If I close my eyes and think of childhood memories and the spaces that contain them, my mind might touch upon a bedroom, a school playground or a muddy playing field, but it might just as easily come to rest upon Q2DM1, Q3DM17 or de_prodigy. The angles and textures and travel times of certain multiplayer maps are seared into my brain through repetition, their tiny details lacquered by the tension of triumph and defeat.

But I like that they’re more than just memories. I don’t find much time to play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but it’s a wonderful thing and Valve have been doing great work in gradually reviving and revitalizing maps from older versions of the game. They’ve done just that today to de_train, an old favourite, and if you’ve ever played Counter-Strike it’s worth watching the video below and reading the post on the Counter-Strike blog which explains the changes.

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When Far Cry 3 came out in 2012, we were as surprised as anyone to see it top our advent calendar. It’s less surprising to discover that Far Cry 4 offers many of the same joys, from the liberation of an exotic land’s outposts and fortresses to the liberation of player movement as you zip about with a grappling hook and wingsuit. There’s one big thing that’s new – or, er, newly good – and that’s co-op.

Graham: Far Cry 4 is the best co-op game not just in 2014, but maybe ever.

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“HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY, DOOM!” John Romero tweeted yesterday. “In honor of this legal drinking age birthday, I’m about to release some never-before-seen DOOM game art!”

I know what you’re thinking – “21 years old! The US drinking age is barbaric.” Then you pause and realise “Wait, never-before-seen Doom art? Ooh!” And yes, it is splendid. Since then, the id co-founder has shared treasures including scans of the clay models id turned into monster sprites, and all sorts of abilities, textures, and gore that never made it into Doom. It’s a joyous Doomdump.

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Dead State has been shambling toward release for years and we’ve been tracking its progress since Brian Mitsoda announced the project in 2010. It looked like it might be the game that revitalised the zombie genre long before the rotters had reached saturation point. It was also one of the few old-fashioned isometric RPGs in development before Kickstarter helped the likes of Wasteland 2 and Pillars of Eternity to burst onto the scene. Dead State’s own Kickstarter in 2012 allowed Double Bear to move into full-time production and the game was finally released last week. We sent survivalist Cassandra Khaw to Splendid, Texas. Here is her report.>

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Oh, the casual disregard for meaning that forms the backbone of marketing. This Elite: Dangerous launch trailer doesn’t mark the launch of the game, because that happens next week on December 16th. It’s game-like footage doesn’t actually show the game, since it’s all pre-rendered. And it’s not representative of the activities you’ll perform in the game because you can’t walk about on foot and while it’s certainly capable of spinning frantic space battles, it’s mostly a game about being an intergalactic courier.

Don’t get me wrong. I like the game that way and I don’t mind a bit of a light show for its own sake, so watch the trailer below.

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Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

It’s not quite the forgotten child of the X-COM series – that title probably belongs to the ambitious but confused Apocalypse – but Terror From The Deep certainly gets a slightly raw deal. To a great extent, it deserves it – it’s primarily a quickly-made reskin with the difficulty cranked up. And yet my fondness for it is almost greater than my fondness for the first, admittedly superior game. … [visit site to read more]

Microsoft might long ago have abandoned Flight Simulator X when they dismantled its developer shortly after release, but for the past eight years the game has been supported dutifully by its community and third-party developers. That’s continuing next week when Dovetail Games – famed for Train Simulator and its oodles of DLC – are bringing an updated version of the game to Steam. The slight revision will feature “enhanced multiplayer functionality”, along with Windows 8.1 support and a future of (albeit paid-for) updates.

This obviously has consequences for other third-party Flight Sim X developers, though Dovetail say they’ll make “every effort to ensure that as many of them as possible work”.

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I didn’t get along with Blackguards, Daedalic’s Dark Eye universe strategy RPG. On paper, it sounded like it might be a cup of tea that was almost entirely up my street but I found the early battles a slog. Too often, I’d see my party smashed to bits and have to replay until I found the ‘correct’ method for a particular fight.

Despite that, I’ve been mildly interested in the sequel, partly because there’s a dearth of these kind of tactical combat RPGs on the PC, and partly because Blackguards felt like it might be a couple of steps from greatness. Or at least good>ness. I haven’t paid sufficient attention to post any videos before now, which makes this a perfect place to plant both of the ‘New Features’ videos that have been released.

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I had thought To Azimuth would hit its Kickstarter goal quickly. It’s a slick-looking adventure game where some of the puzzling is optional, with a plot about two siblings running into UFO conspiracies as they search for their brother in ’70s Alabama. It was only looking for $20,000 yet here we are, three weeks later, with only six days left on the campaign and over $14,000 still to raise. I would very much like to play this game so hi hello why not have a look and see what you make of it?

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Do you know that sensation you get when travelling by train at night, looking out of the window, thinking and imagining things? Scaring yourself or deciding to let the hypnotic sights relax you? Well, off ine is a game about this exact sensation. Really. I asked dev Pol Clarissou and he said so.

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