As the Steam Charts slowly attempt to reassemble themselves after last week’s complete collapse under the weight of Far Cry 5, think of this week’s compilation as the moment the thought-destroyed terrifying monster is halfway through its grotesque reforming. Witness as its undulating viscera twists through recongealing flesh, a bleak but ghoulish moan emanating from deep within its darkest soul. (more…)

Premature Evaluation is the weekly column in which we explore the wilds of early access. This week, Fraser’s lost in PixArk, the Minecraft-inspired Ark: Survival Evolved spin-off. It’s colourful, whimsical and it’s made him extremely grumpy.>

PixArk feels like the result of an algorithm designed to pick bits from popular games and Frankenstein them into something new. This is nothing new – trying to capture the zeitgeist can lead to fun places, and great successes. PixArk, however, is not a game that captures the zeitgeist, but rather something hollow, stitched together out of disparate parts seemingly without proper consideration for how they fit together or what made them work originally.

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Right, well, I’ve had a month off writing this it seems, so it’s time to check that Brendan and Alice have been looking after the Steam Charts properly. Obviously it requires regular watering, and perhaps most importantly, weeding, to prevent things getting out of contr… ALICE AND BRENDAN! COME HERE IMMEDIATELY!

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History, scholars agree, is a washing machine on a spin cycle with a brick inside: as it bounces round and round, the brick will often return to the same point but is slightly changed by an entropy that eventually will violently shake the machine to pieces then our ma will give us a right skelping for copying YouTube videos. The cycle returns to a familiar point soon with PixArk, a Minecraftbut based on a survival game based on Minecraft. Deadly murderous survival sandbox Ark: Survival Evolved recently left early access and now the friendly spin-off PixArk is about to enter it. The brick bounces on. (more…)