Premature Evaluation is the weekly column in which we explore the wilds of early access. This week, Fraser s pottering around in RocketWerkz’ space station sim, Stationeers, and learning that, just perhaps, it’s better to stay on Earth.>

Why is a giant egg on top of my microwave? I m trying to play through Stationeers dire tutorial, but I actually feel like I m participating in one of Gordon Ramsay s literal kitchen nightmares. In the egg carton, it was very much a normal-sized, innocuous egg, but somewhere between picking it up and mistakenly putting it on and not in the microwave, it grew at least 20 times larger. And I m not sure I really should be putting eggs in microwaves. Certainly not to make muffins.

I somehow muddle through, making a muffin that I don t need and fixing a cable that does nothing. Well done me – I ve completed the tutorial. Lamentably, I ve retained very little of the excessively complicated instructions required to perform the simplest of tasks. With unearned confidence, I dive into the game-proper, my head full of dreams of lunar bases and SCIENCE. It is dark, I m alone and I have no idea what I need to do.

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If you fancy JRPG action in a retro way, here’s Lost Sphear out today. It’s the second RPG from Square Enix’s Tokyo RPG Factory, the studio behind I Am Setsuna, and it too riffs on ye olde JRPGs. I won’t pretend to be well-acquainted with the genre but: yes, JRPG stuff. We do have a review coming from someone who actually knows a gad dang but we only just got our hands on Lost Sphear so, for now, here’s word that the game is out. It does have a demo so you can try a bit yourself. (more…)

It’s typical, eh: you wait ages for a Stardew-o-Harvest-a-Crossing crafty farming daily life sim, then two come along to early access at once. My Time At Portia today delivers a cheery vision of the post-apocalypse, while Staxel here has more of a fairytale vibe and Minecraft-y style, not to mention online multiplayer. Yes, it is weird that neither crafty farmy miner has flinched in this game of chicken. But hey, they’re here now. Let’s peek at Staxel. (more…)

Cloud gaming has become a bit of a dirty word these days. There have been plenty of people who have tried their hand at it over the years, promising high-end, lag-free gaming without the need for all that bulky, costly hardware, but most (*cough*Gaikai*cough*OnLive*cough*) have ended up on that age-old trash heap of crushed dreams and broken promises, their meagre uptake prompting them to disappear back into the ether almost as quickly as they appeared.

This time, though, Nvidia might have finally cracked it, as the beta for their GeForce Now streaming service has finally arrived on PC in Europe and North America. It’s free, uses your very own game library and their respective cloud saves, and, whisper it, it’s actually pretty good. So rejoice all you laptop and creaking PC people whose rigs would probably faint at even the slightest suggestion of running something like Doom or Shadow of War at Ultra quality settings and 60fps. Your time in the gaming big leagues has arrived.

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Post-apocalyptic life usually seems stressful but it actually looks quite cheery in My Time At Portia, a new Stardew Valley-ish craft-o-explore-a-life sim RPG which hit early access today. Sure, the skyline is dotted with overgrown skyscrapers and the dungeons beneath the town house biomechanical monsters, but aside from that it looks pleasant enough as we farm, craft, make friends, and all that. The full version is due later this year–and I’d rather wait for that myself, as I tend to with singleplayer games–but if you want to visit Portia now you can. It does also have an old-ish demo to try first. (more…)

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.>

I’ve handed over the keys to Castle Unknown Pleasures to another writer now, but during my time panning for gold among the murky waters of Steam’s dozens-a-day new releases, one of the games that most lodged in my memory was Midnight Ultra, a neon grindhouse nightmare of an FPS. (more…)

I was really tempted to pick up stealth-action RPG Seven: The Days Long Gone over Christmas, but three things stopped me. 1) I wasn’t sure I’d like it, 2) most people said it was buggy and 3) it was priced just a little bit too high. Yesterday, those sneaky devs and publishers launched a three pronged attack to win over me and my fellow free-running fence sitters, and by ‘sneaky’ I mean ‘smart and good’.

The game now has demo that lasts about an hour, an update that’s cleared up a bunch of bugs and improved some core parts of the game, and a 30% discount that lasts until January 29th. After playing the demo, I’ve somersaulted off my fence of indecision and landed on the side that’s left me 19.59 out of pocket but with a promising RPG to sink my teeth into.

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I know I can’t be the first to say this, but this is the first chance I’ve had to moan about it and you can’t stop me. Why oh why is Total War: Warhammer 2 not just called ‘Total Warhammer 2’? As far as I’m concerned, consistent branding can get in the bin when there’s an opportunity that good.

Oh yes, the news: Total Warhammer 2’s first expansion is out today. As Fraser Brown will tell you in his Rise of the Tomb Kings review, those disgusting mummies form a new playable faction that’s into early aggression and raising disposable zombie armies, just like an old flatmate of mine. There’s also a patch for the base game, which includes a revamp for the poor old Bretonnians as well as some new legendary buildings.

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Back in 2010, Beat Hazard riffed on the ‘feed the game music to become levels to play through’ Audiosurf idea to turn MP3s into twin-stick shooter arena battles. The flow of battle would follow the flow of music, all resulting in a lot of colours and explosions – vital for any shmup. I blasted through a few albums back in the day myself, enjoying the colours and, y’know, the explosions. Creator Steve Hunt has been working on a sequel for a while, and is now starting to talk more about Beat Hazard 2 as he aims to release a beta version this summer. (more…)

It’s an odd experience to have followed the development of a game for almost a decade, only to have it blindside you. Iconoclasts, the slow-cooked passion project from prolific developer and highly talented sprite-artist Joakim ‘Konjak’ Sandberg might look like your average Metroidvania-type platform adventure at first glance, but that’s not the whole picture.

Konjak cites semi-obscure Genesis/Megadrive game Monster World IV as his primary inspiration. That’s not a game I’ve played so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Thankfully, I came away very pleasantly surprised by Iconoclasts’ unconventional flow and strange story.

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