Stellaris may be on the cusp of welcoming its first official Species pack later this week, however its keen modding community has hardly taken a breath since the game s launch back in May. The latest mod to impress is G-Man s Star Trek New Horizons a total conversion that follows the entire canon timeline from 2150 s Enterprise era through to 2400 and beyond.

It s in the early stages of development, but New Horizons already packs a host of tweaks and tinkerings that give Stellaris a flavour of the ST universe. There are 38 pre-scripted races, for example, with canon starting positions; as well as five playable factions and their ships, including: United Earth, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, the Vulcan High Command and Gorn Hegemony. While not exclusive to this mod, civilian trade is also a welcomed addition.

Relevant to the Enterprise era and that of the original series, the mod introduces replica uniforms and portraits specific to each time period; it adds new Torpedo weapons and shields; new races; and the The Borg in place of the Scourge crisis events featured in the original game. The full list of changes can be found on the mod s Steam Workshop and ModDB pages and, as it s a work-in-progress, promises to add more in the coming months.

"As this will be a total conversion we plan on creating a whole new canon static universe with proper factions, ships, portraits and storytelling," says its creators. "Prepare to relive your favourite episodes and movies, this mod will guide you through the entire canon Star Trek timeline."

The original Quake was a muddy medieval world of knights, Lovecraftian horrors, and grim castles. But the sequel, cleverly titled Quake II, goes in a different direction entirely. You re a space marine, naturally, who has crash-landed on an alien world called Stroggos. In a desperate attempt to prevent an invasion, Earth sent an army to the distant planet, but the Strogg knew you were coming and your arrival was a slaughter. The dropships were shot down by anti-air defences and pretty much everyone died, except you. And so, in true id Software FPS style, it becomes a solo mission.

There s a chance you don t remember any of that. After all, Quake II is not a game renowned for its deep, complex sci-fi storyline. But the inclusion of a plot, and mission objectives, was pretty unique for an FPS in the late 90s. As you play, a robotic voice regularly drones computer updated and gives you mission objectives. By modern standards that s completely unexciting, but back then it set Quake II apart from id s other shooters. It was more cinematic, and your actions felt somehow more meaningful. And by your actions I mean shooting , because that s the beating heart of the game. Shooting things, and avoiding being shot.

At the time, Quake II was a technical marvel. Powered by the id Tech 2 engine, it boasted features that seem unremarkable now, but were amazing in their day. Hardware-accelerated graphics, coloured lighting, skyboxes, and the ability to return to previously completed levels were among its once groundbreaking features. After the release of Quake II, the engine powered several other games, including, in the early stages of its development, Half-Life. Quake II also had massively improved networking, making it one of the best early examples of an online FPS. Mod support also dramatically extended its lifespan for anyone lucky enough to have an internet connection with which to download the things.

People are still making mods today, in fact, including a few that let you play the game at high resolutions and with some graphical improvements. It ll still look like a game from 1997, but it makes it a bit more tolerable to modern eyes. Character movement is mapped to the arrow keys by default, but after some rebinding you can have it playing like a modern FPS. Although, weirdly, strafing is faster than moving forward and backwards. A strange sensation that took me a while to get used to. But for such an old game, Quake II is surprisingly playable.

A big part of this is its arsenal. It s still one of the finest collections of FPS guns on PC, and every weapon you wield has a distinct personality. The chaingun rattles at incredible speeds, getting steadily faster the longer you fire it. The super shotgun is like a handheld anti-aircraft gun, and you can almost feel the power as you unload it into an enemy and hear that echoing boom. The exaggerated kickback on the machine gun, which rises slowly as you fire, gives it a sense of physicality. And I love it when you fire the grenade launcher and hear the metal clink of the grenades as they bounce around the level. Every weapon, except maybe the blaster, is a joy to fire.

But the best of the lot is the railgun. This metal tube of death fires depleted uranium slugs at extremely high velocities, which leave a blue corkscrew of smoke in their wake. The railgun is incredibly accurate it s like a sniper rifle without a scope and it can cut through several Strogg at a time. In fights with multiple enemies, a useful strategy is running around until a few of them are lined up, then firing a slug. Seeing it tear through a line of bad guys is one of the greatest pleasures in first-person shooting.

