Be honest now: if you were given a choice between fighting a dragon versus not fighting a dragon, what would you choose? I would choose not to fight the dragon. I would choose to befriend> the dragon. And then the dragon and I would fly about, incinerating the unpleasant and laughing about it. What a jolly time we would have, the dragon and I.

Melbourne-based developers 3 Sprockets launched their new hack ‘n slash RPG last week. It is, as you may have gathered, titled Fight The Dragon. There isn’t much of a choice around the dragon, sadly. You can choose not to fight it, but it will most definitely choose to fight you.

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Well, Wargaming are releasing another World of Warthing game soon! World of Warships is in beta. *Takes DEEP BREATH* But what about World of Warbicycles? World of Warballoons? World of Wargo-karts? World of Warjetskis? World of WarVespas? How about SEASONAL World of WarSleighs? Anyway click ‘more’ to see the first gameplay trailer, I promise I’ll shut up.

Will I though

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Dark Souls II may not be the greatest Souls game ever made but despite its flaws, it’s still one of the year’s finest. Behind the hideous enemies and the stern challenge lies a world unlike any other – the combat systems and RPG elements may be at the heart of From’s series, but it’s the world of Drangleic that lingers in the memory.>

Adam: An exercise in archaeology.

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It’s not knowledge I often get to use, but I have a shodan in Iaido, the Japanese art of the drawing of the sword. I practised Musoshinden Ryu in a budoukan on the quiet side of Kagoshima city, Japan. It is a precise and very frustrating martial art to learn: one learns first how to tie the hakama, or plaited trousers, then one learns how to tie the obi so that the sword hilt sits almost horizontal, right at the navel for quick draw. Then one learns to sit, for hours, in seiza – folded knees. Then meditation, a bow to the sword on the floor in front of you.

But Kiai: Resonance gets right, aha, to the point. It’s a samurai duelling game about one hit kills. One hit kills were the speciality of the samurai in the Kagoshima region, where I studied.

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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.>

A little while back I recommended one of the big-name MOBAs in this Have You Played… stream. Now it’s time for another – League of Legends.

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Huskies are brilliant dogs. This isn’t just because they look great (to my mind, only the Shiba Inu hedges ‘em out). It isn’t just because they haul sleds (although that, too, is brilliant). It’s because they’re great dogs for facts. For example, did you know that they’re one of the oldest existing dog breeds, believed to have been about for over three thousand years? Or that they can travel about hundred and fifty miles in a day – in Siberian conditions, whilst hauling loads? Or that they can run at up to fifty miles per hour?

Well, now you do. And now that you’re equipped with almost as many huskie facts as I am, we’re ready to journey together into the world of Dog Sled Saga.

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I haven’t been back to Scotland, my motherland, for a long time. Beeswing is a game about small-town Scotland released a few days ago. It is written in snippets of philosophy and folklore. It is told through hand-drawn maps and gentle guitar strokes. It is Final Fantasy on a small scale, in the spirit of Yumei Nikki, hand-illustrated and studded with the kind of Scottish duality people don’t talk about any more. In Beeswing I feel acquainted with death, but not in a morbid way. In Beeswing I feel like I am home in summers of Loch Lomond watching bees suckle pink flowers and dance between the heads of heather. I wanted to call my mother at a point, in fact, a thing I forget to do but Beeswing tattooed it into my consciousness. Beeswing sent me home.

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So many exciting things happened this week and I wish I could share some of it. Alas, I am instead shepherding 13 drunk people around today as the designated sober person, which may or may not entail me worrying about them falling off buildings. Wish me luck. In celebration of this annual event (and because this is my responsibility), have a bucket of bargains and a happy weekend. (Send me plushie photos, darnit all!)

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Something I can’t do have never been able to do in terms of what I do for a living is enjoy horror games.

That’s why I’ve decided to talk the matter over with Adam, one of the RPS resident horror fans and the chap whose own most recent supporter post dealt with Five Nights At Freddy’s; a nasty, brutish horror game but one not without merit or skill.

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Dear Rock, Paper, Shotgun,

I miss your smile. I miss your comments on my previews wondering how much sugar I have consumed to write it and what the heck kind of quirky BS is this and whether I will or will not ever get around to writing about triple A video games for you. But I come to you today to ask you about yourself. What is it, my pretty lovelies, that you are playing right now? I would like to know. And I miss you.

Your pal,Cara

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