Reading List
The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.
Star Wars [UP-UPDATED]
Star Wars.
Star Wars.
Star Wars.
Star Wars.
Star Wars.
Star Wars.
Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars. Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars. Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars.
Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars.
Star Wars.
Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars.
STAR
WARS
STARWARS.
starwars
Sraw Rats
STAR WARS STAR WARS STAR WARS STAR WARS STAR WARS STAR WARS STAR WARS
STAR WARS
starwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwarsstarwars
Star Wars? Star Wars.
Star Wars.
~~Star Wars~~
- Star Wars
- Star Wars
- Star Wars
- Star Wars
- Star Wars
The Video Games You Should Play This Weekend – May 1
Today is the first day of May, which means in Minnesota (where Game Informer is technically based and about half of us live) there is a a freeze warning in place that will expire tonight at 1 a.m. in the morning. Which is to say, we're not quite ready to spend the day outside (but we'll probably try anyway), so thankfully there are some good new video games to play.
But before we get to those suggestions, here are some of our biggest stories of the week.
- The First Trailer For The Resident Evil Movie Made By Weapons Director Zach Cregger Has Arrived
- Vampire: The Masquerade – Oaths And Ashes Is A Visual Novel Set In Contemporary Berlin Launching This Year
- Saros’ Creators Say The Returnal Successor Is About Obsession, Greed, Power, And Corruption
- Spoiler-Free Tips And Tricks To Know Before Starting Saros
- Invincible VS Review – Punching Above Its Weight
- Vampire Crawlers Review – Dazzling Dungeons
Saros
I have about 76 hours logged in Saros and am two Trophies away from the Platinum. I saw credits and wrote Game Informer's Saros review at about the 40 hour mark. I share those stats to emphasize how much I enjoyed and continue to enjoy Housemarque's new rogue shooter. Usually, when it comes to reviewing a game with a definable conclusion, we move on when we're done. Even if we like a game, we often simply don't have time to continue to play it. We've got to get to the next big game, after all.
But I can't seem to stop playing Saros.
I suspect even if I am able to get the Platinum trophy (I don't know that I will be able to get Untouchable – we'll see), I will probably keep playing just to fill out all the various progress bars and max out the skill tree. I don't want to stop. Even if you're intimidated by the genre, or if Returnal seemed too hard, I insist you give Saros a try. It is undeniably a challenging game, but Saros is much more manageable that Returnal (which I also love, to be clear). Its ending is attainable, even if your first few attempts on the initial boss feel hopeless. Stick with it! In fact here are some tips to help you along. Here's an interview with the development team, too. They offer some tips at the end of that, so that will also help you be successful. It's the current front-runner for my game of the year, and it may be yours, too.
Invincible VS
Like great comic-based fighters that have come before, like Marvel vs. Capcom or Injustice, Invincible VS comes out swinging and wonderfully captures the characters and tone of the universe it's playing in. In this case, that's an especially bloody set of throwdowns between rival superheroes Under the hood, Quarter Up has crafted a deep and rewarding tag-team fighting game system that feels intense, challenging, and nuanced. But if you're mostly here to see Mark punch his mean dad, you can bump down the difficulty and have a grand old time seeing the action play out. It's rare that we get a brand-new entry in the fighting game genre that isn't a sequel to something that has come before, and rarer still that the result is something this impressive. But Invincible VS is one of those times, and our early matches have been a blast.
Far Far West
Players looking for their next cooperative robot-cowboy undead-killing shooter have much to celebrate with the early access release of Far Far West. Yes, the thematic backdrop is quirky, but the action and style of play here recalls great titles like Deep Rock Galactic and Helldivers. While playable solo, the real fun is meeting up with some buddies, picking a mission, and taking a flying train out into the desert to shoot some swarms of skeletons and spectral crows while galloping about on a mechanical horse. Customizing your robot, trying out build tweaks, and experimenting with spell combinations are all part of the package here. Evil Raptor are still early on with this title, but the whole thing is giving off fun vibes, and buzz is already building over on Steam.
Vampire Crawlers
I rolled credits on Vampire Crawlers just in time to get my review for it posted this morning, but trust that I still have lots of dungeon crawling in my future. Yes, it offers plenty to do after seeing credits, with lots of unlocks still to go, but even if it didn't, I'd still be playing. That's because the core gameplay – building a card deck on the fly while engaging in fast, frenetic, casino-like combat remains a simple but effective blast. With so many crawlers to select, cards to utilize, and other run modifiers, no two dungeon crawls feel the same, ensuring every go feels brand new. Plus, because of its more laid-back nature, requiring less strategy than a contemporaries like Slay The Spire 2, for example, Vampire Crawlers is the perfect game to play on the couch with the latest episode of The Boys on, or while watching Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End the umpteenth time. I'm considering picking it up on Switch for this very reason.
Read more of my thoughts in the Game Informer Vampire Crawlers review.
Vampire Crawlers & Double Fine's New Game Kiln Are Great | The Game Informer Show
The Game Informer Show is a weekly podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every Friday for chats about video game reviews, news, and exclusive reveals alongside Game Informer staff and special guests from around the industry. Support the show by subscribing to our physical video game magazine!
Watch or Listen to The Game Informer Show:
Listen to "Vampire Crawlers & Double Fine's New Game Kiln Are Great" on Spreaker.
