Hello. This is Spawn Point, a new not-quite-regular feature in which we take a genre, series or other facet of gaming culture, and try to convince you to give it a shot. It might be those hero shooters you ve always wanted to get into, or that terrifying space game played by thousands of jerks. We ll briefly explain the thing, followed by some ways for you to breach it.

First up, it s… the real-time strategy. (more…)

It s always the cute ones that burn you alive with a flamethrower. I ve been playing through the campaign of woodland animal strategy game Tooth and Tail [official site] for a few hours now and I keep getting killed by drunk squirrels and goggle-wearing boars. I m enjoying the simplified controls and ratty pixel art but I’ve also noticed that, despite the developer s claims of creating an accessible RTS for folks who only want to dip into the genre, it can be frustratingly difficult at times. These rodents with revolvers don t hold back. (more…)

It’s an animal extravaganza on our podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. This week we’re talking about pets in games, y’see. Good boys, bad boys, mediocre boys – we love them all. Alice joins us to praise a terrible raccoon Pok mon who’s rubbish at fighting but great at surfing. And while Pip adores the ghostly holo-cat of Tacoma, I prefer the cute xenomorph of Alien Isolation, who can perform all sorts of neat tricks. That’s right, who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy?> OK now put me down. Stop that. You’re drooling. I said stop it. (more…)

Out now is Tooth and Tail [official site], a game about adorable little anthromorphic animals who- oh. Oh no. They’re fighting. Stop fighting! Why are you fighting? Is that a skunk launching mustard gas? Oh no. It seems Pocketwatch Games, the makers of heist game Monaco, have a terrible lesson to teach us about Mother Nature in their new real-time strategy game. Tooth and Tail is a streamlined RTS, condensing the thought and action into rounds of 5-12 minutes with gamepad-friendly controls, procedurally-generated maps, and customisable factions. It’s mighty pretty and all. (more…)