Gaming

Pragmata has a sneaky secret ending, and here’s how to unlock it

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April 20, 2026

Pragmata has a sneaky secret ending, and here’s how to unlock it

The whole premise of Pragmata is an intriguing one to say the least, and when you actually start playing the game, you get more and more enthralled as you go.

Like other story-led titles, digging into bits of lore only adds more flavor to the experience, and if you’re into this, any additional endings you can unlock will be right up your alley.

Thankfully, Pragmata does have a secret ending, and we know how to get it.

How to get Pragmata’s secret ending

If you do want to suck up every last drop of what Pragmata has to offer, securing the secret ending is definitely something you’ll need to explore.

The first prerequisite, though, is that you will need to complete an initial playthrough of the game. You’ll likely have done this if you’re seeking out another ending, but if not, get that done asap.

With the plain old boring standard ending out of the way, you can get cracking on making inroads on the much more desirable secret one.

Once you finish the campaign, Pragmata will let you either dive into NG+ or load your completed save from right before the final boss. For the secret ending, you’ll need to do the latter, as this opens up the Unknown Signal post-game mode.

Once in Unknown Signal, you can take the tram to the Hidden Chamber, where there will be not only Big Cabin, but also 10 Simulation Pods, though most of them will be locked at first.

To unlock them, you need to go full completionist. That means 100% every sector, collect everything there is to find, and defeat each area’s tougher Mk. II boss variant in their original arenas.

In other words, Pragmata’s secret ending is tied to basically clearing everything the game has to offer, and thankfully, you don’t have to do this on Lunatic difficulty.

After you’ve fully completed the game and beaten all 10 Hidden Chamber simulation missions, you’ll be rewarded with some optional costumes and, more importantly, a new Mod called the Black Box. This is the key item for triggering the secret ending, so make sure you equip it straight away so you don’t forget.

With the Black Box equipped, head back to Central Port and fight the final boss again. The encounter itself won’t look wildly different apart from particularly difficult hacking, but you should be locked in after taking down all of the other 2.0 bosses in the run-up.

With the final boss boxed off, the ending cutscenes that follow will seem very familiar at first, so don’t panic and think you’ve done something wrong.

The change comes once the credits start rolling, where you’ll be treated to some great artwork and a new post-credits scene, which serves as Pragmata’s ‘true ending’.

We won’t spoil what this is, but put it this way, if you’re invested in the story, it’s a bit of a tear-jerker…

The post Pragmata has a sneaky secret ending, and here’s how to unlock it appeared first on Adventure Gamers.

Sudden Strike 5 Marches Onto The Battlefield | TheXboxHub

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April 20, 2026

Sudden Strike 5 Marches Onto The Battlefield | TheXboxHub

The keyart for Sudden Strike 5 — Sudden Strike 5 – hitting the battlefield

War doesn’t wait, and neither does Sudden Strike 5.

Dropping players straight into the chaos of World War II, this latest entry in the long-running strategy series arrives on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC, bringing with it huge battlefields, hundreds of units, and the kind of tactical depth that rewards careful planning over reckless charge.

Available now in a £54.99 Deluxe Edition (with early access already underway), and launching in Standard Edition form for £44.99 on April 23rd, Sudden Strike 5 is looking to reassert itself as a heavyweight in the real-time tactics space.

At A Glance

Game: Sudden Strike 5

Developer: Kite Games

Publisher: Kalypso Media

Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC

Price: £54.99 (Deluxe Edition) / £44.99 (Standard Edition from April 23rd)

Game Type: Real-Time Tactics / Strategy

Back To The Frontlines

Sudden Strike 5 wastes no time reminding players what this series is all about – scale, precision, and decision-making under pressure. Across a 25-mission campaign set in Europe and North Africa, you’ll take command of Allied, German and Soviet forces, navigating iconic battlefields where every movement matters.

There’s a deliberate pace here. Charging headfirst into conflict rarely ends well. Instead, success comes from flanking manoeuvres, controlling supply lines, and making smart use of terrain, whether that’s holding a bridge, cutting off reinforcements, or setting up the perfect artillery strike.

One of the standout aspects of Sudden Strike 5 is its sheer scale. With more than 300 units available – including over 190 vehicles and 110 infantry types – battles feel busy, layered, and often unpredictable.

From Sherman tanks rolling into position to Messerschmitt fighters dominating the skies and T-34s pushing the frontline, there’s an authenticity here that fans of WWII strategy titles will immediately appreciate. Every unit has a role, and learning how they interact is key to turning the tide.

Strategy With Freedom, Not Restrictions

Rather than locking players into a single approach, Sudden Strike 5 leans into flexibility. Missions can be tackled in multiple ways, whether through stealthy recon, sabotage, defensive positioning or full-on assaults.

Commanders add another layer to this, bringing unique abilities that can subtly (or dramatically) shift how battles play out. It’s a system that encourages experimentation, and more importantly, adaptation when plans inevitably go sideways. And they will.

Deluxe Edition Extras And Early Access

For those jumping in early, the Deluxe Edition offers more than just a head start. Alongside 72 hours of early access, it includes:

Two exclusive PvP map variants – Mercato Square (Night) and Belarus Fields (Winter)

Six camouflage skin packs featuring over 80 vehicle skins

The official game soundtrack, blending orchestral and ambient war themes

A Series With History

Sudden Strike has been quietly building its reputation for years, and longtime fans will know just how well the formula can work. In fact, when we looked back at Sudden Strike 4 Complete Collection, we called it “the premier Real Time Strategy game available” on Xbox – high praise that sets expectations firmly in place for this sequel.

There’s also been a steady build-up to this release, with earlier announcements and beta talk throughout 2025 hinting at a bigger, more refined experience. Now, it’s finally time to see if Sudden Strike 5 can live up to that promise. Our review is on the way.

Whether you’re coordinating large-scale assaults or carefully picking apart enemy defences, this is a war where brains matter just as much as firepower. And if Kite Games has nailed the balance, Sudden Strike 5 could well be one of the most absorbing tactical experiences of the year.

You’ll find the game on the stores of Xbox (hit those links above), PlayStation and PC. There’s even a PC-centric Xbox Store page worth a visit. Unfortunately, Sudden Strike 5 is not part of Game Pass at launch, and it doesn’t have Xbox Play Anywhere support either.

Crusader Kings III gets a new major patch and Chapter V expansion pass

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April 20, 2026

Crusader Kings III gets a new major patch and Chapter V expansion pass

Added a new Ledger window for browsing key realm, character and world information

Added 9 Ledger pages: “Ongoing Wars”, “Artifacts”, “Characters”, “Houses and Dynasties”, “Holdings”, “Counties”, “Titles”, “Faiths and Religions” and “Cultures”

Added three tabs for the “Characters” page: richest, strongest and most famed characters

Added four tabs for the “Titles” page: duchies, kingdoms, empires and hegemonies

Added the ability to favorite items in the Ledger, so you can keep track of artifacts to steal or places to conquer

Added podiums for top items in the Ledger, to show off your achievement in climbing the ranks

Added many sorting options for all Ledger pages, for example: most pious characters, biggest houses, most renowned dynasties, most developed counties and cultures with most characters.

