Video game publisher Mastiff is excited to announce the release today of developer MeNic Games’ one-of-a-kind toy city-builder, Tinytopia, for PC and Mac. Tinytopia delivers a playful combination of traditional city-building with replica cities like NYC and Tokyo, as well as toy-inspired challenges featuring bike pedals, a coin pusher and more. Tinytopia is available now on Steam, the Epic Games Store, and GOG.com for $14.99 with a 10% launch discount for the first week.
As the mayor of Tinytopia, you’ll build flourishing toy towns and cities for your citizens and protect them from all sorts of cute catastrophes. Use toy building blocks to create awesome megastructures and transform charming villages into bustling metropolises. Tinytopia delivers a tremendous experience on a tabletop scale that’s as challenging or relaxing as you like.
Tinytopia gives you full creative control of the city-building process. Want to stack houses on top of one another? Cool! A skate park on top of a skyscraper – go for it! Discover Blueprint plans to unlock greater combinations and structures to reach new heights. Tinytopia offers a totally unique range of physics-based gameplay and challenges with inventive builds and scenarios: balance cities on a seesaw, keep a town stable on a spinning turntable and more!
Key Features:
Big Cities, Miniature Pieces: A playful blend of city-building, physics-based challenges, and oh-so-satisfying destruction. Use a collection of toy structures, tools, and services to create your own digital desktop destinations across 24 levels.
Craft It Bigger & Better: With an innovative, physics-based mechanic, miniature building blocks can be combined and stacked on top of one another to form awesome megastructures! There are more than 80 building blueprints to discover!
Balance. Stack. Plan. Play! Looking for a challenge worthy of a mayoral mastermind like yourself? Tinytopia’s Challenge levels are full of imaginatively fun scenarios that will test the limits of your planning and balancing skills, timing, and creativity.
A Smashing Good Time: Protect your tiny citizens from catastrophes like tornadoes, fires, monster attacks, UFOs, and more. Or flip a switch and watch it all crumble down!
Tinytopia will also release on the Microsoft Store for PC on September 27. Linux support for Tinytopia will be available in the near future. For more info, visit the game’s website and join Mastiff’s Discord.
The creator microphone market is packed with options for those people out there making content. In fact, the technology out there can get fairly high-end and complicated based on what your neeeds are and where your content is distributed and made for. Finding a microphone that is easy to use, feature-packed, and a good value in terms of money is important. Enter: The ROCCAT Torch USB Microphone.
The ROCCAT Torch has some great features going for it and, amazingly, it is ROCCAT’s first microphone of this type! While not necessarily important to every type of creator, the look of the equipment that they use can be a consideration – especially if their workstation and setup are on video. In the looks department, the ROCCAT Torch USB Microphone has a very high cool-factor. It’s actually two different units – the microphone and the base station. The microphone is plastic and metal, has a cool style and light weight, and features a 3/8 inch mounting screw input on its bottom side.
The base station is mostly plastic but features all of the microphone’s controls. The ROCCAT Torch’s lighting effects are present but not overpowering, and actually serve an informational function for the user (you can adjust the brightness of these LEDs as well). The color of the light bars on each side of the microphone tell the user what pick up pattern the Torch is set to. In addition, these side lights move farther up the microphone depending on the level of gain selected on the base station.
When set to stereo pick up, the light is purple. In this pick up pattern, the Torch is listening to sounds coming in both sides of the microphone. This is great for recording conversations with multiple people in the same space, or whenever multiple audio sources need to be recorded at once. When the caridoid patten is selected, the Torch is listening to sounds mostly in front of the microphone – this is a great pattern for recording one speaker. The light turns blue when the whisper patten is selected. This is a really cool mode as it works similar to the cardioid mode but it automatically boosts the gain to listen for low-volume audio sources – like a game streamer who is streaming late at night and can’t be too loud. Even cooler in this mode is that the gain with adjust itself depending on how loud the speaker gets. If the person streaming is whispering then begins yelling in excitement because they did something cool in the game they’re playing, the whisper mode will decrease the gain in turn.
