The tweets are in Japanese, but according to my knowledge of Japanese and a little help from three online translators, they roughly translate to: "I got a job at Nintendo! I'll do my best" and "Days are shorter when you're working."
Sadly, this likely won't lead to much for PC gamers, seeing as how Nintendo says it has no interest in putting its games on PC. Even so, it's nice to see a talented indie developer who started on PC take his talents to a big studio. It's also an interesting talking point in the Nintendo Switch gold rush, which has been a huge boon for many indie devs.
As our own Tom Senior wrote in 2016, Downwell is a simple game hiding layer upon satisfying layer of hidden depth. Equipped with gun boots, you fall down procedurally generated levels in a seemingly bottomless well shooting baddies and meeting merchants. It's all about racking up bigger combos and falling deeper each time, which is an incredibly absorbing cycle. If you want to try it yourself, you'll find Downwell for $3 on Steam and GOG.
Moppin is also part of the development team of UFO 50, one of of our most anticipated indie games of 2018. UFO 50 is a collection of 50 small games that span 2D platformers to golf games to RPGs. It's a collaborative effort by a huge team of indie devs, including Spelunky creator Derek Yu. At this point it isn't clear what Moppin's hiring means for the game, if anything. Have a look at its announcement trailer:
The stars are easy. You know what you're getting when you sign a Ronaldo Neymar or a Messi. You've got a great player—and a giant hole in your wallet. Football Manager 2018's best wonderkids, meanwhile, will grow into fearsome players without costing your entire budget. They all have the potential to be great players, hidden gems that will carry your club to victory over a long career.
Then again, established players at a young age are worth the investment, if you can afford them. And just imagine what they'll be worth in years to come.
Instead of focusing on the cheapest wonderkids out there, we've broken down the 50 best wonderkids in Football Manager 2018 by a range of prices, from just a couple million to £100+ million.
He might not look like much at the tender age of 16, but this boy has a bright future ahead of him. He has the potential to be a leading central midfielder—his eye for a pass is already evident with vision at 16.
Coman’s another bargain who could develop into an awesome player. If you look at this young attacker’s attributes in the 2017/18 season, you don’t have to be a fortune teller to predict he has a bright future ahead of him.
Claudio GomesAge: 16Club: PSGPrice: £9m
He’s still very young so don’t be too quick to judge this defensive midfielder on his modest attributes in 2017/18. Although he’s short, his physical attributes could improve a lot, potentially making him the midfield engine you’ve been dreaming of.
César MontesAge: 20Club: MonterreyPrice: £10m
Another central defender to add to your wishlist, Montes is available for just under £10m. He’s already a well-rounded player at the start of the game so he’s a pretty safe bet as long as you can get a work permit for him. And he has good height at 192cm.
RodrygoAge: 16Club: SantosPrice: £10m
Santos don’t mess about when it comes to producing stars of the future. Take Robinho and Neymar, for example. Rodrygo was cast in the same mold as that famous pair but he won’t cost as much. He still has lots of improving to do but, bearing in mind he’s only 16, his good dribbling, decent finishing and off the ball, plus double figures in many areas, give us a clue that this forward has the ability to become a quality attacking midfielder.
Alex RoblesAge: 18Club: MalagaPrice: £10m
Robles isn’t a technical gifted, stylish full-back but if you’re looking for an ultra-solid defender who’ll shore up your defence for the next 15 years, he could be the man for you. He’s fast with very good tackling and he generally makes the correct decision. At only £10m, he’s definitely worth a punt, especially if you’re looking for a bit of balance in a line-up with an attacking left back.
Matías VargasAge: 20Club: VelezPrice: £5.25m
Vargas has very promising attributes in each column and his relatively small release clause helps to make picking up one of the most talented attacking midfielders in the game a lot easier. What’s nice about Vargas is he’s versatile and can play left wing, left attacking midfield and central attacking midfield.
Johannes EggesteinAge: 19Club: Werder BremenPrice: £14m
You might recognise this striker’s name from earlier Football Manager iterations. His attributes seem quite modest at first but he has massive potential and he can become a goal machine.
And for less than £14m, you’re almost stealing him from poor Bremen.