Follow our hosts online:
- Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken)
- Charles Harte (@chuckduck365)
- Brenden Groom (@begroom / PlayMoreIndies.com)
Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction
08:30 - Charles Visits the Lego Batman Preview Event
17:04 - Kiln
36:06 - Tides of Tomorrow Review
50:51 - Vampire Crawlers
Vampire Crawlers Review – Dazzling Dungeons
Reviewed on:
Switch
Platform:
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC, iOS, Android
Publisher:
Poncle
Developer:
Poncle
Release:
(PlayStation 5,
Xbox Series X/S,
Switch,
PC), 2026 (iOS,
Android)
Rating:
Everyone 10+
History has shown that we humans like the movement of light – babies, children, teenagers, adults, and even the elderly are drawn to flashing colors with matching rhythmic sounds. It’s why slot machines, televisions, phones, and yes, video games, keep us glued to their presentation. Poncle’s latest game, a first-person dungeon crawler aptly titled Vampire Crawlers, uses these sensations to bring to life its simple but effective deckbuilding roguelite in a way as idiosyncratic as its parallel predecessor, Vampire Survivors. And though I find my enjoyment crossing back and forth between a TikTok-like compulsion (derogatory) and a genuine craving for its one-more-run gameplay (complimentary), there’s no denying the mechanical fun. Selecting cards, routing through dungeons, and killing hundreds of skeletons, zombies, witches, and more from stage to stage is a consistent indulgence.
Booting up Vampire Crawlers is not dissimilar to taking a step into a casino. A barrage of lights, sounds, and tactical buttons and triggers to press and pull demands your attention. Every card, enemy, step (even the bumps into surrounding walls), every thing you do is harmonized into the congratulatory orchestra of sensation that is Vampire Crawlers. And as it ramps up, distinct shimmers of the experience gems you earn and the rhythmic bouncing of the runetracer card attack grow into a cacophony. It’s a discordance I relished in as the notes of destruction I bring to the rows of enemies before me, but it’s an annoying one without the context of my on-screen actions (just ask my wife, who endured a lot of it next to me on the couch). After 20 hours, though, I’ve had enough of these retro tingles, and I prefer Vampire Crawlers with its volume down while watching TV or listening to a podcast.
Perhaps to the dismay of Poncle, playing on mute is a perfectly fine way to enjoy Vampire Crawlers due to its laid-back, almost automechanical nature of engagement. There is strategy involved, especially in the latter stages that test your card combo prowess, but at its most difficult, I’m monitoring the game to ensure what I want to happen does happen, rather than feeling a need to actively participate. Of course, I do take part in every action, in that I must press the buttons to select cards and hit the d-pad to maneuver through libraries, forests, dairy plants, and magical castles, but the thought required to succeed is a far cry from the brain power I used while learning its rules.
By design, Vampire Crawlers is incredibly easy to break. There are a lot of crawlers, which are the player-characters with unique perks and ability triggers, to collect, cards to find and enhance at the blacksmith, Arcana to discover that add new rules to how your on-the-fly deck works, and persistent power-ups to purchase to enhance your dungeon performance. All of these work in tandem to keep each run fresh, interesting, and varied. Sometimes, my crawler-card-arcana-power-up combination fails within minutes. Other times, I clear a stage after an hour of ruthless beatdowns, and in my favorite (but admittedly least engaging) runs, I steamroll through everything thanks to a near-infinite card build that doesn’t let enemy turns happen or another that ensures certain cards fire off dozens of projectiles at once instead of a few. Once you understand how the various pieces work in tandem, putting together a nigh-indestructible build takes very little, losing some engagement in the process.
There’s no real narrative tying everything together beyond taking the fight to the bad guys in some medieval land, but the game doesn’t suffer because of it. If anything, it gets you back into the dungeons sooner, dropping any pretense that you’re here for something beyond making numbers go up so you can see the nice lights and hear the nice sounds again.
Vampire Crawlers elevates an otherwise simple but highly entertaining card game with sensations more reminiscent of a casino (or Vampire Survivors) or the blinding blue light of doomscrolling late at night to create a retro-inspired diversion that’s hard to put down. Its pull is less powerful with its dozen or so stages complete and behind me, but it’s clear that desire to return will never quite let up, lingering, waiting in the gothic wings for one more run.
Score: 8
City Of None Is A Metroidvania From A Celeste Co-Creator And It Launches Next Year
Extremely OK Games, the developer/publisher (formerly known as Maddy Makes Games) behind 2018's Celeste, has revealed City of None, a new metroidvania platformer launching next year. Celeste co-creator Noel Berry and brother Liam Berry are developing City of None, which sees you control a wooden protagonist as they adventure through a strange city's five sectors.
You will venture by train to these five sectors while exploring their various pathways as you meet friendly metropolitan inhabitants and many a foe to defeat. While the movement looks reminiscent of Celeste, City of None is going for an even more retro aesthetic with muted colors and fewer bits. Nonetheless, it looks (and sounds) amazing, and it's a game I'm looking forward to checking out next year.
Check out the City of None reveal trailer for yourself below:
"Adventure through a metropolis filled with strange spirits, wicked beasts, ferocious robots, and more than one friend as you wrest life – and the city's future – back from the grip of ravenous Barons," the game's description on Steam reads. It also says players will discover unique items and power-ups that grant new platforming abilities.
City of None will launch on PC via Steam sometime in 2027.
In the meantime, read Game Informer's Celeste review.
Are you interested in City of None? Let us know why in the comments below!