Mysterious, eerie, and all together dark, the door chimes as you enter Strange Antiquities, a not-so-quaint shop full of intrigue.

Strange Antiquities, a game from indie developers Bad Viking, is now available for play. This puzzle game is more than meets the eye. Come in from the dark and dreary streets and witness the relics on the shelves - but be forewarned, these antiquities are more than meets the eye. As the new Thaumaturge apprentice of the shop, you will utilize your keen senses to help unfold the mysteries contained within the corners of the store. If your uncanny senses perceive correctly, you'll find success in the dark arts.

Strange Antiquities is the standalone sequel to the indie hit title Strange Horticulture. If you loved the last game, you are welcomed back to Undermere, where you can expect even more intricacy and depth than its predecessor.

Do you have what it takes to unravel the mysteries of the occult? Pull up a blanket, pour a cup of tea, and start exploring... you never know what you may find.

Strange Antiquities is now available  on Steam, Epic Games Store, and Steam.

In addition to yesterday's gameplay livestream (video embedded below), there has been a significant influx of detailed news about EA Sports FC 26. Closed Beta feedback, a PC-specific deep dive, and a launch update have all dropped over in the "Pitch Notes" of the official site in the last week and half. The most interesting for me is the launch update, which has a ton of info all stacked into neat bullet points. My personal highlights:

• "Companion and Web App: Web app launches September 17. Companion App refresh goes live on September 18." - so we can get started on our Ultimate Teams. 
• Speaking of Ultimate Team (FUT), EA is promising to flatten the power curve significantly this year. What happens in a typical FUT season is the base cards are quickly out-paced by special cards that drop with higher attributes who in turn are soon replaced with the next special event. There is a constant arms race that is rather artificially created to maintain engagement and keep the microtransactions pouring in as players try to keep up with the Jonses. This year, however, special cards, weekly campaigns, and rewards are intended to be better balanced so that the base cards, with SBC and upgrades, will be able to keep pace. The idea seems to be to allow you to carry a player through rather than ripping and replacing parts of your team every week allowing your squad to feel much less like the ship of Theseus. 
• Chemistry styles are getting rebalanced to make pace less of the king.
• Silver icons are returning! - I love my silver teams.
• Changes to rewards and progression - hopefully not burying me this year into a Rivals level that I just could not win from, could not get demoted out of, and spoiled all the fun of the mode for me last year. 
• Matchmaking delays for Rush quitters. 
• Rewards changes, gameplay changes, Career Mode changes, and even more.

It's a pretty lengthy post and worth perusing. I'm excited about the incoming changes and think the intent is on point. Now just waiting on the game's release to see the execution of that intent. EA Sports FC 26 releases next Friday, September 26th. Pre-orders provide early access starting this Friday, September 19th.  

My third game related on-site media excursion in a month wrapped up last week. The annual Game Developers Expo, or GDEX, was held in Columbus, Ohio, at the Columbus Convention Center. There were some exciting games there for the crowd to get their hands on. Consider it early early access. Then I was asked to play a Zelda-like game called Frog Boy. I played through the first dungeon and had to immediately get up. Because, I was hooked. 

Frog Boy draws it's direct inspiration from the Game Boy title Link's Awakening. The story is told through three quick cut scenes. You are Frog Boy, and you must collect 6 stones to defeat the Lord of Darkness in order to save the world. I will tell you first hand that it feels great to play, and immediately differs from its inspiration by NOT giving you a sword out the gate. The game can be played in browser, and you can use a controller or keyboard. The controls are simple. Set what weapon or item to either A or B, and you're off. You can even go through 4 filters, including that Game Boy green! Because, Frog?  

Dungeons, shops, and items a plenty, I was only going to play it through the first hour of the game, but I became so hooked that I played through the whole game. There is a boss in every dungeon, 6 in total, and there are plenty of secrets to find as well. James Gartland is the man behind it, and you can play it here. If you need any tips, or you just want to watch a playthrough, you can do that below. If you actually want to play it, you can do that here. This is an early build, and you can donate and download the game as well. Thanks James, for introducing me to Frog Boy! 