Added filters for most Ledger pages, including filtering by players, so it can be used as a leaderboard in multiplayer

Added war losses to the Ledger (and to war overview too, see below)

Added artifact interactions to the Ledger

Added building and holding interactions to the “Holdings” page. Yes, you can build from the Ledger!

Added many (many) existing values to items in the Ledger, to easily compare things

Added more information to the Ledger that wasn’t displayed before, like artifact age or knights and prisoners of other characters

Added more total values, like soldiers of all rulers of a house, faith or culture

Added total taxes, levies and loot for titles

Added dominant culture and faith for titles and average values, like development across all their counties

Added new faith and religion metrics, like sinful and virtuous rulers, growth or decline due to conversions, total holy wars and holy sites

Added cultural metrics: growth due to promotion, total development and innovation progress

Added shortcuts to open and navigate the Ledger

Reworked Accolades into a more streamlined system, with a focus on removing tedium and adding more interesting choices

Removed the old primary and secondary Accolade Attribute structure, replaced with 1 starting Attribute and additional Attributes being unlockable

Reworked Accolade attributes to not only unlock based on the knight, but also on what the ruler has achieved

Added Accolade Attribute unlocking effects to battle events, activities, schemes, etc

Added a new Accolade Attribute selection flow with clearer UI and better invalid-choice handling

Restricted accolades to Dukes+ to make them more special

Removed manual Accolade Successor assignment with a guaranteed automatic successor based on the Accolade’s Squires property (either a suitable courtier, or generated successor if none can be found)

Added a Squires property on Accolades which modifies the traits and skills of new Acclaimed Knights upon succession

Squires property modifies stats of created character when succession fails to grab existing character as new knight

Added feed messages that improve the Accolade-related skills of Acclaimed Knights

Added feed messages that improve the Accolade-related skills of young courtiers, triggered by the Accolade having high Squires aptitude

Simplified Acclaimed Knight restrictions, especially when inheriting rather than founding an accolade – successors to Accolades do not actually need to satisfy all its original Attribute triggers

Removed Accolade deactivation as a separate state; Accolades now either exist or are retired

Improved how the UI communicates future Accolade ranks

Improved how the UI communicates available Accolade options

Prevented duplicate Accolade attributes from being stacked across your Acclaimed Knights

Added a confirmation window when retiring an Accolade

Improved Accolade inheritance rules across succession, preventing your accolades being replaced by inherited accolades

Improved Accolade ownership rules for governments

You can no longer have more Accolades than you have available knight capacity

Disabled Glory loss on succession in cases where your Acclaimed Knight died “honorably”, ex in battle or during a duel

Rebalanced Attribute bonuses

Removed era-based bonuses to Accolade MaA and removed unit size restrictions

Updated Accolade reminders, removing “you have no successor” and adding “you have an Attribute unlock you haven’t spent”

Made Acclaimed Knights less likely to die in battle and significantly less likely to be captured (because it makes Accolade succession weird)

Added new Accolade art and icons

Updated the “Relocate De Jure Capital” decision to support Hegemony-tier titles

Added the Korean cultural tradition “Fortress Mastery”, available to Korean cultures and granted to Goryeo, Silla, and Goguryeo when All Under Heaven is active

Updated the “Form Portugal” decision to require control of its target duchies rather than directly holding all four titles

Added “Create Cossack Kingdom” decisions for nomads and ex-adventurer nomads

Added a new “Overrun Duchy” casus belli for duke-tier nomads

Weak AI nomads can now collapse into herders, helping repopulate the steppe

“Humiliation” can now break off non-capital border counties as independent herders

Updated AI use of “Overrun Kingdom” to favor more appropriate neighboring and historical migration targets

Limited culture and faith replacement when nomads move into conquered lands

Confederation members can use “Overrun Duchy” and leave their confederation on success

Expanded the former “Maim Co-Emperor” interaction into the broader “Remove Co-Ruler” interaction, with additional valid outcomes and stricter eligibility checks

Added a dedicated invasion Casus-Belli for the Son of Heaven to seize kingdoms within China

Chinese dynasties that take the throne peacefully or through civil war now generate more appropriate dynasty elements and colors, while restored dynasties keep their established identity

Ministers, their titles, and their domiciles now remain tied to the realm capital

Celestial rulers who rise from kingship now keep their former capital instead of being forced to move to the previous dynasty’s de jure capital

Grand Campaigns now complete automatically if the entire target kingdom is already subject to the Huangdi

Added the ability to remain a landless adventurer after helping peasants win independence through the Fight Corruption contract

Reworked lethal Tournament events so characters have a chance to avoid death at the cost of wounds or disfigurement

Reforming a faith away from your old state faith as an independent ruler now updates the state faith automatically

Wanua rulers can now pay barter goods instead of gold for adventurer task contracts, this makes it easier to play as an adventurer in the area as more contract types are valid

Added Saxon Elective to relevant titles

Added a nickname line to the death screen

Added an informative toast when inheriting a Holy Order loan

Added a game concept explaining the Seize Peripheral Duchy Casus-Belli

Added title and title-holder flavorization for the new Phoenician Heritage unlocked by restoring the Carthaginian Empire

Added support for wards sent to university to gain a visible modifier and clearer interaction text

Added new flavorization for Han culture

Fixed Coronation courtesans so they now use the local faith and culture

Corrected character infection chance values

Dog-related events now only trigger when your character is available

Limited an intrigue event so it now only triggers for Murder and Abduct schemes

Fixed an event that could poach family members from the targeted ruler

Disabled an adopted-ward event that could trigger incorrectly

Corrected spouse council-task bonus values

“Too Much of a Good Thing” now correctly removes soulmate relationships as well

“A Servant of the Horned God” now properly reveals the secret and ends the witch conversion scheme

Changed the Albanian cultural tradition from “Hill Dwellers” to “Mountain Homes”

Rebalanced the chance of disease outbreak events

Made the “Random Black Death” game rule actually random

Corrected the names of “Rottenburg” and “der Laaber”

Fixed an incorrect event name in the “Passage of Arms” contract

“Seize the Moment” no longer grants claims to barons

The Pope will no longer refer to himself in the third person while granting himself a claim

Swapped the map positions of Hartlepool and Darlington

Renamed Pockington to Pocklington

“The Last Lesson” now correctly sets the elder relationship

“Addressing the Corruption” now properly assigns the new steward

Improved a bishop letter event so false accusations of incest are more clearly framed as fabricated

Removed a duplicate Nasir Khusraw

“A Journey to Adventure” now correctly plays when the player becomes landless

Updated Denise de Deols’ 1178 setup and added her historical betrothal to Baldwin de Redvers

Fixed a bug where some combinations of Tenets would result in higher hostility than expected

Landless Diarchs now properly evaluate interactions using the AI frequency of the tier they are temporarily replacing

Granting titles to local nobles now respects the culture’s gender laws

Fixed a bug where succession could leave you as your own tax collector

Children of parents from the same dynasty in male-dominated faiths now correctly use patronyms instead of matronyms

Improved the “Fort Level” concept wording to better explain which bonuses are applied

Factions at war are no longer invalidated when their first leader is imprisoned and now select a new leader from among the participants instead

