Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered

Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered is a cinematic supernatural thriller that blends murder mystery, psychological drama, and interactive storytelling. The game begins with an ordinary man inexplicably committing a brutal killing and follows both his desperate attempt to uncover the force controlling him and the detectives investigating the crime. Players switch between several characters, making timed decisions, completing action sequences, and shaping relationships that can influence how the story unfolds. While some mechanics and later plot developments feel dated, its tense atmosphere, ambitious branching narrative, and morally complicated choices helped establish many of the ideas that would later define modern story-driven games.

-——OR-------

Special Ops: Operation Assault

Special Ops: Operation Assault is a fast-paced first-person shooter that puts players in the role of an elite commando battling terrorist forces across more than 20 missions. Objectives include defusing bombs, rescuing hostages, eliminating enemy threats, and completing time-sensitive operations in locations such as cargo ships, smuggling tunnels, campsites, and storage facilities. With 11 upgradeable weapons, optional secret missions, and a mix of close-quarters combat, sniping, stealth, and heavy firepower, the game delivers straightforward military action focused on quick reflexes and achieving the highest possible mission rewards.

Unrailed 2: Back on Track: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Unrailed 2: Back on Track is a chaotic cooperative railroad-building game in which up to four players must work together to keep a constantly moving train from derailing. Teams gather resources, clear obstacles, construct tracks, manage specialized wagons, and adapt their strategy while traveling through dangerous and unpredictable biomes. Expanded customization, unlockable upgrades, challenging bosses, competitive modes, and a level editor add greater variety to the original game’s frantic teamwork-focused formula. Colorful, fast-paced, and often hilariously stressful, it is an entertaining choice for groups that enjoy communication, coordination, and overcoming disasters together.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'unrailed'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

The Mermaid Mask: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

The Mermaid Mask is a hand-crafted point-and-click mystery adventure that reunites Detective Grimoire and Sally for an unusual locked-room murder investigation aboard the Mortuga, a strange submarine hidden beneath dark waters. After its mysterious captain is discovered dead beside an ancient stone cauldron, players must question an eccentric cast of suspects, explore beautifully painted environments, examine detailed 3D clues, and solve clever puzzles to uncover whether the death was caused by a supernatural curse or something even more unexpected. Blending sharp humor, memorable characters, and an atmospheric mystery, the game offers a charming continuation of the Detective Grimoire series from the creators of Tangle Tower.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'mermaid'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Valheim [Steam]

Exploration and survival
$̶̶19.09 $9.99

Get Deal

Funnel Runners [Steam]

Trapped in a doomed city
$̶̶14.99 $13.99

Get Deal

Hell Let Loose [Steam]

Epic battles of 100 players
$̶̶79.99 $9.99

Get Deal

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord [Steam]

Adventure game from Capcom
$57.99 $15.70

Get Deal

Red Dead Redemption 2 [PS5]

 Federal agents and bounty hunters
$59.99 $14.99

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Astro Bot [PS5]

Time to bot
$59.99 $39.99

Get Deal

ExZeus: The Complete Collection [Nintendo Switch]

Ultra high-tech fighting robots
$12.99 $5.20

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Fishing Fighters [Nintendo Switch]

Get hooked on a new type of party game
$19.99 $7.99

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Featured Game Review: Birds of War

Birds of War takes the familiar competitive multiplayer formula and sends it soaring in a wonderfully ridiculous direction. Rather than controlling soldiers or heavily armed heroes, players become combat-ready birds fighting across chaotic aerial arenas. Three teams of three must raid rival nests, steal their eggs and return them safely home while defending their own collection. It is an immediately understandable objective that creates a constant struggle between attacking, defending and chasing fleeing opponents across the map.

The flying mechanics give the game its distinctive personality. Battles can quickly move from open skies to rooftops, narrow passages and crowded nest areas, producing encounters that feel far less predictable than those in a traditional arena shooter. Combat is primarily melee-based and driven by exaggerated physics, with successful attacks sending birds tumbling through the air. The result is deliberately messy, energetic and often hilarious, although the physics can occasionally make fights feel more chaotic than precise.

Bird Classes

Each bird class offers a noticeably different role. The Crow specializes in stealth, the Hummingbird relies on speed, the Shoebill serves as a durable frontline fighter and the Pigeon supports teammates by revealing enemy positions. Additional birds introduce diving attacks, ambush tactics and disruptive abilities. These differences encourage teams to coordinate rather than simply rush toward the nearest opponent, giving the seemingly silly premise a surprising amount of strategic depth.

Proximity voice chat may be the game’s most memorable feature. Nearby opponents can hear players discussing strategies, panicking about stolen eggs or attempting to mislead the other teams. This creates spontaneous comedy and social interactions that would be difficult to reproduce with scripted dialogue. It also means the experience depends heavily on the people in each match, and players who dislike open voice chat may miss part of what makes the game special.

Quick Play

The biggest concern is whether Birds of War can provide enough variety to remain entertaining over the long term. Its central egg-stealing mode is strong, but competitive multiplayer games require a steady flow of maps, birds, balancing updates and active players. Steam Workshop support for custom maps could help extend its life, although the game will still need continued developer and community involvement to prevent the novelty from wearing thin.

Bottom Line

Despite those uncertainties, Birds of War is an imaginative and entertaining multiplayer game that understands how to turn a ridiculous concept into a genuinely compelling competition. Its combination of aerial movement, physics-driven combat, distinct bird classes and unpredictable voice-chat encounters gives it an identity of its own. It may not offer the polished precision of a major competitive shooter, but for groups looking for something funny, frantic and refreshingly different, this feathered battlefield is well worth entering.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Premium Subscribers: 50,000 CheatHappens.com Reward Credits!

Cheathappens.com is offering our premium subscribers 50,000 reward credits this week. You must have a valid account with Cheathappens.com and must be logged in. Use the link below to claim these.

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers: SkyChart: Airline Executive

This week, we have a brand new and very special game for you, because it's from one of our own! The release of SkyChart: Airline Executive is designed and developed from one of our LootHappens subscribers who was gracious enough to reach out and give every premium subscriber a key. We tried it, and we love it.

The game is a detailed strategy and management simulation that puts players in charge of an airline spanning 90 years of aviation history, from the early biplane era of 1930 through the age of jumbo jets in 2020. Players establish routes between hundreds of real-world cities, purchase or lease historically accurate aircraft, manage cabin classes and airport investments, hire executives, and compete against rival airline CEOs with different business strategies. Historical events—including World War II, oil crises, airline deregulation, 9/11, and the COVID-19 pandemic—continually reshape demand and force players to adapt their operations. Show him some love!

Denshattack!: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Denshattack! is a fast-paced 3D action-platformer that turns a gravity-defying train into an oversized skateboard. Set in a colorful Japanese dystopia, the game has you race through cities, oceans, volcanoes, and countryside while performing flips, grinds, drifts, and other spectacular tricks. Across more than 50 levels, you chase high scores, customize your train, battle rival gangs, and join a group of rebellious outcasts fighting to reclaim the railways from the sinister Miraidō corporation. With its anime-inspired presentation, energetic soundtrack, and blend of Tony Hawk-style trick mechanics and arcade racing, Denshattack! delivers a wildly original, stylish ride built around speed, precision, and controlled chaos.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'dens'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Life is Strange: Reunion: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Life is Strange: Reunion is a choice-driven narrative adventure that brings Max Caulfield and Chloe Price together for the concluding chapter of their story. Set at Caledon University, the game follows Max as she discovers that a catastrophic fire will destroy the campus in just three days, forcing her to use her returning Rewind power to alter conversations, manipulate events, solve time-based puzzles, and uncover the cause of the disaster. Players also control Chloe, whose sharp wit and Backtalk ability help her investigate disturbing nightmares and memories from alternate timelines. Blending supernatural mystery, emotional relationships, exploration, and difficult decisions with lasting consequences, Reunion challenges players to save Caledon while determining whether Max and Chloe can finally build a future together.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'strange'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens tracks historical discounts right now on games and throughout the industry! Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu - Deluxe Edition [Steam]

Co-op searching for treasure.
$̶̶45.99 $25.80

Get Deal

PalWorld [Steam]

Fight, farm, build and work
$̶̶29.99 $20.99

Get Deal

Escape from Tarkov [Steam]

Prep your raid.
$̶̶49.99 $37.50

Get Deal

Anime Girls: Tactical Assault [PS5]

Plan your approach.
7.99 $5.59

Get Deal

Manairons [PS5]

As Tertium falls, Rejects Will Rise.
$24.99 $17.49

Get Deal

A Boy and His Blob Retro Collection [Nintendo Switch]

Team up with an extraterrestrial lifeform named Blobert.
$9.99 $4.49

Get Deal

Enclave HD [Nintendo Switch]

High Wizard Zale sacrifice
$19.99 $7.99

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Featured Game Review: The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu

The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu takes the familiar cooperative extraction formula and drags it into a suffocating world of fog, madness and 16th-century superstition. Developed by ACE Team and published by NACON, the game sends up to four explorers into a cursed South American jungle in search of treasure, with each expedition beginning aboard a decaying galleon where players select period weapons, armor and survival equipment.

The basic objective is straightforward: enter the island, gather enough valuables to satisfy the expedition contract and return alive. Completing that task is another matter. The jungle reacts to noise, meaning that sprinting, cutting through vegetation and firing muskets can attract increasingly dangerous creatures. Rain can ruin gunpowder, equipment deteriorates and limited resources make every confrontation costly. The result is a game that encourages players to move cautiously rather than treating the island like a conventional action-shooter map.

Teammates and Allies

What separates The Mound from most cooperative horror games is its madness system. As an expedition deteriorates, players begin seeing altered environments, false enemies and figures that resemble their teammates. Because different players can experience different hallucinations, the game creates genuine confusion within the group. A companion standing in the fog may be an ally, a monster or something that exists only in one player’s mind. The mechanic works particularly well with voice chat, transforming normal team communication into frantic arguments over what is real.

ACE Team’s art direction is instrumental in selling that uncertainty. The humid jungle, ruined settlements, heavy fog and painterly character designs give the island a distinctive appearance without relying entirely on photorealism. Strong silhouettes remain visible at a distance but are intentionally difficult to identify, allowing the scenery itself to become part of the psychological horror. The game builds fear through rustling vegetation, distant movement and changing weather rather than depending exclusively on scripted jump scares.