As if France don’t have enough wonderkids, here’s another. On first glance, you might take him or leave him, but Maouassa can develop into a fantastic attacking left wing back. Stade Rennais know he’s talented but you can buy him for around £15m, which could prove a snip.
Filippo MelegoniAge: 18Club: SampdoriaPrice: £12m
If you’re looking for a highly talented midfielder who could be developed in to a world-class deep-lying playmaker, Melegoni could be the teenager for you. For this sort of role, he has the right attributes in the right places. Good passing, vision, natural fitness and technique, as well as a generous smattering of other decent skills show his potential to become a player who can control games at the highest level.
Úmaro EmbalóAge: 16Club: BenficaPrice: £13m
He might not look anything special as a 16-year-old but there’s a reason this winger is attracting interest from Manchester United and Real Madrid.
You can see he has good acceleration and dribbling and there are plenty of promising nines, tens, elevens and twelves to pin your hopes on.
Nikola MilenkovicAge: 19Club: FiorentinaPrice: £15m
Fiorentina tend to have an eye for centre backs and that’s certainly the case with young Serbian Milenkovic. The 195cm giant already has 15 for strength, jumping reach, aggression and bravery, plus 14 for heading and marking. You can grab him for a bargain price of £15m.
Brazil isn’t short of wonderkids and Wendel’s in-game profile is pretty exciting. He’s not even 20 and has attributes of 13 or more here there and everywhere. He’s a defensive midfielder but with his skills, he could be trained to play in most midfield roles.
Sander BergeAge: 19Club: GenkPrice: £16m
You know it’s going to be easier to prise players away from certain leagues and that’s the case with Berge. He’s a well-rounded midfielder who will only get better but you can pick him up for £16m from Belgium side Genk. Without any major weaknesses and at 191cm tall, he’s a good example of the ‘modern midfielder’. Definitely worth the money.
Houssem AouarAge: 18Club: LyonPrice £17m
It’s always worth having a look at Olympique Lyonnais’ talent. They’re famous for developing good young players who tend to move on to bigger clubs. Take Alexandre Lacazette and Hatem Ben Arfa for example. Aouar is following in their footsteps and he’s already looking like a promising advanced playmaker.
Vision and technique of 15 give you and idea of the sort of player he could be. This youngster’s set to make the Lyon academy bosses proud. Will you bid for him?
FrüchtlAge: 17Club BayernPrice: £22m
Although not as hyped as some goalkeepers in this list, the Bayern Munich reserves team player has the potential to be the best shot-topper in the game.
His distribution could be excellent when he matures with attributes, such as 13 kicking and 14 throwing. And as well as having the height a top goalkeeper needs at 193cm, he’s agile and he can jump for those crosses.
ArthurAge: 20Club GremioPrice: £24m
The Gremio midfield maestro has been attracting the attention of Spanish giants Barcelona and surely it won’t be long until he makes the move to Europe. You could beat them to the punch in FM18 with a bid of around £25m.
No one-trick-pony, this all-rounder has 15 passing, 14 dribbling, an impressive 15 for agility – which is obvious when you watch him play – and he even has 16 flair. Arthur could be described as ‘The next Paul Scholes’.
Moise KeanAge: 17Club: Juventus (on loan at Hellas Verona)Price: £30m
He has some attractive attributes in the right places for a striker and you can bet, due to his Juventus upbringing, he’s got something about him. Dubbed ‘The next Roberto Bettega’, Kean can finish, he can head the ball well, and he has 14 acceleration which can improve a lot. With Kean, patience is a virtue.
Alexander IsakAge: 17Club: DortmundPrice: £30m
Dortmund are known for their scouting prowess and it looks like they’ve found another future star in the form of Swedish forward Alexander Isak. Armchair scouts get criticised for judging players solely on internet video compilations but it’s worth watching Isak in action to see he has something special.
Andrea PinamontiAge: 18Club: InterPrice: £23m
Considering he already looks an exciting prospect at 18 and he plays for a wealthy club, it’s a nice discovery that you won’t have to pay the Earth to pick up this diamond. Pinamonti already has good finishing, pace and off the ball, which is a great sign for a young striker. He’s also fairly tall and you can expect his acceleration and pace to improve as he develops physically.