If a faction is dissolved before its war ends, the defender now wins if their warscore is above the required threshold

Requesting or granting a court position via an interaction now always shows the correct aptitude in the list

Standardized aptitude bonus for Court Positions

Fixed decaying and growing opinions so they now update correctly when they only have a timed duration

Custom names can now be up to 40 characters long instead of 40 bytes, improving support for non-English languages using bigger UTF-8 characters

Notification and alert sounds no longer play when the GUI element is not visible

Fixed ambient audio from activity windows continuing to play forever after closing the window without selecting an option

Specialized court position names now resolve consistently from the employer side instead of sometimes using the employee perspective

War reparation payments now correctly enforce a positive minimum value for rulers and armies with no regular income

Fixed various issues with landless gameplay, UI clarity, historical setup, tooltips, travel logic, and nomad or Mandala interactions

Fixed an issue where Longboats could wrongly block the Plunder intent and cause heavy Prestige loss

Fixed several issues with adventurer contracts, imperial event duplication, acclamation scoring, missing UI text, scheme rewards, and House retirement rules

Fixed exploitable strategy of picking a travel option that adds a character only for the duration of one travel and employing them as any court position

Decisions that depend on a Head of Faith now properly check that the Head of Faith exists before they can be shown or used

Landless adventurers no longer lose Prestige for marrying characters below duchy rank

Fixed issues with adventurer contracts, duplicate Roman Empire events, acclamation scoring, missing text perspective, court-position exploits, Siphon Treasury rewards, and House retirement rules

Fixed Grand Tour AI so the “many vassals” logic now only counts relevant landed vassals

Court Tutors now send notifications to the correct character and no longer try to improve traits that are already maxed out

Added the correct cue track to fullscreen transitions when becoming landless

Characters can no longer become their own Tax Collector

Dynasty patronyms now apply correctly in male-dominated faiths

Improved phrasing for the concepts of Fort Level to clarify which bonuses are applied

Invalid faction wars now resolve correctly in the defender’s favor

Heisting a treasury now correctly removes the stolen gold from the target

Added a cooldown to the Claim Mandate of Heaven decision to prevent it from being taken repeatedly for duplicate rewards

Updated Faith and Religion GUI windows to a more modern standard

The Character Finder no longer closes when you choose a character interaction on a character

Extended the Marital Status Character Finder filter to show eligible, betrothed, and concubines

Added Rabbinism and Karaism as involved faiths in the Iberian Struggle

Fixed pronoun and animation issues in “A Poetic Life: An Exchange of Verses”

Any territory in the West Slavia Geographic Region that doesn’t belong to a West-Slavic kingdom upon forming West Slavia will now be assigned to one (most commonly German duchies will be assigned to Polabia)

With the Extra Nomadic Region: Sahel rule on, players will no longer become nomadic if selecting a Daju-culture ruler

Fixed not being able to assign vassal directives if you have MORE than rank 5 legitimacy

Education lvl 4 and 5 will now properly add quality to created book artifacts

Corrected the spelling of ‘Mandaeism’

“A Moment Alone” now only triggers for family members who are not your spouse

The events child_personality.7020 and child_personality.7010 now properly check if the child fulfills the ‘is_available_child_allow_travel’ trigger

Mandaeism now prohibits the drinking of alcohol

Fixed lvl 3 Iberian and Turkish mosques showing up as a fire temple

Bosnia is now also de jure shifted if uniting all slavs into Slavia

The AI will no longer be as inclined to host tours if they only have a lot of Baron-tier vassals

The first Activities Dynasty Legacy now only gives marriage acceptance for Grand Weddings, as advertised by the legacy

Fixed the Break with the Old Ways decision for Kuzarites to conform with the faith now having Chosen People by default

Female Spouses valid for the Abbasid clothes will no longer wear no headgear

When submitting to the Great Khan as a Confederation member, you will now leave the confederation

Fixed the tgp_portrait_liege_or_ceremonial_liege triggers making dead emperors wear the wrong clothing and headgear

Fixed an issue where dead holders of the Crysanthemum Throne wouldn’t use the correct headgear

Restore the Pope in Rome and Hindustan decisions now do not have errors if the Head of Faith does not exist

Renamed ‘Economical Archetype’ to ‘Economic Archetype’

Hegemonies now have a higher Grandeur expectation than Empires

The Chancellor option of stewardship_duty_special.2015 now requires you to have a chancellor employed

Removed the 30 development requirement from the Foster Enlightenment Oath, as it wasn’t explained when taking it (and prevented early Universities from being founded)

Added War Losses

Added losses to the War Overview and War Results, tracking battle losses, attrition and character deaths that happened in battles or sieges

Added breakdown of battle losses by participants

Added breakdown of character deaths by killed knights, commanders and rulers and their close family

Updated the Outliner

Added the option to pin any titles and holdings to the Outliner

Improved pinned character layout

Made army entries smaller

Improved holding information

Added realm flags

Updated the Character window

Added a button to expand the full trait list in the character window

Moved most character-portrait buttons to hover states to reduce portrait clutter

Added a compact list of subjects with their soldiers

Added a compact list of subjects to the Realm window

Grouped compact subjects by powerful vassals, regular vassals, and tributaries

Added soldiers to the compact list

Added directives for the compact list, to easier find and manage eligible vassals

Added many many shortcuts and new buttons:

Hotkeyed all tabs in the game: Ctrl+number or Alt+number for sub-tabs

Hotkeyed armies in the outliner: Alt+number. Next army can also be selected with N.

Added Halt button for armies to easily stop their movement (hotkey H)

Added Next button (N) to cycle through your personal holdings

Hotkeyed holdings in the county view to Ctrl+number and buildings to Alt+number

Added Alt+S to open capital (can also right-click the Go To Capital button)

Added = to increase game speed, so you can use -= next to Backspace

Added Q to toggle Outliner and Alt+Q for pin buttons

Added shortcuts for the Barbershop: numbers for tabs, Z and X to change zoom, A/D or C/V to rotate the portrait, H to hide UI, Escape to close

Added number hotkeys to settings tabs, pause-menu buttons, and bookmark-screen navigation

Added Ctrl+Shift+F to dismiss all feed notifications

Added more hotkeys for hud elements, activity planning, lifestyles and various other places

Added event hotkeys:

Event options can be selected with Shift+number (except dangerous red options, so you don’t select them by accident)

Added option previews with Alt+number, so you can first read the tooltip and then select it with the same hotkey. All without moving the mouse!

