Fallout 4 VR is almost exactly what the phrase ‘Fallout 4 VR’ implies. Which is to say, the entirety of Fallout 4 rendered in giant-scale gogglevision. It’s funny – for some time there was this expectation that VR needed a full-fat mainstream game to truly get its wings, but now that’s finally happened, it just feels like the most normal thing in the world. (more…)
What’s better than a puzzle game with a compelling story? According to EightyEight studios, the answer is five puzzle games rolled into one game that tells five tragic interconnected stories. Photographs is an upcoming puzzler helmed by Luca Redwood, who’s previously delighted both John and myself with match 3/endless runner game You Must Build A Boat.
I’ve already reviewed the Logitech G603, which for me was the perfect, non-ridiculous wireless gaming mouse but for some facepalmy design that made it too uncomfortable to use without brutal modification. Today I’ve got its bigger, also wireless brother, the Logitech G903 to look at.
The G903 has similar but improved innards, a different, tweakable design, a fancier scrollwheel and buttons and, the headline feature, an extra-purchase mousemat that wirelessly recharges the mouse’s battery while you use the bally thing (i.e.: never worry about running out of charge while your mid-way through sticking a sword through something’s tummy ever again). WITCHCRAFT.
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus has been out for nearly two months, which means it’s Wolfentime for the first proper episode of DLC. Episode 1 of The Freedom Chronicles launched overnight, and follows the exploits of Gunslinger Joe. He’s a former American football quarterback who’s mad at the Nazis for making him play proper football, which seems like a pretty tame origin story by Wolfenstein standards.
It’s a little-known fact that Christmas presents are stored far beneath the planet’s surface and must be excavated during December so that they can be delivered on time. The same is true of the game behind door number fourteen. (more…)
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.>
Watching walking simulators evolve from the waffling emptiness of Dear Esther into remarkable narrative adventures like Firewatch and What Remains of Edith Finch has been one of my favourite spectator sports as a games journalist. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is one of the better stepping stones on this long and winding road. It has players assume the role of psychic detective Paul Prospero, who arrives in the gorgeous Red Creek Valley on the trail of a missing boy. (more…)
I’m not entirely sure what’s going on in Living Dark, but I’m intrigued. It’s a neo-noir open world game announced on Tuesday by RocketWerkz, Dean Hall’s studio. While he’s been heading a team busy with Stationeers, which released on early access this week, a separate team has been working on Living Dark under wraps for the past year. At its heart is a relationship system “that drives the behaviour of every character in the city”, with a proceduarlly generated narrative that’ll be different for every player.
So far they’ve put out an ambitious list of features and three teaser trailers, with two more to follow this week.
The latest Steam client update introduces a feature aiming to stop the longer load times and framerate stuttering that can happen the first few times you load a game after installing it. It’ll do this by trying to download and pre-cache the game’s shaders, part of their technoguts which your own computer can need to compile when you first launch it. That compilation is what can cause the hold-up. This doesn’t affect every game and isn’t a huge problem but hey, anything that makes getting into a game smoother is welcome. You shouldn’t need to do anything to benefit from this.
Dead in Vinland strikes me as The Banner Saga meets Darkest Dungeon. For a start, everyone looks utterly miserable. It’s a survival/management game with RPG elements where you play as a viking family, exiled and shipwrecked on an island. Is that island a peaceful place of bountiful splendour? Given the number of things you have to manage in order to keep your exiles from either dying or spiralling into a mental health crisis, I’d say not. There are people out to kill you, too.
It’ll be out in early 2018, and there’s a trailer below that shows off everything from camp management to RPG style choices to combat.
It wouldn’t be 2012-2018 (and who knows how much longer) without a Star Citizen controversy. Chris Robert’s mega-crowdfunded space-everything game has been subject to a great deal of scrutiny about what it’s spent its half-decade and its $173 million dollars on, but a brand new curveball is that his studios Cloud Imperium Games and Roberts Space Industries are being sued by Crysis and CryEngine makers Crytek.
Up until last year, Star Citizen was built using CryEngine, but now Crytek are arguing there’s been a breach of contract and copyright infringement. They’re after an injunction which, if successful, wouldn’t mean good things for that release date we’ve been holding out for. (more…)