Rodrigo BetancurAge: 20Club: JuventusPrice: £22m
At 20, Betancur’s had a little time to develop but even so, his attributes are pretty exciting. He’s also very versatile and can play right, left and central midfield. Betancur’s good passing, first touch, composure and vision indicate he’d be suited to a playmaker role but he can probably be trained for most non-defensive midfield jobs.
£31-50 million wonderkids
Leon BaileyAge: 19Club: Bayer LeverkusenPrice: £45m
It’s good to see some real West Indian talent in European football again and Bailey could be a top player. Will he leave Germany? Well, you’ll have to pay around £45m for him. He’s got the speed of fellow Jamaican Usain Bolt and fantastic dribbling and agility that make him a nightmare opponent for defenders.
Franck KessiéAge: 20Club: AC MilanPrice: £40m
Kessié could be the ball winning midfielder you’ve dreamt about (or had nightmares about) depending on if he’s on your team or not. At just 20, his mental and physical attributes are awesome and he’ll get better.
Andrija ZivkovicAge: 20Club: BenficaPrice: £35m
It’s likely the big European clubs will be after Zivkovic early on in your save, so be quick if you want to pick up this wonderkid. With great crossing and dribbling attributes, this young winger—who can play on the left or right—could create loads of goals for you.
Amadou Diawara Age: 19 Club: Napoli Price: £40m
This defensive midfielder is the definition of the word ‘wonderkid’. At 19 he’s already good enough to start for most top tier clubs. He’s not far off his full potential but you can expect his skills to get even stronger with a bit of support. Grab a bargain.
Rúben NevesAge: 20Club: WolvesPrice: £42m
We were all surprised when the sought-after Portuguese goalscoring playmaker made the move to a cash-rejuvenated Wolves. Neves hasn’t rested on his laurels though, and so far he’s living up to the hype. He looks a fantastic prospect in FM18 and he could be perfect deep lying playmaker to build a possession-based tactic around.
Dayot UpamecanoAge: 18Club: RB LeipzigPrice: £37m
We know why some players are dubbed wonderkids, but it’s still surprising how good these youngsters are so early in their careers. The teenage centre back Dayot Upamecano has some fantastic attributes in the physical column. Ally that with 15 aggression, 16 bravery, 14 marking and 14 tackling and you have a very promising defender.
Gabriel BarbosaAge: 20Club: Inter (on loan at Benfica)Price: £40m
This name might sound familiar. Barbosa was hyped as ‘the next Neymar’ from an early age and it’s hard to believe he’s still only 20 years old. Despite not having the same early monumental success that Neymar had, all hope is not yet lost for the striker and that £40m could look good value if you can nurture him to fulfil his potential.
Federico ChiesaAge: 19Club: FiorentinaPrice: £45m
Chiesa is already a key player for Fiorentina and Chelsea and Bayern are circling. He has good dribbling, pace and off-the-ball movement, with a range of other top skills that make him effective on both wings and as a striker. He’s been in Florence for four years and his owners won’t let him leave cheaply so expect to pay nearly £50m for him.
Alex MeretAge: 20Club: Udinese (on loan at SPAL)Price: £41m
Meret’s set to be Gianluigi Donnarumma’s competition for the Italy goalkeeper’s jersey in a few years, although he does a hair’s breadth behind the Milan keeper in terms of potential ability. Meret already has fantastic handling, reflexes, aerial reach and agility.
Gianluigi DonnarummaAge: 18Club: AC MilanPrice: £67m (minimum fee release clause)
Arguably the most coveted young goalkeeper in the world, he attracted criticism from Milan fans in the summer when it looked like he could make a move away from the San Siro. There are always a few surprises in the goalkeeper department on new Football Manager iterations but it’s hard to look past Donnarumma as the game’s star between the sticks for the next 10 seasons.
Alban LafontAge: 18Club: ToulousePrice: £60m
Judging by Toulouse’s transfer fee demands, they know how good this young goalkeeper could become. He has lots of potential and awesome reflexes and jumping. There’s also Donnarumma at this sort of price, so it’s up to you to decide what you want in a goalkeeper.
