Like a tin of hyperstrength lager lurking behind grubby plastic curtains in the chiller cabinet of a dismal newsagent, Gratuitous Space Battles knew just what it was about, and didn t make any secret of the fact. It was about selecting massive fleets of spaceships, tooling them up with guns, and wellying them into each other like shopping trolleys full of anvils.

(more…)

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

Some days you just want to watch the world burn. Sometimes you want to spin the world of its axis and watch as its mass is consumed by the sun, which has just suddenly expanded to ten times its original size. Some days you just need to play Universe Sandbox.

… [visit site to read more]

I like to think I’d be a respectful god. I wouldn’t go poking around inside your head or turn you into a heifer. I might, however, be tempted to dick about with cosmic powers and portents. What will you think when I plop another Moon into the night sky, drop a supernova behind Pluto, or extinguish the Sun? Y’all had better hope that, if I ever achieve godhood, I’m too distracted by Universe Sandbox [official site] to notice.

Rebuilt and expanded in a new engine, the cosmic simulator sequel last night launched on Steam Early Access. Come check out these cosmic calamities:

… [visit site to read more]

It’s always nice to have a demonstration what a complete fool you are and how poorly you think things through. Humbling. Gratuitous Space Battles offered that experience with huge spacefights where your input ends as soon as the battle begins, and all you can do is watch as the plans you laid, the issues you ordered, and the ships you designed failed spectacularly to deal with the enemy’s far superior plan. Or maybe you were good at it. I don’t know.

Either way, you may get something out of Gratuitous Space Battles 2 [official site], which launched yesterday.

… [visit site to read more]

I ve never much thought about what goes into the little white tablet I swallow when I m hungover, have the sniffles or another bout of Geek s Disease.* It s just chalky magic, right? Well, no: it s the result of millions of dollars, aggressive R&D, production facilities of breathtaking size and precision, ruthless marketeering and impossibly sinister downplaying and mitigation of side effects. While medicine-themed management game Big Pharma doesn t go for pharmaceutical industry s jugular, Goldacre-style, its pills-as-merciless-industry approach is certainly a welcome change from the bland, smiling, comfortable> faces that advertising tells us medicine are all about. … [visit site to read more]

I’ve spent untold hours watching back replays of my own Supreme Commander games, taking the opportunity to slow-down or speed-up time, watch maneuvers by my opponents I missed the first time around, and to marvel at the bombastic laser wars that eventually decide each match.

Gratuitious Space Battles is that whole process as an entire game: you build a fleet, design the ships, and then click go to watch a spectacular hands-off space battle. The sequel seems determined to make those battles more spectacular than ever, as demonstrated by this new trailer. Such pretty lasers and explosions.

… [visit site to read more]

The conflicts in Gratuitous Space Battles 2 are certainly deserving of the adjective applied in the game’s title but the new video below brings several other descriptives to mind. ‘Colourful’, ‘cunning’, ‘extravagant’, ‘fabulous’ and more besides. Like it’s predecessor, GSB 2 is a game in which players construct fleets, position them and then watch as they do battle. Remember the text crawl that sucked all the excitement out of you like a joy vampire at the beginning of The Phantom Menace? “The taxation of trade routes to outlying starsystems is in dispute”, says Star Wars. GSB says, “BOY HOWDY THE PURPLE SHIPS ARE SHOOTING THE EVER-LIVING CRAP OUT OF THE GREEN SHIPS YOWZERS!”

… [visit site to read more]

Gratuitous Space Battles was not a game of masterful tactics. It didn’t allow damn fool gambits. GSB was won or lost long before then. GSB is played in the planning, the design and customisation of a huge space fleet and the careful behaviours you order them to follow. Once your ships are ready to launch, it could run the numbers and say if you won or lost, but that would be somewhat against the name. The eponymous space battles are> gratuitous, with cruisers and fighters and lasers and missiles and drones and so many explosions for you to simply watch.

Expect more explosions, as sequel Gratuitous Space Battles 2 is now officially announced.

… [visit site to read more]

It’s no secret that I enjoy drifting around the moon in a tiny lander module. You’ll rarely find me doing anything of scientific importance as I crunch into craters and rotate wildly and out of control – I’m there for the (lack of) atmosphere and the gentle calm of being so very alone in the dark. The spiffy Lunar Flight is no longer content with its cargo carrying and data discovery missions, however, as a multiplayer mode is currently in beta. It has rockets and violence. Lunacy.

(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.

(more…)