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Quick Links The first two cases in The Spider of Lanka DLC forThe Case of the Golden Idolcan be quite confusing when you attempt to make them fit into a cohesive narrative. The third case, In the Web of the Spider, is where things start to make sense and come together and you realise how this DLC fits into the main game’s central thrust. This remarkably complex case is a bit non-standard, like some main game late cases - we have many ‘series of events’ style puzzles to work through, and a whole city to examine to work it all out....

A smartwatch not only makes your life easier by giving you quicker access to your phone and other apps, but it also helps you track your health. Strapped to your wrist, these watches can monitor vital signs, sleep cycles, and some may even allow you to skip certain checkups like ECG and blood oxygen tests. While there are many brands offering smartwatches with tons of features, very few of them are as trustworthy, or as feature-loaded, as the Apple Smart Watch Series 8....

Summary Over the years, we’ve seenPlayStationlean further and further into grimdark, single-player experiences,with the occasional live service disasterto keep things interesting. Gone are the days when PlayStation had a wide range of colorful platformers and action games to turn to, as its first-party studios now concentrate more and more on hard-hitting stories and hyperrealistic graphics. Team Asobi has been the exception to the rule over the past six years, having released two colorful and whimsical Astro Bot games, with a third -and potentially its best yet- just on the horizon....

Summary One ofAstro Bot’s many,manycameos surprisingly seems to be referencing Konami’sPro Evolution Soccerinstead ofFIFAor even EA Sports FC. I may not be the biggest football fan in the world, but I do know one thing for sure - FIFA is unarguably the biggest football gaming series of all time. Sure,that’s changed a little in recent years with EA losing the licenseand having to come up with EA Sports FC,but until the rumoured 2K FIFA game releases, we all just callEA Sports FCby its original name anyway....

Few companies release as much merchandise asDisney. It hasinspired countless clothes, games, homeware, posters, collectibles, and more over the years. This includes plenty of figurines. The best of them are highly detailed products that look just like the characters they’re based on. Plenty of them have the characters pulling unique poses or have them holding interesting items. Many of them even contain multiple characters as part of one figurine. For instance, there are a lot of figures that feature both Mickey and Minnie Mouse together....

Summary The tactical shooter genre isn’t oversaturated, but it’s led by two behemoths of gaming.Counter-Strike 2is one of the biggest games in the world.Valoranthas cornered the market for people who like the strategic elements of CS, but want a little more sci-fi flair. BetweenValveandRiot, two of the biggest developers in the world, the vast majority of players have their needs catered for. That’s why I admire Bad Guitar Studio, the developer behindFragpunk....

Quick Links Magic: The Gathering’s Universes Beyond crossovers have led to an interesting dynamic where players get their hands on characters from their favorite IPs and game series in Magic form, but by proxy now have Magic cards representing real-world figures like Leonardo da Vinci, and the modern-day da Vinci: Post Malone. It’s strange times indeed to be a Magic player. Cleopatra–yes, the Egyptian queen,thatCleopatra–makes her Magic: The Gathering debut in the Assassin’s Creed set....

Closer the Distance is heartbreaking from the moment it begins. We hear a woman talking to her sister about the comfort it gives her to know that there’s always life going on around her, even when it has nothing to do with her. Her voice is gentle, almost loving as she talks about the people in Yesterby, the small, remote town they live in. As she speaks, we see Yesterby from above, slowly zooming in on a house as a police car drives up to it....

Quick Links By the time you arrive in the Tentacle System ofAstro Bot, you’re used to the basic conventions of the game, and Team Asobi starts getting a bit more experimental. Go-Go Archipelago, the first level of Tentacle System, is the perfect example of that. To best navigate it, we’ll guide you to all the bots, jigsaw pieces, and the elusive black hole. Jigsaw 1 Go-Go Archipelago is another level where you’ll need tobe ready right from the start....

The bullet hell genre neverreallyhad its day in the sun. While games of this ilk made up parts of the arcade landscape decades ago, they were never the centerpiece, and when consoles took over, they maintained that niche status. Over time, they have only been pushed further away from center stage. This is what makesCygni: All Guns Blazingsuch a tantalizing proposition: it’s a glossy release in a genre that hasn’t seen one in the better part of a decade....

Dead Risingpreviews are here and the consensus on theDeluxe Remasteris relatively positive. It’s being touted as a faithful revival ofCapcom’s action-horror classic that also introduces a slew of quality-of-life improvements such as auto saving, kinder controls, and easier ways to slay thousands of zombies without the gameplay mechanics grinding up against you. But sometimes I love a good grind. A video game that pushes my buttons and forces me to try harder, play smarter, and put up with some nonsense because the end result is worth it....

Dead Spaceis a fantastic game for a lot of reasons. The 2008 classic from Visceral Games took everything that madeResident Evil 4great and decided to do it in outer space where it is pretty hard for someone to hear you scream. That’s what the movies it pays homage to all seem to say at least. It was Event Horizon in video game form, which remains a killer pitch to this day in how it breaks down what made Isaac Clarke’s romp aboard the USG Ishimura so memorable....

Summary Dungeons And Dragonsturns 50 this year. 50 years since the very first role players gathered around and embarked on an adventure, oblivious to the fact that millions more would be joining them in countless ways for the next five decades and counting. Naturally, Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast have been celebrating the big 5-0 in as many ways as possible, the latest of which is a collection of stamps curated by Royal Mail....