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Preview: Scrabdackle Act 1 Feels Promising Scrabdackle is one of those games where we get a front row seat to its development. Jakefriend started things with a (successful) Kickstarter that ran between March-April 2021. There were pretty regular updates on its progress since. Now the game is in early access, with basically an act released every year. Though only the first of three parts is live now, it already seems promising. The concept behind Scrabdackle is short and sweet. Blue is a student at Wizard Academy. One day, a red mage attacks, petrifying people there like Blue’s roommate Viridian. Blue gets ejected. After a brief lucid dream called a waydream, in which Headmaster White explains basic gameplay concepts in a tutorial, our hero wakes up in the Junk Heap. It’s up to you to get your wand back, explore Scrabdackle as you attempt to get home, and find a way to defeat the academy’s enemy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV3NmLOgTyQ Scrabdackle can feel a bit like going through a The Legend of Zelda game, though Blue’s wand attacks can make it feel more like going through a twin-stick shooter like The Binding of Isaac . While you start with Strata Blast, which lets you survive encounters and blast through things like junk, you’ll need to get additional abilities to reach new locations. However, it’s very open-ended and you can take whatever path you’d like once you’re in the world to explore. So while some spells are necessary to make progress through certain parts, how you approach things is up to you. That freedom is handled really well in the first act of Scrabdackle . The backtracking doesn’t feel too overwhelming, at least in these early hours. Reaching save spots does mean you’ll be able to heal, refill your vials, and have enemies respawn so you can earn more currency. It does feel like certain spots will be naturally visited first, like Peanut Village since it is early on the taskroll (mission list). So while it is freeform, there’s enough structure to ensure someone doesn’t feel lost. I will note some of the enemies and bosses could use a bit of rebalancing, but that’s something I’m sure will come following feedback and patches. Images via Jakefriend But what struck me most as I went through some of the early hours of Scrabdackle is the personality. It’s a really charming and funny game! There’s fourth-wall breaking that doesn’t feel egregious. It’s both subtly and overtly hilarious. Even explanatory segments and descriptions are silly in a fun way. It matches the sketchy and doodle-y appearance of the world, so both the artistic direction and script maintain the same sorts of sentiments. I appreciate how open Jakefriend has been with Scrabdackle development on Kickstarter, and I’m hoping we’ll see the same sense of positive progression now that it’s in early access. It’s really a pleasant game with a fantastic atmosphere to it. I think as long as it keeps this level of charm, it could turn out quite well even if the rest of the adventure doesn’t get any deeper. Act 1 of Scrabdackle is in early access on PCs via Steam , with two more acts in development. The post Preview: Scrabdackle Act 1 Feels Promising appeared first on Siliconera .

SiliconeraDec 27

Drywall Eating Simulator Gets Frustrating Life is frustrating, and Drywall Eating Simulator is an attempt to capture that while also being funny and driving you to gnawing through walls when your anger hits its peak. It’s relatable! However, the unfortunate part is that this simulation does still feel like a work in progress. While patches did make things easier to deal with along the way, it’s still a bit buggy. Drywall Eating Simulator is about dealing with everything annoying about life. Dealing with an apartment complex where you’re trapped inside, encountering annoying neighbors, and can’t get out. The stress builds until you explore and encounter enough irritants that the Stress Buddy shows you’re about to lose it. At this point, you’ll see glowing red segments of walls. These can be eaten to make new paths and reduce stress. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Nj3y8PQKo So the first really frustrating thing about Drywall Eating Simulator is the speed of the camera. While moving forward and backward is fine, as is strafing, actually moving the camera felt shockingly sluggish and slow on a handheld gaming PC. This meant actually turning and exploring felt like a chore. This persisted even after the patches that fixed some softlock situations, which is annoying. I tried messing with the settings as well and didn’t encounter the issue when playing on a laptop, so it must be tied to the Steam Deck sort of experience. Also troublesome is the fact that sometimes Drywall Eating Simulator stages don’t work well. The first and second levels are working reasonably well as of time of writing, with the recent patches up to this point making it possible to see which parts of walls are susceptible and the Questlog.txt tracker keeping accurate notes on what needs to be done. But I experienced issues with the mission list not updating and the fourth level still locked up on me. Images via Peripheral Playbox But even when Drywall Eating Simulator is working well, the way in which you progress can get a bit irritating. That’s because it’s essentially an “explore everywhere and click on everyone” type of experience. There are times when the commentary from NPCs can be funny! The idea is hilarious. The situations are perfect examples of irritating moments of life. But actually getting to the progression points can be difficult in some stages. This felt most noticeable in the first stage, but it also happened to me in the fourth as well. The idea behind Drywall Eating Simulator is amusing and captures the frustrations encountered at work or in society. Unfortunately, I feel like this is a game in need of another few patches. Some Steam Deck optimization would be great too. Peripheral Playbox did already release one patch on Steam and seems responsive, so this could be a situation where it’s in a much better place in a few weeks. Drywall Eating Simulator is available for PCs. The post Drywall Eating Simulator Gets Frustrating appeared first on Siliconera .

