The King of the Wood is a free, short-form riff on Bladerunner and Deus Ex, with an android-hunting protagonist plucked from the former and the infiltration-infused frisson of freedom of the latter in its single mission. Unless you become confused and keep shooting at a window, as I did, you’ll probably finish it in fifteen minutes or so and may well agree that you spent your time well. It’s a first-person detective adventure with some thinking, some shooting and a fair bit of mostly optional reading. You can play in your browser (provided you have Unity Web Player) or download. Very brief thoughts below.

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Bit late with this installment due to a near-death experience with pharyngitis. But that’s actually allowed a few things shake out into the public domain. And the overall upshot is that PC hardware took an odd turn this week. The launch of a new high end GPU from NVIDIA really only served to confirm 2013 looks odds on for slim to no progress in graphics technology. More than that, it’s basically the end of the graphics refresh cycle as we know it. Sounds grim, but actually means now is a great time to buy a new pixel pumper. Meanwhile, Dell wheels out a crazy 21:9 aspect ultra-wide display and ye olde graphics benchmarks get an update.> (more…)

Those meticulous fellows at DigitalMindSoft have released several minutes of footage of the tiny men of Call To Arms doing war in destructible maps. As we might well have anticipated, the game looks a lot like the Men Of Wars, on which it based. Still a bit of a way to go, judging by this, but I am keen to get my hands on this, because these kinds of fiddly RTS games are too few and far between.

Also: Tanks! BRING ME TANKS! (more…)

I know many of you will be spending the weekend tending to your winter-blasted shoots as you celebrate the feast day of Serenus the Gardener, or perhaps remembering Red Army Day by engaging in tabletop recreations of the Battle of Kiev or, for the more ambitious, Operation Bagration. Commendable pastimes, I’m sure, but if the dusty red blocks that represent Soviet armoured divisions are lost in the attic, or Serenus’ spirit is locked in the frozen turf, then you may be interested to hear that Gratuitous Space Battles is free to play on Steam until Sunday 9PM GMT.

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The world’s handsomest turn-based RPG developers (probably) Spiderweb, send word that they are bringing a second Avadon game into the world. It is to be named Corruption, and will bear the mark of “2″, indicating its sequelness. They explain: “Avadon 2: The Corruption is the second chapter in the epic Avadon trilogy. In this fantasy role-playing adventure, you will serve the keep of Avadon, working as a spy and warrior to fight the enemies of your homeland.” Shadowy powers and stuff abide, so it’s time to make turn-based decisions about the future of the fantasy world! Man, games are ace.

Avadon will appear on Mac and Windows in the autumn. Read our take on the previous game here.

Thank heavens, Battlefront, the devs behind just-announced Combat Mission: Fortress Italy expansion Gustav Line, aren’t planning to model the propaganda shells that regularly exploded over Allied positions at Monte Cassino. Coming on top of the minefields, the barbed wire, the steep slopes, the cunningly sited German strongpoints, the snow, the rain, the mud, and the infamous Green Devils, blizzards of courage-corroding handbills might have been the last straw for our dispirited D-Day dodgers…

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If you’ve never played The Longest Journey or Dreamfall, you could be forgiven for thinking that Dreamfall Chapters is set in a world of rolling hills, sunbeams and magic. That’s partly true. There’s another world behind and sort of alongside that one. Stark is one possible future of our world, and it contrasts sharply with Arcadia’s green and pleasant lands. The latest Kickstarter update contains the first sight of Europolis, a cyberpunk dystopia of dark alleys, and neon-bright corporations and nightclubs. Below, you’ll find the latest video, showing the city streets and providing an insight into the state of Europe in 2220. All of the footage is in-game, taken from the current prototype. I’ve also included some screenshots and concept art, including two new characters, that you can’t find anywhere else just yet. For good measure, I asked project director Ragnar Tørnquist to provide some detail about the characters and the city.

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Brendan is playing Mortal Online for some reason.

Previously on This Mortal Toil…

“What do you know about work!?”

“Shhh, Rabbit. I will take care of you.”

“When you play the game of Mortal, you win… or you DIE.” – “And then you respawn.” – “Oh yes and then of course you respawn.”>Now, on This Mortal Toil…

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There’s just something> about goodbyes. Like, growing up, I had a pet parrot. She filled my youth with eardrum-skewering screams and will probably be able to take most of the credit for my first heart attack, which will come at age 29. Also, she’s going to outlive me. But, if she doesn’t, I’ll be a complete wreck when she finally closes her infernal, saliva-less beak, er, forever. Which is my way of saying the Mass Effect trilogy is kind of like an obnoxious cockatoo. Sure, it didn’t always do me right, but we grew together, and we had some magnificent times over the years. According to BioWare, Citadel is Shepard and co’s swan song. But hey, at least everyone (and apparently, BioWare really does mean everyone>) is coming back for one last reunion tour.

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When I say “Supergiant,” what do you think of? No, no, after an image of a particularly muscular giant wearing a cape. OK, no, but before the word loses all meaning and deconstructs into “Superg Iant,” which… what? Yes, correct, you think of Bastion. And that’s perfectly fair. After all, it is, so far, the only game that’s found the magically materializing path out of the little colossus that could’s lair. So naturally, SG’s “the Bastion company” in the eyes of most. It does twangy Western-flavored tales and narrators with voices made of gravel-bedazzled silk. But, while there are certainly far worse ways to be pigeonholed, co-founder Amir Rao isn’t interested in confining his company to a nigh-inescapable box.

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