Occasionally, after a long day of typing, I like to unwind with a spot of… more typing. Words For Evil is always there for me in those (admittedly rare) moments.
Screenshot Saturday Sundays! There you are, kicking over piles of dried-out dead leaves on the pavement, only to discover there were a load of old game development screenshots, videos and gifs hidden under there. Let’s hang ’em up on the wall properly, eh? This week: A painted prison, razor-sharp drifting, office chair kickflips and transdimensional headphones.
Sundays are for looking at a week of half-term ahead of you and wondering what you’re going to do with yourself. Interact with the child? Mm. Let’s think about it while reading some of the week’s best writing about videogames.
Brendan Caldwell, RPS in peace, wrote about his experiences being dog piled by Final Fantasy fans. That was for an article he wrote while here, by the way. I still think it’s a great article, and the new piece is a snapshot, for those interested, of what it can be like to write about videogames.
Don’tcha know it’s illegal for spaceships to have consciousness ’round here? Set to take off sometime next year, A Long Journey To An Uncertain End is the galaxy-hopping debut from Crispy Creative, a narrative management space opera that seems to imagine a version of Cowboy Bebop where the eponymous starship had the final say in all the semi-legal shenanigans. And also one where Ein’s a hologram, I guess.
Last weekend, Among Us was experiencing the highest of highs, with hundreds of thousands of eyes watching US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez face off against both streamers and a fellow politician in the spacey stab ’em up. Unfortunately for developers Innersloth, however, it didn’t take long for that high to come crashing down. This week saw a seemingly massive spam attack strike Among Us’ servers, locking up matches with threatening messages in what appears to be a far unfriendlier form of political activism.
Even up on our high, turbo-cooled horses, we PC folks are not so above the petty factionalism of console rivalry. With Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War just around the corner, Activision this week revealed that they’re once again locking a bonus Call Of Duty mode behind PlayStation 4 and 5 copies of the game for a year. This time, it’s Zombies Onslaught, a co-op horde mode that we’ll not be touching until November 1st at the earliest.
Okay, so there may be one or two. But they’re not the focal point of the piece, which is more than could be said for Jacob Janerka’s previous attempt to snag wishlists for The Dungeon Experience. After failing to draw eyes on the game by way of viral embarrassment, the Aussie dev is trying a more traditional approach with a proper reveal trailer. Sometimes you’ve just gotta stick with what works, y’know?
People in the UK: remember that the clocks go back this weekend. People in America: don’t mind that, your clocks go back next weekend. Thus we enter the confusing week where I look at announcements in my inbox and times on my calendar and try real hard not to blow it. Then as soon as I get my head around it, American clocks change too. Anyway!
What are you playing this weekend? Here’s what we’re clicking on!
Ah yes, one of the many valid spinoff arcs for animated stories: the one where the gang goes to camp. Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp is the new sequel to teenage monster dating sim Mosnter Prom. This time the gaggle of monster teens is headed on a camping trip to the woods where—wait no I don’t think anybody dies. Not anyone that isn’t already undead, anyhow. The multiplayer dating sim is out now with double the demons to date.
What’s a holiday if it doesn’t come with a sale on games loosely related to its theme? A terrible trick, which is part of what makes Halloween a real treat—discounts on horror games galore. The Humble Bundle are joining in on spooky sales with their own Halloween offers. Some are, appropriately, horror games. Some others are just vaguely grim, I guess. But hey, they’re all on sale. (more…)