Tag Archives: Early Access

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Expeditions: Samurai Enters Steam Early Access — Feudal Japan Tactics With Co-op Launches Today

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Campfire Cabal and THQ Nordic have launched Expeditions: Samurai into Steam Early Access today, 7 August 2026. The turn-based tactics RPG drops you into feudal Japan at the tail end of the Sengoku period, with simultaneous combat resolution and two-player co-op as its standout mechanics.

Expeditions: Samurai Early Access Out Now — samurai overlooking a red sky landscape

Setting and Story

Set in Japan circa 1600 — the turbulent close of the Sengoku period — Expeditions: Samurai puts you in the boots of Captain Flynn, a foreign privateer drawn into the country’s political and military chaos. The Expeditions franchise has built its reputation on historically grounded settings; this is the third major entry after Expeditions: Viking and Expeditions: Rome.

Atmospheric Japanese shrine with stone steps and gong in Expeditions: Samurai

Combat and Companions

The core combat mechanic is simultaneous turn resolution: both sides commit their orders before anything plays out, which rewards anticipating your opponent over pure reaction. Outside of combat you can use stealth to sidestep fights entirely, and the game lets you split your party to handle multiple objectives at once.

You’ll recruit up to eight companions over the course of the campaign. The game also supports two-player co-op — unusual for the genre, and a natural fit given how the split-party mechanics work.

Dialogue scene: Tanaka Takayuki speaks with Captain Flynn in Expeditions: Samurai

What’s in Early Access

The current build contains Act 1: five main quests and three side quests, with an estimated eight hours of content. The full campaign is scoped at roughly 60 hours, with a 1.0 release targeted for 2027.

Turn-based combat UI with stats panel inside a Japanese building in Expeditions: Samurai

Pricing

Expeditions: Samurai is PC and Steam only for now. The standard price is US$29.99, with a 34% launch discount taking it down to US$19.79 for a limited time.

Early Access Release Trailer

If the Expeditions formula has clicked for you before, the feudal Japan setting and simultaneous-resolution combat make this an easy recommendation at the discounted launch price. Expeditions: Samurai is available now on Steam.

Game News

BeastLink Sets August 18 Steam Early Access Date — GTA Trilogy Devs Go Full Kaiju

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The studio behind GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition is pivoting hard into kaiju territory. Grove Street Games has confirmed that BeastLink, its multiplayer monster-versus-humans action game, will launch in Early Access on PC via Steam on 18 August 2026. The date was announced on 27 July alongside updates to the game’s Steam page, giving fans just over three weeks to prepare.

What Is BeastLink?

A massive mandrill-type kaiju roars between city skyscrapers as military helicopters close in — BeastLink
Image courtesy of Grove Street Games

Set in a post-apocalyptic world where colossal creatures rule the ruins of civilisation, BeastLink drops up to 32 players into fully destructible urban environments and divides them across two radically different scales: human soldiers and vehicle operators on the ground, and city-shaking kaiju above.

Players begin each session as human survivors, fighting through war-torn cityscapes to collect a rare biological compound called serum. Gather enough, and you can trigger a BeastLink — a full transformation into one of the game’s enormous kaiju, flipping the experience from tactical ground combat into pure monster mayhem. Die in beast form, respawn as a soldier, and you earn your way back to godhood all over again.

Built on Unreal Engine 5, the game runs on Grove Street’s proprietary SuperDestruction engine layer, packing maps with over 250,000 individually destructible objects. Buildings collapse with physics simulation; walls become rubble that reshapes the battlefield in real time, turning every city block into both a battlefield and a weapon.

BeastLink — Official Reveal Trailer, via IGN on YouTube

How the BeastLink Loop Works

A military aircraft banking away from a kaiju firing an energy beam across a burning city skyline at sunset — BeastLink
Image courtesy of Grove Street Games

The mechanic that sets BeastLink apart from earlier asymmetric games like Evolve is fluidity: players are never locked into a single role for the full match. Earning your way to beast form by collecting serum as a soldier means the transformation feels earned, not handed to you. The shift in scale — from squad-level tactics to monster-scale destruction — is the payoff.

