Welcome. Welcome to the beginning of endless endlessness. Well, OK, I suppose the endless nature of this endlessness technically started with Endless Space, Amplitude’s rock-solid, ox-strong 4X space strategy. Now, however, the developer with Xs for eyes (they’re not unconscious; their eyes are literally the letter X) is headed in a markedly different direction with Endless Legend, a 4X fantasy about magic, discovery, and an impending, inexplicable apocalypse. It takes place in the “Endless universe,” so I guess that makes it a prequel? Or maybe a bunch of space ships will crash into your bustling metropolis at the last possible second, revealing that the two games were coexisting the entire time>.

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Sorry for my absence last week, I was busy putting things in boxes and then taking them from London to Manchester. Didn’t Cara do an acceptable job of filling in? I’m back on the case today though, and I’ve been scrutinising the various discounts available for games this weekend. You can always find even more cheap games over at SavyGamer.co.uk. Here’s this week’s selection: (more…)

Hello everyone. Over here in the land of smashed hard-drives, terrifying tabloids, and warm socks, the upcoming Monday will be a holiday. Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Defender of the Faith, Queen, and mother of four, has seen fit to give us an extra day off. Thanks, Queeny. I think she must have a games industry connection, because she’s given us this treat just as Saints Row IV and Splinter Cell: Blacklist are unlocking on Steam. Oh and Sir, You Are Being Hunted (Disclaimer: It’s great, and Jim owns this site and makes that game). Anyway, for the people that have time off, what games will you be playing now you have three days instead of two this weekend? (more…)

Only a couple short years ago, most pasty, naked, Earth-dwelling flesh creatures (aka, humans) figured World of Warcraft would forever remain the final bastion of subscription MMOs’ heyday. Now, however, it’s screaming “mayday” as subscriber numbers plummet, proving that no institution is immortal and I should never be allowed to rhyme things. Recent comments from Blizzard suggesting a free-to-play conversion might not be that far off, then, shouldn’t come as much of a surprise – especially since the slowly deflating MMO titan recently added a microtransaction store.

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RPS now has three pages worth of WildStar posts. Looking over the reaction in the comments, I’m seeing a fair amount of goodwill for the handsome MMO. And though public opinion took a bit of a dip when the payment model was announced, where it became clear it uses subscriptions and/or in-game currency as payment, there’s still a fun looking game behind that. This little look digs into the the game’s Crowd Control attacks, where it shows how being stunned and knocked down won’t be as frustrating as it is in other games. Because it mostly doesn’t happen. (more…)

Jim would approve of this post, I think. There are 22 screenshots of the recently announced return to Men Of War: Assault Squad 2 for all you tank lovers. 22! You’d need to be a polydactyl cat to count them all. Some were deployed post-announcement, while others have been rumbled out at Gamescom 2013, but all show war in sharp relief, showing off a fair variety weather conditions, and a mixture of urban and countryside battlegrounds for your tanks to mess up. More below. (more…)

The rise and rise of CDP has been a remarkable thing to watch. What we’re seeing is a studio spooling up to full power. The enormous ambition of The Witcher failed to really hit its mark, but the intention was clear. The even greater ambition of The Witcher 2 revealed CDP to be an RPG creator that was hitting its stride, as well as achieving its ambitions, and now the third game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, threatens to outshine an entire industry with its technical and artistic prowess. Full power, I suspect, has been reached.

There’s every reason for scepticism at this early, hype-manufacturing stage, but what we saw at Gamescom this year suggests that The Witcher 3 could be the most important mainstream game of 2014. If nothing else the rather blunt claim of “a world thirty-five times the size of The Witcher 2″ should get our attention.> (more…)

Minecraft has the ground covered, and Starmade does the whole “Minecraft in space” thing that was inevitable. But what about that bit in between? Where the ground isn’t quite the ground, but it’s definitely not space because there are no tweeting astronauts? That part of the world needs a game, if only to bridge the gap. That’s where Sky Nations floats along: in it people will live and die and laugh and love and play a block-based multiplayer game in the sky. And how do they stay up there? Airships. (more…)

Yes they’re a (fan-made) real thing. If you have the option to play one and don’t, you’re basically betraying yourself and all that is good in this world. Get to it. Anyway, on the video-based games front, Perfect World send word that their first major expansion to free-to-play hay-what-this-isn’t-all-that-bad-actually MMO Neverwinter has gone live. Fury of the Feywild is based on the fairytale-inspired alternate dimension that is now causing all sorts of bother for our great heroes. Trailer through the portal. (more…)

Yes, a first-person medieval combat game with loose roots in actual history has teamed with the enriching, life-fulfilling network that’s given us hits like Bar Rescue, Manswers, Hooters Swimsuit Pageant, and ugh I can’t even look at its website anymore. The reason? Well, it makes slightly >more sense than you’re probably expecting. Spike also lacquers its barbs with a program called Deadliest Warrior that’s – wait for it – often centered on medieval combat and has incredibly> loose roots in actual history. Basically, it pits one type of fighter against another they’d have never actually faced in a million years and has them duke it out in hypothetical combat. And now, that’s more or less what Chivalry: Medieval Warfare is doing as well.

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