Having successfully brought Wasteland back to life with the help of 61,920 of its closest friends, Brian Fargo and inXile Entertainment are turning their attentions to another classic RPG – The Bard’s Tale [official site]. Forget the appalling comedy vacuum from a few years ago, this is The Actual Bard’s Tale IV, both a return to and modernisation of dungeon crawling with a few new tricks up its sleeve. The Kickstarter begins June 2nd, but Fargo gave us a quick preview of what to expect.

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‘Wait for the expansion’, is what RPS’ feeling about Civilization’s sci-fi spin-off Beyond Earth boiled down to. Well, now that expansion has been announced. Sid Meier’s Civlization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide is due for release ‘this Fall’, and brings water construction and combat, a revamped diplomacy system and two new factions into play. A few days ago, I had a chat with Will Miller and David McDonough, Co-Lead Designers on the turn-based strategy title, about what’s planned, whether Beyond Earth was too conservative both in terms of breaking the Civ template and in its science-fiction, how war shouldn’t be a surprise any more, and whether this is considered redemption. >

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I would like to play a game about romance and balls (this kind of ball) in Regency England. Ideally, it’d make for a pleasant holiday destination, away from the interstellar wars and fantasy fighting that make up my working life. If such a game took the form of a Solitaire-based puzzle game, I’d be as happy as the folks in “ever after”.

Imagine my delight when I saw that Regency Solitaire [official site], a game I’ve admired from afar with a certain Darcy-like faux-disdain, is now available on Steam.

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It s no surprise to see DICE continue to support Battlefield 4[official site]. If you compare its stats with those of the more recently released Battlefield Hardline, it s clear BF4 is the PC owner s Battlefield of choice. With the upgrades made in the upcoming Spring Patch, releasing late May , those players will probably be sticking around a while longer. With rebalanced weapons across the board, this could feel like an entirely new game.

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Twitch may be the fromage grand> of the video game livestreaming world, but over the past year or so I’ve seen a fair few People In The Know switch away to new competitors like Hitbox.tv. One big complaint is that the delay between the game you broadcast and what Twitch viewers see grew too long, making chatting and interacting with viewers a nuisance – it’s hard to talk to anyone when replies come one minute later.

Well, Twitch aren’t quite going back to ye goode olde days, but they have now added a new tech option that they say “reduces delay on average by 33%.”

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At last, I have a way to experience snooker without the constant and impending threat of getting glassed in the pub for trying to use the cue like a golf club.

We first talked about Pure Pool [official site] earlier last year: a pool simulation accompanied by the sort of shiny sleekness you’d expect out of a Sean Paul video. It made Adam’s cold Northern heart go all aflutter having previously only experienced pool in Mancunian public houses where the pool table is a guy’s stomach and the cue is an angry human fist. Though the reality wasn’t quite the same.

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It’s like something you’d heckle in a moment of drunk inspiration while watching Dragon’s Den: What if Double Fine and the guys behind Adventure Time joined forces for some reason?

Double Fine Studios’ Greg Rice has confirmed just that is happening. Frederator Studios, who you might know best as the folks behind Adventure Time> and Bravest Warriors>, are adapting Costume Quest [official site] for cartoon format. A jubilant Rice wrote: “Wooooo super excited to finally talk about how we’re making a Costume Quest cartoon with Frederator! Been a pleasure!”

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I’ve been absent the last couple of weeks one sickness and one work trip that took over my week leaving no time for reading outside gaming. Sorry about that. I’m looking at ways to make this a regular thing without it being so affected by external factors and simultaneously not affecting regular work!

Here’s an accidentally science-themed compendium for you to peruse.

This is not the Sunday Papers:

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Dark Echo [official website] is one of the most interesting examples of audio-as-gameplay that I’ve come across. In fact, if you’re not playing with headphones then you’re doing it wrong.

The idea is that you’re trapped in darkness and can use only sound to guide yourself through the environment. The result is an incredibly weird, minimalist project made up of footsteps, echo-location and abstract geometry of echoing sound, and couched in a plotline about a horrifying evil that devours sound and souls.

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The stats are in. YouTube videos of Minecraft [official site] – Notch’s unshakeable elder god of PC gaming – have been watched more times than any other video game during the website’s 10 year reign.

But how many of those videos are about constructing giant block wangs? YouTube may not say, but the investigative journalist in me says “many.” Speaking with the Washington Post, YouTube’s global head of gaming content Ryan Wyatt said there are over 42 million Minecraft videos on the site, with “Minecraft” being the second most searched-for term overall.

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