SiliconeraDec 26

The Holiday season seems to have brought Steam down The Holiday season is upon us, with the happiest day of the year almost at our doorstep. Everyone is at home, with their loved ones, enjoying the jingling bells, and likely hanging around Steam. But Steam isn't hanging around us, as it appears the Christmas spirit has brought it down. On Christmas Eve, i.e. tonight, Steam seems to be buckling, either under the weight of all the people using their free time to play some games, or those who are eager to purchase Christmas presents just in time for the big day. The Steam Winter Sale is currently ongoing, after all, so it was only a matter of time before a great influx of eager buyers brought the platform to its knees. It's just one of those days. Image via Steam According to Steam Status , every segment of Steam is currently offline or “unknown,” whatever that may mean. For most people, the chat seems to be in order, but the store itself and some other Steam services have been going off sporadically during the entire night. At one point, 25 percent of all Steam users were out cold (pun intended), and it's not just weekly maintenance that Steam usually performs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. However, the service seems to come back up rather soon after going out, meaning Valve is likely actively working on keeping everything in order, so if you're running into various errors, like the one that appears when “processing your request,” remember that it's not you but Steam itself. Let's hope all gets resolved and comes back up, permanently, by the time Christmas itself arrives. It'd be a damn waste of a good holiday without a proper round of Christmas gaming. The post The Holiday season seems to have brought Steam down appeared first on Destructoid .

