If there’s one thing that’s guaranteed to sweep through the Steam Charts like a giant fart, it’s a Steam Sale. Blowing out all the fresh, original or interesting new releases, the mid-year discount warehouse (Junction 45 off the M91) ensures it’s a top 10 of games you already bought or decided you don’t want to buy.
So who is buying them? Baddies. You lot are the goodies. It’s the baddies who do this to us.
There’s a piece of paper by my desk that reads, “My work does not bring joy and is not so important for me and the people around me, but I cannot quit it. Otherwise, what will I eat?”
Alright, Routine Feat, I know it’s Monday but take it easy. This is the latest first-person prod-about by Alexandre “Sad3D” Ignatov, who earlier this year made Alice O’s beloved Russian apartment ’em up It’s Winter. The best thing about it is that it’s set in the same set of apartment blocks, only now… it’s summer. But there are other nice things about it, too.
Ninja-themed spheremen stabbing simulator Shadowlings was one of my favourite games of 2018 (out of the, I will never stop pointing out, over 1300 games I played for Unknown Pleasures). It is now available for zero money. This means two things: one, the funnest tiddlywink-human-hybrid fighting game ever made can be yours in just a few clicks, and two, I am legally allowed to throw bags of peat at you if you don’t play it.
Before we get to the lasers, you must wade with me through the ridiculous murk of stupid video game names. This is a mod for 2005’s Star Wars: Battlefront 2, as opposed to 2017’s Star Wars Battlefront 2. That makes it far more interesting to anyone who devoted several of their formative years to colonified Battlefront but bounced off its modern incarnation. Especially so once you remember Star Wars: Battlefront 3 was nearly a thing, and that this mod is chasing what was planned for that – along with much else besides.
It’s been playable for years now, but the modders only recently got multiplayer working. You know. The good bit.
Hitchhiker has left me in a small pickle. Alec already reviewed it over a year ago, when the first drive came out as a Humble Original. That drive is the bit I ve played too. But I did really enjoy playing it, and got a small glimpse of where the game is going, and I ve found I want to remind everyone it exists as a result. So writing about it is partly a cucumber of my own vinegaring. Or possibly a grape of my own drying. Into a raisin. You might not understand that joke yet but I assure you it s a relevant reference.
Beckett is weeeeeeird. It’s a story-driven sort of adventure, except what it really is, is a scuttling little cockroach, and the cockroach smokes 40 Lambert & Butler a day and hasn’t washed in a week. And has depression, probably.
As its name might suggest, free game Seeds Of Love is a hybrid farming-romance sim. What the name doesn t give away is that it also sneaks in some rhythm game elements, and how well you re able to keep time with the tunes will affect protagonist Mar a s emotions. And it turns out that it s difficult to make friends if you re always grumpy over your lack of groove. Take a look at Mar a s many moods in the trailer below, including some truly inspired pun-based flirtation.
Co-op heist em up Payday 2 has escalated over its many years of swiping things, going from simple bank robbery to lifting your own presidential pardon out of the White House. Now, though, it s ascended into its true form: a visual novel. Experience the thrill of theft as it was meant to be: in text, everything hinging on your mouse pointer hovering over two options, deciding which to explore.
Screenshot Saturday! The day where game developers get a chance to self-promote freely thanks to the power of a Twitter hashtag asking them to do so, and the rest of us get to look on in awe of the magic of how the sausage gets made. This week: a stranded cottage in the woods, an angry kitty, and some snap-together architecture.
Sundays are for meeting potential new housemates and trying not to squirm out of your shoes. These meet ups are like job interviews for personalities. It’s disgusting. Here’s the best writing about videogames from the past week.
Let’s kick off with an astounding article from Laura Hudson in the Guardian, who spoke to female developers around the world making games that convey the devastating impact of regressive abortion laws. It’s a powerful showcase of how games can be used to challenge preconceptions, and a travesty that the people who most need perspective will never play the damn things.