A third-person shooter with a focus on head-on action as opposed to strategic, cover-based gameplay, Slaughter: The Lost Outpost makes a solid first impression, running at 60 fps on the ageing Switch hardware, and the initial sections consisting of tense, close-quarter combat with armed prisoners, either blasting you from afar and dashing behind doors, or rushing you with knives. The industrial surroundings, little shortcuts through vents, and smooth ambient work gave off some pretty positive vibes for my first thirty minutes or so with the game.
What set Golden Tee apart, however, was the trackball…which we will talk about later.
Celebrating 10 Years of Innovation with Veleno 2.1 RGB, Sparta RGB & Battlebunk XL RGB
X Rocker™, the global leader in gaming furniture, has officially entered a bold new chapter. Marking a decade of innovation, the brand has unveiled a striking new identity — complete with refreshed logo, dynamic iconography, and two new mascots, Neo and Melody — designed to reflect its evolution from audio-first chairs to full-spectrum gaming environments.
The rebrand, revealed in a cinematic brand film, celebrates X Rocker’s transformation under CEO Gary Shaw, spotlighting its rise as a powerhouse in immersive gaming furniture. To mark the occasion, X Rocker is launching three standout products that embody its new design direction and lifestyle-driven ethos.
Built for eSports and everyday play, the Veleno 2.1 RGB puts gamers at the centre of the action.
Gioteck™ has unveiled its vibrant new WX5 and WX5+ Wireless Controllers — fully compatible with both Nintendo® Switch™ and the new Switch™ 2 consoles.
Designed to deliver next-gen performance without breaking the bank, the WX5 and WX5+ offer lag-free wireless gameplay across Switch 1, Switch 2, and PC. With bold summer-inspired designs and advanced features, these controllers are built to elevate every session — whether you're grinding through RPGs or battling online with friends.
https://www.bitmapbooks.com/
Penned by experienced video game journalist Aaron Potter, and featuring an opening guest foreword by an indie game veteran in Thomas Was Alone’s Mike Bithell, you’ll discover the stories behind 50 of the most influential indie games released in the past two decades – from pixelated classics like Shovel Knight and Dead Cells to early masterpieces like Super Meat Boy and Limbo.
Each game’s chapter is also accompanied by a raft of behind-the-scenes concept art and high-quality screenshots that further showcase the level of variety only possible in indie games that are able to span a wide range of excitingly fresh genres and unique art styles.
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| Photo by Onur Binay on Unsplash |
Video game level design is both an art and a science. Behind the most memorable gaming experiences lies a carefully structured framework that guides players through challenges, rewards, and discoveries. Game designers have long relied on schema patterns, recognizable templates and structures, to create levels that feel intuitive yet surprising. These patterns serve as the invisible architecture that shapes how players interact with virtual worlds.
Schema patterns in game design function much like familiar templates in other creative fields. They provide consistent frameworks that players can recognize and understand, while still allowing for creative variation. From hub-and-spoke layouts of adventure games to gradually escalating difficulty curves of platformers, these patterns create a sense of order that helps players navigate detailed environments without feeling lost.
Many gamblers have become tired of the same old slots and roulette wheels offered online at online gambling sites. While the top-notch game developers dominate most casino libraries, a new wave of indie casino games brings fresh energy and creativity to the online gambling scene. Smaller studios or independent developers make these captivating games and often feature imaginative themes, innovative gameplay mechanics, and a more artistic flair that catches players' attention. Whether you are a casual spinner or a strategic bettor, trying out indie titles could offer a welcome change of pace. This comprehensive guide takes a deeper dive into indie casino games and explores what makes them so special and which ones are worth trying today.
🍍 A Bittersweet Feast of Vengeance 🍍
Composer World is a unique way to write music. It includes hundreds of instruments/drum sets across many styles. You can create music that sounds like a real orchestra, or compose a track that sounds like it's from a retro game console.
Includes a multi-touch piano with over 100 sounds to choose from - as well as drum pads. Use these to practice, brainstorm a song, or to record in music in real time.
✨ Gameplay Highlights:
Unique roguelite mechanics 🔁
Strategic card battles that test your tactics 🧠
Beautifully moody visuals & chilling soundtrack 🎼
First impressions from the GamesFreezer crew 👀
🎲 Whether you're into strategy games or just love a twist of randomness, this one’s for you!
🔔 Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more gameplay deep-dives and retro-inspired picks!
🔎 Read The review by Britt here:
In terms of shape and feel, there isn’t much distinction between the two - both being of high quality – but there’s a lot going on under the proverbial bonnet, which I’ll highlight below. The main visual difference is that they come in different styles, for instance, the Elves 2 Pro comes in black and Japanese Sega Saturn-style form, whereas the Elves 2 comes in black, or coral – which really stands out for me.
