I was as surprised as anyone to see a whole new Shadowrun campaign on Steam this morning. So surprised, in fact, that I had to do some catching up to understand what exactly I was looking at.Shadowrun Chronicles: Boston Lockdown is the game we once knew as Shadowrun Online. The fact that its campaign of XCOM-like tactical combat can be enjoyed by a single player presumably made the “Online” part of the title unnecessarily offputting. Remember when “Online” was a promise rather than a threat?

Chronicles has emerged from Early Access and is ready to welcome new Runners. Perhaps the trailer will tempt you.

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It wasn t possible for me to get into exactly why Broken Age Act 2 s [official site] story is quite such a betrayal of the first half s potential in my review. It s all major spoilers. So, with that in mind, the following article contains plot spoilers up to the very end of Act 2.>

While Broken Age Act 2 is a let-down in many ways, not least the dreadful puzzles, for me the complete abandoning of what had seemed so special in the first half is what sucked the most. I’ve explored why.

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Whenever I see Hac [dev blog], I want to fiddle. The solo developer of MinskWorks is filling his first-person road trip game with so many delightful little interactions, so many little objects you can pick up, fill up, use, buy, or pack away in case you might need them later.

Last time I dropped a Hac gifbomb on you, we cooed over things like packing your car’s boot or giving it a good scrub with a mop and bucket after driving through muddy puddles. This time, ooh come look at its shopping (warning: many megabytes of animated gifs).

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Dwarf Fortress [official site] has been donation funded since 2007 and according to its monthly status updates regularly pulls in more than $3000 each month. It costs a lot of money to develop and distribute the beguiling dwarven strategy game, however, and perhaps you’ve been one of the people wanting a new way to toss optional dollars in its direction. In which case, good news: Bay 12 have set up a Patreon for the game.

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Not long to go now. Just under three weeks, in fact, until one of – if not the – most-anticipated PC games of the year arrives. Certainly, it’s the most-anticipated RPG in our corner of the internet. But I’m curious as to how many of you intend to make a date with The Witcher 3 [official site] on May 19? … [visit site to read more]

We have Opinions about Absolution, the most recent Hitman game, ’round these parts. Opinions which not everybody shares, but everybody should because famously we’re always 100% Objectively Correct in all things. Despite some grasping at greatness, it seemed a disservice to Hitman as we knew it. Meanwhile, in Mobileland, whispers spread that there was, in fact, a pretty great latter-day Hitman. Its name was Hitman GO, it looked lovely>, and it was a sort of stealth-themed sliding block puzzle which looked like a miniatures wargame. Though mechanically very different to any Hitman game, as I understand it Go nonethless conjures up a lot of their spirit – perhaps more so than 2012’s Absolution was. It was also acclaimed as something of an original. Sadly, it was banished to portables. Until now: suddenly, it’s on PC. There is, alas, a catch. … [visit site to read more]

Hello youse.

Do you have the thing you need to get the other thing? If you want to buy an object, you need money. If you want love, you need to have the capacity to love. If you want to watch TV, you need to have a head.

What if the thing you needed to get the other thing had no connection with the thing you lost when the thing you wanted is finally in your hands? What if you had the capacity to love, and so did love, but then could choose to throw away your money or saw your own head off with a bread knife?

This is Elysium.

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I realise it’s somewhat pass to compare a game to Dark Souls but look, State of Decay [official site] really is reminding me of Dark Souls. No, no, this is nothing to do with difficulty or death or mystery or structure: it’s about revamp-o-rereleases.

Like Dark Souls II’s Scholar of the First Sin, State of Decay’s Year One Survival Edition is the base game and its DLC expanded and touched up a little for the new generation of consoles. Like SotFS, it comes to PC as a separate release rather than an upgrade. And like SotFS, it seems like a fine jumping-on point for new players but perhaps not worth buying again if you had the original.

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Kalimba is a delightful game. Bright colours, tight controls, platforming, animals with accessories Developers Press Play basically laid a Pip trap and waited for me to blunder into it.

You play as a shaman, attempting to rebuild her protective totem pole after it’s destroyed by an evil shaman. The good shaman has also been destroyed and thus must resort to manipulating objects with her spirit. These objects are two differently coloured pieces of totem pole and by controlling them simultaneously you can solve puzzles and progress through zones, collecting the errant pieces of your pole as you go.

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Robin Scott started building websites to support the modding community in 2001 when he was 14-years-old. In 2007, he started a company to support his site, TES Nexus, as it became the main source for distributing Oblivion mods, and today Nexus Mods hosts “115,674 files for 173 games” and has almost 9 million registered users. If anyone knows what the modding community cares about, and exactly what mods can do for the good of games and gamers, it’s him.

In the wake of Steam’s inclusion of paid-for mods, and just a few hours before their eventual removal, I spoke to Scott about whether creators should be able to charge for mods, how he would have done things differently, and what any of this means for the future of the Nexus. Even in the wake of Valve pulling the system down (for presumed later return), his thoughts are an interesting look at the issues at hand

RPS: Firstly, what do you feel about paid mods in theory? Ignoring their current implementation, do you think there’s a way to do it that good for both developers, mod creators and mod players? Are mods something which should be free on principle?

… [visit site to read more]