It s been five years since BioWare released the final part to their Mass Effect trilogy. Five years of very little information dispersed between huge fan anticipation and speculation. The ending to the trilogy meant a sequel was unlikely, and a prequel was rumoured for a while, but instead Mass Effect Andromeda [official site] has shaken off the shackles of the trilogy s narrative by setting itself 634 years in the future and in the new galaxy of Andromeda.

After five hours of playing both the first mission and the fourth mission (which takes place roughly 3 hours into the game) of a preview build of Andromeda I m able to share my experience. … [visit site to read more]

A new Titanfall 2 [official site] multiplayer mode, Live Fire, arrives today in a free update. Two teams of six have left their robot buddies at home for the day, and will scampering around on foot (and jets, and grapple lines) to shoot each other to pieces in one-minute rounds. Live Fire sounds pretty intense and fun, so I look forward to giving it a crack when it arrives… soon? Respawn Entertainment haven’t said quite yet when it’ll launch. Today. With a little luck, before I finish work. Here, peep at this trailer: … [visit site to read more]

You tell me: why am I your outboard memory? Why do you need me, today, to remind you that the four-day open beta test for sandbox stealth-o-shooter Ghost Recon Wildlands [official site] is now live? We told you when it was coming, then we told you it was preloading, and now here I am telling you that it’s started. Why? Why is this on me? You could’ve written on your hand in marker: “THURS 11am: START KILLING.” Gone around muttering “Gonna kill ’em all on Thursday.” Set a voice alarm. Wrapped an elastic band around your wrist so your grotesque swollen purple hand would remind you. But no, here I am. The free Wildlands open beta is now live. You’re welcome. … [visit site to read more]

The absurd Windows 10 exclusivity of Dead Rising 4 [official site] will end on March 14th, Capcom have announced. It’ll arrive on Steam and yes, for Windows 7 too. Dead Rising 4 isn’t great, sure, but if you want to mow down zombie hordes while dressed as Street Fighter’s Cammy you might still fancy it. … [visit site to read more]

Every now and then, in this vast hall of GIFs we call the internet, I see the mini-monsters and dancing townsfolk of Ooblets [official site] and it makes me feel good about life. It s an as-yet-unreleased game of farming, raising creatures, and living among the townsfolk of Hubton . It s sort of like Harvest Moon meets Pok mon meets Animal Crossing meets the weird awkward people we are, say the creators at Glumberland. Now they ve been picked up by publisher Double Fine and have released a new trailer to celebrate that fact. Good stuff. … [visit site to read more]

Everything was in place for the Romulan invasion of the United Federation of Planets. Warbirds screeched out of the shipyards of Romulus and Remus on a direct course for the closest Federation worlds, those belonging to the chilly Andorians. The real goal, of course, was neighbouring Vulcan. This was a symbolic war.

As my jade vessels bombarded the frozen Andorian homeworld, the Tal Shiar informed me that yet another Federation ship had been successfully sabotaged. When my Reman shock troops boots hit the icy ground, I realised that Star Trek: New Horizons, a Stellaris [official site] mod, was my favourite ever Roddenbery-flavoured game.

… [visit site to read more]

Lop the typing gland off Mavis Beacon, cut a graft slit into Gunpoint, then insert the typing into the window-smashing platform-o-hacking stem and seal the graft with wax, and- dear god, what have you done? Did you think that would work? How do you even think games are made? You big silly. You leave the work to Cut Garnet Games, who are making the interesting-looking Rogue Process [official site]. It’s a stealth-o-action platformer about infiltrating buildings to hack systems, right, but hacking is down by typing the names of systems and abilities in a slow-mo word mode. Here, watch: … [visit site to read more]

This week I’ve been tinkering with a preview build of Thimbleweed Park which is the point and click murder mystery from Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick (them off Maniac Mansion). I used to love playing point and click games when I was little – my siblings and I would play them together over weeks and weeks – but for me they feel so rooted in that time’s technology and gamescape that I don’t think I’ve found any of the modern revamps/revisits/reworks/riffs of interest. Thimbleweed Park’s recent trailers did trigger a little frisson of curiosity though, and I’ve also been tasked with booting up The Dig by John for a new Game Swap. The result of all of this was an unexpected 2am conclusion about what point and clicks can learn from hidden object adventures. … [visit site to read more]

Grab your pals and plug in extra controllers to basketball and brawl in Draymond Green’s Shut Up And Slam Jam Karate Basketball [Itch page], out now. It’s a 2v2 arcade basketball game where, due to a mix-up, a karate demonstration and a charity basketball match are to take place on the same court at the same time. I’m sure you can manage to combine the two. While it does support AI bots, surely it’d be better to slam, junk, dunk, maim, and cripple with your chums? … [visit site to read more]

Here s something to coo at if you like your art done in thousands of tiny squares. Narita Boy [official site] is a game-in-progress where the hero flies a floppy disk as a hoverboard and rides a horse made out of old computers while slashing at red foes with a techno sword. He s stuck inside the computer dimension, you see, in a quest to save it from some red-coloured badthings known as the Stallions. But to understand any of that, you really need to see it in motion, which you can do below. … [visit site to read more]