Virtual reality Kessel Run ’em up Star Trek: Bridge Crew [official site] has dropped out of hyperspace and into cybergoggles. It lets players pop on their goggs to serve as crew aboard an Empire starship, each taking control of one specific bridge station and hopefully not totally botching it. It’s a bit like Artemis but less serious or Spaceteam but less silly. You can also play on your lonesome with AI crewmates, if you’d like. Star Trek: Bridge Crew is out now for Rift and Vive cybergoggles. … [visit site to read more]

Every game released before 2015 is being destroyed. We only have time to rescue one game from each year. Not those you ve played to death, or the classics that the industry has already learned from. We re going to select the games that still have more to give. These are the Saved Games.>

Deadly Premonition, in many respects, is one of the worst games I ve ever played. The combat is awful, with a three-button aiming system and melee weapons that break after four swings. The sound design essentially consists of the same four or five audio clips on loop for the 25-hour story (I d recognise that door creak anywhere). The driving is shocking, some of the acting is straight out of your local am-dram class, and the graphics wouldn t look out of place on something released 15 years prior. To top it all off, the PC port is locked to 720p. Glorious.

So why on earth would I choose it as the game I d save from 2013 (or 2010 if you count the game s initial console release)? … [visit site to read more]

Rising Storm 2: Vietnam [official site] is now out, taking the serious shooting of the Red Orchestra spin-off into a new era and a new (old) war. From the jungle to city streets, players can recreate the dreadful invasion. Along with 64-player asymmetric action in the traditional Red Orchestra territory control mode, Rising Storm brings big battles with choppers and tunnels in ‘Supremacy’ mode and a smaller 16-player ‘Skirmish’ mode. Observe the war through moving pictures in the launch trailer: … [visit site to read more]

Online post-apocalyptic car combat game Crossout has left paid early access and rolled into free-to-play open beta. Crossout lets players build their own scrapcars then drive into battle with PvE missions and PvP action. Our boy Brendy had a play during the early access days and dug the core of it, though not the grind. I guess we’ll see how much has changed over the past nine months. For now, a launch trailer: … [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.>

Bidiots is great, Fibbage is good, Bomb Corps is best.

… [visit site to read more]

The makers of Neon Chrome have announced a new roguelikelike top-down shooter set in the same world. It’s name Jydge [official site], though developers 10tons style the name as JYDGE so the Y looks a bit like a U as if it’s 2012 all over again. Jydge is a futurecop shooter where we get to build and upgrade our own cyborg cops to dispense deadly dystopian justice across the megacity of Edenbyrg. Judge Dredd meets Robocop meets, well, Neon Chrome. Check out the announcement trailer: … [visit site to read more]

This weekend’s reading was done on Bank Holiday Monday as the rain bounced off the roof. It was rather lovely and cosy, although every few hours I ventured out into the wet world with my gastropod bowl and glove to yank the visiting slugs and snails off the irises before they can truly lay waste to the beautiful blooms. The current crop are a lost cause but I’m trying to protect the buds and pretty much every method of slug or snail repelling is either toxic to other organisms or flat out doesn’t work – snails merrily sailing across copper tape, enjoying a beer and then snacking on my dang irises. THOSE ARE MY SNACK FLOWERS*. GET OFF MY GARDEN YOU MOOCHERS. … [visit site to read more]

For thirty-eight long years, you people have looked to me to inform you which ten games sold best on Steam over the past week. That time is now at an end.

But evil never dies.

… [visit site to read more]

Tokyo RPG Factory, Square Enix’s glamorously-named retro RPG studio behind 2016’s I Am Satsuna, have announced their next game. Lost Sphear [official site] will be another throwback JRPG with some modern stylings, this time telling the tale of a lad trying to stop his world from vanishing. Squeenix say Lost Sphear is “expanding upon the beloved features” from I Am Satsuna, rather than being a whole new thing. Lost Sphear is due some time in “early 2018” but, for now, here’s the announcement trailer: … [visit site to read more]

Huge hyenas, wall-crawling reptiles, megasloths, toilets, and more have hit Ark: Survival Evolved [official site] in the early access dinosaur island survive ’em up’s latest content update. I’m sorry to say you cannot ride the corpse-devouring big dog, only become its best friend for ever and ever and love it and walk it every day.

I’m still fascinated by how Ark turns real(ish) creatures into video game monsters, exaggerating characteristics to create unique abilities. This translation also extends to human biological functions: poo in the toilet and you’ll get an XP buff. And in the game.

… [visit site to read more]