Steam Archives – DestructoidDec 24

I Hope Cross Blitz Gets More Quality of Life Adjustments We’ve been able to watch Cross Blitz grow over the last few years. After all, the roguelike deck-building game started out in early access back in November 2023, with Tako Boy Studios gradually building it up until its November 2025 launch two years later. We’ve seen the team adjust and fix issues. While I do appreciate how far the team and game has come, it feels like it’s lacking some important quality of life adjustments. Cross Blitz is unusual in that it does feature some roguelike elements, but it’s also a deck-building game with strategic elements that features a more traditional campaign too. The two parts feed into each other, in a way. The Fables Story Mode follows the characters Mereena, Quill, Redcroft, Seto, and Violet as they go around the world fighting in matches with their decks to accomplish individual goals after winning matches. This can feel a bit like the Game Boy Pokemon Trading Card Game affairs, in terms of the whole collectible card RPG thing, and each storyline is three chapters long. Doing well here unlocks cards via actions like completing recipes or earning XP as you go through chapters, which feed into your deck in further affairs. In the Tusk Tales roguelike mode, you and one of 20 mercenaries go through randomized matches to earn Husks and build your deck up, with both your partner’s cards and your own influencing what the build can look like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0twc6R34RMc Matches proceed a lot like Hearthstone . You’ll find certain synergies and archetypes to build around when collecting and compiling cards. These are placed in the 4x4 field, with four spaces in front of each of the two players. (There’s no competitive multiplayer against actual people, with only virtual opponents available.) Relics can be acquired to help affect matches and runs as well. There are hundreds of cards, so there’s so much freedom when developing decks. And the Tusk Tales Mode has daily and weekly hunts to encourage revisiting even if the Fables are all done. The actual core gameplay is fine. So the first issue with Cross Blitz is that there’s no native controller support. It is planned. Tako Boy Studios confirmed it on the Steam Discussions board . But considering this is a game that’s been in early access for two years now, the fact that it’s a genre that we’ve seen comfortably accommodate controller support before, and that we’re about a month out of 1.0 without it, it’s disappointing that it’s absent. It’s one of the things that keeps me from really enjoying and getting into it on a Lenovo Legion Go or Steam Deck-like handheld gaming PC. Image via Tako Boy Studios The other is the UI. In a deck-building game or roguelike with those elements, being able to clearly understand what you’re doing and see what cards can do is critical, and Cross Blitz is not great at it. Especially if you are playing it on a handheld gaming PC. The menus aren’t helpful. Informative boxes will overlap and block out information. The cards themselves tend to be very clear, with descriptions that let us know what they do, though the brevity does mean sometimes critical information might not appear. This means you’ll need to learn by doing. Combine that with times when it can feel like it’s harder to put together some decks, collect some cards, and check some information than it could be due to some QOL UI issues, and it’s a bit buggy. I’m still experiencing some crashes and lag. Cross Blitz ’s actual matches and modes are quite fun, with so many deck-building options, but it feels like it needs a few more patches. It’s close to being a really great game! It’s just not quite perfect yet. In a way, that’s a little disappointing. You’d expect some of these crash, UI, and QOL elements to be addressed after two years in early access. But one controller support is in the pipeline and we already saw a patch on December 2, 2025 , so I’m hopeful it will be in a much better position in a few more weeks. Cross Blitz is available on PCs. The post I Hope Cross Blitz Gets More Quality of Life Adjustments appeared first on Siliconera .

SiliconeraDec 24

Armored Core Mobile 3 Leads New G-Mode Archives Games G-Mode announced five of its upcoming Switch and PC games, with the most notable release being Armored Core Mobile 3 . These are part of its sixth anniversary reveals ahead of the actual April 2026 occasion. However, while some of these will be found on Steam worldwide, it’s important to note the company’s PC releases typically never offer an English language option. Armored Core Mobile 3 is confirmed for the Switch and PC, though there’s no release date yet. Only the Steam product page is live. An official trailer and screenshots are available, however, which show what to expect. While this is a mobile version of Armored Core , the game features the customization elements and gameplay perspective we expect from the series. We get to customize the appearance of our mech, choosing which head and legs might be used for example. It’s also possible to adjust the paint to select certain colors. Once on a mission, we have a third-person, over the shoulder perspective and watch as our unit shoots down opponents. Here’s how Armored Core Mobile 3 looks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSogl72z1CA Here are the first screenshots: The other upcoming G-Mode games are Flash Motor Karen for the Switch and PC, JB Harold no Jikenbo #1: Murder Club (aka JB Harold Murder Club ) for the Switch, Monstre Waltz : Live for the Switch and PC, and Tokyo Maboroshi Kitan for the Switch. Armored Core Mobile 3 will head to the Switch in Japan and PC worldwide. The post Armored Core Mobile 3 Leads New G-Mode Archives Games appeared first on Siliconera .