Combat is King

Combat is considerably less convincing. Muskets, bows, crossbows and melee weapons are deliberately slow and cumbersome, which fits the historical setting and reinforces the feeling that the explorers are outmatched. However, the combination of fast enemies, fragile weapons and large enemy groups can make battles feel frustrating rather than frightening. Early player feedback has also criticized the increased enemy density, limited melee damage and difficulty escaping creatures once an expedition begins to collapse.

The difficulty becomes especially noticeable when playing alone. Although solo expeditions are possible, many of the game’s most effective hallucinations are designed around uncertainty between teammates, and the encounters appear balanced primarily for cooperative groups. Progression can also feel thin compared with other extraction games. New equipment and accumulated knowledge help, but players looking for an extensive skill tree or a steady stream of permanent upgrades may find the long-term rewards limited.

There are technical concerns as well. Players have reported inconsistent optimization, crashes and performance problems during the launch period, while the initial Steam response has been mixed. These issues do not erase the game’s strengths, but they can undermine a horror experience that relies heavily on immersion and careful teamwork.

Final Verdict

Despite its rough edges, The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu offers something more ambitious than another cooperative game about collecting valuables while monsters chase the players. Its greatest weapon is doubt. The jungle does not simply attack the expedition—it manipulates it, encourages panic and turns teammates against their own senses. Combat balance, limited progression and launch-day performance prevent the game from fully realizing its potential, but its atmosphere and perception-altering mechanics make it one of the more distinctive cooperative horror experiences in recent years.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers: The Innsmouth Case

This week, we're adding a mystery to our premium subscribers' giveaway. The Innsmouth Case is a choice-driven narrative adventure that blends Lovecraftian horror with dark comedy. You play a private detective hired to investigate the disappearance of a young girl in the strange seaside town of Innsmouth, where eccentric residents, unsettling secrets, and supernatural dangers quickly complicate the case. The story unfolds through dialogue and decisions, with branching paths, puzzles, and numerous possible endings depending on how you respond to each situation.

Jurassic World Evolution 3: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Jurassic World Evolution 3 is a dinosaur park-management simulation that lets players build and operate elaborate prehistoric attractions around the world. Alongside designing enclosures, managing staff, satisfying guests, and responding to escaped dinosaurs or other emergencies, players can breed and nurture multiple generations of dinosaurs—including juveniles, a first for the series. An expanded global campaign, more powerful terrain and scenery tools, and over 100 prehistoric species provide greater freedom to create a personalized Jurassic World while balancing conservation, entertainment, safety, and profitability.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'dino'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO is a fast-paced 3D fighting game that recreates the explosive battles of the Dragon Ball anime with a massive roster of characters, cinematic attacks, destructible environments, and dramatic transformations. Players can relive famous moments from the series, explore alternate story outcomes, create custom battles, and compete against others in intense arena-based matches that emphasize speed, spectacle, and each fighter’s unique abilities.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'zero'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens tracks historical discounts right now on games and throughout the industry! Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Planet Zoo [Steam]

Build your zoo.
$̶̶44.99 $2.24

Get Deal

Echoes of Aincrad [Steam]

Take up your weapon, shape your legend.
$̶̶80.99 $55.83

Get Deal

MY HERO ONE'S JUSTICE 2 [Steam]

You are a hero.
$̶̶59.99 $14.99

Get Deal

EA SPORTS FC™ 26 The World's Game Edition PS4 & PS5 [PS5]

Kick it.
$89.99 $17.99

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Call of Duty®: Black Ops 7 - Vault Edition [PS5]

As Tertium falls, Rejects Will Rise.
$99.99 $59.99

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Monster Hunter Stories Deluxe Collection [Nintendo Switch]

Time to fly.
$69.99 $24.49

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Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection [Nintendo Switch]

FIGHT
$29.99 $9.99

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Featured Game Review: Cat Mail Co.

Cat Mail Co. takes one of the least glamorous jobs imaginable—sorting an enormous pile of undelivered mail—and transforms it into a charming, surprisingly absorbing management game. Developed by Maracas Studio, the game places you in charge of a neglected post office on an island inhabited by cats. The former postman has mysteriously disappeared, customers are waiting for their packages, and parcels have accumulated throughout the building. Your task is to restore order one box, letter, label and stamp at a time.

A Simple but Satisfying Postal Routine

The basic gameplay loop is easy to understand. Customers arrive either to mail a package or collect one that has already been delivered. Outgoing parcels must be weighed, marked with the correct destination and given any additional labels required for their contents. After preparing them, you store the packages until the Captain arrives by boat and announces his upcoming destinations. You then load the correct parcels onto the vessel and send them on their way.

Incoming packages create a different challenge. A customer may provide a name, destination or physical description, and you must search through your growing inventory to locate the correct item. Some customers provide useful information, while others offer only vague clues, such as the parcel being especially heavy. Finding the right package can feel like a light deduction puzzle—assuming your storage system has not already descended into complete chaos.

Cozy Does Not Always Mean Easy

Although Cat Mail Co. presents itself as a relaxing game, it can become more complicated than its adorable appearance suggests. The amount of mail steadily increases, and poorly organized players may eventually find themselves navigating rooms filled with boxes stacked on shelves, scattered across the floor or blocking useful pathways.

Packages also develop additional handling requirements as the post office expands. Some need to be refrigerated, others must be stored in darkness, and fragile or heavy items need to be placed carefully to prevent damage. The shelving and parcel-placement systems can occasionally feel awkward, particularly when a box appears small enough to fit somewhere but refuses to snap into position.

Fortunately, the game does not punish players with strict deadlines. Time advances through customer interactions rather than continuously racing forward, allowing you to stop serving customers and reorganize the warehouse whenever necessary. There are no traditional daily time limits or major penalties pushing you to work faster. As a result, much of the pressure comes from your own desire to create an efficient operation rather than from the game itself.

Progression Hidden Beneath the Parcels

The enormous backlog left by the missing postman serves as more than decoration. Processing old mail gradually clears blocked doorways and opens additional parts of the building. Newly accessible rooms introduce destinations, storage requirements, tools and mechanics, giving the game a steady sense of progression.

This structure prevents the postal routine from becoming repetitive too quickly. Just as weighing, stamping and loading ordinary boxes begins to feel predictable, the game adds another complication. New destinations require additional sorting categories, while specialized parcels demand closer attention. The expanding building also provides a visible measure of progress: every shrinking mountain of mail brings you closer to discovering what is hidden behind it.

The day-and-night system introduces a magical element to the otherwise ordinary work. Moonlight can reveal hidden properties that are not visible during the day, changing how certain packages should be handled. These supernatural details give Cat Mail Co. a playful identity and ensure that it is not merely a realistic post-office simulator with cats added to the scenery.

There is also a light story connected to the history of the post office and the disappearance of its previous operator. Pieces of that history are uncovered while clearing the backlog, although the narrative appears to be more atmospheric than central. One criticism is that some of the photographs used to communicate the story can be difficult to interpret without additional narration or explanatory text.

Better With Friends or More Chaotic?

The entire post office can be operated alone, but Cat Mail Co. also supports online cooperative play for as many as four players. A coordinated group can divide responsibilities, with one person serving customers, another preparing outgoing parcels and others organizing storage or loading the boat.

Co-op also has the potential to create hilarious disorder. A carefully organized warehouse can quickly fall apart when four players have different ideas about where packages belong. Shelf labels can help communicate a shared system, but the experience will depend heavily on whether your friends are willing to follow it. For organized groups, multiplayer could make the operation smoother. For everyone else, it may turn a cozy postal service into a feline warehouse disaster.

Final Verdict

Cat Mail Co. succeeds because it understands the appeal of completing ordinary tasks in a playful environment. Weighing boxes, applying stamps and sorting parcels may sound repetitive, but the tactile interactions, expanding storage challenges and steady introduction of new mechanics make the work surprisingly rewarding.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers: Random

This week, we're adding mystery to our premium subscribers' giveaway. This time, we have a group of random games, most of them are indie games with positive reviews and a fan base. By following the link below, you can claim one of the best free games we have in the database.

It can be anything, from a premium indie game, an old reboot, or an indie that just released this week. Tons of variety as always!

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales blends gorgeous HD-2D visuals with fast-paced action RPG combat in a time-traveling adventure spanning four distinct eras of history. Fighting with multiple weapon types while using fairy companion Faie's magical abilities creates dynamic battles and environmental puzzles, while customizable magicite lets you tailor Elliot's fighting style to your preferences. Between its exploration, satisfying combat, and intriguing thousand-year story, it feels like a natural evolution of Square Enix's signature HD-2D formula.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'elliot'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Slime Rancher 2: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Slime Rancher 2 expands the cozy farming formula of the original by sending Beatrix LeBeau to the colorful Rainbow Island, a mysterious paradise filled with new slimes, hidden secrets, and ancient technology. Exploring, capturing adorable creatures, and building up your conservatory create an endlessly relaxing gameplay loop, while upgraded tools and ranch customization give you plenty of reasons to keep expanding. It's a charming blend of exploration, resource management, and creature collecting that's as calming as it is addictive.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'slime'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens tracks historical discounts right now on games and throughout the industry! Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced [Steam]

Welcome to Los Santos.
$̶̶34.17 $11.11

Get Deal

DOOM: The Dark Ages [Steam]

Become the slayer in a medieval war against hell.
$̶̶91.18 $22.66

Get Deal

Doloc Town [Steam]

Become a farmer.
$̶̶17.09 $5.49

Get Deal

Gears of War: Reloaded [PS5]

The original, remastered.
$39.99 $19.99

Get Deal

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide [PS5]

As Tertium falls, Rejects Will Rise.
$39.99 $9.99

Get Deal

Stardew Valley [PS4]

You’ve inherited your grandfather’s old farm plot in Stardew Valley.
$14.99 $7.49

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Plants vs. Zombies™: Replanted [Nintendo Switch]

Go back to your roots.
$19.99 $12.99

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The Legend of Zelda™: Breath of the Wild [Nintendo Switch]

Open your eyes.
$59.99 $41.99

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Hades [Nintendo Switch]

Battle out of hell.
$24.99 $7.49

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Featured Game Review: Rhythm Heaven Groove

After years of silence, Rhythm Heaven Groove finally revives one of Nintendo's most beloved rhythm franchises, and it feels like the series never skipped a beat. Rather than chasing flashy gimmicks or cinematic storytelling, it sticks to the formula that made the originals so memorable: simple controls, infectious music, and wonderfully bizarre microgames that constantly surprise you. Every few minutes you're thrown into another absurd scenario, but beneath the quirky humor lies a rhythm game that quietly demands sharp timing, careful listening, and plenty of practice. The result is a sequel that's instantly approachable yet remarkably difficult to truly master.

