Overwhelming though Steam’s catalogue may be, it can be a hell of a tool for testing your assumptions. I pitch this to nobody in particular: a free week of everything on Steam. Not just one or two games, but the whole lot, free to everyone. Play something you’d normally hate, I say. See also: food, music, relationships.

Anyway. In the meantime, there’s always Unknown Pleasures.

Anchoring an unlikely flight of fantasy this week: globular gladiators, treacherous tycoons, and regicidal revenants.

(more…)

My knowledge of Dragon Ball Z comes mostly from Britney Spears posting her son’s fan art and cosplay on her Instagram but dang, even I’m a bit excited by today’s launch of Dragon Ball FighterZ. The fighting game looks anime as heck the best way, with flashy animations and stage-smashing attacks, and it’s made by the Guilty Gear and BlazBlue folks so it should decent biffing and all. Our review isn’t ready yet, as we wanted to see the game in its live state, so for now here’s word that it’s out and a warning that some players are finding their fightsticks don’t work with it. (more…)

The pretty-but-too-quiet beta for Rare’s jaunty multiplayer pirate ’em-up Sea of Thieves is currently open to pre-orderers, but it’s not been smooth-sailing for everyone who wants to experience co-op sea-shanties. A bug shut out a fair few paying customers, and so devs Rare and publisher Microsoft have put a few more days on the dead man’s chest by way of apology.

Which is also a good opportunity for me to mention what a total pig> to get the beta running in the first place. (more…)

If you’ve ever been within spitting distance of a Plunkbat chicken dinner, you know the importance of having a light, nimble mouse under your fingers. You won’t be tucking into anything even remotely bird-shaped if you’ve only got something big and bulky like the Roccat Kone Aimo or Corsair Scimitar Pro RGB at your disposal. Instead, you need a mouse you can move with ease and minimal resistance. Something, perhaps, like the HyperX Pulsefire FPS. (more…)

I remain astonished by how often 10tons, the studio behind games including Neon Chrome and Crimsonland, manage to release new twin-stick shooters. Not even four months after Jydge (which our John really enjoyed), they’re back with Tesla vs Lovecraft. As you can probably guess, it pits fiction’s favourite non-fictional inventor against H.P. Lovecraft and his tentacled horrors from below and beyond. The author burned down the inventor’s lab, see, so Nikky is striking back with his own mech and gadgets and… the novelty of ‘Tesla this’ and ‘Lovecraft that’ has worn off for me over recent few years, but: 1) explosions; 2) colours; 3) new 10tons shmup. Here, look: (more…)

There are certain games that breed toxicity like a cowpat breeds flies. That’s not to say Overwatch isn’t a fantastic shooter, it’s just that placing strangers in a competitive environment where one person’s (often very visible) mistake can result in a loss for the whole team is a recipe for unpleasant behaviour. That said, the blame still lies with the offending individuals: the game brings out the worst IN people, but it’s the worst OF people that are the real problem.

Fortunately, it’s a problem that the Overwatch devs have become keenly aware of, and game director Jeff Kaplan’s latest update video highlights some of the ways they’re improving the situation. My main takeaway is that they’ve managed to reduce instances of toxic communication by 17% in competitive games, but you might also be interested in Kaplan’s discussion of upcoming balance changes. I’ve got bad news, Mercy mains.

(more…)

My nerves have been sufficiently jangled and my trigger-finger sufficiently itched by the glut of action games which landed in the closing months of last year. I crave an altogether more sedate beginning to 2018, and so my mind turns to games in which violence, reflex or any other kind of unblinking attentiveness takes a back seat.

Primarily we’re talking violence-free games here, but I wanted to drill a little deeper than that – so nothing that generally requires a competitive streak. I’m chasing a certain feel rather than a certain category. Flying, walking, puzzling, driving, building, dreaming, climbing, stretching, swinging (not like that), swimming, wondering: these are just a few of the ways in which flashing pixels can make you feel a very different sort of accomplishment.

And, of course, these are not even slightly the be-all and end-all of non-violent games on PC – please do nominate more in comments below. (more…)

Today I’ve been playing the Sea of Thieves closed beta, which is available to invitees and anyone who pre-orders between now and Monday Jan 29, and offers a limited slice of Rare’s open-world, mostly multiplayer pirate game. As such, it’s a bit of a rum do.

Between the small playerbase for the beta and assorted missing features (held back until release so as to not spoil too many surprises, apparently), the experience so far is more ghost ship than cosmopolitan Caribbean. It’s not too hard to find a few mateys to avast away with, but rare to bump into anyone else on the high waters. You’ve got to fill the time somehow though, right? So here’s a clip of how it tends to go. (more…)

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

Sometimes a game is so dreadful it deserves to be commemorated seventeen years on. Martian Gothic: Unification is one such game. (more…)

Here, check this out, I’ve got a joke: you won’t need to wait an eternity> for Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, as developers Obsidian have announced they will release it on April 3rd. Wordplay. I only recently found out about ‘jokes’ but I’m very into them. I’m told it’s good if jokes also tell a truth, so the truth is: the fantasy RPG sequel really is due on April 3rd. I don’t want to boast, but I think I’m crushing it. A joke for the ages. (more…)