Added Alt+E to preview all event option tooltips at once

Added a setting to add numbers to options, like in your classic RPGs

Added a setting to hide shortcuts from tooltips, if you don’t wish to see them

Improved handling for ongoing travel plans

Renamed “Current Situation” to “Tips”, to avoid confusing it with Situations

Added a “mark all as read” button to “Tips”

Made the settings window taller to reduce scrolling

The Barbershop now only asks to discard changes when you have actually changed something

Added two more backgrounds for the Barbershop: Crossroads Inn and Wine Cellar

Fixed the screenshot button in the Barbershop screenshotting itself

Fixed overlap of Coats of Arms and the label in the Barbershop and the misaligned close buttons

Updated the Ruler Designer:

Made it possible to zoom into portraits and drag them around. You can see every wrinkle

Added extra camera angles so you can turn the portrait or even tilt it up and down

Added the option to hide the profile portrait

Added different lighting options, so you’ll know how your chin will look in the light of the Mediterranean throneroom

Made it possible to click on sliders to instantly change the value instead of dragging the little button

Added exact gene values next to sliders

Added an option to open a big slider for each gene, which can be adjusted with mouse wheel for finer control

Reduced the width of the left panel and added an option to auto-hide it

Added an option to hide the full UI in the Ruler Designer

Made ethnicity selection optional, rather than a required step before customizing the portrait

Made some buttons wider where space allowed, so long names will fit better

Added the weight slider and sex toggle to portrait customization

Added more descriptive names for several appearance options, for example, “Skin Complexion” is now: “Pale”, “Healthy”, “Freckles”, etc.

Fixed some text that could get too long in other languages and resize the window

Improved the Struggle window so it opens faster and uses the full screen height

Improved various interfaces by adding iconography to tabs

Made mass prison actions always visible and hotkeyed them to Alt+number

Added portrait icons for Acclaimed Knights

Changed Accolade attributes to a clearer vertical layout

Adjusted the hierarchy of several character interactions to shorten long interaction lists

Added missing footer text for certain map modes

Fixed long governor relation strings in the province window from pushing interaction buttons off-screen

Added a proper HUD alert icon for rulers who have not yet held a coronation

The Character Finder now stays open after using character interactions, and its marital-status filter now includes more relationship states

The Ritsuryo window now lists county-level titles under active candidacies

Added potential task information to court-position tooltips in court events

Made more building requirements visible and improved several cost and eligibility tooltips

Added strength of a potential alliance to the marriage interaction window, greyed out if it’s an alliance with your vassal instead of a foreign ruler

Made armies on the map smaller when zoomed out by hiding the quality icon, amount of separate armies and the “well-supplied” icon. Normal view when zoomed-in.

For map armies, disabled right-click interaction menu on Coats of Arms when you have an army selected, to prevent misclicks

Updated shortcuts for armies, so buttons don’t use the same ones

Fixed some tooltips for army buttons not showing shortcuts

Added compact view for the message log, only showing headers of messages, with the text in the tooltip

Added a scrollbar for the bottom-right notification feed if it gets too many messages, so they don’t go off-screen

Made the feed shrink when a right side window is opened, to show more of the map

Made messages in the feed slightly smaller and reduced their spacing in the list

Fixed that traits in interactions could push claims or the checkmark outside the window

Added scrollable tooltips for army composition and laws, so they won’t go off-screen

Moved law tooltips slightly left, so they won’t block the buttons

Fixed an empty gap that could appear between subjects in the Realm window

Fixed portraits in duels sticking out of the window

Fixed misaligned backgrounds for Coats of Arms and icons in events

Fixed icons in events checking for the wrong portrait

Fixed that warnings for saves could go outside the window

Fixed an icon in Council window overlapping interactions, if you were assigned as a minister

Fixed issue where Alert buttons could display over the View Succession window

Fixed issue where “Show All Armies” window did not close after selecting a single army

Fixed bug where opening the “Plagues” window through the ‘P’ hotkey when another tab is opened, kept the other tab highlighted as if opened

Fixed issue where interaction menu header would stick out of the window for characters outside diplomatic range

Fixed issue where language-icon would shift slightly when on-hover character buttons appear

Fixed issue where Faith name in the county view could shift left

Repositioned tooltip of ‘More’ button so it doesn’t obscure the first item of the list

Fixed bug where Fanatic Accolade Attribute were not visible on the available attributes list unless the Character was a Courtier

Moved children in “birth.1003” event to the right to better fit the mother’s nameplate

Fixed bug where Battle Summary-window would not display tabs for seeing Knights statistics

Fixed bug where hovering over certain bookmark elements would cause the bookmark character to shake uncontrollably

Dynasty Legacies are now scrollable in House View.

Improved visual consistency between the 2-tab and 3-tab Council views.

Royal Court and other portrait-side interactions can no longer be accessed from the lobby before the game has started.

Adjusted leveled trait markers so the final level is easier to inspect.

Added treasury tax income to the Subjects tab in Realm View for relevant vassals.

The alert for upgrading a Japanese Aspiration no longer appears when the option is unavailable.

Fixed multiple cases of Out-of-Syncs in Multiplayer

Fixed being able to legitimize yourself if you are a bastard house or dynasty head

Expanded the use of “allow_accolade” for East-Asian Governments

Fixed errors from events when Holding Court

Disabled event previews for the oath event

Made event previews scrollable in big events

Fixed issue where Ledger soldier count would only take personal army size into account and not include all the vassal contributions

Increased size of PatternColorOverrides to 64 instead of 16 to match the size of SCourtSceneCharacterConstants::_PatternColorOverrides

Fixed a wrong scope in barony_is_valid_for_holy_order_lease_cancellation_trigger pointing towards a character instead of the barony

Fixed Chinese Consolidation War sometimes invalidating immediately after declaring it

Restored the max_regiments limit on all MaA types unlocked from Accolades back to 1

Fixed several self-targeting edge cases that could cause characters to gain opinion of themselves or interact with themselves

Buildings that have already been built in other slots can no longer be built

Fixed edgecase where faiths could not be reformed properly

Fixed several missing tenets on certain faiths

Added an else_if block for equal gender faiths when the game rules are not allowing same-sex marriage

All Monastery levels are now available in valid holding types for faiths with the Preservation tenet

Immortals are now immune to aging traits

Dynamic hybrid cultures now respect relevant game rules

Fixed Angkor not starting with Capital Temple Complex at level 3 in 1178

Fixed so certain historical characters should no longer have their educational traits randomized

Fixed History setup for Hasan and Ghurid

Fixed Fujiwara Hidehira so they are no longer being marked as Count while being a Duke

Fixed the houses Braganza, Asturias, Rogerios Dalassenos, Clare, Rocaberti and Chalon not being in the correct dynasties and having broken family trees

Fixed Warning Message about completing Examinations being displayed even after reaching highest Merit Rank in non-Celestial Meritocracies

In the “Last Lesson” debate event, the elder now correctly gains opinion of you

Debates now correctly trigger pro-movements situation catalysts

Grand Campaign requirements rewritten to be less confusing anymore and correctly outline requirements for Paddy Fields

Switching Intents will now remove you from taking the exam properly

Confirmation as a Governor will now deduct stress when you take the decision instead of when the travel plan starts (this means you can no longer farm it for repeated stress reductions you cheaters!)

Independent rulers are no longer punished for previously cheating in exams

Exposing your own cheat secret will now revoke your exam result and governor titles properly

Grand Campaign now can be inherited properly

Grand Campaign will now add all rulers who lost title as defender for initial contribution

Switching your Primary Title will no longer block you from completing your oath

Debate will now select a proper target if the previous one died (No more debating with a ghost!)