Every song brings something new

The greatest strength of Rhythm Heaven Groove is its incredible variety. Every minigame introduces a fresh concept, whether you're filming a car commercial, bouncing frogs into space, or matching strange creatures to increasingly complex beats. Since there are no traditional note highways to guide every input, success depends on recognising visual cues, musical rhythms, and subtle audio signals. It creates a satisfying learning curve where each successful run feels earned rather than automatic.

The soundtrack deserves just as much praise. Tracks constantly shift between genres and tempos, keeping every stage unpredictable without ever feeling unfair. The remix levels are particularly impressive, combining multiple games into seamless musical medleys that test everything you've learned. By the time muscle memory takes over and you clear one nearly flawlessly, the payoff is immensely satisfying.

Not every addition reaches the same high notes

Outside the main campaign, the package offers plenty of extra content, including multiplayer games, collectible challenges, and the new Beatspell RPG mode. The cooperative minigames fit naturally into the series' chaotic charm, especially the competitive ones, which turn simple timing challenges into hilarious contests between friends. They're easy to pick up but surprisingly addictive, making them a welcome addition rather than a throwaway side mode.

Beatspell, however, never feels quite as inspired. While mixing rhythm mechanics with RPG battles is an interesting idea, combat becomes repetitive far too quickly, and the pacing lacks the constant creativity found throughout the campaign. It's far from a bad mode, but compared to the endlessly inventive rhythm games surrounding it, it feels more like an enjoyable experiment than an essential feature.

Bottom Line

Rhythm Heaven Groove is a fantastic return for one of Nintendo's most distinctive series. Its wonderfully strange humor, outstanding soundtrack, and endlessly inventive rhythm challenges make nearly every stage memorable, while the simple controls hide an impressive level of precision and depth. Although Beatspell falls short of the main campaign's brilliance, the core experience is so consistently entertaining that it's easy to overlook. Whether you're chasing perfect scores or simply enjoying its infectious charm, Rhythm Heaven Groove delivers one of the most satisfying rhythm games in years.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers: Woodle Tree Adventures

Back in early 2026, we gave away Woodle 2, and we heard from some of you that you wanted the first one too. So we talked with the publisher and here you go! Woodle Tree Adventures is a cheerful 3D platformer that channels the relaxed charm of classic collectathons like Banjo-Kazooie and Super Mario 64. Playing as the wooden hero Woodle, you explore colorful worlds, collect magical water drops, and restore balance through light platforming, exploration, and simple puzzles. Its peaceful soundtrack, vibrant art style, and family-friendly design make it less about difficult challenges and more about enjoying a calm, nostalgic adventure.

Empulse: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Empluse is a fast-paced multiplayer shooter where movement matters just as much as aim, encouraging players to chain wall-runs, grappling hooks, jetpacks, and boost abilities into fluid parkour-inspired combat. Every 6v6 match revolves around controlling powerful mechs that can completely shift the momentum of a battle, while customizable movement tools and weapons reward creative playstyles. Built as an Early Access community project, it combines high-speed gunfights with constant experimentation and competitive teamwork.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'empulse'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Farever: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Farever is an open-world action RPG that focuses on freedom, letting you carve your own path across the sprawling land of Siagarta instead of following a traditional chosen-one narrative. Between climbing mountains, gliding across valleys, exploring hidden caves, and tackling dungeons solo or with friends, the world constantly rewards curiosity. Deep class customization, cooperative combat, gathering professions, and crafting systems give every adventure a personal touch, making progression feel shaped by your own decisions rather than a fixed build.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'farever'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide [Steam]

As Tertium falls, rejects will rise.
$̶̶45.36 $7.33

Get Deal

Cult of the Lamb [Steam]

Build your flock.
$̶̶26.08 $9.15

Get Deal

Deer & Boy [Steam]

An original and evolving adventure.
$̶̶22.67 $13.98

Get Deal

FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH [PS5]

Beyond the walls of fate.
$49.99 $19.99

Get Deal

Remnant II [PS5]

Unimaginable worlds. Unrelenting odds.
$49.99 $29.99

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Survivors of the Void [PS5]

Bring your friends on the adventure.
$14.99 $9.74

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EA SPORTS FC 26 [Nintendo Switch]

The Club is Yours.
$11.99 $59.99

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DELTARUNE [Nintendo Switch]

The next adventure in the UNDERTALE series has appeared.
$24.99 $19.99

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Dead by Daylight [Nintendo Switch]

Death is not an escape.
$29.99 $10.49

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Featured Game Review: Star Fox

Few games defined the early days of 3D console gaming quite like Star Fox. Powered by Nintendo's groundbreaking Super FX chip, it delivered polygonal space battles that looked unlike anything seen on the Super Nintendo at the time. Decades later, its visuals may feel primitive, but the fast-paced arcade action, memorable characters, and tightly designed missions still reveal why this became one of Nintendo's most influential series.

Fast, focused, and endlessly replayable

Star Fox wastes no time getting players into the cockpit of the Arwing. Each stage lasts only a few minutes, but they're packed with enemy formations, environmental hazards, branching routes, and memorable boss encounters. Rather than encouraging exploration, the game focuses on precision flying, quick reactions, and constantly chasing higher scores, making every run feel satisfying even after multiple playthroughs.

The branching campaign also adds surprising depth for a game of its era. Different routes dramatically change the difficulty, introduce new levels, and alter the story's progression, giving players plenty of reasons to replay the campaign. Combined with hidden shortcuts and score-based medals, Star Fox rewards mastering its mechanics instead of simply reaching the ending.

A technical milestone that shows its age

Even today, it's easy to appreciate how ambitious Star Fox was. The Super FX chip allowed Nintendo to create fully polygonal environments years before 3D graphics became standard, and the sense of speed remains impressive. The energetic soundtrack and iconic radio chatter between Fox, Falco, Peppy, and Slippy also give the adventure far more personality than many shooters of its generation.

Its biggest weakness is simply time. The low frame rate, sparse visuals, and basic enemy AI can make the action feel rough compared to modern rail shooters. The controls also require some adjustment, especially during more demanding stages. Yet beneath those aging technical limitations lies a remarkably polished arcade shooter whose gameplay remains surprisingly engaging.

Bottom line

Star Fox is a landmark of Nintendo's history that still delivers fast, rewarding arcade action despite its aging presentation. Its branching missions, addictive score chasing, and memorable cast helped establish a franchise that would influence 3D shooters for years to come. While the technology inevitably shows its age, the core design remains every bit as sharp as the Arwing itself.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Premium Subscribers: CheatHappens.com - 10 Free Prize Wheel Spins

CheatHappens is giving premium subscribers 10 free Prize Wheel Spins which is a random chance at all kinds of good stuff from the site. This is available to every premium subscriber of Loot Happens who also has a CheatHappens account.

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers: Chromagun

ChromaGun is a clever first-person puzzle game that feels like a mad science experiment built somewhere between Portal and a paint factory. Armed with a weapon that can color walls, objects, and robots, you solve increasingly tricky chambers by manipulating how WorkerDroids react to different colors, pulling them toward matching surfaces to activate switches and open pathways. The core idea is simple, but the puzzles become surprisingly intricate as new mechanics stack on top of one another. With dry humor, clean level design, and satisfying "aha!" moments, ChromaGun turns a single color-based gimmick into a consistently entertaining brain teaser.

Dave the Diver: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Dave the Diver is one of those rare games that successfully blends wildly different ideas into something surprisingly addictive. By day, you explore the mysterious Blue Hole, diving deeper into ever-changing waters to hunt fish, gather resources, and uncover strange secrets hidden beneath the surface. By night, you switch gears and manage a bustling sushi restaurant, turning your daily catches into dishes that keep customers coming back for more. The constant cycle of diving, upgrading equipment, expanding the restaurant, and discovering new marine life creates a satisfying gameplay loop that’s hard to put down. Packed with charming characters, unexpected story twists, and gorgeous pixel-art oceans filled with hundreds of sea creatures, Dave the Diver delivers an adventure that is equal parts relaxing, funny, and endlessly rewarding.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'diver'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Human: Fall Flat [Steam]

More humans, more mayhem.
$̶̶22.91 $1.43

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Assetto Corsa [Steam]

Next-generation racing simulator.
$̶̶22.91 $3.99

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33 Immortals [Steam]

33 Immortals is a co-op action-roguelike for 33 players.
$̶̶17.07 $8.02

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ARC Raiders [PS5]

Scavenge, survive, thrive.
$39.99 $29.99

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FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH [PS5]

The unknown journey continues....
$49.99 $19.99

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ARK: Survival Ascended [PS5]

Respawn into a new dinosaur survival experience.
$44.99 $11.24

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Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration [Nintendo Switch 2]

No turning back…
$29.99 $26.99

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Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun [Nintendo Switch 2]

No turning back…
$39.99 $27.99

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Featured Game Review: EA Sports UFC 6

Sports games often focus on the destination. Championships, rankings, trophies, and highlight-reel moments are usually what developers build entire modes around. UFC 6 takes a different approach. Instead of celebrating only the victories, it puts equal emphasis on the punishment, sacrifice, and setbacks that fighters endure along the way. Whether you're reliving legendary UFC careers or building your own from the bottom up, the sport itself feels more personal than ever. Not every new idea lands cleanly, but UFC 6 succeeds because it understands something many sports games forget: the journey is often more compelling than the result.

The octagon still delivers

UFC 6 remains an excellent MMA simulator. The revamped controls take some adjustment, but once everything clicks, fights become a satisfying mix of strategy, timing, and controlled aggression. Every punch feels heavier, every kick carries real impact, and the visual damage system continues to be one of the series' strongest features. Bloodied faces, swelling injuries, and desperate late-round exchanges make fights feel brutal without becoming cartoonish.

