Nightingale is free on Epic

Monday, there was another showcase of FM26 last week, so of course, I had to have a little bit of a rant and rave on it. Tuesday, WoW: Legion Remix dates were announced by Blizzard, and the new Reptar cleanup game, Kaiju Cleanup, was announced by the developer of War for the Overworld. Wednesday, nothing happened, and Xbox didn’t shoot itself in the foot at all. Nope, never [gif of Abe Simpson]. Thursday, there was an announcement that a new The Lord of the Rings RPG is in development, supposedly.

This week on the Epic Games Store, it is a bit of a double bill on both sides of the storefront. I think this week we’ll start the completely and utterly insane Nightingale. Released into early access back in early 2024, Nightingale is stylistically a blend of steam-gas-punk in a series of fantasy realms of survival-crafting that can be frustrating and annoying. Procedurally generated in places, the realms you adventure through to find the city of Nightingale are like finding the setting of the first spin-off series of Stargate SG-1. That’s a reference for three people and my editor, enjoy.

Nightingale‘s distinctive realm-based adventure mechanic is one of its best, unique, and most interesting aspects as you combine cards to create worlds of certain types to explore and gather resources from. However, it is that survival-crafting element that will end up feeling like a slog if you hate needlessly obtuse objectives. Worse than all of that is the fact that multiplayer is clearly a focus. However, you can play solo if you like, with a late-game dungeon raid system also available.

Moving on to the Epic Games Store for mobile offerings, though our first offering is also available on PC, Firestone Online Idle RPG is exactly what I’ve said before. It looks terrible, I’d be willing to bet that it feels terribly horrific, and there is a reason I’m having to talk about a free-to-play game as part of the free games available on Epic. Right now, you can pick up a limited-time “The cheerful monk” hero skin, and all the little bits that usually cost money. All the little bits that add up to $100, apparently. I’ll give you $2.50 in coins and a used condom, final offer.

Also available on the Epic Games Store for mobile this week (and only available there), Doodle Devil: Dark Side. Or, as it is called on the Google Play store, Doodle Devil Blitz: Dark Side. Basically, if you are brain-dead enough to think Doodle God was a great idea, constant ads during “gameplay” are a good thing, and in-app purchases are necessary, then yeah, I think you’ve already sold your soul to the devil as is.

All this week, you can pick up Nightingale and Firestone Online Idle RPG‘s free-to-play nonsense on the Epic Games Store for PC for free. You can also do the same with Firestone Online Idle RPG and Doodle Devil: Dark Side (or whatever it is called) on the Epic Games Store for mobile via Android globally, and iOS in the EU. Moving on to next week’s similarly annoying double bill, Albion Online will offer the “Rogue Journeyman” bundle, which the dev/publisher values at “over $50.” While those who keep up with Prime Gaming will get Gravity Circuit again, in fairly short order.