Despite the rising amount of people believing Stadia won't be around for long, we're into another year and Google have announced that more than 100 games will release for Stadia through 2021.

After a pretty rough time with Terraria cancelled and bridges burned, along with Stadia shutting down first-party game development which left a lot of Stadia users worried they definitely needed to put out some good news. In a fresh community post , the Stadia team officially announced "more than 100 games that will be added to the Stadia store for our players in 2021".

Here's more of what they just recently confirmed:

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition (Feb. 23)

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The Stadia team also reiterated that plenty more are also confirmed and have been announced previously like Far Cry 6, Riders Republic and Hello Engineer.

You can play on Stadia.com with a Chrome based browser.

Thunder Lotus appear to have done well with Spiritfarer, their unique management game with a rather cozy atmosphere and a theme based around looking after the dead.

For those who haven't played it yet: you build a boat to explore the world, then befriend and care for spirits before finally releasing them into the afterlife. During the game you build, farm, mine, fish, talk to lots of different people and travel across the seas and eventually say goodbye to spirits you've looked after. In a press release they noted that three separate updates are coming that will "notably expand upon the game’s main story, as well as adding additional characters, locations, and quality of life improvements" and all will be free.

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“We’re tremendously happy with the praise Spiritfarer has received since launch” says Spiritfarer Creative Director Nicolas Guérin. “It’s attracted a very passionate group of fans too, which is great because the team is excited to keep supporting the game with new content this year! I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank our fans for their crucial input as we explored various ideas for new Spiritfarer content. Your feedback definitely helped us zero in on the best path forward for the project!”

Additionally, they shared that Spiritfarer has become the most successful game Thunder Lotus has launched to date. Not without some controversy though. Overall, it is an absolutely lovely game and well worth spending some time with. If you want to see their new roadmap it's up here .

You can buy Spiritfarer on GOG , Steam and Stadia .

Ready to explore a bigger universe? The upcoming X4: Cradle of Humanity expansion along with the big free 4.0 update for all players is now confirmed to launch on March 16.

Taking the X series from Egosoft back to Earth, it will significantly increase the size of the game's universe giving you new sectors to explore along with two Terran factions to X4: Foundations, along with their economy, ships, weapons and stations.

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What Cradle of Humanity will include:

• Big expansion of the X4: Foundations universe with new sectors
• Return of Terran factions with economy, ships, weapons and stations
• Thrilling new story missions and adventures to experience
• New game-starts that allow new perspectives on the X4: Foundations story
• Introducing a new terraforming gameplay feature, evolving the endgame
• Visual improvements such as volumetric fog, making the X universe look better than ever

As for the big 4.0 free update, Egosoft continue mentioning it will be the biggest free update in the game's history. You can even try a Beta for it on Steam right now . It does sound pretty expansive with a new coordinated attack system for fleet commanding, volumetric fog graphical feature has been added, a new transaction log to see a good breakdown of your monies, a new message system for important communication with NPCs, new Escorts missions, an option to declare war on a faction and absolutely loads more.

X4: Cradle of Humanity is probably one of the biggest, or perhaps actually the biggest and most in-depth single-player space sim around.

For the full game right now you can buy it on Humble Store , GOG and Steam .

Altered from developer Glitchheart is an upcoming meditative puzzle game mixing hard puzzles and a soothing atmosphere, as you move and morph yourself around small areas to complete each puzzle.

Featuring over 80 puzzles the twist here is that you go through multiple characters / objects to control, each with a unique power of altering their form. The developer says by "understanding their powers, you will gain new intuition for solving interesting puzzles".

Check out the new trailer:

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Hilariously, the developer went back and re-did the initial object you control as apparently it looked like a "turd" after the original announcement. Checking out the demo…well, they're not wrong. Hilariously this resulted in a newer trailer (the one above) being done where they've given the starting object a shiny golden makeover that I'm trying not to make jokes about because now it looks like a polished moving and growing poop.

Jokes aside, the idea genuinely does seem to be quite interesting.

You can follow Altered on Steam for release on March 12 and try the demo now.

Every played the prop hunt games? Most players hide themselves as an object, with a seeker trying to pick them out. Run Prop, Run! plans to offer up another unique take on it. In development by PlayTogether Studio who previously released Mad Experiments: Escape Room.

While the basic idea is the same, it's been adjusted to have a bit more to it. There's some platforming involved and a few special skills too, like props having an ability of shooting out a cloud of smoke to confuse the seeker. Different phases of each game too with props hiding, trying to escape and then becoming an extra hunter.

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It's not just enough to spot a player, the hunters actually need to capture them. The hunter seekers are, amusingly, a big hopping gun and you need to hit them with it and stay around them for three seconds for the capture. With everything having googly-eyes stuck to it, I have to say it looks truly hilarious.

Overall it really does sound like a fun and unique twist on prop hunting thanks to the platforming, skills and capture system. Looking forward to seeing the full thing.

You can wishlist / follow on Steam , and gather a few friends together to try the demo. The developer mentioned there's no time limit on the demo, it's staying up for the foreseeable future.

