of creepy story content and revamped combat

• Procedurally generated abandoned freighters have been added drifting through space, each with its own unique story of what happened to its crew
  • Dangers could including things like rogue security systems or biological infestations, and it’s up to you to piece things together from logs and personal items found throughout the ship
  • The rewards seem pretty lucrative though, giving you special technologies and parts that you can install on your own freighters
• Other new pieces include freighter colour scheme customization and faster-paced, more satisfying combat
  • Sentinel health has been lowered but they now spawn in larger groups, and they’ve improved a lot of weaponry to make fights feel a lot less tacked on to a general exploration game
• You can also now build teleporters aboard freighter bases, send capital ships on fleet expeditions for stat bonuses, add a custom Title to your player name that you earn through achievements, and more

The Relentless Moon, Mary Robinette Kowal’s latest Lady Astronaut novel, dropped last week and I completely forgot to talk about it!

• For any Fanily members that haven’t read the series, it kicks off in The Calculating Stars in an alternate history 1950s America where due to spoilery events the space race has been supercharged with massive international cooperation
• It’s such an interesting series from not just the scientific aspects, with everything well-researched to the point where it’s a novel with a bibliography, but it’s also really well written from a very human perspective of someone who has fought hard to get where she is but still has blind-spots that catch her unawares
• The series is so dang good that when I was about to jump in to The Relentless Moon I instead went back and started the series over again, so it might be a week or two before you get my mini-review

Deadly Premonition 2 is being plagued by issues ranging from technical to straight-up transphobic

• In the game’s original release there’s a scene where a woman is repeatedly misgendered and deadnamed, and though there were some cuts and edits made in an update it seems like they were done with a machete rather than a scalpel and it needs a lot more work
  • They awkwardly cut out the sentence where the main character deadnames her, but left a big pause, an awkward cut, and then has her outing her own deadname afterward anyway as she was previously responding to him.
• This will hopefully continue to be fixed soon, along with issues with the camera controls and framerate problems

This week in past game history:

July 18 – 1992 – Block Breaker for Windows 3

• A favorite of mine in most iterations. Solitare Pong.

July 19 – 2011 – Limbo – PS3

• Limbo is one of the example of when Indie gaming titles were becoming a lot more than hobby projects and custom modded Super Mario Games.
• Its dark silhouette art style is still referenced to nearly a decade later

July 20 – 2004 – Catwoman – GameCube, PS2, Xbox

• Another licensed title by EA, based on the movie with the same name, starring Halle Berry. The game follows the film’s plot and its models and graphics are based upon the respective characters and locations as seen in the movie. Halle Berry also lends her voice to the character, aside from her likeness.
• A dark period where movies needed a rushed game to make a few bucks riding the coattails of the latest blockbuster. IGN scored the game then, a faavorable 3.8 out of 10

July 21 – 2017 – SUPERHOT – PS4

• SUPER HOT
• SUPER HOT
• SUPER HOT

July 22 – 2002 – Sonic Bowling – DoJa

• Sonic Bowling is a mobile phone bowling game from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. One player can bowl against up to three computer-controlled characters, or 2-4 real players can bowl against each other. Characters include Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles “Tails” Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, and Shadow the Hedgehog.
• DoJa profile is a Java application environment, now for mobile phones everything is narrowed down to iOS or Android

July 23 – 2003 – Ubi Soft makes internal studio for cutscenes

• Ubi Soft forms a new internal studio to develop CGI cut-scenes for their various games. The first game to utilize this studio is Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

July 24 – 1997 – Monster Rancher is released in Japan – Playstation

• North American audiences had to wait until November 24th to get this game
• Monster Rancher is a “monster raising” simulation in which you raise your monsters in order to win fighting tournaments and become the greatest breeder ever.
• A unique feature is the way you obtain your monsters: from every CD you own. That’s right: every CD you own (including PC ones, musical and even 3D0 games) can be used to generate a different monster.

Tidbits

• Samsung’s announced their new Galaxy Z Flip 5G smartphone, which is just the same folding-screen flip phone we talked about back in February but with a 5G modem crammed in
  • As a reminder, this is a clamshell flip phone that supports being half open and working like the tiny laptop
  • Reviews talked about it being a very expensive phone with middling specs and a tough user experience, and the 5G model takes it from $1200USD to $1450
• Many websites and services like Discord, Feedly, and League of Legends went down for a short time last week thanks to a broken router in Atlanta
  • Apparently the international problem was related to Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 DNS service and hit about half the internet across Europe and the US
• NBC’s new streaming service Peacock has an extra surprise hidden in its terms and conditions- a reportedly solid recipe for chocolate cake
  • Some of the instructions and measurements are a little janky, but instagram user alwaysalejandra called it “a lovely simple chocolatey snacking cake”
• Dead By Daylight is releasing full crossplay between Switch, PS4, XBone and PC, with options to opt out if you want, and also bringing cross-progression between Steam, Stadia, and Switch, with efforts continuing to bring it to Sony and Microsoft consoles
• A new listing for something called The Red Door by Activision mysteriously appeared on the Xbox One store this week, accessible only through the back-end databases, with a foreboding description about the truth and looking for answers
  • According to Twitter people have managed to view the splash screen while trying to load it and it’s actually the alpha for Call of Duty Black Ops CIA though, and we can rest easy knowing that Activision definitely isn’t taking a chance on cool new IP