If you’d not heard of Pendula Swing, as I hadn’t, now’s an alright time to find it. The “Tolkien meets The Great Gatsby” point & click adventure game began nearly two years ago with episodic releases. Now that all seven episodes are complete, Valiant Games have wrapped them up into the Complete Journey version. You take on the role of celebrated Dwarven hero Brialynne Donu Ten m as she explores jazz and speakeasies in pursuit of love and an axe.

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Today’s selection marks the 1,000th game I’ve played this year. One sodding thousand. Admittedly it’s a meaningless number but it might give some hope to those of you who are worried that games are going downhill or it’s been a bad year. It really hasn’t.

There are loads and loads of great games out there. Sure, there’s some rubbish too, but this column alone has sifted through a thousand in a mere 8 months, and that’s after> discarding the big names, the stuff Fraser or Dominic have poached, the shovelware, and the inevitable daily idiot-milking dreck about PUTIN JONG BITCOIN HA HA HA. And that’s just on Steam!

Things are good, my brave Unknowanauts. Whatever our complaints about Steam? The games, they are good. We are very lucky to be here, now. Long may it continue. Onwards then, to another round of Unknown Pleasures.

Poking the squinty eye of Gary Naysayer this week: capitalist ambitions, parental responsibilities, and racial tensions. (more…)

While others (like Arcanum) have played with the idea of high fantasy moving into the modern era, point-and-click episodic adventure Pendula Swing might be the most committed to the concept yet. Described by its developers as “Tolkien meets The Great Gatsby”, it’s the story of a long-retired dwarven heroine forced to leave her secluded island home in search of a stolen magic axe. A lot has happened over four hundred years of seclusion, and the city is now buzzing with automobiles, industry and jazz. The initial two episodes (of seven) are out today, with the first being free.

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