Is it any wonder that people are struggling to sell games when everyone and their dog is just throwing lovely free stuff at us? This time, they even threw in the dog to sweeten the deal. Apocalyptic rafting survival adventure The Flame in The Flood is free for the next 48 hours (minus a couple) via the Humble store, and you should probably pick it up while the going’s good.
You’d think that with how gosh-darned fun> it is to play around with six-shooters, lever-action rifles and all those other trappings of the old American west, it’d be a more popular setting for games. Until such time as Rockstar confirm that Red Dead Redemption 2 is officially PC-bound, Wild West Online is our next best bet. This online cowboy sandbox from DJ2 Entertainment has been lurking around in early access for some time, but today it got its best ten gallon hat on and set forth in search of fame and glory.
I don t think many will mourn the death of Super Monday Night Combat. Uber Entertainment s free-to-play follow-up to XBLA smash Monday Night Combat was something of a hidden gem, albeit one with its die-hard fans. It still sits at the top of my Steam most-played list, and I promise this piece isn t just an excuse for dumping over a thousand hours in a game few people bothered to look at.
The fact is, the writing was already on the wall back in 2013. Servers might have kept running for another five years, but concurrent players have struggled to break double digits in all that time. Uber Entertainment cite the recent GDPR ruling from the European Union in finally killing off SMNC, but it feels like Kirkland studio shut the door on the game a half-decade ago – and only now remembered to turn off the lights. Nobody s mourning, because we all moved on years ago. (more…)
Here in the wonderful world of Graphics Card Rumour Town, the local buzz tends to revolve around mythical products that never actually see the light of day – like the current alleged specs for the so-called Nvidia Turing GTX 1180, the next-gen graphics card from Team Green that looks an awful lot like someone’s just made a few typos with the GTX 1080Ti’s specs and called it ‘insider information’.
But the latest gossip in this hallowed land hasn’t got anything to do with next-gen cards or anything like it. For according to Chinese site Expreview (as translated by VideoCardz), apparently the next graphics card that will be bolting from Nvidia’s stable is… a 3GB GTX 1050?
The dadification of games continues. So we re going full Dad this week on the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, as we ve been asked to talk about the games we play with our children.
Alec s daughter is excited by the unlockable characters in Rayman Legends (and she s also strangely fascinated by Battletech). John s son is a bit younger and likes to watch his dad diving in Abzu and Subnautica (but also manages to sneak glimpses of God of War s quiet moments on the TV naughty!). Brendan doesn t have children, only a cat. She can t stand games and thinks they are a waste of time. (more…)
As an avid The Binding Of Isaac player and a fan of absurd disparity in fighting game crossovers, I’m delighted to hear that Isaac has joined the cast of Blade Strangers. Isaac, a murdered child who in his native roguelikelike top-down shooter fights sentient poos by crying on them, will face a roster of heavily-armed crossover characters including Quote, the warbot hero of Cave Story. A bit like watching Butt-Head fight Godzilla on Salty Bet. That said, seeing Isaac in action in the new trailer below, I am surprised by how much of a scrapper the wee guy is. Even if he does cheat by getting his mum to fight for him. (more…)
Snow and coal simulator Frostpunk has gripped a few of us in its cold prosthetic claws over the past week. We especially like the warm feeling it gives us when you switch to heatmap mode and see the temperature rise in your new houses. But it also isn t the steam-powered morality trolley it often tries to be. Here, city bosses Katharine, Matt and Brendan discuss how they kept their people alive and whether they ll play again. SPOILER WARNING: Cold details of the story await.
Brendan [sniffing]: Hello, friends. Hello.
Katharine: Were you also playing Frostpunk into the early hours, Brendan? Did you feel the cold creep into your weary, weary bones?
Brendan: I might ve been. I built a big church and now my people want the priests to be in charge of crime and punishment.
Matt: What could possibly go wrong? (more…)
Snow and coal simulator Frostpunk has gripped a few of us in its cold prosthetic claws over the past week. We especially like the warm feeling it gives us when you switch to heatmap mode and see the temperature rise in your new houses. But it also isn t the steam-powered morality trolley it often tries to be. Here, city bosses Katharine, Matt and Brendan discuss how they kept their people alive and whether they ll play again. SPOILER WARNING: Cold details of the story await.
Brendan [sniffing]: Hello, friends. Hello.
Katharine: Were you also playing Frostpunk into the early hours, Brendan? Did you feel the cold creep into your weary, weary bones?
Brendan: I might ve been. I built a big church and now my people want the priests to be in charge of crime and punishment.
Matt: What could possibly go wrong? (more…)
I’ve not waddled back over to solid CCG/rougelite combo Hand Of Fate 2 since reviewing it last year, but the sound of goblin trumpets drew me back today. HOF2’s Arkham-lite fighting was always a lot less interesting than its deck-building and choose-your-own-adventure progression, but that had a lot to do with seeing the same few types of Bad Man time and again.
The free Goblins update, out now, shuffles new threats into the deck, those being pint-sized, pea green murder-bastards with far too many teeth. Equally homicidal gnomes, with a few straight outta Lilliput combat tricks, seem to have been lumped in under the gobbo umbrella too, confusingly. (more…)
When I look at how long all of my friends have spent playing co-op platform shooter Risk Of Rain, a roguelike about biffing alien bads, I see a list divided. Maybe half have put in a few hours. Maybe they, like me, enjoyed the bullet-hell combat and setting down a seemingly endless path of item and character unlocks – but found that path guarded by enemies that felt too punishingly difficult.
The other half have anywhere from 20-40 hours in the game, and I’m jealous of their perseverance. From hearing some of them talk about it, I’ve missed out. So hopefully I’ll be less intimidated by the time Risk Of Rain 2 comes out, which attempts to transplant the same formula into 3D. Based on the 10 minutes of pre-alpha footage the devs just released, it looks like they’re succeeding.