My favourite Donald Sutherland performance has to be either ‘Kate Bush’s dad in the Cloudbusting video’ or ‘Éamonn Connor in Colonel Croesus, the 1970s war flick that inspired this communal Combat Mission scenario’. I know some critics felt he played the Irish nationalist turned Waffen-SS tank commander turned renegade treasure hunter too> camp, but for me he was the highlight of the movie. I still can’t look at an antimacassar without thinking of Connor/Sutherland.

(Colonel Croesus is an open-to-all game of Combat Mission: Fortress Italy in which Allied forces are orchestrated by commenters while German units are computer controlled. Each daily turn covers one minute of WeGo action. For a scenario outline and accounts of earlier turns, click here)> (more…)

I only had one chance to play Crokinole before we entered the end times, but it’s still one of the things I miss most about the real world. It’s a board game that requires a very special, very expensive board, as well as several bags of a magical, edible substance known as gliss. It’s about sliding counters into a hole, which turns out to be the highest form of entertainment yet discovered by humankind.

You can play a digital version using Tabletop Simulator, but obviously that is a bit crap.

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Welcome to the year of cyberpunk in which all games must have futuristic tech. Dark Light is another of the sort, though it’s calling itself a cyberpunk apocalypse instead of yer usual neon-splattered corporate dystopia. The Dark Souls and Metroid-inspired action game will have you hacking and shooting up invisible baddies when it launches in early access this Friday, May 8th.

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The status of Dying Light 2 has been a bit of a question mark since Techland announced in January that their next zombie parkour action game would be delayed from its “spring 2020” release window without offering a new estimate. A Polish game development news site published a report today suggesting that Dying Light 2 production may be in disarray, but Techland insist that it’s “in good shape.”

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On the list of mundane tasks done in less mundane settings is Hardspace: Shipbreaker, the deconstruction simulation that turns you into an industrial space worker trying not to get crushed by either flying ship parts or debt. Blackbird Interactive have shared a new video all about chopping up these monstrous ships and heck it looks pretty neat.

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XCOM Chimera Squad has you take command of 11 specialised units. Each one has a dramatically different role that you can use to your advantage in battles, and abilities that you can unlock as you use them in missions. Some agents work very well with others, allowing for combos to quickly take out enemies.

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XCOM Chimera Squad came out of nowhere didn’t it? The latest in the rebooted XCOM series opts for a more streamlined approach than its predecessors, focusing in on a fixed squad that must keep the peace in City 31. Things can quickly snowball out of control if you don’t know what you’re doing, but that’s where we come in.

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The game that never ends is getting another expansion pack next month. The Sims 4‘s next addition will be a big urban renewal project called Eco Lifestyle in which you’ll be able to recycle and upcycle junk around your neighborhood and participate in good ol’ local democracy. Ah, and you can have your very own online store for selling your eco-friendly creations. What’s Simlish for Etsy?

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I’ll cop to the fact that Peter Chiykowski is only a local man if you, like him, live somewhere in Scotland, and on top of that, I actually suspect Peter may be having a little joke with us. But still, I found this tale of love and loss in Stardew Valley quite heartwarming. It all began back in February, when Chiykowski’s wife discovered the inescapable Sarlacc pit that is Concerned Ape’s lovely farming/life sim, and he documented her first hours of it on Twitter. Chiykowsky grew increasingly desperate, especially after her response to being given a dog, and began to tweet directly to Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone himself. “I want to understand what your game has done to my wife,” he pleaded. Now, months later, it seems the situation has developed. Chiykowski reports that his wife has wooed and married town doctor Harvey, and had two children with him. “Stardew Valley consumed my wife,” he said, in another tweet to Barone. “But I finally figured out what to do.”

“I am Harvey now.” (more…)

A new Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds in-universe documentary explores the history of a deserted dinosaur theme park with the perfect host: Jonathan Frakes. He’s recently escaped the shadow of playing William T. Riker on the sci-fi show Lexx, finding new fame for saying “Not this time” and “It’s a total fabrication!” in compilation videos of his time hosting 90s show Beyond Belief: Fact Or Fiction. Who better to probe the strange death of a mascot at the island of Vikendi’s Dinoland?

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