The October goal for Shadowrun Returns‘ mini expansion Berlin is now a January goal, as Harebrained explain: “we’ve decided to spend more time on Berlin to create an experience closer to the size of Dead Man’s Switch. A story of that scope will take longer, so we’re targeting January for its release.” Interesting! There’s more: “we know that we want our next story to feel more like the player is part of a shadowrunning crew and contain more corporate intrigue.” And that means a story that goes deeper into the original Shadowrun sourcebook set in Germany.

And will they change the way saves work? “It’s still too early to say whether this is going to be possible, but we wanted to let you know that we’re actively investigating it.” Well that’s hopeful.

The Greenlight program has hardly been without its detractors. When first announced it seemed as if the indie messiah had arrived, parting the seas of bad games to allow those noble and true forward. Then the waters muddied as its systems and comments sections were overtaken by Steam’s worst trolls. Now it lies as a problematic but necessary tool of indie game development. But perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel: Valve have announced that a new batch of one hundred titles were being greenlit as of yesterday. This brings the total to a rather respectable 260. Details on some of this number, and what it may mean, within.

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While felis catus is the official spirit animal of RPS, and the endless bear its deity, there is always a soft spot* for the badger. There has been a recent groundswell (pun!) of support that can’t be ignored. That’s all because of Shelter, Might & Delight’s mightily delightful game that somehow transposes all those icky human feelings of family and love, as well as general concerns about feeding and care, into a game about badger survival. It’s out now, and there’s a launch trailer below. (more…)

If you’ve just looked at that image and thought “grim” then we’re on the same page. In Torment: The Case of the Drawing Girl is the somewhat dark tale of an investigator attempting to piece together the facts of a murder case. This is played out through a simple point and click interface of gathering evidence and moving chests of drawers. Your advantage over a standard human is “hunches” which play out by jumping into and interacting with the titular drawings. It’s completely free so I’ve played the first of three increasingly disquieting plotlines and I’ve got some thoughts, as well as a trailer, just for you.

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That almighty mighty thump you just heard was Bohemia deploying the island of Altis into Arma 3. The first stage of the full release is the delivery the huge landmass into the development branch of the game (Steam > Arma 3 Beta > Properties > Betas), prepping it for a load of content to follow. Unless you’re handy with the editor, or download one of the early missions on the game’s Steam Workshop, there’s not much to do yet, but that shouldn’t stop you from loading it up. The detail they’ve put into Altis is reason enough to play it. It’s beautiful. A landmark creation for the PC. I’ve put together a little tour of the island if you fancy seeing the sights. (more…)

I think I squeezed enough puns into the that title to take the rest of the day off. Go me! As you can tell, I am suggesting that Takedown: Red Sabre is a tactical shooter. It is. It’s actually a Kickstarter title that squeezed past its goal just over a year ago, pitching a return to the sort of games Tom Clancy of ten years ago would personally code for us. There was a lot of noise made by the developer about the state of games and the particular hole that’s been left in the release schedule that it’s trying to fill: slow-burn games of planning and execution, where a SWAT team will sweep through a ship or an oil rig and deliver precisely planned justice to terrorist foreheads. Have they made that game? We’ll find out soon. (more…)

The previous times I’ve mentioned Contraption Maker, people have responded with smiles and approving nods. There is a lot of love out there for an Incredible Machine style game, and Contraption Maker is built by the original developer. It seems people still remember DOS prompts and floppy discs with fond memories, though I must confess I prefer this wonderful new world of icons and digital distribution, which is exactly what developer Spotkin is taking advantage of. We are hours away from the game arriving on Steam Early Access. Hours, people!

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Traitorously abandoning the all-father of gaming platforms to go mince about on mobile, Sid Meier released Ace Patrol earlier this year for iOS. Thankfully, sense (possibly money) prevailed and he’s seen fit to bring his World War 1 air-battler back home. If hex-based historical revision’s your bag, the strategy master might have what you need. Rather than the free to play, micro-transaction supported original release, it’s just over a fiver and seems to contain all content from the off. Launch trailer if you can dive low enough.

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Arcen’s strangely beautiful isometric multi-sided god game, Skyward Collapse, is updating to version 2.0, and the same time as launching a Japanese-themed expansion, Nihon no Mura. Arcen explain: “The Japanese enter the fray on Luminith: their faction has a very strong military and a very strange pantheon: their gods are much more aggressive than their Greek and Norse counterparts, and each has three god creatures rather than three god tokens. Learning to play this new faction effectively is a fun new challenge: given how powerful the Japanese military and mythology are, you have to be very creative in how you help the Norse and Greeks drive back this threat.” Are you allowed to use two colons in a single sentence? Seems like dangerous sentence programming to me.

Lots of details on the expansion and the free upgrade here. There’s also a trailer detailing Nihon no Mura, which you can see below. (more…)

It’s very rare to see a game get a second chance at greatness. Publishers don’t react well to perceived failure so the ongoing saga of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is more than a little heart-warming. After a, to put it nicely, not so good original release the rebooted version of the game has been barn-storming its way through my friends list since early access began. By all accounts it’s made some significant improvements. Now Square bring news they’ve been so immensely popular that they’ve had to temporarily cancel digital sales of the game to keep their servers functioning. This amidst desperate attempts to keep things under control by limiting character creation and increasing numbers of servers available. Thoughts on these moves and a launch trailer under the cut.

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