Cyan Worlds via PolygonSusana Polo is a senior entertainment writer at Polygon, specializing in pop culture and genre fare, with a primary expertise in comic books. Previously, she founded The Mary Sue.In honor of the 31st anniversary of seminal puzzle adventure game Myst, Cyan Worlds has a new Humble Bundle sale, “Enter the Mysterium.” Through Oct. 2, players can pay $20 and pick up 13 games, which run the gamut from Myst’s earliest 1989 predecessor, to its modern progeny, and every mainline Myst game in the franchise, with part of the proceeds going to Active Minds, a nonprofit dedicated to equipping teens and young adults with the tools to advocate for mental health advocacy and suicide prevention.Enter the Mysterium$20$19290% off$20$20 at HumbleOr, you could pick up any of four smaller, cheaper bundles. But in the opinion of me, Polygon’s foremost Myst-pilled weirdo, here are the titles you should make certain to grab, in order of importance.Myst: Pick your poison! The bundle offers Myst: Masterpiece Edition, which attempts to replicate the experience of playing the original 1993 game; realMyst: Masterpiece Edition, the first attempt to render the game in 3D; and Myst (2021), which supports both 2D, 3D, and VR play.Riven: The Sequel to Myst: This is the intricately cut crown jewel of Cyan’s puzzle games, in its original form. If you get really fed up with it I would also recommend their recent 3D remaster, which improves on perfection (but was released way too recently to be included in a discount bundle just yet).Myst IV: Revelation: Pretty much a direct sequel to Myst. Unequivocally the hardest Myst game, but my personal favorite for its story. It’s got an unskippable Peter Gabriel cutscene. Please, please, please play this game.Myst III: Exile: By no means easy, but still the easiest Myst game. The villain is played by Brad Dourif (The Lord of the Rings) and in one of the “bad endings,” he clubs you to death in first person FMV. If that doesn’t entice you I don’t know what will.Obduction: Not in the Myst setting, but if you play the others first, you’ll be able to call all the plot beats of this one. That said, it’s got a frightfully interesting sphere-based puzzle dynamic, an interesting setup, and gorgeous vistas.Firmament: I haven’t played this one yet. “And you call yourself an expert!” I backed the Kickstarter, OK?! I just haven’t had time! I’ll get to it… sometime after Dragon Age: The Veilguard comes out. I hear it’s worth it, though! And if you’re already picking up the rest, well, why not?But what am I, the Myst-pilled weirdo, going to buy? Well, even though I already own the vast majority of the games in this bundle, there’s still something here for me: Spelunx, Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel, and The Manhole. Two American dollars will net me three of Cyan co-founders Robyn and Rand Miller’s pre-Myst works, dating back to the unfathomable desktop gaming year of 1988, when Cyan released The Manhole on floppy discs available by mail order (the one in this bundle is a 1995 CD-ROM rerelease).Calling these three games “puzzle games” might seem like a stretch compared to Myst and its successors — I’ve poked around the original Manhole on the Internet Archive, and it’s more like an interactive object. But there’s a sense of humor, silliness, and, above all, play in it. Even just after ten minutes in a browser emulation, it was clear to me that I was looking at a couple of game developers fascinated by the potential of the point-and-click mechanic, and playing in that space as expansively and freely as they could. I could already see the lines running from this strange, Alice In Wonderland-themed object, to a couple of adventure games that were going to bust the genre wide open.Head over to the Humble Bundle, and you can make those connections, too.
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By Lillygol Sedaghat and Cory Howell Hamada
Insect shells, rice husks, water bottles, and bamboo charcoal might not be the first things that come to mind when you think of high-performance building products. But Taiwanese upcycling company Miniwiz is using them to create just that. “We take leftover construction waste, leftover fiber waste, leftover plastic or packaging waste, and turn that into a building material you can use for another 30 years,” says CEO Arthur Huang.
Carbon emissions from the built environment include “operational” carbon generated through uses like lighting and ventilation, and “embodied” or “embedded” carbon, created during the process of material extraction, manu…
Read moreLooking to upgrade your home theater? Then you’ll want to take a look at the LG S80QR 5.1.3ch Dolby Atmos Soundbar, as it’s seeing a discount of more than 50% for Prime Day. The premium audio system typically retails for $1,050, but right now, you’ll find it for the incredible price of just $475. This isn’t just a great price–it’s the lowest price ever for LG’s popular surround sound system. Amazon is all but guaranteed to sell out fast, so be sure to check it out soon.
Part of what makes the S80QR great is its AI Room Calibration feature. This allows it to use spatial awareness technology to map your room and adjust its settings based on your specific layout. In other words, the sys…
Read moreAmazon’s Black Friday sale includes a ton of bargains on 4K Blu-rays, including a plenty of hit movies for around 10 bucks. We put together a list of the best cheap 4K Blu-ray deals, many of which save you upwards of 70%. There are some really great $10 4K movies here, including The Batman, John Wick, and Terminator 2.
