I don’t know where or how he heard it, but Ian Video Games was right: No Man’s Sky [official site] has been delayed. The space sandbox had been lined up to blast off on June 21st, but developers Hello Games last night confirmed that it won’t make that. So they can polish it up proper nice, they’ve delayed it into August.
Here’s the thing: I am now on holiday. I can ask you what you’re playing this weekend, but I won’t be around to hear your reply. But that’s okay. You can do this without me. You have each other. Please, tell those around you. Here’s what we’re playing:
The Fog comes and goes. Sometimes, on a good year, it hangs thinly around the mountains, or concentrates itself somewhere avoidable. It s a hassle, but folks manage. Other years, it reaches out and drapes itself thickly across the whole island, swallowing villages and ruins and marinas. Folks manage a lot less. There are things> in The Fog, you see. Old things, all twisted up by radiation and ill will. Sometimes The Fog carries poison. Sometimes it just drives you mad. Welcome to Fallout 4‘s Far Harbour. This is a bad year.
If I had a time machine, I’d travel back to 2014 and convince Oculus and Valve not to release consumer VR hardware until both the technology and the market was truly ready for it. But first I’d have to travel forwards in time to get print-outs of all the VRpocalypse editorials we’re going to see in early 2017. I’d also remind myself to bid on that eBay listing for a Warhammer 40,000 Imperial Knight which went for a song last Friday. Sadly, the only time machine I have access to is Time Machine VR, an underwater pod from which I can examine various aquatic dinosaurs, and occasionally even swim inside their mouths. … [visit site to read more]
Yes, yes the Blood & Wine expansion sounds great, but here’s the really exciting thing coming to The Witcher 3 [official site] next week: a magical book which tells Geralt where to find every Gwent card. A treasure worth more than any gem! Oh, yeah, and I guess patch 1.20 will improve the interface and add an option to enable difficulty upscaling if folks want a tougher time but LOOK magical Gwent book is what matters.
From Friday the 13th> to Texas Chain Saw Massacre>, Roope Tamminen’s Lakeview Cabin Collection [official site] offers little sandbox deathworlds inspired by horror films of the ’70s and ’80s. They’re… non-linear violent adventure games? No, I still don’t know how to describe this. Each episode turns characters loose in a little horror movie setup to survive any way they can – you get to try the things you shout at characters to do, basically. Or try to. Now the Collection is complete with the release of an Aliens>-y, Thing>-ish episode and a little epilogue.
Overwatch [official site] is like going for an evening of speed dating and realizing everyone you meet is marriage material. I’ll stare at the character select screen before each match, unable to decide which hero I want to play because I want to play them all. Do I play as Reaper and try to earn ‘Play of the Game’ with my deadly shotguns? Do I hang back as Widowmaker and snipe holes into people’s heads? These are the kinds of questions are only made hard because each one leads to its own kind of fun. But does all that diversity lead to a game as enduring as everything else in Blizzard’s great legacy? Here’s wot I think.
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>
Don’t. Not if you value your time, your intelligence and your sense of self-worth. I did not, and it ruined me for months.
Nyyyyyommm. Nyim! Vrooooim. Those onomatopoeias, and others like them, signal the whizzing-past of both cars and announcements of annual sequels. Which can only mean that Codemasters today announced F1 2016 [official site], the next in their Formula 1 drive ‘em up series. What’s new and exciting this year? Well let me tell you! It’s bringing back a car that can drive in front of you for your safety and delight. Not even a Formula 1 car – just some old Mercedes-Benz pootling about on the track when it thinks the race will get too exciting. A ‘racedad’, I think is the technical term.
What frustrated me most about Space Run was that it failed to deliver on its initial potential. Like Adam, I was taken by its nuanced slant on tower defence, as I built weapon-heavy space-trucks and hauled cargo containers to and fro hostile intergalactic thoroughfares, however I felt it became too repetitive after its first few hours. There was a good game lurking in there somewhere, but I felt Space Run just couldn’t realise it.
Its follow-up, Space Run Galaxy [official site], has released its first trailer and I’m starting to think it might right its forerunner’s wrongs. Hop below for a look.