And the things you shoot are just as well-designed. Quake II has the standard FPS structure of starting you out against small groups of easily-killed grunts, increasing the challenge the deeper into the game you get. In the first few levels you re fighting shotgun-toting Guards, beefy Enforcers with chainguns, and Berserkers who lunge at you with big metal spikes and later fire rockets at you. The way enemies explode into chunks of bloody meat, or gibs to use the parlance of the times, is still gruesomely satisfying. And there are other grisly touches, like when you don t quite kill an enemy and they squeeze off a few extra shots before they finally collapse and die.

But this is just to ease you in, and it s not long before id starts throwing its meanest creations at you in force. The Strogg are weird cyborg hybrids, with mechanical limbs and eerily human, grimacing faces. Gladiators stomp around on metal legs, firing their own version of the railgun at you. Mutants are angry, feral beasts who pounce on you, usually from dark corners. Brains, perhaps the weirdest enemy, attack you with tentacles and blood-stained hooked hands. There s a huge variety of things to kill, all with unique behaviours and weapons, which keeps the game interesting especially when you re facing several types at once.

The hardest thing to stomach when revisiting Quake II is how brown it is. The switch from dark fantasy to sci-fi leaves the levels brutal, industrial, and metallic. There isn t much variety or detail in the environments, and the colour palette is depressingly muted. The actual design of the levels is great, with plenty of secret areas and multi-level arenas to fight in, but the lack of colour and almost nonexistent world-building make it feel like a bit of a slog at times. But I remember thinking this back in 1997, and really it s a game about combat, not drawing you into its world. And since the Strogg live only for war, I guess it makes sense that their planet would be like one giant factory.

When you ve fought your way through the Strogg and infiltrated the headquarters of their leader a space station in an asteroid belt above the planet it s time to complete your final objective: kill it. The Strogg leader is called The Makron, and it s a two-stage boss fight. Its first form is a powerful exoskeleton which comes equipped with a BFG10K, the most powerful weapon in the game. And, unlike your own BFG, it can fire it multiple times in quick succession. When you destroy the mech, it s time to kill The Makron itself, which also has a BFG as well as a blaster and a railgun. Luckily the arena is littered with power-ups, health, and ammo, including a secret underground chamber that can be accessed by pressing a hidden switch. When the boss falls, you step into an escape pod, and that s it. The End unceremoniously flashes up on the screen, and your only choice is to go back to the menu. Imagine if a game ended like that today.

Quake II is still a great game, and I m surprised by how well it holds up. There s something about the feel of the weapons, the way they re animated and how they sound, that makes them some of the best examples in the genre. Even the new Doom, which is a fantastic ode to this era of shooter design, doesn t have anything quite as enjoyably punchy as Quake s railgun.

There s fish burning in a fryer and I m too busy washing plates to stop it. Meanwhile, nobody is cutting potatoes and the paraplegic racoon in a wheelchair just slipped and fell into an icy river while holding a full plate of french fries ready to serve. The fryer goes up in flames and the tabby cat rushes for the extinguisher. We still need to cut potatoes.

This is a normal level of catastrophe in Overcooked, a wonderfully chaotic local co-op cooking game that gives real power to the words too many cooks spoil the broth. At its best, a team of four players look like a beautiful mix of a ballet and an assembly line. At its worst, they look like one of Gordon s Ramsay s nightmares. And either way it s an absolute blast to play.

Overcooked is a race against time as you and your team try to make and deliver as many dishes as possible in four minutes. Burgers, pizza, and other dishes all come together in a similar way: chop ingredients, cook ingredients, put cooked ingredients on a plate, and serve before time runs out. Simple enough, but very rarely that straightforward in practice.

Overcooked s controls are great because they are easy enough to pick up quickly, but also allow for lots of little tricks that aren t taught in the tutorial. You can bring each ingredient to a plate, or you can pick that plate up and use it to gather the ingredients directly, saving time. Ingredients can be placed on a level s limited counter space, or you can just throw them on the ground to be picked up later. Learning these things through playing was exciting because I could see myself actually getting better, not just being given new abilities or told how to do some new technique.