Another awesome feature of the ROCCAT Torch is that it has its own built-in pop filter. This is so handy as, despite giving your setup a professional look, those filters can be a little cumbersome in practice. The ROCCAT Torch’s base station is where all the controls of the microphone are located. There you’ll find a knob which controls the previously-mentioned pick up pattern selection – but, you’ll also find a gain slider. Finally, you’ll find a second knob which controls the volume of the sound being sent out to the headphone monitor port on the back of the base station. Pressing that button in will also toggle mute. In order to mute the microphone you can also wave your hand over the microphone head itself. A very interesting feature, this allows you to mute the mic without hitting any physical button – thus, eliminating the sound of any button being pressed. However, this no-touch feature is finicky at times and would not always register the wave of our hand of the microphone.
When recording, the Torch has a lit-up “LIVE” light on the front of the base station that does not display when not recording. The base station also features a ball/screw mount for the microphone to attach to and the two units communicate by way of a short USB-C to USB-C cable included in the box. If you would like to separate the two units and have the microphone on, say, an articulating desk mount, ROCCAT was smart and included a much longer USB-C to USB-C cable in the box. Speaking of cables – every cable in the box is of the braided variety for flexibility and durability.
Connecting the ROCCAT Torch to your computer is very easy, as it connects via an included USB cable. Setting it up takes next to no time as you pretty much set its levels to maximum in the Windows sound settings, then use the onboard controls and any creator software to control the microphone. ROCCAT does have a piece of software on their website called ROCCAT Neon. However, it’s not really worth downloading for the ROCCAT Torch as it just allows you to change the color of the logo on the microphone – not the color of the side LEDs. If they updated the software to be able to change the mode setting light scheme – that would be very cool!
The ROCCAT Torch USB Microphone is available now and is loaded with great, easy to use features at a competitive price point. It retails for $99.99 and I can’t recommend it enough for people looking to make recording audio for their game stream sessions, podcasts, video conferencing calls, etc. It’s not a super high-end microphone, but it’s an outstanding choice at its price point.
Nekcom and 2PGames recently announced the upcoming release of DYING : 1983, a new first-person horror adventure that will come to PlayStation 5 in 2022 as a timed exclusive title. In this nightmarish escape room video game, players will explore a series of rooms in a surreal world to solve the mystery behind its puzzles. Similarly to the previous chapter of this franchise, DYING: Reborn, a mysterious fish-headed creature and more horrible monsters will follow your steps to dissuade you.
The Chinese studio revealed a new gameplay trailer at Gamescom last Friday, where they also revealed the main voices of the official cast for DYING : 1983: Miyuki Sawashiro (Fatal Frame IV, Catherine, Danganronpa) and Shunsuke Takeuchi (NEO: TWEWY, Genshin Impact, Danganronpa), two renowned actors with a lot of experience in dubbing anime and video games.
ABOUT DYING : 1983
DYING : 1983 is the second game in the DYING franchise, a first-person horror game series with puzzle solving and exploration elements. In this chapter, players will follow a shady physician who is contacted by a mysterious organization to participate in a secret investigation. After reaching the research facility designated for their meeting, the doctor will realize that something weird is happening there…
The game will be released in 2022 as a timed exclusive game for PlayStation 5. The PlayStation 4 and Steam ports will be released at a date that is yet to be announced.
I recently got the chance to dive into the new motorcycle racing game/sim, RiMS Racing. So, I fired the game up and began navigating its menus and trying to get a race going. Once on the track, I was stoked to run some laps… What followed, however, were some very frustrating and unintentionally-hilarious moments. You see, motorcycle racing simulations are an interesting genre to take on – especially when compared to reviewing a car-based racing title. This is mainly because riding a motorcycle (which I do IRL) is a lot more of a full-body experience. It is simply too complex and nuanced for most standard gaming peripherals to allow you to smoothly control and maintain a certain level of fun. Countersteering, leaning into a turn, and jutting out your knee to slide around a corner is something that is very difficult to properly experience playing a motorcycle simulation on a game console or PC.
When I began playing RiMS Racing on my PC, I was using my keyboard, which was hilariously not up to the task. It is simply not precise or robust enough. My racer was high and low-siding constantly and, while frustrating, it sort of cracked me up that he just kept doing it over and over again (I shuddered at the thought of his digital medical bills). He should have been pulled out of the race for being a danger to himself and others. But, I digress… I plugged in my game controller and things improve somewhat – although I was still having a frustrating time trying to get the hang of the simulation aspect. RiMS Racing, when set on anything other than the easier difficulty settings, is a very hard sim to play. RiMS has modeled seemingly every detail dealing with the weather, track, bike, rider skill, you name it – they even take factors like brake disc temperature into account! Even easy mode isn’t that easy, and will provide challenge to many racing gamers out there.