The biggest gameplay addition is Flow State, a temporary boost earned through fighter-specific actions. While the idea fits certain cinematic moments, it often feels disconnected from the realism that defines the rest of the experience. Online matches can become races to activate it first, and even after dozens of fights, it's easy to forget the mechanic exists. Thankfully, the underlying combat remains strong enough that Flow State never overshadows what UFC does best: making every exchange feel dangerous.

Hall of Legends steals the show

The true highlight of UFC 6 isn't found inside ranked matchmaking or competitive ladders. It's Hall of Legends, a mode that recreates iconic moments from the careers of Max Holloway, Alex Pereira, and Zhang Weili. These interactive documentaries blend real footage, storytelling, and gameplay into some of the most memorable content the series has ever produced. Even if you already know how these fights end, recreating them yourself carries a surprising amount of emotional weight.

Career mode also receives a substantial upgrade thanks to The Legacy, a separate story-driven journey that follows an aspiring fighter's rise through the ranks. Rivalries, setbacks, and redemption arcs make the progression feel more engaging than previous entries. Not every new mode is a success, however. The Gym largely exists as a cosmetic-grind side activity that adds little to the overall package. It's harmless enough, but it feels unnecessary compared to the thoughtful storytelling found elsewhere.

Bottom line

UFC 6 isn't a perfect evolution of the series. Flow State occasionally clashes with the grounded simulation roots, and some side modes feel like distractions rather than meaningful additions. But its excellent combat, improved career structure, and outstanding Hall of Legends mode make it one of the strongest entries EA Vancouver has produced. More importantly, it captures something that statistics and championship belts never can: the human stories behind every fighter who steps into the cage.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Rezrog

Rezrog is a turn-based dungeon crawler that blends classic roguelike tension with a clever party-management twist. Instead of controlling an entire squad at once, you send individual heroes into procedurally generated dungeons, rescuing fallen allies when things inevitably go wrong. With permadeath, persistent progression, over 100 dungeon floors, and a wide range of classes, skills, and equipment to experiment with, every expedition feels like a calculated risk. Its tabletop-inspired presentation gives the adventure a distinctive charm, while the constant threat of losing your strongest heroes keeps every battle and decision meaningful.

-——OR-------

Boiling Bolt

Boiling Bolt is a fast-paced vertical shoot-’em-up set in a fractured world of floating islands powered by mysterious crystals. Playing as rebel pilot June, you battle through dense waves of enemies using a versatile arsenal of futuristic weapons while mastering a bullet-time system that rewards precision and aggressive play. Multiple game modes, co-op support, ship customization, and a variety of challenges add replayability, while flashy visual effects and anime-inspired presentation give every encounter an energetic arcade feel. It's a score-driven shooter that combines classic shmup intensity with modern mechanics and spectacle.

Nova Swarm: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers (20 keys)

Nova Swarm is a brand new compact arcade shoot-’em-up built around quick runs, constant improvement, and the satisfaction of mastering chaos. Piloting a growing roster of distinct ships, you battle through ten increasingly dangerous sectors packed with enemy formations, bullet patterns, hazards, and screen-filling bosses. While the action can look overwhelming at first, success comes from learning attack tells, reading the battlefield, and gradually turning panic into precision. With unlockable ships, leaderboards, career progression, and an endless Overrun mode beyond the main campaign, Nova Swarm delivers a focused old-school score-chasing experience that rewards skill, persistence, and one-more-run determination.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'nova'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Voidling Bound: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Voidling Bound is a fast-paced third-person sci‑fi shooter where you command and evolve powerful creatures called Voidlings across corrupted alien worlds. Combat blends shooting, melee attacks, dashes, parries, and devastating ultimates, while branching evolution paths let you shape each Voidling’s abilities, elemental traits, and playstyle. As you cleanse planets overrun by parasites, you’ll hatch rare new creatures, research upgrades, and experiment with mutations and genetics to build increasingly powerful combinations. With its mix of action combat, creature customization, and roguelite-style progression, Voidling Bound feels like a blend of monster collecting and relentless arcade combat.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'bound'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide [Steam]

As Tertium falls, rejects will rise.
$̶̶46.14 $8.27

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Returnal [Steam]

Again and again, she’s defeated.
$̶̶69.21 $16.28

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Alien: Isolation [Steam]

How will you survive?
$̶̶46.14 $4.49

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ARC Raiders [PS5]

Scavenge, survive, thrive.
$39.99 $29.99

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REANIMAL [PS5]

Horror with hope.
$39.99 $31.99

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DAVE THE DIVER [PS5]

Join Dave and his quirky friends.
$19.99 $10.99

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Ori and the Will of the Wisps [Nintendo Switch]

Play the critically acclaimed masterpiece.
$29.99 $7.49

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Celeste [Nintendo Switch]

Help Madeline survive her inner demons.
$19.99 $4.99

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Pikuniku [Nintendo Switch]

Pikuniku is an absurdly wonderful puzzle-exploration game.
$12.99 $1.99

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Featured Game Review: NBA The Run

Basketball games have spent years chasing realism, but NBA The Run goes in the opposite direction. Instead of simulating an 82-game season, complex playbooks, and endless stat sheets, it distills the sport into its purest form: fast-paced 3-on-3 competition where every possession feels like a highlight waiting to happen. The result captures much of the excitement of a pickup game at a local court, delivering quick bursts of energy that are easy to jump into and difficult to put down. Yet that same focus on speed and accessibility eventually becomes both its greatest strength and its biggest limitation.

Basketball at its most fun

The first thing NBA The Run gets right is its roster. Every player feels distinct, not just because of their ratings, but because of how faithfully the game recreates their styles. Stephen Curry stretches defenses with absurd shooting range, Victor Wembanyama dominates both ends of the floor with his impossible reach, and Ja Morant turns every fast break into a potential poster dunk. Switching between players constantly changes how matches unfold, making experimentation one of the game's greatest pleasures.

That variety extends beyond the athletes themselves. The Run's collection of real-world-inspired courts gives each match its own atmosphere, while rotating rule sets prevent games from becoming repetitive too quickly. One match may reward long-range shooting, while the next heavily favors aggressive dunking and paint play. These constantly shifting conditions encourage adaptability rather than relying on a single strategy, keeping the early hours surprisingly fresh and unpredictable.

The Championship grind arrives quickly

The downside is that NBA The Run rarely evolves beyond its initial formula. The first championship feels exciting. The fifth still has its moments. By the twentieth, however, the structure begins to show its limits. Despite the variety of players and courts, matches start blending as the cycle of queueing, winning, celebrating, and repeating becomes increasingly familiar.

Part of the issue is the game's heavy emphasis on rapid progression and constant action. Victories come frequently, championships arrive regularly, and rewards are handed out at a pace that can diminish their significance. Unlike a long season where every achievement feels earned through persistence, The Run often feels designed around immediate gratification. The highlights remain enjoyable, but eventually they lose some of their impact because another spectacular play is always only a minute away.

Bottom Line

NBA The Run successfully captures the energy, personality, and unpredictability of modern street basketball. Its deep roster, stylish courts, and constantly changing match rules create a multiplayer experience that's immediately fun and easy to recommend for short sessions. However, the same rapid-fire design that makes it so accessible also limits its longevity, as repeated championships and endless highlight plays begin to blur together. For players looking for quick bursts of competitive basketball, NBA The Run is a slam dunk. Just don't be surprised if you find yourself ready to step off the court sooner than expected.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Fallback

Fallback is a roguelite action game set in a collapsed underground world where humanity survives beneath a machine-controlled surface. Players fight their way through procedurally generated 2.5D levels, battling increasingly dangerous robotic enemies while unlocking new skills and gear after each run. With multiple distinct classes and evolving builds, every attempt reshapes how you approach combat, survival, and progression on the path toward escaping the depths.

-——OR-------

Bakery Simulator

Bakery Simulator is a detailed business sim that turns the day-to-day reality of running a bakery into a surprisingly engaging challenge. Players follow authentic recipes, manage ingredient supplies, invest in new equipment, and deliver fresh products to local stores while balancing costs and reputation. Beyond baking bread, croissants, and pastries, the game emphasizes logistics, time management, and business growth, creating a satisfying loop where every successful delivery helps transform a small bakery into a thriving enterprise.

Marathon: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Marathon is a high-stakes extraction shooter set on the hostile world of Tau Ceti, where every run is a gamble between profit and survival. Playing as a cybernetic Runner, you venture into dangerous zones to gather valuable loot, complete contracts, and uncover the mysteries of a lost colony while battling both AI threats and rival players. Flexible loadouts, unique character abilities, and seasonal progression allow for a wide range of playstyles, from stealthy scavengers to aggressive frontline fighters. Whether tackling the battlefield solo or with a squad, Marathon revolves around tense risk-versus-reward decisions where one successful extraction can change everything.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'marathon'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Romestead: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Romestead blends survival crafting, city building, and Roman mythology into a cooperative adventure where rebuilding civilization is just as important as surviving the undead. By day, you gather resources, recruit settlers, expand towns, and restore trade networks across a procedurally generated world; by night, hordes of the dead emerge to test your defenses. With support for up to eight players, divine upgrades tied to forgotten gods, and a steady progression from humble camp to thriving empire, Romestead offers a satisfying mix of action, automation, and settlement management.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'romestead'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before.

