single-player experience Archives

AppWizard

June 20, 2025

NetEase Games Announces AAA Action-Adventure Game Blood Message for Consoles and PC

NetEase Games, in collaboration with 24 Entertainment Lin’an, has announced a new AAA single-player action-adventure game titled Blood Message, designed for consoles and PC. This game is NetEase Games' first fully single-player experience, featuring a cinematic, linear story driven by the Unreal 5 Engine. Set during the final years of the Tang Dynasty, players will follow a nameless messenger and his son as they navigate East and Central Asia to deliver a critical message amidst a righteous uprising. The game will explore themes of loyalty, family, and the impact of ordinary individuals on history. Players will traverse approximately 3,000 li (around 1,000 miles) back to Chang’an, facing various perilous environments. Key features include narrative-driven gameplay, realistic combat, and expansive landscapes inspired by the region's diverse terrains.

AppWizard

June 4, 2025

‘In a very interesting way, it actually reduces the work’: Destiny 2’s director explains why reinventing the wheel with The Edge of Fate was actually the easier option

Destiny is set to release a new expansion titled The Edge of Fate on July 15, following the success of The Final Shape. The expansion aims to revitalize player engagement and introduce innovative gameplay mechanics, including an expanded buildcraft space and a new gear tiering system for armor and weapons. Bungie is working on enhancing Darkness subclasses and introducing Solo Ops for single-player experiences. The developers emphasize balancing challenge and reward, ensuring that players earn rewards through meaningful challenges. A new World Tier system will apply to the Kepler destination, allowing casual players to navigate the campaign at their own pace. Bungie is cautious about introducing a rarity tier above exotic items to maintain a balanced loot system. The team is also considering the return of class items from the original Destiny.

AppWizard

June 2, 2025

Singleplayer Elden Ring Nightreign is no longer hell to play, but it’s still a compromised game of 30-minute boss runbacks

The author, known as Mr. Antisocial Souls, typically prefers solo gaming, especially with FromSoftware titles, but found Elden Ring Nightreign's multiplayer aspect engaging. Initially expecting to play solo, they discovered that the single-player experience highlighted the game's flaws. Recent patches have improved solo gameplay, making it more enjoyable, although challenges remain, such as navigating the interface and dealing with punishing RNG. The game’s boss encounters are designed for teams, making solo play feel more difficult and disheartening. Improvements include balanced self-revivals and enemy health adjustments, enhancing solo playability. However, the author suggests limiting solo play to 15% of total gaming time for optimal enjoyment, as the experience is better with a team.

BetaBeacon

May 30, 2025

Thank the Meta Quest for resurrecting another Peter Molyneux classic

Peter Molyneux is known for games like Dungeon Keeper, Theme Park, Populous, Fable, and Black & White. A new VR game called "How to God" combines virtual pet training mechanics, village building, strategy, and an alchemy system. The game is set to launch as a single-player experience with the potential for multiplayer in the future.

AppWizard

May 19, 2025

Five new Steam games you probably missed (May 19, 2025)

Steam introduces approximately a dozen new games daily. Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo: - Release: May 17 - Developer: Galla The Precinct: - Release: May 14 - Developer: Fallen Tree Games Ltd - Features a cop drama set in a fictional 1980s American city with a top-down perspective and cop simulation elements. Neon Hearts City: - Release: May 14 - Developer: Cosmic Void - A retro-styled point-and-click adventure featuring a private investigator in a cyberpunk setting. The Slormancer: - Release: May 14 - Developer: Slormite Studios - A pixelated action RPG with intricate skill trees and over 150 elemental skills and passives. Manivore: - Release: May 13 - Developer: Farkas Interactive - A horror game where players investigate sinister activities using a camera, solving puzzles and engaging in stealth sequences.

AppWizard

April 25, 2025

Data privacy firm files complaint against Ubisoft

The European Center for Digital Rights (NOYB) has accused Ubisoft of excessive data collection practices related to the game Far Cry Primal, which may violate GDPR regulations. Players reportedly connected to external servers 150 times within ten minutes of launching the game, including connections to Google, Amazon, and Datadog. Despite being a single-player game, it requires an internet connection for ownership verification. NOYB has expressed concerns about the lack of transparency regarding data transmission to external servers.

AppWizard

March 25, 2025

How to gift a game on Steam

Gifting a game on Steam involves logging into your account, browsing the store for a game, selecting it, choosing the 'Purchase as a Gift' option, picking a recipient from your friends list or entering their email, adding a personalized message, and completing the purchase. Steam has over 100,000 titles available for gifting.

AppWizard

March 7, 2025

Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced is a bitter-sweet return to Rockstar’s money-making machine

Over a decade has passed since the launch of Grand Theft Auto 5, which remains the only installment in the series not fully completed by the author. The Enhanced edition features advancements such as full ray tracing, DLSS, and FSR support, but the single-player experience feels neglected compared to the rich content of GTA Online. The focus has shifted towards online gameplay, with new features like the Career Builder and exclusive content such as Hao's Special Works and the storyline "Oscar Guzman Flies Again." There are concerns that the single-player component may become merely an introduction to the online universe, and hopes for a more inclusive experience in future installments like GTA 6 are expressed. The author plans to explore the available content in GTA Online.

AppWizard

March 2, 2025

Steam Next Fest’s biggest Soulslike is about to jump from PC to PS5 and Xbox, and everyone seems to love the demo just as much as we did

The First Berserker: Khazan is an action RPG prequel to Nexon's Dungeon Fighter Online, set to launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on March 27, alongside its PC release. The game has received praise for its smooth mechanics and responsive controls, distinguishing itself from other action games by avoiding sluggishness. It integrates classic elements familiar to FromSoftware fans while featuring a quicker combat system. The game ranks as the sixth most anticipated title in Steam Next Fest, with nearly 4,000 user reviews and a 90% approval rating. Players appreciate its combat mechanics, art style, and features like the absence of loading screens upon death.

AppWizard

February 23, 2025

Delta Force: Black Hawk Down PC Performance Analysis

TiMi Studio Group has released the Black Hawk Down campaign for Delta Force for free, utilizing Unreal Engine 5. Benchmarking was conducted on a setup with an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 32GB DDR5 RAM, and various high-end GPUs. The game lacks a built-in benchmarking tool, so performance was assessed using an in-engine cutscene. Achieving over 60FPS at 1080p on Extreme Settings requires at least six CPU cores, but the game experiences significant stuttering and struggles to utilize more than eight CPU cores. At 1080p, high-end GPUs like the NVIDIA RTX 3080 and AMD Radeon RX 6900XT average over 65FPS, while the RTX 4090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090 face CPU bottlenecking. At 1440p, the AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX is the minimum requirement for over 60FPS. At Native 4K with Extreme Settings, only the NVIDIA RTX 5090 can consistently maintain 60FPS. The game also features Ultimate Settings, which push the RTX 5090 to its limits, yielding lower framerates. Players may encounter stuttering and texture streaming issues, and the campaign is designed as a Co-Op Online Campaign, lacking difficulty adjustments for solo play and checkpoints. The game showcases impressive graphics but suffers from performance challenges and inefficient CPU usage.