The Caligula Effect: Overdose is Now Available on Steam!

Mobius. An idyllic world that lets people forget about the pain and problems of reality. Created by a sentient vocaloid program, μ (Mu), reality and fantasy have become blurred, allowing people to relive their high school years in bliss — but just how real is a virtual happiness?

The latest patch for Spyro Reignited Trilogy brings a much-requested feature into the game: fully subtitled cutscenes.

It’s a feature that was missing from the game when it first launched late last year, and one that players were quick to highlight the importance of when the Spyro remake launched without it.

Activision, at the time, responded to say that there was no industry standard for subtitles and that the goal had been to stay true to the original games as much as possible, but would consider their inclusion with accessibility in mind.

Originally, as with the first Spyro games that released back in the late ‘90s, some spoken dialogue is displayed on-screen as characters speak but cutscenes themselves have no subtitles whatsoever. For many players of varying hearing ability, this means that large portions of the game’s plot would be essentially inaccessible.

The PlayStation 4’s 1.03 and Xbox One’s 1.02 Spyro Reignited Trilogy patches change that. As outlined in the patch notes, all three of the games bundled in the trilogy support subtitles in all languages and include identifiers for active speakers like character headers and colored test as well as line splits to improve readability. Those, along with motion blur, can now be toggled on or off from the options menu.

Today’s Deal: Save 50% on Star Control®: Origins and 10% on Star Control®: Origins – Earth Rising Expansion!*

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*Offer ends Tuesday at 10AM Pacific Time

We got a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell.

A full summary of the content available in this snapshot can be found in the changelog on Minecraft.net.

• Added new Note block sounds
• Fixed bugs
• Sprites for particles can now be configured in resource packs (though particle still controls how they will be used)

NOTE BLOCK

• 5 new Note block sounds have been added: Iron Xylophone, Cow Bell, Didgeridoo, Bit, and Banjo
• 1 previously existing, but unused, sound effect has now been made available: Pling
• The new Note block sounds can be heard by using Iron Blocks, Soul Sand, Pumpkins, Emerald Blocks, Hay Blocks, or Glowstone

To get snapshots, open your launcher and go to the “launch options” tab. Check the box saying “Enable snapshots” and save. To switch between the snapshot and normal version, you can find a new dropdown menu next to the “Play” button. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (In the “launch options” page).

Please report any and all bugs you find in Minecraft to bugs.mojang.com.

Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds. 

Share your thoughts on how 1.14 is shaping up in the comments below!

The more petals Lionel swept into his garbage bag, the more there seemed to be. His back, slightly crooked with age, burned in protest as he continued to stoop and work.

A man in a long coat stood watching him on the opposite side of the long hallway. Lionel figured he’d go away eventually, but the man stayed, idly flipping a green coin.

“Can I help you?” Lionel asked, growing annoyed.

“They make elders do this? Can’t the maintenance frames handle it?”

“Speeds things up. The petals get everywhere from the… whatever the kids call it.”

“Crimson Days.”

“That’s the one.”

“Come on! No one’s too old to celebrate Crimson Days.”

“My wife died the day the Tower fell.”

The man stared at the ceiling. Lionel continued to sweep.

“I got nothing to do today,” the man said. “Let me take care of this for you.”

“No, thanks.”

Lionel dumped another dustpan full of petals into his bag, then turned and walked right into the man’s outstretched hand: palm up, full of glowing, sapphire cubes.

“Lotta Glimmer,” Lionel said, eyeing the money and the man in turn.

“Yours. Let me finish this job for you.”

“You a Guardian?”

 “It’s complicated.”

Lionel stared down at the pure material potential sitting in the man’s hand.

“I’ll take your vest and hat, too,” said the man. “Please.”