Occupational hazards

Where Overcooked really shines, and where the vast majority of its challenge comes from, is its level design. They start simple an outdoor kitchen with random people walking through your path, a pirate ship that tilts and moves your tables back and forth but quickly escalate until your kitchen is split across three moving trucks or on shifting islands in a lake of lava, testing your team s communication more than anything else. There are two ice river levels, mentioned above, and they re some of the hardest in the game, but they made me keep coming back for more, trying to get a three star rating.

Suddenly we were driving back across Overcooked s charming level-select map, tracking down and tryharding any levels we only had two stars on. It s easy to complete a level, as the one star requirement is generally low except for the final set of levels which ramps up dramatically. There s no way to fail entirely, which I actually disliked as it removed some of the pressure when time was about to run out on an order. But to get three stars for most levels requires a gameplan and a coordinated team. We would often pause a level right at the start just to plan our strategy and assign roles to each person. As I played with the same group of people more, we all fell into regular roles.

But the levels in Overcooked are specifically designed to throw this sort of planning into chaos, and inevitably things would fall apart. The game didn t want us to have a plan, it wanted us to think on our feet. What happens when the pirate ship tilts, the tables slide, and suddenly Evan and his raccoon don t have access to the burners anymore? It s being able to quickly communicate and swap roles that let us conquer some of the game s harder stages, and when our communication broke down it was utter chaos.

I always knew things had gone horribly wrong when everyone stopped talking. The silence was often deafening as orders went unfilled and people haphazardly bumped into each other. These trainwrecks are part of the experience, but there are some ways Overcooked could better support players during the chaos. For one, every character wears a white chef s hat, making it hard to find myself at a glance, and I wish hats matched each player s shirt color. Another issue is that thresholds can be a little ambiguous I sometimes fell through the cracks between platforms on the ice and lava levels.

Off-line cook

In addition to the cat and the racoon, there s still an elephant in the kitchen we need to talk about: Overcooked doesn t have online play. Plenty of fantastic games are local only TowerFall Ascension and Gang Beasts are prime examples of that but it s still disappointing. The experience of reorganizing on the fly (read: frantically yelling at each other) probably wouldn t be the same over VoIP, but I wish I at least had the option.

Overcooked just isn t as much fun alone. Playing solo, you control two chefs which you can swap between, and chopping ingredients takes a lot longer than while playing multiplayer. This let me start chopping an onion with one chef, swap to the other to start another task, then swap back when the chopping was done. Instead of being about adapting to the level and sharing tasks, Overcooked becomes more like StarCraft a game of micro and finding the optimal order to complete those tasks.

It s a harder game, and a significantly more frustrating one with no one but yourself to blame for mistakes, but it s actually easier to progress while playing alone. The less people you have, the fewer points you need to reach two or three stars. So while you can get more done with four people, I often found it easier to reach three stars on a level with only one or two players because the bar was set so much lower. It felt like a cheap trick in order to progress when I was stuck, but everything seems simpler when there are fewer cooks in the kitchen.

With four players gathered around, Overcooked is hands down one of the best couch party games ever made. It s the perfect balance of chaos that can be conquered with skill. With two or three players, the game gets a little easier and much more strategic, with room to see what your doing and think about what needs to be done. With one, it s all about challenging yourself, and a lot of the whimsical fun of shouting at the screen is lost.

YouTube chap Limit Breakers recently wowed/shocked/disgusted us by replacing every Dark Souls 3 texture with crabs, and it appears he s at it again this time at the behest of viewers. After putting it to a vote and thereafter rounding up the most popular suggestions, Limit Breakers latest peculiar Dark Souls proclivity lets you swap out single textures from the action role-player for the likes of Shrek, the word Poise , and Hollywood star Nicolas Cage, among other equally bizarre characters and monikers.

