I ve been mucking about in mountain biking game Descenders. It s a muddy, roguelite take on bicycles wot go fast, with the twin sticks of your gamepad responsible for steering and stunting on dirty downhill trails (keyboard controls aren t in our copy but they will be when the game comes to early access on February 9th, we re told). Here s eight silly reasons to play it, based on my tumbles in the press build, all in the form of skillful GIFs. But also some reasons to maybe pull the brakes on that decision. (more…)

In its latest flailing attempt to be your sole destination for everything online, Facebook is hoping to become more like Twitch. The social network officially launched its ‘gaming creator pilot program’ for livestreaming on Friday, gabbing about improving video quality and letting more streamers monetise their videos. You know, Twitch stuff, on Facebook. It seems a long-term plan, still feeling out particulars, so it might amount to nothing considering how often Facebook change their minds. Or maybe, years from now, I’ll receive Facebook messages from aunts and uncles complaining about my language and how I never read their tip messages. (more…)

I’m still fascinated by Getting Over It, though I’ve reach the point where I can only handle playing it for about 15 minutes a week. Amazingly, that’d be enough time for speedrunner Christian ‘Distortion2’ Licht to make his way all the way up the mountain 7 and a half times: last week he became the first person to beat the game in under 2 minutes.

While I won’t be performing such a feat any time soon, I did get the chance to pick Distortion’s brain about his first clamber up the mountain, how speedrunning Getting Over It compares to other games, and – most importantly – how to handle those rage inducing set-backs. Be warned that though the game has no story, we do discuss some of its twists and turns.

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

I ve left so many possibilities in Reus unexplored. It s a God game where you control four elemental giants, and terraform a planet for the benefit of unruly human settlers. (more…)

I’ve never been into slasher flicks: gore for the sake of gore has a tendency to bore. Gore for the sake of enhancing a smart, top-down puzzle game about murdering cute bobble-headed civilians though? That I can get on board with.

Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle is the followup to Slayaway Camp, both from PopCap co-founder Jason Kapalka’s new studio, Blue Wizard. This time you’re explicitly playing as Jason Voorhees, which essentially makes this Slayaway 2: The Brandening. It’s coming out on Friday the 13th of April, because of course it is.

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Ubisoft’s historical open-world murder simulator Assassin’s Creed Origins is getting a safe and friendly ‘Discovery Mode’ for tourism soon, and it seems they’re also brewing a new mode with even more murder. A New Game+ mode will come to Oranges some time in the future, Ubisoft have confirmed, which should mean people who have finished the game will get to start the story again with all their end-game weapons, tools, and murderpowers carrying over. I’d imagine enemies will be levelled to match you but going through will full murderpowers is likely to be a lark. (more…)

Aw MAN! Just when I’d started up a great new running gag for the appearance of GTA V in the charts, this week it’s fallen out! And Divinity: Original Sin 2 has finally failed to make the grade for the first time this year. However, you’ll be relieved to learn CS:GO and Plunkles don’t let us down and wearily continue their infinite reigns.

Meantime, there’s quite a nice mixture of fresh and more recently popular scattered within. (more…)

Ubisoft have reversed plans to replace the $40 Standard Edition of Rainbow Six Siege with one that cost $20 more but offered only some virtuacash and a few of the new cosmetic-only loot crates in return. This $60 ‘Advanced Edition’ did not seem a good deal and, with Ubisoft having managed to rebuild and improve Siege to become an actual hit, it seemed daft to make the game less welcoming. Well, having announced the price hike on Thursday, by Friday Ubisoft were convinced that it was a bad idea and changed their minds. The Standard Edition will stay. (more…)

Deceiver describes itself as an upcoming “philosophical shooter”, though I can’t see much philosophy on display in the trailer. What I can see is someone using a grappling hook to first-person parkour through a cyberpunk city rendered in a unique minimalist art style, as well as launching creepy wall-climbing spider bots at gun-wielding foes. I never thought I’d say this, but who needs philosophy when you’ve got all that?

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It’s a bad time to buy PC hardware right now, what with graphics card prices going through the roof due to crytpocurrency mining and practically every CPU on the planet being vulnerable to the recently uncovered Spectre and Meltdown CPU flaws. Fortunately, PC land’s CPU woes may not be around for much longer, as Intel’s suggested its new, upcoming Cannon Lake and Ice Lake processors won’t be affected by the same security exploits as literally almost every other CPU they’ve made since 1995. Thank the blessed silicon gods.

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