Forza Horizon 6 [Steam]

Your journey to a Horizon Legend starts now.
$̶̶81.47 $55.70

Get Deal

Scale the Depths [Steam]

Catching fish is only the beginning.
$̶̶11.63 $8.02

Get Deal

Life Below [Steam]

The ocean is dying.
$̶̶33.74 $18.23

Get Deal

Ghost of Yotei [PS5]

Set aside the order of the Edo period.
$69.99 $49.69

Get Deal

Assassin’s Creed Shadows [PS5]

Master the deepest stealth mechanisms of the series.
$69.99 $34.99

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Red Dead Redemption 2 [PS5]

Winner of over 175 Game of the Year Awards.
$59.99 $14.99

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Spiritfarer [Nintendo Switch]

Spiritfarer is a cozy management game about dying.
$29.99 $2.99

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Balatro [Nintendo Switch 2]

Balatro is a poker-inspired roguelike deck builder.
$14.99 $12.74

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Is This Seat Taken? [Nintendo Switch]

Play seating matchmaker to please picky characters and solve satisfying puzzles.
$9.99 $6.99

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Featured Game Review: Mina the Hollower

Mina the Hollower feels like a game pulled from an alternate timeline where the Game Boy Color era never ended, but developers kept finding new ways to push its ideas forward. Created by the team behind Shovel Knight, this gothic action-adventure blends retro aesthetics with modern design, sending players into a cursed world filled with monsters, buried secrets, and sprawling interconnected environments. It immediately captures the charm of classic handheld adventures, yet beneath its nostalgic presentation lies a surprisingly ambitious game that constantly rewards curiosity. While a few rough edges occasionally slow its momentum, Mina the Hollower succeeds by understanding exactly what made old-school adventures memorable and finding clever ways to make those ideas feel fresh again.

A retro adventure with modern confidence

The star of the show is Mina herself, a whip-wielding Hollower capable of burrowing beneath the ground to avoid danger, solve puzzles, and uncover hidden paths. That simple mechanic transforms exploration from the very beginning. Instead of merely moving through environments, you're constantly looking for opportunities to tunnel under obstacles, bypass enemies, or discover secrets tucked away beneath the surface. The world feels dense with possibilities, rewarding experimentation in a way many modern action-adventure games struggle to replicate.

Combat also strikes an impressive balance between accessibility and challenge. Mina's whip gives battles a deliberate rhythm, while secondary weapons and upgrades allow for different approaches to encounters. Boss fights are especially memorable, demanding careful observation rather than mindless aggression. Combined with atmospheric pixel art, haunting music, and a wonderfully eerie gothic setting, the game creates a strong sense of identity that extends far beyond simple nostalgia

Exploration remains the true highlight

What elevates Mina the Hollower above many retro-inspired projects is the way its world continuously expands. New abilities unlock shortcuts, hidden areas, and optional challenges that encourage revisiting earlier locations. The interconnected map evokes classic adventure games without becoming frustratingly obscure, creating a satisfying loop of discovery and progression. Every new area introduces fresh enemies, environmental hazards, and mysteries that make exploration consistently rewarding.

That said, the game occasionally leans a little too heavily on its old-school inspirations. Some stretches involve backtracking that can feel repetitive, and a few combat encounters rely more on patience than excitement. Difficulty spikes can also catch players off guard, particularly during later boss fights. Yet these frustrations rarely overshadow the overall experience because the game constantly offers another secret to uncover, another path to investigate, or another piece of its fascinating world to unravel.

Bottom Line

Mina the Hollower is a confident blend of retro design and modern craftsmanship that understands nostalgia is most effective when paired with strong new ideas. Its burrowing mechanics, rewarding exploration, and atmospheric world make it one of the most compelling action-adventure games in recent years. A handful of old-school frustrations remain, but they do little to diminish the journey's consistent encouragement of curiosity and discovery. For players who love classic adventure games with a fresh twist, Mina the Hollower digs up something genuinely special

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers: Pizza Connection 2

Pizza Connection 2 is a deep tycoon strategy game where you build a global pizza empire from the ground up, balancing recipes, pricing, staff, locations, and marketing to outgrow the competition. If you like tycoon games, you will love this one. What starts as simple restaurant management quickly expands into a dense web of decisions where every choice affects profitability and survival. Rival businesses push back hard, while organized crime adds pressure through sabotage, blackmail, and shady deals you’ll need to counter with security and careful planning. Layered with thousands of variables and unpredictable situations across different countries, it’s a demanding but addictive business sim where success is earned, not given.

Moonsigil Atlas: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Moonsigil Atlas is a roguelite deckbuilder that removes energy and action points entirely, letting you play as many cards as you can physically fit onto a grid-based battlefield. Each card is a sigil with a unique shape, keyword, and effect, turning combat into a spatial puzzle of positioning, overlap, and adjacency where the right placement can trigger explosive, cascading synergies. Between fights, you can fully reshape and upgrade your deck — inscribing runes, adding keywords, duplicating key cards, or pushing simple effects into absurd, build-defining power. With over 250 cards, multiple characters, forbidden unlocks, and a randomized map structure, every run becomes an experiment in breaking the system in a different way. Boss encounters and Titan fights push it further by altering the board itself, forcing constant adaptation where survival depends as much on spatial logic as it does on raw deck strength.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'atlas'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Raiders of Blackveil: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Raiders of Blackveil is a top-down multiplayer roguelite ARPG that blends MOBA-inspired heroes with extraction-style raids, where every run is a fast, chaotic scramble for loot, survival, and increasingly broken builds. You pick from distinct Rebels tied to classes like Mage, Assassin, Guardian, or Warlock, then dive into procedural raids filled with enemies, resources, and escalating difficulty. Combat is intense, but the depth comes from a huge perk system with over 300 modifiers that let you stack synergies and build wildly overpowered combinations that reshape each run. Between missions, your base “The Liberator” becomes a hub for upgrading, trading, and managing gear, while every expedition feeds long-term progression through loot, scraps, and experimental builds. Even failed runs matter, and the game leans into constant iteration, community feedback, and the chaotic pursuit of ever more absurd power spikes.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'raiders'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Forza Horizon 6 [Steam]

Your journey to a Horizon Legend starts now.
$̶̶81.13 $55.59

Get Deal

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus II [Steam]

Dominate the battlefield.
$̶̶46.46 $30.10

Get Deal

Life Below [Steam]

The ocean is dying.
$̶̶33.68 $18.19

Get Deal

Ghost of Yōtei [PS5]

Set aside the order of the Edo period.
$69.99 $49.99

Get Deal

Battlefield 6 [PS5]

The ultimate all-out warfare experience.
$69.99 $38.49

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 [PS5]

We are Expedition 33.
$49.99 $37.49

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Dream Alone [Nintendo Switch]

It is inspired by classics, Limbo and Inside.
$1.99 $9.99

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Hollow Knight [Nintendo Switch]

Forge your own path in Hollow Knight.
$15.00 $7.50

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Celeste [Nintendo Switch]

Help Madeline survive her inner demons.
$19.99 $4.99

Get Deal

Featured Game Review: 007 First Light

Like the man himself, a James Bond game should arrive with a certain pressure in the air, a sense that everything is being judged before it even moves. There’s a long history of tie-ins that either played it safe or tried too hard, and neither approach ever quite captured what Bond really is: elegance under strain, control that occasionally snaps, and a fantasy built on precision as much as spectacle. What’s been missing is a version that understands those rhythms, that can shift from quiet observation to sudden violence without feeling like it’s switching genres. 007 First Light finally gets close to that balance, and more often than not, it holds it.

A world built like a cover identity

First Light’s strongest move is how deliberately it builds its version of Bond from the ground up, rather than treating him as a checklist of familiar traits. IO Interactive doesn’t rush the transformation into the 00-status myth; instead, it lets him exist first as someone still being shaped by proximity to power, danger, and expectation. You start with fragments, and only gradually does the silhouette of the agent emerge. It gives the early hours a strange patience, almost like watching a file being compiled rather than a story being dumped on you.

That restraint pays off because the world around him feels equally considered. MI6 isn’t just a backdrop; it’s a functioning ecosystem of routines, overheard conversations, and institutional tension. Q’s lab hums with controlled chaos, while Bond’s apartment feels lived-in rather than staged, full of objects that suggest history without spelling it out. Even the pacing mirrors this approach, long chapters that don’t rush you forward, letting curiosity do more work than urgency. It’s closer to a prestige espionage series than a conventional action game, and that shift in rhythm changes how you inhabit every scene.

The elegance of controlled systems

Once First Light opens up into its fieldwork structure, it becomes clearer that IO is essentially translating its Hitman DNA into a different fantasy. Social stealth, infiltration routes, environmental manipulation: they’re all here, but re-skinned through the lens of Bond’s tools and temperament. Gadgets replace disguises as the primary language of misdirection, turning every encounter into a small problem of timing and improvisation. A laser here, a distraction there, and suddenly a heavily guarded space bends just enough to let you slip through.

But what stands out isn’t just the systems themselves, it’s how they’re allowed to collide. The game doesn’t always force you into one correct answer. You can approach a compound like a careful observer, or you can tear through it when patience runs out, and both paths feel intentional rather than compromised. Combat, when it breaks loose, has a weight that leans into Bond’s physicality — less surgical than 47, more reactive, a little messier in the way real escalation tends to be. There’s a deliberate friction in the design, especially in how gadgets are limited, which occasionally feels more restrictive than expressive, but it also keeps the fantasy from turning into pure convenience.

Bottom Line

007 First Light works because it understands that Bond isn’t defined by spectacle alone, but by control — the illusion of ease built on careful preparation, fractured occasionally by chaos. IO Interactive has taken a familiar universe and rebuilt it around patience, systems, and character progression that actually feels earned rather than assumed. It isn’t flawless, and some mechanical choices pull against the fantasy rather than elevating it, but the core vision holds firm throughout. The result is a Bond game that doesn’t just reference the myth — it slowly learns how to inhabit it, and by the end, it feels surprisingly natural to stay there.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Impulsion

Impulsion is a fast-paced first-person platformer built around momentum, precision, and mastering physics under pressure. Armed with dual force-field guns that can speed up or slow down both yourself and the environment, you race through increasingly difficult obstacle courses that demand sharp reflexes and constant experimentation. Beneath the sci-fi setting and surprisingly playful dialogue, the game becomes a relentless test of movement mastery, especially once competitive leaderboards and speedrun modes push every second to matter.

-——OR-------

Psycho Wolf

Psycho Wolf is a bizarre stealth-action game that mixes retro 2.5D visuals inspired by early 3D titles with surprisingly tactical gameplay centered around hunting cartoonish animal enemies. Playing as the mysterious Psycho Wolf, you sneak through dangerous levels filled with fast and aggressive foes, using bushes for cover, crafting traps and camouflage, stealing valuables, and carefully planning attacks instead of simply charging into combat. Between its weird humor, looter-style progression, mansion upgrades, and intentionally strange aesthetic, Psycho Wolf feels like a chaotic blend of old-school stealth games and absurd indie experimentation. We know some early subscribers got this game in 2024, but we're giving new subscribers a chance to get it too.