Just some guy who likes taking dumb ideas to the limit, aptly reads the About page of the Limit Breakers channel, which evidently translates to something that looks like this:

With that, I can't help but wonder: why would someone be inclined to do this? Who knows, but in the event you d like to try it yourself, Limit Breakers has provided a handy how to guide.

When the crab video first surfaced, Andy suggested it might be some kind of psychological payback for a bad encounter a Great Crab in the past. Nic Cage and Shrek, on the other hand? Again, who knows. A strange Monday morning discovery, indeed.

An Australian senator has announced that he intends to introduce a bill defining Counter-Strike: Counter Offensive as gambling, thanks to its weapon skin trading system. In what looks to be a world first, independent senator Nick Xenophon will introduce the bill when the Australian federal parliament resumes next month.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, the senator said that Counter-Strike and similar games "purport to be one thing" while they're actually "morphing into full-on gambling and that itself is incredibly misleading and deceptive.

"This is the Wild West of online gambling that is actually targeting kids," Xenophon said.

According to the report, the legislation could make it illegal for Valve to solicit payments in exchange for items with different, or random, value. Or else, there could be legislated age requirements to play any game featuring a similar economy, or the requirement to warn of gambling related content.

Valve has only recently made meaningful steps to curb the fledgling but already very prolific skin gambling market. In a statement issued earlier this month, Valve made clear that it has no connection with any of the skin gambling sites that have emerged since they introduced in-game item trading.

"A number of gambling sites started leveraging the Steam trading system, and there's been some false assumptions about our involvement with these sites," the statement read. "We'd like to clarify that we have no business relationships with any of these sites. We have never received any revenue from them. And Steam does not have a system for turning in-game items into real world currency."

This statement was prompted by this month's CSGO Lotto scandal, which involved two high profile streamers failing to disclose their direct connection with the gambling site they were promoting. Valve sent cease and desist letters to over 20 skin gambling sites last month.

Of course chortle Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was already gold, given the overwhelming amount of the colour featured in both this game and its predecessor. But 'gold' is a term that here means ' the game is done', and it's very unlikely to suffer another delay like the one that pushed it from February into the mechanical hinterland of August.

The Deus Ex Tumblr announced the news, with a lovely photo of the development team, and a big gold arrow pointing to the tiny master disc that houses the game. If you need more Deus Ex and you can't wait until August 23, why not read our impressions of the first seven hours of the game, from this month's issue.

Evolve has been revived as Evolve: Stage 2, a radical reconfiguration of Turtle Rock's asymmetrical shooter. The action is still fast and unpredictable, with a human opponent helming the monster s brutality against a team of hunters. Best of all, it s free open season for new and returning players alike to revisit the old hunting grounds or step into the jungle for the first time.

Whether you re brushing up on the basics of hunting or tightening up your monster play, the tips in this guide should help.

Hunters

Role callDuring a face-off, stick to your job. Your equipment and chosen hunter type Assault, Support, Trapper, or Medic defines your playstyle and interaction between comrades and hulking monster. Don t prioritize dealing damage if you re the Support; that s the Assault s job. As a Medic, healing is your universe. If your arsenal slows or debilitates the monster in some way, use it you re likely the only member of your hunting party with the capability to do so. That doesn t mean you shouldn t send some punishment in the monster s direction, but your attacks should be smartly timed during cooldown intervals of your utility abilities. With the exception of the tanky Assault, randomly attacking the monster is almost always less effective than using your tools to help your team.

Power positioningUnderlined, bolded, and circled in red ink in the hunter s playbook is never get caught in the open. Engaging the monster in flat terrain, though obstacle free for crucial jetpack boosts, is an invitation for the exposed hunters to suffer a maneuverable foe who ll capitalize on superior speed and splash-damage attacks. Grab as much vertical space as you can for valuable protection. Posting non-Assault hunters on outcroppings, cliff faces, rooftops, or any other sort of raised object forces the monster to tilt their view and climb to other targets when they shifts their focus. The added height provides extra oomph to your jetpack drifts when getting out of the monster s trajectory, and it s easier to pick out a similarly elevated landing zone while at a higher hover. If you re the Assault, get into the monster s face and be a stinging nuisance for as long as you can. Otherwise, jet away and jet up.

