Yo Dawg: SpellForce 3 [official site] is almost ready to once again put an RPG in your RTS and let you play both at the same time. Double feature!

We’d barely heard from SpellForce 3 since its announcement in 2014, but now a new Steam page promises a 2016 release for this prequel. Jump the break for all the details, while I go beg Alice to not fire me for opening my post with memes from the last decade [Ah jeez, I can’t resist appeals to my illusion of power -ed.]>.

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Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

I admit, I missed the first two Diablos at the time. Yes, yes, think of me what you will, but I did. I’ve made up for it since, and the genre is one of my absolute favourite ways to while away merry time. And few more than the glorious Torchlight [official site]. Have you played that have you?

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If you’ve been browsing Cobbo’s RPG scrollbars you’ll have noticed how he likes to mention that Final Fantasy XIV [official site] is a pretty good MMO. That is, if you manage to beat the ARG of opening a Square Enix account and actually starting the game.

The announcement of Patch 3.3: Revenge of The Horde for the 7th of June seems like a pretty good time to remind you that FFXIV is indeed a pretty good game: I played almost nothing else for an entire year. And with massive content updates coming steadily every two to three months, it’s not just the endgame that gets fleshed out, but the whole experience, even for new players. We haven’t posted about it in a while, so let me show you what’s new in Eorzea.

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Hannah Nicklin, she of the wonderful RPS series A Psychogeography of Games and Even Your Mom. From October 2015, Hannah ran an art residency in Poplar, East London, trying to listen to the community and get them involved in a project that would let them tell their own stories. It culminated in a local exhibition at the end of April, and a storytelling experiment made in Twine that you can play online for free.

Teviot Tales [official site] is a socially-engaged work that pieces together stories, poems and interviews, letting you explore the place, breathe in its atmosphere and listen to the narratives that traverse this space.

… [visit site to read more]

I didn’t think the day would ever come, but Hyper Bounce Blast [official site] is actually> a platform ‘em up. That’s not silly shorthand, it’s half platformer, half shoot ‘em up. Isn’t that beautiful?

Well, it’s mostly a shmup, but with the added mechanic of jumping and bouncing on certain enemies: not touching the floor gives you a score multiplier and makes you invulnerable to enemy bullets – in fact collecting them in this form gives you even more points. It’s out now, with a launch discount which brings the price down to 3.39.

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Also known as Dungeon-Keeper-without-the-copyright, War for the Overworld [official site] left Alec’s glasses bright pink – it was just similar enough to the old dungeon management game to make him nostalgic of the old days, but it didn’t manage to conjure up the magic of the original.

Since release in April 2015, though, the developers have been busy renovating. Yesterday marked their 40th patch, and the cumulative changes are indeed impressive. (I guess that’s what the new Steam Reviews are for) Yesterday also saw the release of the game’s first paid expansion Heart of Gold (though it’s free for backers and customers who purchased the game before May 2nd). If you’ve dismissed it at launch, it may be time to don your adventurer cap and take another look.

… [visit site to read more]

Super Hexagon and Audiosurf walk into a bar. Except they realize the bar is a disco, and it’s having a Tron-themed party. Only neons light up the room. They’re playing Europe, obnoxiously loud, and the best dancer will win an actual DeLorean. So they dance like they come from out of this world, and leave the real one far behind.

That’s about the kind of scenario that could give birth to Neon Drive [official site] a tough-as-nails rhythm game in which you need to use your car (or plane) to avoid obstacles. The devs are even handing out Certificates of Superhuman Abilities to whoever manages to collect all the achievements.

… [visit site to read more]

With its charming aesthetic and intriguing gameplay, Renowned Explorers [official site] has been one of the pleasant surprises of last year. Since its launch, devs Abbey Games have been showing love and support to their creature and the community around it, with regular patches bringing in improvements, fixes and small additions as well as weekly competitions.

May 31st will see the launch of the game’s first paid DLC, More To Explore, bringing more content in the form of new places to explore, but also more gameplay interactions and new storytelling mechanics. Form a party with a couple of unlikely friends to explore south of the break.

… [visit site to read more]

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

Gearbox’s Barney-starring add-on is the black sheep of the Half-Life family, although at the time I never encountered any reason why that should be the case. My teenage tastes were perhaps less discerning then, but more importantly any> return to Black Mesa was irresistible. I wanted new monsters and new guns, everything that a young’un wants from a follow-up to their favourite shooter, and I also had a vain hope that maybe I’d get to shoot that creepy suit-guy in the face and rescue Gordon. … [visit site to read more]

What are you gawping at? Oh, I see, the car. Thanks for the concern but, honestly, it’s fine. Really. It’s supposed to be like that. I was just out here in the desert looking for Paradise. You don’t happen to know where it is, do you? As soon as I have a better idea of where I’m going I’ll be back on the road. Yes sir, back on the trail. Anyway, you had better be going. I’m sure you have places to be. Don’t worry about me, haha. I’ll be fine. Yes, haha, I’ll be all right.

… [visit site to read more]