There’s now an easier way to buy and play Jackbox mini-games, via the brand’s new Megapicker launcher, available on Steam.

To celebrate, Jackbox is currently offering discounts on its range of mini-games and – for the next 30 days – the fan-favourite Drawful 2 to keep for free.

The Megapicker, first announced last month, is designed to act as a central hub for Jackbox mini-games, eliminating the need to rifle through each of its party packs for the game you’re after. (This is handy, as I frequently forget which pack some mini-games were released within!)

If you already have Jackbox collections in your Steam library, their respective mini-games will unlock in the Megapicker.

The Megapicker is free to download – and you can grab it via Steam here.

Next…

Yesterday’s dramatic announcement of strike action by video game actors over AI concerns may have less of an immediate impact on upcoming titles than first thought.

While the SAG-AFTRA union has indeed voted for voice artists and performance capture personnel to strike from today, a large swathe of projects now appear unaffected.

This includes any video game in development as of a year ago, including (for now) live service games, according to statements from both SAG-AFTRA and the companies the strike will hit, first shared by Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach.

Looking down the release schedule for the remainder of this year and into 2025, this will cover the vast majority of blockbuster titles whose development has stretched back several years.

Last night, t…

Forthcoming action-RPG Phantom Blade Zero will have a seamless, non-linear map “just like the Souls games before Elden Ring.”

That’s according to the game’s director, who (ironically) goes by the moniker Soulframe, as interviewed by Games Radar discussing its world design.

“It’s just like the old Souls games,” said Soulframe. “You move around and explore in a seamless map, it’s just not a huge open-world map. But every region is connected together seamlessly.”

Phantom Blade Zero – “The Blade is Drawn” Gameplay Trailer | PS5 Games

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BioWare has revealed the voice cast for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which will feature four voice options for protagonist Rook.

Alex Jordan, perhaps best known for making the sex noises in Baldur’s Gate 3, is one of your Rook options. (He’s also Mr Hands in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.)

Alternatively, you can pick from Bryony Corrigan (as seen in Good Omens and The Goes Wrong Show), Erika Ishii (Valkyrie in Apex Legends, Ana Bray in Destiny 2) or Jeff Berg (Battlefield 1). BioWare notes that these actors provide “two options from US/North American personalities and two from the United Kingdom/EU”.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard | Official Reveal Trailer – Xbox Games Showcase 2024

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The creators of the cult classic Chibi-Robo! series have announced a spiritual successor, koROBO.

Key members of Chibi-Robo!’s development team are working on the project together under the banner of Tiny Wonder Studios, following the closure of their previous studio Skip back in 2020. Founded in 2000, Skip worked closely with Nintendo on more than two dozen games, including Japan-only cult classics such as GameCube title GiFTPiA and bizarre Wii game Captain Rainbow.

As in Chibi-Robo!, Tiny Wonder Studios’ koROBO features a tiny household robot embarking on an adventure across the bedroom of his 10-year-old owner and beyond. The little robot will clean up mess and solve various issues around the house, but with a limited battery must bathe in sunlight to rech…

Supermassive Games’ narrative-focused single-player Dead by Daylight spin-off, The Casting of Frank Stone, launches for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on 3rd September.

Announced last December, The Casting of Frank Stone’s story begins in Cedar Hills, Oregon, in the summer of 1980, when a group of young filmmakers travels to an abandoned steel mill in order to shoot their horror movie, Murder Mill. Unbeknown to the teenagers, however, a dormant evil lies waiting, and the group ends up capturing far more on camera than it bargained for, creating a “soon-to-be cult classic with an insidious influence.”

In gameplay terms, The Casting of Frank Stone follows the interactive horror movie template Supermassive has been steadily refining across the likes of U…

The Independent Games Festival Celebration Days 2024 event is now live.
From now until 20th July – that’s next Saturday – “dozens of IGF-featured games and studios will be brought together in one massive event on Steam, with discounts on most of the games featured”.

IGF Celebration Days on Steam – Livestream

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By now, you’ve probably heard of massive Fallout 4 mod Fallout: London, given the struggles it’s faced in the run-up to release. There’s one last hurdle for players to overcome, however, with developer Team Folon having now confirmed it’ll be necessary to downgrade Fallout 4’s next-gen version to play it – a process thankfully being handled by its accompanying installer.

Fallout 4’s long-promised next-gen update finally launched in April, but its arrival caused some major headaches for the Fallout: London team. The mod was originally due to launch on 23rd April, but it was delayed after Bethesda announced Fallout 4’s next-gen update would arrive two days later – Team Folon admitting it was concerned about potential “complications”. And with good reason, it turn…

UPDATE 8/7/24: Following its vague ‘summer’ tease last month, Nintendo has now announced exactly when Basketball is coming to Switch Sports. And, that day is soon. In fact, it’s tomorrow for those in the US.
Basketball is arriving in Switch Sports on 9th July, the company revealed earlier today on its Nintendo of America feed, with a social media post asking us if we were ready to shoot some hoops.
Ready to shoot some hoops? Basketball arrives in #NintendoSwitchSports on July 9th! pic.twitter.com/UR00BWfHJt— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) July 8, 2024…