Staff Article Lists

Elestrals is a new face in the TCG world. Designed and created by YouTuber aDrive and his amazing team, Elestrals sees players harness the powers of elemental spirits to call upon powerful enchanted creatures called Elestrals. It's a full blown card game complete with varied mechanics and even an in-universe origin story and lore. They’ve put a lot of love into it and it shows. Their website is filled with information about the various cards, how to play, the lore and much more. 

The TCG game was announced back in 2022 and reached massive success on Kickstarter with almost $1.5 million pledged from thousands of backers! It has continued to grow, garnering the interest and attention of card game fanatics and influencers alike. As of this writing, it's currently on its 4th set, Daybreak and the next set Moonrise is on the horizon.

Recently, they’ve returned to Kickstarter with the newly announced Elestrals Clash! A digital version of the game that’ll open it up to new players. Developed by the team who created the Pixelborn app(a digital version of Lorcana), it's already reached its main goal. A mobile and steam release is sure to be on the way but we may also see a Nintendo Switch release if it gets sufficient backing. At present, the Kickstarter is going all the way to the start of November so there’s plenty of time to get in there. Special bonuses like promo cards and exclusive cosmetics await the backers who embark on this journey to Elestria. It looks like a really fun game and I’m excited to check more of it out. They currently have an app on the Google Play store and a Discord server for players where they also host tournaments and you can learn the game. There’s also a YouTube channel where you can keep up with all the updates and learn about the game. If that sounds like your thing, check out the trailer for the Kickstarter below! 

Another GIANT list of games we have this season for the Fall 2024 Steam Next Fest! We're looking forward to a ton of these games and have compiled as many as we could find with animals and/or anthropomorphic characters featured in them! Be sure to let us know of any others you find by commenting below!

We'll be playing some of these demos this week and next, and hopefully providing some previews and progress updates throughout development! Additionally, we have an actively updated Furry & Animal Games List over at @GamingFurever that you can follow and get constant updates for lots of indie titles with TONS of lovely furry characters! If you're a developer of any of these games, feel free to hit us up on email over on our Contact Us page!

Here's your October 2024 Steam Next Fest list:

So, today was the Xbox Partner Preview showcase, where the latest in third-party games coming to Xbox were shown and to be perfectly honest? Outside of a few select titles, there really wasn’t much noteworthy here to really get excited about, which is a shame as, usually, I find a good bit of games that look fun, but not this time, sadly. That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t anything good on the show, just that nothing really screamed MUST GET, for me at least.

Strategy focused RPGs are always some of my favorites. I’m not always good at them, but I enjoy them. So when I saw the announcement for Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven a few months ago, I was intrigued. A non-linear rpg with multiple characters and different formations? That doesn’t involve a standard exp system? This promises to be pretty interesting, especially since I’ve never heard of the SaGa franchise before this game. Fortunately, like Final Fantasy, the number is mostly a formality: knowledge of other entries in the series is not all required to play or enjoy this one. Which means we can jump straight in.

Ever dreamed of being an alchemist in a fantasy town full of anthropomorphic villagers, slightly dangerous monsters, and a wealth of ingredients for your potion-crafting needs? Alchemist: The Potion Monger is all of those things and more, and provides a heaping dose of things to do in a casual setting that allows for you to grow your knowledge and skills at your own speed. Even after spending numerous hours with the game, there’s still more for me to find and do. Though it takes some time to craft the more funny potions in the game, the journey to get there can be a rewarding one, even if it takes a little longer to get there than I expected.

The concept for Copycat is rife with opportunity. Lovingly and fully voice acted by a cast of Australian locals, Copycat is driven by the concept of a nature documentary narrator following your cat, Dawn’s, adventures through adoption and rehoming. Your new life is upended when a “Copycat” tries to take your newly found place in the family with an elderly lady named Olive. Olive and her daughter also have a lot of real life issues that they’re having to handle, and you get caught up in the effects of all of them, while also battling with the implied trauma from your last family. People tell me I’m an emotional guy, and this game does nothing to prove them wrong. Throughout the game I was on a rollercoaster of emotions, all of them culminating in an incredibly fulfilling ending that was worth the price of admission.

Sunderfolk, the first game developed by Secret Door., has been announced! Published by Dreamhaven, Sunderfolk is designed for players who love tabletop, board, and video games, and will be available on Steam, PlayStation^®5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch^™. 

Sunderfolk is a tactical couch co-op RPG created with the purpose of bringing new and veteran players together in a shared tale of tactics, survival, and triumph. You and three of your friends can pick one of six available heroes—the Arcanist, Bard, Berserker, Pyromancer, Ranger, and Rogue—and begin a one-of-a-kind experience told through both the “main screen” (the shared TV or monitor) and your phone or tablet, which acts as your controller for the adventure.

Castlevania is perhaps the most well known vampire video game series, famous for its gothic horror elements and of course, the constant threat of Dracula. Much like the vampire the series is based around, it rises and falls time and time again. Recently, it has been re-emerging from its coffin with the success of the animated Netflix series that’s still considered to be among the best on the platform and seeing re-releases of older games. For example, the Anniversary collection which features the original NES/SNES titles plus a few extras like Bloodlines and Kid Dracula and the Advance Collection which includes the GBA trilogy of games as well as Dracula X. With the recent announcement of Castlevania Nocturne getting its much needed season 2, now seems like a good time to talk about the most recent collection of re-releases, Castlevania Dominus Collection.

When I did my review for ‘Turok 3: Shadows Of Oblivion’, I had mentioned that I used to work for a radio station and two of the earliest reviews I did were on the HD remasters of both Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Turok 2: Seeds Of Evil. Well, seeing as that station is no more and the reviews are now lost, I figured it’s time I revisit these two games and see if my thoughts on them from back then still hold up or if they had changed over the years. Beginning with the first Turok and my thoughts on this one greatly changed from my early review of it.

Back when I first first played the game, I felt that Turok: Dinosaur Hunter did not age well, even with it being remastered and that its biggest issue was the gameplay feeling archaic and very clunky in its design. I also felt that the sequel was superior to this game because it not only improved and fixed the issues this game has, but it feels like what the first game should've been. However, after doing some replays of both games, I actually feel the opposite now. Yes, the game still didn’t age well in a few areas and I still feel the frequent platforming areas and the huge difficulty spikes throughout the game do hurt it, but I actually prefer this one over Seeds Of Evil, though I still say Shadows Of Oblivion is the better game.

The Warhammer 40k universe, though widely popular, was something I never really gotten into at all. I have played some of the games, like the Vermintide series and BoltGun, but it was really never something I felt compelled to be a part of in any way. Still, I did enjoy the few games I played, Vermintide 2 being one of them, and I did like the original Space Marine when I played it a few years back, so when a sequel was finally announced in 2021 at the Game Awards, I’ll admit that I was curious but not super excited. I’m kind of glad I wasn’t hyped for the game as, unfortunately, the game did not live up to the years of waiting. Sure, it has some good moments here and there and it isn’t broken in any way, it’s just not a fun game overall.