Image: Moon Studios/Private Division Moon Studios takes a big swing, and early access shows promise No Rest for the Wicked is tedious by design. Healing items in the action RPG have a 10-second hold period after use, so you’re bound to die often. Equipment loses durability each time you die, and the cost of repairs quickly adds up. Bounty missions you take on to cover them pay like shit, but that’s the job. Over and over, the game punctures any confidence you build over the course of your adventure, increasing enemy numbers and introducing new, vicious foes often to shake familiarity. That fru ..read more

Image: Slavic Magic/Hooded Horse via Polygon Sometimes flexible plots are too clever for their own good Flexible plots are how you’ll build burgage plots, marketplaces, and farm fields in your Manor Lords town. It’s a pretty intuitive (and satisfying) process with the edges of the plots snapping to roads to make organic shapes. Sometimes, though, it just doesn’t work. Our Manor Lords guide will help you understand some of the reasons that flexible plots can’t be built and how to avoid or fix them. How flexible plots (are supposed to) work Flexible plots are how you’ll lay out some important pa ..read more

Image: Slavic Magic/Hooded Horse via Polygon And what does “family request more market area” mean? Marketplaces in Manor Lords are where all of the stuff your village needs to survive — stuff like firewood, food, and clothes — gets distributed. They’re not a way to make money, though. Your first exposure to them will likely be when you get an alert saying that a “family requests more market area for their stall.” Our Manor Lords marketplace guide will explain how marketplaces work to distribute food, fuel, and clothes. How marketplaces work in Manor Lords In order to upgrade your Burgage Plots ..read more

Graphic: Polygon | Image sources: Yager Development/2K Games, Remedy Entertainment/Microsoft Game Studios You might be able to get it back online, but that’s not always the case Cory Davis woke up one morning in January to some unfortunate news: Spec Ops: The Line, the game he directed at Yager Development, had been removed from digital storefronts. Over 24 hours, the game would disappear from Steam, GOG, and the Xbox Store. At the time of this writing, it’s not available to buy new digitally. “At first I thought, This is probably a mistake or something that’ll be resolved in the next few hour ..read more

Image: Bungie Everything you need to do before diving into the finale of Destiny’s first saga Preparing for The Final Shape, Destiny 2’s upcoming expansion that will serve as the finale of the Light and Darkness saga, is going to be quite a bit of work. But I have two pieces of good news for you on that front. First, there’s only so much you can do in a given week. And second, depending on what you like to do in the game, you might not need to prep at all. In this Destiny 2 guide, I’ll walk you through what you need to do before jumping into The Final Shape, explain what’s going away on June 3 ..read more

Image: Hoyoverse Get free Stellar Jade by using these three codes Honkai: Star Rail just closed out its version 2.2 livestream, teasing what’s to come in the next update, which launches the evening of May 7 EDT. Alongside new characters and events, Hoyoverse uses the stream to distribute codes that reward free Stellar Jade and other upgrade materials. This update brings Robin and Boothill as playable characters, as well as a peek into what looks like a new form for the Trailblazer. (Why else would they get a new fancy hat?) There’ll also be more story for the Penacony saga, as well as a new Ec ..read more

Image: Slavic Magic/Hooded Horse via Polygon Like a house, but more Burgage plots are the basic building block of your town in Manor Lords. They’re where your town’s families build houses, they generate income for your treasury, and they’re also how you’ll build a number of important workshops in backyard extensions. Our Manor Lords burgage plot guide will explain these mixed-use plots of land, from how to set them up through upgrading them — including all the infrastructure you’ll need to build for those upgrades. What is a burgage plot in Manor Lords? The basic unit of Manor Lords’ workforce ..read more

Image: Slavic Magic/Hooded Horse via Polygon Have your town earn cash Regional Wealth is the collective money of your Manor Lords town. It’s not your money (your Treasury) as ruler of the area. Instead, it’s the money that your town’s families will use to do things like build workshops and gardens, pay taxes, and import goods. Our Manor Lords Regional Wealth guide will explain how Regional Wealth works, what you’ll use it for, and how to earn more. What is Regional Wealth in Manor Lords? Regional Wealth is basically a measure of how much cash your town collectively has. This has nothing to do ..read more

Image: Slavic Magic/Hooded Horse via Polygon Supplly your town to upgrade your plots Marketplaces in Manor Lords are where all of the stuff your village needs to survive — stuff like firewood, food, and clothes — gets distributed. They’re not a way to make money, though. Our Manor Lords marketplace guide will explain how marketplaces work to distribute food, fuel, and clothes. How marketplaces work in Manor Lords In order to upgrade your Burgage Plots in Manor Lords, those plots need access to a marketplace supplied with fuel, food, and clothing. Building a marketplace is free, and any family ..read more

Image: Slavic Magic/Hooded Horse How to get started with this complex city builder Manor Lords is complex, fidgety, and more than a little impenetrable. There’s a lot that will be familiar about it if you’re a veteran of city-building games, but Manor Lords has it’s own idiosyncracies even with those. And that makes tips and tricks less important than just general advice and quick explanations of those quirks, so that’s what we’ll focus on for this beginner’s guide. Below, we’ve got nine things to know before you get started playing Manor Lords with advice on things like building your town, ho ..read more