is so closely associated with the joke about “spreadsheet” gaming that the first time I saw it years back I was genuinely surprised that it actually has pretty, 3D ships. I suppose I was expecting a very complex space-themed MUD. Well, now it’ll have an option to become that, sort of. A new graphical setting for reducing GPU load during giant space battles will remove all that pretty outer space from your view, captain, leaving only the interface full of numbers and letters.
Begone the travails of fighting against terrain to build your shoddy Fallout 76 camp with wood you’ve scraped off fallen trees. Life is oh so much better below. Fallout 76 is adding underground vault instances for your base where you can build without the restrictions out in the fresh air. You can test out the Vault Shelters this weekend on the public test server before they’re added to the game later this year.
The early access launch for Baldur’s Gate 3 is just a handful of days away now—which is exactly how much time I need to prepare myself for the character creator in an RPG. Larian Studios have gone over the eight races and their several sub-races that you’ll be able to choose from during early access. They’ve also opened signups for a Larian account that will allow you to play your saved games across storefronts and platforms if you like.
This may be the month of ghosts and ghoulies, but we should still make time for gags and good times. To that end, do grab this week’s Epic Games Store freebie if so inclined, it’s Pikuniku. Released last year, it’s a lovely platforming explore-o-puzzler starring a wee blob with little kicking legs. Frankly, just watching those sticky feet is enough to cheer me up. And it’s good. And it’s free to keep. So that’s good.
As they do, Mediatonic have been dripping out details about Fall Guys season two before it lands this month. Torturous new obstacles and maps are coming when the fumble royale game goes medieval. Now at last we know the second season begins on October 8th. As a treat, there will be a few days of double experience points beforehand in case you need to wrap up those season one rewards.
My first mission in Star Wars: Squadrons (which I shall now call Squadwarns for the sake of ease), saw me jumping into a TIE fighter to have a nose around a big asteroidy space dock thing, looking for refugees from the recently-burst planet of Alderaan. My space boss reckoned those refugees might be hiding in cargo transports, so he told me to scan some cargo transports. ‘That looks familiar’, I thought to myself, as I approached one of the big, blocky things. I’d seen that ship design before, you see.
And when the scan started, and the transport’s model appeared in wireframe on my simulated cockpit’s little computer screen, I had a real little moment. Because it was, of course, the exact transport design encountered in 1994’s TIE Fighter. That was why it looked so blocky, I think: because if you were designing a ship for a 3D flight sim in the early nineties, it kinda had to be blocky. But what really did me in, was that the transport looked more impressive as a wireframe model on a deliberately rubbish retrofuturist computer screen, inside my computer screen>, than it had done on my actual computer screen in 1994. Huh.
Ah yes, the calendar rolls over and my favorite time of year begins. Almost every online game is due to be hexed with haunted decor, outfits, and seasonal achievements. Team Fortress 2 is one of the lot, kicking off its spooky celebration with four new player-made maps and a good handful of cosmetic items for Scream Fortress XII. Oh hey, they’ve also made some balance changes to Mannpower and enabled Steam’s text filtering.
If you’re looking to start strong with Season 6 of the ever-popular Call Of Duty: Warzone, you’ve come to the right place. Below are 70 Call Of Duty: Warzone tips for consistently surviving and dishing out death all across Verdansk. We’ve got tonnes of good stuff here, so let’s get stuck in!
I return for another attempt at the Spelunky 2 daily challenge, in video form.
Oof, the ending of this one was frustrating.
Hitting that 2020 mood bang on the nose, GOG today added Silent Hill 4: The Room to their catalogue. Konami’s 2004 horror game is about a fella stuck in his flat, so desperate to get outside that he crawls through a mysterious hole in his bathroom wall and tumbles into nightmarish worlds filled with the horrors of himself. Been there, pal. Silent Hill 4 has not been readily available (well, legitimately) on PC for years, so it’s good to see on pop up GOG.