As many of you may know, I have been a long-time supporter and player of Silence of the Siren (PC), and Oxymoron Games has shared some news with me that we don’t often hear. They have quite literally changed the name. Due to confusion with other titles out there, Silence of the Siren is now Heroes of Science and Fiction. I have added some other news about the game below as well. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
What’s new?
The Map Editor we used to create all the maps in the game (there’s an official Steam Guide)!
BETA version of the Random Map Generator
A powerful Event/Scripting Editor battle-tested by creating different campaigns (there’s also a Steam Guide for this part of the editor)
A simple Steam Workshop integration so you can share your maps directly from the Editor
A new planet with a 6-phase day-night cycle, new maps. This includes the map from the Next Fest Demo 2024 and an even older demo map uploaded as an example to the Workshop!
4 new units
Random commander selection for scenarios and skirmishes
Statistics for the victory screen with the army strength timeline
There is always plenty of debate on the topic, is a Japanese role playing game a specific style of game or,it is it any role playing game made by a Japanese company? Let’s take a look at both sides of this for a moment.
One side thinks that since it is called a JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game) that any RPG game made by a Japanese company would qualify. This means that games made by From Software, such as Bloodborne or Elden Ring would be JRPGs. Now this definition doesn’t exclude games like Final Fantasy of course as they also fit the definition because of who makes them.
From here we move on to the other side of the argument, that who makes the game doesn’t matter so much as the style of it. Typically speaking these had an in depth story to them and a leveling system for the characters. The early ones had a turn based system or an active time battle system. Over time they moved to a full real time action system but the idea pretty much stayed the same of a strong story and leveling system. This still wouldn’t necessarily keep games like Bloodborne out as it does contain all of that.
Octopath Travler
The issue with this debate becomes when you try to argue they HAVE to be made in Japan or by a Japanese company. You end up with amazing games like the recent Claire Obscure. A great turned based RPG, that is made by a French company. It has every single criteria to be a JRPG. A fantastic story, great turn based combat combined with a counter system.
To me,Pizza is an Italian food. It doesn’t matter if it is made by the two Mexican guys at my local mall in Pennsylvania. Nobody argues that when my Hamburger is made by Puerto Rican ex-wife it is now Spanish food. So why do we continue to debate that a JRPG is anything other than a style of game that can be made by anyone?
This is of course just one man’s opinion. Best wishes,and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Holdfast: Nations At War is now a new game; it is simply new to consoles. Anvil Studios released it back in 2020 on Steam and finally put it on consoles, and were kind enough to send me this masterpiece of a game. I am not calling it a masterpiece because it is beyond reproach; it is actually quite flawed.
For example, the graphics are pretty dated, and the controls can be clunky. I am not a fan of the melee weapons at all, and it feels like swinging through pudding regardless of the weapon. If you know anything about the Napoleonic Wars or World War One, you can imagine what it is like playing a FPS where half the weapons are essentially black powder rifles with slow reload times.
I know I just said a lot of bad things about a game I just called a masterpiece. Truthfully, I have not had this much fun with a $20 game in a very long time. I even spent $5 on the American Forces pack because I wanted to support the company and use the 103rd Infantry Regiment stuff that comes with it, along with in-game shouts. and such. Admittedly, it is basically just character skins you can pick, but it is a small detail that the game gets right.
This is where the game shines. The player base is full of people just enjoying themselves. Proximity chat is full of people laughing, making harmless period jokes about doing it for queen and crumpets while charging over a wall only to get shot down and respawn and hop on a boat and play with a steam whistle. You will see guys chatting while launching shells of artillery shells, and as an artilleryman myself in the army, I appreciate this because that’s basically how it really goes. But it is real people just chatting away in these 150-person games. (75 on each team)
The gameplay is basically as average as it gets, but the community is as good as it comes, and the game itself is a blast to play, and for $20, it shouldn’t be missed. It is truly one of those hidden gems on the PS5. 8/10, best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Scum recently transitioned from early access to 1.0, and Gamepires sent me a copy, which I greatly appreciate. SCUM prides itself on being the most realistic open-world survival game on the market, and honestly, it might just be. Where most games are happy to let you just eat anything to refill your hunger, what you eat matters here.