Despite this learning curve, if you can find a control setup that allows you enough precision (it would be great if a company came out with a set of motorcycle-specific racing controls – I wonder what that would look like!), RiMS Racing is one of the most advanced motorcycle simulations ever made. This extends into choosing and maintaining your bike as well. There are 8 high-end racing bikes in the game (Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10 RR, Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory, BMW M 1000 RR, Ducati Panigale V4 R, Honda CBR1000RR ABS, MV Agusta F4 RC, Suzuki GSX-R1000R, and the Yamaha YZF-R1) and you can customize them with a ton of tweaks and parts. Only having 8 bikes might be a turn-off for some as that isn’t a whole lot in most racing games. However, I would just bring up that RiMS is, first and foremost, a detailed simulation which makes it a difficult situation to simulate a lot of bikes equally well. I am actually surprised they were able to model 8 so well!
The career mode provides a lot of instruction in motorcycle handling and customization as well as allowing gamers to upgrade their bikes over time. It’s a bit light when it comes to career choices and more RPG elements that have become all the rage in sports games these days, but its focus is always on the racing so I can’t help think its a design choice instead of an accidental ommission. Despite this, career mode feel a bit tacked-on, and some of the game design choices I can’t let go so easy. For instance, you can’t find out what track and weather conditions are for an upcoming race until you’ve purchased a research team. There are teams for everything, but how hard would it be for a racer to simply call up the weather for a city on the day of the race? They should allow you some basic info at least – then give you more specifics once the team is in place.
Visually, RiMS Racing is good for the hardcore simulation that it is, although in sunny and clear weather conditions the shader seems to make things appear very… Artificial. The object pop-in when the scenery clears out is also a little jarring. However, things improve when weather kicks in and that’s where the game’s graphics engine shines. Weather is presented in such a way that it adds intensity – not just on a motorcycle performance level but on a human anxiety level. Seeing that wet track all around you, knowing your traction is going to take a big hit amps up the stakes – especially in a career mode where you can’t restart a race if you’re not doing well!
Overall, RiMS Racing is one of the most advanced and realistic racing motorcycle simulations ever. You just need to make sure you’re using a difficulty level within your skill level and a control setup that allows you to take as much advantage and control of the bike as possible.
Coatsink, in collaboration with Universal Games and Digital Platforms, today announced that the highly anticipated conclusion to the suspenseful VR survival adventure, Jurassic World Aftermath, based on Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment’s blockbuster film franchise, is set to arrive on September 30, 2021 with Jurassic World Aftermath: Part 2, available exclusively on the Oculus Quest platform for $14.99, £10.99, €14.99.
Crash-landing on Isla Nublar after the fall of the Jurassic World theme park, players find themselves trapped in an abandoned research facility when their mission to recover valuable information goes disastrously wrong. To survive, they’ll need to explore and solve puzzles, while evading a menagerie of ferocious dinosaurs, including ravenous Pteranodons, cunning Velociraptors, and the terrifying T. rex.
Featuring all-new locations, puzzles and dinosaur encounters, Jurassic World Aftermath: Part 2 builds on the wonder and excitement at every turn as players venture to the opulent heights of Dr. Henry Wu’s office and delve into a secret vault deep beneath the facility, leading to the story’s thrilling conclusion.
“Jurassic World Aftermath: Part 2 lets you experience what it’s like being on Isla Nublar, and you’ll need your wits, quick reflexes and a cool head to stay alive,” said Coatsink Narrative Designer, Jon Davies. “Continuing the story from Jurassic World Aftermath, Jurassic World Aftermath: Part 2 is a white-knuckle adventure that’s full of surprises – especially for fans of the film franchise.”
Features:
Gripping gameplay that combines strategy, skill and non-stop thrills.
Action-packed dinosaur encounters that require quick thinking to survive.
A variety of devices to solve puzzles and discover secrets.
Distinct cell-shaded art style that comes to life in VR.