Esoteric Ebb: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Esoteric Ebb is a bizarre, dialogue-heavy CRPG that blends tabletop chaos with surreal fantasy noir, casting you as a deeply dysfunctional cleric investigating a deadly explosion days before a historic election. Set in the strange arcanepunk city of Norvik, the game leans heavily into branching choices, dice-roll encounters, and constant conversations with the competing voices inside your own head, turning even simple interactions into unpredictable roleplaying disasters. Between debating drunk sphinxes, manipulating factions, and using reality-bending magic to pry into secrets or control minds, Esoteric Ebb feels less like a traditional RPG and more like an unhinged tabletop campaign where failure is often far more entertaining than success.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'esoteric'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Schrödinger’s Call: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Schrödinger’s Call is a quiet, melancholic story about regret, memory, and the final conversations people wish they could have before the end. Set mere nanoseconds before the moon crashes into Earth, the game follows Mary, a girl with no memories who becomes the “World’s Last Confidant,” answering phone calls from souls trapped between life and death. Each conversation unfolds like a small emotional vignette, exploring unfinished relationships, hidden fears, and the painful weight of things left unsaid, while the game’s soft picture-book presentation and reflective atmosphere turn the apocalypse into something deeply intimate rather than catastrophic.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'call'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before.

Blasphemous [Steam]

Explore this nightmarish world of twisted religion.
$̶̶28.99 $3.19

Get Deal

007 First Light + Early Access [Steam]

Pre-order 007 First Light.
$̶̶81.18 $62.34

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Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus II [Steam]

Dominate the battlefield.
$̶̶46.38 $32.22

Get Deal

Forza Horizon 5 [PS5]

Your Ultimate Horizon Adventure awaits!
$59.99 $35.99

Get Deal

Palworld [PS5]

Collect all kinds of exciting Pals to fight, farm, build, and work for you.
$29.99 $22.49

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Gears of War: Reloaded [PS5]

Built for brotherhood.
$39.99 $19.99

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Subnautica [Nintendo Switch 2]

Descend into the depths of an alien underwater world.
$29.99 $7.49

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Outbound [Nintendo Switch 2]

Explore a colorful world and build your own cozy home on wheels.
$24.99 $22.49

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Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection [Nintendo Switch 2]

Step into the arena and choose your fighter.
$49.99 $32.49

Get Deal

Featured Game Review: Yoshi and the Mysterious

There’s something fascinating about a game that constantly teases greatness just out of reach. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is packed with imagination from the very beginning, throwing Yoshi into a storybook world filled with bizarre creatures, experimental mechanics, and open-ended stages built around curiosity rather than momentum. For a while, that sense of discovery is genuinely exciting. Every level introduces some new oddball species or playful interaction that makes you wonder what the next page might hold. But the deeper you get, the clearer it becomes that the game is far more interested in introducing ideas than developing them. What starts as a charming adventure slowly turns into a checklist-heavy scavenger hunt that rarely evolves beyond its first impressions, making the experience feel strangely shallow despite how creative it often looks.

The world is full of clever ideas

The biggest strength of Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is its creativity. Nearly every level revolves around a new creature with its own gimmick, whether it’s bouncing bubble creatures, giant drill-nosed beasts, or jellyfish that function like water jetpacks. Nintendo clearly had fun designing these weird little monsters, and discovering how they work gives the early hours a constant sense of surprise. Even simple experimentation rewards you with Discoveries, collectibles, and hidden interactions, making exploration feel playful and satisfying.

The level structure also helps the game stand out from older Yoshi titles. Instead of straightforward platforming, many stages feel more like miniature puzzle sandboxes with unique objectives. One level revolves around catching fish, another has you recovering stolen flowers, while others focus entirely on environmental interactions. That unpredictability keeps the adventure fresh for a long time, especially because the world itself is packed with charm and personality.

The depth never arrives

The problem is that most of these mechanics never evolve beyond their introduction. Once you’ve uncovered the majority of a level’s Discoveries, there’s very little reason to revisit it beyond completionism. The game constantly throws new ideas at you, but rarely combines them into deeper or more creative challenges. Instead of building complexity, it keeps resetting the formula with another gimmick-heavy stage, which gradually makes the adventure feel repetitive despite all its variety.

What makes this especially disappointing is that the game briefly reveals a far better version of itself late in the campaign. One standout level suddenly allows Yoshi to summon creatures from previous stages and creatively apply everything you’ve learned. It completely changes the game’s design philosophy and instantly becomes the most exciting part of the adventure. But almost as quickly as it appears, the mechanic disappears, and the game goes back to its usual structure. That missed opportunity ends up defining the entire experience.

Bottom Line

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is charming, imaginative, and occasionally brilliant, but it rarely transforms its ideas into something truly substantial. The creature designs are wonderful, the world is full of personality, and the first half constantly surprises you with clever concepts. Yet the deeper you go, the more the adventure starts to feel mechanically thin. Its best mechanic arrives too late and vanishes too quickly, leaving behind a game that feels less like a fully realized journey and more like a collection of unfinished but fascinating experiments.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers: Sphere - Flying Cities

Sphere – Flying Cities is a city-builder survival hybrid where you manage a floating metropolis drifting through a post-apocalyptic Earth, keeping thousands of colonists alive while navigating geomagnetic storms, asteroid strikes, and the constant threat of simply falling out of the sky. Everything runs through your anti-gravity device — let the power slip and the whole city goes down with it, which keeps even routine resource management feeling genuinely tense. You'll expand through drone scouting, technology research, and careful infrastructure planning, all while balancing the uncomfortable reality that saving the many sometimes means sacrificing the few. It's a city-builder that actually makes you feel the weight of every decision.

Hotel Architect: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Hotel Architect is a construction and management tycoon game where you design, build, and run hotels across multiple global locations, juggling guest satisfaction, staff logistics, and five-star ambitions all at once. You can climb through a structured Career Mode or go full creative in Sandbox, with enough décor options and layout freedom to build anything from a sleek luxury resort to something considerably more questionable. Every hire, room arrangement, and amenity choice feeds into a review system that determines the caliber of guests you attract — and how quickly things spiral when you get it wrong. It's the kind of game that starts with "just one more floor" and ends three hours later with a staff crisis and a mysteriously one-star breakfast rating.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'architect'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

MIO: Memories in Orbit: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

MIO: Memories in Orbit is a metroidvania set aboard a decaying space ark, overgrown with vegetation and haunted by rogue machines. You play as MIO, a nimble robot unraveling the mystery behind the Vessel's catastrophic blackout — repairing allies, uncovering secrets, and mastering an evolving set of traversal abilities along the way. Combat is flexible and builds around a modifier system that lets you reshape your playstyle on the fly, while over 15 boss encounters keep the stakes consistently high. Visually inspired by comics and anime, with a lo-fi-meets-choral soundtrack to match, it's a world that's as absorbing to look at as it is to move through.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'mio'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Human: Fall Flat [Steam]

More humans, more mayhem.
$̶̶23.29 $1.29

Get Deal

Assetto Corsa [Steam]

Next-generation racing simulator.
$̶̶23.39 $4.97

Get Deal

Gothic 1 Remake [Steam]

Welcome to the colony.
$̶̶58.50 $38.03

Get Deal

Gears of War: Reloaded [PS5]

Optimized for PlayStation.
$39.99 $19.99

Get Deal

Horizon Forbidden West [PS5]

Join Aloy as she braves the Forbidden West.
$49.99 $29.99

Get Deal

Risk of Rain 2 [PS5]

Survive an alien planet.
$24.99 $6.24

Get Deal

Devil May Cry [Nintendo Switch]

The legendary stylish action classic is back!
$19.99 $4.99

Get Deal

Animal Well [Nintendo Switch]

Explore the intricate labyrinth and uncover its many secrets.
$24.99 $14.99

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Hello Neighbor [Nintendo Switch]

Hello Neighbor is a stealth horror game about sneaking into your neighbor's house.
$39.99 $9.99

Get Deal

Featured Game Review: Forza Horizon 6

Forza Horizon 6 feels like something the series has been building towards for fourteen years, and Japan was always going to be the destination worth waiting for. It's a focused open-world racer built around the most credible and car-friendly map Playground Games has ever crafted, then layered with enough new systems to keep you exploring long after the credits roll. Not everything is reinvented, but what works, works brilliantly.

Japan was worth the wait

Forza Horizon 6 lives and dies by its map, and thankfully, it delivers. Every corner of the world blends Tokyo's dense urban sprawl with mountain passes, rice fields, snowy highlands and winding touge roads, forcing you to constantly shift gears — literally and mentally — between very different kinds of driving. Nail a tight hairpin in the Japan Alps, then drop down into a multi-level freeway overpass above the docks. It creates a constant sense of discovery where no two drives ever feel quite the same.

What really sells it is the detail beneath the surface. Parking lots are entirely bespoke to their locations. Road surfaces change texture between tunnels, backroads and mountain passes. Exhaust vapor floats in frosty air. The car audio is the best in the series — downshifting through a tunnel is an experience unto itself. Boss fights of a different kind come in the form of Showcase events, including what may be the most unhinged set-piece the franchise has ever produced. It's demanding to take in, sometimes overwhelming, but rarely dull.

A tourist who never quite arrives

Step outside the driving, though, and the cracks start to show. The campaign's framing has genuine charm on paper, but doesn't explore its own premise in meaningful ways. You're immediately handed a garage full of cars, and the interesting possibility of gradually embedding yourself in Japanese car culture gets quietly abandoned. The wristband progression structure is a welcome return from the original game, and the parallel exploration strand with touge races and barn find rumors adds real texture, but the "tourist" identity never quite earns its weight. Important atmosphere is often tucked away in environmental details rather than being part of any cohesive narrative thread, which makes the whole thing feel a little disconnected.

There are also minor frustrations — two Showcase events feels lean, and the opening hours don't fully capitalise on the new aftermarket car system's potential for more immersive world integration. They rarely derail the experience for long.

