Satisfactory

“First-person Factorio” isn’t the worst way to define Satisfactory but Coffee Stain Studios’ factory sandbox has plenty of distinctions. Set on an alien planet must be colonized, the world is hand-crafted and not procedurally generated. You can choose a starting location, like the Grasslands or Rocky Desert, thus influencing starting resources and your approach to building.

Combat is present but not a major focus – it’s all about creating a self-sustained factory spanning the surface, and delivering them to the Space Elevator. While still in early access and needing plenty of polish, the feeling of expanding, optimizing your factory and gazing out upon the sprawling industrial complex in first-person is great.

Failbetter Games continues to update its Steampunk exploration title Sunless Skies, announcing the Vagabond update for June 12th. It will introduce a new officer, the Amiable Vagabond, who offers a new story. This will be the second major update since Wayfarer arrived in April.

The story in Vagabond involves meeting the Skylarks, discovering the Sugarspun Garden and finding fortune. Along with the Amiable Vagabond, the update will bring stories about the Horrors and Wonders of the Skies, like Xanthous Moon and Regent’s Tears. You’ll also come across new discoveries and agents, along with “something new” in Worlebury’s mists.

After the Vagabond update is released, the development team will be focusing on more intrinsic gameplay elements. It will look at character progression with a focus on the mid and late game, UI design, survival, and journey times. Stay tuned for more information on this front, especially if you’ve found certain trips taking too long.

Failbetter Games’ Sunless Skies has received a fair amount of critical acclaim since launching out of early access on January 31st. However, the development team is still working to improve the overall quality of exploration. The Wayfarer update, set to release on April 9th, is one such step, and will completely rework Albion.

As the so-called “heart of London’s celestial empire”, Albion has tons of intrigue to it (there’s a clockwork sun, for crying out loud). The Wayfarer update will rework the map, changing up the art and adding more alien monstrosities on top of space fights. Failbetter stated, “We’re hoping that introducing more variation will improve the experience when visiting areas you’ve already explored. If it does, we’ll do more of this in the other regions, as well. Please let us know what you think once you’ve played the update!”

That being said, you can explore more stories in every region when the update goes live. Here are a few examples provided by the developer:

• Many new ways to encounter the gods of the skies, draw their attention or their ire, and benefit or suffer from it.
• Suffering the attacks of certain foes may now have a variety of delayed consequences. In particular, caution when engaging Guests is now advised.
• It will now be possible to more closely investigate several of the greatest wonders and horrors of the skies when your travels bring you near them.
• Sometimes, you will be able to deploy your officers to pursue shore-side opportunities – these will be focused around Albion for now, but we’ll add more if you enjoy them!

Even if you haven’t had much trouble with your journeys in Sunless Skies, it should be interesting to see how the Wayfarer update shakes things up. What other changes could it bring to the horrifying universe? Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.

Failbetter Games’ Sunless Skies has had its share of setbacks throughout development, but is finally out of Steam Early Access. Set in the same universe as Sunless Sea, the Gothic horror exploration title sees players commanding a space-faring locomotive to explore the universe. As you’ve probably guessed, some things are better left undiscovered.

With the full release, Failbetter has added The Blue Kingdom, the game’s final region. It contains four new Stations and three new Platforms; new transient discoveries like the Enclaves of the Dead; three new agents; and new Prospects and Bargains. Other new features include tutorial tips, adjustable difficulty settings with every new save game, and the final two Ambitions.

That’s not including new Facets for your captain’s past and new Officers to recruit, or the massive amounts of stories and pasts to uncover already. Sunless Skies can be picked up for PC via Steam. It’s currently discounted by 10 percent until February 7th.

Failbetter Games’ Sunless Skies is due to release next week, and a new launch trailer is out to detail the various cosmic horrors that await players. The basic premise will be familiar to those who played Sunless Sea, as you explore the world and gradually experience the narrative. The infinite depths of space will be your sea this time around though.

Players are invited to choose a flying steam locomotive – this will be their vessel throughout the journey. It can be upgraded with weapons and other equipment as you progress, which will be necessary as you fend off pirates, enemy factions, and various unknown beasts. Desperate measures might be necessary to survive, like the odd spot of cannibalism or two.

Recruit different officers and upgrade them along the way while following their quests. Your captain can also be customized, and the past is eventually revealed through different personality cards. If a universe that channels the likes of C.S. Lewis, H.P. Lovecraft, and H.G. Wells sounds good to you, then be on the lookout for Sunless Skies, which will be out on January 31st for PC.

Failbetter Games has had its ups and downs with Sunless Skies, but things have mostly been on track since July. That was when the developer extended the early access period and added the Eleutheria region. It seems that January 2019 is when early access truly ends though. Failbetter has confirmed that Sunless Skies will release on January 31st, 2019.

CEO Paul Arendt revealed in a recent Steam update, “We’ve used the time in Early Access to fill the world with the most glorious stories, and to refine the play experience: improving combat, tweaking the sky-faring experience, and closing in on a dark and dread-soaked atmosphere.”

On October 10th, The Reach will finally receive its promised overhaul. Mechanics like Terror, fuel, hunger, and crew will also be “extended”. Expect more information when the patch notes inevitably arrive.

If you’ve played Sunless Sea, then Sunless Skies should be somewhat familiar. You again play as a captain navigating perilous, uncharted territory. However, this time you’re going into space using the power of steam. The universe itself can be a pretty scary place, full of space pirates and something called the “Cyst of Faces”. There’s also that part about the stars dying… or more accurately, being “killed” by something.

Stay tuned for more information on Sunless Skies and let us know whether you’ll be picking it up at launch.

Better known for Sunless Sea, Failbetter Games is currently working on its next big gothic RPG Sunless Skies. The title is currently in Steam Early Access, which will continue until January 2019, as per a recent announcement. The good news is that Failbetter has some new content available – the Eleutheria region. Check out the trailer for it below.

Sunless Sea players are no strangers to freakish stories, but Eleutheria in Sunless Skies will take things a step further. As CEO and art director Paul Arendt states, “Eleutheria is designed to give you goosebumps. It’s dark. The enemies are about as scary as we can make them, and we put a submarine-sized spider that feeds on terror in the last game. The stories are among our weirdest and most haunting. We can’t wait to get into some streams after it’s launched and watch people lose themselves in the dark.”

Why is Sunless Skies being kept in Early Access for a longer period? Deputy CEO Adam Myers feels that while Eleutheria has been well developed, the central region of The Reach could use some tuning up.

“We’re very happy with how Eleutheria has turned out, and we think it’s important to bring the Reach up to the same standard. As the central region, you spend a lot of time there, so we really want to ensure the atmosphere, and the quality, variety and frequency of the experiences there reflect the lessons we’ve learned since. We also want to revisit some of the survival mechanics, which in their current form don’t always shape the experience in the ways we’d like,” said Myers.

Though that won’t require much time or additional work, Myers feels that skipping the Holiday season and releasing in January 2019 could also “give the game its best chance.” Considering how crowded the release calendar is going to be from August 2018 onwards till the end of the year, we’re inclined to agree with this decision.

Star Citizen

Star Citizen is going to be amazing…when it’s finally done. Imagine a huge open universe to explore with large space ships (which you can captain), first person shooter levels with zero gravity, unique planets with their own culture and laws and of course, the freedom to do whatever. That’s not even taking the single-player component Squadron 42 into account which boasts hours of story and features high profile actors like Mark Hamill and Gillian Anderson.