SiliconeraDec 22

Little Corners Feels Like Playing With Colorforms There are a lot of decoration applications that sort of fall into the cozy game category, even though they are light on the actual mechanical elements. Little Corners is one of those. There are some interactive elements and opportunities to combine stickers for certain reactions. However, it’s largely an opportunity to relax and set up scenes without too many extra features like a zoom or snap-to element. Playing with Little Corners is essentially like playing with the reusable Colorforms sticker sets. Now, when I say that Little Corners feels like Colorforms, it’s almost the exact same experience. There are eight scenes you can visit, which are the Adventurer’s Tavern, Alchemist’s Tower, Astronomer’s Study, Cottage Kitchen, Overgrown Ruins, Pirate’s Cabin, Samurai’s Residence, and Viking’s Hall. When you get to a place, it is a blank slate with a isometric view of two walls in the room and the floor space. You get a handful of “sheets” that appear on the left side of the screen that highlight some stickers you can use. (These can be flipped.) You then drag and drop the into place in order to set the scene to your liking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQYUUfjn5Ho Now, there are some interactive elements here, but there aren’t too many. As I mentioned, some quality of life elements aren’t there. Certain elements like doors or things that would go over ovens or pots won’t snap into place. You custom arrange everything. There’s also no way to zoom in on elements or to resize the stickers you’re placing. Everything shows up and goes in as-is. You can engage in some layering, based on when you place things. But go in knowing the actual arranging can be a bit rudimentary and doesn’t involve the kind of sticker experimentation like in a game such as Sticky Business . It’s pleasant, but you’re working in set confines with defined sizes and color palettes. I do appreciate that there are some set elements and surprises, however. You can get different display options for things like fireplaces or shelving units. Areas can be covered by doors or opened. But the most pleasant occasions involve combining two stickers and being treated to an entirely new one. For example, layering up the broom and witch hat stickers in the Cottage Kitchen, perhaps by hanging the hat on the end of the broomstick, nets you a black cat sticker. It’s a pleasant opportunity. Images via Meteor Pixel Another element that may be a hit or miss for you with Little Corners is that I found it features a lot of… well… brown. Many, many shades of brown. And gray. I wish it was a little more bright and colorful at times, and I found it surprising that Overgrown Ruins ended up being basically the “brightest” area in my experience. This means some elements can blend together a little, and other stickers and decorations might not stand out as much. So while I referenced Colorforms a lot when talking about Little Corners , this sticker room decoration game isn’t nearly as colorful and vibrant as most of those sets were. Little Corners is like an opportunity to return to the times of playing with Colorforms and sticker books to decorate a room. There aren’t customization features, in terms of things like resizing or recoloring. There aren’t tons of interactions. But it is very relaxing to go through the eight different areas and arrange things to your liking. And when you do happen upon a special combination of stickers to unlock something, it can feel pretty special. I just wish there was a little bit more to it. Little Corners is available for PCs via Steam and itch.io . The post Little Corners Feels Like Playing With Colorforms appeared first on Siliconera .

SiliconeraDec 21

Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter Has Fall 2026 Release Window Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter will come out in Fall 2026 for the PS5, Switch, Switch 2, and Windows PC via Steam. Falcom has also opened up a teaser site for it with new information. It will appear worldwide. When accessing the site, the site warns you that it will contain spoilers for the first game. It asks that players start from the free demo of the first game if they want to fully enjoy the story. In terms of information, there’s not much yet. We see the key visual, which features main characters like Estelle, Joshua, and Renne, as well as the platforms it’ll appear on. You can watch the announcement trailer on the GungHo YouTube channel. Players who don’t know the story and care about spoilers should note that, like it warns at the beginning, the trailer doesn’t hesitate to spoil events that happen in the first game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fEzsQ6Hv8Y Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter will be a remake of the second Trails of the Sky game, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC . It originally came out in Japan in 2006, though a PSP version also came out in the same year. It directly picks up from the end of the first game , so new players should start from there lest they feel lost. Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter will come out in Fall 2026 for the PS5, Switch, Switch 2, and Windows PC via Steam. The post Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter Has Fall 2026 Release Window appeared first on Siliconera .

