While at EGX I had a few minutes of hands-on time with Yooka-Laylee [official site], Playtonic’s love letter to older 3D platformers like Banjo-Kazooie. It even shares team members with those older games. It was a strange experience, if I’m honest. Bright and daft and instantly evoking those hundreds of hours of play as a child in Rare’s worlds. But at the same time I found myself not really playing so much as constantly drawing the parallels with the older games – oh, that’s this game’s version of a Jinjo, oh, that’s this game’s version of a Mumbo Jumbo transformation, oh, that’s what Banjo and Kazooie would look like if you had to use a chameleon and a bat instead of a bird and a bear…

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A driving game about conversations. It sounds perfect, like the hitchhiker American Truck Simulator mod that I wish somebody would make. When Graham wrote about Wheels of Aurelia [official site] late last year, I added it to the long list of games that I absolutely had to play. I hoped that I’d be able to see past the elements that he criticised, but now that I’ve seen most (if not all) of what Aurelia has to offer, I feel more like a passenger than a driver.>

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Surly cyberman Adam Jensen is teaming up with the pop star Sia and some wazzock to rob a data bank. That’s the premise of the first Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site] story DLC, System Rift, which launched today. A little caper and a bit of banks might even put a smile on his cyberface. Here, check out the launch trailer:

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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.>

A Story About My Uncle [official site] is a non-combat, narrative-leaning platformer from the same folks responsible for Goat Simulator. It tells a whimsical tale about a boy, his nomad and currently missing uncle, a fantasy realm, and jumping. Lots and lots of jumping.

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Everything we’ve seen and played of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III [official site] so far has focused on those corpse-worshipping spacethugs, the Space Marines. Now let’s class this joint up. Relic have started gabbing about the Eldar, the spaceelf dandies who are going extinct because they proper cocked everything up but still make time to look good. Also, they make mechs for ghosts to live in. Have a peep:

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If you’re interested in crowdfunded space sandbox Star Citizen [official site], do set aside 45 minutes to settle down with a cup of tea and read Kotaku UK’s mega-feature on the game’s troubled development. Julian Benson has spent seven months talking with people who’ve been working on it, from displeased devs who wish to remain anonymous up to the big cheese himself, Chris Roberts. It’s a cracking look inside and a fine bit of work. Recommended!

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I recently played through Virginia and just before I fall back into a weekend-long David Lynch obsession (yet again), I can do two things. First, I can tell you that if you re into narrative adventure games, you should probably play Virginia (check out Paul s review if you re unsure). Second, I can bring a whole bunch of the best gaming deals to you here and let you see if any of them strike your fancy.

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In the light industrial districts that have sprung up around FSX, X-Plane, and DCS World, genuine craftsmen aren’t all that hard to find. The machine tools that whirr and thump and whine in the workshops of add-on makers like A2A Simulations and PMDG are operated by passionate perfectionists – driven micrometer wielders whose scrap bins brim with components that look, on first, second and> third inspection, absolutely flawless. Elsewhere in Simulatia, it’s a different story. Just about the only sim that can boast a third-party add-on as lovingly fashioned as this Texan or this Fishbed, is Train Simulator. I enthused about that add-on – a delightful Class 205 DEMU – a few weeks ago, and in today’s Flare Path I talk to the outfit behind it, Armstrong Powerhouse.

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Oxygen Not Included [Steam page] is smooshing together two of my favourite things: colony management simulation, and games by Klei Entertainment, the makers of Invisible, Inc. It appears to be a scifi Dungeon Keeper, or a cutesy Dwarf Fortress, or an underground RimWorld, at least as far as I can tell from the hour-long game stream embedded below.

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Yesterday was RPS at EGX day so I spent part of my early afternoon hunkering down in the Leftfield Collection, cooing over the handdrawn loveliness of The Collage Atlas [official site].

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