Yearly Archives: 2019

Sparklite to receive Collectible Signature Edition

Sparklite, from Red Blue Games and published by Merge Games announced it’s going to receive a collectible Signature Edition when it releases in October. Sparklite will hit PC, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4 and Xbox One in October, but the pre-order for the Sparklite Signature Edition is going to begin on June 289th, 2019 at 7 am PST. It will include the following:

  • A region free copy of Sparklite
  • Signature Edition Sleeve and Box
  • Original CD Soundtrack
  • Nano Block Figure
  • Numbered Certificate

Pre-orders will be available here.

Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 – Chaos Campaign Arrives

A huge update arrives on Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 today, in the form of the Chaos Campaign Expansion. This is a paid DLC update, that adds a major Campaign – Chaos! There is also a free update that launches today as well, which adds a host of new customization options for your campaigns. Virtually every aspect of the difficulty can be adjusted, for a brand new experience every time. The Chaos Campaign will be just as massive as the other campaigns and will offer a whole new story, dozens of hours of content and much more. It costs 12.99 on Steam and is available today.

Bloodstained – New Player Advice

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Here’s my set up for my money grind, and location –

My review of Bloodstained will be coming this week, and while there’s a lot to talk about and say, I’ll leave most of it for that review. But there’s so much to see, and so much to do in the game, that I feel like it could possibly be overwhelming for new players. There are stuff people could easily miss out on, if they aren’t aware, or if they listen to certain NPCs. But that misdirection/advice fits into the story, it’s not a mistranslation. I’ll let people discover that for themselves – sort of. Something I didn’t include in this list of stuff is farming money, but I want to talk about it. Farming Money became incredibly easy about 12-15 hours into the game, Once I had Augment: Luck, Augment: Gold, Spike Armor and a few of the +Luck items. The trick is to get all of these equipped, and find an area you can easily run through with lots of lanterns. With this setup, you can easily pull 100k+ gold in a few minutes of running, even faster if you have Accelerator/Invert. I use Spike Armor because you just have to hit the lamps with your body instead of swinging a weapon. Also, when you get the This is such a deep game, and I’m already setting up for my NG+ Hard, and then Nightmare after that. So, I thought I might write this companion piece to go with the upcoming review. I hope it helps!

Do Not Sell Shards – As you play through the game, you kill demons, and they will randomly give you Shards, which offer a variety of useful powers, passives, and abilities. You are able to sell these to Dominique very early in the game, and the money is going to be tempting. But don’t do it! Avoid the temptation to sell them unless you’re absolutely never going to use that Shard. It fits into the story why she’s doing this, but there’s a much better reason to hoard these Shards for yourself. You can enhance your Shards using items, but as you collect more copies of the same Shard, it increases in “Grade”, which enhances the strength on another level. You can see in the Shards menu what improving them does, and more important than all of that – Enchantment (Yellow) Shards become White (Passive) when they hit level 9! Yes, picking up 9 Optimizer Shards means you will have that Attack Speed buff no matter what (unless you turn it off, I guess), and can equip something else. I learned this a little too late into my run and had to go back and do a lot of grinding to make up for it.

Spend Plenty of Time Farming – On that note, spend plenty of time farming items and kills! I spend extra time killing demons and running back and forth through rooms and areas – common (grey/blue) chests respawn when you return to an area, so you can get the materials and potential weapons from them over and over again. This is even better with gear that gives more rare drops/more alchemic drops/etc. There are some amazing weapons that drop off of demons too, and having multiples of some of them means you get some overwhelmingly strong gear in the late game. I’ll get to that soon though. Not a single item drops that isn’t useful in some manner or another, and you’ll want to level up yourself as well as your familiar of choice. Farming those Shards in the early game makes a lot of encounters trivial if you’re prepared for them. Except for Zangetsu, I think he’s pretty much always a jerk. Explore, swing at walls, jump towards weird places, and solve puzzles! There’s so much in it for you.

Take The Time To Do Side-Quests – Side-Quests might seem tedious, even boring in Bloodstained – and you’d be right! They kind of are. Especially cooking. I didn’t even realize Cooking Side-Quests existed until I was almost done with the game (thanks Andy!), and so I grinded all of them in one sitting. Some of them require some pretty rare ingredients, so farming will be required in the later parts of the Cooking Missions, and some of the “Memento” side-quests require gear that drops off of demons, so ultimately – you’re gonna farm. But there are some truly phenomenal rewards. For example – finishing the Cooking Side-Quests gives you a hat. But it’s not just any hat – it’s a hat that gives unlimited ammo for your guns! Did you want to try a gun build, but hate that ammo runs out, and crafting is expensive (though you do have unlimited “regular” ammo)? Now you can! Guns are super strong in Bloodstained, but again – ammo. Side-Quests have great benefits, but there is something doing them taught me – Disassemble/Alkahest rare/useful dishes often, before you give them to Sadie. Why?

Make Liberal Use of Alkahests/Disassemble – Some of those ingredients are overwhelmingly rare – Flying Beef has anywhere from a 1-6% drop rate. So what’s the solution to being able to make these dishes often? It takes some cash, but it’s worth it. Get one or two of the rare ingredients you’re after, and make a dish that has those ingredients in them. Now, take the dish back and disassemble it down to its core parts (requires purchasing/farming Alkahests). You get the materials back, and now you can buy the dish from the local shop! Now instead of farming the mats to make a dish/make other, harder dishes, you can just buy the meal, and disassemble it for parts. This isn’t a game changer, but it can certainly cut down on some more serious farming in Bloodstained, and I already do plenty of that.

