Monthly Archives: March 2021
Loop Hero Review
For all its automated systems, Loop Hero can be incredibly stressful. Battles play out without any input from you, navigation loops over a predetermined path, and resources are collected for you, but that doesn't mean you can take your eyes off the battlefield for even a second. This captivating mix of familiar genres demands constant attention, testing your ability to think well into the future when making your moves. It's a riveting balance of risk and reward wrapped in a deviously challenging roguelite that will tempt you into pushing forward for just one more round.
Loop Hero is a distinct mish-mash of multiple genre ideas, none of which influence gameplay enough to easily classify the overall gameplay experience. Loop Hero is primarily a run-based role-playing game in which you indirectly control a hero through procedurally generated loops. Instead of controlling the hero's movements, you mainly control what they encounter by placing objects on the loop that create the world--things like cemeteries that can spawn skeletons, villages that can heal you, or swamps that generate nasty mosquitos. These are provided by cards that you draw from a limited deck which you can edit between runs, letting you curate each one to a degree. And while your hero automatically navigates in circles and resolves fights with enemies without any inputs, you also manage their inventory carefully to deal with the increasing challenges that each new round trip brings.

Ultimately, Loop Hero challenges you to balance risk and reward by keenly considering all the options your current cards give you to make your next loop challenging, but not deadly. Each run is an opportunity to gather resources you use to expand your camp in the hub world, unlocking new cards, classes, and abilities to use on subsequent runs. Enemies drop specific resources that you'll need to further progress outside of each expedition, giving you incentives to place multiple groves for wild, mutated dogs or dimly lit houses that can spawn bloodthirsty vampires on tiles around them. With each new addition to the loop, you're also extending the time it takes to make a trip around it, which directly affects spawn rates of enemies that are tied to a persistent day-night cycle. While a tile might seem harmless when it's only adding one enemy to the loop every day, it can become dangerous when the route is stuffed to the point where an entire group might be waiting the next time you make it around again.
Continue Reading at GameSpotTitan Souls Developers Reveal Their Next Game, Death’s Door
"We're still quite a small-time but this is definitely the biggest and most ambitious game we've done," Fenn said. "We've gone all out with quite an expansive and varied world which we think has its own distinctive vibe and atmosphere throughout. It's full of little hidden touches [and] big secrets."
The collected souls of defeated enemies act as currency, and with enough, players can upgrade their crow's speed, weapons, and other stats in the grayscale hub world called the Hall of Doors, the realm the crows occupy. From there, players can enter doors as they're unlocked to jump to specific areas in the colorful open world where they'll fight bosses for souls, encounter kind forest spirits, or run around and try to find the game's collectibles, Shiny Things.
"If you go and explore after you've got a new power, you can find these little trinkets in the game… You get this nice little model to look at that'll have lore attached to it," Foster said. "Some of them maybe give you clues that can be used elsewhere for other puzzles and things."
Foster and Fenn said game franchises like The Legend of Zelda and Dark Souls were inspirations in Death's Door's design, along with aesthetic inspiration from Studio Ghibli movies. But, as with Titan Souls, Foster and Fenn said they aimed to design Death's Door with tight, minimalist, and fast-paced combat.
Death's Door is making its way to Xbox consoles and PC this summer. For more from the ID@Xbox Twitch Gaming Showcase, be sure to read IGN's preview of Nobody Saves the World.
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Miranda Sanchez is the executive editor of guides at IGN. You can chat with her about video games and fountain pens on Twitter.Titan Souls Developers Reveal Their Next Game, Death’s Door
"We're still quite a small-time but this is definitely the biggest and most ambitious game we've done," Fenn said. "We've gone all out with quite an expansive and varied world which we think has its own distinctive vibe and atmosphere throughout. It's full of little hidden touches [and] big secrets."
The collected souls of defeated enemies act as currency, and with enough, players can upgrade their crow's speed, weapons, and other stats in the grayscale hub world called the Hall of Doors, the realm the crows occupy. From there, players can enter doors as they're unlocked to jump to specific areas in the colorful open world where they'll fight bosses for souls, encounter kind forest spirits, or run around and try to find the game's collectibles, Shiny Things.