Jurassic World film franchise stars Jeff Goldblum and BD Wong reprise their voiceover roles as Dr. Ian Malcolm and Dr. Henry Wu, and Laura Bailey (The Last of Us: Part II) returns as park geneticist Dr. Mia Everett.
To celebrate the announcement, Jurassic World Aftermath: Part 1 is available for 20% off from the Oculus Store starting midnight PST on August 27 for 24 hours.
Protecting the virtual city of Brighton as a police officer in Police Simulator: Patrol Officers has so far been a pure single-player experience. This is now set to change with the Nightshift with Friends update, which will be released today at 12 p.m. CEST/6 a.m. EDT in time for this year’s gamescom – one of the leading events for computer and videogames worldwide. The second larger content update for the popular Early Access game will add a 2-player co-op mode, and introduce additional features such as night shifts and further traffic offenses that will make going on patrol much more varied and realistic.
After the recently released Background Check update which added multiple languages, a new vehicle, an additional district and the police computer for checking suspicious vehicles and persons, fans of the popular simulation game can now patrol the streets of Brighton in pairs and have each other’s backs. While exploring the city after dark during the newly introduced nightshifts, they will also notice some new traffic violations such as cars driving with smoking exhaust pipes, broken head or tail lights or roaring motors disturbing the neighborhood. Newly introduced flashlights will enable them to peer into even the darkest corners and road flares are set to make accident sites much more secure after nightfall.
Police Simulator: Patrol Officers is available for PC via Steam™ and the official astragon homepage for 19.99 Euro/USD 24.99/17.99 GBP (RSP). The game is supported by a game-grant of the German funding body FilmFernsehFonds Bayern. All contents of the update phases until the official end of Early Access are already included in the price. A detailed overview of upcoming content can be found in the official Police Simulator: Patrol Officers Roadmap.
Surprise! In the Awesome Indies segment of IGN’s Gamescom showcase, it was revealed that Townscaper, the town-building toy from Oskar Stålberg and Raw Fury, is now officially available on Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam, GOG.com and the Epic Games Store for $5.99 (USD)/£4.79/€4.99/¥26. Previously available only in PC early access, now everyone can enjoy this mesmerizing and intuitive town-builder at home or on the go! Townscaper will also be available on mobile devices later this year.
The appeal of Townscaper is as simple as the game itself – just build something beautiful! There’s no story, nothing to unlock, no levels to chase – just the soothing sound of plopping down colorful building blocks and the satisfaction of watching them effortlessly link together to create an ocean-side town. It’s this tranquil straightforwardness that has captured the attention of tons of gamers looking to unwind, as well as those brimming with creativity that simply want a sandbox to play in.
Townscaper is the brainchild of Oskar Stålberg, coming off the success of his earlier work on the Viking-inspired RTS Bad North. Originally released on PC in early access, Oskar has teamed up yet again with publisher Raw Fury to fully launch Townscaper on even more platforms.
The availability of Townscaper on Switch is especially exciting, since the game is perfectly suited to touch-screen capabilities. Whether inspired by your surroundings or the recreation of worldwide cities, Townscaper is designed to feel much more like a toy than a game.
Core Features:
Pure building without the grind or failure!
Pick your colors and create charming island towns with a calming art style
Satisfying sound design
Intuitive tools available from the start
Clever algorithm ensures every block snaps together in a cohesive way
Price: $5.99 (USD)/£4.79/€4.99/¥26
Available: August 26, 2021
Platforms: PC (Steam, GOG.com, Epic Games Store), Nintendo Switch, mobile devices (later this year)
Website: Townscapergame.com
Developer: Oskar Stålberg
Publisher: Raw Fury
Grab your fire ax and turnout pants and get ready for action, as Ziggurat Interactive, a publisher of multiplatform retro and modern games, will be releasing Real Heroes: Firefighter HD on Xbox One this fall. Now with up to 4K resolution for the first time, the game challenges players to face explosive backdrafts, extinguish towering infernos, and save civilians as a rookie firefighter in the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Real Heroes: Firefighter HD is a first-person firefighting and rescue action game where players take on the heroic role of a real firefighter. As a newly graduated cadet starting out at a fire station in Los Angeles, the game’s hero must learn the tools of the trade, battle massive fires, and rescue citizens from deadly infernos. It’s time to put on a fresh pair of turnout pants, grab a Halligan, and take to the streets to battle man’s deadliest foe — fire!
