#castlevania-influence

#castlevania-influence

Last year changed the way many of us thought about software. It certainly changed the way I did. I spent much of 2025 building, probing, and questioning how to build software, and in many more ways what I want to do.

Dimension 20 has primarily used Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition across its campaigns, with occasional side quests using other systems. The main cast has only deviated from D&D for the sixth campaign, A Starstruck Odyssey, which utilized an unofficial Star Wars system.

Looking back from 2026, it's almost impossible to believe that video games were once treated as a flippant, dead-end hobby reserved for burnouts and social outcasts.

Four years after its release, Valve's Steam Deck is still the most popular handheld PC around and for good reason. The portable gaming device is easy to use, can play most 2D games you install on it with ease, handles 3D games fairly well, and can even be modded and tweaked if you so desire. It's a marvelous machine, and if you are here, you likely own one or are about to buy one and want some video game recommendations.

Remakes tend to be more exciting than remasters because the improvements often go beyond mere bumps in resolution or framerate. At best, studios reimagine classic experiences in exciting new ways, sand away rough edges, and somehow retain the intangible x-factors that made fans fall in love with these titles in the first place.

Netflix and Universal were very kind to let me go direct Scream VII and put some projects on hold. Now I'm focused on those. The first is a TV show based in the Universal monster land. It won't skimp on Williamson's penchant for melodrama, either: he compared the project to an adult Vampire Diaries, which we've not really gotten from him before.

Publisher Konami and developer Bloober Team confirmed Thursday on their social media channels that Silent Hill 2 remake had reached 5 million players. The number doesn't strictly represent unit sales as it includes players accessing the game through subscription services.

In Greek mythology, Orpheus was an exceptional artist granted a miracle. His music was so powerful that the gods allowed him to lead his dead wife, Eurydice, out of the Underworld on one condition - he may never look back. He and his wife almost make it, but at the threshold between hell and earth, doubt creeps in. Orpheus turns around before he's thrust back into the human world, forced to spend the rest of his life alone filled with profound, inescapable regret.

Nintendo packed a lot of news into that 18-minute stream, including the sudden arrivals of three great games - Blue Prince, Minishoot' Adventures and Öoo - on Switch and/or Switch 2. The company revealed release dates for a bunch of games we've had on our radar, such as InKonbini: One Store (April 30), Denshattack! (June 17) and others.

The Japanese video game studio founded in 1998 by Goichi "Suda51" Suda proudly carries a B-movie spirit, blending absurd concepts, complex characters, and cascades of pixelated blood on screen. Over the years, the developer's work has often received a mixed critical reception, and the founder doesn't think there's a game in Grasshopper's portfolio that he would consider "financially successful." Yet, it has also accrued a loyal following, carving its own space in the industry with games that carry an indistinguishable look and feel.

Bluepoint then pitched a Bloodborne remake in early 2025, and was told that the numbers "made sense," but FromSoftware didn't want the remake to happen, the report claimed citing sources familiar with the matter.

Returning to old games isn't always easy. Depending on how old the game is, you might run into various problems, including unusual controls or compatibility issues. Another common point of friction you might encounter is an older game running poorly. This can make it a slog to replay some of the modern classics, even if they're just a decade or so old. So I'm happy to see Ubisoft going back and updating performance in games like Far Cry Primal and Assassin's Creed Unity.

It's no secret that Cassette Boy is inspired by the classics. It's a top-down adventure game in the vein of a retro Legend of Zelda, while your home base is a small town like in an older Pokémon game, complete with a mom who is constantly wishing you well. The game's blocky 3D graphics evoke Minecraft, and you save at campfires that reset the world, like a FromSoft game.