Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade [official site] left Steam Early Access to properly launch on Friday, but it sounds like that may have been too soon. I’ve not had a crack myself but broad consensus seems to be that the multiplayer shooter is still unbalanced, unpolished, and buggy. Which are the sorts of things I’d usually expect early access to remedy.
Games are either good or the worst thing to ever happen. That’s just how it works. Oh, sure, there are divisive games, but once the consensus has been reached that a game is bad, that’s it. Cast it away into the pit of 1 star reviews, the lair of the Thumbdown, to be spoken of only with frothing hatred and contempt. Never to be touched. Never to be examined.
Master of Orion 3 is one of the most important 4X games ever made. There, I said it. It’s all over for me now. Follow not where I dare to tread.
One of the biggest tournaments so far of Overwatch [official site] is happening this week, with a total prize pool of $300,000. We told you about it a couple of months ago but, silly you, you ve forgotten. The Overwatch Open has already seen one day of North American regionals, kicking off yesterday, with the second day of games happening right now. But Europe and the grand final itself is yet to come. Here’s the schedule and details of how to watch it.
After having players duff up frost giants and slide down the roots of Yggdrasil in their first game, Jotun, developers Thunder Lotus Games seem to be going possibly even bigger in their second. Today they announced Sundered [official site], set in a vast ruined world filled with “eldritch horrors” – things with too many wings, teeth, and tentacles. Some of them are flipping ginormous and all. See that wee speck about to be crushed underfoot in that picture up there? That’s you that is.
Earlier this week Riot announced its first foray into boardgames with Mechs vs Minions – a co-op tabletop experience set in the League of Legends [official site] universe. If you’re a boardgamer you’ll get the basic concept from “Robo Rally meets Descent” with a Legacy-esque campaign component. If you’re not, probably the easiest way to put this is that you’re working together to program little characters in mech suits so they can be victorious in their missions, although taking damage can make them go haywire (as can, for example, misreading cards and forgetting your mech will turn 90 degrees and thus you end up accidentally on the other side of the board throwing a ripsaw into thin air. FOR EXAMPLE.) It’s also heavier than most newborns, coming in at 12.8 lb on my bathroom scales.
I played snippets of the game during development (I guess kind of like videogame previews) so I was pleased to talk with Mechs Vs Minions lead Chris ‘Kades’ Cantrell to see how the idea had developed over time, how Riot had made the ridiculously huge game remotely affordable, and how RPS alumnus Quinns had managed to make more work for everyone (in a good way):
Am I the only one who feels mocked by Millennials? While I work hard to pay for my car and house, Millennials swan around taking selfies and buying vintage clothes. Hey, I know you’re thousands of years old, but could you at least pretend our lives are more than a blink of an eye to you? Must you disrespect all the pitiful idols we cling to? You see me and simply imagine buying my clothes from a charity shop after I die.
They’re at it even in Dead by Daylight [official site]. The 1v4 multiplayer slasher ’em up’s first paid DLC is now out, and it’s a load of ’80s-inspired clobber for its Millennials to wear. Sorry, I’ll be more specific for you ruddy eternals: the 1980s. CE. The 1980s CE.
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>
Historically, videogames have largely struggled to convey humour with any degree of success, however Bullfrog Productions dark sense of humour is part of what made the likes of Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper and Theme Hospital [official site] so enjoyable. On paper, the latter probably doesn t sound like it should be funny, however its 21 weird and whacky diseases – and how you go about curing them – make sure it s exactly that.
It’s THAT time of year. And by “THAT time of year” I mean the time of year when someone has to try to topple Imagine Dragons’ Warriors from its throne as the best League of Legends World Championship anthem of all time. 2016 is the turn of Zedd and Riot’s collaboration – Ignite, with its cool video and references to Faker’s broccoli japery from 2015 and other key Worlds moments over the years.
Is it as good as Warriors?
GOG Connect is a pleasant little scheme from the DRM-free digital distributor, letting people who own certain games on Steam get GOG versions too for free. Now it’s back. GOG today launched another round of GOG Connect, with another seventeen games for Steamers to redeem. Because, y’know, it’s nice to have a DRM-free backup without buying a game twice. The lineup this time includes Hotline Miami, The Last Federation, the Shadow Warrior reboot, X Rebirth, and Teslagrad.
Oh, and GOG has launched another big sale too.
Last week saw the release of Sorcery 4 [official site], the final part of what’s technically Inkle Studios’ conversion of the hit-80s books, but in practice is easily the most crazily advanced, ambitious CYOA ever put to page or screen. I won’t go into too much detail here, because you can read John’s WIT of the series as a whole, or maybe my own interview with the devs from the start of the year. Suffice it to say that it’s been one hell of a ride, and I for one can’t wait to see Inkle’s next game – hopefully, like the masterful 80 Days, something else that breaks the mould harder and faster than Smash Mouth fleeing the Mystery Men in favour of the big green Shrek dollar.
But something I’ve been wondering about for a while. With all these choices… what if your choice is not to play? To refuse the adventure. Onwards! Reluctantly!