**

The man took off his coat and put on Lionel’s orange vest. He put on Lionel’s hat and pulled it low, covering his eyes. As he walked, he passed a frame diligently sweeping the connecting antechamber, and paused to point back toward the petal-strewn hallway he’d just come from. “You missed a spot,” he said. The frame stared at him, then at the hallway. It marched towards its new objective.

The man continued his walk.

**

Warlock Aunor Mahal brushed past a maintenance worker in an orange vest emptying a trash can into a large plastic bag. The door to the Consensus closed heavily behind her.

The Vanguard and representatives from various City factions had gathered around a massive table. Cayde’s seat was empty.

“The Drifter poses no immediate threat to the population,” Zavala was saying to the Consensus as Aunor approached. “Therefore, we motion to grant him a more permanent lease—”

“My Order disagrees,” she cut in fiercely.

Zavala turned. With a slight incline of his head, he gestured from her to the rest of the group, “This is Warlock Aunor, representing the Praxic Order.”

“I have paperwork to file, so I’ll make this short,” she said. “If the Vanguard is willing, the Praxic Order would like to excise the Drifter from the City. Immediately. We’ll do it ourselves.”

Zavala turned to look at her. “The Praxic opinion is noted. But the City welcomes all Guardians—“

“He’s no Guardian.”

“The City welcomes all of humanity who are willing to stand in defense of the City.”

“Commander, with due respect, you asked the Order to have a voice in this discussion.” She looked Zavala in the eye, and swept her gaze around the table to address the Consensus and Ikora. “The Praxic Order has existed since the founding of the City to keep artifacts of the Darkness out of Guardian hands. In our opinion, the Drifter represents as great a threat to our people as Ghaul or the Taken King.”

“Go on, girl,” Executor Hideo said, steepling his fingers.

“She is no ‘girl,’” Ikora hissed.

Aunor ignored them both, continuing, “The Drifter has convinced the Guardian population to use the Taken as a weapon. To murder Guardians.”

“There have been no final deaths,” said Zavala.

“That we know of,” Aunor replied. “You’re allowing that man to normalize interaction with the Taken.”

Ikora and Zavala shared a look.

“The past few months, the Praxic Order has seen a historic number of Guardians go rogue.”

“’Rogue,’ ‘rogue,’ what is ‘rogue,’” Arach Jalaal said. “Everyone is a rogue now. It is fashionable to be a rogue.”

“You’ll see it in my report,” Aunor said. “Some have adopted the name ‘Dredgen.’ You want my professional opinion? Ideas are powerful things, and the Drifter has too many. Board that travesty he calls a ship and throw him out an airlock, before the City sees another Dark Age.”

The Vanguard and the Consensus looked at her in silence.

“I have paperwork to file,” she said again, turning around. “You know where my office is.” As she left, she saw that same maintenance worker had fallen asleep in the entrance way, hat over his eyes, leaning against a trash can. She narrowed her eyes.

Following the Taiwanese game rating reveal last week, it has now been officially confirmed that Attack On Titan 2: Final Battle is headed to Nintendo Switch.

The game follows the third season of the Attack on Titan anime adventure, with its story mode playing through selected characters’ points of view with major heroes active in Season 3 (who are playable for the first time). This boosts the total number of playable characters to more than 40.

If you fancy learning more, check out this description provided in a press release today:

“Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle will feature two new gameplay experiences: A frenetic anti-personnel combat feature using anti-personnel omni directional mobility gear and an all-new wall reclamation mode focused on recovering outside territories. Here, players will have an ability to choose a leader of their squad, pick out the members they want to include – even members who were never together in the original work, and set out to reclaim the lands from the Titans. Thunder Spears will also be equipped for battle for the first time, allowing the take down of the Armored Titan when a normal blade just won’t cut it.”

Final Battle will be made available for digital purchase as an Upgrade Pack to fans who already own Attack on Titan 2, and it will also be available for purchase as a special digital or physical bundle. You’ll be able to check out the action for yourself from 5th July.

