Shadow Warrior 2 [official site] is “anarchic, excessive, ridiculous, occasionally spectacular and almost entirely wonderful”, our Adam will tell you. Now, I’m not saying you should do and believe everything Adam might tell you – please don’t worship him as a minor ale deity, not again – but he’s not wrong there. Now that it’s out, developers Flying Wild Hog and publishers Devolver Digital are gabbing about what’s next. Freebies including new missions and weapons, for starters. They’re a bit vague but hey, more of a good game is coming, and that’s good. … [visit site to read more]

I have a terrible confession to make. While, on a weekly basis, I protest about the oft-unchanging nature of these charts, the truth is that a new entry makes me sigh. It means I have to laboriously type out new HTML rather than just copy the links from last week. This means terrible, unspeakable suffering in a week such as this, where there actually are quite a few ‘new’ games. … [visit site to read more]

Shadow Warrior 2 [official site] could have gone horribly wrong. The 2013 reboot succeeded because it took the principles of a nineties FPS and dragged them kicking and bleeding into the twenty-first century, adding superb melee combat controls, a well thought-out upgrade system, but sticking with linear levels packed with easter eggs and secrets. It was the best of the old and the best of the new.

For their sequel, Flying Wild Hog have kept the fundamentals but built an entirely different game atop them. Part Borderlands, part interactive chainsaw massacre, it throws everything at the wall and hopes there’s enough blood to make most of it stick.

… [visit site to read more]

Given that Shadow Warrior 2 [official site] has a squillion weapons, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the supernatural FPS has a Warhammer 40K-style chainsword. It looks pretty great! There’s a terrible moment each time Lo Wang strikes an enemy, a drawn-out dragging as the chainsword’s teeth bite into flesh. I wonder how much time went into perfecting that. Anyway! I’ll surely rev one up myself after Shadow Warrior 2 launches on October 13, but for now we can watch Lo Wang swinging his in this 12-minute gameplay video:

… [visit site to read more]

Shoot and slice ’em up Shadow Warrior 2 [official site] is set to launch October 13. It’s a bloody, over-the-top ninja adventure that doesn’t take itself too seriously. There’s a guy taking a selfie as he decapitates a monster, so there’s stuff in there us millennials can relate to, too. It’s also shaping up to be quite beautiful if you look past all of the gore spraying everywhere. In the trailer below, Flying Wild Hog has recreated the subtle fall foliage of November in Japan contrasted with the white-washed walls of austere Buddhist temples. Lovely!

… [visit site to read more]