Jesús VallejoAge: 20Club: Real MadridPrice: £70m
Real Madrid already have a pair of outstanding centre backs in Sergio Ramos and Raphaël Varane so they can afford to let up-and-comer Vallejo go. His buy-out fee is £76m but you can get him for less. With the right nurturing Vallejo could become a fantastic defender with all the attributes you could ask for, apart from blistering pace.
Lewis CookAge: 20Club: BournemouthPrice: £60m
This English central midfielder is already playing every week for The Cherries in the English Premier League but he can still improve a lot in FM18. He could even become one of the best playmakers in the game. Apart from heading, Cook doesn’t have any real weaknesses. A future England captain?
Breel EmboloAge: 20Club: SchalkePrice: £70m
Embolo’s been linked with Manchester United and it’s easy to see why. He has all the technical and physical attributes to grow into a formidable forward. And take a look at his mental attributes. He has aggression at 16, work rate at 17 and more besides.
Dani CeballosAge: 20Club: Real MadridPrice: £70m
Ceballos is only 20 years old and he already has 16 technique, 16 passing, 15 dribbling and 15 acceleration. As a midfielder/attacking midfielder (centre), he has a set of skills you don’t often see in one player.
He has to be one of the most exciting youngsters out there but if Los Blancos want to give him a chance and even if they don’t, he’ll cost a pretty penny.
Renato SanchesAge: 19Club: Bayern (on loan at Swansea)Price: £70m
The Portuguese central midfielder was in high demand before he made a £28.5m move from Benfica to Bayern Munich. Manchester United were rumoured to want him but missed out. Since, he’s had a difficult time at Bayern and now he’s been given a loan move to English Premier League club Swansea.
But don’t write him off yet. Although he’s hard to slot into a certain position, he has a certain set of skills that are hard to find in one player.
If you’d said Leicester would be able to replace N’Golo Kante in 10 years let alone immediately, people would have been sceptical. But Ndidi already looks like he could become a better player and he’s fitted seamlessly at The Foxes. Look at his 16 for stamina and natural fitness and his 15 for tackling. He’d be a great defensive midfielder for most sides.
Oliver Batista MeierAge: 16Club: BayernPrice: £55m
With players this young you can’t expect too many plus-14 attributes—the clues can be in the eights, nines and tens. Still, it’d be easy to write off Meier and move on. Don’t! Meier has great potential hence the large price tag. Bayern aren’t stupid and they know how good he can be.
Unlimited funds wonderkids
MbappéAge: 18Club: PSGPrice: £100m
As wealthy as PSG are, it was a coup when they got their hands on MBappe in the summer, on a loan deal that will be made permanent in July 2018. You and every big club around will be tracking one of the best young strikers in the world, and a fee of around £100m could convince the Parisiens to sell him after around five seasons.
Ousmane DembéléAge: 20Club: BarcelonaPrice: £250m
Having already commanded a massive £99m fee in his move to Barcelona in the summer, 20-year-old Dembélé still has a lot of time to improve, and he’d be very expensive to sign any time soon. However, he could be available for between £100-150m in his late twenties. He’s a deadly winger, with 17 dribbling, 17 flair, 18 acceleration and 18 pace, that could all increase.
Gabriel JesusAge: 20Club: Manchester CityPrice: £300m
He’s hit the ground running in Manchester, showing no signs of living up to the stereotype that South Americans struggle in England. And with his mix of obvious footballing ability and mental strength, there aren’t many better young prospects out there. If you try to sign him as the Manchester United manager though, he might reject you due to the Manchester clubs’ rivalry. He’s loyal too.
Vinicius JuniorAge: 16Club: FlamengoPrice: £200m
Vinicius Junior has agreed a deal with Real Madrid and joins in July 2018, so you can’t sign him until then and Los Merengues are unlikely to be tempted to sell him for less than £200m. However, he has been seen to struggle with the Spanish giants in FM18 and he could be available for about £25m after a few seasons. Don’t forget to add him to your shortlist indefinitely.