Crissaegrim Is In The Game – Sorta – Were you, like me, a fan of Symphony of the Night? If so, you may remember the overwhelmingly busted Crissaegrim weapon – each time you swung once, it shot several arcs in front of you. It has lower base damage but makes up for it in the sheer volume of swings you can spam. Well, it’s in the game! Sort of! Early on, you’ll encounter the “Killer Barber” in the Cathedral. His common drop is the “Sharp Razor”, but he can drop Rhava Bural too, which will feel like a weaker, more disappointing Crissaegrim. But take heart! Once you have Invert, and access to a few items, you can craft the Rhava Velar, and that is the Crissaegrim reborn. It’s busted, it’s fast, and it’s so so very good. You can very easily miss it though – you find it on the way to. I can tell you that it’s in the Hall of Termination. I didn’t want to spoil more than that. Sure, there are the 8/16/32bit weapons you can make, and rare, awesome weapons by the score. But none of them are more memorable to me than this one.

Crossout ‘Beach Sheriff’ Giveaway

We’ve partnered with Gaijin Entertainment and Targem Games to host a giveaway celebrating Crossout‘s Mass Contagion update.

Important Information: 

  • These items can be used indefinitely. The flag does have a lifespan of 7 days, but that does not start until after in-game activation of the flag. It can stay in a player’s inventory as long as they see fit.
  • These codes are not region-locked. But they must be redeemed at the Gaijin website, but they are PC only.

Giveaway contains special pack “Beach Sherrif”. The pack includes:

  • Rare “Engineer flag” for 7 days
  • Unique sticker “Beach Sheriff”
  • Paint can: “Lagoon”
  • The flag allows you to earn additional reputation in battle. Only one flag can be installed on an armored car.

Redemption Instructions:

  • Codes must be activated on this page.
    • On the left-hand side, there is a tab/section titled “Promo-code”
  • The codes are available for the PC version of the game only.
    • Sign-in to your account or register for an account.
    • To register for an account, you will provide an email, create a username and password.
    • Once registered or if you have an account, sign in.
    • Click on Activate Code, add code, click Activate.

Cadence of Hyrule

Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda is a spinoff rhythm action-adventure game similar to Crypt of the NecroDancer, but featuring characters from the beloved Legend of Zelda franchise.

Business Model: Retail Purchase Nintendo Switch, $24.99

Microtransactions: No

Key Features:

Characters: Play as Link, Princess Zelda, or Cadence.

Beat em’ to the Beat: Battle enemies in time to classic Legend of Zelda tunes, remixed just for Cadence of Hyrule.

Infinite Replay: Procedural generation makes each dungeon unique and interesting.

Doowop in Co-op: Play with a friend!

Familiar Items: A polyglot of items from both Crypt of the NecroDancer and classic Legend of Zelda games await you!

The Cycle Giveaway: Founders Packs Raffle (Epic Game Store)

To celebrate the launch of their Founders Pack program, our friends at Yager sent us an exclusive set of keys for The Cycle to raffle off to you folks!

The Cycle is a competitive quester shooter. On Fortuna III you compete against other Prospectors, or collaborate with them, to complete as many contracts as possible. The only problem is, the planet is hostile in more ways than one. Alien wildlife tends to want to rip your face off. Rival Prospectors are at best untrustworthy and at worst highly murderous. And if that’s not bad enough, there’s The Cycle itself… a planetary metamorphosis which, if you don’t make it to the evac in time, will absolutely ensure the end of you. Will you get rich, or get dead? Your skill decides.


Upon entry you will have the opportunity to win one of 33 founders pack keys with a value of up to ~60 USD.

20 T1 (Scout) Founders Packs, including:

  • Wrangler Chest Piece
  • 2 weapon coatings (applicable to any weapon)
  • The viper skin for the K-28 Autopistol Mk2
  • 500 Aurum (in game currency worth $5.00 US, redeemable after game launch)

10 T2 (Explorer) Founders Packs, including:

  • Complete Wrangler Costume (3 pieces)
  • 2 weapon coatings (applicable to all weapons)
  • Skins for all currently available handguns
  • 2250 Aurum (in game currency worth $20.00 redeemable after game launch)

3 T3 (Prospector) Founders Packs, including:

  • EXCLUSIVE Focus and Kata emote
  • Complete Wrangler, Syndicate Enforcer, Survivalist, and Storm Runner costumes (3 pieces each).
  • 2 weapon coatings for all weapons
  • Skins for all currently available handguns
  • Weapon skins for all 3 primary starter guns
  • 6250 Aurum (in game currency worth $50.00 USD, redeemable after game launch)

For Your Chance to Win:

  • Visit the official entry thread. You will need to sign up for a forum account if you don’t already have one – sorry we cannot award prizes to guest accounts.
  • Post a reply to the thread  telling us what your favorite Prospector Pack reward is (see above video).
  • Winners will be announced on Friday June 28th, 2019, at 12:00pm pacific. Codes will be sent via private message on the forums, so check back to see if you’ve won!