Lakeview Cabin Collection is a fascinating thing, an episodic sandbox action-puzzler with oodles of items to use in many ways and ultimately only one puzzle: “How can I stop horror movie slashers from stabbing me to bits and wearing my face?” I’m very bad at it, but I do enjoy poking around, getting drunk, finding weapons, and trying to set unlikely traps before I’m brutally murdered.

This being Weird Week, Lakeview Cabin Collection of course has something to offer us. Lakeview Cabin V came out yesterday, with something spooky stalking suburbia.

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Oh, Civilization: Beyond Earth [official site], how sad you make me. You work so very hard to make me love you but… well, maybe you’re fundamentally unlovable. The Rising Tide expansion, that was a good try. You became more alien, less like your dad trying to wear a spacesuit, but gosh, you made a pig’s ear of Diplomacy, didn’t you? Bugs and bonkers design decisions queered the pitch.

But maybe it’s not too late. I hear there’s a big new patch intended to address one of your biggest problems; what flowers are you bringing to my door this time?

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Say, reader dear, do you like the future? Do you like jetpacks? Do you like mechs? Do you like first-person shooters? Do you like multiplayer with vehicles and bases? Do you like classic series which folks grumble go forgotten too often? Do you like skill-based movement exploiting weird physics tricks? Do you like free video games?

If you answered yes to at least three of those, hie thee to this website, where Tribes Ascend folks Hi-Rez Studios are offering (almost) the full Tribes world o’games for free, from 1994’s Earthsiege through to 2004’s Tribes Vengeance (their own Ascend, of course, being free-to-play anyway).

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If you had Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst [official site] in the Big Game Delay Sweepstakes, step up to the podium and claim your prize. Previously set for release on February 23rd, the same day as Far Cry Primal and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the continuing adventures of Faith have been pushed back to May. DICE are still sticking to a specific release date – May 24th – and say that the delay is down to their desire to make the game “as entertaining, impressive, and memorable as it can be”.

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Game series like Just Cause are a bit like Hollywood action movies. In order to be completely absorbed by their flash and pizzazz and glitz and glamour, we suspend our trust in common sense just a little, just enough, to allow ourselves to take it all in. Getting a sneak peak behind the illusory velvet rope can take away some of this majesty, but also offers the chance to see how a game comes together. The latest Just Cause 3 [official site] developer diary focuses on story and does just that. Grab the popcorn and let’s take a look.

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Ever wanted to be a television tycoon? To be honest, neither had I until I played Empire TV Tycoon [official site]. Okay, I still don’t, not really, but Dreamsite Games’ business management game has enriched me with the know-how so that if ever I decide to make the leap from floundering freelance writer to media oligarch I can.

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In Season two of the The Last Door,You’ll delve further into the Veil as Dr. Wakefield, from before.You know, the psychiatrist of Season 1 s Jeremiah Devitt,Who’s now out in search of his client who hath split.Now caught up in a web of lies and deceit,The doctor’s search widens, past England’s back streets.Will he locate his patient, that he doth look for?Or will he find that he, too, is lost in the search of the Last Door?

Okay, so I’m no poet, but it’s Halloween and that’s the best Edgar Allan Poe impression I’ve got. The Game Kitchen’s Poe/Lovecraftian-inspired 2D point and click horror game The Last Door [official site] has started its second season on Steam Early Access.

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Behind the monochromatic minimalist facade of Inversus [official site] lies a complex, fast-paced and quick-witted strategy game. Inspired thematically and aesthetically by the ancient Chinese board game Go, Inversus pits you against another player locally, or against AI in arcade mode, with the aim of claiming sections of the board as your own by surrounding your opponent’s area with your colour. It’s out next year but pop below to see the game in action.

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What’s it like watching professional League of Legends when you’ve got the power to rework the champions? Colt ‘Ezreal’ Hallam has been at Riot Games for the best part of a decade and has worked on dozens of the game’s characters including Ahri, Blitzkrank and Kog’Maw. Colt is now Lead Roster Designer. That means he spends a lot of his time working with his team of designers to breathe new life into characters who need a bit of love. As he notes, “We’re the ones responsible for giving Mordekaiser a pet dragon!”

[Fun fact: Morde is considered rather powerful and has actually spent most of Worlds watching from the sidelines as he, along with another character, Gangplank, have been banned in nearly every game.]

Colt has been keeping an eye on Worlds so I got in touch to talk champions. Read on to find out how the reworking process, uh, works, how much you can really learn by watching an event like the World Championships, and how you respond as a designer when faced with the Morde and Gangplank situation:

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“Lovely weather we’re having” is such an elusive term where I’m from in deepest, darkest Glasgow that it could almost be considered Scottish lore. Like the Loch Ness Monster, Haggis creatures bounding around our infinite rolling hills of purple heather, or deep fried Mars bars, the phrase is not seen or heard or experienced very often. Lovely Weather We’re Having [official site], on the other hand, is a lovely video game playground. It uses local weather data based on where you are to alter your game, see. I’ve enjoyed playing a beta version, and the full game’s out on November 10th.

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