Marcus RashfordAge: 19Club: Manchester UnitedPrice: £130m
In a relative dry spell for the Red Devils, Rashford has become a beacon of hope, and a welcome reminder of the stars produced in the club’s youth teams. His real-world talent is reflected in-game with 18 acceleration and 17 flair, plus good attributes for finishing and dribbling. He has the ability to be the best striker in the game but United are unlikely to sell him.
Kai HavertzAge: 18 Club: Bayer LeverkusenPrice: £100m
A tall attacking midfielder, with great technique and vision, who likes to cut inside from both wings—not only is Havertz a skilful player, he’s also physically imposing on the pitch. There’ll be no shortage of clubs looking to sign him, and you’ll need £100m in the bank to have a chance. He has a great left foot and knows how to use it.
Theo HernandezAge: 19Club: Real MadridPrice: £75m
At the start of the game, his attributes aren’t amazing on their own, but when you realise how well-rounded he is you might be tempted to have a look at this left wing-back. At 19 he has few weaknesses and he’ll only get better, so if you can afford him get your cheque book out.
The Liverpool-born full back has featured in a handful of games this season but you can expect him to develop into an all-rounder who’s good enough to start every week for any team. Although he can become very good, his £140m price tag seems a little steep for a defender. And it’s unlikely he’ll want to leave his boyhood club.
Gonçalo GuedesAge: 20Club: PSG (on loan at Valencia)Price: £80m
Not cheap, is he? But PSG aren’t exactly a club desperate for money. He’s on loan at Valencia and he’s making waves. He’s quite physically mature for a 20-year-old and that strength along with his quickness, dribbling ability and determination make him stiff opposition. He could do a fantastic job on either wing and in any of the three attacking midfield positions. Keep an eye out for this boy wonder.
Carlos SolerAge: 20Club: ValenciaPrice: £71m
Soler is quite unusual in that he’s a central midfielder who is happy to play at right midfield, which could be a big help if you sometimes play a 4-2-2 and like to rotate players – you could put Soler at right midfield and give someone else a chance in the centre. Apart from heading and jumping, he doesn’t have any weaknesses, and his mental attributes, such as 15 for decisions, composure and vision are very impressive for such a young player. Never underestimate mental attributes.
Benjamin HenrichsAge: 20Club: Bayer LeverkusenPrice: £130m
Another youngster developed at Leverkusen, Henrichs is possibly the most versatile player on our list. He’s a right full-back first and foremost but he’s comfortable playing at left back, right wing back and central midfield. His strengths are 15 stamina, natural fitness, first touch and technique and 16 teamwork, the list goes on.
Recruiting tips
We hope our wonderkids list helps you achieve hero status in Football Manager 2018. Aside from this list, there are some other ways to hunt down great players. You can find some of the best young players who might not yet have caught the attention of your rivals by using your own scouts. Most of us use scouts, but do you get the most of them? Try to scout as far and wide as you can as regularly as you can, because good scouts will repay your faith with great finds.
If you’re a bit strapped for cash, you just like a bargain, or you enjoy coming across a gem of a player, you could go on a one-man scouting mission and take a close look at clubs in different leagues and nations. And there are almost always bright sparks you’ve never heard of in the youth sides of countries like as Brazil, France and Italy. It’s always good to build your player knowledge.
Crafting RPG My Time at Portia is now available on Steam Early Access. It goes for $20, and according to developer Pathea Games, already contains 25 hours of content with more to come. You can also download a free demo to sample before buying.
Pathea Games expects My Time at Portia to remain in Early Access for around nine months, putting its full release around this fall. The studio says they're "planning on increasing the price when we leave Early Access," though they didn't specify amounts.
The list of in-progress features is a long one, and includes more areas, quests, story content and mini-games, as well as entirely new skills like taming and riding animals. You can learn more in this Steam post from publisher Team17.
If you're quick, you can also catch a livestream on the Team17 Facebook page at 12:30 p.m. Pacific (3:30 p.m. Eastern), where the developers will showcase various features and take questions from viewers.
Our own Lauren Morton gave My Time at Portia a try last year, where she found it difficult to be a productive member of society. That said, she says she still had fun.
The new Humble Bundle is a handsome collection of games from Paradox Interactive, beginning with a $1 entry-level bundle that will net you the city building sim Cities in Motion 2, the co-op arcane adventure Magicka 2, and the fantasy RTS Majesty 2.
