Previously, pop culture critic Anita Sarkeesian’s videos have focused on how problematic many games’ depiction of women characters can be, but a new companion series looks at the other side of the coin. The seven-minute first video in Positive Female Characters focuses on the wonderful, strange Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP [our review] and its stoic protagonist The Scythian. … [visit site to read more]
I’m with Graham on Make Frivolous Fun Things Day. I respect developers who come up with goofy jokes for April Fools’ Day then actually follow through on them, though I’d like ‘em even more if they made goofy things whenever they wanted rather than wait until the sanctioned day, a day when I’ll be suspicious of everything odd even when its makers swears blind it is real.
So I was wary when The Talos Principle [official site] Croteam announced they’d added the voice of Serious Sam from the eponymous shooty shooty murderfest series to their quiet puzzle game. But no, they really have, and it’s free for a few days. The game’s on sale too.
Codemasters have taken Dirt 3 [official site] to the valet service, clearing out almost four years of crisp packets, newspapers, melted ice lolly goop, dried mud, travel sweet tins, and Games for Windows – Live guff. In what turned out not be a hilarious April Fool’s prank, yesterday they released a version of their racing game with GFWL cut out and Steamworks boshed in.
Folks should be able to add GFWL copies to their Steam library, and as a nice bonus everyone who owned it will receive the Complete Edition that includes seven DLC packs.
I play a load of small games every day but only post a few of them. Some don’t seem quite up to scratch, some have issues that make me wary of posting them, and some make me worry I already try readers’ patience too much. But still, maybe I can tell you about them all together.
Yesterday had enough newsy news to keep me busy, despite all the April Fools’ Day guff, so I only played a few things. But if you want quiet aquatic exploration or a pregnant Barbie peppered with wooden nails, hey, look only a little further.
The Spatials [official site] is a space station management sim with squad-based combat and looting. Now, even though I’m usually an advocate of squad-based combat and looting, I’d much rather be poring over construction plans and monitoring the cravings of my crew and any visitors who happen to pop in for tea and biscuits. Thankfully, The Spatials’ combat sections are in the form of away missions rather than taking place on your station, which means they won’t interrupt your managerial musings. The game is out now and I spent an hour with it this morning.
Part of a miscellany of serious thoughts, animal gifs, and anecdotage from the realm of MOBAs/hero brawlers/lane-pushers/ARTS/tactical wizard-em-ups. One day Pip might even tell you the story of how she bumped into Na Vi s Dendi at a dessert buffet cart. THIS WEEK, however, she will be digging into how one MOBA can influence another:>
Three lanes, patches of jungle, a bunch of player characters, items and minions, oh and a base to defend. When you put it in those terms League of Legends and Smite [official site] don’t seem too far apart. But the devil’s in the detail and it’s what you do with that detail that counts. But from watching the first pro season of Smite it felt like a lot had been borrowed, or at least learned from other MOBAs in terms of playstyle particularly League of Legends. With the second season of Smite well underway I got in touch with Graham ‘Hinduman’ Hadfield a Smite expert caster with a League of Legends background to find out how close the two really are and whether Smite is branching out.
Battlelore Command is a digital adaptation of Fantasy Flight’s Battlelore 2nd edition, a fantasy boardgame based on Richard Borg’s Commands & Colors game system. The PC version, just launched on Steam with a purchasable DLC expansion already in place, is ported from a recent tablet release. I’m always excited when I see Fantasy Flight games on PC because I’d love to have a huge digital library of their games, particularly Arkham/Eldritch Horror, Runebound and Descent. I’ve never played Battlelore but Rab’s review of the boardgame makes it clear that I should do so immediately.
In honour of April Fool’s Day Riot have resurrected the skill spam-tastic Ultra Rapid Fire game mode in League of Legends.
The official story is that URF found its way back onto servers after an energy drink spillage derailed an attempt to upload New Ultra Rapid Fire mode (billed as an attempt to slow the game to a crawl, “delivering a slow, sophisticated, and stoic strategic showcase that tests teams abilities in new and dynamic ways while not restricting the highest tier of play to those with sub-millisecond response times”).
I must admit I was vaguely hoping for wizard chess when I read that. ALAS. On the other hand we do have the return of the hyper-aggressive LoLfest that is URF.
War for the Overworld [official site] creative director Josh Bishop uses the word ridiculous quite a bit. It s understandable. The 22-year-old is on the verge of releasing what is intended to be the first faithful follow-up to beloved strategy/management/Imp-slapping title Dungeon Keeper in 16 years. He leads a studio which has reached as many as 20 members, he s received 200,000 in Kickstarter pledges, he s had Peter Molyneux s blessing and an implicit agreement that rightsholder EA would look the other way, he’s got original narrator Richard Ridings onboard and tomorrow, all being well, it all comes to fruition. It s ridiculous. … [visit site to read more]
Purveyors of April Foolery, Blizzard, have temporarily added a giant head mode to Heroes of the Storm.
“Variety is the spice of life in Heroes of the Storm, and we re always looking for new ways to allow players to customize their Heroes and infuse their personalities into the denizens of the Nexus,” they say. “Big Head Mode is just another step in that direction.”