Summary
- Insomniac falls victim to a ransomware hack, revealing sensitive details about upcoming games and compromising its security.
- The voice of Max Payne and Alan Wake 2's Alex Casey, James McCaffrey, sadly passes away, leaving fans mourning his loss.
- Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League faces controversy as its story is leaked, with Rocksteady addressing the issue.
Insomniac suffers a horrific ransomware hack, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League leaks important story details that only heighten its controversy, and Bobby Kotick is finally stepping down. Today, The Best War Games’s weekly recap takes a look at some of the most notable headlines from the past week.
Legendary actor James McCaffrey passes away, Sea of Stars lands an incredible milestone, and the latest The Best War Games Advance dives into The Thaumaturge. All that and more in this week’s roundup of games industry news.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Should Bite the Bullet and Have an Open Beta
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League won skeptical fans over with its closed alpha test and an open beta sometime before launch could seal the deal.
Max Payne, Alan Wake 2’s James McCaffrey Passes Away
James McCaffrey, the voice of Max Payne and Alan Wake 2’s Alex Casey, has sadly passed away, with many Respawn fans pouring adoration and nostalgia out on his behalf.
Sea of Stars Hits Impressive Player Milestone
Sea of Stars was easily one of the most popular indies of the year and earned that distinction by passing four million players recorded in the last little while. Likewise, Sea of Stars has removed its ‘Completionist’ NPC due to recent accusations against the YouTuber.
Rocksteady Addresses Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Leaks
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League allegedly had its story leaked with Rocksteady even putting out a notice for fans to avoid the leak if they can, though the leaker has claimed now that some of the leaks were fabricated.
Insomniac Becomes Victim of Massive Ransomware Hack
Theft of personal files at Insomniac revealed in-development Marvel’s Wolverine details and footage, as well as a roadmap of games Insomniac has planned well into the future.
CEO Bobby Kotick Officially Stepping Down from Activision Blizzard
After much controversy, Bobby Kotick is officially stepping down following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Features
God of War Ragnarok’s DLC leans heavily into Kratos’ Greek roots and the effort gone into reimagining the original trilogy may suggest that remakes are possible in the franchise’s future.
Movies & TV
The MCU’s Kang the Conqueror has been steeped in controversy following past allegations that have now followed him to an actual conviction.
Guides
Marvel Snap’s Hellfire Gala Season Pass is well underway with regal card variants and new meta-defining characters, as well as interesting new locations and updates to in-game features.
The Best War Games Exclusives
The Best War Games’s latest The Best War Games Advance covers Fool’s Theory’s The Thaumaturge, an isometric magic mystery CRPG releasing late this February.
The Thaumaturge
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 76 /100 Critics Rec: 71%
- Released
- March 4, 2024
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood, Drug Reference, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Fool's Theory
- Publisher(s)
- 11 Bit Studios
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
WHERE TO PLAY
The Thaumaturge is an isometric, story-rich RPG with a unique take on turn-based combat, character development features, and investigation mechanics, facing you with morally ambiguous choices – set in a world teeming with mysterious powers and strange ethereal beings called salutors.
The year is 1905. Warsaw lives under the yoke of imperial Russian tsardom. Its inhabitants constitute a diverse group of different ancestries, views, and beliefs with often conflicting interests: Russian soldiers, Jewish merchants, Polish townspeople, and more. Despite the circumstances, the city is a buzzing metropolis, where one can attend a breathtaking party with the high society, and later get robbed in one of the dark alleys of the Praga district. A city of great hopes and dreams on one hand and dark desires on the other.
A thaumaturge bears both a gift and a burden at the same time. This parallel holds true for Wiktor Szulski, the game’s titular protagonist, who is drawn back to the tumultuous streets of 20th-century Warsaw by family matters. The gift of thaumaturgy is intertwined with family legacy, passed down through one's ancestors. This mystical inheritance significantly shapes Wiktor’s life journey tied around a pursuit of unearthly entities and their hosts. As only a thaumaturge can tame these ethereal entities - known to a select few as salutors - utilizing their mystical abilities to discover secrets hidden within the human soul and speak to the Darkness, no one understands quite like Wiktor how everyone suffers their own demons.
