I keep banging on about it to all who will listen, but like a mid-life-crisiseer and their ridiculous sports car, I am increasingly in love with my new ultrawide monitor. I had to use a standard 1080p one recently – oh the humanity! – and felt as though I was trapped inside a tiny box. 21:9 is the only way to play. At least until 32:9 arrives and I decide that of course I cannot live without that. CONSUME CONSUME CONSUME. Genuinely though, ultrawide is lovely: it really brings games to life. … [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.>

The Bitmap Brothers made some superb and well-remembered games in the eighties and nineties, including future-sport biff ’em up Speedball, top-down steampunk action game The Chaos Engine and the superbly soundtracked shooter Xenon 2.

So why do I think of Magic Pockets much more often than the rest of them?

… [visit site to read more]

Overwatch’s [official site] next short will premier next week at Gamescom. Titled “The Last Bastion”, the short debuts on Thursday August 18 and tells the story of Overwatch’s robotic hero. It begins with Bastion – who is like a sentient turret – reactivating after lying in wait for more than ten years. Blizzard writes, “Fascinated by its unfamiliar surroundings, the curious omnic begins to investigate, but quickly discovers its core combat programming may have a different directive…”.

… [visit site to read more]

The All-Star match at The International 2016 saw the reveal of new Dota 2 [official site] hero, Underlord. We wrote about it in our TI6 daily recap but he’s been so long anticipated that he deserves his own post.

Vrogos, the Underlord – formerly known as Azgalor, the Pit Lord in DotA and Warcraft thanks to DotA’s origins as a mod – will be added to the game from 23 August. Underlord completes the Dota 2 roster in terms of heroes also present in DotA so from then on we’re entering uncharted territory in terms of the Dota 2 roster and whether/when further heroes will be added*.

… [visit site to read more]

The Flare Path turns five this week. Here in the UK that means it can no longer travel for free on funiculars, steam tinkers, or Bounding Billies, and risks prosecution if found in possession of an imaginary dog or an impish grin. Growing up sucks. Thank goodness there are occasional distractions like this compendium of word and picture puzzles. In the dappled glade beyond the break five unusually approachable foxers lounge. Tackle these solo brainteasers (co-op defoxing will return next week) within the next 48 hours and you ve a chance of winning various top-notch wargames and sim add-ons.

… [visit site to read more]

THQ is dead, long live NordicTHQ. The world’s greatest purveyor of Good 7/10 Action Games sadly succumbed to bankruptcy and closed down in 2013, but most of its assets, studios and franchises were bought up by various other firms. Gearbox got Homeworld, Sega got Relic, Deep Silver got Saints Row and young Swedish publisher Nordic Games got Darksiders, Red Faction, Supreme Commander and a bunch of other stuff left among the ashes. As well as, it transpires, the THQ name. Nordic is now to be known as ‘THQNordic‘. … [visit site to read more]

Welcome to another week s worth of deals and offers, as spotted by me over at Jelly Deals. If you re not planning on being utterly distracted by No Man s Sky this weekend, you may want to cast your eyes over some of these deals and see if anything strikes your fancy.

… [visit site to read more]

Day four of The International 2016 main event was all about underdogs (and one Underlord, but we ll get to that in a bit) the incredible rise of one, the heart-wrenching fall of another. And, as fate and lower bracket scheduling would have it, these two young Dota 2 [official site] teams would have to face each other in the very first series of the day.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

… [visit site to read more]

You’re damn right I’m primarily writing this post in order to make that title gag. But hell, I was genuinely surprised to hear that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] is only two weeks away. Time was a Deus Ex sequel was a seismic event, but now it’s just one more tempting glint amid a vast sea of intriguing releases. It’s been a bloody busy year for games, and I am genuinely anxious as to how I might fit in 40-odd hours of Never Asking For This. I am, at least, less anxious that my PC will be able to run it – I shall indeed see those lovely ceilings. That said, the recommended specs are pretty severe. All the relevant requirements are below, if you like. Also, preloads begin next week. … [visit site to read more]

No Man’s Sky [official site] officially launches on PC today, 12 August, but if you’re desperate to get your space exploration on (or want to know if you have time to bake a cake or attend an afternoon garden party before it pings into your game library) here are the exact timings for the Steam launch:

… [visit site to read more]