Each kaiju plays differently enough that squad coordination matters. Do your whole team race for beast form and turn the match into a kaiju clash? Or does one player stay human and helicopter, using vehicle firepower to harass enemy beasts while teammates transform? That improvised decision-making is where the depth lives.

The Four Launch Kaiju

The Bull Shark and Vampire Bat kaiju clash in a forested mountain environment near a dam — BeastLink
Image courtesy of Grove Street Games

Grove Street has confirmed four playable kaiju for the Early Access launch, each with a distinct combat identity:

  • Horned Lizard — heavily armoured close-range brawler, built for sustained punishment and crowd control
  • Bull Shark — fast and aggressive, best for charging through structures and disrupting enemy formations
  • Vampire Bat — aerial predator; high mobility but lower durability, designed for hit-and-fade attacks from above
  • Mandrill — versatile primate-type kaiju with terrain manipulation abilities, capable of reshaping the environment mid-combat

Additional kaiju are planned during the Early Access period, though Grove Street has not yet published a content roadmap. The full 1.0 launch is currently targeting Summer 2027, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions arriving alongside the commercial release rather than the Early Access build.

What Singapore Gamers Need to Know

Human survivors face a Horned Lizard kaiju inside a cathedral-like interior — BeastLink Early Access
Image courtesy of Grove Street Games

BeastLink goes live on Steam on 18 August 2026 — accessible to Singapore players the moment Early Access opens. Early Access pricing has not yet been confirmed; check the BeastLink Steam page to wishlist and track the launch price once it is set.

For Singapore’s gaming scene the kaiju genre is having a genuine moment. Kaiju No. 8 has turned giant-monster fiction into one of the most-discussed anime and manga properties in Southeast Asia over the past two years, and the appetite for kaiju games has followed. BeastLink’s proposition — playing as the beast, not just fighting one — taps directly into that power fantasy. The 32-player scale also makes it a natural candidate for local Discord communities and gaming café sessions when the full launch eventually arrives on console.

For more upcoming PC and console game news, see our Game News section.

Game News

ZeroSpace Hits Steam Early Access Today — Sci-Fi RTS Launches Now

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The wait is over: ZeroSpace, the Kickstarter-backed sci-fi strategy hybrid from Starlance Studios, has officially launched in Steam Early Access today, 20 July 2026. With over 250,000 wishlists and 40,000 players through the demo at Steam Next Fest last month, this one has been on a lot of radar screens — and now the real game is live.

ZeroSpace official Steam capsule art by Starlance Studios
Image courtesy of Starlance Studios

What Is ZeroSpace?

ZeroSpace is a cinematic sci-fi RTS with a story-rich, party-based RPG campaign — the developer’s own description, and an accurate one. You command The Protectorate in a galactic conflict set in the Orion sector, making crew decisions and mission-level choices that shape how the story unfolds. Less mindless base-clicking, more narrative weight baked into the strategy layer.

Developed by Starlance Studios together with Ironward and co-published with Gamersky Games, ZeroSpace is the studio’s debut title following a successful Kickstarter campaign. The team describes a one-year Early Access roadmap before a full release.

ZeroSpace galactic war persistent co-op mode map
Image courtesy of Starlance Studios

What’s in Early Access at Launch

ZeroSpace ships Day One with a solid content base:

  • 13 campaign story missions with interactive dialogue and crew relationship mechanics
  • 10 co-op missions with procedurally generated enemy compositions and objectives
  • Skirmish mode for custom quick battles
  • 4 main factions plus 6 mercenary factions
  • 90+ units and heroes across all factions
  • Galactic War — a persistent, MMO-style co-op mode where players fight for control across an ongoing star map

The roadmap through to full release adds more campaign missions, 4v4 PvP maps, and expanded Galactic War mechanics. The developer has confirmed that Early Access pricing may increase as content is added — so getting in now is likely the best value.

