[New Voting Center] Capcom’s new ‘Diana’ steals gamers’ hearts

‘Red Desert’, which has been officially released for a month, is still popular. The new expansion pack 'Lord of Hatred' for 'Diablo 4', which is highly anticipated by gamers around the world ahead of its release on April 28, is competing fiercely for the top spot at the top of the charts.

Meanwhile, new games are gaining attention by appearing on the leaderboard. The main character is 'Pragmata', which is currently causing a so-called stupid craze among gamers around the world. It is evaluated that the decent story, game system, and attractive characters are in harmony, and in particular, Diana's cuteness is driving the game's popularity.

'Game of Thrones: King's Road', which is scheduled for PC election on May 14th, began its CBT on the 17th and began final verification. We are trying to differentiate ourselves by boasting that it is an original story that does not follow the story of the original novel or drama, and that the action is 100% manually operated.

Although it was not included in the Inven Game Calendar rankings, 'Windrose' is also very popular. It is a survival adventure game set in the era of pirates, and has been receiving positive reviews for everything from survival and crafting elements to non-targeting-based combat and ship battles on the sea. As a result, the maximum number of simultaneous users on Steam exceeded 220,000, and it is a box office success, selling 1 million copies in just 6 days after release.

Notable new releases, events, and updates

If I were to pick the most talked-about film of last week, it would definitely be ‘Fragmata.’ Although the demo version was well received, there were also concerns about whether the fun of the demo would continue until the end of the main game. However, 'Pragmata' put that doubt to rest with its overwhelming results.

As a result of the combination of a decent story, a solid game system, and attractive characters, it scored 87 points on Metacritic and 86 points on Open Criticism. In particular, Diana's unique charm is added, and she is receiving an 'overwhelmingly positive' evaluation on Steam with a recommendation rate of 97%.

The Xbox First Look Showcase held on the 17th also attracted great attention. This is because the latest work in the Metro series, ‘Metro 2039’, was released for the first time. Although the released play video was rather short, it heightened fans' expectations by showing the unique dark atmosphere, upgraded graphics, iconic equipment, and battle scenes at a glance.

'Game of Thrones: King's Road', which is scheduled to be elected on PC on May 14th, revealed details through an online showcase on the 17th, when CBT began. The part that caught the most attention was the news that lottery, which is a probability item, was completely excluded. All items except the monthly subscription, battle pass, and cosmetic costumes can be acquired through in-game play. With about three weeks left until the official launch, attention is being paid to what results this game-changing game will bring.

This week's ISSUE: The official successor to Baemseo, which returns to turn-based deck building

This week's release lineup appears relatively quiet, perhaps due to the numerous new releases released in the past week alone, including 'Pragmata', 'Replaced', 'Mongil: Star Dive', 'Hades 2', 'The Last Flag', and 'Opus: Bright Fork'. Meanwhile, a game whose name alone makes its presence known is ready to fill the void. 'Vampire Crawler' is the official successor to 'Vampire Survivors', which once created a craze and became a genre.

Although it is a 'Vampire Crawler' developed by inheriting the IP from the same developer, there is a big difference from the previous work. It's a change in genre. This new game is transformed into a deck-building roguelike with a first-person perspective, and the combat system is completely different. Instead of the real-time bullet hell action of the previous work, strategic battles using card decks were promoted as the core system, and much attention is being paid to whether 'Vampire Crawler' will be able to live up to the reputation of the previous work.

'Endless Ragnarok', an expansion pack for 'Granblue Fantasy Relink', will be undergoing an open beta test for 3 days from the 24th to the 27th prior to its official release. This expansion pack will add a variety of content, such as an additional main story from the point of view after the main story, the roguelike concept of 'Extreme Money Gongso', the new battle system 'Summon', and 'Ascend Chain', which allows linking of five people, including Luria. Through this test, you can experience the new battle system 'Summon' as well as a total of 12 playable characters, including Beatrix.

What was your METACRITIC score last week?

Let's take a look at the newly released Metacritic scores from last week. The game with the highest score is 'Fragmata', released on the 17th. At 86 points, the score itself is the same as 'Opus: Bright Fork Peak', but there was an overwhelming difference in the number of reviews. A whopping 93 reviews were accumulated, proving that it received the most interest and the best reviews among the works released last week. Even on Steam, the evaluation continues to be 'overwhelmingly positive', but there are also some opinions that are disappointing about the somewhat short play time and relatively mediocre story.

If you look at the rating alone, it can be said that it is a game that is on par with 'Fragmata'. This is the story about ‘Opus: Bright Fork Peak’. It received favorable reviews for its unique story-telling method using the camera and its lyrical narrative that touched the hearts of players. As a result, it scored 86 points and became the most talked-about indie game last week.

‘Gather Friends Island Exciting Life’ recorded 78 points. Based on improved hardware performance, the game's stage has expanded beyond indoors to a huge field, and the interactions and life patterns of Miis have become more diverse. The prevailing opinion is that it has achieved a dramatic improvement compared to the previous series, but the deletion of online elements has been pointed out as a major drawback.

‘Replaced’, which had been highly anticipated for its 2.5D pixel graphics, only scored 76 points. In terms of visuals, there was almost unanimous praise, but it was evaluated as disappointing that the story and combat system, which are the core of the game, did not keep up with the level of visuals.

Lastly, 'Last Flag', which combines Capture the Flag and team-based shooting, fell short of expectations with 68 points. There were positive reviews for the exquisite fusion of the two genres, but the poor content held it back. Although it is certainly fun in the beginning, the fact that interest quickly cools due to repeated modes and the fact that the user pool, which is the lifeblood of a live service game, is too small is mentioned as a fatal drawback.

New Popular Vote

This week's poll takes place between March 20th and May 20th, with popular votes for new and upcoming games. Accordingly, games such as 'Monster Hunter Stories 3', 'WWE 2K26', 'Seven Deadly Sins: Origins', and 'The Cube, Save Us' released in March were excluded from voting, and new games such as 'Forza Horizon 6' and 'Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core' were added.