This game looks like the new Burnout game I have been waiting years for. Not only that this game looks like it's a combination of Burnout, Trackmania and Need for Speed. 

From the official website it seems we also have a lot of freedom here to customize the game in various ways including time of day, weather, and turn traffic on or off with the click of a button. The track editor looks fantastic allowing you to add loops, jumps. ramps, pipes and more and your creations can be shared with the community. Police seem to have a presence in the game as well as also on the website its mentioned that you can add police stations on empty lots which will cause them to show up in game. Very cool. 

Wreckreation launches on October 28th 2025 for PC, PS5 and Series X.

Keep on the Borderlands is one of three adventure booklets making up the Dungeons & Dragons Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set. Its organization is impeccable. Starting with approaching the outer gatehouse, winding its way through locations and services in the outer bailey, then to the inner gatehouse, taking you into the inner bailey, and finally to the fortress.

The outer bailey (think of it as a courtyard within a walled castle) houses every service a party of low-level party members could hope for—minus the hubbub of big urban cities. It's focused. It's perfect. It comes with everything from a barn to a bank, from a tavern to a temple.

Each structure gets one page. The Tavern, for example. Next to the header is a number corresponding to the structure on the map of the Keep. Next is a What You Need to Play callout box. This will list one or two NPC cards that come in the boxed set. Some even have a handout. The Tavern is called the Drunken Dragon. (I bet someone in the writers' room wanted to call it the Drunk & Dragon—D&D for short. The artwork on the page even shows a tavern stein with a gold dragon twisted into an ampersand.)

Then comes a little boxed text to read aloud to your players. Nothing wild. Nothing too long. Just some lite descriptive elements and perhaps a word from the character on the NPC card.

Then come the structure's features. A quick line or two about the Tavern Features, in this case. The taproom, the kitchen, and even an empty stage just begging to be filled with a player ready to break out of their shell.

Tavern Services come next. It mentions food and drink, which are listed in the separate menu handout in the box. There's even the ability to solicit rumors—with a random table to roll or select from—and even how much it would cost to buy the house a round.

Brilliantly, each structure also come with a quest. It's not a big quest. Big quests are for the Caves of Chaos and the Wilderness adventure booklets. But the quests in the Keep on the Borderlands booklet will help around the place and, generally, put you in good stead with the local populace. There are rewards in the form of gold and/or favors. But these aren't big enough adventures, per se, to level up your characters. For that, you will indeed have to venture out beyond the keep's walls.

While the Heroes of the Borderlands is (helpfully) broken out into three booklets, all three make up a D&D 5th Edition remake of the 1980's adventure The Keep on the Borderlands. It's a classic, written by one of the founders of D&D, Gary Gygax. This is the first time I'm encountering any version of this old school adventure, however. And the fact that a form of it is included in a starter set—40 years later—is testament to how enduring the principles behind OG D&D really are.

This is a wonderful starter set. You get an impossible amount of tokens and cards and maps and booklets for the $50 asking price. And it's the first starter set that's given me the confidence to make the leap from dungeon mastering online to DM'ing in person. It's just that good. The D&D Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set launches September 16.

Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, Power Wash Simulator 2 is expanding its reach onto all the things. The recently announced addition of the Nintendo Switch to its release plans means that now all three major consoles will get the game at release along with the PC version. The original began as a PC/Xbox exclusive before landing onto the Playstation and Switch some time later. 

Power Wash Simulator is a bit of an odd pitch - you're just like, washing stuff, right? Yes exactly, but while the controls mimic a first person shooter, the experience is much more first person find-your-state-of-zen. And with the sequel we are also getting a new campaign, base-building, and new locations as well as co-op play both online and local split-screen. Find your state of zen... together.

While we still lack a firm release date, Power Wash Simulator 2 is expected to launch "late 2025" for Playstation, Xbox, Switch, and PC. 