ZeroSpace hero units and faction selection screen
Image courtesy of Starlance Studios

System Requirements

ZeroSpace is a reasonably demanding PC title. Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Minimum: 4-core CPU @ 3 GHz, 16 GB RAM, GTX 1080 Ti or RX 5700, 50 GB storage, Windows 10 64-bit, DirectX 11
  • Recommended: 8-core CPU @ 3 GHz, 16 GB RAM, RTX 3060 Ti or RX 6800, 50 GB storage

PC via Steam is the only platform at launch — no console release has been announced. Steam is the dominant PC gaming platform across Southeast Asia, and no region lock has been confirmed, so Singapore players can pick it up directly.

Watch the Early Access Launch Trailer

ZeroSpace – Campaign EA Launch Date Trailer — via PlayZeroSpace on YouTube

Where to Get It

ZeroSpace is available now on Steam. Check the store page directly for current pricing — the developer has noted the price is subject to increase through the Early Access period. No region lock has been announced, so the game should be accessible from Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia without a VPN.

ZeroSpace galactic war persistent co-op mode overview
Image courtesy of Starlance Studios

If you’ve been waiting for an RTS that actually gives you something to care about beyond the unit count, ZeroSpace looks like a genuine contender. The demo pulled 40,000 players in a week during Next Fest — now the real test starts. For more on what’s launching on PC and console, check out our latest game news.

Game News

Palworld 1.0 Launches July 10 With New Pals and the World Tree

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After two and a half years in Early Access, Pocketpair’s monster-capture survival game Palworld is going 1.0 on July 10, 2026 — and the Japanese studio is calling it the biggest update the game has ever seen. Twenty-seven pages of patch notes, more new Pals than any previous update, and the long-awaited World Tree region are all on the table.

Palworld 1.0 Cinematic Trailer — via Pocketpair Palworld on YouTube

What’s New in Palworld 1.0

Pocketpair announced the 1.0 release at Summer Game Fest 2026, framing it as a package that delivers “a deeper and more evolved experience befitting an official release.” The headline additions:

  • New Pals — more than in any single update before it, with the cinematic trailer teasing at least one that transforms into a usable sword and a colossal flying creature linked to the World Tree
  • Revamped combat — “new ways to wield Pals as weapons directly” are confirmed, reshaping how you use companions in the field
  • Genetic Recombination breeding system — a new layer to Pal cultivation beyond the original breeding mechanics
  • Overhauled progression — significant stat and skill system revisions throughout
  • Server Clustering for dedicated servers, making large-group multiplayer sessions more stable
  • Story content — proper narrative missions woven into the new region
Three fluffy Palworld Pals armed with machine guns behind sandbags
Image courtesy of Pocketpair

Pocketpair’s global communications lead confirmed the 1.0 changelog runs to approximately 27 pages — which, for a game that was already receiving substantial updates throughout Early Access, signals just how much ground this release covers.

The World Tree — Palworld’s Long-Awaited Endgame Region

The centrepiece of 1.0 is the World Tree region: a new island that roughly doubles the playable area of Palpagos and unlocks what Pocketpair has been hinting at as the game’s true endgame destination. In the cinematic trailer, it’s framed as a place that has loomed just out of reach since launch — visible on the horizon, now finally open.

Player riding a dragon-type Pal firing energy blasts in Palworld's open world
Image courtesy of Pocketpair

Full patch notes haven’t been released ahead of launch, so the complete contents of the World Tree — bosses, exclusive Pals, story beats — remain under wraps for now. Pocketpair has kept the details deliberately sparse, which probably means the reveal moments are meant to land in-game.

Every Platform, One Date — Singapore Players Take Note

Palworld 1.0 drops simultaneously on PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Mac, and Xbox Game Pass on July 10. Singapore players on PC can expect the update live at roughly 8–10 AM SGT (matching the 9–11 AM JST window Pocketpair indicated).

