There’s A Great New RPG On Game Pass And A Fantastic New Dungeon Crawler On Steam

Screenshot: Papertip Studio / Buried Treasure, Yellow Brick Games, Warner Bros. / Kotaku, Creatures, Inc. / DeNA, Image: Blizzard Entertainment, Blizzard Entertainment, Marvel

This week, our roundup of takes includes a recommendation for a very cool new RPG on Game Pass and an even stronger rec for a new dungeon crawler on Steam. Also, we look at what certain reactions to a new Superman TV spot reveal about how some fans relate to movies nowadays, and see why the trading system in Pokémon TCG Pocket has fans so upset. Read on for all this and more.

Screenshot: Papertip Studio / Buried Treasure

This feels too good to be true! How can it possibly be that I’m about to be the person to tell you there’s a new contender for the Legend of Grimrock throne? How is this not already the talk of the gaming town? Seriously, Tower of Mask is a fantastic Dungeon Master-like with incredible combat, and one that deserves to become very big. – John Walker Read More

Screenshot: Yellow Brick Games

As a massive dragon-like drake hurled fireballs at me, I fired arrows back while dodging the projectiles. And I did a good job. None of them got me! But they did hit the wooden scaffolding I was standing on. Seconds later, it was burning and collapsing. And I was very high up. So I hopped down to a part that wasn’t on fire, turned around, and used my magical powers to grab a piece of the burning scaffolding and launched it back at the monster, doing enough damage to kill it. I felt extremely cool in that moment. Then I ran across a piece of debris that had landed on the platform and my character’s physics got weird and I fell off the tower to the ground below, where I stood alive, but damaged. Just another day in Eternal Strands, a sometimes wonky, but ambitious and fun action adventure RPG. – Zack Zwiezen Read More

Screenshot: Warner Bros. / Kotaku

There’s little that can spoil a game, film, book, or show more than its loudest fans. I’m reminded of this by the utterly bizarre reaction to the most recent Superman TV spot, shared by James Gunn and responded to by those who purport to be the movie’s future audience as if he’s committed a war crime. Stop it! Everyone just stop it! You’re liking things all wrong, and it’s ruining it for everyone. – John Walker Read More

Screenshot: Creatures, Inc. / DeNA

Good news! You can finally trade cards with friends in Pokémon TCG Pocket. Bad news! It sucks. It feels even more limited and backwards than when it was originally teased, and fans are in full revolt over the long-anticipated feature’s completely bungled rollout. – Ethan Gach Read More

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

On January 29, Blizzard announced it would be holding an Overwatch 2 Spotlight event next month to reveal “groundbreaking changes” to the hero shooter after about two months of Marvel Rivals eating its lunch. The announcement included confirmation that the support hero Lucio’s Cyber DJ legendary skin would be made available as a free Twitch drop next month as part of the event. That sounds all well and good, right? Well, the problem is the Cyber DJ skin was made available for purchase in the store a day before the announcement, and those who already paid up are less thrilled. – Kenneth Shepard Read More

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard has announced it’s holding a big blowout event for Overwatch 2 next month. The Overwatch 2 Spotlight showcase will take place on February 12 at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern and will unveil “groundbreaking changes to the PvP experience that will be unlike anything you’ve seen before,” as well as new maps, playable heroes, and more. We won’t know what that means for a couple of weeks. Still, given that Blizzard didn’t hold its annual Blizzcon event in 2024, I imagine this is the Overwatch 2 team’s chance to regain the lost promo time they didn’t get last year. But something else has happened in the months since Blizzcon would have taken place that has shaken Blizzard’s mostly uncontested spot as the hero shooter king: It now has real competition in Marvel Rivals. – Kenneth Shepard Read More

Image: Marvel

Marvel Rivals has been given a lot of shit for its unapologetic poaching of Overwatch’s ideas. From the overall format down to individual hero’s kits, NetEase copiedBlizzard’s homework and didn’t try to change it much. That being said, it’s nice that Overwatch 2 has a direct competitor to put its feet to the fire, and if both of these games must co-exist, they both can learn a lot from each other. Here are six things Marvel Rivals and Overwatch 2 should steal from each other. – Kenneth Shepard Read More