This year, I decided I’d finally play 2022’s Case of the Golden Idol, a mystery game that thrusts you onto the scene of a murder moments after it’s happened. You pan through several screens, absorb every detail you possibly can, gather clues in the form of nouns and verbs, and make logic-based deductions by filling in the missing details in passages that tell the story of what occurred there. There are systems in place to guide you in the right direction, and the game begins quite simply, but by its end, I was being pushed to my absolute limit. The first few cases took all of about 10-25 minutes, but the final one in the game seemed to stretch across the span of an entire night. My head was positively bursting with possible motives and culprits, and kudos to Case of the Golden Idol for allowing me the room to be wrong about these cases until I eventually divined the right permutation of terms and cracked the case. It was one of the most frustrating ends of a game ever, and…
Read moreThe biggest highlight of the January 2024 Developer Direct this week was easily Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the first new game starring the famed explorer of Earth’s ancient history in over a decade. Various members of developer MachineGames spoke about the upcoming game, and if you looked closely, a sneaky cameo by Bethesda’s creative director Todd Howard could be seen right at the end.
Your eyes aren’t fooling you, as Howard really did swipe a golden idol while game director Jerk Gustafsson announced The Great Circle’s release window for PC and Xbox Series X|S. Unfortunately, the Developer Direct had no footage of Howard escaping a giant boulder trap set up by Gustafsson in his office.
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Read moreMicrosoft has created a number of imaginative custom Xbox consoles over the years, and the newest one is perhaps the most impressive and ornate of all. Microsoft created a Game of Thrones-inspired custom Xbox Series S in partnership with HBO to celebrate the launch of the new prequel series, House of the Dragon.
The custom design is themed around the Iron Throne, with the console itself sitting on the throne of swords. The console is emblazoned with the sigil of House Targaryen, and overall, it looks very impressive.
Microsoft actually first teamed up with HBO for a Game of Thrones custom Xbox years ago in 2016 and then again in 2019 when the original series ended.
The new Game of Thrones custom Xbox isn’t being sold commercially, but fans can retweet the official sweepstakes tweet for a chance to win one. The contest runs September 8-October 26.
House of the Dragon debuted on August 21 with a record-breaking series premiere that attracted 20 million viewers.…
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