Up your payment a few bucks more—to around $6 currently—and you'll wave goodbye to a great deal more of your gameplay hours with Crusader Kings 2 and the Old Gods DLC, the old-school RPG Pillars of Eternity, the Hearts of Iron 3 Collection, and Europa Universalis 3 Complete, a game that spans 300 years and gives players more than 250 "historically accurate countries" to rule.
The top of the heap, for $12, adds just a single game to the mix, but it's a good one and relatively new as Paradox releases go: The interstellar grand strategy game Stellaris. We expressed hope in our mostly-positive review that patches and expansions would "fill the gaps and smooth out the omissions and weird quirks of diplomacy," and while I can't say for certain whether that's happened, the developers certainly look like they've been up to something: Paradox posted the 101st developer diary update, discussing the upcoming Apocalypse expansion and 2.0 "Cherryh" update, just last week.
Funds raised by the Humble Paradox Interactive Bundle will support Doctors Without Borders by default, although you can opt for a different charity if you wish. It will be available until February 6.
The Saw Chapter will add a new survivor to the game, David Tapp, and a new killer, The Pig, each with three unique perks. Tapp gets Tenacity, Detective's Hunch, and Stakeout, enhancing his survivability under pressure, while The Pig's abilities—Hangman's Trick, Surveillance, and Make Your Choice—are (what a surprise) more about inflicting pain and misery on helpless victims.
The update also includes a new map, Gideon Meat Plant, which sounds like a lovely spot to visit: "A place of death. Not death in the sense that I am accustomed to, but a place designed for death. A place where living things are meant to go to slaughter: an abattoir."
Speaking of sounds, that reverse bear trap scream-and-squish in the trailer really sells it, eh? Yeesh. Dead By Daylight: Saw is slated to go live today but it doesn't appear to be available on Steam just yet, nor is there any pricing information. The Nightmare on Elm Street chapter goes for $7/£5/€7, so I'd expect something in that neighborhood.
Robin is a mechanic, but the authoritarian society she lives in doesn’t want her to be. Jobs like this are outlawed for regular citizens, forcing her to keep her tool-slinging talents a secret from One Concern—the sinister religious regime in charge. Even so, she still helps out around the village with repairs, using a wrench hidden in her basement. You can’t keep a good mechanic down.
But after an unexpected run-in with Concern agents, she decides the thing that needs fixin’ most is the world. And so she embarks on a quest to make it a better place, accompanied by a group of like-minded rebels who share her hatred of the society they live in. It’s an engaging premise, bolstered by colourful writing, lavish pixel art, and superb animation.
Iconoclasts is clearly inspired by games like Metroid and Castlevania (if only there was a clumsy portmanteau to describe a game like this), but it has enough new ideas to stand on its own and not feel like a direct homage to either. It’s also a lot heavier on story than these games usually are, with reams of dialogue to click through, a huge cast of characters to meet, and frequent cutscene breaks. It balances pathos and humour pretty well, although I found some of the jokes a little too goofy for their own good.
A grease monkey is nothing without her tools, and Robin’s best abilities stem from the variety of gadgets she has hanging from her belt. As well as projectile weapons, including a stun gun and a grenade launcher, she can batter enemies with her wrench and spin it around like a Wild West gunslinger. And she can also jump in the air and unleash a devastating butt slam.
But the wrench has other, more interesting uses. Around the large, interconnected levels you’ll see glowing bolts, some of which can be swung on to leap over obstacles, and others that operate machinery. The latter forms the basis of the game’s well-designed environmental puzzles, which involve finding hidden bolts and cranking them to slide increasingly complex networks of doors and moving platforms around, creating a path through the level.
She can batter enemies with her wrench and spin it around like a Wild West gunslinger
Otherwise, Iconoclasts is a fairly standard shooter/platformer hybrid—but, thanks to precise and responsive controls, an enjoyable one. Leaping around feels wonderfully snappy, and there’s a huge bestiary of enemies to fight, all with their own distinct attack patterns and weaknesses. It’s evident a lot of time has been spent refining the controls, making them feel just right.