Nerge now counts as a successful hunt for your Oath

Foster Enlightenment now tracks if your oath is a new University

Learn Language effects in the exams activity has been added

Added a cooldown for getting sent to an exam

Fixed duplicated events and wrong scope for Grand Campaign

Fixed various cases that would cause Grand Wedding and its promise invalid or inaccessible

Improved reliability for Grand Wedding promises; after your character dies or abdicates, you should hopefully no longer get stuck with betrothed who think they’ve been promised one while your new heir has forgotten all about it

Legendary Sighting events will now allow Landless Adventurers to move the camp to the sighting

Landless Adventurers will no longer retain characters created from travel options

Temporary travel characters can no longer be invited to court or exploited for court positions

Adventure Inspirations, Treasure Hunts, and travel cancellation prompts now use valid regions and only appear when appropriate

Romance and Seduce schemes now pause properly while traveling

Children and guests now use more appropriate logic in several childhood, wedding, funeral, and house-feud events

Having a target duchy title in your realm will no longer block Grand Campaign if any counties are not conquered yet

Uncreated ministry titles can now be created and granted correctly

Admin Summon to War interaction no longer allows you to attack a far away duchy

Seize Peripheral Duchy Casus-Belli now only targets neighboring lands

You will no longer be able to use Chinese Consolidation Casus-Belli to cross whole continents without neighboring China

Changing between Governors with different Domicile titles should now always change your Noble Family titles

Landless Noble Families should now always be direct vassal during succession

Updated the “Withdraw from Governorship”-decision for Ministers to correctly remove them from the Council

Populist factions will no longer take foreign duchy titles

Fixed bug where Ceremonial Claimant factions would disband immediately after being formed

Fixed a bug related to escalated Peasant Factions sometimes not being able to be pressed successfully

Fixed Ceremonial Claimant faction wars invalidating if the Claimant was landless

Confederate Partition now only creates extra top-tier titles to provide one to each secondary heir

Fixed incorrect tooltip for meritocratic appointment succession law

Fixed Meritocratic governor’s succession laws not changing when modifying province administration type

Fixed Ritsuryō military governors not using the military appointment succession law

Imperial Censor now actually use treasury to do their job

Added missing Secretary Director aptitude calculations for Imperial Censor and rebalanced the values

Improved aptitude breakdown tooltip and all Mandates related tooltips

Fixed a bug where heads of noble families were being paid salaries as though they were governors in Byzantium

East Asian Estate progression, accomplishment checks, and appointment investment caps now work and display correctly

Fixed a bug where unit map icons would show incorrect data when multiple armies were moving in different directions but standing in the same province

Fixed bug where unit map icons would be visible from different zoom levels depending on if the unit was moving or not

Fixed Claim wars declared by Adventurers transferring all titles in target realm and the starting attacker will receive Ennobled Adventurer modifier

Fixed demanding Influence in a Ransom costing the Ransomer Influence, it now pays Influence to the Ransomer

Fixed loans from Holy Orders not being properly inherited by your heir, with the decision stating the loan is to be repaid to yourself

Fixed Adventurer Mercenaries only receiving payment for the first war to end rather than payment being given after the last war the Adventurer joined ends

Fixed Adventurers being created under circumstances they otherwise wouldn’t when losing land which is part of a larger Realm whose Ruler would become an Adventurer

Non-Struggle rulers can now declare religious wars on Struggle rulers

Fixed some instances of Betrothal not being cleared when the betrothed dies

Fixed edge case where a House-Bloc could have Member Houses in different Realms

Fixed custom localization related to relations so Unlanded characters with no liege won’t call each other “fellow vassals”

Fixed GetRelation loc functions returning Courtier instead of Follower for Followers of Landless Adventurers

Landless Adventurers that “Demand Pastureland” from a Herder now changes their capital into a Nomad holding properly upon becoming a Nomad

Reasserting a Tributary without using leveraging options now actually rewards Renown

You can no longer petition to change your Province’s purpose if you’re a landless ruler

Herd ransom value should now be a bit more dynamic depending on your title or if the ransomed character is someone important to the receiving character

Clarified when you become a vassal if you “Purchase Land” as a landless adventurer

Fixed AI sending the “Bargain Fealty”-interaction when it was not valid

Fixed issue in great project contribution description where the name of the project would be printed as great_project_type__ERROR_FLAG_INDEX

Fixed and tested the new triggers for music and the proper mixing routing to make them respond to control volume

Fixed counties that become feudalized via the “Demand Administrative”-Government interaction not losing the Siberian Permafrost modifier

The Siberian Permafrost Modifier is now removed if you convert to Mandala

Fixed the “Adopt _ Ways”-decisions not clearing Siberian Permafrost modifiers

Fixed bug where “Tribalizing” a Nomadic or Herder-holding did not clear Siberian Permafrost modifiers

Added parameter to Cultivation Culture Tradition that reduces the chances of getting new elder traits by 50%

Fixed the default CK3 soundtrack not playing if you owned All Under Heaven

Fixed an issue where some Accolade modifiers were not being applied to the army they belonged to.

Added back the accolade army modifier to the combat cache.

Offer Courtier now uses the correct opinion modifier.

Fixed an issue where landed heirs of Celestial rulers could incorrectly change their de jure capital on succession.

Ceremonial Lieges and Regents can no longer access Coronation laws or the Coronation activity unless they are the same character.

Fixed an incorrect candidate score modifier name from the Commander’s Study Manor upgrade.

Fixed an issue where the option to appoint a Vizier could appear for invalid characters when playing Clan government.

Elderly characters no longer gain new traits when the game rule is set to Infirm Only.

Fixed an incorrect scope link in faith reforming.

Akan Herders can no longer access the Humiliation War CB.

Fixed overlapping Story Cycles.

Fixed an issue where an artifact’s quality indicator could shift incorrectly during story presentation.

Improved consistency for culture-based Accolade triggers.

Fixed an issue where nomadic characters were not developing domiciles.

Fixed Evict Adventurer so adventurers in your domain can now be expelled correctly.

Added a cooldown to tribute mission decisions to prevent exploits.

Corrected a trigger issue for ep3_laamp_flavour_ewan.2041.

The Secret Tunnels event no longer grants incorrect Influence.

Fixed DLC-locking issues for Emishi army visuals.

Fixed DLC-locked innovations appearing in history without the required DLC.

Fixed a major interest trigger so it now properly checks your liege.

You can once again select the Expansion phase when founding a new Dynasty.

Guests can now be recruited directly as Knights in administrative realms, and non-administrative vassals under administrative realms can also serve as Knights.

Fixed an issue where invalidated schemes could remain visible in the Intrigue window.

Releasing a tributary now refreshes the truce correctly.

The requirement for monastic_schools_02 is now visible.

In infirm events is_immortal is now used, so immortal traits from mods are taken into account.

Fixed an incorrect icon name for Heavy Horse Archers that could cause errors.

Fixed startup errors caused by DLC-locked content when playing without DLCs.

The Accolades interface is now properly disabled if you do not own the required DLC.

Locked Accolade Men-at-Arms from Title Men-at-Arms where appropriate.

Fixed an issue where Struggle Ending decisions could be taken multiple times.

Fixed the Sexuality Distribution game rule overriding a Custom Ruler’s selected sexuality.