Track attackThe monster s footprints are glowing breadcrumbs to your prize, but resist the urge to mindlessly chase after track trails around the map. You won t catch up to the faster monster by just following animal carcasses and meandering prints. Instead, head off the monster s predicted pathway. Spread out (but don t isolate yourself!) to try and intersect with the monster s travel direction. Use the minimap as a visual aid for smartly steering your group; if, for example, the only way a monster can go is straight back into your awaiting guns or turn, assume he will turn. Watch out for moments of misdirection: the monster can mask its movements by sneaking or traveling through water to eliminate footprints. The Trapper s planet scanner ability is a great boon for directing the hunter pack in the general direction of the monster, but be prepared for clever monster players to mentally countdown the scanner s duration and resume stalking as soon as the scan ends.

Dome diligenceThe Mobile Arena is the dome-shaped gauntlet hunters throw down to coerce the monster into an unavoidable duel and prevent escape for a precious few minutes. Any hunter can trigger the arena after getting close enough to the monster, but don t dome until the moment is advantageous. You ll want to dome when the monster is on the backfoot, ideally after taking some initial chip damage or has little to no armor to shrug off hits. Good dome fights are dictated by the surrounding terrain it encircles avoid dangerously close-range map sections such as caves or tunnels and go for rocky crags or ledge-filled overlooks for extra movement space and natural cover. Make sure your team is close before engaging the dome; though fellow hunters can enter the dome from the outside, you don t want to initiate a challenge with no one at your side for the first vital seconds.

The Medic makes a teamA successful hunting expedition needs a successful Medic. Choosing to be the Medic requires mastery of dodging and positioning, as you ll need to constantly evade the monster s onslaught which will certainly be focused on you above all others while monitoring jetpack juice, tracking ability cooldowns, and healing wounded teammates. As a different hunter role, you ll sometimes need to double as snap bodyguard for your Medic and absorb as much incoming damage as you can withstand. If the Medic falls, your posse will likely topple soon afterwards.

Val is a good starter choice for a traditionally kitted doc; her medgun offers no-frills single-target healing while her scoped tranquilizer rifle emphasizes distance to land effective shots. For something more offbeat, give Lazarus a try. Beyond a decently restorative healing burst, he lacks direct healing. His true speciality lies with his Lazarus device and personal cloak, the latter a defensive bonus for using the latter to quickly revive dead teammates.

On the next page, essential tips for Monsters.

Monsters

Smells swellA tap of the right mouse button engages the monster s mega-nostrils, granting an olfactory burst of intel. It highlights nearby animals, hunters, and briefly displays your footprint trail to help discern where your foolish pursuers will close in from. Sniffed organics will also show through walls and structures, handy for clever-girl ambushes and keeping tabs on pesky hunters. Smelling is free, low cooldown, and a vital tool for a master monster. Spam it.

The need to feedAlways be on the move to seek out herds of animals to fill your belly and your armor bar. Chomping on prey also adds progress toward evolving to the monster s second or third stage which, as subtly urged by the game s name, is kind of a big deal. Evolving bulks up your armor and health pools while bestowing three additional points to enhance your abilities. If you re not bringing down nature s wrath on the hunters, you should be stuffing your face with animals. Some creatures carry helpful temporary buffs such as bonus poison damage for attacks or faster climbing speed; look for an animal with a shaft of light above it to spot one. Stay mobile and stop sparingly you move much faster than the hunters, so use that to your advantage as you comb the map for food.

Bot up to skill upThe foundation of a good monster player is a sturdy grasp of the monster s lumbering movement.

Using your slowly recharging traversal jumps a mighty spacebar leap that covers significant ground and knowing when to withhold them for juking out of a dome or rocketing to the next animal pack is just as important as chaining well-aimed attacks. Fire up a bot round or two as a warmup before queuing for a live match. The bots are uncannily adept at tracking and zeroing in on your position, and their dodgy behavior during combat is enough of an approximation of human players to help touch up climbing paths, feeding circuits, and evading fire.

