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Timberborn’s update 5 enriches the beaver kingdom with new features, particularly the ecological ‘Badwater’ challenge, enhancing the game’s core city-building mechanics. It introduces faction-specific content, terraforming capabilities, and numerous quality-of-life improvements, including an overhauled irrigation system and building flexibility. With its profound updates, Timberborn is now an essential experience for city-builder enthusiasts.

In 2023, our staff collaborated to create a comprehensive ranking of the year’s games. Standouts include Alan Wake II and Armored Core VI in the S+ tier, with titles like Dead Space Remastered and Tales of Symphonia Remastered in the S tier. The A tier features games like Cities Skylines 2 and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.

Alan Wake 2 is a storytelling masterpiece in gaming, blending horror tropes seamlessly into its narrative. The game offers a thick atmosphere, deep characters, and intertwined storytelling with Control. Although reliant on callbacks to previous games, it delivers exceptional combat, pacing, and an enthralling story, making it a must-play for fans of the series and new players alike.

Pixel Cafe has a smooth lo-fi vibe with some of the best music I’ve heard this year. Released early October, we finally got a chance to sit down with what can be considered revolutionary in its own genre. You’ve got gorgeous pixel-art style beats, a soundtrack that kicks off from the start and doesn’t stop and a hypnotic gameplay loop that’s as mediative or brow-sweating as you want it to be. Quick note: The developers have been active in updating the game. A mid-December 2023 update introduced difficulty modes, giving the game more depth from the challenging kitchen manager that it was to a zen like rhythm game to the challenging kitchen manager that many loved as is. Let’s dig into what separates this game from others. Running the Pixel Cafe The game starts off with a cup and a coffee machine and simple instructions. The game’s complexities slowly unveil…

House Flipper 2 really elevates the iconic formula that House Flipper brought about and renovates the game from top to bottom. The biggest change comes in the form of the graphics. Whereas House Flipper originally looked more like a source engine game (now compared to the new edition), House Flipper 2 looks like a slick modern title really taking a large shine to cleaning virtual homes and laying down virtual flooring. Those tasks get elevated as well with extra polish. Everything from painting to placing items is tighter and with more controls. The leveling system is easier and the upgrades dramatically change your overall gameplay. Compared to the original there is so much more content too. A lot of different house designs and way more in terms of features to renovate. Freedom is something that House Flipper 2 gives you when it comes to doing missions and flipping houses. Not…

Backpack Hero is a rougelike that features a polyomino (think Tetris) style inventory management system that you use to develop builds which can be used in turn-based battles. After each battle loop, you return to a city to use your loot to research new items, which unlock new builds, which can in turn make you more powerful as you venture deeper into the dungeon. There’s a lot going on in the game and for the entry price alone you’re getting almost too much content. You have a city builder, inventory management, economy both in and outside of the dungeon, item builds and synergies (based on placement) and turn-based battles with NPCs that can change their next action based on what you do. You can also play several different modes, some which include a way to not even worry about the city and offer an endless crawl through the dungeon, unlocking…

The Nuphy Air (60/75/95) is a frequently suggested portable keyboard that provides a mechanical keyboard on the go. The keyboard itself, the build quality is mostly impressive with the device being very well served in the niche it’s in. It’s small, weighs little, has a long battery (with the lights off) and combined with the folio is a great portable keyboard. The exception is, though, a few particular design flaws that make the keyboard inoperable for portable use, which is supposedly solved by the “v2” but early adopters are left with some curious defects to the device. The Device Itself Not taking into consideration our concerns on portability (which we dive deep into below), functioning just as a on-desk keyboard that doesn’t move or its intended niche functionality of sitting ontop of a laptop’s keyboard the Nuphy Air is a fantastic keyboard. The keys work well even without lubing them.…