Bottom line

Forza Horizon 6 knows exactly what it wants to be and sticks to it. Japan is the map the series always deserved: credible, dense, endlessly rewarding to move through, and it carries the entire experience on its back. Even with a promising premise left underexplored and a few rough edges, the sheer quality of the world and the driving make it hard to stop, and even harder not to finish.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Train Traffic Manager

Train Traffic Manager is a fast-paced strategy and puzzle game where players take control of busy railway networks, directing trains safely across tracks, intersections, and stations without causing collisions or delays. As traffic increases, players must carefully time signals, switch tracks, and manage multiple trains at once, testing both quick reflexes and long-term planning skills. With progressively more complex rail systems, colorful visuals, and satisfying traffic-flow mechanics, the game delivers a mix of relaxing management gameplay and intense decision-making that appeals to both casual players and strategy fans.
-——OR-------

White Night

White Night is a haunting black-and-white survival horror game on Steam that blends classic noir storytelling with atmospheric puzzle-solving and psychological tension. Set in the 1930s, players explore a mysterious mansion filled with shadows, ghosts, and hidden secrets after a late-night car crash leaves them stranded. Using limited matches and light sources to survive, players must navigate eerie corridors, uncover tragic family histories, and solve environmental puzzles while avoiding the deadly darkness itself. With its striking monochrome art style, jazz-inspired soundtrack, and cinematic fixed-camera presentation, the game delivers a uniquely stylish horror experience inspired by classic film noir and old-school survival horror titles like Resident Evil and Alone in the Dark.

Dead as Disco: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Dead as Disco is a stylish rhythm-action beat ’em up on Steam that blends martial arts combat with music-video energy in a neon-soaked world driven entirely by the beat. Players step into the role of Charlie Disco, a fallen music icon fighting to reunite his fractured band while battling larger-than-life enemies known as the Idols. Every punch, dodge, combo, and parry syncs with the soundtrack, creating fast-paced combat that feels both cinematic and musical. Featuring vibrant comic-inspired visuals, customizable music integration, over-the-top fashion, and an energetic multi-genre soundtrack, the game delivers a flashy, adrenaline-fueled experience inspired by titles like Hi-Fi Rush while carving out its own identity through player-driven rhythm gameplay and stylish presentation.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'disco'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Amberspire: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Amberspire is a unique science-fantasy city builder on Steam that combines strategic resource management with dice-driven gameplay and a richly atmospheric alien world. Set atop the ruins of an abandoned moon orbiting a massive gas giant, players must guide the growth of a fragile settlement while balancing ecology, faction politics, unpredictable events, and the needs of their citizens. Every building uses custom dice to generate resources, forcing players to adapt their strategies to chance while shaping a thriving futuristic city. With its hand-drawn isometric art style, immersive soundtrack, and blend of colony simulation, board-game mechanics, and environmental storytelling, Amberspire offers a fresh and highly stylized take on the city-building genre.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'amber'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Gothic 1 Remake [Steam]

Return to the Valley of the Mines
$̶̶59.09 $37.08

Get Deal

Phasmophobia [Steam]

Co-Op horror
$̶̶19.99 $13.99

Get Deal

Slay the Spire [Steam]

Cards & Decks
$̶̶24.99 $6.24

Get Deal

Pragmata [Steam]

Adventure game from Capcom
$69.99 $50.60

Get Deal

Motorslice [PS5]

Parkour through the ruins
$19.99 $17.99

Get Deal

Adorable Adventures [PS5]

Play as Boris, a curious baby boar
$19.99 $15.99

Get Deal

Star Wars Battlefront Classic [Nintendo Switch]

Fight in iconic battles
$35.01 $26.25

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Bubsy 4D [Nintendo Switch]

New, intergalactic, platforming adventure
$19.99 $17.99

Get Deal

Featured Game Review: SoulMask

Soulmask on Steam is one of the most surprisingly deep survival sandbox games to come out in recent years. At first glance, it looks like another entry in the crowded “craft, gather, survive” genre, but the moment the tribe management systems begin to unfold, the game starts to separate itself from competitors like ARK: Survival Evolved or Conan Exiles. Instead of simply building a base alone, Soulmask makes you feel like the leader of a growing civilization, where every tribesman has unique skills, personalities, and roles that meaningfully affect your progression.

Mask Mechanics

The mask mechanic is easily the game’s standout feature. Rather than permanently controlling a single character, you gradually recruit and inhabit different tribe members, each with their own strengths and specialties. It creates an unusual but rewarding gameplay loop where the “main character” is really the mask itself. This system gives the game far more strategic depth than most survival games, especially once automation and workforce management come into play.

Exploration is another major highlight. The world feels dangerous, mysterious, and worth uncovering, with ancient ruins, environmental hazards, giant beasts, and increasingly challenging bosses rewarding curiosity. The jungle aesthetic gives the game a unique identity, and newer updates and DLC expansions have added even more ambitious environments and mechanics, including Egyptian-inspired regions and airship construction systems.

Long Term Commitment

Where Soulmask shines brightest is in long-term progression. The deeper you go, the more systems reveal themselves — automation chains, advanced crafting, farming, logistics, training systems, tribe specialization, and large-scale settlement building. It scratches the same “just one more hour” itch that the best sandbox games create. Even many community reviews point out that the game becomes more impressive the longer you stick with it.

That said, the game is not perfect. Some systems can feel overwhelming early on, tutorials are rough in places, and certain design decisions — especially around map transfers, PvP balancing, and server support — have frustrated portions of the community. Combat can occasionally feel clunky, and there are still moments where the game shows its early-access roots despite major improvements in the 1.0 release.

Bottom line

Overall, Soulmask is an ambitious and genuinely refreshing survival game that dares to evolve the genre instead of simply copying it. Players looking for a casual crafting experience may find it intimidating, but anyone who enjoys deep progression systems, tribe management, automation, and large-scale sandbox gameplay will likely lose dozens — if not hundreds — of hours to it.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Shakes on a Plane

Shakes on a Plane is a chaotic co-op cooking game that takes the classic kitchen scramble to 30,000 feet. You and your crew race to prepare shakes, burgers, fries, and more while dealing with shifting planes, impatient passengers, and constant mid-flight chaos. Orders pile up fast, forcing tight coordination and quick thinking—especially when the environment itself starts working against you. With its absurd alien twist and nonstop pressure, it’s a loud, messy party game built for teamwork, mistakes, and plenty of last-second saves.

-——OR-------

YouRiding

YouRiding - Surfing and Bodyboarding Game is a realistic, browser-based wave riding simulator that lets players surf or bodyboard some of the world’s most iconic breaks with lifelike physics and dynamic ocean conditions. Instead of arcade-style gameplay, it focuses on timing, positioning, and reading waves, giving it a more authentic feel for surf enthusiasts. Players can choose different boards, customize conditions, and ride famous spots while aiming to perform smooth lines and maneuvers, making it both a casual experience and a skill-based challenge.

Dispatch: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Dispatch flips the superhero fantasy on its head, putting you behind the scenes as a former hero forced to manage chaos from a control room. As Robert Robertson, you’re juggling emergency calls, deploying a messy team of ex-villains, and trying to keep both the city and your crew from falling apart. Choices matter—who you send, how you handle people, even casual conversations shape relationships and outcomes. It’s part strategy, part narrative drama, with a sharp sense of humor and a focus on what being a “hero” looks like when you’re no longer in the spotlight.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'dispatch'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Town to City: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Town to City is a cozy, grid-free city builder that trades rigid planning for pure creative freedom. You shape winding streets, lively districts, and scenic parks exactly how you want, watching a small settlement grow into a thriving network of towns. Beneath its relaxed pace sits a light management layer—balancing citizen needs, jobs, and expansion across an evolving region. With its soft voxel visuals and emphasis on customization, it’s less about efficiency and more about building a place that actually feels alive.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'town'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

PATAPON 1+2 REPLAY [Steam]

The two games, released in 2007 and 2008, are back as a remastered set.
$̶̶35.09 $12.80

Get Deal

Tides of Tomorrow [Steam]

Shape every player’s future.
$̶̶35.09 $16.37

Get Deal

Conan Exiles [Steam]

Survive in a savage land.
$̶̶46.80 $7.35

Get Deal

Hollow Knight: Silksong [PS5]

Hollow Knight: Silksong is the epic sequel to Hollow Knight.
$19.99 $15.99

Get Deal

Dragon's Dogma 2 [PS5]

Set forth on your grand adventure, Arisen!
$69.99 $29.39

Get Deal

Alan Wake 2 [PS5]

Experience two beautiful yet terrifying worlds.
$59.99 $17.99

Get Deal

The Oregon Trail [Nintendo Switch]

The Oregon Trail is back.
$29.99 $11.99

Get Deal

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate [Nintendo Switch]

Unleash the Turtles in a roguelike quest to rescue Splinter from the Foot Clan.
$29.99 $2.99

Get Deal

Wobbly Life [Nintendo Switch]

It's time to start earning and living your best Wobbly Life.
$24.99 $19.99

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Featured Game Review: Saros

There’s a certain kind of game that asks for persistence above all else, and Saros fits that mold perfectly. It’s a fast, punishing third-person shooter built around repetition, where every failed run sharpens your instincts just enough to push a little further next time. Set on the unsettling planet of Carcosa, it mixes cosmic horror with a looping structure that mirrors its themes—identity, obsession, and the weight of past decisions—though not always as cleanly as it intends.

Flow state combat

Saros is all about movement and reaction. Combat feels like a constant dance between aggression and survival, where standing still for even a second can get you erased. Enemies flood arenas with waves of color-coded projectiles, forcing you to read the battlefield in real time. Blue shots can be absorbed, red ones demand perfect timing to counter, and others punish hesitation by permanently chipping away at your survivability. It’s chaotic, but never random.

Weapons play a huge role in shaping that flow, and the real challenge is juggling everything at once—dodging, positioning, managing cooldowns, and reacting without breaking rhythm. When it clicks, Saros becomes almost hypnotic. Boss fights push this even further, demanding precision and pattern recognition at a level that feels overwhelming at first, then deeply satisfying once you start to anticipate instead of react.

Repetition vs progress

Like many roguelites, Saros builds itself around repetition, but it doesn’t always escape the fatigue that comes with it. Each run follows a familiar cadence, with only slight variations in layout and encounters, which can make longer sessions blur together. The challenge remains engaging, but the structure rarely surprises you.