The story is no slouch either, you find yourself on SCUM island, a place for criminals to work of their crimes by entertaining the masses. Death doesn’t save you, as you are revived and sent back to the start of your attempt to be the last one standing. Ok, so that part doesn’t really make any sense. To be fair, none of us is playing a game with a genitalia modifier for the story anyway, right?
A few words of warning, the requirements to play this game are hefty. For the first time ever, my laptop struggled, and it struggled hard. I have more than the minimum requirements, and I still find myself messing with settings. Also, ignore the negative reviews you find on Steam for the most part. Many of them are long-time players, with over 1000-2000 hours, complaining about what isn’t in the game or how their ideas weren’t used, etc. While some of them are perfectly valid, they do ignore the fact that the game is incredibly detailed.
The multiplayer aspect is amazing, the base building is very in-depth, and while the learning curve is pretty steep, you are rewarded with a one-of-a-kind experience. Everything needs to be balanced in this game, from your diet to weight management with your inventory, but not to such an extent that I ever felt like the game was a chore to play.
I do have a few small issues, and you will see these are pretty common complaints. Melee combat is basically as clunky as it gets. The learning curve is also huge, making the game pretty much impossible to just dive right into. The community also isn’t always exactly the most inviting, either. You can find great people in it, don’t get me wrong, but others are pretty much the definition of toxic and take the last man standing part very seriously.
So is it worth the $40, however? As a survival fan, absolutely, it is a 7/10 experience that I don’t regret for a moment. Just maybe avoid it if you don’t have the time or patience to learn it. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
So if you wanted a lil extra to go with the pretty awesome reveal we got, here we get a bit of a dive into it with the people actually making it. While we don’t get anything super new or groundbreaking, it’s still cool having the devs set the stage and talk about why Leon isn’t the MC as well as give us an idea of what we can look forward to. I love that you can switch between 1st and 3rd person at will. I’m ultra pumped still. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
I know some of you guys still love physical copies of games ( I do as well), and as someone who enjoyed Cattle Country ( you can see my review Cattle Country PS5 Review ), I figured I would share the news that you can get it now on PS5 and Switch. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
About Cattle Country
Ranchin’ and Handcraftin’ – Work the land, raise cattle, and build your dream homestead from sunup to sundown.
Swappin’ Stories – Make friends, share tales, and earn your place in the heart of the community.
Beware of Bandits – Stay sharp, as rustlers and rogues aren’t far behind.
Rodeos to Romance – Meet and woo one of 18 romanceable locals.
Buried Treasure – Brave the mines and unearth secrets from the old frontier.
Trackin’ Game – Hunt, explore, or simply soak in the wild beauty of the open range.
The physical edition is OUT NOW. Go on, cowboy, make Cattle Country part of your cozy collection!
Empyreal on PS5 is an action RPG, which I think is fair to call a soulslike, that doesn’t tell you that’s what it is. Secret Mode sent me a copy of this to check out, and I had a great time playing it. They also did a great job lulling me into a false sense of security.
The game starts out with a letter explaining to a young man that he is inheriting a family mission. To explore a monolith full of treasure and secrets. This results in us fast-forwarding to the present day, when you, an elite mercenary, show up to search the monolith that everyone else has failed to truly discover the purpose of.
You start off meeting some people who honestly aren’t thrilled to meet you, except the bartender. The man in charge sends you through the front door of the place, but doesn’t bother telling you that the place essentially spits you back out after you get through the hallway.
The game employs a card system where you enter the monolith, and it informs you if the area is Very Easy, Very Hard, or somewhere in between based on your gear score. The look of the game is to enter the place, find stuff to upgrade your gear, and challenge new places. This moves the story along and lets you find new gear and upgrade certain shops and NPCs.
Unlike most games of this type, where skill means more than gear, they took a very different approach here. If you aren’t upgrading your gear, rerolling stats, and abilities, you will find yourself dead and having to go back to easier places to grind for gear. The first couple of hours, this doesn’t seem all that necessary until you notice the bosses and such getting a bit harder. Then the levels, which do not have a map, start taking more out of you as you have to explore more and more.
