Weekly Update 2025-07-13
The Prodigal Son returns to playing videogames
As I expected, my trip home was pretty exhausting, chaotic, and not particularly productive, at least with regards to my very important work of playing videogames and writing about playing videogames. However, it was unexpectedly pleasant and productive in other ways - so much so that I actually got a lot less game playing and writing time than I usually do. So I'm a bit behind, both in terms of sleep schedule and hot news, considering this is a second two-week roundup in as many months. But don't think I didn't find time to play anything!
Game Releases and Updates
Void War Profane Ecstasy update - two new ships and a host of balance tweaks for this year's best 40K FTL clone. I'm probably nowhere near unlocking the new ships, although I have worked my way up to the Torment V difficulty and am still enjoying the game a lot. Most of all, this update is a comforting indicator that the developer is serious about plans to expand the game a bit more, which means that by the time I'm ready to write it up it should be seriously impressive.
Rogue Prince of Persia final pre-launch update - with the full release slated in August, there's been one last major patch, mostly adding quality of life features and tweaking some of the minor mechanics. For me, the biggest change is the ability to ban unwanted weapons from the drop pool - I understand not implementing this back when there were only a couple options anyway, but this is essential for a Dead Cells-like to not turn into a slog.
Tactical Nexus custom alerts update - so, I haven't brought up this game on this site yet, because… where would I even start? It's a colossal mathematical puzzle game, with interlinking and infinitely scaling progression, hundreds of hours worth of content in its demo [which is now expanded to include the entire base game], and lifetimes worth in its exorbitantly priced DLC. I bring it up now because its most recent feature update is a wonderful example case of how complex and customizable Tactical Nexus is.
You are now able to set custom alert popups to notify you when you hit particular stat thresholds, which might, for example, mean you can start killing a particular enemy type at no cost, or maybe you've hit a breakpoint you've calculated in an Excel spreadsheet that means it is the optimal time to swap equipment. Don't understand why that's a big deal? Download the now free-to-play base game and see if you can clear the first tower. Hell, see if you can medal all 12 base towers, and get back to me sometime next year.
H3 July 4th update - a very small update, mostly rolling the dark Take and Hold map from the alpha into the stable release and adding a couple gimmicky grenades. But I jumped in anyway and realized the developer added Roman candles at some point so I ran around shooting hot dogs with them and also a sawn off lever action shotgun. I just wanted an excuse to post another clip of VR room clearing.
Devil Spire Falls early access and exploration update - the game I tried the hardest to like from the most recent Next Fest is officially out, and before I had time to comment on it, also had an update that adds roads and waist-mounted lanterns. Gee, it would've been nice to have one of those on the run where I got stuck in a pitch-black tower. I'm probably not going to pick this up unless I see some update that blows me away, but somebody might be willing to, and it's gotten under my skin enough that I'll be watching keenly for such an update.
Hellsweeper VR finger guns - speaking of updates that finally sell me on a game, VR arena shooter Hellsweeper is yet another game I played a demo of during a Next Fest and put in the 'keep an eye on' pile. It was interesting, had a bit of style, but felt a little repetitive and hollow. When I got back from vacation, however, I saw that it had gotten an update that lets you to 'imbue' your hands with pistol rounds, magically turning your bare hands into finger guns, and pew-pew at enemies for a laugh. That is such an impressive dedication to something silly that I decided it was time to see how the game has developed in the two years since release. How do I like it now? Well, my first session involved me playing until my headset AND external battery drained to bingo charge. Then I plugged them in until they were full and my second session zeroed them out again.
The first thing to point out about Hellsweeper in comparison to similar VR combat titles is that it leans very heavily into the arcade side of the arcade/simulation axis. Where a lot of VR games crawl up their own ass trying to make use of the fact that you technically can precisely orient your virtual hand and whatever you're holding in it, that every little quiver of your physical body can translate to obnoxious wobble and twitch in your aim, that you can 'dodge' by physically squatting and leaning and tripping out your window, Hellsweeper is more lenient. You can slap enemies with your sword or axe or whatever pretty easily, you don't have to match the angle of your attack precisely with their big flashing rhythm game indicator, you don't have to follow through the motion with the precise amount of momentum to give the accelerometer in your controller the perfect values to give your hit impact. You can shoot your gun, grab some more bullets, and slam them into the gun itself without fiddling with each round, struggling to find the hitbox that will accept the ammo - or you can just flick your wrist to do an automatic reload, or chuck the gun and instantly summon a fresh one.
The other thing to mention is the huge variety of mechanics in the game, even with the default equipment loadout. All those options I mentioned for reloading your gun have slightly different effects, and can be augmented with skill pickups through a run - you might unlock a perk that makes your gun explode when thrown, for example, or one that boosts your stats while dual wielding, which would balance out the damage boost you normally get for manual reloading. Once you get elemental spells, you can slam them into weapons to imbue them with that damage type for a short time, or imbue your hands with them directly to affect anything you summon into them. You can telekinetically grab any loose item or summoned weapon and spin them around like a fan. Upgrading your unarmed ability gives your punches little projectiles, and lets you grab rocks you've torn out of the ground and Earthbend them around your hands, turning you into a little Ben Grimm until you decide to fire them off into a monster's face and use something else.
