A quick refresher: Starbound is the Terraria pseudo-successor that lets you generate your own planet. That in mind, I suppose it only makes sense that an inhabitant of one of its many worlds would be militantly anti-ape. After all, apes + a planet = Planet of the Apes. It happens every time>. I’m sure, though, that you’ll be able to discriminate against other creatures as well, seeing as Starbound’s co-op building system is looking as impressively versatile as, well, everything else about the strikingly ambitious wonder. Wiser people than I once said, “If you build [a break], they will come [and watch a new Starbound trailer].” Truth be told, I’ve never really understood that saying, but it’s starting to make a little more sense now.

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Here’s a neat and fairly unexpected thing. While I wouldn’t call Divinity II: Ego Draconis my favorite fantasy RPG ever (the writing was witty, but the rest of the game was super uneven), Larian’s supported it quite well over time, and a new Developer’s Cut edition sounds like the cherry atop that dragon-flavored sundae. Most enticingly, it includes a very user-friendly Developer Mode that gives you access to a dev console capable of spawning hundreds of enemies, turning you into any character or monster model in the game, letting you be a dragon anywhere, etc. Oh, and if you already own a previous edition of Divinity II, it’s totally free.

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Star Wars‘ universe is ruled by an all-powerful elderly man who’s known for controlling the masses with unspeakable technological horrors and shooting lightning out of his fingertips. I’m talking, of course, about George Lucas. However, in the most exciting twist the franchise has seen since “I am your father,” he’s now mostly out of the picture. Disney has officially purchased Lucasfilm – all technologies, IPs, and rights to every property – for $4.05 billion. We now live in a world where Pixar or Joss Whedon heading up a new Star Wars film is a very real possibility. But what does this mean for videogames? Could we finally get that Ewok tractor-driving simulator everyone’s> been clamoring for? Or Grim Fandango 2 developed by the team that made Disney Princess: My Fairytale Adventure? We can only hope. So far, though, here’s what we know for sure.

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HOTLINE MIAMI

ADAM SMITH / ALEC MEER / CARA ELLISON / LEWIE PROCTER

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The fourth game in Katauri Interactive’s reboot of olden strategy/RPG hybrid King’s Bounty is out now. Warriors Of The North requires no knowledge of the earlier games, involving a new storyline and a new hero, and a whole lot of Norse mythology-inspired beasts and magic. More of the cheerful same or a new take on what’s become somewhat routine? Here’s what I think.> (more…)

They Bleed Pixels is in the Steam Halloween Sale, which we’ve already drawn your glowing Jack o’ Lantern eyes too, but since we didn’t have a great deal to say about the platformer at release, I thought I’d write a few words about its macabre delights here. Despite featuring fiendish platforming and blood-stained levels, it all plays out more like N fused with a beat ‘em up than Super Meat Boy. I’ve only played a few levels and haven’t seen the new Halloween content, but it’s discounted to £2.37 until November 1st and if you’re craving a devilishly difficult game in which spikes are actually your friends, do consider these dripping pixels. Trailer below.

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Imagine all the things you could do with seven hours. You could have a somewhat unsatisfying sleep. You could go on a plane flight that wouldn’t quite get you to America. You could complete Dishonored fifteen times. You could clean up your Goddamn house.

One thing you don’t have to do with seven hours is spend them impatiently waiting for Natural Selection 2, which after years of development has had its release date moved forward ever so slightly. (more…)

Most puzzle games are about as much use to me as a cheesegrater rasping back and forth across my brain. It helps if they have a theme that appeals to me and Organicraft gets that part right. There’s a plant on the right of the screen and a sapling on the left. There are two options for growth patterns at the top of the screen and at each branch you click on one. It should be so easy but, like a terrible interior designer, I am oblivious to patterns. Look at the screenshot – that’s not a joke, that’s my sincere attempt to solve the game’s third level. Spotted at Indiegames, it’s free, browser-based and you’ll probably complete it in ten minutes. I probably never will.

Mothhead – which is currently being used to showcase Unity as a game dev tool – is being described as an “interactive art demo” rather than a game, but it certainly has some mild gamelike ingredients. You have to solve a puzzle from get from one environment to the next, and… well, that’s pretty much all there is to it. It’s apparently some kind of art installation designed to demo both the Unity platform, and the art of “legendary sculptor and concept artist” Peter Konig. Konig is dark and awesome, which means Mothhead a strange little world, populated by weird little creatures, one of which is a kind of glowing corpse with a moth for a head. You begin as moth, and, once connected to the rest if you, the titular Mothhead is what you control as you shamble around the extremely pretty environments.

It’s only a tiny husk of a thing, but it’s a small download might interest some of you.

Soon, everyone will be able to play Star Wars: The Old Republic*. Oh, that asterisk? Sorry, my entire-one-to-one-scale-replica-of-The-Death-Star key is broken. Still though, the point remains: SWTOR’s gearing up for a F2P relaunch, but there are some nearly moon-sized restrictions keeping it grounded. Fortunately, after initial complaints and some time on test servers, BioWare’s seen fit to scale them back – if only just a bit.

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