The game itself is a ton of fun; it looks and plays great. It isn’t going to match games like Dark Souls, obviously, but it has a nice sci-fi feel to it, and you aren’t limited to a sword. You can smash enemies with a shield or blast them with a /huge gun. The game is definitely a 7/10 experience. The price is $30, so I might wait for a sale if you are on the fence, but if it is something you are definitely looking forward to, feel free to pull the trigger. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Worms Armageddon on PS5 is a hard one for me to review. Team 17 was nice enough to send me a copy to check out, and I love those guys for hooking me up with a game I loved playing during my childhood. I spent countless hours with my friends blowing each other up as little worms and laughing at the silly noises they made, or as they put on little bandanas before punching each other off a cliff.
It’s hard for me because the game looks better than ever. It truly has also never sounded better. Each worm is now rendered in great detail, and their voices are immaculate. The battlefields now look like I imagined they did as a kid and a young adult, when we had epic battles, and we laughed as my friends’ final worm would find itself on the receiving end of a perfectly timed sheep bouncing into a hole he dropped into thinking it was salvation.
It is hard because the game just is not fun. Playing with my kids, some the same age I was when I found this game amazing, really drives home how much I have changed as a gamer. My 8-year-old finds it hilarious, if not a bit frustrating, and my 20-year-old thinks it’s a nice way to kill time; however hates the controls. At my age, the game just isn’t what nostalgia remembers it as. The game is still a 7/10 experience, graphically, functionally, and all the game is what you would expect. But beware, if nostalgia is what you are looking for, you may not get what you are thinking.
Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Fly Corp on PS5 was sent to me by Klabater, and I always appreciate that. The game itself is simple and straightforward. You start with one airport, and you connect to a different airport. As your plane travels back and forth, you earn money and unlock different places to connect flights.
There are different game modes. In Free play mode, there is no game over mode. In another, you have 3 minutes to unlock the next country ( don’t worry, this stacks; if you unlock one in a minute, you now have 5 minutes), but you can also lose by having your airport overflow. Upgrading planes and airports is essential. I would like to create a hub to let people connect to flights to multiple less-traveled cities. There is never enough money tp upgrade everything so being tactical is essential.
Fly Corp is basically the definition of easy to learn but hard to master, and the game is better for it. The controls take less than 3 minutes to learn, but the game gets pretty fast-paced. I don’t really know how else to describe the game except calling it a puzzle game, but that does not feel right either.
At $15, the game is fun to play and can be played as a quick time killer or for a couple of hours. The only real question is, does that time have any value? For me, the game was oddly relaxing, and I can’t explain why. It is a nice 7/10 experience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
After 2 years, the long wait is finally over. Endzone 2 has an official release date of July 24th. Enjoy the trailer and some of the details below.
Key Features:
Multiple Settlements Across a Shattered World – Discover and develop isolated zones, each with unique resources and threats.
Dynamic Disasters – Face radiation storms, toxic rains, droughts, and other unpredictable environmental threats.
Trade & Expeditions with Vehicles – Deploy and upgrade your settlement bus, establish trade routes, and send teams on risky expeditions.
Revamped Settler Simulation – Smarter AI and refined pathing create thriving, responsive communities.
A Year of Major Updates – From electricity and education to traders, bulletin boards, and hunting systems, the game has grown massively since launch.
Survive. Rebuild. Repeat.Endzone 2 thrusts you into the role of humanity’s last hope; you’re the leader of a ragtag group of survivors clinging to life after a global ecological collapse. You won’t just build a city. You will have to reclaim the broken Earth, forging connections between isolated zones across a brutal, ever-shifting wasteland.Master large-scale, multi-zone management. Lead daring vehicular expeditions into the unknown. Guide smarter, more desperate settlers through storms, scarcity, and sabotage, all within a stunning, reimagined world rebuilt from the radioactive ground up.
Join the fight to rebuild civilization from the edge of extinction.
Savior Gaming 