Gaming Furever - Furry Game News

An unusual elk was spotted in the highlands, and I was part of the hunting party racing to its last location. From the back of our journeykin, we pounced the elk and it fought with leyline-infused techniques. We were making progress, when it started running, forcing us to remount our journeykin and pursue it! We readied harpoons with chains to slow it as it zigged and zagged, trying to throw us off. It took several attempts but we stopped it and continued the assault. As before, we waylaid the elk, exhausting its vitality before it began to run again. This time our pursuit led us to another situation, a wolf pup was sickened and the kodan needed help gathering herbs to fight the sickness. It was looking rough, there weren’t enough people to hold off the titans and gather herbs. Trusting the party that began the hunt to finish it, I broke off and went to the pup’s aid.

This series of events is exactly why I love playing Guild Wars 2. You begin one of the many tasks that unfold in the world and it intercepts another task. These events are built to engage you with the world and convey the themes of each map. The Lowlands map doesn’t have a meta event, relying on small local events to convey kodan culture, from hunting and gathering to agriculture and combat. You tend to basic chores around towns, and maybe get an unusual request from a cryptozoologist, however, a strange rot spreads, and you’ll investigate the underlying threat while fighting its effects on the ecosystem.

Welcome to "Fresh Fur!" Our weekly installment going over the newest game releases, and which ones you can expect to find anthros/furries in!

Check the list below for all the games we could find with animal/anthro influences and characters.

• The Rise of the Golden Idol (PS5, XSX, PC, PS4, NS) - November 12, 2024
• Is this Game Trying to Kill Me? (PC) - November 13, 2024
• Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake (PC, PS5, XSX, NS) – November 14, 2024
• Lego Horizon Adventures (PC, NS, PS5) – November 14, 2024
• Farming Simulator 25 (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) - November 12, 2024
• Tetris Forever (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC) - November 12, 2024
• Temtem: Swarm (PC)

*Bolded games have furry/animal influences/characters

These games were found in the New Releases section of Steam this week and will be updated as more come out throughout the week!

Welcome to "Fresh Fur!" Our weekly installment going over the newest game releases, and which ones you can expect to find anthros/furries in!

Check the list below for all the games we could find with animal/anthro influences and characters.

• Metal Slug Tactics (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC) - November 5
• Monarchy (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, PC) - November 6
• Planet Coaster 2 (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) - November 6
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate (PC) - November 6
• Magical Bakery (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, PC) - November 7
• Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch) - November 7
• Metro Awakening VR (PSVR 2, Quest, PC VR) - November 7
• Sengoku Dynasty (PC) - November 7
• Taiko No Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) - November 7
• Slitterhead (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, PC) - November 8

*Bolded games have furry/animal influences/characters

These games were found in the New Releases section of Steam this week and will be updated as more come out throughout the week!

The crowdfunding campaign for "Paws and Leave" just kicked off! In it, you'll follow "Me" the fox on his final journey to rediscover his memories. By his side is a charming butterfly named Ani, who will help you, sometimes more, sometimes less. Me relies on his senses, like smelling, to locate his memories in the realm between life and death.  The Kickstarter campaign has lots of stretch goals and exclusive opportunities for backers to have some of the most treasured memories immortalized in the game itself. It looks like a wonderful little adventure, full of surprises and cute (and mysterious) critters. Check out more details below and on their official Kickstarter Page.

🦊 Play as "Me"
Experience the emotional journey of a young fox in his final tale. Get guidance from a charming butterfly named Ani, who helps you on your last journey. Use Me’s senses, like smelling, to locate memories in the world in-between.

😢 Emotional Storytelling with Fearful Elements
A deeply moving narrative that includes darker and dangerous moments to reflect the protagonist's fading life. Meet various characters, uncover their stories and retrieve hidden memories.

🎣 Unique Gameplay Activities
Engage in activities like fishing for keepsakes on the back of an ancient wise turtle.

⛄ Beautiful World with small open world zones in different seasons
While the game has a strong linear storyline, players are free to explore the breathtaking world at their own pace to uncover secrets, collect keepsakes and unravel new tales.

💬 Personal Keepsakes
Discover and collect player-submitted keepsakes, such as messages, images or videos, scattered throughout the world.

👻 Whispering Echoes (Twitch Integration)
🔒 FEATURE UNLOCKS AT €55,000
Let your community engage with your adventure using our Twitch integration to interact with you and your journey in specific zones.

What do you do when you’re in need of inspiration for your writing? Why, you take a much needed break and visit the creepiest abbey in town. This is the premise of Mercury Abbey. Players step into the paws of Harrod, a character based on a gray wolf who’s a struggling writer. At the start of the story, Harrod is working on his latest novel and feeling pretty pessimistic about it. Sales have been lackluster since an influx of competition from similar works have flooded the market including a cyberpunk style adventure featuring a cat as a protagonist. Harrod isn’t given any peace to work or stew as he receives a call from his sister, who tells him that she's dropping off his nephew Willie with him. It’s at this point, the game finally starts. 