Regencies no longer increase Domain Limit.

… and more than 2000 other individual changes, tweaks, and bugfixes throughout development!

Vampire Crawlers Review | TheSixthAxis

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April 20, 2026

To say that Vampire Survivors has been influential is a massive understatement – it quite literally spawned an entire genre of bullet heaven/Survivors-likes. There’s an argument to be made for and against that being a good thing, but there’s no denying that the game itself is stellar. The sheer dopamine of it all makes it a perfect game to just hop in and out of, but at its core, you’re doing the same thing and just watching numbers go up. It makes the brain happy. So, can Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors pull off the same kind of trick?

Vampire Crawlers naturally finds itself in a strange place. It has to follow-up an intensely simple game which had such a massive impact, and to be honest, I don’t think it’s nailed it to anywhere near the same degree. I like Vampire Crawlers well enough, but I don’t love it, and I think it’s because the simplicity of Vampire Crawlers is going to be stacked up against the broader genres of deckbuilder roguelites that includes the recently released Slay the Spire 2.

Now, to be fair, this is specifically a dungeon-crawler instead of just a roguelike, so you’re delving into different levels and navigating around them in first-person, picking which fights you want to take on to try and get stronger, and which ones you want to avoid because it’s not worth it. And the deck that you’re playing from features cards taken from Vampire Survivors itself, all with different effects like buffing you, dealing damage, or letting you draw more cards.

The main thing to pay attention to in each battle is your combo. From the hand that you draw from your deck each turn, the aim is to play a zero cost card first, then a one mana card, then a two mana card, and so on. Keeping your combo up can double the effects of your cards, making them substantially more powerful and dispatching enemies more quickly and hopefully before they can even deal damage to you.

Each time you level up on a run, you get a choice of cards to add to your deck, balancing between damage types, buffs and characters, and that naturally affects the likelihood of drawing suitable cards. You can also augment them as you go with gems, which might do something like add a buff, double the damage, or evolve them, a la Vampire Survivors.

You’re not just delving into levels for the sake of it, but to advance and get new levels and unlocks. Just as with Vampire Survivors, you’re practically assaulted with unlocks and achievement as you play, netting dozens of them on your first few successful runs, once again triggering all of those happy hormones. However, that’s sort of it. Vampire Crawlers is a lot of fun, but it’s also a game I don’t feel like is doing much more to go beyond that simple loop. It leads to a game that feels pretty samey after the first few levels and attempts, even as you work through the massive amounts of unlocks and stuff to do. The music does slap, though.

After a decade of waiting, we’re finally getting Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3

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April 19, 2026

After a decade of waiting, we’re finally getting Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 is happening, and it’s coming out next year. Dimps and Bandai Namco Entertainment confirmed this at Dragon Ball Games Battle Hour 2026, which took place in Los Angeles this weekend. This sequel ends a gap of more than a decade between new Xenoverse games.

Dimps and Bandai Namco actually teased Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 earlier this year, but only referred to it as the Age 1000 game project. That codename references the fact that Xenoverse 3 takes place in the future in relation to the Dragon Ball stories we all know and love. The Dragon Ball Games Battle Hour 2026 trailer, which you can watch below, reveals a redesigned, older version of Bulma and a brand new character named Brett.

During a brief panel that followed this announcement trailer, we also got a new look at male and female player characters designed by Akira Toriyama. The developers who appeared on stage and in videos following Xenoverse 3’s reveal spent a lot of time highlighting how Toriyama creatively contributed to the design of the game’s world and characters. Toriyama died in March 2024, so this will likely be the last video game to feature his artistic contributions.

The revelation that Age 1000 was Xenoverse 3 shocked me because it had been so long since the last game in the series was released. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 launched in October 2016, less than two years after the first Xenoverse game. No new games in the series have come out since, although Xenoverse 2 has received an impressive amount of post-launch support.

It seemed unlikely that Bandai Namco was interested in a new Xenoverse game as it continued to release Xenoverse 2 DLC and shifted its primary focus to games like Dragon Ball FighterZ and Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero. Clearly, the Age 1000 setting warranted a full-on sequel, so we’re getting one. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 will get its final DLC, Future Saga Chapter 4, sometime this summer. After that, the focus will solely be on Xenoverse 3.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 is currently slated to launch on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X sometime in 2027. Hopefully, we won’t need another Xenoverse game for a decade after it launches.

All Tempest-Man Comic Locations in REPLACED (The Biggest Fan Quest)

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April 19, 2026

All Tempest-Man Comic Locations in REPLACED (The Biggest Fan Quest)

As the story progresses in REPLACED and you become more familiar with the denizens of the Western Station hub, you’ll also be able to pick up a variety of side quests from them. These quests can provide you with some especially valuable upgrade rewards that will definitely prove useful down the road as you face bigger adversaries in the game.

One such quest that you should make sure to pick up is the so-called The Biggest Fan quest (based on the achievement it unlocks). This quest acts as a gesture of goodwill for Tempest, whom you’ve just had a falling out with after barely escaping a dangerous situation. To help make amends, you’ll need to find some of his personal mementos. If you’re missing one or two, here’s where to find all Tempest-Man comic locations in REPLACED.

A cinematic cyberpunk platformer that’s finally within REACH.

Where to Pick Up The Biggest Fan Quest in REPLACED

replaced-six-missing-comics

The Biggest Fan quest can be picked up during Chapter 7 when you next return to the station hub. From the street, head into the area where Yo-Yo’s workshop is. Run past it to the right and into the next area, where Veronica and Tempest’s rooms are. While in Veronica’s room, approach the table in front of the couch, where you should see a glowing item indicator.

Interact with it, and you’ll get a prompt about Tempest’s six missing comics, which REACH muses that they can find to help make amends with Tempest. This starts the quest, which you can then track on your Walkman.

How to Complete The Biggest Fan Quest in REPLACED

replaced-comic-example-header

To complete The Biggest Fan quest in REPLACED, you need to find and collect all of Tempest’s six missing comics, which are scattered in various locations around the station hub. They’re indicated similarly to other collectibles in the game with a small glowing light, and you simply need to interact with them to pick them up.

Below is a comprehensive list of all Tempest-Man comic book locations. Note that the game won’t visually prompt when you’ve found them all, so make sure to keep track of how many you’ve picked up as you go. Each one has a different title, which will be highlighted yellow upon interacting with the item. You’ll get a brief description of what each comic is about as well.

Once you’ve collected all the comics, return to the original spot where you picked up the quest in Veronica’s room and interact with it again to turn them in.

While the locations of these comics are fixed and never change, the comics themselves can reportedly be different depending on the player. In other words, a comic we found in a certain location of the hub may turn up in a different location for you. Just make sure you’ve gathered all six.

Despite releasing alongside some of the year’s biggest games, Atari was confident that REPLACED would resonate with gamers.

Tempest-Man Comic Location 1 (Arcade)

replaced-tempest-man-flies-comic

One Tempest-Man comic is located on top of a crate in the back of the arcade, in the dark room to the right of where Susan and the arcade games are. For us, it was “The Tempest-Man Flies” issue.

Tempest-Man Comic Location 2 (Steps to Train Platform)

replaced-high-stakes-comic

The next Tempest-Man comic is sitting on a ledge halfway up the stairs to the train platform on the far right side of the main street. For us, it was the “High Stakes” issue.

Tempest-Man Comic 3

replaced-the-red-nuke-comic

Another Tempest-Man comic can be found inside the station concourse area. After entering the station, run to the right and then down the set of stairs on that side. The comic is inside the small nook area at the far end that’s decorated with lights. For us, it was “The Red Nuke” issue.

Tempest-Man Comic 4

replaced-love-and-masks-comic

One of the Tempest-Man comics is located inside the diner cafeteria area of the station, just to the left of the counter where the Bartender is. For us, it was the “Love and Masks” issue.

Tempest-Man Comic 5

replaced-from-the-ashes-comic

Another Tempest-Man comic can be found on top of a machine just as you enter the Hospital area (past the initial area where a homeless man is sitting on the ground talking to himself). For us, it was the “From the Ashes” issue.

Tempest-Man Comic 6

replaced-the-ultimate-sacrifice-comic

The final location of a Tempest-man comic is inside Yo-Yo’s workshop. Upon entering, run all the way to the left side, past his main terminal to the nook area that’s partially obscured. For us, it was “The Ultimate Sacrifice” issue.

The Biggest Fan Quest Rewards

replaced-balance-unit-reward

Upon turning in all six comics back at Veronica’s room, you’ll receive the Balance Unit upgrade as the main reward, which increases the rate at which your Overdrive gauge charges.

In addition, you’ll also unlock The Biggest Fan achievement for completing the quest, so you can cross this one off your trophy list.

Help an old man get his dying wish.

Systems

PC-1

Xbox-1

Released

April 14, 2026

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Violence, Blood, Strong Language

Developer(s)

Sad Cat Studios

Publisher(s)

Coatsink, Thunderful Development

Number of Players

Single-player

xbox store

Moon Cresta – A faithful recreation of an Arcade classic is coming to the Amiga via Johnny Acevedo(Amiten Games) [WIP DOWNLOAD]

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April 19, 2026

Moon Cresta – A faithful recreation of an Arcade classic is coming to the Amiga via Johnny Acevedo(Amiten Games) [WIP DOWNLOAD]

The Commodore Amiga scene has received another hot news story with the first alpha tease of a high-performance recreation of the arcade classic, Moon Cresta. Developed by Johnny Acevedo under the Amiten Games banner, this “from-scratch” build serves as a free tribute to the 1980s Nichibutsu original and a salute to François Lionet, the creator of AMOS. Furthermore unlike many modern retro efforts, this project is not a code conversion or a simple port. Developer Johnny Acevedo meticulously reconstructed the game piece by piece to mirror the original arcade mechanics.

As Amiten Games has noted “This is not a port: no original source code was converted. Instead, the game was handcrafted, built piece by piece, based on a deep understanding of the original arcade mechanics, with graphics extracted from MAME ROMs (Thanks to 125Scracht) and converted for the Amiga. The current Alpha Build (v0.2) represents two weeks of intensive development, achieving near “arcade-perfect” results on high-end hardware”

What’s included in this build Alpha Version (v0.2): 2 weeks of hard work.

Ship control via Joystick – smooth and responsiveFull ship assembly system – 3 docking partsShooting mechanics & engine thrust animation60% Complete recreation of arcade levels and graphics Sound system Vertical scrolling starfieldDual Playfield mode:Background: 4 colors (stars)Foreground: 8 colors (game action)

⚡ Performance and optimization:

This is ~99% of game logic powered by AMAL for speed and smoothness ,.Main loop kept minimal to maintain fluid gameplay 50 Hz on Stock Amiga 1200.Collisions, sound triggers, and scoring handled efficiently in AMOS BASICMicro-lags minimized with optimized score updatingContinuous testing on real hardware ensures faithful arcade experienceRunning on a vanilla Amiga 1200 ? 50 FPS gameplay, game is already 99% arcade-perfect.*Note: At the moment, due to limited time, the game is not yet fully optimized to run at maximum speed on an Amiga 500. We plan to improve its performance over time. This build currently runs at 25 FPS on Amiga 500.Amiga OCS 512KB + 512KB users need Kickstart 2.00 or higher to run the game. Kickstart 1.3 is not supported.

Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege Review – A Brilliant NES Throwback That I Hated Playing

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April 19, 2026

Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege Review – A Brilliant NES Throwback That I Hated Playing

Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege is a ridiculous, brilliant name—and the game behind it is just as committed to the bit: a gory, gothic throwback to when games were hard and gave zero shits about holding your hand. As developer Lilymo’s sixth title in their quest to replicate those days, the question is simple: is it their best? Arguably, yes.

Before diving in, I should probably address a potential bias. Lilymo is co-owned by Colin Moriarty, a former IGN writer turned podcaster whose work I actively follow and support. I like what he and the Sacred Symbols crew do—enough to support them on Patreon. I like what Lilymo stands for. And that meant I came into this wanting to love Saint Slayer.

Available On: PC, Xbox, Switch, PlayStationReviewed On: PS5Developed By; Lilymo GamesPublished By: Lilymo Games

Review code provided by Lilymo Games

Which is why it pains me to say this: I didn’t. Not on a personal level, anyway. And the truth is, that’s not the game’s fault—it’s mine. I’d like to say this just isn’t the game for me, but the reality is harsher than that. I’m just not the right person for the game. It came looking for a boss and it got me, someone who wanted to be able to revisit the olden days and found out he couldn’t.

This is a NES-ass NES game, and it plays by a completely different set of rules. It’s stiff, unforgiving, and demands a kind of rhythm that doesn’t come naturally if you didn’t grow up with it. As an early ’90s kid, the NES was already history. I was raised on the Sega Genesis and PlayStation, and it wasn’t until the Xbox 360 era that I really began to understand game design, how the industry worked, and cemented the hobby as my main love.

So yeah—I struggled. I got my ass whooped, my pride hurt.

Playing Saint Slayer felt like trying to speak a language I don’t understand. I couldn’t settle into its rhythms, couldn’t read its patterns, couldn’t quite grasp what it wanted from me—even when the answer was obvious. My brain kept trying to translate it into something more modern. It doesn’t work like that.

And yet, despite all of this, I can confidently say: this is an excellent game.

And Now, The Review.

The story follows Rudiger, a former soldier turned farmer in a gothic version of late seventeenth-century Europe. But one day, tragedy comes knocking, and Rudiger sets out to defeat a crazed Catholic priest who is stealing relics and leading cults like he’s gunning for his own Netflix documentary. In the process, Rudiger ends up wielding the Spear of Sacrilege, a powerful poker that gradually gets powered up through the game. Cue 21 stages of platforming, combat, boss battles, gore, and weirdness.

The developers describe the game as a “blood-drenched homage to the 8-bit era of horror-tinged, side-scrolling action,” and that pretty much nails it. For every slightly wacky moment or tongue-in-cheek line of dialogue, there are bodies hanging from crucifixes, or messy piles of blood and bone. For every time you’re knocked off a cliff by a donkey or stab a weird monster in the eye, there’s rescuing barely alive prisoners from dungeons.

