Weekly Update 2026-05-17
I am the raw.
I had another busier than expected week this time, with a lot of new releases I wanted to check out. I’m going to be busy today too so I’m kind of rushing this update out. Hopefully I get a break before the end of June and I have to do another Next Fest.
Game Releases and Updates
Clockwork Ambrosia release – a game I’ve been looking forward to for a while – I’ve played the demo multiple times as it’s been updated over the past couple years. This week marks its full release, and despite already having my Metroidvania fix taken care of with Constance, I was excited enough to pick it up and get through the demo areas… and then I kept going until I was through the next area too. I suspect this will be a pretty short game overall, and one I’ll get through quickly, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Styx: Blades of Greed release – are you French? Are you a vile little scheming goblin man? Why did I ask that twice? Just kidding! I haven’t played this fantasy stealth murder franchise in either a decade or maybe a little less than a decade, and I would put REAL MONEY on fewer people being able to claim otherwise than I could beat up in an alleyway. Well, Styx is back, and he’s… *checks current review averages* not quite as good as ever! Is this going to be another franchise sunk by making the turn into open-world sandbox?
Puzzling Places QoL update – one of the reasons I’ve been putting off playing more of this and preparing for a formal write-up is that the new flat-screen mode was lacking a few quality of life features that, frankly, the game badly needs. Well, this patch has remedied the worst of it, giving you multi-select and a grouping tool that you can use to suck up pieces of a type quickly instead of needing to drag them to one spot individually. Plus, puzzles completed in either mode are now marked as such in both, though you still can’t resume a partially completed VR puzzle in desktop mode or vice versa, for obvious reasons.
Blades of Fire 2.0 [Steam release] – I really, really liked the demo of this that I played during Next Fest in February, so imagine my surprise and mild dismay to learn that Blades of Fire has technically been out, on certain platforms, for a year, and did so damn well that I hadn’t heard about it. Anyway, the demo, and this release, is specifically for the release onto Steam, and coincides with a massive ‘2.0’ branded overhaul that includes additional difficulty levels, a NG+, the ability to exchange forging materials around, and more. So far I’m still having fun, so hopefully this second shot is worth the trouble.
Desecrators VR support – one of the reasons I thought this game was disappointing compared to Overload [in terms of Descent clones, especially] was that Overload had excellent VR support, while Desecrators did not, and VR is super cool for a 6DoF game. Well, now Desecrators apparently has a VR mode. I haven’t tried it yet… I will, but I think it’s worth pointing out that that was only one reason I prefer Overload.
Vultures: Scavengers of Death release – this is a game I faintly remember trying the demo for, but forgetting to record anything of and then forgot that I played it, right up until I saw that it released. Hang on, let me dig into the dark recesses of my brain and try to recall what my impression of it was…
Uhh, crap. Well, this is why I try to keep a written public record of this sort of thing. Anyway, it’s a turn-based tactics game set in a PSX horror adventure, so if House of Necrosis looked cool but you hate roguelikes, here you go.
The State of Games Played
I’m right at the end...ish part of Esoteric Ebb, and while I’m pretty happy with how things have played out in this run, I am very curious to take another spin and see just how differently things can play out. I’ve been burned before on these ‘branching narratives,’ and it makes me crazy when people don’t notice or care when the effort isn’t put in. I have a good feeling about Ebb, and I hope it holds up as well as I think it will.
I rolled credits on Constance, and had a thoroughly pleasant time doing so… though, maybe a bit too little time. So before I start a write-up, I’m going to spend a couple hours chasing 100% - I don’t think it’ll be miserable, and there’s at least one whole optional ‘ability’ I apparently haven’t obtained yet.
And, though I found myself pressed for time this week, I still couldn’t resist a couple DEMOS
DEMOS
Karate Rogue
There’s a lot going on here so I’ll try to explain it from the bottom up. The game is about doing turn-based JRPG battles, but your character is a karate blackbelt. So while the enemies are doing normal attacks and casting spells and so on, you’re doing multiple kicks and elbow strikes, evading attacks, and stunning enemies all in one turn. At least, that’s the idea. You get multiple Action Points per turn, and each of your unlocked and equipped moves requires a set amount – then, any action points you don’t spend get carried over to the next turn, letting you do even more.
There’s a surprising amount of depth and variety to this, at least from what little I saw. You can pick a stance at the start of your turn, with defensive and evasive costing an extra action point or two but giving you a huge passive bonus for the remainder. Every fight you complete lets you pick from a set of new moves, passive abilities, or buffs, and there’s some really powerful stuff even right in the first couple levels. One passive I got gave me a chance to whip out a bonus elbow strike if I ended a turn with zero AP, another gave me a different bonus hit following a specific attack type, and then I learned a second move that did that attack multiple times. You can even find and equip weapons, though doing so leaves whichever hand you’re wielding it with unavailable for strikes, which might throw off some moves or bonuses you’re relying on – though you can then just fall back on kicks too.
It’s a lot to keep track of, it’s pretty hard, especially because you don’t get move previews for the enemies and if they’re casting a spell [which you can’t defend against] you won’t know it until they chunk a third of your health off, but it’s really interesting, and definitely something I want to keep an eye on.
WARAG
Total crap attempt at a boomer shooter. Basically Quake but with Doom-style shuffling sprite enemies, bad platforming, and the weakest, most pathetic sounding guns I’ve heard all year.
Embarrassing. There are multiple points in the demo where you have to cross a span of lava by shooting targets that make temporary platforms appear and it’s miserable. Hate it.
Cop Bastard
Unbelievably tasteless game where you shoot dozens of low-poly yakuza goons, utter terrible one-liners in what appears to be a racist mockery of Japanese accented English, and heal your wounds by spitting on the bodies of the men you’ve just shot.
It’s beautiful.
The action is hectic, the dialogue is jaw-dropping, and the shotgun was such a visceral reversal of my disappointment with WARAG that I genuinely felt a warm glow wash over me the first time I pulped a gangster’s head with it, then hocked a loogie on his corpse and said some shit like ‘stirl arive? Not anymore.’
I’m in awe of this game. I can’t believe you actually have to aim for and hit a dead body with your spit in order to regain health from it. Literally the only note I have for the dev is that it took me forever to notice that the spit meter has two charge levels and you get the +25 health for a full charge and only +10 for half – I initially thought that you got extra health for specifically spitting on the dead men’s face, and I still think that would be a cool way to get a bonus.
Even the tutorial is incredible.
Writing
Other than finishing the Thumper write-up I really didn’t have much time for anything else this past week. Oh well. Constance should be up next, assuming I get my full clear soon.
Other
The developers of Rusted Moss, one of my favorite indie games from the past few years, has announced a follow-up called Iron Bramble. If you haven’t tried Rusted Moss, you should – it’s a Metroidvania with a grappling hook and guns, some challenging but enjoyable bosses and platforming gauntlets, and extra modes for replays. I’m very excited to see this dev return.