Elestrals is a new face in the TCG world. Designed and created by YouTuber aDrive and his amazing team, Elestrals sees players harness the powers of elemental spirits to call upon powerful enchanted creatures called Elestrals. It's a full blown card game complete with varied mechanics and even an in-universe origin story and lore. They’ve put a lot of love into it and it shows. Their website is filled with information about the various cards, how to play, the lore and much more. 

The TCG game was announced back in 2022 and reached massive success on Kickstarter with almost $1.5 million pledged from thousands of backers! It has continued to grow, garnering the interest and attention of card game fanatics and influencers alike. As of this writing, it's currently on its 4th set, Daybreak and the next set Moonrise is on the horizon.

Recently, they’ve returned to Kickstarter with the newly announced Elestrals Clash! A digital version of the game that’ll open it up to new players. Developed by the team who created the Pixelborn app(a digital version of Lorcana), it's already reached its main goal. A mobile and steam release is sure to be on the way but we may also see a Nintendo Switch release if it gets sufficient backing. At present, the Kickstarter is going all the way to the start of November so there’s plenty of time to get in there. Special bonuses like promo cards and exclusive cosmetics await the backers who embark on this journey to Elestria. It looks like a really fun game and I’m excited to check more of it out. They currently have an app on the Google Play store and a Discord server for players where they also host tournaments and you can learn the game. There’s also a YouTube channel where you can keep up with all the updates and learn about the game. If that sounds like your thing, check out the trailer for the Kickstarter below! 

Another GIANT list of games we have this season for the Fall 2024 Steam Next Fest! We're looking forward to a ton of these games and have compiled as many as we could find with animals and/or anthropomorphic characters featured in them! Be sure to let us know of any others you find by commenting below!

We'll be playing some of these demos this week and next, and hopefully providing some previews and progress updates throughout development! Additionally, we have an actively updated Furry & Animal Games List  over at @GamingFurever that you can follow and get constant updates for lots of indie titles with TONS of lovely furry characters! If you're a developer of any of these games, feel free to hit us up on email over on our Contact Us page!

Here's your October 2024 Steam Next Fest list:

So, today was the Xbox Partner Preview showcase, where the latest in third-party games coming to Xbox were shown and to be perfectly honest? Outside of a few select titles, there really wasn’t much noteworthy here to really get excited about, which is a shame as, usually, I find a good bit of games that look fun, but not this time, sadly. That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t anything good on the show, just that nothing really screamed MUST GET, for me at least.

Strategy focused RPGs are always some of my favorites. I’m not always good at them, but I enjoy them. So when I saw the announcement for Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven a few months ago, I was intrigued. A non-linear rpg with multiple characters and different formations? That doesn’t involve a standard exp system? This promises to be pretty interesting, especially since I’ve never heard of the SaGa franchise before this game. Fortunately, like Final Fantasy, the number is mostly a formality: knowledge of other entries in the series is not all required to play or enjoy this one. Which means we can jump straight in.

The concept for Copycat is rife with opportunity. Lovingly and fully voice acted by a cast of Australian locals, Copycat is driven by the concept of a nature documentary narrator following your cat, Dawn’s, adventures through adoption and rehoming. Your new life is upended when a “Copycat” tries to take your newly found place in the family with an elderly lady named Olive. Olive and her daughter also have a lot of real life issues that they’re having to handle, and you get caught up in the effects of all of them, while also battling with the implied trauma from your last family. People tell me I’m an emotional guy, and this game does nothing to prove them wrong. Throughout the game I was on a rollercoaster of emotions, all of them culminating in an incredibly fulfilling ending that was worth the price of admission.

Sunderfolk, the first game developed by Secret Door., has been announced! Published by Dreamhaven, Sunderfolk is designed for players who love tabletop, board, and video games, and will be available on Steam, PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch™. 

Sunderfolk is a tactical couch co-op RPG created with the purpose of bringing new and veteran players together in a shared tale of tactics, survival, and triumph. You and three of your friends can pick one of six available heroes—the Arcanist, Bard, Berserker, Pyromancer, Ranger, and Rogue—and begin a one-of-a-kind experience told through both the “main screen” (the shared TV or monitor) and your phone or tablet, which acts as your controller for the adventure.

Castlevania is perhaps the most well known vampire video game series, famous for its gothic horror elements and of course, the constant threat of Dracula. Much like the vampire the series is based around, it rises and falls time and time again. Recently, it has been re-emerging from its coffin with the success of the animated Netflix series that’s still considered to be among the best on the platform and seeing re-releases of older games. For example, the Anniversary collection which features the original NES/SNES titles plus a few extras like Bloodlines and Kid Dracula and the Advance Collection which includes the GBA trilogy of games as well as Dracula X. With the recent announcement of Castlevania Nocturne getting its much needed season 2, now seems like a good time to talk about the most recent collection of re-releases, Castlevania Dominus Collection.

