Ori and the Blind Forest 
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Former Xbox console exclusive, Ori and the Blind Forest, saved Moon Studios from bankruptcyMar 11, 2024 - VG247Former Xbox console exclusive Ori and the Blind Forest looks to have saved Moon Studios from bankruptcy, according to Moon Studios CEO Thomas Mahler. The 2D platformer, which has sold "around 10 million copies" according to Mahler, has since gone on to warrant a sequel and ports to Nintendo Switch and PC in the nine years since its launch. "If Blind Forest would have flopped back then, we would’ve been bankrupt as a studio," stated Mahler on X (formerly known as Twitter). "But thank god it didn’t - we sold around 10m copies of Ori so far, which probably makes it the most successful Metroidvania series ever made." It's obviously been a while since Ori and the Blind Forest first came out. The game would be met with critical acclaim and prove itself to be one of the more exciting games in Microsoft's arsenal during the ill-fated Xbox One era. Following this, Moon studios would follow up on this success with the sequel Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Again, a game embraced by general audiences and critics alike. Read more Moon Studios dev says if Ori was its "Mario," its next game is its "Zelda"Feb 5, 2023 - VG247Moon Studios, developer behind Ori and the Blind Forest, is working on a new game, with the studio's creative director saying it's like its "Zelda." Coming up to a decade ago now, Moon Studios released its first title, Ori and the Blind forest, a Metroidvania that was instantly well received by critics and fans, going on to release a sequel in 2020, Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Earlier this week, Moon Studios creative director Thomas Mahler touched on the developer's next game, an action RPG, where he compared Ori to Mario, and the next title to Zelda. "Ori was our 'Mario,' this is our 'Zelda,'" Mahler wrote on his personal Twitter account. "That was my first thought when I first started prototyping our new project back in 2015. We then committed to Wisps, which allowed us to give this project more time in the oven so that we'd then be able to turn it into a full-blown ARPG." Read more Staff allege Ori developers Moon Studios is an "oppressive workplace"Mar 22, 2022 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunCurrent and former developers of Moon Studios have alleged that the company is an "oppressive workplace", citing offensive language, harsh feedback and inconsistent direction by its founders. Several developers also alleged that the founders encouraged crunch. Moon Studios are the creators of Ori And The Blind Forest and Ori And The Will Of The Wisps, both critically lauded and commercially successful platformers published by Microsoft. Read more Developers reveal the best Easter eggs they've hidden in gamesApr 6, 2021 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunEaster has come and gone now, and here in the RPS treehouse we lounge with bellies full of chocolate chatting about our favourite little surprises in games. Alice O has already asked you, dear reader, what's your favourite video game Easter egg? It appears some game developers have been pondering a similar question on Twitter, and revealing the best Easter eggs they've hidden in their games - from hiding games within games, to live coding an RPG to rewriting an RPG's script live to mess with streamers. Read more How animation powers Ori And The Will Of The WispsApr 10, 2020 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunThis is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the difficult journeys they’ve taken to make their games. This time, Ori And The Will Of The Wisps . Ori And The Will Of The Wisps feels so good to play. The fluidity of Ori’s movement; his quickness and agility; the sense of his weight and presence in the world – he’s a product of both traditional animation and leading graphics technology which developer Moon Studios has built up over years to make a sequel that surpasses the already beautiful Ori And The Blind Forest. (more…) My musical highlights from Steam's soundtrack saleFeb 14, 2020 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun Steam’s soundtrack sale is nearly over, but as the resident soundtrack fanatic here at RPS, I thought it was only right and proper to take some time out and celebrate some of my favourite tracks and compilations. After all, there are plenty of bangers in there right now, and it would be a shame to miss out on these crackin’ tunes while they’re going cheap. So come, put on your headphones, turn up your speakers and prepare yourself for an aural assault on the senses. (more…) The best game soundtracks you can listen to for free right nowSep 24, 2019 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun Another month, another big video game publisher puts a great big dollop of video game music online for zero pennies. This time, it’s Bandai Namco, who have just uploaded every single Tekken soundtrack onto Spotify because, well, apparently everyone loves Tekken. I’ve never partaken in a Tekken, but with track names like “Massive Stunner” and “Lonesome City Jazz Party 1st”, I’m already 100% convinced the music must be great. However, given my rather lacking expertise in all things Tekken-related, I thought that instead of doing a big Tekken musical breakdown like I did for Capcom and all the Final Fantasy games, I’d take this opportunity to celebrate some of the other great gaming soundtracks you can currently listen to for free right now, because boy howdy are there loads of ’em. So bang on those headphones and turn up the volume, folks. It’s head-banging time. (more…) Daily Deal - Ori and the Blind Forest, 50% OffJul 20, 2019 - AnnouncementToday's Deal: Save 50% on Ori and the Blind Forest!* Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are! *Offer ends Monday at 10AM Pacific Time Mortal Kombat X, PES 2019, Hellblade and more hit Xbox Game Pass in DecemberDec 8, 2018 - EurogamerMicrosoft has announced more games coming to Xbox Game Pass in December. Out now is Mortal Kombat X (a well-timed addition in the context of NetherRealm's recent announcement of Mortal Kombat 11). On 13th December Konami's PES 2019 hits Xbox Game Pass. And then, on 17th December, Ninja Theory's Hellblade launches on Game Pass. Also hitting the subscription service are first-person melee combat game Shadow Warrior 2 and enchanting adventure Ori and the Blind Forest, both on 20th December. Spintires Mudrunner goes live 13th December. Read more… Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018: Best PC gaming dealsNov 26, 2018 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun Is… is it over yet? Are the Black Friday and Cyber Monday PC gaming deals finally finished? Just a couple more hours to go now, you can do it deals herald, you can get through this. You’ve got a week and a half holiday coming up soon, just get through the afternoon and then you can go and lie in a dark room and not dream about Cyber Monday graphics card deals you might have missed for the seventh night running. Ahem. Sorry, I don’t know what came over me there. Probably the Cyber Monday PC gaming deals fatigue settling in, or the Black Friday fever dream I seem to have been living this past fortnight. But your deals herald is stronger than that. Nay, THE DEALER is stronger than that, and with a renewed sense of vigor that may in fact be frenzied despair, I thus present to you the final monolithic installment of our Black Friday and Cyber Monday PC deals bonanza. Gone are the deals swept away by the ever-grabbing hands of internet shoppers. All that’s left is the best of the best that are still up for grabs, from graphics cards and monitors to SSDs, gaming headsets, CPUs and mice and keyboards and more. If you’ve yet to do your Cyber Monday shopping, act fast, as these PC gaming deals won’t be around for long. (more…) Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018: Best PC gaming dealsNov 25, 2018 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun I’m sure everyone’s feeling a bit of Black Friday fatigue by now (trust me, I want this all to be over just as much as you do), but in the interests of those after that one, last, final deal to end all deals, I present to you our newly refreshed Black Friday and Cyber Monday PC gaming deals hub. I’ve cleared away all the deals that have been swept into oblivion by the almighty wave of discount-grabbers, leaving you with the best of the best PC gaming deals that are still available. Whether you’re after a new graphics card, monitor, SSD, gaming headset or even a new CPU, mouse and keyboard, your deals herald will provide. Here are all the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday PC gaming deals you can grab right now. (more…) Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018: Best PC gaming dealsNov 23, 2018 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun Black Friday is almost over here in the UK, but the deals train is still going strong for all you folk over in the US. It seems like forever ago that I boarded at Deals Station Central, but there’s still a fair old time before we all reach our final destination that is the culmination of November’s online deals frenzy, Cyber Monday. Thus, it falls to me, your ever faithful deals herald to continue striving away at the deals-based coal face to bring you the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals around. Now, I’m not saying you should just spend a load of money for the sake of it. Indeed, you should only really partake of Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals madness if you really need to upgrade to something. I ended up buying a laptop today, not because it was cheap (although that was certainly a factor), but because the battery on my current workhorse is practically bursting out from beneath my touchpad. Or at least I think it’s my battery. Either way, it’s getting on a bit and I could do with a new one. So, if you are thinking about upgrading your PC, Black Friday and its accompanying deals jamboree Cyber Monday can be a great time to pick up some deals on the cheap, whether it’s a new graphics card, CPU, SSD, headset, or mouse and keyboard. So let’s dive straight in and see what bargains this year’s Black Friday has to offer. (more…) Black Friday 2018: Best PC gaming deals on graphics cards, monitors, SSDs and moreNov 22, 2018 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun Can you taste the Black Friday deals turkey yet? (Happy Thanksgiving, by the way, to those celebrating) Can you smell those sweet, sweet discounts wafting through the cracks in your screen that tell you, yes, it is time to buy a new gaming monitor, and maybe find a deal on a new graphics card, CPU, SSD and literally every other PC component under the sun? Yes, you say? Me too! And have I got the best PC gaming deals for you this fine Black Friday eve. For I, your trusted deals herald, have been beavering away this past week (month, year, it seems so long ago) to bring you the best Black Friday deals the internet has to offer. You’ll find everything here for building a new PC, including all the best Black Friday graphics card deals, monitor deals, SSD deals, gaming laptop deals, CPU deals, headset deals and please send help because I actually can’t stop saying the word ‘deals’ (DEALS). (more…) Black Friday 2018: Best PC gaming deals on graphics cards, monitors, SSDs and moreNov 21, 2018 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun Despite it being only Wednesday, the Black Friday deals jamboree is well and truly under way. With more deals than you can shake a stick of RAM at, now is the time to get some tasty PC gaming deals on the cheap, especially if you’re after some nice new hardware. To help you make sense of all the deals madness, I’m here to help, as I’ve gone and gathered up all the best PC gaming Black Friday deals I can find, including deals on graphics cards, gaming monitors, SSDs, laptops and more. Yes, my soul is now nothing more than a withered husk, but at least it saves you the trouble of trawling through the internet yourself in search of the best savings. On that note, let’s get down to the business of all them deals, shall we? Here are the best Black Friday deals the internet has to offer. (more…) Have you played Ori and the Blind Forest?Oct 25, 2018 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time. Hollow Knight, smollow knight. If you’re into jumpy backtracking games that effortlessly walk the line between “d’awww” and “DANG NABBIT WHY IS THIS SO DIFFICULT” look no further than Ori and the Blind Forest. Released back in the heady days of 2015, Ori is arguably the pinnacle of the cute-but-crazy-hard platforming genre thanks to its gorgeous world, meticulous platforming and formidable sense of challenge – and best of all, only one of its main characters is a rubbish bug thing. (more…) The PC Gamer Top 100Aug 31, 2018 - PC GamerFor a constantly updated list of our favorite games on PC, check out our list of the best PC games right now. Every year, the PC Gamer team embarks on an epic quest to choose the top 100 PC games. Where previously we voted for our favourite games, this year we talked: discussing each of our nominations and deciding which games should make the list. The result is a more honest, considered reflection of our conflicting tastes and opinions as PC gamers. This list represents what we think are the greatest PC games you can play today. We wanted to celebrate the breadth and variety of PC gaming, and so, for the most part, have restricted ourselves to one game per series. You'll also find a selection of personal picks: games we individually love that didn't quite make the cut. Enjoy! If you're looking for a list of the games that helped shape PC gaming as we know it, try the 50 most important PC games of all time. 100. Path of Exile RELEASED 2013 | LAST POSITION New entry Steven Messner: Path of Exile has quietly become one of the best action RPGs around thanks to its almost incomprehensible depth and wildly different seasonal leagues, where whole new systems are introduced. But the best part is its character customisation and spell crafting system. Path of Exile encourages players to make marauders who let spell totems do all the killing for them, witches who melt hordes with a fiery beam, or duelists that cover every inch of the map in a deadly rain of arrows. 99. Twisted Insurrection RELEASED 2010 | LAST POSITION New entry John Strike: Tiberian Sun's best mod brazenly shames the original Firestorm expansion in almost every way. It’s bigger and bolder, offering new buildings, a whole fleet of new units and even a new faction. There’s a completely new musical score and dozens of single player missions, some of which are based on the original Command & Conquer. Not only are new missions and units still being added, but, as a standalone free download, it's the most accessible way to play one of C&C's greats. 