Released in March 2021 for Nintendo Switch and only arriving in January 2023 for other consoles, Monster Hunter Rise is a more pared-down experience compared to World and Wilds. However, it offers the new Wirebug for getting around (and unleashing new skills), and players can also mount Palamutes to explore maps. There’s also the Rampage, a tower defense-style mission type.

Slime Rancher 2 was released last year after an extensive time in early access and serves as the follow-up to Monomi Park’s beloved farming title. Players venture to a new planet to raise slimes, which have new variants, and even uncover various new mysteries.

As for PGA Tour 2K25, it’s the latest title in 2K’s series developed by HB Studios, and offers several Championships, a new MyCareer mode, and more. Despite a solid launch, it received several egregious microtransactions shortly after, so be warned. Finally, there’s The Elder Scrolls Online Collection: Gold Road, which includes the 2024 expansion and everything else before, making it a decent entry point into the MMO.

All of the above titles are available from March 3rd to April 6th. Check out February’s offerings here and redeem them while you can.

"With the barest of narratives you can possibly get, you’re then thrown into the Slime Conservatory, which serves as your new base of operations, and are given a single task: explore the island."

Much like its predecessor, and even other titles that are often considered to fall under the “cosy game” umbrella, Slime Rancher 2 doesn’t really have much of a story. Sure, there are a couple of images with text boxes explaining why protagonist Beatrix LeBeau finds herself on an entirely new location (Rainbow Island), full of all sorts of new slimes to ranch, and even why she no longer has the gear she had accumulated over the course of the previous game. However, that’s about as far as the story goes. After this, the narrative essentially takes a back seat, focusing on making sure that you, as the player, are as comfortable as you can be for the cosy and adorable adventure.

With the barest of narratives you can possibly get, you’re then thrown into the Slime Conservatory, which serves as your new base of operations, and are given a single task: explore the island. Of course, that’s not to say that there isn’t much in the way of gameplay here. Slime Rancher 2 revolves around you running around the island and collecting slimes and resources with your vacuum gun, called the vacpack. Storing the slime requires you to build up special pens, however, and each type of slime has its own different requirements for its survival. Phosphor Slimes, for example, are sensitive to sunlight, and need their pens to have special upgrades that dim the light for them, along with a roof to ensure that they don’t just fly off into the wilds.

"Different kinds of slimes can create varying types of Plorps."

You also have to keep your slimes fed. To start out with, you’ll head out into the island to scavenge various fruits, vegetables, and even meat in the form of chickens. These can then be shot at your pens to feed your slimes. Now, slimes can’t really die, and there isn’t much in the way of “satisfaction” mechanics that could potentially cause an uprising by agitated slimes in your pens. Rather, you want to feed your slimes as much and as often as you possibly can to ensure the continuous production of an item called a Plorp. Different kinds of slimes can create varying types of Plorps. Pink Slimes, for example, can only create the Pink Plorps, while Phosphor or Cotton Plorps need their own distinct kinds of Slime.

These Plorps can then be sold at a machine for money, with each Plorp having its own distinct value. Pink Plorps, for example, fetch the lowest price, and the price goes up alongside the rarity and exoticness of the Plorp you sell. The money can then be spent on creating new structures, buying blueprints, and even upgrades to your existing ones. Along with new pens and chicken coops to start out with, you can also spend money on building up gardens, which in turn allow you to plant a specific type of fruit or vegetable, which can subsequently be fed to your slimes.

Along with building up your home base, the money you make from selling Plorps is also used as a way to gate off parts of Rainbow Island. Each new part you might want to explore needs a hefty number of coins. In this way, you’re only really encouraged to go into these new areas once you are certain that you can handle the challenges that they might present. These challenges can range from tricky platforming, to even hostile flora and fauna, which includes slimes.

"Generally speaking, Slime Rancher 2 feels the most hectic right as you start out."

Making money isn’t the only thing Plorps are good for, however. They are also often used as crafting materials for the various upgrades you can make to your own character. These upgrades tend to be quite important, especially in the earlier parts of the game, since they open up the ability for you to extract various resources out in the world. Even smaller upgrades like giving you one more slot for a unique item to carry, or raising the maximum number of slimes you can carry with you in a single stack, tend to feel quite meaningful. However, the price of getting these upgrades often tends to feel quite hopeless, especially since you’ll have your hands full in trying to manage your unruly slimes that love jumping all over the place.