Both controllers also come with an included cover, which I personally find incredibly useful, especially if you store your controllers in a drawer, or travel with them a lot, I can’t express how it keeps them from being knocked around and damaged when not in use, I wish this was an industry standard!
GuliKit continue to produce controller at an extremely high level of quality that scratch that retro itch whilst being affordable, all the while sporting modern convenience, it’s a 100% record of thumbs up for their products here at GF!
🔥Welcome to the Wild Hunt!🔥
Welcome to another ⚡Ten Minute Taster⚡ where chaos reigns and tackles fly (nearly)!
🧠 ABOUT THE GAME:
Of Ash and Steel is a hardcore RPG set in a dark medieval world. With no handholding, no fast travel, and no mercy, it’s a love letter to the days when games didn’t care if you survived the tutorial !
[spoiler alert - I didn't survive the tutorial]
Is it still terrifying? Does it hold up in 2025? And what’s been upgraded for modern players? From SHODAN’s chilling monologues to the claustrophobic corridors of the Von Braun, this remaster brings back one of the most influential immersive sims of all time.
Kai Magazine Software seemed to burst from the ground with the sole mission of pushing the Mega Drive beyond its known boundaries and limits. I’ve been lucky enough to cover all of their MD releases over the last five years or so, and each one has breathed new life into Sega’s much-loved 16-bit console, and given thousands of retro gamers worldwide reason to boot up the black Sega classic.
From the tongue-in-cheek MERCS-esque Metal Dragon through the Metroidvanian Life On Mars to the run-n-gun ‘tastic Life On Earth: Reimagined, Kai Magazine Software push the hardware in different directions, through differing genres – but none have felt quite so special as The Secret of the Four Winds.
Beginning with Inspector Henge in pursuit of a suspect – a suspect running on foot as Henge chases in his cop car!- resulting in them both entering an abandoned warehouse, where the suspect disappears and Henge watches a man die, stealing his gun to discover it’s a supernatural weapon that kills ghosts, it’s safe to say that The Secret of the Four Winds has one of – if not, THE – best kick-off to a Mega Drive game, helped immensely by the anime-style cut scenes, and – I will be talking about this a lot – the incredible, INCREDIBLE music.
Honestly, when the game first booted up and I could select between between the enhanced or standard music, I sat bolt upright the moment the energetic, sax and guitar laden soundtrack kicked in during the intro chase, it was a clarity – and style – of audio that I had simply never heard come from my Mega Drive in the thirty-five years I’ve spent with the console, and on the strength of that aspect alone, my genuine, reflexive initial response was “well, this game is getting 10/10 as far as I’m concerned”.
Even more impressive was the fact that, when I switched the audio to ‘FM’ style, there was still a gorgeous swing to everything, that called to mind the saucy soundtrack of Side Pocket (which is yearning for a vinyl release).
Moving away from the soundtrack though, the visuals are tasty, and depict a top-down world in which the characters that you control – an eventual choice of three in total - move through with quite a unique control scheme. One button runs – and drains stamina – whilst the others act as aim and shoot. It initially feels very esoteric, but quickly becomes second nature as you make your way through the mostly night-time locations that the game takes you through.
Whilst some stages require simple detective work and puzzle solving, the vast majority of The Secret of the Four Winds involves making your way through the waves of enemies – most of which are weak to light and strongest in darkness – as you hold down the aim/shoot buttons, taking them out before they can get anywhere near you.
Whilst there are three characters to – eventually – choose from, and there are RPG aspects of the game that level up stats such as accuracy, health points, and power etc. this is the part of the game that starts off positively, but becomes a crutch relatively quickly.
Look, I love this game, and I’ll reiterate that the retro Japanese style of visuals, incredible music, beautiful physical presentation, nuanced and bold control scheme, as well as the mood and narrative of the game is fantastic...but my word, does the core gameplay result in a bone-crushing grind. Not just a grind of the type you’d see in most modern games, where you hit a rut and go off exploring, giving at least a little variety in the proceedings, this is a game in which you hit various points that result in you incrementally making your way forwards through areas that are just designed to kill you over and over until the numbers in your stats are high enough for you to make progress.
Thus making what is initially a thrill in how it blends action and RPG (and that world-beating music), and the heart of the enjoyment of the game itself an eventual brick-sieving, repetitive sludge-fest of progress. I promise you that there will never be a speed run of this game, the grind is too built-in to ignore.
SUMMARY
Kai Magazine Software are one of the most exciting developers around for the Mega Drive, and The Secret of the Four Winds is a game that deserves to grace a lot of shelves, pushing the Mega Drive not only through its saucy music, but also in blending genres, visuals and creating a mood in general that seems genetically designed to please me on a cellular level.
That said, the incessant grind and repetition that kicks in after a couple of hours can’t be be ignored, and perhaps leans too heavily on retro-Japanese design philosophies to connect with me, personally. That said. The music? Play it again, Sam.