SiliconeraDec 18

Review: News Tower Offers a Satisfying Newspaper Management Loop In games where we manage a business, organization, or city, there’s always a consistent gameplay loop. We set up a situation. We let that run for a bit and hope for success. Depending on how that goes, we respond. In the best case scenarios, it’s setting a path for consistent expansion before maintaining stable success. But it can also be just as engrossing if things aren’t going as expected and we need to triage. News Tower, Sparrow Night’s newspaper management simulation, offers a near-perfect gameplay and feedback loop that encourages constant investments. The general premise is very simple. You’re living in New York in 1929. You get the chance to create and manage a newspaper inherited from your deceased father, deciding the direction you take and your sphere of coverage. (Yes, this means you could go moral or sensational.) This means maintaining and organizing your building and newsroom, as well as determining your sphere of coverage, revenue sources, factions you support, and range of distribution. If you do well you won’t only survive, but also best competing newspapers Empire Observer and Jersey Beacon. (Doing that nets you Lowrise and Highrise building and game modes with new challenges.) Basically, you get the opportunity to cover topics that would come up between 1930-1939 based on actual events. Maintain your office, find stories, prepare a weekly paper, see the response, invest in your office and employees, use what you learned to fine tune stories for next week, and keep learning, reporting, and hopefully succeeding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEya-_8sxsI General News Tower progression is divided into two parts. One involves building layout and management. You can purchase floors, place staircases, a generator, and lights, set up a research section with things like telegraphing stations and reporter desks, a text area with assembly tables and typesetting desks, and setting up a printer with input and output modules, belts, and a printer page module. There are also elements to help increase comfort, divisions, and efficiency, like a bathroom, pneumatic tubes, elevators instead of stairs, comfort elements, and walls to further set up divisions. But there’s a lot of getting things set up, then hiring people to manage them. Now, this part is incredibly enjoyable, but it also is an element that I found I didn’t engage with as often as I did the actual newspaper management. Setting up a building to ensure everything flows together, there’s efficient movement between stations, and people can get around matters! I did find I’d need to tweak and adjust things, especially as the paper and building grew. But that actual setup part doesn’t seem to come up as frequently as other management elements. Image via Sparrow Night Which may be for the best! There are a lot of management elements in News Tower , such as keeping an eye on staff, making decisions about news coverage, trying to improve circulation, balance faction requests, and deal with malicious attempts to hamper your success. When we start a game, we can hire reporters who focus on crime, the economy, entertainment, politics, society, sports, and world news. We invest in people to improve them, but also need to take care when sending journalists on assignments as they could end up injured. You wait for ideas to come in on the telegraph. When a story possibly comes up, you need to go through different parts and assign a person to work it. Skill points can dictate how fast progress goes. The number of printer page presses you have determine how many stories you can do, with one page having room for three stories. The meat of it comes from assigning stories, having staff move things from one section to another, and prepare to put out your Sunday papers. Though, from what I’ve seen, a little extra micromanagement to ensure priority stories are staff’s main focus and manually moving some elements along is better than leaving folks to their own devices. I mentioned earlier that you can decide how you cover things. News Tower lets you choose between lies and the truth. You can be practical and honest, or try and lean toward clickbait sorts of situations. These elements can affect popularity and public response. (As can things like pricing.) It also determines whether you’ll catch the attention of different factions. Which plays into the hazards that can come up in News Tower . Issues like smells from a bathroom or sound could be a problem, requiring acoustic panels, walls, and sinks. The printing press is a mechanical monster that’s hot, noisy, and generally unpleasant, so building layouts need to take that into account to ensure people are comfortable enough to actually work. Because if people aren’t happy, they won’t perform. Factions might be unhappy with your coverage choices. (You know, reporting the truth.) This could lead to members of the military or criminal organizations coming in with threats or bribes. Spies can come in to damage equipment. It feels like there’s never enough money, which means taking out loans. Images via Sparrow Night Given how much is happening at once, that News Tower works so well is a testament to Sparrow Night’s work. However, I found that can make it especially noticeable when something doesn’t work exactly right or is a little unbalanced. The UI is a bit cluttered and sometimes isn’t as intuitive as you’d expect for all the information coming in at any time. I got used to it, but it’s a bit to take in when you start. Also, while moral and quality decisions come up, I felt like the simulation didn’t go far enough to reward or penalize these kinds of actions and decisions. While going bankrupt is a threat and there are rivals, it’s pretty easy to work out how to get ad opportunities and the other papers aren’t a genuine threat. Which meant after about 10 to 15 hours or when you are in your second or third run, it might not feel as thrilling. (But even then, it taking that long to start feeling “routine” is pretty good!) I encountered an array of bugs as well, but found the issues with staff intelligence and minor problems seem to be covered in Sparrow Night’s patches , so I’m pretty sure they’ll be squashed in the next few weeks and months. News Tower is a satisfying business management simulation that involves optimizing offices and reporting procedures to ensure success. It feels like there’s are opportunities to keep investing and growing. It can even be so satisfying that it stays compelling for hours. There are some minor issues and sometimes it might feel a bit too easy or routine when you get used to things, but I still very much recommend it. News Tower is available on PCs, and there is a demo on Steam . The post Review: News Tower Offers a Satisfying Newspaper Management Loop appeared first on Siliconera .