Generally speaking, Slime Rancher 2 feels the most hectic right as you start out. The tutorial is rather free form, and you’re encouraged to just roam around and push buttons to figure out what you should be doing. Once you’ve got a couple of pens with Pink and Cotton Slimes in the beginning, you’ll also very quickly discover hybrid slimes, which in this case comes about from a Pink and Cotton Slime merging together into one massive Pink Slime with bunny ears and the ability to leap incredibly high. These larger slimes tend to provide a great combination of Plorps to sell when they’re fed, which means that you’ll be tempted to build a special pen for them. However, because they can jump quite high, you’ll also want to save up for high walls to make sure that they’re not just running amok in your base.

These low-stakes problems that need the player to constantly explore and experiment with various gameplay mechanics and upgrades end up forming the foundations that make Slime Rancher 2 tick. You are not going to be getting into epic fights with huge bosses in this game. Rather, you’re going to spend your time relaxing, looking at the adorably goofy slimes bouncing around your various pens, and exploring when you think you really need to, all the time fixing smaller problems that might pop up here and there.

"Of course, the generally-relaxing vibe is also helped a great deal by the excellent visuals and audio."

For players that might be looking for more of a challenge, however, Slime Rancher 2 does offer up some unique puzzle solving and navigational challenges that need you to not only explore the world to find them, but to also be familiar with the properties of the different kinds of slimes in the surrounding area. These challenges tend to be another great way to collect Plorps, rare slimes, and even some blueprints for upgrades or new structures.

Of course, the generally-relaxing vibe is also helped a great deal by the excellent visuals and audio. As its name might imply, Rainbow Island is an incredibly colourful location, and each type of slime feels quite distinct thanks not only to their colours or other features, but also smaller touches, like their facial expressions. The soundtrack is basically composed of nothing but relaxing music coupled with ambient sounds like the rains. Sound design is generally pretty great too; each slime can be distinguished thanks to the kinds of sounds they make, and even your vacpack has a satisfying “thunk” when you shoot a slime out from your inventory and into the pen.

On the performance side of things, Slime Rancher 2 ran quite well, offering a smooth frame rate of between 120 and 140 on my PC—an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU, 32 GB of DDR5-6000 RAM, and an AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT GPU. It is worth noting that you might face some initial hitches early on, likely due to the game loading in all the assets it needs, but these issues get ironed out over the first couple of minutes of your play time.

"It ultimately still ends up feeling like a great, relaxing and whimsical way to spend a few hours."

Slime Rancher 2 feels like an excellent follow-up to its predecessor in all the right ways. Not only does it provide plenty of hours worth of relaxing exploration-centric gameplay, there are also plenty of new things to discover, like new kinds of slimes, and how they can interact with each other. While the gameplay might feel a bit more hectic when you first start out, it ultimately still ends up feeling like a great, relaxing and whimsical way to spend a few hours.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Monomi Park confirms that all updates that have released for the game up to this point will be included in its PS5 version. Pre-orders are open on PS5 now, and those who pre-order the game will be able to access the game a few days ahead of launch and play it starting June 7th at 10AM PDT.

When Slime Rancher 2 released in early access in September 2022, Monomi Park announced that it had sold over 100,000 units in its less than 6 hours. Later in the month, it was revealed that the game had crossed 300,000 units sold.

Slime Rancher 2 will releease for PS5 on June 11.

Taking recently to Twitter, game director and Monomi Park co-founder and CEO Nick Popovich revealed that Slime Rancher 2 has now sold over 300,000 copies across all platforms since launch. The first person sandbox life sim title currently also holds a 95% positive user rating on Steam, based on over 6,000 user reviews.

Interestingly, Popovich also points out that Slime Rancher 2 – which has clearly seen instant commercial and critical success – was developed with “zero” crunch, with Monomi Park also “offering top tier benefits and unlimited PTO” to employees- which is yet another encouraging sign of the industry’s changing workplace practices.

Slime Rancher 2 is available in early access on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. It is also available via Game Pass.

Wow! In just a few days Slime Rancher 2 has sold more than 300k copies, and reached #1 on Steam, w/a 95% positive score across over 6k reviews!

