I spent a few pleasant but troubled days with Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 [official site] just after launch, reporting that it was a great game saddled with significant technical and interface issues. Since that time, the developers have released approximately eight million and twelve patches (not to mention a feverish mea culpa for the game’s launch woes), so it’s time to take it back to the shop and see if it’s safe to drive by now. (more…)

Neo-Victorian isometric RPG, Empyre: Lords of the Sea Gates [official site], now has a release date for those interested to lord it up over the sea gates. It’s October 4. I am already a lord of the sea gate but by that I mean that I own a Seagate external hard drive and make it do my bidding rather than having any special status in an alternative American timeline where New York is flooding and I need to lead a bunch of companions through a story. (more…)

Having spent the entirety of its existence assuming The Pillars of the Earth [official site] was probably Pillars of Eternity I have found out today that a) it isn’t and b) it’s a point and click about CATHEDRAL CONSTRUCTION IN 12th CENTURY ENGLAND! Oh, also c) it’s out now and there’s a launch trailer to watch… (more…)

We’re off to a small English town where everyone turns into cats at night with the first game from the new studio of Deadly Premonition director Hidetaka ‘Swery’ Suehiro. The Good Life [future Fig page] is a “daily life RPG” with a dash of mystery, roaming the town as a human by day and by night exploring places only cats can go. I adore nosing around town, meeting people, and peering through windows in Deadly Premonition — the world’s worst best game — so this sounds splendid. The Good Life is due to launch a crowdfunding campaign in September, which sounds grand as I’d love to see Swery doing what Swery does without publisher interference (combat in Deadly Premonition was famously a publisher’s idea). (more…)

A new trailer for Destiny 2’s [official site] PC beta has arrived and like so much of the marketing, it’s nodding at all your PC’s most powerful components in a suggestive fashion: “With that kind of equipment, I can go full 4K with an uncapped framerate.” Even though the game itself is coming to PC later than console, as is the beta which arrives August 29th, it plans to use the extra time to really preen itself. Pre-order and you can join the beta a day early, but it’ll open up worldwide on the 29th, through the recently rebranded Blizzard.Battle/NothingButNet.

Speaking of BattleNet, Bungie recently reiterated that there are no plans to release Destiny 2 anywhere else on PC. “We’re with Blizzard”, says Bungie community manager DeeJ.

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After almost a year strapped to the foreheads of cybergoggleers, EVE: Valkyrie [official site] is coming to regular screens too. The dogfighting spin-off from spacebastard MMO EVE Online will get new maps, ships, and modes with the launch of its free expansion ‘Warzone’ on September 26th, and more importantly will no longer require VR goggles. I’ve quite fancied a go at Valkyrie’s first-person space-dogfighting but am no gogghead so this is splendid news. (more…)

Abstract multiplayer fencing game Nidhogg didn’t need its minimalist style to be buried under a splatter of aggressively grotesque paint and gore. It didn’t need extra weapons to upset the perfect balance and precision of its two-button combat. It certainly didn’t need its titular wurms to chew the air with stumpy rotten teeth.

All a Nidhogg sequel really needs, to justify its existence entirely, is better netcode and maybe a couple of new modes to play with. By messing with the original formula, particularly with that divisive visual switch, Nidhogg 2 [official site] risks proving that more can sometimes be less. Here’s wot I think.

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“I wanna rock!” sang Twisted Sister. Rock of Ages 2: Bigger and Boulder [official site] will deliver the rocks that Dee Snider so desires. Queen will have their own interest, having sung “O Rock of Ages, do not crumble, love is breathing still”. But they will be less pleased by ACE Team’s game, where players roll huge buildings down gorgeous obstacle courses, smashing through defenses, and into the base of their enemy. The rocks most certainly will crumble along the way. We’ll get to see for ourselves soon, as publishers Atlus today announced a release date of August 28. (more…)

I’ll defer from any commentary on the health of the VR industry and speak only personally: until today, there was enough dust on my goggles to craft a life-size Jeff Fahey statue. With the shock release of ur-console musical shooter Rez Infinite [official site] on PC last week, that’s all changed. Whatever the future might hold for VR, the blissful lines, colours and rhythm of Rez writ wraparound and gigantic is a moment of redemption for the whole concept. (more…)

Just as E3 rides a wave of big flashy announcements from American games full of headshots, Gamescom is drifting in atop news about German favourites like industrial simulators. Techland today announced that Pure Farming 2018 [official site], which they’re publishing but not making, will launch on March 13th 2018. A new trailer shows that coo, this is looking pretty swish – a possible rival for Giants Software’s ruling Farming Simulator rather that yet another scrappy little oddity created for the budget rack. Big-budget farming. Fancy farming for fancy farmers. Subsidised up the wazoo. (more…)