The Goliath is a superb starting monster. Their straightforward moveset emphasizes huge leaps and bullish charges, so they boast an excellently forgiving beginner s experience. The Kraken is a fun, but more fragile alternative the attack helicopter of Evolve, their traversals keep them hovering to rain down lightning strikes and bomb blasts on ground targets.

Total dome-inationAs the monster, getting domed is inevitable. You ll be committed to combat, but that shouldn t panic. The sheer power of the monster holds sway over the battle s momentum and flow, and your control of the monster tips the opening gambit in your favor. When domed, avoid barging into the hunters and flailing mindlessly. While catching multiple hunters in an area-of-effect attack is always a bonus, you ll want to constantly take stock of where each hunter type sits in relation to your movements and shift priorities accordingly.

Always try going for the Medic first; KOing them removes the ability to heal your incoming damage and greatly helps your odds. The Support should be your secondary target for their ability to shield and provide buffs to other hunters you might need to make their your top priority if they re focusing the Medic, as the latter will simply outlast your damage if a Support wingmans them. Of less importance is the Assault, but don t shrug them off entirely their substantial damage output will continually chew through your armor and health. The Trapper is more of an annoyance than an immediate threat, as they ll harpoon you and slow your momentum but deal little direct damage. Make sure to turn and attack the harpoon cables whenever they sting into your hide.

Plan for the scan A popular hunter tactic at the start of a round is to immediately fire off a planet scan to draw a bead on your location. Since the monster moves quite fast, you shouldn t feel discouraged when the scan notice pops up on your screen as long as you keep moving. The scanner may have somewhat dimmed the effectiveness of stealthily creeping around the map, but you can still misdirect the hunters with some clever footwork. Try timing your bluff near the end of a scan s duration: stomp off in one direction to create a footprint trail, then crouch and double back right when the scan ceases. The hunters will soon catch on to your shenanigans as they follow your trail, but with luck, you can set up an ambush from behind or the side for a strong alpha strike.

I've been looking forward to Fallout 4's Vault-Tec Workshop DLC, and herein lies my mistake: I was focusing on the 'Vault-Tec' in the title and not the word 'Workshop.' And ultimately, this is just another Workshop, and by that I mean it's just another settlement, and I don't know about you but I'm a wee bit tired of settlements.

With the $5 DLC installed, tune into a new radio frequency that will direct you to Vault 88, where a ghoul Overseer will begin giving you quests as she attempts, for some reason, to complete the Vault's construction and turn it into a fully operational facility. The quests, really, aren't much to speak of. There is one excursion to retrieve an item from elsewhere on the map, but the rest involve clearing out ghouls and mirelurks from the depths of 88, and setting up a few experiments on the settlers who begin to move in.

And hey, it's only $5, so I wasn't expecting a sprawling adventure, but the ultimate feeling I'm left with, quest-wise and experiment-wise, is: "Oh, that's it? Huh."

The experiments are the biggest disappointment. Build an item in the Workshop, place it and power it up, and tell some poor settler to use it. You can make your subject ride a stationary bike that acts as a generator, serve them chemically enhanced soda, give them an optical exam, and instruct them to play slot machines. Each experiment has three settings, depending on how evil you feel, that can influence the subject's behavior chemically, subliminally, or optically.

And that's it, really. Despite the ever-present Nick Valentine's disapproving synthetic stare, I went full-on evil, trying to pick the least ethical setting for each experiment. A couple settlers got giddy on tainted soda, one got angry after discovering a subliminal message during an eye exam, someone else was tricked into praising the ghoul Overseer even though she should not be praised because she is a jerk. I don't exactly feel like Lex Luthor, you know?

If you were hoping to become a puppet-master, creatively brainwashing your unknowing subjects with wild sci-fi experiments, uh, yeah, that doesn't seem to be included here. I feel like I've been meaner to settlers just in my day-to-day Fallout 4 routine.

