Grab some pals, crowd into a submarine, and dive into an alien sea to die horribly inside a simulation inspired by Space Station 13. That’s emergent sim-o-RPG Barotrauma [official site], which is currently available free in open alpha as developers Undertow Games work towards the full release. Delving into the icy waters of Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, different player classes with different responsibilities must work together and keep the sub ship-shape and alien-free to complete missions. And maybe betray their crew, or worse. Here, have a look in this trailer: … [visit site to read more]

Halo Wars 2 [official site] is undeniably a console RTS a rare, exotic bird that looks a bit weird and could only have evolved on an island split off from the rest of the world. Removing it from its natural habitat and introducing it to the PC ecosystem, where its evolutionary niche isn’t quite so niche, might seem a little cruel and ill-conceived. But while it s certainly not a perfect fit, it s striking and, more often than not, quite a lot of fun. Here s wot I think.

… [visit site to read more]

Space Pirates and Zombies 2, the post-apocalyptic space sandbox shoot-o-strategy with a deceptively bad name, has scrapped plans for a multiplayer mode. Developers MinMax Games had planned to add Arena mode on SPAZ 2’s journey through early access but they say multiplayer progress has ground to a halt as they upgraded to a newer version of the engine they’re building it in. After four weeks of work without any real progress, they’ve given up. They are extending refunds for player who consider this a dealbreaker, mind. … [visit site to read more]

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

There are plenty of game cities I d like to visit. The bars and shops of Mass Effect s Citadel remind me of a huge, strange airport. The Imperial City of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a part-majestic, part-ruinous jewel in a cosmopolitan world that consistently burps magic. But I wouldn t necessarily want to live> in these places. They re dangerous. The city of Dorisburg in Else Heart.Break(), however. That s a place I d at least spend a year or two. … [visit site to read more]

From the next in RPG series Ys to a strategy game where players give gal pals magical tattoos, the western arm of Japanese publisher NIS have announced western PC releases for more games in their curiously eclectic lineup and launch dates for others already known. It’s a NIS news blowout. Non-stop NIS news clues. Read on for deets on Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana [official site] and Tokyo Tattoo Girls [official site] along with Psycho-Pass, more Cladun, and a splash of New Tokyo Legacy. Let’s get cracking. … [visit site to read more]

The title might remind you of famous baby-tending egg monster Yoshi, but Yoku’s Island Express [official site] has more in common with a certain Sega spin-off than anything from the Nintendo stable. This is a game for all of us who wish Sonic Spinball had spawned a thousand imitators, though the trailer shows a much more expansive platform game with pinball elements rather than Spinball’s tiny tables. Developers Villa Gorilla describe it as “an open world/metroidvania-style pinball adventure” and what a handsome open world it is.

… [visit site to read more]

Circles [official site] caught my eye because I tend to be attracted by that particular clean, geometric aesthetic and I went in expecting something like a logic puzzle because that’s a genre which seems to marry up with the art style – clean lines, logical solutions. But having played the free online demo Circles is actually more like one of those wire loop games from fairs where you have a long, wiggle line of wire and must pass a loop along it without the two touching and setting off a buzzer. … [visit site to read more]

There’s no better way to cause trouble than to talk about ‘firsts’. Say for instance that King’s Quest IV featured the first female adventure character, and you’re probably going to be drowned out by some pedant waving a copy of Infocom’s Plundered Hearts in your face. That pedant may even be me. Of course, that’s nothing compared to the folly of calling, say, Everquest the first MMO and leaving it without some very quick clarification. The extent of the first M in MMORPG, the importance of success over existence, the jump between mainframe and computer and all manner of other stuff makes it tricky to plant a flag everyone can actually agree deserves to be there.

But there aren’t many games with a better claim than Lucasarts’ Habitat, the latest classic game to get a fancy modern revival project. It definitely deserves it.

… [visit site to read more]

World of Warcraft, StarCraft 2, Diablo 3, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm are all to stop working on Windows XP and Windows Vista as Blizzard start phasing out support for ye olde operatinge systemes later this year. Other, older games will still work fine, but folks will need to upgrade to keep playing those newer ones. Windows XP is now fifteen years old and Vista ten, Microsoft have long since stopped updating either, and Blizzard say “the vast majority” of players have upgraded, so they’re knocking old Windows out and smashing ’em in a big skip. … [visit site to read more]

Erik Wolpaw, one of Valve’s famous funnymen, has left the studio. The co-founder of cherished games site Old Man Murray is known at Valve for his writing on games like Portal, Left 4 Dead, and the Half-Lives, though Valve’s mysterious free-floating structure means he may well have also served coffee, written Gabe Newell’s e-mails, and bred a genetically-engineered pet fed with Steam microtransactions. We may never know. What’s next for Wolpaw? He says he’s going to work at his niece’s juice shop, and I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t take that at face value. Juice on, Erik! … [visit site to read more]