Most importantly, this was all achieved with ZERO crunch, while offering top tier benefits and unlimited PTO to our team ❤️

Thank you! pic.twitter.com/PlYK78IzK5

— Nick Popovich @ GDC (@NickPopovich) September 26, 2022

“No idea where this crazy train is headed but so grateful to have a chance to ride it. Thank you all so very much.” It’s probably not surprising, considering the original game sold over five million copies by January 2022. But for an early access title that will spend the next 18 months, potentially longer, in development, it’s a pretty good start.

Slime Rancher 2 is available for PC via Steam Early Access and Epic Games Store, along with Xbox Series X/S and Game Pass via Xbox Game Preview. Protagonist Beatrix LeBeau journeys to a new location, Rainbow Island, which is full of returning and brand new slimes, along with a conservatory and old ruins. Players will once again build facilities, earn Plorts and sell them for Newbucks, and attempt to unravel the mysteries of Rainbow Island.

Stay tuned for further details on the sequel in the coming months.

https://twitter.com/NickPopovich/status/1573097739507875843

Beatrix LeBeau returns, venturing to Rainbow Island to continue farming slimes. In addition to strange technology and mysterious resources, there are also new slimes like the Angler Slime and Cotton Slime to collect. By selling Slime Plorts for Newbucks, one can upgrade their tools, expand the island’s Conservatory and perhaps solve its various mysteries.

Slime Rancher 2 will remain in early access for “at least 18 months, potentially longer.” The full release will have more slimes, locations, gadgets and resources in addition to completing the story. However, the current version still offers plenty to explore and slimes to collect while introducing players to the story. Saves also carry over between updates, allowing one to jump in and out through the development process.

The September launch for Slime Rancher 2 will be an early access release, with developent presumed to continue all the way up to the game’s final release.

Slime Rancher 2 continues the adventures of Beatrix LeBeau. Its main setting this time around will be Rainbow Island, which is described as a mysterious land filled with ancient technology, unknown natural resources, and new slimes.

Slime Rancher 2 was announced back in June 2021 with an announcement trailer. Its Xbox Series X/S release will be accompanied by a day one release on Xbox Game Pass as well.

The game got a preview trailer earlier this year, showing off some gameplay for ranching slimes as well as exploration.

https://twitter.com/slimerancher/status/1560310764321341441?s=21&t=92uTQbqKm2pcaLRWXJBvaQ

She begins in the Twilight Strand which is teeming with different slimes (all easily vacuumed up with her vacpack). From there, we get to see mysterious caves and even some platforming across a few cliffs. The visual style looks gorgeous throughout, whether it’s the environments or the wonderfully animated slimes.

Slime Rancher 2 will be available for Xbox Series X/S and PC at launch along with Xbox Game Pass on day one. It sees Beatrix arriving on the mysterious Rainbow Island and trying to solve its mysteries. Of course, there are new slimes to collect and building up the Conservatory will allow for earning newbucks to upgrade her equipment and expand. Stay tuned for more details on the title in the coming months.

Protagonist Beatrix LeBeau ventures to a new land called Rainbow Island, once again seeking to build a new farm and ranch for the various slimes living there. Of course, there’s new technology and secrets to uncover along with new resources and slimes to gather. The latter includes an angler slime that lives in water and a bouncy slime made of cotton.

You’ll be earning newbucks to build a conservatory but also upgrading the Vacpack and acquiring new gadgets for your cause. Stay tuned for more details and gameplay on Slime Rancher 2 in the coming months. If it’s anything like its predecessor, then fans can expect a cozy farming experience.

Monomi Park’s Slime Rancher is now available for free on the Epic Games Store. Head over to the store and simply add it to your library. You will need an Epic Games account and to download the Epic Games Launcher to play. The game is available for free until March 21^st.

Slime Rancher is a part-farming, part-adventure game. It’s set in the far future, where Beatrix LeBeau inherits a ranch. From there, it’s a journey to collect Slimes and raise them. Upgrading the ranch and building better tools is also important, but you can hone your craft over three game modes – Adventure, Casual, and Rush.

There are 150 different hybrid Slimes, daily requests, and a large world to take on with the help your vacpack. Of course, in keeping with the farming aspect, you’ll be growing crops and feeding them to the Slimes, among other things. Slime Rancher is also available for Xbox One and PS4, along with PC. You can also pick it up on Steam.