Pink Palworld Pals working in a factory conveyor line
Image courtesy of Pocketpair

On Steam, Palworld is currently available for S$18.20 (30% off from its standard S$26.00) — so if you haven’t picked it up yet, now is a natural entry point: you’d be buying into the complete 1.0 game from its first day. The PS5 version is available via the PlayStation Store Singapore, and Xbox Game Pass subscribers already have access. The 1.0 update itself is free for all existing owners on all platforms.

Palworld launched in Steam Early Access in January 2024 and became a genuine cultural moment — eight million players in its first weekend, with Singapore gaming communities going hard on its blend of creature-catching, survival crafting, and gloriously chaotic combat. This 1.0 is the version Pocketpair has been building towards ever since. Check out more game news on GameTrader.SG.

Keep Your Old World, or Start Fresh?

Player fighting Mammorest 'King of the Forest' boss in Palworld
Image courtesy of Pocketpair

Pocketpair has confirmed that existing save data is fully compatible with 1.0 — you won’t lose your bases, your Pals, or your progress when the update drops. That said, the studio has gently recommended a fresh playthrough to experience the overhauled mechanics from the ground up, since many of the new systems are designed to unfold as you progress rather than bolt onto a late-game world.

For Singapore players who burned through Early Access in 2024 and moved on: July 10 is a solid reason to come back. For anyone who never tried Palworld: S$18.20 on Steam for the full 1.0 release is as clean an entry point as you’re going to get.

Game News

EMPULSE Launches in Early Access Today — 1047 Games’ No-Battle-Pass Movement Shooter

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The team behind Splitgate is back. 1047 Games has just launched EMPULSE in Early Access — a 6v6 movement shooter built around wall-running, grapple hooks, and one genuinely refreshing promise: no battle pass, no paid cosmetics, no microtransactions at launch. It is out right now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.

EMPULSE — 1047 Games early access movement shooter 2026
Image courtesy of 1047 Games

What Is EMPULSE?

EMPULSE is set in the post-utopian streets of the Freehold district, and puts two teams of six against each other with movement as the central mechanic. The game lets players wallrun forwards and backwards, swing across maps on grapple hooks, launch off Holojumps, and reshape the environment using P.A.I.N.T. Bombs — tactical paint that can create jump-boost pads, speed strips, explosive patches, or healing zones depending on the type you throw.

Controllable mechs also spawn on the map during matches. These come armed with chainguns, rockets, and shield abilities, and they can shift momentum dramatically if a team holds one long enough. Cross-platform multiplayer is supported at launch, so PS5 and PC players share the same pool.

The No-Monetisation Promise

1047 Games have been direct about one thing: “No store, no battle pass, no microtransactions at Early Access launch.” All cosmetics are earned through gameplay rather than purchased. The studio has also described a community-driven roadmap — meaning player feedback gathered through Discord and surveys shapes the development direction, rather than pre-set seasonal schedules locked in months ahead.

Note the qualifier: this is the policy at Early Access launch, not an indefinite pledge. But for a competitive multiplayer title releasing in mid-2026, starting clean stands out. Watch for updates as the game moves toward full launch.

How to Play From Singapore

EMPULSE is available globally starting today:

  • PS5 — PlayStation Store (search EMPULSE)
  • Xbox Series X|S — Microsoft Store
  • PC — Steam

The Early Access price is USD 19.99. SGD pricing on the Singapore PlayStation Store and Steam SG storefront may differ — check your regional store at checkout. PC players who tried the free Steam Next Fest demo earlier this month will upgrade to the full game with their progress carried over.

About 1047 Games

1047 Games built Splitgate, the portal-based shooter that broke records during its viral summer in 2021. EMPULSE is their next game: same commitment to skill-expressive movement, different mechanics — portals are out, and vertical movement mastery is in. The studio has leaned heavily on community communication throughout development, positioning EMPULSE as a game they intend to build alongside its players during Early Access.

For more new game releases and PC and console gaming coverage, head to our Game News section.

Last Words

Singapore’s PC gaming scene loves a movement shooter, and EMPULSE is the freshest thing in that space right now. If Titanfall 2 left a gap in your rotation, this is worth trying today — USD 19.99, no subscriptions, no gotchas at launch.