Good news? Yes! There's some of that. 88's underground vault area is tremendously big. Really. It's huge. So, if you're really interested in building yourself a giant kickass Vault-Tec settlement, you've more than enough space to do it. There are all sorts of new Vault parts and pieces to build with, so I know dedicated builders will probably have a great time snapping together their own Vaults, and I'm looking forward to seeing what people come up with.

Another nice little bit of tech has been added, a terminal where you can track all your different companions. So, if you can't remember where you parked Curie or Dogmeat, you can use the terminal to drop a quest marker on them and easily track them down. There's also a terminal that will allow you to monitor your population and gasp assign jobs to settlers remotely! No more walking up to people, pointing at them, then walking twenty feet away and pointing at corn! This might be worth the $5 alone.

Or, you know, you could use this existing mod that also does that.

So, I don't feel anything like an Overseer after playing with the Vault-Tec Workshop, which was kind of what I was hoping for. If you want a big giant huge (it's really very large) new underground area to build in, though, this is the place to find it.

Blue Isle Studio's Valley is my kind of game for the sake of clarity, a judgment I make without having played it because I can't quite figure out what it's all about. We described it as a first person action-adventure-type-thing about a guy in a supersuit in our April announcement post, which is accurate as far as it goes, but the story trailer released today suggests that there's more going on than just acrobatic sightseeing. There is also a release date: Blue Isle announced today that Valley will go live on Steam on August 24.

Not even the description in the launch date press release is very helpful. The Valley is a magical hidden wonder in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. Filled with a variety of wondrous creatures and beautiful vistas, The Valley also holds the ancient Lifeseed relic, which according to legend is a bringer of death on a global scale, it says. The Valley s predecessors have attempted to harness it before to no avail, and now it's up to the player to explore The Valley while attempting to capture and harness the power of the Lifeseed for good.

I'm not sure how something that can inflict global annihilation ends up being called the Lifeseed, nor am I any clearer on this whole business about the unrivaled power to control life and death promised in the reveal trailer. I do get the feeling that there are going to be some lessons learned over the course of the game, though, maybe something about how great power and great responsibility come together in not-always-pleasant ways. The "unique twist on death" is intriguing, too: "The more you die, the more the valley will die around you." Careful where you step.

Blue Isle's previous game was Slender: The Arrival, based on the popular Slender Man horror meme, which we described in our review as beautiful and atmospheric, with a nicely constructed story, but very shallow in terms of actual gameplay. Hopefully Valley can address that shortcoming the trailers certainly suggest that it will at least be a more active experience. More information about Valley can be found on Steam, or at valleythegame.com.

I'll give this much to Dontnod: It's doing a heck of a job avoiding pigeonholes. From the small-town adventures of a time-warping young woman and her best friend, the studio moved to an early 20th-century action adventure about a doctor who's also a vampire. And now it's off to make a competitive multiplayer shooter, with high-paced gameplay, both accessible and deep, called Battlecrew Space Pirates.

You might be thinking to yourself, Variety is nice, but I need another competitive online shooter like I need a hole in my head. And I sure wouldn't argue with you on that point. But Battlecrew Space Pirates, going by the brief bits of gameplay seen in the teaser video which I'm relying on because neither the press release nor the Steam listing nail it down one way or the other is actually a 2D sidescroller.

Battlecrew Space Pirates is being developed by new-ish studio Dontnod Eleven, a Paris-based outfit formerly known as Hesaw (or He Saw, as it's listed on Steam) that previously developed the rail-shooter Blue Estate. It will launch with two game modes and four unique classes, and feature charismatic heroes like a bidepal shark, a tiger with techno-goggles, and a cybernetic-eyepatch-wearing oldster named John Trigger. Dontnod promises the game will offer regularly updated community challenges, with unlockable characters, maps, skins, taunts, and game modes.

We are very excited about the announcement of Dontnod Eleven and its game, Battlecrew Space Pirates, Dontnod CEO Oksar Guilbert said. The goal of our collaboration is to help those talented independent developers and benefit from their know-how. They ve been working on this game for about a year and we re happy to help them achieve their goal of releasing this fun, exciting and innovative gaming experience.

Battlecrew Space Pirates will go live soon on Steam Early Access.

Thanks, CGM.