"If you go and explore after you've got a new power, you can find these little trinkets in the game… You get this nice little model to look at that'll have lore attached to it," Foster said. "Some of them maybe give you clues that can be used elsewhere for other puzzles and things."
Foster and Fenn said game franchises like The Legend of Zelda and Dark Souls were inspirations in Death's Door's design, along with aesthetic inspiration from Studio Ghibli movies. But, as with Titan Souls, Foster and Fenn said they aimed to design Death's Door with tight, minimalist, and fast-paced combat.
Death's Door is making its way to Xbox consoles and PC this summer. For more from the ID@Xbox Twitch Gaming Showcase, be sure to read IGN's preview of Nobody Saves the World.
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Miranda Sanchez is the executive editor of guides at IGN. You can chat with her about video games and fountain pens on Twitter.SpongeBob SquarePants Episodes Pulled Over Storyline Concerns
SpongeBob SquarePants Episodes Pulled Over Storyline Concerns
The Suicide Squad: Sylvester Stallone Voices King Shark
Stallone made his tweet first and Gunn quickly followed up with a new poster of King Shark and confirmation that Stallone was, in fact, the voice behind the character in today's trailer. Of course, we hear little more than a few words and some meaty crunches from King Shark, but both Stallone and Gunn are clearly excited about what's to come. Stallone joins a massive Suicide Squad cast that features the likes of Margot Robbie, John Cena, Viola Davis, Idris Elba, and many more. The Suicide Squad will hit cinemas and HBO Max simultaneously on August 6, 2021. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/03/26/the-suicide-squad-official-trailer"] You can check out King Shark in action in the first trailer for The Suicide Squad. Not surprisingly, Stallone's King Shark seems to be best at eating people and ripping them apart, rather than using his words. Check out the other 11 character posters revealed today alongside King Shark's and then read Gunn's recent praise of Warner Bros. for being "creatively amazing." Read up on The Suicide Squad's Corto Maltese setting after that and then check out how eager Gunn is for fans to see Margot Robbie's new take on Harley Quinn in the movie. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-suicide-squad-new-character-posters&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN who is very excited to watch The Suicide Squad. You can follow him Twitter @LeBlancWes.OK shark coming your way! The new THE SUCIDE SQUAD Is thundering your way! August 8!#jamesgunn #The suicide squad #warnerbrotherspictures #Margot Robbie #Johncena https://t.co/G9SkrxPOme
— Sylvester Stallone (@TheSlyStallone) March 26, 2021
The Suicide Squad: Sylvester Stallone Voices King Shark
Stallone made his tweet first and Gunn quickly followed up with a new poster of King Shark and confirmation that Stallone was, in fact, the voice behind the character in today's trailer. Of course, we hear little more than a few words and some meaty crunches from King Shark, but both Stallone and Gunn are clearly excited about what's to come. Stallone joins a massive Suicide Squad cast that features the likes of Margot Robbie, John Cena, Viola Davis, Idris Elba, and many more. The Suicide Squad will hit cinemas and HBO Max simultaneously on August 6, 2021. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/03/26/the-suicide-squad-official-trailer"] You can check out King Shark in action in the first trailer for The Suicide Squad. Not surprisingly, Stallone's King Shark seems to be best at eating people and ripping them apart, rather than using his words. Check out the other 11 character posters revealed today alongside King Shark's and then read Gunn's recent praise of Warner Bros. for being "creatively amazing." Read up on The Suicide Squad's Corto Maltese setting after that and then check out how eager Gunn is for fans to see Margot Robbie's new take on Harley Quinn in the movie. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-suicide-squad-new-character-posters&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN who is very excited to watch The Suicide Squad. You can follow him Twitter @LeBlancWes.OK shark coming your way! The new THE SUCIDE SQUAD Is thundering your way! August 8!#jamesgunn #The suicide squad #warnerbrotherspictures #Margot Robbie #Johncena https://t.co/G9SkrxPOme
— Sylvester Stallone (@TheSlyStallone) March 26, 2021
