YOU GUYS, YOU GUYS, you’re not going to believe this: there are already wolves among us. Right now>. They’re called “dogs,” and we bred them into blind subservience over the course of a few generations. Many of them, however, are capable of reducing humans to blubbering piles of incoherent baby babble with a simple wag of the tail or awkward pawing attempt at a handshake. Who, in this equation, is really man, and who is beast? It’s a chilling thou– oh man look at this puppy! Was I talking about something? Oh hm, episode two of Telltale’s Fables series, The Wolf Among Us, won’t be out until sometime early next year. Bummer.

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It is very cold where I am right now. Winter has clenched my weary fingers in its icy hand, and I fear that the end is nigh. San Francisco, how dare you drop below the world’s most ideal temperature? How dare you>? But it wasn’t always this way. I was happier once, plump with evergreen hope. Was it eons ago? Years? I’ll probably never know. But I do know that I discovered a really neat looking procedural stealth game during that time, and now it has a name, release date, trailer, and everything! Not The Robots, a randomized permadeath sneak-’em-up about, um, eating furniture, will be out later this month. Let us pray that these thin-blanket-necessitating temperatures don’t claim me before then.

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I am very good at surviving. So far, I’ve made it 24 years, and I’ve only forgotten how to eat, panicked, fashioned a spear out of a busted broom and a butter knife, and attempted to slay my refrigerator, like, six or seven times. But I can’t take all of the credit for that sterling record. Games taught me countless survival tips and tricks, like how to punch another grown adult until they disappear and leave behind a fully cooked turkey. Eidolon, however, might just elevate my skills to a whole new level – while also delighting me with natural wonderment in the process. It looks to be a fusion of the ever-popular survival sandbox genre and Proteus, so basically the game that a lot of people wanted Proteus to be.

The twist? Eidolon takes place in “a dreary and mystical Western Washington” circa the year 2400. You, meanwhile, are digging up the bones and books that make up humanity’s collective corpse. Proteus meets Fallout? Yes please.

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Spaghetti Monster, help me. It’s sandbox survival week. Maia? Starbound>? NEO Scavenger? Spare time, thy name doth now sit in the same hallowed halls as productivity’s ghost. Seriously, though, as awesome as the eternal fight for a full stomach might be, not everyone enjoys wrestling with hostile aliens for tufts of wheat and plant fibres.  For those of you out there who aren’t keen on civilizing intergalactic no man’s lands, this week’s Bargain Bucket for you. (It’s also for everyone who does enjoy open world sandbox games, but dramatic presentation demands a more personalized touch.) (more…)

Christmas shopping is a pain. A leg-straining, brain-draining pain. If only there could be more than one of you. Then you’d also have time to bake those cookies, assault those obnoxious carolers with a rake, and ponder the link between body and soul or, indeed, if there is one at all. If only…

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Mike Bithell’s stealth game, Volume, looks like a very different prospect to Thomas Was Alone, even if there might be some similarities in the audio department. A retelling of the Robin Hood story, Volume takes place in a Britain laced with political dissent, rebellion and fancy volumetric display devices. Upon discovering such a device, Robert Locksley sets out to livestream heists and infiltrations, teaching the poor to steal from the rich rather than doing the job himself. I sat down with Mr Bithell at the Bradford Animation Festival to talk about the game, politics, ethics, Mini Coopers and Russell Brand.>

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I quite liked Eldritch, that recent coupling of Minecraft and Spelunky and gravitas-free Lovecraft, and I assure you that I use ‘quite’ in a positive sense rather than a back-handed compliment sense. It’s a ‘hey let’s just do this’ sort of game, a hearty gasp of an idea that coalesced into something brief but satisfying. It did feel a bit content-thin though, and I assure you I use ‘thin’ in a ‘not quite enough’ sense rather than ‘oh my, how svelte!’ one. So I’m glad to hear about that an expansion, Mountains of Madness, is en route, and that it is Sinister Christmas-themed. (more…)

If you haven’t finished Telltale’s wildly acclaimed tragedy’n'conversation sim The Walking Dead but do want to know when season two will be released, I’ll tell you right now. December 17th! That’s when you can buy the season pass and play episode 1, for about 18 quid.

If you have> finished it and want to know a plot synopsis too, I’ll tell you below, hopefully safe from the innocent, spoiler-averse eyes of the non-finishers. (more…)

I played a lot of Final Fantasies during my rock-bottom console gamer phase. Final Fantasy VIII was not one of them. Well, that’s not entirely true. I tried a demo disc from some old PlayStation magazine once, and it chugged, whimpered pitifully, and died on me about ten minutes into the opening cut-scene. Beyond that, I heard too many mixed things and decided to get my fantastical fix elsewhere. Did I make a boo-boo, though – perhaps even the biggest boo-boo of all, Boo-boo-aga? If so, just say the word and I’ll duct-tape a gun to a sword, don a poofy, pouty coat, and load up the newly released Steam version of FFVIII.

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I explode through the door. You’ve barely time to register the splintering hinges before I’m upon you, gripping your lapels and hoisting you out of your chair. I start to scream something at your face, shaking you to punctuate each word. You can barely make it out. SONIC– TRANSFORM– EKEND–

God, I smell terrible. I’ve been beneath the floorboards, doing whatever it is I do down there. But I’m repeating it again and you hear this time.

SONIC & ALL-STARS RACING TRANSFORMED IS FREE ON STEAM THIS WEEKEND. (more…)