SiliconeraDec 18

How to get your Steam Replay recap for 2025 December is a lovely time of year. It means cold weather, holiday cheer, game sales, and a whole bunch of recaps from your favorite nosy apps. PC gamers know full well by now that Steam is the place to be when it comes to gaming. And every year since 2022, Valve has released Steam Replay , which is its version of "Spotify Wrapped" or any of the other year-long recaps that track your data every waking moment. Steam Replay is coming back for 2025, and we've got the info on how to find yours so you can feel a deeper shame than you thought possible when it shows you just how many hours you spent playing games when you could've been touching grass or something. Table of contents What is Steam Replay? How to view your 2025 Steam Replay What is Steam Replay? Screenshot by Destructoid Steam Replay is a yearly recap of your activity on the PC gaming platform throughout the year. It recaps everything from how many games you played, achievements you unlocked, and even your longest streak of playing games. How to view your 2025 Steam Replay Screenshot by Destructoid When it becomes available, you can check your Steam Replay on the official Steam Replay page here . Keep in mind that until the 2025 edition is online, you will see your 2024 version. But as of Dec. 16 at about 2:30pm CT, Steam Replay 2025 can be found on the Steam store home page. Just make sure you're logged in to your account if you want to view it on web whenever the feature goes live, otherwise, it will eventually appear on the Store tab of the Steam app. And that's when the fun begins. Stats tracked include playtime split between Windows or Steam Deck, if you participated in betas or play tests, and it gets so detailed that you can even see what games you played and when throughout the year, broken down by month. It's a good time every year to peruse the info. So, let us know in the comments below what your top games of the year were. The post How to get your Steam Replay recap for 2025 appeared first on Destructoid .

Steam Archives – DestructoidDec 16

Hollow Knight Switch 2 and Silksong Expansion Arrive in 2026 Team Cherry announced two updates regarding the Hollow Knight series, with the first being a Switch 2 version of the original game and the second being a free Sea of Sorrow expansion for Hollow Knight: Silksong . Both will appear in 2026. Also, while the Switch 2 version is unique, it will be released alongside updates for every version. The Hollow Knight updates started to appear on PC via Steam ahead of the Switch 2 release and console updates. The adjustments are in the public beta patch v1.5.12301. 16:10 and 21:9 resolutions will show up in options, it will pause when you head into the inventory to manage things, dithering options and effects will be there, and there will be Unity Input System options for more controllers. On the Switch 2, there will be fps and resolution upgrades and original Switch owners get it for free. (This also happened with the Hollow Knight: Silksong Upgrade Pack .) Here are the full Public Beta v1.5.12301 patch notes: Added support for 21:9 & 16:10 resolutions. Game now pauses while in inventory menus. Upgraded to Unity Input System for broader controller support (original input system is still available, if preferred, via Options>Controller>Advanced Settings) Added dithering effect, and dithering options, to reduce color banding. Fixed a softlock in City of Tears Grub room. Reduced Grey Prince Zote's stagger bounce height. Updated Sly's Great Slash collider to closer match visual. Salubra's Blessing now deactivates after reaching max Soul. Map panning is now smoother Various smaller fixes and tweaks. With Hollow Knight: Silksong , the free expansion announcement comes alongside the reveal it hit seven million copies sold. There are few details at the moment. It is called Sea of Sorrow, and there is a teaser trailer. It will be “nautical.” When she heads out on that journey, she’ll go to new oceanic-related places and face new foes tied to that theme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDFEeeLy6ws Hollow Knight is on the Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC, with a Switch 2 version and update patch for all platforms coming in 2026. The post Hollow Knight Switch 2 and Silksong Expansion Arrive in 2026 appeared first on Siliconera .

SiliconeraDec 16