Battlezone 98 Redux [official site], Rebellion’s recent revamp of Activision’s ace RTS-FPS, now has an expansion. Not a new expansion, mind. Not really. Available now is a revamped version of Battlezone’s old expansion The Red Odyssey, which adds two new singleplayer campaigns with two new factions and loads of vehicles and weapons and whatnot to continue the secret wars across our solar system and beyond.

… [visit site to read more]

It’s hard not to watch the latest trailer for The Turing Test [official site] and see all the stark parallels between Portal and The Talos Principle. A science fiction first-person game where a robot sidekick guides you through various chambers full of puzzles with themes of transhumanism? Still, despite those on-the-sleeve inspirations, I can’t help but feel drawn in by The Turing Test’s atmosphere and heavy philosophical rumblings. And late last week, a new release trailer revealed that we won’t have to wait too much longer, as The Turing Test is due out on August 30.

… [visit site to read more]

I m not entirely sure what s going on. I m playing Civilization: Call to Power, and at some point the world turned from relative Civ familiarity (with shoddier mechanics) into a Twilight Zone where everything is just wrong. I think things started getting strange when my still ancient-looking capital city of Rome circa 1700AD started being showered with little animations of paper, crippling the city s production. Sending a spy to investigate, I uncovered that a man in a blue suit (all the rage in 1600s Thailand, apparently) was behind it all – a scummer lawyer catapulting bloody injunctions.

What in Sid s name is going on?

Civilization: Call to Power and its sequel are baffling, yet also fascinating – they re the shameful secrets of the esteemed 4X series that Sid Meier and Firaxis had no involvement with, borne of huge ambitions, an inexperienced dev team at Activision, and (fittingly, given the stifling, all-pervasive role of lawyers in the game), a lawsuit.

… [visit site to read more]

South Park: The Fractured But Whole [official site] isn’t just content to offer up another round of hilarious role-playing, it will also be improving on the fundamentals of The Stick of Truth including some pretty epic farts that can tear a hole in the time-space continuum. In a recently released developer diary, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone talk about their lessons learned and detail some improvements made to South Park’s turn-based combat.

… [visit site to read more]

Hell is other people’s toenails. The worst feeling in the world is being woken by someone else’s toenail scraping down your calf. Escaping that is 90% of why I married the sea. Perhaps Japan understands this awfulness better than any country, as evidenced by a folklore creature named the Ashiarai Yashiki. This awful filthy foot stomps into people’s homes and demands they clean it (it is a talking foot, naturally). Hell. You can experience a bit of that terror in Aki Wash [official site], a wee free game about cleaning an Ashiarai Yashiki threatening to smash you. It has the very worst toenails I’ve ever seen in a video game.

… [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.>

Dawn Patrol is the first flight simulator I remember loving. Really, truly, deeply loving. I’d played games that simulated modern fighters, like the F-16 and F-19, but the long-range engagements had never held my attention for long. The Sopwiths and Fokkers of World War I brought a physicality to air combat though, and I still remember them fondly.

… [visit site to read more]

If you’ve been slaying zombies for a few years, you may well have come across the Half-Life mod BrainBread, an FPS splashing in a touch of action-RPG as you and your pals cut down zombie hordes. I think I remember it as being fun for a bit? Hazy mod memories. Point is: now BrainBread 2 [official site] is out for free. The sequel shambles in the Source engine, naturally, and brings several co-op and competitive modes.

… [visit site to read more]

Bam! Bif! Pow! Pants-over-trousers action-RPG Marvel Ultimate Alliance is returning to PC. Kazonk! The save the world ‘em up first came to PC in 2006 but this rerelease will be fancied up a bit. Yowch! It’s coming to Steam on Tuesday. Bap! What’s more, Marvel are also releasing its sequel, Ultimate Alliance 2, on PC for the very first time. Bim!

… [visit site to read more]

Pubs would be so much more interesting if they were like RPG taverns. Go in for a refreshing beverage. Leave on an epic quest to save the world from evil, instead of to pick up that knock-off TV you accidentally bought from the tattooed bloke who really didn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘no’. True, ‘You all meet in a tavern’ is the Dungeon Master equivalent of ‘It was a dark and stormy night’, but it’s hard to argue with the efficiency. Where else would> heroes assemble, to eat, drink and be merry?

Hello From The Magic Tavern is what happens when they do a podcast instead.

… [visit site to read more]

Brendy posted about the 12 minutes of Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare [official site] footage over the weekend but I’ve been watching the narrative panel from San Diego Comic-Con in which it also made an appearance to just get a feel for what Infinity Ward are up to with this next instalment and what exactly is up with the space plot:

… [visit site to read more]