Cyan Worlds via PolygonSusana Polo is a senior entertainment writer at Polygon, specializing in pop culture and genre fare, with a primary expertise in comic books. Previously, she founded The Mary Sue.In honor of the 31st anniversary of seminal puzzle adventure game Myst, Cyan Worlds has a new Humble Bundle sale, “Enter the Mysterium.” Through Oct. 2, players can pay $20 and pick up 13 games, which run the gamut from Myst’s earliest 1989 predecessor, to its modern progeny, and every mainline Myst game in the franchise, with part of the proceeds going to Active Minds, a nonprofit dedicated to equipping teens and young adults with the tools to advocate for mental health advocacy and suicide prevention.Enter the Mysterium$20$19290% off$20$20 at HumbleOr, you could pick up any of four smaller, cheaper bundles. But in the opinion of me, Polygon’s foremost Myst-pilled weirdo, here are the titles you should make certain to grab, in order of importance.Myst: Pick your poison! The bundle offers Myst: Masterpiece Edition, which attempts to replicate the experience of playing the original 1993 game; realMyst: Masterpiece Edition, the first attempt to render the game in 3D; and Myst (2021), which supports both 2D, 3D, and VR play.Riven: The Sequel to Myst: This is the intricately cut crown jewel of Cyan’s puzzle games, in its original form. If you get really fed up with it I would also recommend their recent 3D remaster, which improves on perfection (but was released way too recently to be included in a discount bundle just yet).Myst IV: Revelation: Pretty much a direct sequel to Myst. Unequivocally the hardest Myst game, but my personal favorite for its story. It’s got an unskippable Peter Gabriel cutscene. Please, please, please play this game.Myst III: Exile: By no means easy, but still the easiest Myst game. The villain is played by Brad Dourif (The Lord of the Rings) and in one of the “bad endings,” he clubs you to death in first person FMV. If that doesn’t entice you I don’t know what will.Obduction: Not in the Myst setting, but if you play the others first, you’ll be able to call all the plot beats of this one. That said, it’s got a frightfully interesting sphere-based puzzle dynamic, an interesting setup, and gorgeous vistas.Firmament: I haven’t played this one yet. “And you call yourself an expert!” I backed the Kickstarter, OK?! I just haven’t had time! I’ll get to it… sometime after Dragon Age: The Veilguard comes out. I hear it’s worth it, though! And if you’re already picking up the rest, well, why not?But what am I, the Myst-pilled weirdo, going to buy? Well, even though I already own the vast majority of the games in this bundle, there’s still something here for me: Spelunx, Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel, and The Manhole. Two American dollars will net me three of Cyan co-founders Robyn and Rand Miller’s pre-Myst works, dating back to the unfathomable desktop gaming year of 1988, when Cyan released The Manhole on floppy discs available by mail order (the one in this bundle is a 1995 CD-ROM rerelease).Calling these three games “puzzle games” might seem like a stretch compared to Myst and its successors — I’ve poked around the original Manhole on the Internet Archive, and it’s more like an interactive object. But there’s a sense of humor, silliness, and, above all, play in it. Even just after ten minutes in a browser emulation, it was clear to me that I was looking at a couple of game developers fascinated by the potential of the point-and-click mechanic, and playing in that space as expansively and freely as they could. I could already see the lines running from this strange, Alice In Wonderland-themed object, to a couple of adventure games that were going to bust the genre wide open.Head over to the Humble Bundle, and you can make those connections, too.
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During this election cycle, we’ve heard a lot from the presidential candidates about the struggles of America’s workers and their families. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump each want to claim the mantle as the country’s pro-worker candidate. Accordingly, union leaders to…
Read moreThe cult-classic Star Trek parody Galaxy Quest is celebrating its 25th anniversary by releasing on 4K Blu-ray. Preorders for the Limited Edition Steelbook and standard 4K release are live now at Amazon, but you’ll want to opt for the snazzy steelbook, as the retailer is offering a discount that drops the price to $24.49 (was $31). The standard 4K Blu-ray edition sans steelbook case is also $24.49, so unless you have something against steelbooks, snag the Limited Edition ahead of Galaxy Quest’s December 3 release.
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To work at this virtual Ikea, you must reside in the UK or Ireland and you have to be 18 or older. Employees will be paid 13.15 GBP per hour, which is apparently the standard pay for a London Ikea co-worker. Applications for these roles opened on June 3 and will close on June 16. The announcement claims that this is the first instance of paid work from a major brand on Roblox as a platform.
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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has a pretty distinctive design, and if you can’t get enough of that blend of comic book-inspired visuals and real-world influences, then you can plaster your wall with some cool posters soon. Available now for preorder, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: The Poster Collection features full-color gallery-quality tear-out prints from the Insomniac Games-developed title. Priced at $30, it’ll be available starting November 12.
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Read moreIf there was ever a video game adaptation that seemed to scream for an animated version, it’s Minecraft. The signature squared look of Minecraft’s world and its characters is difficult to pull off in live-action, but the upcoming film, A Minecraft Movie, is doing just that. However, a trio of Minecraft fans decided that they could improve upon the recently released trailer by remaking it with animation.
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Microsoft has released a new update for the Xbox app on PC, though the update is currently only available for Xbox Insiders. Among other things, it lets users easily visit a recently played game’s hub and jump directly into gameplay and more easily see new releases.
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Read more7 Days to Die offers plenty of skills to level up your characters, but surviving the zombie apocalypse can get a bit overwhelming, and you might decide you’ve placed your points into less beneficial skills. The game does give you a chance to reset your skill points, but it’s going to cost you. Here’s everything you need to know about resetting your skills.
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Read moreVisions of Mana only released yesterday, August 29, but according to a new report, plans to cut back at and eventually close the JRPG’s developer – Ouka Studios – have been in the works for a good while, with the current situation being that NetEase has cut “all but a handful of jobs”.This comes from Bloomberg, which has been looking into NetEase and Tencent, and the scaling back of Japanese investments both big Chinese companies have been doing.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings Ouka opened in 2020 and went on to hire veteran developers from the likes of Capcom and Bandai Namco. Visions of Mana, published by Square Enix was revealed at last year’s edition of The Game Awards, and locked in a summer release via a gameplay reveal at the Xb…
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