The art is impressive, with chunky, smoothly animated characters reminiscent of SNK’s Metal Slug series, and some beautifully detailed environments. Robin’s journey takes her to a lush forest filled with weird geometric plants, a sun-baked desert, an underwater city, the roof of a speeding train, and other locations, all of which beam with colour and personality.
It’s a challenging game too, especially when one of the big, screen-filling bosses shows up. While they all boil down to memorising a few patterns, some of them are incredibly fast-paced and chaotic. Often you’re accompanied by an AI partner, including shotgun-toting pirate Mina and Royal, a man with telekinetic powers. And you’ll need all the help you can get.
The level of challenge is nicely balanced, although a few sharp difficulty spikes did catch me off guard. I also had problems with clarity, occasionally unsure where to head next to progress, or how to take down a particular enemy. Sometimes characters will yell out hints during boss battles about how to beat them, but I found the wording of these confusing more than once.
Upgrades called Tweaks bring a little customisation to the game. These can be crafted by finding materials hidden in treasure chests, and offer useful buffs when equipped: holding your breath for longer, doing more damage with your wrench, running faster. And you get to choose which of these you equip, giving you some freedom to tailor Robin to your own specific play style.
Iconoclasts is a fine game, offering both satisfyingly sharp platforming and shooting, and some really smart puzzles. It’s enormous too, packed with secret areas and other stuff to discover. And although I found the humour a little glib and childish at times, it tells its heartfelt story well. A lot of Metroidvania games go for a bleak, downbeat atmosphere, but Iconoclasts is infectiously vibrant and sunny, even if the story does occasionally venture into dark territory.
Camdyn Lashawn is having a crisis. No matter how hard she tries, she can’t seem to grow her follower count on social media. And that’s why she’s currently hanging in front of you, naked, waiting to be fitted with an implant. You are Akara, an android created by the Supercontinent megacorporation—a new model capable of empathy—and your job is making Camdyn happy.
The Red Strings Club is a cyberpunk adventure game with multiple playable characters, and a heavy focus on dialogue and character interaction over puzzles and exploration: whether it’s bartender Donovan teasing information out of his patrons, hacker Brandeis tricking people on the phone with a voice-changer, or Akara manipulating emotions by crafting cybernetic implants.
She sculpts these implants from chunks of biomatter with, curiously, a kind of futuristic pottery wheel. Accessing a computer I can see that there are several implant blueprints to choose from—one of which will give Camdyn a newfound talent for amassing followers on whatever this bleak cyberpunk future’s equivalent of Twitter is. But will that make her truly happy?
I decide, instead, to give her an implant called The Temple that, when installed, will eliminate her need for social acceptance. And now it’s time to sculpt it. I rapidly tap the right mouse button to spin the wheel, using tools to carefully carve out the shape of the implant. It’s kinda fiddly, and tapping the button hurts my wrist, but there’s an enjoyable physicality to it. When it’s done I stick it in Camdyn’s body and send her on her way. Later I receive an update. “I deleted all my social media accounts,” she says. “Now I am free.”
But I’m sure Camdyn will find something else to obsess over, and she’ll be back here on my operating table with another hang-up that needs fixing. The problems these people have are complex, with no neat solutions, and that gives you some interesting moral quandaries to wrestle with. And things get even more complicated when an unexpected visitor crashes into Akara’s workspace and makes her, for the first time, question the work she’s doing.
Donovan, proprietor of the Red Strings Club, makes people happy, too. But he does it the old-fashioned way: with booze. And you’ll spend the majority of the game as him, behind the bar. When a patron sits down you can see their emotions, and mix a drink that will appeal to them—whether it’s to make them feel better or encourage them to talk about something difficult.
Mixing cocktails is fiddly too, but again, is pleasantly tactile—especially the clink of an ice cube as you drop it into a glass. As you mix different types of booze together you see a circle drifting towards the emotion you’re targeting. And when the circle is lined up you can serve the drink. Lifting and pouring from the bottles takes some getting used to, but it’s a fun gimmick, and the sound of the liquid sloshing, and the way it pours out of the bottle, is oddly satisfying.
