The list of games that have caused me sleepless nights (because I didn’t go to bed) or hindered my ability to get anything done (because I was playing them) is not a short list, but somewhere near the top is New World Computing’s indisputable classic* Heroes of Might & Magic III.

News of an official HD re-release was therefore exciting, though my family, friends and colleagues may have felt otherwise. The original HOMM3 (because really, who types the whole thing out every time) still has buckets of charm and is perfectly playable today, but the idea of re-drawn and re-animated creature sprites plus support for higher resolutions and widescreen appealed. … [visit site to read more]

Something I unreservedly admire about contemporary indie games is that ‘couch co-op’ is getting a lot more love. Even if ‘couch’ is a misnomer, today we’ve plenty of choice in local multiplayer games, be they co-operative, competitive or somewhere in between. It is a wonderful time.

To such choices we can add Stardust Vanguards [official site], which launched on Steam and the Humble store yesterday. It’s a mecha-inspired arena shooter of sorts, and involves one to four players (the more the merrier) duking it out as giant robots whizzing through space. Your basic loadout consists of a rapid-fire cannon and one of those improbable energy swords – which in this case can deflect bullets. Oh, joyous day!

… [visit site to read more]

The inimitable forces behind Colonialist Legacies have gone and Frankenstein-ed together something audaciously lovely: a fully animated, fully voiced 3D leader screen for their Civilization V mod pack. It’s Australia’s Henry Parkes and he didn’t make his grand entrance on the Internet alone. No, the esteemed gentleman is just one part of their new and improved Australia mod.

… [visit site to read more]

An intrusion like the moon through clouds. A misplaced man, a misplaced question. The question: one of play. But what of play?

So rude, crude; a thought pre-chewed. Its exhalation an imposition, its intonation an accusation. So to play we return again. Reveal your secrets, my secret brethren.

… [visit site to read more]

Zombies! They’re everywhere these days. Shambling up and down the road, moaning about something or other in those inaudible voices, causing long queues for the teller at your local bank. That sort of thing. They’re a menace and there’s just too many of them on the streets. It’s enough to make one long for the days when a human’s brains were their own concern.

Still, despite our zombie glut there’s still unlife in the concept yet. Now you too can put this to the test with a demo for Dead State [official site], courtesy of DoubleBear Productions.

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I had meant to tell you about Night Tune [official site] when it came out two weeks ago, but its dreaminess interfered. Every time I load it up, my eyes get heavy, my focus fades, and soon I’m held trancelike as the night drifts by. It’s a free little treat where we’re driven endlessly, aimlessly through the night, the passenger of a phantom driver. Road lights, car lights, and warning lights illuminate and silhouette buildings we can’t quite make out, and our bleary head lolls over while the radio plays MP3s we feed it. Look, I’ll show you.

… [visit site to read more]

Confession time: I don’t like dungeon crawlers. The very name says it all. Why would anyone want to go to the non-sexy kind of dungeon? And crawling – the form of movement reserved for times of serious injury and distress – around a dungeon? It’s a recipe for a dreary, ugly casserole, served by a skeleton archer in a rusty slime-edged prison bucket with a bowl of kamikaze rats.

But then there’s Arx Fatalis [official site], released in 2002 by Arkane Studios. I should hate it. It’s made of brown tunnels echoing with ambient dripping and distant wailing. It’s full of goblins and trolls and spiders and rats. You start in an Easily Escapable Prison, naked, with amnesia. It should bore me rigid, but through some arca… through some recondite formula it turns these uninspiring tropes into an imperfect, but unique and underappreciated brew.>

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Crafting requires commitment. How does a person wary of settling down survive in the barren worlds of Minecraft, Terraria and Starbound? A tale of tourism, travel and cooperative tension.

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Long ago, before the seduction of fast food and motorized vehicles, there resided vikings in the land of Kerbin. It was not an easy time. These fearsome Kerbals lived and died with their colossal ships, which spat flame like the behinds of dragons. But like their eventual descendants, they persisted and grew from strength to strength. Their endless quest for naval perfection was known as the Viking Space Program and it was, like everything else in Kerbin, kinda cool.

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Pix the Cat [official site] is a score attack arcade game that mashes Pac-Man and Snake together. Pix runs through mazes, boosting by selecting a direction before he hits a junction as in Pac-Man DX Edition, and collects eggs. The eggs hatch and a trail of ducklings follows Pix – the longer the trail, the greater the risk of colliding with it, and the greater the speed at which Pix moves.

Oh, but Pix the Cat is also a puzzle game in which every egg must be collected before Pix hits the drop-off point. In this mode it’s about calculating the outcome of every move, across tightly designed levels. There’s also a multiplayer mode with missile-launching catbots.

… [visit site to read more]