Did you enjoy Attack on Titan 2 on Switch? Will you be checking out this new content? Tell us below.

Flatlandia is a miniaturized Heroes of Might & Magic, and that may be the first and only thing you need to know about it. What, still here? Fiiinnneeee: The Heroes formula of fantasy strategy combines a fixed, board-game-like strategic layer in which the player builds and customizes armies, and a tactical layer with powerful heroes that’s heavy on magic and special abilities. It’s a design that for some reason hasn’t really been duplicated, although the original series has spawned seven sequels.

Heroes of Flatlandia is a great homage to (or clone of, depending on your point of view) those games, simplified for mobile, for better or worse.

One way Flatlandia distinguishes itself is through its goofy chibi-by-way-of-Warcraft artistic style that is colorful and communicative. It’s a great game to look at, and the only thing I would change is to add the option to overlay a visible hex grid for those times when you need to be a little more precise.

There’s a fair variety of units, but more importantly, all units are quite distinct. Each one has its own special ability or two that make it a unique threat on the battlefield, all the way down to your basic starter units. The Elf faction’s cheap wolves are great blitz attackers to pick off weaker units since they always attack first and get bonus movement for the first two turns. The Undead’s basic gargoyles are great at blocking units in, since they turn to stone and get extra armor during the opponent’s turn. On top of the units you have two distinct heroes for each faction to choose, and they gain special abilities as they level up. You also gain spells that let you attack or buff/debuff.

The most important tactic is taken directly from Heroes of Might & Magic: stacking units. Your armies are limited to six distinct units, but you can stack up as many identical units as you like, making units that move as one but hit harder and last longer. An army with a lot of stacked units has a big advantage, and may be better avoided.

The number of tactical-level maps is quite limited, and furthermore the terrain doesn’t really affect tactics. Unit positioning doesn’t have a strong impact, except when assaulting walled cities. There are no zones of control around units, so you are free to waltz in between the front lines and take out less well-armored magic users. Cover is similarly of little effect since it is easy to walk around.

The AI is quite good, and puts up a significant challenge, especially on the tactical battlefield. It will zero in on your weakest units and exploit holes in your defenses ruthlessly. You will have to play carefully if you’re pitting two evenly-matched armies against one another and can expect heavy casualties. The AI is also quite efficient strategically: on three-player maps I found one of the AI players quickly eliminated the other and was often still strong enough to take me on. Unfortunately there is no online play, which is a big hole in a turn-based strategy game. There is however pass-and-play local multiplayer available as some consolation.

The biggest disappointment at the strategic level is how long it takes to contact the enemy. I think this is a consequence of the oversized maps, which give each player enough room to grow to full strength before they necessarily encounter each other, even on “small” maps. There are also only a couple three-player maps. This sort of slow-paced strategy game would be far more entertaining with three or even more players bumping into one another, racing to snag resources, and forming ad hoc alliances before stabbing each other in the back.

Instead, at the strategic level, you only have a few key decisions to make: the first is which resource to pursue next, based on the strength of the neutral units protecting it. Then you have to decide how to spend those resources to upgrade your army as fast as possible. Should you buy all the available units from your city? Or ignore them in favor of upgrading the city to produce stronger units? Essentially, the game is a race to see who can build a strong army the fastest, and then send it rampaging through their opponent’s territory. That said, the AI is good at doing this, which means the game is still quite a challenge, even if you spend most of it fighting neutral units.

Controls generally work well, although since everything is controlled with single taps you can sometimes send an army marching to join another army when all you meant to do was select the other army. A quick undo button on the main map and tactical screen would be a big help here.

In the end, Flatlandia is a limited, mobile-focused clone of Heroes of Might & Magic. It doesn’t have PC-level depth, but what is there is worth playing, especially with the challenging AI. The developer is active, and I would expect more maps, heroes and factions in the future, so this may be one to watch if ‘mobile HoMM’ isn’t an insta-buy.