I wonder if, back in the day, when Batman’s creators were first putting ink to paper and bat to man, they thought to themselves, “OK, this is cool, but we won’t be truly satisfied until we can add Nvidia PhysX, realistic fog effects, and DirectX 11 tessellation.” I bet that’s exactly> where their minds drifted as they imagined a future of chrome jumpsuits, cities in the sky, and people with slug-like appendages instead of legs. And now, finally, their dreams have come true. Batman: Arkham Origins‘ PC utility belt is loaded with more bells and whistles than a Shiny Things And Loud Noises factory, and Gotham’s looking quite spiffy as a result. By which I of course mean dingy, frigid, and crime-ridden. Also foggy. We cannot forget the fog. We can never> forget the fog.

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The world in your backyard. 10 seconds to say goodbye. Ragdoll torture chamber.>

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Sundays are for urrrrgh. Or bleruuurgh. And some hnnngfh. And then back to bed.

• An interview with Dan Pinchbeck, of The Chinese Room (writer and designer on A Machine For Pigs): “I think as a writer I’m interested in ambiguity and the slippage of meaning, in the nature of reality and our illusions about our sense of self and consciousness and being in the world, so I think that’s something that is kind of hard wired into our games because of that. And Jess has similar preoccupations as a composer, she’s obsessed with the notion of truth, or beauty, of what is means to be an emotional creature. So it’s less a striving, more of an inevitability I guess.”

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All of the cheap games all in one place. What more could you possibly ask for? Do you want me to decide which ones you’re going to buy? Do you want me to install them for you? Shall I play them for you too? Shall I eat your dinner and sleep in your bed and wear your shoes? Perhaps I’m getting carried away, I’ll stick to listing the cheap games, you take care of the rest. There’s even more cheap games over at SavyGamer.co.uk. (more…)

I’m quite fascinated by Ubisoft’s epic poem JRPG melting pot of madness Child of Light, and I think you should be too. It’s an entirely bonkers concept, and – good or bad – it at least promises to be a thunderous step off the beaten path for a fee-fi-fo-fummingly gigantic publisher. I recently had the chance to chat with creative director Patrick Plourde and lead writer Jeffrey Yohalem, and you can find the first part of our conversation here. Today we pick up right where we left off: with guns and shootymen. Actually, that’s not where we left off at all, but sometimes natural transitions are hard. So read on to see what Plourde and Yohalem learned from creating Far Cry 3, fielding controversy that arose from it, and now, working within constraints more commonly associated with indie developers.>

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Thanks to the Steam Workshop, I have more random things installed on my PC than ever before. Wanderin through the workshops has become a routine in my downtime. They are the curio shops of games, a tiny sliver of insight into someone’s passions put on display. I’ll find something, subscribe, forget I have it, then turn on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and discover it has underwater maps, battlegrounds inspired by Alice In Wonderland, and motherboards to run around on. Here’s a few of my favourites. (more…)

Look at that screenshot. Study it. That’s not just any ass. That is a rear view of former PC Gamer writer Richard McCormick, and a few days ago I spent at least an hour with this in my face while guiding us around the extensive coast of Altis in an assault boat. It took up so much of my screen for such a long time that I came to see it as not just a digital derriere, but an emblem of ArmA III.

Let’s find out why. >

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There’s not a synapse in the rational part of my mind that believes that Elite: Dangerous could possibly look this good, but the rest of my body thinks that that part of my mind is snobby and doesn’t invite it to parties. I just distracted it with Facebook posts from the people I grew up with so the rest of me could be wowed by the ‘Damocles’ video. The video below is the visualisation that Frontier sent to potential composers, who had to add a score to back-up the action. They’ve released the video with the winning composer’s contribution. You must take it in. It’s what eyes and ears were built for. (more…)

Ubisoft is making an art game. Or at least, Child of Light is as close to an art game as any major publisher is likely to get for quite some time. It’s being put together by a tiny team (headed up by Far Cry 3‘s directors, of all people, because we are living in Bizarro Land) with incredibly little in the way of bellowing blasts from Ubisoft brass. The result? A gorgeously painterly JRPG Metroidvania with a story that takes the form of a 120-page epic poem. The yarn itself, meanwhile, is a highly metaphorical spin on a young girl’s struggles growing up. I sat down with creative director Patrick Plourde and lead writer Jeffrey Yohalem to discuss poetry, influence from both JRPGs and classic PC adventure games, creating a female character who’s not defined by her search for a “Prince Charming,” choices that cut off large chunks of content, and more.>

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Blue Estate is a “dark comedy shooter” (but aren’t they all, in a way?) based on the comic, and designed to show off the Leap Motion controller. Leap Motion, in case you aren’t familiar with it, is a hand-tracking system, not unlike the good ol’ Kinect. Anyway, what’s interesting about Blue Estate is that you play Tony Luciano, a gangster with a black mop of greasy hair, and that hair occasionally flops in front of your face. Which suggests you must need to brush back your fringe with hand motions in the game? The trailer and other promotional clutter doesn’t make that requirement clear, but surely it MUST be the case. And if not WHY NOT. (more…)