Features of Real Heroes: Firefighter HD include:
Realistic fire technology creates an incredible adversary that feels “alive” and dangerous
Up to 4K resolution — a first for the game!
A career mode featuring more than nine levels and locations
Real-life firefighting tools, including hoses, axes, hydraulic rescue tools, Halligans, and more
An all-star Hollywood voice cast including James Marsters (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer), Jack McGee (Rescue Me), Michael Jace (The Shield), Jamie Kennedy (Ghost Whisperer), and Jenette Goldstein (Aliens)
Techland, via gamescom Studio in partnership with IGN, streamed a special third episode of Dying 2 Know (D2K) – gamescom Edition, part of an original web series that dives deep into the world of Dying Light 2 Stay Human. Hosted by Lead Game Designer Tymon Smektała, this episode revealed a variety of details about parkour and combat and showcased a gameplay trailer. The episode can be viewed in its entirety here.
The third episode shed light on traversing the city, which, thanks to the complex parkour mechanics and realistic motion capture animations, is satisfying and gives a great feeling of dynamism. Combat is also an essential part of Dying Light 2 Stay Human, and players were provided insight into weapons and their inspirations, as well as the creative combat system which allows players to integrate parkour moves with the fighting, making it more fun, complex, and immersive.
Moreover, Techland presented the grand jury that will be choosing the best cosplays of Dying Light 2 characters in the UGC competition: Irina Meier, Lightning Cosplay, Narga & Aoki and Enji Night. Contest details, including conditions and other categories, can be found here.
Pre-orders for Dying Light 2 Stay Human are currently available, with two retail editions— Standard and Deluxe—alongside three digital editions: Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate. Included in all pre-orders is an exclusive digital Reload Pack, featuring a unique outfit, weapon, and paraglider skin, so pre-order your preferred edition today! Further details on all available editions can be found here.
Techland also revealed a new platform release for Dying Light Platinum Edition, which is coming to Nintendo Switch as the most content-packed and ultimate edition of the original game. Further details on the release date will be announced in the future.
Techland revealed that the physical release of the Platinum Edition on Nintendo Switch will contain:
Switch game card with Dying Light
Survival guide – containing the most important tips & tricks
Two-sided map
Unique stickers
Band together with fellow survivors on Discord, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
Because the heart of gaming needs more farming: With Farming Simulator 22 represented at Gamescom 2021, GIANTS Software brings relaxing agriculture to the world’s largest event for computer and video games. To unveil new features and details, the publisher and developer will host a stream for the next installment of the popular game series on Friday, August 27 at 9pm CEST / 12:00pm PT on the official GIANTS Software Twitch channel.
First gameplay trailer reveals European map
Farming Simulator 22 invites farmers to a new Mediterranean environment in Europe. Ideally suited for the new crops; grapes, olives, and sorghum, the French map Haut-Beyleron is perfect for creating an idyllic vineyard landscape. GIANTS Software reveals the last of three maps, included in the game at launch, by showing it off in the brand-new trailer at Gamescom. After the previous cinematic trailer, this also marks the first trailer consisting of actual gameplay footage, revealing many new vehicles and tools.
Growing further: Season Pass announced
First season pass announced: While Farming Simulator 22 offers more content than ever before, including over 400 machines and vehicles, three maps, and brand-new gameplay features like seasonal cycles and production chains, the game will extend even more over time: GIANTS Software starts the evolution of Farming Simulator 22 with the Year 1 Season Pass – including three packs and one larger expansion to be released as DLC within twelve months after release. On top of that, the game will also receive free content updates.
Stream to reveal more on Friday
“We won’t miss the chance to attend Gamescom with Farming Simulator 22”, comments GIANTS Software CEO Christian Ammann. “As the game is in its final stages of development, we’re proud to present more details at the world’s biggest gaming fair and show our fans and gamers the very first gameplay trailer.”
The Gamescom stream starts on Friday, August 27th at 9pm CEST on the official GIANTS Software Twitch channel. Farming Simulator 22 releases November 22nd for PC, Mac, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Stadia.
