‘Tis that dark and fateful day when spirits cause mischief for the living, making us speak in awful stilted ways with words like “’tis”. Frankensteins stomp through the night in search of good shoes for tall people. Draculas commandeer the rail network for their parties. Revenants come back to reclaim their stolen breath. So here’s former Silicon Knights Denis Dyack again, with another new company, trying again to make Shadow of the Eternals, a “spiritual successor” to lovely GameCube survival horror Eternal Darkness. After two failed Kickstarters last year, now he’s planning even more ambitiously to make it a transmedia extravaganza, looking at film and television too.

… [visit site to read more]

Though the trend towards more personal, almost solipsistic and usually depressing indie freeware games is a strong one, some developers do thankfully tackle matters from a more societal perspective. You know, with games like web-based RTS One Minute To Midnight for example — a game about revolution or, at least, a revolution.

… [visit site to read more]

Though there have been murmurings (and indeed alleged leaked emails) that much-anticipated but much-troubled open world shooter Prey 2 had been snatched away from original dev Human Head and entrusted to the tattooed hands of Dishonored dev Arkane, Bethesda have now stated that the game is as dead as Zhora after three bullets in the back.

But what’s in a name? … [visit site to read more]

When Sega announced a PC port of Valkyria Chronicles earlier this week, all we knew was: it’s coming to PC. That’s fine news, as I’ve heard good things about the tactical RPG, but a little vague. They had a marketing plan, see, then a ratings board tipped their hand. Better a hasty announcement than the tedious “We do not comment on rumour or speculation” we often hear from publishers dodging things that are clearly happening. Anyway, now we have details. It’ll launch on November 11th, coming complete with all the DLC from PS3 at a price of 14.99 (or 13.49 if you pre-order).

… [visit site to read more]

Here’s a cracking idea for a co-op game: an asymmetric spy ‘em up where one player’s a secret agent infiltrating facilities using stealth, social engineering, and violence, while the other is a remote hacker who cracks systems and feeds the agent information. That’s a real game. It’s Clandestine, made by Expeditions: Conquistador devs Logic Artists. You can buy it today on Early Access.

I was not at all surprised to learn that creative director Jonas W ver was lead designer of remarkable Deus Ex mod The Nameless Mod.

… [visit site to read more]

Mechanical keyboards. What, dear readers, is the schitnitz? Dare I say it, there is such a thing as the mechanical keyboard movement. Indeed, we’re now at the point where there’s significant debate within that community over various types of mechanical keyboard switches. Knowing your Cherry MX Red from your Blue and Brown absolutely matters. But what exactly is a mechanical keyboard, why is it rapidly becoming so revered by some gamers and should you pop out and pick one up? While we’re talking keyboards, are programmable keyboards with per-key full-colour RGB LED backlighting the next big thing? For answers to all these questions (at best), ride your rodents to the other side. … [visit site to read more]

As Halloween approaches, do you find that your hunger for horror is increasing? Fear not. Or ‘fear a lot’, I guess. The first three chapters of The Evil Within are now available as a demo on Steam, with demo saves carrying over into the full game should you choose to purchase it. There’s also a 50% discount on the Season Pass and anyone who buys the game during this promotion, or has already bought it, will receive a copy of Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.

Those first three chapters are a fairly good taster, with a bit of spooky stealth, a big setpiece and just enough freedom and trapping to show what’s coming later.

… [visit site to read more]

The Talos Principle is a very clever, very calm creation. Which is a surprising new direction from Croteam, who have previously given us the splendid madcap frenzy of Serious Sam shooters. While clearly sharing the same fast-paced twitchy controls of the Serious Engine, and a similar design ethic of ruined civilisations, beyond this Talos is dramatically different. It s a captivating first-person puzzle game, more influenced by Portal than Doom, with an intricate back-story questioning the nature of consciousness and personhood told through fascinating interactions with an AI. I’ve had a play of its first, extensive chapter.>

… [visit site to read more]

Filling in the history of Thedas in the Dragon Age Keep, I realise I really don’t remember much about Dragon Age. I needed to consult Google just then to discover that the world it’s set in is named Thedas, for example. Did I give an amulet to a beggar in Origins? Maybe. What’s it to you? Who’s Gascard and why did I kill him? Was Cullen the nice Templar or that mean one? Maybe I killed both.

Keep is the tool that BioWare are using to set up the state of the world in Dragon Age: Inquisition, building up a history of decisions your characters made in earlier games. And it’s now in open beta.

… [visit site to read more]

Kentucky Route Zero isn’t just gaming’s finest slice of magical realism and shaggy dog symphonies, it’s also a magnificent feat of myth-making. Like so much Americana, it straddles the line between fact and folk tale, and finds recognisable unrealities along the road to the grave. If the melancholic dramas of the main episodes take place at centre stage, the occasional interludes aren’t the entertainment in between acts, they’re happening somewhere in the wings, backstage or downriver. The latest free offering, Here And There Along The Echo, has a sinister setup – a telephone that can only dial one number – but turns out to be the closest the series has come to revealing its own absurd comedic heart.

… [visit site to read more]