Progression leans toward incremental upgrades rather than transformative changes. You get stronger, more durable, better equipped—but rarely different. The story tries to elevate this loop with themes of identity and psychological strain, yet it often feels fragmented, with its most interesting ideas introduced but not fully explored. What’s there is intriguing, just not as cohesive as it needs to be.

Bottom line

Saros is a game that earns your respect before it earns your enjoyment. Its combat is sharp, demanding, and deeply satisfying once you meet it on its terms. Few shooters manage to create this kind of intensity, where every encounter feels like a test you genuinely have to rise to.

At the same time, it doesn’t quite stick the landing everywhere else. The repetition can wear thin, and the story reaches for more than it fully delivers. Still, if you’re willing to push through the friction, there’s something compelling here—a tough, hypnotic loop that keeps pulling you back in, one run at a time

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Algo Bot

Algo Bot is an awesome puzzle game that turns programming into the core of its gameplay, tasking you with guiding a service droid through a malfunctioning spaceship. Using a simple visual coding system, you build command sequences, debug mistakes, and optimize solutions across increasingly complex challenges. What starts approachable quickly grows into a clever test of logic, introducing concepts like loops, variables, and recursion along the way. Wrapped in a light, slightly sarcastic story, it’s both a brain workout and a surprisingly charming sci-fi adventure.

--—OR----

Old School Musical

Old School Musical is a chaotic rhythm game wrapped in a love letter to retro gaming, packed with chiptune beats and absurd humor. You guide two unlikely heroes through glitch-filled worlds, timing every move: attacks, jumps, even space battles—to the music. Levels constantly shift styles, parodying classic games while throwing in wild surprises (and, yes, a lot of chickens). It’s fast, funny, and proudly ridiculous, blending nostalgia with pure arcade energy.

Sudden Strike 5: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Sudden Strike 5 is a large-scale real-time tactics game that drops you into pivotal World War II battles where planning matters more than raw firepower. You command hundreds of authentic units—tanks, infantry, and aircraft—across sprawling maps, using positioning, timing, and supply management to outmaneuver the enemy. Every mission offers multiple ways to approach objectives, whether through direct assault, clever flanking, or cutting off reinforcements. It’s a methodical, strategy-first experience that rewards patience, precision, and smart decision-making.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'strike'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

RimWorld: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

RimWorld is a colony sim that turns survival into storytelling, where every decision shapes the fate of a fragile group of crash-landed survivors. You build, manage, and defend your settlement while juggling personalities, relationships, and constant threats—from pirates to mental breakdowns. What makes it stand out is the AI storyteller, dynamically pushing your colony toward triumph, disaster, or something in between. It’s less about winning and more about the unpredictable, often brutal stories that unfold along the way.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'rimworld'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Tides of Tomorrow [Steam]

Shape every player’s future.
$̶̶35.07 $17.16

Get Deal

StarRupture [Steam]

Explore the deadly planet.
$̶̶23.27 $12.84

Get Deal

Sudden Strike 5 [Steam]

Somewhere near Remagen, Germany.
$̶̶58.46 $39.97

Get Deal

Hollow Knight: Silksong [PS5]

Hollow Knight: Silksong is the epic sequel to Hollow Knight.
$19.99 $15.99

Get Deal

Dragon's Dogma 2 [PS5]

Set forth on your grand adventure, Arisen!
$69.99 $29.39

Get Deal

Alan Wake 2 [PS5]

Experience two beautiful yet terrifying worlds.
$59.99 $17.99

Get Deal

Hades [Nintendo Switch]

Battle out of hell.
$24.99 $6.24

Get Deal

DOOM [Nintendo Switch]

Fight like hell.
$19.99 $3.99

Get Deal

Red Dead Redemption [Nintendo Switch]

Experience the epic western adventures that defined a generation.
$49.99 $24.99

Get Deal

Featured Game Review: Saros

Saros is built on a familiar loop—fight, die, repeat—but pushes harder to give that cycle meaning. It’s a brutal, stylish bullet-hell shooter that blends relentless action with a more ambitious, psychological story. The result is a game that constantly pulls you in two directions: one part pure adrenaline, the other reaching for something deeper.

Flow state combat at its best

When Saros clicks, it really clicks. Combat is fast, aggressive, and demands total focus, throwing waves of enemies and layered projectile patterns that feel closer to a rhythm game than a traditional shooter. Every run becomes a test of reflexes and decision-making—dodging, parrying, absorbing attacks, and striking back in tight windows. Weapons feel great across the board, from precise rifles to heavier crowd-control tools, and the DualSense integration adds a tactile edge that makes every action more immediate.

There’s a clear lineage to Returnal, but Saros smooths some of the friction with more persistent upgrades and a slightly more forgiving structure. Even so, difficulty remains high, and boss fights in particular demand mastery. The loop works because failure feeds improvement, each run sharpens your instincts until survival starts to feel like a controlled dance instead of chaos.

Ambition vs. repetition

Where Saros stumbles is in how it balances its ideas. Structurally, runs can begin to blur together, with similar combat encounters and limited variation in how levels unfold. Progress often feels less about experimenting with new builds and more about enduring longer, tougher fights—a war of attrition that can wear thin over time.

The story aims higher than its predecessor, weaving themes of identity, guilt, and psychological collapse into its sci-fi setting. There are intriguing questions at its core, and Arjun is a compelling lead—but too many narrative threads feel underdeveloped or overly abstract. Important details are buried in logs, and key moments don’t always land with the weight they should. It’s the kind of story that hints at something powerful, without fully delivering on it.

Bottom line

Saros is at its strongest when it leans into what Housemarque does best: fast, punishing, and deeply satisfying combat. While repetition and uneven storytelling hold it back, the thrill of mastering its systems—and surviving just a little longer each time—makes it hard to walk away from.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers: Port Royale 2 or Slice, Dice, and Rice

Port Royale 2 is a deep economic sim set in the 17th-century Caribbean, where you build a trading empire across dozens of ports. You manage production, establish trade routes, and grow entire cities while navigating threats from pirates and rival nations. Whether you focus on commerce, naval combat, or political influence, it’s a slow-burning strategy experience built around expansion, risk, and long-term planning.

--—OR----

Slice, Dice, and Rice

Slice, Dice, and Rice is a tense fighting game built around precision instead of health bars. One clean hit can end a round, turning every duel into a careful mind game of timing, feints, and positioning. With simple controls but deep mechanics, it captures the feel of real samurai standoffs. Each fighter brings a unique style, making every match a quick, deadly test of skill, where even the smallest mistake can cost you everything.

RACCOIN: Coin Pusher Roguelike: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

RACCOIN: Coin Pusher Roguelike turns a simple arcade concept into a chaotic, combo-driven roguelike. You drop coins, trigger chain reactions, and stack wild synergies using special coins, power-ups, and upgrades that can completely flip a run. With multiple characters, hundreds of items, and endless replayability, it’s a fast, unpredictable loop built on chasing bigger combos and that constant “one more drop” feeling.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'raccoin'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Risk of Pain 2: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Risk of Rain 2 is a fast-paced roguelike shooter built around constant escalation. You fight through alien worlds while enemies grow stronger alongside you, creating a tense race to stay ahead. Each run is shaped by dozens of items that stack into wild, sometimes game-breaking builds, while multiple survivors offer different playstyles. With randomized levels and co-op support, it’s all about adapting on the fly and surviving the chaos as long as you can.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'pain'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Dying Light Essentials Edition [Steam]

Enjoy enhanced visuals, a remastered soundtrack, and graphical improvements.
$̶̶29.44 $2.95

Get Deal

Peripeteia [Steam]

Consider joining us in the lights of the Eastern Night with Peripeteia.
$̶̶28.87 $11.81

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Bread & Fred [Steam]

Bread & Fred is a challenging co-op platformer from Apogee.
$̶̶17.43 $1.03

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RESIDENT EVIL 2 [PS5]

An unparalleled adrenaline rush, gripping storyline, and unimaginable horrors await you.
$39.99 $9.99

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Days Gone Remastered [PS5]

Fight to survive an environment ravaged by a deadly pandemic as a former outlaw biker.
$49.99 $19.99

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Raft [PS5]

Survive by yourself or with friends in online co-op.
$24.99 $16.74

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BioShock: The Collection [Nintendo Switch]

There's always a lighthouse. There's always a man. There's always a city.
$49.99 $9.99

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Hades II [Nintendo Switch 2]

Time cannot be stopped.
$29.99 $23.99

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Sid Meier’s Civilization VI [Nintendo Switch]

Build your greatest empire.
$29.99 $5.99

Get Deal

Featured Game Review: Pragmata

Pragmata feels like something pulled straight out of the Xbox 360 era, in a good way. It’s a focused third-person shooter built around a single, clever mechanic, then layered with just enough depth to keep you pushing forward. Not everything lands, but what does, hits hard.

Hack-and-shoot brilliance

At its core, Pragmata lives and dies by its hybrid combat system, and thankfully, it delivers. Every fight blends traditional shooting with real-time hacking puzzles, forcing you to split your attention between the battlefield and a grid-based interface. Crack the hack, expose weak points, and only then can you deal real damage. It creates a constant tension where positioning, timing, and quick thinking all matter.

What really sells it is how the system evolves. New nodes, tougher enemies, and more complex grids keep things fresh, while the gunplay itself remains consistently satisfying. Weapons have weight, crowd control tools feel impactful, and boss fights escalate things into chaotic, high-stakes encounters. It’s demanding, sometimes overwhelming, but rarely dull.

Missed potential beyond the action

Step outside combat, though, and the cracks start to show. The story leans on familiar sci-fi ideas: a rogue AI, a mysterious android companion, a doomed lunar facility—but doesn’t explore them in meaningful ways. Hugh and Diana’s relationship has charm in small moments, yet it never quite earns its emotional weight. Important lore is often tucked away in logs instead of being part of the main narrative, which makes the whole thing feel oddly disconnected.

Level design follows a predictable loop of corridors and arenas, and while it works, it doesn’t evolve much over time. There are also minor frustrations—awkward movement in platforming sections, some clunky controls, but they rarely derail the experience for long.

Bottom line

Pragmata knows exactly what it wants to be and sticks to it. The hack-and-shoot formula is fresh, challenging, and genuinely fun, carrying the entire experience on its back. Even with a forgettable story and a few rough edges, the strength of its combat makes it hard to put down, and even harder not to finish.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

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Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms