The third death was probably the most painful. Not pain in the normal sense – I can t feel what the little armoured swordsmen of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord [official site] feel – but the pain of a shameful defeat. I ve just had a go at TaleWorlds upcoming swordfighting-meets-strategy-meets-RPG at Gamescom. Sadly the singleplayer was off limits, but I did get to do some medieval multiplayer mauling. I was stabbed soundly and repeatedly, in case you were wondering, left to die in a pool of blood on the hot sand of a desert map. At this point I would just warp into another soldier. He too was often killed. (more…)

A cartoon tells me that “Kel’thuzad, Archlich of Naxxramas” has found his way into Heroes of the Storm [official site]. The cartoon also revealed to me that I would have been far more into a He-Man/She-Ra style cartoon featuring these characters than I am into Heroes of the Storm. (more…)

Hey gang, if you missed Shadow Warrior the last time it was free, another chance is here for a few more hours. This is the 2013 reboot of the demon-stabbing FPS, to be clear, not 3D Realm’s original (which is always free). You’ve got until 6pm today (10am Pacific) to grab this free so chop chop.

The giveaway celebrates the launch of new missions and weapons for Shadow Warrior 2 in a free update last night. And that game’s on sale right now too. So many shadows and wars, so little time. (more…)

I welcome spaces to goof off in serious competitive games. On the Plunkbat loading runway, you’ll find me creeping along wonkily as I lean and wobble or launching myself into the air with the plane wing glitch. In Natural Selection’s ready room, you bet I’m climbing onto heads. And in Call of Duty: WW2 [official site], oh boy, the ‘Headquarters’ social space looks great fun. 48 players will get to fight, muck about, and shoot things in all sorts of fun ways. Have a look in this new trailer: (more…)

If the recent launch of the Concerts “mini-expansion” for Cities: Skylines [official site] made you wish the city-builder would get something more substantial, good news! Paradox today announced the Green Cities expansion for release later this year. As you might expect, it will let you turn your cities all hippy-dippy with everything from organic shops to plant-clad buildings. It bungs in a load of new assets for these and more, which should be nice for making cities more varied. Have a peek in the trailer: (more…)

Good news: Rainbow Six Siege [official site] will be free for everyone to try this weekend, and on sale half-price for keepsies too.

Bad news: Operation Blood Orchid, the next big content update for the the wall-busting tactical FPS, has been delayed by one week.

News news: Ubisoft have detailed the three new characters to be added by Blood Orchid when it does arrive. Their superpowers include flash bombs and poison mines. (more…)

Zack Garriss wants you to feel guilty when bad things happen to good people. The lead writer of Life is Strange prequel Before the Storm is as passionate as any writer I ve ever met on the subject of interactive storytelling and he has some strong opinions about the future of the medium. Guilt and grief might be the main course, but there s a side order of emotional highs and the occasional bout of expletive-laden insult swordfighting, minus the swords.

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Flying missions in the upcoming strat-o-sim Bomber Crew [official site] is quite cartoony, in that you can do things like send crew members out on your World War 2 bomber’s wing to fix a burning engine. It’s also quite complex and serious, in that your plane can get duffed up enough to need to do that and you’ll die terribly if not. Bomber Crew looks a little like FTL but with more sim-y underpinnings, and it looks a right lark. Publishers Curve Digital today announced that they’ve picked Runner Duck’s game up and will be publishing it on October 19th. Have a look: (more…)

The singleplayer campaign of a free-to-play collectible card game is an unlikely item of interest, given that they’re largely there to train players up for competitive play, but I am quite keen to see what’s up with the story in Gwent [official site]. The campaign in the spin-off standalone version of The Witcher 3’s fun minigame has folks who did heavy lifting on TW3’s story, see. The hot Gwent news out of Gamescom is the unveiling of that campaign, named Thronebreaker. Here, have a look: (more…)

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

I don t remember why I started playing Dofus, but there must have been something to this cartoony isometric MMO that kept me coming back to pick flax and cut crops. Maybe it was the grid-based tactical fights that meant combat had a slower, more thoughtful pace. Maybe it was standing around with your bags full of goodies in the marketplace, selling rubbish loot. Maybe it was simply because the game was free and it would run on any stuttering computer. Does Dofus still exist? Let me check.

It does. (more…)