Language: it’s a funny old game, innit? I don’t mean the languages of different countries, either, I mean the different ways of communicating within that. From all the different regional names for this small but noble beast, to whatever your family calls the TV remote control (ours was “iffer-offer”), to the fact that UrbanDictionary is a thing that exists at all, it can be hard for people to understand each other even when they’re talking the same language.

Enter Signs Of The Sojourner, a deck-building card game with a story about growing up and outgrowing home, where the cards you play stand in for conversations. This game: it’s a funny old language, innit?

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When The Sims 4 was first released, there were quite a few skills that Sims could learn. If you count all of the skills introduced in every single DLC pack, that number has now ballooned to over double the base game’s skill list. Some of these skills are vital to learn to get that dream job, while others just make Sims look better on the dance floor.

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Last year’s conflab of Comment Commanders almost committed a war crime. This year’s actually commit one, albeit accidentally.

(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…)

If you plumb the depths of human ingenuity you will resurface with a wet box of penicillin and 100 million bits of different-coloured plastic. We people are very good at making useful things, and then killing ourselves with them. But videogames, my friends. Videogames hold the solution to our self-destructive ways. That tech utopia your pal Start-up Stan is always talking about is in reach, we just need to find a way to make these 12 practical devices from videogames appear in real life.

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Calling Year Walk a horror game may be a tad misleading for most. You’re not shooting monsters or running away from monsters or being eaten by monsters when you fail to shoot them or run away from them. You’re just going for a midnight stroll through a haunted Scandanavian forest on New Year’s Eve, in order to get a glimpse into the future, because ghosts or something. What else would you be doing during the countdown?

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Where are you hiding the mechs, Respawn? Sure, Apex Legends is phenomenal stuff. And Jedi: Fallen Order? Well, it’s Star Wars, what else do you want? Mechs, dear reader, that’s what I want. But in an interview today, Respawn founder Vince Zampella explained that there are no plans for a Titanfall 2 successor anytime soon – though this summer may not be entirely without another glimpse at something new from the developers.

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What better barrier than the sea? Arriving next month, Prison Architect‘s next expansion is Island Bound, letting you trade out those impractical land-loving fortresses for the sheer simplicity of a big scary rock in the sea. Forget barbed wires and concrete walls, the roaring abyss will prevent even the most rebellious inmate from attempting escape – at least, not until they discover boats.

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You’ve tapped out those skill trees, but have you levelled up your brain? Until next Thursday, both Greek and Egyptian flavours of Ubisoft’s historical learn ’em up Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed are free to pick up and keep forever. Go on, get yourself a slice of ancient education without all that stabby Assassin guff to deal with.

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You feel it too, right? Stuck at home, by your lonesome, we’re all just trying to resist that human desire to break out and dance to some high-energy beats. This week, an open alpha for Dance Dance Revolution V brought the arcade classic to PC, for free, through your browser. Blimey, that’ll save you a few 50p coins.

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Here’s some good news. Novel action-RPG purveyors Soldak have announced that they’re releasing Drox Operative 2 into Steam Early Access on Wednesday the 27th of May.

Drox Operative was a spacefaring sibling to fantasy stabfest Din’s Curse, one of the best RPGs to this day. Personally, I prefer Drox. You pilot an immensely powerful ship around a random galaxy, changing the course of history for the AI-controlled civilisations that are doing their thing all around you. It’s been a long 7 years since then though, and a sequel would be very welcome.

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