All of those options get introduced as you play, with hints about advanced techniques available if you really want to start going crazy, and by the time you finish or lose your first run, you'll probably have more stuff to potentially pull out than in any other similar VR game. Where it all comes together is that Hellsweeper works a bit more like Tony Hawk or Devil May Cry than Blade and Sorcery or Receiver - you don't have limited ammo, your mana constantly refills, and instead of being restricted by scarcity, you're encouraged towards style and experimentation. Each level, you're scored based on how complex and varied your kills were, rather than your speed or lack of hits taken, and this ties in with your movement, which is my favorite so far in VR. You have a double jump by default, letting you launch yourself in a big arc, then redirect to a totally different spot or bounce past a mob trying to corner you. You can uppercut enemies and start air-juggling them. You can even throw your hands into the sky while airborne to initiate a slo-mo somersault, giving you some free bullet-time to spin around snapping shots off like a John Woo scene… if your stomach can handle it. God I'm glad I'm immune to motion sickness.
The State of Games Played
This week, and last, I discovered that Intergalactic Fishing is a pretty fantastic Deck game, aside from some additional fiddling with lure construction. The controls and systems make it a really nice casual grind, and over the course of a few flights and some quiet time before bed I built up enough new gear and experience to finally win my first tournament, letting me continue on with the main story.
Speaking of the Steam Deck, I was right that The Siege and the Sandfox was a good match for the portable system. I spent a lot of my flights running up walls, flipping off horizontal bars, and getting stymied by AI glitches, collision bugs, and unclear progression. But I managed to get most of the movement abilities, meaning most of the map should be open to me now and it shouldn't take too long for me to finish now that I'm home.
Or it wouldn't if not for Death Stranding 2. I didn't bother starting this before my trip, because I knew I'd be thinking anxiously about it the whole time if I gave myself a taste. DS2, as I'd hoped, seems to be a straightforward improvement to the first game in just about every perceptible category except novelty - the mechanics, the equipment, the pacing and writing all feel tightened up and more satisfying. I wouldn't go so far as to say this is Metal Gear Stranding the way some publications have been hinting, but it's definitely trimmed a lot of the fat that weighed DS1 down. And it still has a photo mode where I can make Sam do a YouTube thumbnail face.
I really like all of the new tweaks and additions to the equipment in particular - everything feels like they went through and thought up some new functionality that would make each item a little bit more worthwhile. Some things are heavily redone, like the fact that scouting towers, which were never particularly useful in the first game, now let you connect to them remotely once you've tagged them, and can toggle a heat map overlay that shows you the spots where players tend to get spotted by enemies, a bit like Dark Souls bloodstains but for a stealth game, which is something I've never seen or even thought of before. Even the humble ladder has been massively improved with a single simple change - you can stack ladders together into a single longer ladder, letting you span serious gaps without making a daisy chain of clumsy clutter.
But even if it weren't better, I'd still probably play it. Death Stranding was one of the most truly unique and compelling games of the past decade, in ways that I don't think most critics were able to put words to. Getting to go on another adventure with Norman Reedus, even if it was mostly a rehash, would probably still feel worth my time.
Writing
Because I was so busy at my parents' I was really only able to spend a single hour working on, well, this kind of stuff. When I got back, frankly, I needed to reconnect with Fragile, Deadman, Sam "Porter" "America" "the Great Deliverer" "Unger" Bridges, and all my other friends. And I needed to catch up on sleep. But I'm all rested up now, and just need to finish editing and making images for my manifesto, uh, I mean essay, that I promised like a month ago. By and large, I should be back to my normal schedule for the foreseeable future, and I expect to have a few more full game write-ups done by the end of the month, even if I spend a lot of time Hellsweeping and Death Stranding.
Other
A few weeks ago I used this part of my update post to talk about some announcements of things that didn't constitute releases or updates, and since I've been gone there are a few that I wanted to note. First, the developer of HROT, a fantastic and bizarre FPS set in Czechoslovakia, announced a horror game called Brno Transit, with a similar looking style and, obviously [you know where Brno is, right?] the same setting, due out by the end of this year. I don't really play horror games, but this looks to be something a bit different, and has enough in common with HROT that I'm willing to give it a shot.
Then, first person beat'em'up TEXNOPLAZM has announced an August 4th release… into Early Access. That might be slightly disappointing if the demo from last month's Next Fest had you hankering for a full release, but it's at least a move towards playability. I probably won't be paying anytime soon, but I'll be keeping my eye on its progress. Who knows, it might have its 'finger guns' moment in the year or two I expect EA to last.
Finally, Vampire Survivors-like Halls of Torment has announced two major updates coming up sometime before the end of the year - a free DLC with a new character class, and a paid DLC with a new map. Both should come with the complete package of skills, dedicated quests, and so on. Now, I really liked HoT, and it's been one of my favorite Survivors-likes since its first demo, but I don't really know how much a new character or map will add to the game. All things considered, I'd rather this team spin up another project - I'd love to see a real ARPG with this style and quality. But hey, maybe the updates are an attempt to squeeze a little more juice to fuel just that kind of follow-up. Either way, I'll play it by ear when these finally release.