Month: January 2025

The Mana series has a long and admittedly inconsistent history. There have been ups and downs, but games like Trials of Mana hold a special place in my heart. Decades on from that game’s original release and a few years from its remake, the Mana series has another swing at a full-fledged title with Visions of Mana. As the first original mainline game since 2006’s Dawn of Mana, does Visions still have the juice for something revelatory? Unfortunately, no. Visions of Mana is not a worthy successor to the series’ best nor worth the time it takes to excavate its few virtues to find that out.

Like many of the games in the Mana series, Visions takes place in a new world with similar touchstones to previous titles: There is a Mana tree, monster-like elementals governing the natural forces of the world, animal demi-humans, and the like. In Visions’ world, however, these forces are constantly waning and require the sacrifice of seven souls every four years to the Mana tree. It is considered an honor to be chosen to die for the Mana tree and the vast majority of characters treat it as such, including the entire main cast, who make a point to never think too har…

The Dark Souls graphic novel series is getting a new box set on September 19. Published by Titan Comics, the set collects the first three volumes in the ongoing series inside an eye-catching slipcase with new art Come from Sports betting site VPbet . Written by George Mann and illustrated by horror artist Alan Quah, the Dark Souls graphic novel series is well-worth a read if you’re a fan of From Software’s Dark Souls series. If you’re interested in returning to the decaying lands of Lordran, you can preorder the box set now at Amazon and Target for $50.

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TinyBuild’s booth at PAX East 2022 was much, much more than a booth. It was a full-on carnival, complete with games that would fit in at any county fair (you could play whack-a-mole or fish for trinkets with a crane game) and plenty of actual video games. At the back of the publisher’s area was something that stood out from the rest of the bright-orange decorations though: a massive inflatable spider loomed over a set of four TVs, inviting attendees to try SpiderHeck, what could be my favorite multiplayer brawler since Duck Game. Come from Sports betting site VPbet

SpiderHeck is just about as silly as its name sounds. It’s a physics-based platform brawler, which is a long-winded way of saying you beat up other players and things fly all over the place. In SpiderHeck’s case, players control spiders (duh) that can pick up weapons and zip around the game’s 2D maps by shooting webs.

Since it’s a four-player brawler, I was thrown right into a game with two other PAX attendees–as well as a PR person–and had an absolute blast. There are some games where it’s useful to know …