Buildings Have Feelings Too! is a city management game in which the buildings are characters, with arms and legs, fears and aspirations, and the ability to talk to one another. It looks neat, and it now has a release date - April 22nd.
Introversion Software, the makers of Prison Architect, have been making a video series about all the prototypes they've created and scrapped over the past several years. This month's prototype is 'Minecraft Factory' or 'Voxel Factory', an attempt in 2017 to make a Factorio-like game out of Minecraft-style blocks.
You can watch a video where they demonstrate the prototype and why they binned the idea - and then you can buy and play it, if you like, with all the money going to charity.
As esports becomes bigger business, it's beginning to deal with the issues faced by more mainstream sports. That includes betting and match fixing scandals. The commissioner of the Esports Integrity Commission says that they're now working with law enforcement, including the FBI, to help combat the problem in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
I've twice tried to get into the Mass Effect series and both times I've given up a few hours into the first game. 'That's where it starts to get good!' my friends tell me, while also saying that Mass Effect 2 fixed a lot of the first game's problems.
I'm therefore pleased to learn of how Mass Effect Legendary Edition will tweak the first game to make it more consistent with its sequels. A new blog post on the RPG remaster's official site goes into detail on how they're tuning combat, boss fights and the Mako "without outright scrapping the spirit of the original games."
Diablo 2: Resurrected is running a singleplayer "technical alpha" this weekend. Beginning Friday, April 9th at 3pm BST (7am PST), the remake of the action-RPG classic will be accessible to a limited selection of players signed up and will include three classes and the first two acts of the game.
The creator of Forager has scrapped plans to add multiplayer to the explore-o-crafting clicker game, explaining that the feature was too buggy to reasonably fix. So it's off. The update is cancelled. If multiplayer was why you bought the game or backed its Patreon, the creator encourages you to seek a refund. A shame, because the game's an interesting one, but it sure does sound a big task.
This is a slightly different episode of The Weekspot. We had to record a little earlier because of the Easter weekend in the UK, and Matthew wasn’t able to come on because of prior commitments.
So, instead of talking to myself for an hour and a half, I drafted in two lovely guests: Josh Wise of VideoGamer and Rich Walker of Xbox Achievements.
Each time I play weird and wonderful amnesiac detective RPG Disco Elysium, I fall in love with language all over again, and get properly jazzed up to spill some fancy words. In this case, I've played the new Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, an updated version of the game that has loads of new voice acting and even some new quests. So I’ll pop a cork in my impulse to use words like 'ekphrastic', at least a bit, because I imagine you’ve come here with one of two questions.
Those are: "should I finally get around to playing The Large RPG?" or, if you’ve already played it loads, "is the Final Cut reason enough to do so again?" Please, enter the slide in front of you, and glide, like a graceful brick, into the answer pool below.
The clumsy little Mukodon Abe returns today in Oddworld: Soulstorm, a reimagining of the 1998 side-scrolling platformer Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus. Soulstorm is an action-adventure game where Abe's new goal is to save his pals from being slaves. It's got crafting, molotov cocktails, and will let you complete the game without killing any sligs (evil aliens). Watch out though, because it also has a launch bug that can make Abe fall indefinitely.
After skipping last year due to the pandemic, E3 will officially return in 2021 with a free online show running June 12-15th. The organisers say to expect participants including Microsoft, Ubisoft, Take-Two, and Nintendo. E3 is the biggest marketing event on the games industry's calendar but last year its organisers didn't arrange an online replacement after the pandemic ruled out an in-person show, leading to a weeks-long sprawl of unaffiliated alternatives from publishers and the media. I never thought I'd say it but: I missed E3. Please save us from the endless NotE3.