When I did my review for ‘Turok 3: Shadows Of Oblivion’, I had mentioned that I used to work for a radio station and two of the earliest reviews I did were on the HD remasters of both Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Turok 2: Seeds Of Evil. Well, seeing as that station is no more and the reviews are now lost, I figured it’s time I revisit these two games and see if my thoughts on them from back then still hold up or if they had changed over the years. Beginning with the first Turok and my thoughts on this one greatly changed from my early review of it.

Back when I first first played the game, I felt that Turok: Dinosaur Hunter did not age well, even with it being remastered and that its biggest issue was the gameplay feeling archaic and very clunky in its design. I also felt that the sequel was superior to this game because it not only improved and fixed the issues this game has, but it feels like what the first game should've been. However, after doing some replays of both games, I actually feel the opposite now. Yes, the game still didn’t age well in a few areas and I still feel the frequent platforming areas and the huge difficulty spikes throughout the game do hurt it, but I actually prefer this one over Seeds Of Evil, though I still say Shadows Of Oblivion is the better game.

The Warhammer 40k universe, though widely popular, was something I never really gotten into at all. I have played some of the games, like the Vermintide series and BoltGun, but it was really never something I felt compelled to be a part of in any way. Still, I did enjoy the few games I played, Vermintide 2 being one of them, and I did like the original Space Marine when I played it a few years back, so when a sequel was finally announced in 2021 at the Game Awards, I’ll admit that I was curious but not super excited. I’m kind of glad I wasn’t hyped for the game as, unfortunately, the game did not live up to the years of waiting. Sure, it has some good moments here and there and it isn’t broken in any way, it’s just not a fun game overall.

What do you get when you mix Animal Crossing at its best with a cozy town building, crafting, life sim game set on a post-apocalyptic archipelago paradise? Why, you get Critter Cove! Though it's premiering in early access on Steam, it is well into the “worth it” category already upon initial launch. I’ve spent a good 15 hours in the world of Critter Cove and it has flown by. There’s a wonderfully pleasant and interesting gameplay loop that involves exploring the world bit by bit, picking up important resources along the way, and finding new villagers and questlines as you go. You can find furniture for your house, improvements for your town, or new tools to create lots of usable or displayable objects. I was impressed by how much I kept discovering new areas to explore, each holding a new trinket to collect for my museum, or rare items to dismantle and eventually build in my house. There’s a lot to unpack, so let’s get started!

You are Stanley. You work in an office complex pressing buttons. One day, no instructions come through your computer and everyone is gone. Wanting to find out what happened, you leave the office and begin your unpredictable journey in, what is quite possibly, my second favorite game of all time.

The island your ship landed on is sinking for mysterious reasons! Explore, make new friends, and face deadly foes in this action RPG! Maple Forest just launched their Kickstarter, and it's already fully funded!

Maple Forest is an action RPG inspired by a bunch of 90s classics. In it, you'll adventure across an island that's begun to sink for mysterious reasons. The residents of the island's main village tell you that their legends say the power of the god of the island is what keeps the island afloat. The god of the island lives in a shrine at the top of the mountain, but that shrine has been sealed off by a huge stone door for longer than anyone in the village can remember. If there was a way to open that door and speak with the island's guardian, the island might be saved, but noone on the island has been strong or courageous enough to brave the island's wilderness in search of a way to unseal the door...until now!

What happens when you take the over the top violence of Superjail, the heavy metal soundtrack of Metalocalypse, the sheer absurdity of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and the killer unicorns from the songs of Gloryhammer? You get Gori: Cuddly Carnage, a game I can only describe as an AdultSwim cartoon in video game format and I mean that in the best way possible as this game is insanely over the top and one of the most fun games I’ve played all year, though I do have some small gripes with it.

I grew up in an era when games for kids were well made, not rushed out, and designed so that everyone could enjoy them. Games like the Carmen San-Diego franchise and the various Magic School Bus games, a series I loved playing on my old Windows 95, come to mind as something anyone of any age could pick up and enjoy. I bring this up because, lately, it seems games geared towards a younger audience have really been lackluster as of late, basically relegated to shovelware, and Leo The Firefighter Cat is no exception, which is a shame as there is a fun game hidden somewhere in here.

I mentioned in my preview for this game a while back that I’ve spent a lot of time playing card games, and those are always some of my favorites. I had a lot of fun playing that demo and I’m very excited to be coming back to it for this review. It's easily some of the most fun I’ve had with a card game in a long time and it has always managed to put a smile on my face thus far. If you enjoy card games like I do, you’re in for a treat.