I've been an avid VR gamer since day one of the PlayStation VR. Since then, I've been through five headsets, finally settling on the Quest 3 as my primary daily-use VR gadget of choice. I've had the Meta+ subscription for well over a year, and I find that it is one of the better gaming subs you can sign up for. Every month, there are at least four of five actually good games to check out, which save me a ton of money. One of these is Walkabout Mini Golf.

I'm not sure when Meta+ added Walkabout Mini Golf to my library, but it has been lingering on the "Oh yeah, I should check that out sometime" pile for at least six months, maybe longer. Last week, I was motivated to download it due to my sudden addiction to Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots, which inspired me to look for more golf-related content. 

By wild coincidence, Walkabout Mini Golf developer Mighty Coconut reached out the very next day to communicate about the game's fifth anniversary and some upcoming fun stuff. The universe seemed to be kicking me in the shins, telling me to check the game out. And now that I'm in, Walkabout Mini Golf has consumed my VR playing hours, finally pulling me (temporarily, I'm sure) from my beloved Zen Studios' Pinball FX VR. 

Stepping into Walkabout Mini Golf at this point is like walking into an MMO that has been circulating for five years; there is SO MUCH STUFF to do and look at. The base game alone has a ton of mini golf courses, each with an easy version and an unlockable hard version. Then there are the buckets of DLC courses you can buy, and after one round of mini golf on the introductory course, I immediately wanted to buy every single one of them. The game is so damn good, being laser focused on delivering a smooth and accurate mini golf experience, and absolutely accomplishing that on all sorts of themed courses. There is a course based on Jim Henson's Labyrinth, y'all, and it is stellar. 

You can play all of these courses in multiplayer, and if your buddies don't have one of the DLC courses you own, you can still invite them to play along with you for free. Though to be honest, they should just pony up the cash; each course is only four bucks. Each hole also features a unique hidden ball that you can find and play with going forward (finding enough balls on the easy version of a course is one way to unlock the hard version). The game also has a pretty good character creator, DLC avatar packs (you can be a Fraggle!), various game modes and events, and just a ton of other content to explore. 

I haven't gotten through all of the courses I have access to, but I fully plan on playing every course at least once before the next one drops. Mighty Coconut today announced that this December, it's 37th course will be available, based on Lewis Carroll's original 1865 classic "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". Judging by what I've seen so far, players can expect some pretty mind-bending situations. Mighty Coconut does not shy away from Escher-like illusions and gravity shifts, which means that playing through the course will likely include some pretty radical surprises.

All I can say about Walkabout Mini Golf is that the dust has been removed from my eyes, and I am now wide awake about this fantastic living game, and will be covering it's new releases and content going forward. I'll stop my ranting for now (mostly because I want to go play), but you can bet that I'll be back for more observations as we get closer to the release of the Alice course. For now, suffice to say that I highly recommend that you hop in and start exploring Walkabout Mini Golf now, if you haven't already. 

Serbia-based developer, GFA Games, announced that post-apocalyptic MMO first-person shooter PIONER is heading to open beta on PC in October, though no specific date was given. Following a closed playtest earlier this year, the PvEvP shooter is one step closer to release on PC, with plans for a console version to follow.

PIONER is set on a strange Soviet-era island called Tartarus, which is over 50 square kilometers in size, where you will engage in both PvE and PvP first-person shooter combat. Storytelling is reliant on the player’s actions, with a focus on realism, including non-traditional health bars and leveling systems for deeper immersion. Thankfully, if you’re not much of a PvP person, it sounds like it will be limited to high-risk, high-reward zones called Shadowlands, which will be optional.

This is my first time hearing about PIONER, but this looks great. I’ll be looking forward to the console release. Check out the new trailer below:

The Wilderness is one of three adventure booklets in the D&D Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set. Between The Keep on the Borderlands and Caves of Chaos, the Wilderness is the connective tissue in this level 1-3 adventure. 

There's less than three miles between civilization and unmitigated evil, and a 10-foot-wide dirt trail goes past both. At only 15 pages, the Wilderness is the shortest of the three booklets, but its inclusion is of vital importance to worldbuilding. Without asking your players to traverse the (admittedly short) path between the Keep and the Caves, the map would simply feel like a fast-travel selection screen between point A and B.

But with the Wilderness, this particular world for the Heroes of the Borderlands adventure goes from being a mashup of one-shot adventures to one contiguous world. Even if that world is only a few miles square.

The Dungeon Master can decide where, exactly, to kick off the adventure. Do you use a classic D&D trope by having all your players meet in a tavern? Then start off with the Keep on the Borderlands booklet. Do you begin—boom—starting right in front of the first dungeon entrance and start rolling for initiative as soon as possible? Then start with the Caves of Chaos booklet (I did). 

But if you want your players to be immediately off-balance and with nowhere safe to turn, let the Wilderness be their starting point. With no place for a Long Rest to lay their weary heads, it's fight-or-flight time from the get-go. 

The Wilderness is made up of the aforementioned Trail. Said Trail will take them quickly and quietly (for the most part) to that other Point A and Point B that I mentioned earlier. But what happens if they step off that Trail? 

Difficult Terrain, first off. That's what happens. Without a smooth, hard-packed trail underfoot, you're now only traveling at half-speed to the further corners of the Wilderness map. It's not a huge map. There's nothing insurmountable about it. But you don't have to travel far past a city limit sign before the Wilderness gets wild and wooly. 

What the Wilderness booklet teaches a new DM:

• Don't sweat travel distances too much
• Don't be afraid to reuse maps
• Don't shy away from random tables

Regarding travel distances, the most you need to worry about is that the Wilderness is about two miles east to west, and about three miles north to south. Six square miles is completely manageable. It also ensures your players don't ever get so far away from homebase (the Keep) that they can't make it back by nightfall. 

Regarding reusable maps, there are four correlating to the four major locations in the Wilderness: the Trail, the Woods, the Fens (marshlands), and the Tamarack Stand (pine trees with fall colors). On those four maps, a couple different encounters can happen, so they're not one-and-done like the Caves of Chaos maps.

Your players may balk if they see the exact same squiggle of Trail, or the same marshy islands for the second time. But that's ok. We're all using our imaginations here in this game called D&D. Pretend it's a different stretch of trail. Pretend it's a different set of dry islands in the middle of the wetlands. Or use the uncanny situation to your advantage as a Dungeon Master: Why yes, this is the exact same bend in the road where you last ran into the [fill in the blank]. Or: Of course, it had to be the exact same spot where you lost a boot in the mud the last time you were ambushed here.

And random tables are a DM's best friend. You're not beholden to exactly what you rolled up on any one random table. You can just select what you want from the list rather than rolling dice to see what randomly emerges on the map. Or the random table perhaps only serves as a guideline. You rolled up Goblins, but maybe it's time for a Brass Wyrmling dragon instead. Let random tables inspire you more than restrict you.

Random encounters get a bad rap with some D&D groups. And that's fine! If you decide they're not for you, because they feel like filler or they distract from the adventure's mainline story, by all means, ignore random encounters.

But don't knock it till you try it (as us kids used to say in the '90s). Random encounters in the Wilderness may feel too side-quest-like if you're on a focused mission to knock out the Caves of Chaos and nothing else.

Those random encounters remind players that the Wilderness is not a safe place to be—at least it's unadvisable to just loiter in the woods. It helps players build an appreciation for those beacons of civilization out there in the wild—beacons like the Keep on the Borderlands. 

So, while it's the thinnest of the three adventure booklets, the Wilderness is the glue that holds this starter-set adventure together. It lets players know that adventures and locations can be episodic in nature, but still provide a throughline of travel and adventure between.

The new D&D Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set (secretly trying to be a board game) releases September 16 in stores and on D&D Beyond online.

The big announcement to end today's Nintendo Direct was the announcement of Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, the next game in the mainline series of Fire Emblem games and it will be releasing in 2026. 

Not much is known about the overall story but oh my is that adult Sothis at the end? The Three Houses discourse will continue! and oh my lord if the music that is playing in this trailer is the battle theme I am going to be sitting on that screen for so long just listening to that amazing music.  

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave releases in 2026 for Nintendo Switch 2.