I love cities, and I moved to London to experience life as part of tapestry of the giant, throbbing organism of England’s capital. The city in this open-world 2D adventure game Octopus City Blues is an incredibly literal interpretation of the language people use to describe cities, with the surreal setting of this city’s foundations being a fricking octopus. A living, breathing, sucking city: its tentacles creeping through the streets, sliding in and out of every crack, the blood of the beast turning the people into drug addicts. Adam had a brief look at this last month, and promised a Kickstarter would emerge. It’s here, and I’ve just backed it.

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For a grim world that’s been overwhelmed by criminals, corruption, and bat guano, the Arkham series of games has always had very polished and pretty polygons. And even though pre-release screenshots are known for being unfathomably and unrealistically pretty, both games in the series really do look gorgeous when the camera whizzes around to show a particularly brutal punch. So I’m very happy to show off this Batman: Arkham Oranges gallery. I’d imagine it’s impossible for the released game to look this> attractive, but I think it’ll be close. (more…)

Ah, that greatest of all inventions, the grappling hook. Where would the world be without it? Likely a passing oddity of scorched earth and radioactive waste for some alien civilization. DoubleDutch Games have seen fit to immortalise this world-changing piece of undeniably brilliant technology in SpeedRunners. It’s a 2D platforming racer which Adam’s thrown words about before. Now that it’s up on Steam Early Access, I’ve managed to give it a little play so feast your eyes on the latest trailer and some thoughts when you slide under the break.

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There’s something entirely infectious about the whimsy with which Card Hunter presents itself. There’s absolutely no attempt to be cool, it’s an unapologetically, ridiculously geeky game designed to play off the decades of history surrounding the hobby. Alec echoed as much in his preview back in June and now we can excitedly reveal that you can all get your mitts on it on September 12th via any web browser you care to mention. While the inevitability of my own endless fascination presses heavy, you may require further convincing. Read on.

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The title says it all, really. There’s a new Nexon teaser site up for “Extraction”, which is the reborn Splash Damage multiplayer FPS, Dirty Bomb. Early footage (below) makes it look like a radically modified Brink in a new setting, that of a terrorised contemporary (or near-future) London. Looks like it will be free-to-play, of course, but Splash Damage are keen to stress it’s a purely skill-based game.

Expect an appearance from the game in early 2014. (more…)

There are plenty of pitfalls that come with crowd-funding. Hell, even successful campaigns suffer from cashflow problems. But I’d imagine Precinct, the spiritual successor to Police Quest, would rather be in that position than the one it’s currently in. After a collapsed Kickstarter, the game’s second attempt at bucket rattling hasn’t taken in the necessary funds, with only $11,961 pledged in three weeks. In a sad statement to the community, the developers have announced that it’s effectively cancelled. (more…)

The basic concept behind AdventurOS is one that has fascinated me for years: build a game that interprets a computer’s file structure as level code, thus creating a unique but repeatable and controllable experience for everyone. Evelend Games have taken this and fitted it naturally within a fantasy metroidvania mold. Each room is built from a folder with doors used to go deeper into sub-folders, while monsters, chests and other oddities are spawned from the files within. Trailer with a more intricate explanation past the jump.

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Energetically crowd-funded 2D fighting game Skullgirls absolutely exudes style. From the off there’s a classy jazz beat lain down to play out over the dark menu, entries listed in a unique typeface. Thought and time has obviously been put into the way options are enlarged, the selection cursor, the smoothness of transition from item to item. It’s polished to a tee, every surface smooth and shining its message to the world: I’m classy, I’m friendly and I’m intricately, lovingly designed. But can it carry this throughout? Does the biff and kick charm us with its clarity and cool?> (more…)

I spent some time with the pointy, clicky people of Daedalic at Gamescom, watching walkthroughs of the next Deponia and the intriguing turn-based RPG Blackguards. Memoria wasn’t on display and I hadn’t realised, until I watched the launch trailer handily concealed below, that it’s set in The Dark Eye universe, which is where the Blackguards live. I’ll have more to say about the crime-infested RPG in the near future, but now is the time for extremely earnest fantasy adventures. Sample line – “And next, we’ll make you a fairy again”.

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I like to pat myself on the back when I see first-person puzzle games, because when I originally played Portal I immediately said something like “well there’s a new genre”, and lo, so it came to pass. Well done, me. (I suppose you didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to call that one.) Anyway. Here’s another instance of that particular genre, this time called TesserAct. The team, Propelled Bird, explain: “Waking up in a strange facility, college student Sam takes control of a device called the Catalyst; a device that manipulates space-time and alters physics. Inspired by the critically acclaimed “Portal,” players will use the Catalyst to change the laws of physics with whatever they happen to fire upon. Players will walk on water, create floating stepping stones, and much more!”

It looks okay, below.

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