The other obvious inspiration is Castlevania, found in the level design, the gothic tone, and the gameplay. What feels stiff and unwieldy to modern sensibilities is entirely deliberate. You commit to jumps. Attacks have no lunge. Take damage, and the resulting pushback can send you straight into a pit and all the way to the start of the stage again. It’s punishing, but the rewarding kind that beats the shit out of you but is nice enough to call the ambulance afterwards.

I like how the game makes most of the story optional. The majority of the dialogue is a few lines here or there from bosses and NPCs you meet, painting in just enough of the background plot so that you can mentally fill in the gaps. But if you really want to delve into the story proper, you need to talk to the travelling merchant wherever possible, and see the different endings. It’s worth the extra effort, revealing a slim, interesting tale that does exactly what it needs to—be an excuse to move from stage to stage.

Rudiger has a simple moveset befitting his NES aspirations. He can stab hapless hooligans with his spear, or throw it provided he has enough Rosary Beads. A thrown spear can even be used as a climbing platform, a mechanic that could have been utilised a bit more, I reckon. He also has a DuckTales-style pogo stick bounce, another moment of absurdity. A few later upgrades add extra moves, putting Rudiger in real danger of becoming a competent human being.

With this diet moveset, the devs craft a fiendish death trap that must be battled and survived. You need to learn the patterns, figure out when to attack and when to just ignore your problems and sidle onwards into the pixelated sunset. Success must first be earned through failure. Probably quite a bit of it, if you aren’t an old head.

Dropping down to the easiest difficulty will help quite a bit. You get extra health and the enemies die quicker, but the biggest difference is the lack of knockback. And for those looking for a challenge, Classic mode removes lives as well, so death means instant failure and a desire to punch the nearest object.

Lose all your lives and you’ll be given that stage’s password, which you can use to jump to that specific stage from the main menu. There’s a cost, though: you’ll spawn in fresh as a proverbial daisy with no health upgrades or anything else that you would have acquired by playing normally.

You also get passwords when you manage to locate the various treasures hidden throughout stages. These passwords are more fun because they unlock cool stuff that you can then use to run through the game again, or extra challenging modes. Want to play exclusively with Rudiger’s first-stage dirk that has the reach of a baby’s arm? You can! And who knows how many other passwords are waiting to be discovered?

There is a slightly more modern idea: a persistent currency called Orbs. These stick with you across playthroughs and can be spent at a travelling merchant. It’s an interesting system, but one I didn’t find very useful until much later in the game, where I hoarded Orbs until attempting a run on the harder difficulty. At that point, my trove of treasure helped a lot.

And if you’re still struggling, it is possible to farm Orbs pretty easily.

Speaking of the passwords and treasures, this is a game that’s intended to be replayed, again just like you would have done back in the NES days. There’s four different endings to achieve in Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege, along with Trophies/Achievements for completing the game with the various treasure passwords and on all the difficulties.

Again, it’s very Castlevania-coded. The first couple of playthroughs will be slow and clunky, but as you get the hang of the gameplay and map everything out, you’ll go from an hour or two to probably 15–30 minutes, if you really nail it.

You can also tackle the whole thing via local co-op. Yes, another Rudiger can take up the spear, and like most things, it’s even more fun with friends. Well, right up until you turn on friendly fire—then it’s a cause for shattered friendships and therapy.

Presentation is an area where SS:SoS is excellent in every aspect. Do you see those pixels? Aren’t they lovely? The artist, Josh Gossage, does an excellent job of emulating the style of the time with a couple of modern touches here or there. My only complaint is one or two levels are quite plain or could do with a touch more variety.

Meanwhile, the score—composed by Josh Davis—is a banger. Again, perfectly retro to match the time period, with a couple of tracks that had me bopping my head along to the beat.

And finally, let’s throw a little extra kudos Lilymo’s way for their continued usage of Trophies. Previously, the company has offered up different levels of Trophy difficulty for their titles: easier on PS4 and harder on the PS5 versions. This time around, they opted to ditch the difficulty and instead just have two different Trophy lists, each one sharing some Trophies while also having some completely different ones, too. It should make it fun to chase the Platinum on both versions of the game.

In Conclusion….

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The obvious negative is that SS:SoS is so dedicated to its inspirations that it doesn’t do anything particularly new. But that’s not much of a criticism. It isn’t trying to be shiny and new. It wants to be a game that could have been released during the NES days, and it succeeds wildly at that task.

There’s a couple of levels that overstay their welcome, some of the deaths felt a bit cheap, and then there’s my own personal issues.

None of them detract from how much of a fitting, touching homage to the classics Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege is. It is not for everyone—it isn’t for me—and that’s exactly how it should be.

Developers Of Moon Child Resurface To Bask In All The Shitposts

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April 18, 2026

Developers Of Moon Child Resurface To Bask In All The Shitposts

In 1993, Dutch developers Team Hoi began work on Moon Child, an Amiga platformer starring the titular green space lad with a dinosaur-like companion. The Amiga version never made it to shelves and its eventual 1997 PC port only had a regionally limited release. Builds of the game have been available online for years, but a recent post from Games That Weren’t seemingly kicked off a frenzy of love and shitposts, summoning its original creators back to social media.

“I decided to re-register an account to enjoy the memes of our 1990s #MoonChild game,” posted original designer Metin Seven. “I’m having soo much fun reading and viewing all the Moon Child love. I’m also forwarding stuff to the other guys, including Ramon [Braumuller], our music composer.”

Moon Child features a lot of your standard Amiga strangeness. Fast-paced, floaty, vibrant, overloaded, unrefined. Like a dream you’ve had about playing Super Mario. A jaunty and fun prototype, Moon Child pitched itself around to find a publisher, even building a prototype for Psygnosis’ attention (their famed title card opening one of the builds). When Commodore and the Amiga went under, Team Hoi pivoted to making a PC version from scratch. When that came out in 1997, resources were stretched pretty thin. The game was not released outside of the Netherlands.

While everyone loves a tiny little goblin, what’s hooked everyone is some extremely catchy demo scene music. A theme track peppered with uncanny lines like “The story is true” and “You’ve got the power to be his friend,” the latter a phrase so magnetic and hypnotic it may never leave my mind. Once those assets and samples were isolated and shared, it was off to the races.

Moon Child seems to have taken on a life of its own over the last few days. Did not expect that at all!Just a few examples of the chaos people have been creating here, all by on BSky:https://t.co/cNcYwkQS09 https://t.co/ZigxStgHZn https://t.co/XmjRgXmGC9 https://t.co/nPEb2EyJYT pic.twitter.com/HJN5C6LIGz

— Games That Weren’t (@fgasking) April 15, 2026

After just a few days the feeds have been thoroughly seasoned with Moon Child mania. Fan art, remixes, videos, shitposts alike, especially from YTP luminary icesnort. It’s an outpouring of affection for a game that barely got out the door. The original creators would like to pay this kind gesture forward. Since resurfacing to social media, Seven has begun sharing all kinds of Moon Child goodies, including old photos, concept art, storyboards, design documents, assets and source files. All materials that will ensure Moon Child’s second lunar life orbits circles around its original.