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Moola Monday: Cold Hands, Great Deals
Veteran’s Vault: Steam Next Fest, The Biggest Top 10 List We’ve Ever Done
NAG’s Friday Steam Wishlist Sale: Cody Has Been Left Unsupervised Again
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Avijozi

Get Ready for AVIJOZI 2024: A Creative Explosion in Animation, VFX and Interactive Tech!

Staff Writer·12 September 2024

#TRENDING ON NAG

Silent Hill 2 Endings Explained: A Deep Dive Into James Sunderland's Haunting Journey

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed Review - Shell Shockingly Bad

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This week’s Veterans Vault was all about Steam Next Fest, which means James and I had far too many demos to look at and nowhere near enough time to play them all properly. Before we got into the games, though, we spoke about full-motion video games. I spotted Nowhere to Run on the Steam Next Fest games list and to be honest, I am keen to check it out.

Getting back to our Top 10 Steam Next Fest list, James kicked things off with Over The Hill, a charming off-road driving game that looks like MudRunner went on holiday and came back with softer colours, a calmer attitude, and a nice little physics engine tucked under the bonnet. It is all about taking a 4x4 through rough terrain, using a winch when things go badly, and discovering whether you are an outdoorsman or just someone who likes the idea of owning recovery boards.

I then brought As One We Survive to the table, a top-down post-apocalyptic survival game that initially looked easy to play, until James started reading the details and we realised it may actually want to hurt us. No magic health packs, bandages to stop bleeding, sleeping to heal, weapon maintenance, survivor management, base building, and all the Project Zomboid energy a person can handle.

From there, James showed us Wind Runners, a slick arena-based shooter with side-scrolling DNA, aircraft acrobatics, missile volleys, boss fights, and roguelite progression. It is fast, polished, and appears to understand that sometimes all you really need from a game is a tiny plane, far too many enemies, and a screen full of explosions.

My next pick was DDoD, a top-down co-op shooter with a post-apocalyptic industrial-zone mood, Diablo-like pacing, Stalker-ish atmosphere, and, most importantly, giant slugs.

James then showed us Deer & Boy, a beautiful cinematic side-scroller about a boy and a deer making their way through a wordless adventure. Think puzzle-solving, stealth, and visual storytelling that will probably make you tear up a little.

Then came 1666: Amsterdam, which carries some serious development history thanks to Patrice Désilets, one of the key creative minds behind Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and early Assassin’s Creed. This is not Assassin’s Creed in a different hat, though. It is a witchcraft-infused action-adventure set in Amsterdam, with investigation by day, demons by night, and a playable cat, because apparently the pitch was not already interesting enough.

We also looked at Inseco, a grimy first-person point-and-click horror game with old-school pixel art, insect nightmares, body horror, and a strong nope atmosphere. It also led us into a proper discussion about generative AI in game development, where it can help smaller teams create more ambitious work, and where it still falls flat, especially when AI voice acting cannot quite deliver the human performance a scene needs.

Screenbound was another standout for us, it is a wonderfully odd puzzle-platformer where you control a 3D character in the world while also controlling a 2D character on an in-game handheld. It is basically a game inside a game and playing it on a Steam Deck may cause several layers of reality to fold in on itself.

Veteran’s Vault: Steam Next Fest, The Biggest Top 10 List We've Ever Done

NAG is giving away a Mediabox Maverick Streaming Box AND the mystery box itself.

To enter, tell us what you think is hiding inside the mystery box.

Wrong answers encouraged. Best guesses welcome.

Open to RSA residents only.

What’s in the box? 👀

In this week’s podcast, we had a full house of NAG staff for a few minutes before Len rushed off to a Bond-level, covert meeting. From there the show ventured into games and Horror movies… somehow.

In other news, Cody has been buying Steam games he has not yet played, which is the most honest gamer confession possible, while Arielle made the mistake of going back to League of Legends. One perfect game later, League did what League does best and reminded her why uninstalling it after a win is probably the only healthy strategy. Let’s be honest, it’s basically gambling, but with more energy drinks and questionable teammates.

Thankfully, Arielle is now trying to escape that cycle with the new Dave the Diver jungle content, which sounds far more relaxing, assuming jungle diving does not include anacondas, cave nightmares, or whatever else that game decides to throw into the water.

Then things got properly interesting as the conversation shifted to game development. I have been messing around with building a roguelite using AI as part of the creative process, while Cody and the NAG Discord crew have been building a downhill racer in Godot. It already has menus, vehicle customisation, crashing, rockets, and possibly a badger in a bikini. Game development is serious business, even if its just for fun. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a NAG video game in the future.