We initially planned on limiting this list strictly to 4K Blu-rays for $10 bucks and under, but we uncovered far too many notable deals in the $11 to $13 range. We couldn’t leave The Shining, Jurassic Park, Inception, Dune: Part Two, and others off this list. The Shining and Jurassic Park are $11 each, while Dune: Part Two and Inception are only $13. That said, most of the 4K Blu-rays below are closer to $10 instead of $15.
During Gamescom recently, Microsoft announced that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will come to PlayStation 5 in 2025 following its debut on Xbox Series X|S and PC this December. Creative director Axel Torvenius from MachineGames said in an interview that the studio is “super thrilled and excited” by the opportunity to bring the game to PS5 and reach a wider audience.
“The more people that can play the game–who can see all the passion and love we have put into this project and all the hard work–the merrier,” the developer told Eurogamer.
Design director Jens Andersson, meanwhile, said bringing The Great Circle to PS5 is “something we wanted to do.” The developer added that the game’s engine, id Tech, was made as a multiplatform engine, which will help the team bring the…
Read moreIt’s no secret that Spider-Man 4–whatever it might be subtitled–is on the way from Marvel Studios, and could be ready by 2026, though no confirmation is set in Marvel’s ever-shifting schedule. Aside from Tom Holland suiting up again, Shang-Chi’s director Destin Daniel Cretton stepping in for Jon Watts, and the screenwriting duo of Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers returning, not much is known about the production. That includes if the multiverse hijinks of multiple Spider-Men are involved once again.
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Read moreIf you love classic Pokemon games and pixel art, you might have trouble deciding which of Mega’s officially licensed Pokemon buildable models to pick up during Target’s Black Friday sale. All six of the awesome Pokemon Retro Sets are on sale for only $17.49 each through Saturday. This nostalgic collection of building sets lets you make pixel art-inspired figures of some of the most beloved and recognizable Generation 1 Pokemon from the Kanto Region: Pikachu, Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur Eevee, and Mew.
Mega Bloks: Pokemon Retro Sets – Pixel Art Display Figures
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The Steam Deck will not get yearly iterations a la the iPhone, according to one of its designers, though a Steam Deck 2 will likely happen at some point.
In an interview with Reviews.org (spotted by The Verge) Steam Deck designer Lawrence Yang said, “We’re not going to do a bump every year. There’s no reason to do that.” He elaborated that he felt it was unfair to customers to offer only incremental improvements each year. He said, “…we really do want to wait for a generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life before we ship the real second generation of Steam Deck.”
This answer matches prior statements Valve has made. On several occasions last year, Valve employees stated that a more powerful Steam Deck will be years away–late 2025 at the earliest. Va…
Read moreEarlier this month, CD Projekt Red finally shared the first look at The Witcher 4 with a new teaser featuring Ciri as a fully fledged Witcher on her own adventure. And while there wasn’t much time for fun and frivolity in that preview, the developers are hinting that the card game Gwent will be featured in the upcoming sequel. Come from Sports betting site VPbet
Game director Sebastian Kalemba and executive producer Gosia Mitręga were asked about Gwent’s presence in The Witcher 4 during their joint interview with Easy Allies. While neither Kalemba nor Mitrega came right out and said Gwent is in the game, they certainly seemed to confirm it.
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Read moreCyberpunk 2077 is a big game with lots to discover, but not all of it is easy to see or find – luckily, a new mod should help you see even the smallest of moments.While it’s been almost four years since Cyberpunk 2077 came out, there are still plenty of easter eggs fans are finding even now, with some still yet to be discovered. Of course, even though there are some that still need to be found, it can be difficult to see all of the ones that players are already aware of, as well as some of the game’s more unique events. After all, Night City isn’t exactly small, and if you don’t know where something is, how are you meant to find it? Well, if you’re someone that wants to see as much of what there is to see in Night City as possible, you might want to check out the new and quite popular Hidd…
Read moreMassive Entertainment and Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws is finally out later this week, but the reviews are already in for the Red Dead Redemption-esque game, leaving just one question: how is it? Well, it depends on who you ask, as while most reviews are generally favourable, it’s sitting pretty much all over the spectrum of review scores. Jim landed on the higher end for us at VG247, giving the game 4/5 stars in his review, which you can check out here. While Jim did make it clear that Star Wars Outlaws won’t win many Game of the Year awards due to a mixture of reasons, it still manages to capture a very particular Star Wars vibe that helps you feel young again – and it helps that the game looks great too.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings Still, Jim…
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