98. Killing Floor 2 RELEASED 2016 | LAST POSITION 81 Evan Lahti: There are disturbingly few places in video games where I can cut an evil clown in half with a quad-barrelled shotgun. Killing Floor 2 is the world’s greatest gore effects system laid atop an enjoyable skeleton. Hordes of monsters trickle into the map, magnetized to your position, and you mulch them with buzzsaw-spitters, incendiary shotguns, rocket launchers, or a microwave cannon that heats enemies from the inside until they burst. The dynamic slow-mo system adds so much, dampening the chaos just enough—granting extra moments to take aim or take in the sight of an intestine flying across the screen. Tripwire is a skilled digital gunsmith, and the detail lent to particle effects and reload animations holds up wonderfully even under the scrutiny of these plentiful, slowed-down sequences. I also love that KF2 doesn&#x...Ori and the Will of the Wisps brings all the feelsJun 10, 2018 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunI’m not sure what your favorite part of Ori and the Blind Forest was. Was it the heartbreaking breaking of hearts throughout the story? Was it the whole Metroidvania but cute aspect? Was it the soundtrack that has few to no peers in gaming? Well, whatever made that game special for you, today at E3 we got our first full look at the follow-up, and it is everything you would want. At least, it is everything I want. I assume you and I are the same, because we’re both hear to just fawn over Ori and the Will of the Wisps. (more…) The best metroidvania games on PCMar 21, 2018 - PC GamerWelcome to our round-up of the best Metroidvania games. That slightly awkward portmanteau refers to a hybrid genre inspired by Metroid and Castlevania. They tend to be 2D platformers that have you exploring dungeons, defeating bosses, and picking up items that unlock new zones of the map. Within this simple format there is plenty of room for variation and, it turns out, lots of gorgeous art. A few of the games on the list have been lovingly crafted by small teams and even individuals over the course of a decade or so. Others, like Dead Cells, experiment with fusing the metroidvania with other genres to create a powerful hybrid. Whichever games you pick, expect lots of 2D platforming and some tough boss fights. Ori and the Blind Forest Ori's warmly animated world and slightly tearful opener barely hint at the incredibly tricky platforming challenges that follow. PC Gamer's Philippa Warr has compared this to a teddy bear that wants to punch you in the face—it's a cute and beautiful-looking game, but damn tricky. The pleasant soundtrack puts you at ease while the game rarely does. Axiom Verge One of the very best modern examples of the form, Axiom Verge is set in a dark, Giger-esque alien world populated by mysterious giant mechanical beings and, of course, a slew of bullet hell boss monsters. New paths open up as you discover fresh alien gadgetry, like a trenchcoat that lets you phase through walls, and a device that lets you control a small alien bug to crawl into new cave systems. Combat is simple—blast the alien things flapping around each level—but there are loads of weapons to discover, and plenty of secrets if you’re determined enough to glitch or blast your way through secret walls. It’s a sinister and slightly unnerving game with some genuinely dark moments, but that makes it a fitting tribute to the lonely hostile corridors of the original Metroid games. Hollow Knight This one takes a while to get going, but once you have a few upgrades it’s a spectacular hand-drawn metroidvania with a snappy melee combat system. Hollow Knight borrows its melancholy apocalyptic atmosphere from Dark Souls, and also its currency recovering system—if you make it back to the place you died you can reclaim your last life’s earnings. Hollow Knight looks gorgeous, and it’s full of interesting bug characters that sell you new gear and give you extra quests. The bosses are challenging and the dodge-and-slash combat is a serious test of skill once you’ve unlocked a few moves and started running into the game’s more serious enemies. The world is beautifully put together, too, and you learn more about the fate of the city as you dash, skip, and double-jump into new zones. Owlboy You’ll notice that many of these games are set underground in endless cave systems. Owlboy is set in a floating cloud kingdom. As said Owlboy, Otus, you have to flap...The 14 Best Metroidvania Games On PCDec 31, 2017 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunThe Metroidvania is perhaps one of the more tricky genres to nail down. With its very name coming from an amalgamation of two actually quite different Nintendo-based game series – Metroid and Castlevania – quite what qualifies is always up for debate. Hence, we suspect this could be one of the more controversial lists, when it leaves out a favourite game that someone else might argue fits the remit, but we decided did not. The important thing to remember is that we re right. And all of these games are brilliant. (more…) Ori and the Blind Forest is half-off on GOG [Updated]Dec 1, 2017 - PC GamerUpdate: Shortly after this story went live, GOG ended this sale. Original story: Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition is currently $10 on GOG thanks to a 50 percent discount. Ori wowed with its original release, and the Definitive Edition ups the ante with several improvements and additions. It includes two new environments, two new abilities—the dash and light burst—as well as a wealth of secrets to find. Check out our 87/100 review for more details if you missed this particular hype train. You can also read up on the summer-announced sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps. If you're looking for more discounted 2D darlings, have a gander at this weekend's Steam sale, which includes Cave Story+ and 1001 Spikes. Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info.
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