Then, somehow, we ended up in horror movie territory.

Arielle, who apparently does not experience fear like normal people, explained her love of horror films and horror games, while Cody revealed that The Grudge still owns a permanent space in his bathroom mirror routine. We also discussed The Ring, Paranormal Activity, Sinister, It Follows, Scary Movie, Scream, and the idea of forcing Cody to play a horror game in a dark room with a heart rate monitor on stream.

This is not confirmed. But it should be.

Finally, we announced the winner of the Glorious Model O giveaway. Congratulations to Danie Swart on being the lucky owner of that awesome Model O mouse. The next competition is already lined up too, featuring the Maverick media box and a mystery white box that you’ll get as a surprise. To enter, you’ll need to guess what is inside that box. It could be something amazing, or a two-point plug cut off from a cord.

With Len involved, anything is possible.

So, grab a beverage, pre-order the magazine, and tune in.

Oh and if you use the code 00badger on checkout, you get free delivery on your pre-order. Even better, pre-orders automatically go into the draw to win a pair of smart glasses, along with other goodies that will be revealed soon. There may also be extra surprises going into the pre-order packs, although Len did threaten to lick them, so please consider that both a feature and a warning.

The NAG LIVE Podcast goes live every Thursday at 3pm.

//ABOUT NAG
Video games, esports, sci-tech, entertainment, pop culture, and a few things in between.
Web: https://www.nag.co.za/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nagcoza
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nagcoza/
discord: https://discord.gg/A875FffCUS

The NAG LIVE Podcast #48 Part 2

In this week’s podcast, we had a full house of NAG staff for a few minutes before Len rushed off to a Bond-level, covert meeting. From there the show ventured into games and Horror movies… somehow.

In other news, Cody has been buying Steam games he has not yet played, which is the most honest gamer confession possible, while Arielle made the mistake of going back to League of Legends. One perfect game later, League did what League does best and reminded her why uninstalling it after a win is probably the only healthy strategy. Let’s be honest, it’s basically gambling, but with more energy drinks and questionable teammates.

Thankfully, Arielle is now trying to escape that cycle with the new Dave the Diver jungle content, which sounds far more relaxing, assuming jungle diving does not include anacondas, cave nightmares, or whatever else that game decides to throw into the water.

Then things got properly interesting as the conversation shifted to game development. I have been messing around with building a roguelite using AI as part of the creative process, while Cody and the NAG Discord crew have been building a downhill racer in Godot. It already has menus, vehicle customisation, crashing, rockets, and possibly a badger in a bikini. Game development is serious business, even if its just for fun. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a NAG video game in the future.

Then, somehow, we ended up in horror movie territory.

Arielle, who apparently does not experience fear like normal people, explained her love of horror films and horror games, while Cody revealed that The Grudge still owns a permanent space in his bathroom mirror routine. We also discussed The Ring, Paranormal Activity, Sinister, It Follows, Scary Movie, Scream, and the idea of forcing Cody to play a horror game in a dark room with a heart rate monitor on stream.

This is not confirmed. But it should be.

Finally, we announced the winner of the Glorious Model O giveaway. Congratulations to Danie Swart on being the lucky owner of that awesome Model O mouse. The next competition is already lined up too, featuring the Maverick media box and a mystery white box that you’ll get as a surprise. To enter, you’ll need to guess what is inside that box. It could be something amazing, or a two-point plug cut off from a cord.

With Len involved, anything is possible.

So, grab a beverage, pre-order the magazine, and tune in.

Oh and if you use the code 00badger on checkout, you get free delivery on your pre-order. Even better, pre-orders automatically go into the draw to win a pair of smart glasses, along with other goodies that will be revealed soon. There may also be extra surprises going into the pre-order packs, although Len did threaten to lick them, so please consider that both a feature and a warning.

The NAG LIVE Podcast goes live every Thursday at 3pm.

//ABOUT NAG
Video games, esports, sci-tech, entertainment, pop culture, and a few things in between.
Web: https://www.nag.co.za/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nagcoza
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nagcoza/
discord: https://discord.gg/A875FffCUS

The NAG LIVE Podcast #48 Part 1

Creating heroes out of gamers can change more than just the players behind the screen. Sometimes, those stories ripple out and touch everyone around them, too.

That’s the kind of chat we get into on the NAG Live Podcast.

Catch us live every Thursday at 3 PM.

Creating heroes out of gamers can change more than just the players behind the screen.

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