Always on the look out for the next fun strategy game to sink some time into, I came across DEFLECTION and it looks pretty much like a game of Chess with a whole lot of lasers.

Inspired directly by the classic laser chess game Khet, the idea is to move around the board and annihilate enemy pieces with your lasers. There's a number of different pieces that have their own advantages, abilities and weaknesses you need to utilize to take them down. At the end of each turn, you have to shoot and so placement is key to victory.

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It actually sounds like it could be very amusing to play through, with a lot of very careful thinking needed. The majority of pieces can move in all directions and rotate 90 degrees for ideal positioning, plus you can use enemy pieces against them and there's special objects in the levels too like portals and mirrors. There's even special green pieces, which both players on the board can control. Lots of ways to win by the sound of it and it could be a good one to watch.

Planned Features:

• Local and Online Multiplayer.
• Tutorial mode against the AI which goes through rules and tactics.
• Play against the AI!
• A lot of scenarios/maps designed to challenge you, some having unique pieces only available in them.
• Many different pieces with advantages, downsides, abilities and more.
• 3D Camera with full control.
• Steam Achievements and stats.

You can wishlist / follow on Steam . The developer mentioned they planned to have a demo available during the upcoming Steam Game Festival in the Summer.

Linux hardware vendor and Pop!_OS Linux distribution maker System76 are getting closer to releasing their custom Keyboard, and they've begun teasing out a lot more info on it.

Firstly it looks like the entire code for it is now live on GitHub which goes over quite a lot of detail about it. The System76 Launch Configurable Keyboard is "designed to provide the ultimate user controlled keyboard experience, with open source mechanical and electrical design, open source firmware and associated software, and a large number of user configuration opportunities".

Some shots (click for gallery)

The units are being manufactured by System76 directly in their Denver, Colorado facility just like they do with their Thelio cases. The chassis for the System76 Launch Configurable Keyboard is milled from two solid blocks of aluminium, then powder coated for the fit and finish. They say that each "pocket, port, and hole is designed and precisely machined so that swapping switches and plugging in cables is easy and secure for the user".

Are you a fan of colourful patterns? Well good news on that front as each switch has an RGB LED that is independently controlled and so you can pick from different patterns. The whole configuration suite is open source too with the keyboard-configurator also up on GitHub and the firmware will be easily updatable with the fwupd project.

Would you be looking to buy one? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Ready for one more attempt? Paradox Interactive and Paradox Tinto have announced he newest expansion to Paradox's flagship grand strategy game about the early modern world with Europa Universalis IV: Leviathan.

Leviathan offers new tools that allow you to play “tall” with smaller and more focused realms with a few centres of power. Paradox aren't yet giving away everything that's in it but they did say it also has a host of other changes to well-established game features like Regencies and Colonies. Additionally you will get new ways to quickly develop your capital, drawing resources and power from vassals or newly conquered territories, and allows you to build beyond your province's construction limit if you are willing to pay the price.

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As per usual, a big free update for everyone will be dropping at the same time as we've come to expect from anything Paradox do. This free update will rework  the Southeast Asian and Australasian maps, with new nations, new cultures and new religions offering up plenty of new ways to play through.

You can wishlist / follow Leviathan on Steam .

Loop Hero, an upcoming mash-up of genres that blends together a roguelike adventure with deck-building and a little auto-battling in a very unique game mechanically is now launching on March 4. There's also a limited time demo up.

Confirmed to have Linux support at release, Loop Hero has been making some waves through various previews done by other publications with plenty giving it high marks. For good reason too, this could be the next great destroyer of time that makes you stay up late with weary eyes.

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Feature Highlight:

• Infinite Adventure: Select from unlockable character classes and deck cards before setting out on each expedition along a randomly generated loop path. No expedition is ever the same as the ones before it.
• Plan Your Struggle: Strategically place building, terrain, and enemy cards along each loop to create your own dangerous path. Find balance between the cards to increase your chances of survival while recovering valuable loot and resources for your camp.
• Loot and Upgrade: Strike down menacing creatures, recover stronger loot to equip on the fly and unlock new perks along the way.
• Expand Your Camp: Turn hard-earned resources into campsite upgrades and gain valuable reinforcements with each completed loop along the expedition path.
• Save the Lost World: Overcome a series of unholy guardian bosses over a grand saga to save the world and break the time loop of the Lich!

Having no direct control is a bit odd at first but that's part of the charm and uniqueness of it. That doesn't mean you're defenceless though, far from it. You are in control, of most things apart from the hero. They're looping over whatever you place down on the map and using whatever tools you've equipped for them. It starts off extremely simple, carefully adding a new layer to the tasty loop over time with more mechanics and more tiles to place down with unique properties. Then you get into the camp building and so much more. There's so much crammed into it!

Right now you can try it out too, as it has a limited time demo available for the Steam Game Festival. It's one of the most interesting games in the entire event so do try it out. I've been quite captured by it because it's so thoroughly weird and unique, a bit too easy to get absorbed into as you watch everything unfold.

I like it so much I need more, a lot more.

Follow Loop Hero on Steam ready for release on March 4 and it's also 15% off to pre-order.