One of the many things I love about Rocket League [official site] is that developers Psyonix have kept adding to their ball-cage-car ‘em up since its launch last year. Part of their Rocket Labs casual playlist, Pillars is a new prototype level coming to the RPS game of 2015 next month that’ll significantly alter the playing field by dividing it into three lanes.
It’s only a matter of time. At some point during the coming week someone is going to ask me to recommend a Battle of Jutland wargame. Wafted towards WWI’s most costly and consequential naval engagement by the squall of centennial documentaries and articles, the enquirer will request the name of a realistic, atmospheric and affordable simulation of the scrap known to Germans as the Battle of Skagerrak, and it will be my unpleasant duty to report that no such game exists. While there are half-a-dozen titles aimed at sham Scheers and cod Jellicoes, and the majority of those titles entertain and inform, the wargame that does full justice to both the tactics and the spectacle of Jutland is, I believe, still waiting to be made. … [visit site to read more]
This is your friendly reminder that the second Elusive Target (a limited time, no do-overs mission) should now be live in Hitman [official site]. Unless you’ve been stupidly efficient and somehow killed whoever it is on spawn already.
Well, I say “whoever it is” but they’ve called the mission “The Congressman” so I’m guessing you’re taking out a congressman and from the picture he seems like a sort of jowly hat-wearer who you might find on a foreign vacation in a Poirot mystery.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance [official site], you may recall, is Warhorse Studios’ heartily-crowdfunded medieval RPG that drops fantasy in favour of realism. It’s a novel idea – stripping the genre of orcs, magic and dragons; instead focusing on meticulous combat, stat-building and consequence-bearing dialogue – and its CryEngine-powered getup has so far impressed in both its astute sword fighting sequences and moments of reflection.
Originally scheduled to release in late 2015, then this summer, it now won’t be ready until sometime in 2017, Warhorse have now announced.
Reading through the new Ask Riot thingummy where Riot employees will address common League of Legends [official site] questions, the very first question looks at the practice of smurfing. This is not the process of dying yourself blue and donning a Phrygian cap as some sort of pre-game ritual (although I now have a new feature idea – GRAHAM!).
Birds do it, bees do it, even MOBA character rosters do it. What am I talking about? Having an individual whose job it is to shoot a hook of some kind out to grab those that would disobey them, obviously.
Dota 2 has Pudge, Heroes of the Storm has Stitches, Overwatch has Roadhog and now Paragon [official site] has Riktor.
Poor old Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide [official site], it’s a perfectly decent Left 4 Dead-but-with-ratmen, but for me it’s now doomed to forever be “the one that looks a bit like Bloodborne but isn’t anything quite as transcendent.” I am obsessed with Bloodborne now, I’m afraid. I pray it somehow comes to PC so that I can endlessly jabber into your terrified face as to why that’s the case. But while Bloodborne is like an unofficial Warhammer adaptation, Vermintide is the real deal, and its solid first-person Skaven-bothering is now reinforced by a free weekend and some castley DLC set in the mountains outside of its main town. … [visit site to read more]
Role-play has always been a curious concept to me despite spending half of my life believing it was little more than adults wearing fake armor and speaking in phony English accents. When I became obsessed with pen and paper RPGs, I forced three of my friends to try Dungeons and Dragons. Our awkward adventure was akin to four naive boys going on a journey, finding a dead body, and then never talking about it ever again.
But last week I discovered that Neverwinter Nights, the classic 2002 RPG, is not only still popular but also home to dozens of serious role-playing servers. Digging deeper I found that many of those servers are “adults only,” hinting all too plainly at what kind of desires they catered to. I couldn’t resist. What could this virtual Sodom have that was so compelling that people would spend time in a decade-old RPG just to experience it?
I needed to find out.
Ghost Recon Wildlands [official site] is a far cry from ye olde Ghost Recon games but… oh no, I’m appalled by having accidentally punned yet pleased by how fitting it is. We only saw a little when Ubisoft announced the open-world shooter at E3 last June, but it reminded us of a po-faced take on Far Cry’s outposts or Just Cause. Which sounds like a lark, especially considering it supports four-player co-op. With E3 coming back around, Ubi have dropped a new trailer with parachutes, dirt bikes, sniper rifles, explosions, and buggies with miniguns on top – all of which I welcome.
A couple of weeks ago I was teasing splendid Kotaku writer Jason Schreier after he tweeted describing Dishonored as “still underrated.” Underrated?! The PC version has a Metacritic rating of 91! There s only one score (or rating , you might say) under 8/10, and that review is silly. This is one of the most highly rated games ever!
Since I ve started replaying it, once again attempting to rescue the young empress from an evil regime, I keep thinking to myself, Man, this game was underrated. Sorry Jason.>