Supercontinent, of course, isn’t all it seems. Early on it’s revealed that it wants to strip people of their emotions, believing they’re a burden to humanity. Is there a place for flawed creatures like us in an increasingly advanced, post-human world? The story tackles questions like this with confidence, giving it some philosophical weight and making sure you do some thinking as you play.
This is not, like a lot of cyberpunk fiction, totally nihilistic. Its world is bleak and corrupt, certainly, but the narrative focuses more on the people trying to make it better. The dialogue is a bit overstuffed with unconvincing futuristic slang and jargon, but this is a well-realised world with interesting, nuanced characters and a few clever twists and turns that will catch you off guard.
And it helps that the whole thing looks and sounds beautiful too, with a gorgeously moody neo-noir soundtrack, detailed, expressive pixel art, and an atmospheric setting to drink in. While it occasionally slips into cyberpunk cliche, and can be a little too earnest for its own good sometimes, The Red Strings Club is a distinctive take on a well-worn genre.
As fond as I am of Total War, I'm still finding my feet with its Warhammer offshoot. I love the games, but I'm far from clued up on the ways of Games Workshop which means every time a new lord or race or faction pops up I'm always a bit: who now?
Who this time is the Skaven's Tretch Craventail—a new legendary lord who's heading to Totes Warhammer 2 today, riding on the coattails of its Rise of the Tomb Kings campaign expansion. Better still, the so-called Chieftain of Clan Rictus is free-of-charge.
Courtesy of its newly launched Steam page, here's some gifs of the leader who's instinct for self-preservation grants his armies attacks bonuses when ambushing, apparently.
"Tretch’s direct control can vanguard deploy in all battles," adds the Steam blurb, "and his empire revels in discord, gaining public order bonuses whenever diplomatic treaties are broken."
I've seen Creative Assembly describe the Skaven in the past as a race of Bond villains, and I think that's what I love about them. They're the bad guys, right, but there's something quirky and charming about them that always makes me root for them. In my mind, Craventail's duplicitous nature echoes the best Bond villain of all time—License to Kill's Franz Sanchez. Fight me.
Despite it being 2018, Duke Nukem might soon get a film adaptation. The news comes via Hollywood Reporter, which reckons actor John Cena is "in negotiations" to star in the film, which has yet to lock in a director or writer. Production company Platinum Dunes – which is operated by Michael Bay – is producing it. T
It seems like odd timing for a Duke Nukem adaptation. Not only did Duke Nukem Forever tank miserably (because it sucked!) but Duke himself feels like a fossil of the 1990s. He recently popped up as a DLC bonus for the Bulletstorm remaster, but aside from that and the most recent in a line of Duke Nukem 3D reissues, he's not been used in any new games.
One could reasonably suspect that this film adaptation may be planned to coincide with a new game. But that's only if we're really unlucky. If there is one, it'd be published by Gearbox, who acquired the property a couple of years ago.
Whatever the case, John Cena would probably make a good Duke – he looks the part.
The Red Strings Club, a "cyberpunk narrative experience" about fate, happiness, pottery, and tending bar, is now live on Steam. That makes this a fine time to dive into the launch trailer to see what it's all about.
In reality, though, the trailer doesn't tell us much of anything, except that this game is obviously cyberpunk as hell: I half expected Keanu Reeves to show up at some point with a RAM doubler and a nosebleed. Fortunately, the video description is a little more explicit:
"The professed altruistic corporation Supercontinent Ltd is on the verge of releasing Social Psyche Welfare: a system that will eliminate depression, anger and fear from society. However, the bartender of a clandestine club and a freelance hacker don't regard this evolution as an improvement but as brainwashing. Alongside unwitting company employees and a rogue empathy android, the duo will pull all the strings they can to bring down this scheme."
I take it for granted that the bartender and the hacker are the game's "good guys," but I'm not convinced that they're in any better position to decide what's best for humanity than a globe-spanning mega-corp. Certainly corporations are machines of avarice and ambition, but if a greater good emerges from its intrigues—even as a side effect—then is it really a moral act to reject it? What gives any individual, be it a CEO or a suds-slinger, the right to determine or disrupt humanity's direction forward?
Ah, cyberpunk. So many questions, so few answers, such great music. We've got a review of The Red Strings Club right here.
