In Pop Flash, a series of insights into Counter-Strike: Global Offensive [official site], Emily Richardson looks past the amazing clutches and crushing defeats to understand the culture and meta of Valve s everlasting competitive FPS.>

This week I want to go right back to basics. Counter-Stike has been around since 1999, but every week new players log onto the Global Offensive servers. I hope this post will help those players get into the game quickly and enjoy its competitive nature from the start. Have a browse through, try some things, find what works for you. The most important thing is to have fun and enjoy the game whether you re playing competitively or just for laughs. Obviously, this piece isn t really aimed at experienced players, but if you d like to give some extra tips in the comments they re totally welcome.

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In twenty minutes of Shu’s Garden [official site], I’ve rolled around planets spreading grass, replanted trees, batted spaceducks around the sky, played tag with another of my space cactus species, and possibly got into a fight with a nasty hair thing. I think. I’m not sure. It’s one of those lovely playful games where you dive in and only realise what’s possible after you’ve done it. More so because you’re playing a life-giving sapient space cactus exploring planetoids, and I have no idea what to expect from such a premise.

Following a release for pocket telephones last year, Shu’s Garden has arrived expanded and enhanced on PC for Windows and Mac at a price of $5 ( 3.20-ish)

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Way back in 2009, long before the crowdfunding boom, Nidhogg creator Mark Essen (even before he was “Nidhogg creator Mark Essen” – and that game hardly had a hasty release) turned to Kickstarter to expand and finish up Flywrench [official site]. It’s a tricky game of maneuvering along obstacle courses, which is me very crudely reducing it because there’s no easy comparison e.g. “it’s like Kuru Kuru Kururin or Roundabout but not spinning and more a platformer but without platforms or Swift*Stitch with flopping and colours.” See? But Flywrench stalled. For years. But!

Flywrench is – unexpectedly – actually coming out soon. “In a month” say Messhof. For real.

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Fail Forward is a series of videos all about the bits of games which don t quite work and why. In this episode, Marsh Davies discusses Tomb Raider [official site], evil wizards, falling off things and the forthcoming demise of the cinematic shooter.

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A sandbox stealthy immersive sim in a surreal, horror-y world inspired by writers like Burroughs and Ballard is the kind of game description you might get if you wrote RPS’s favourite things on scraps of paper, folded them up, put them in a hat, gave it a good shake, grabbed a handful and lined them up. It is also a description of an actual real game, one I’m awfully excited about.

We’ve cooed at Tangiers [official site] for a few years, and it’s finally almost here. Come have a peek in a fine new trailer, and do pop on head-mounted listening devices for its splendid sound:

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Early Access games are here to stay, but is that cause for concern or celebration? We gathered to discuss whether early access benefits developers or players in its current state, and how we’d make it better. Along the way, we discussed the best alpha examples, paying for unfinished games, our love of regularly updated mods, Minecraft and the untapped potential of digital stores.>

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After releasing Wasteland 2 [official site] last September (it was pretty good, said we with a few grumbles), developers inXile Entertainment set about polishing it up. That was partially for a console release, but also to make it fancier for us all.

Coming as a free update to owners of Wasteland 2, The Director’s Cut brings improved graphics, new character perks and quirks, a rebalancing, and other nice things. inXile have now declared a release date, a little later than their planned summer launch, but not too far away: October 13th.

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Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

Truthfully, I don t remember all the ins and outs of To The Moon’s [official site] lackadaisical storytelling, but perhaps that is funny in itself, considering how important decaying memory is to the tale. But the enduring feeling of the game is one of wistful melancholy. Is wistful melancholy a thing? Yes, it is. If RPS was to have a list feature titled Ten Games Wot Made Us Somewhat Lumpy-Throated , this game would surely hang within the upper echelons. … [visit site to read more]

Team17 have once again announced that they’re making their game once again and- hey, wait, this latest version of Worms will actually do a few things different.

With over twenty Worms games in the bag and few changes to the turn-based annelid artillery annihilation formula in yonks, Team17 are shaking things up a bit with next year’s Worms WMD. It’ll introduce concealing buildings, for starters, only granting internal vision to players with a worm inside. Its new art style is pretty cute too. Oh, and it has tanks. Driveable, hopping tanks.

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Close Combat was PC wargaming’s Hir Onoda. Years after his comrades emerged from the jungle with hands raised, the turn-spurning CC engine was still busy patrolling… scouting… soldiering. People like me would periodically point our bullhorns at the undergrowth and urge the old fool campaigner to “Jack it in!”, or at the very least learn some new tactics. Usually he’d reply with wild rifle shots or deluded AI improvement boasts.

Now, thank goodness, the decade-long farce is finally over. Last year Slitherine/Matrix announced that they were retiring Atomic’s ancient code tangle and commencing work on Close Combat: The Bloody First, a new 3D-engined-but-still-top-down successor. There’s been no news of that project since, but, in an intriguing development this week, another developer announced that they too intended to take up the CC torch. … [visit site to read more]