Every Monday we send Brendan into the alternate dimension of early access to see what silliness resides there. This week, the cubic planets of Stellar Overload [official site].

The game formerly known as Planets hit Steam this month after a while in the wilderness of alpha. The idea is simple enough: take Minecraft, add a dollop of story, and fold the world into a cube. Then populate the skies with other cube planets with rocky, watery, snowy, or deserty environments. That sounds like a sure thing (it certainly looks very pretty). But does it live up to its potential in our spherical world, which is already dangerously overpopulated by Minecraftbuts?

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The Titans are the worst thing about Titanfall 2 [official site]. In the campaign, your robot buddy BT provides occasionally amusing commentary and support, but the game really sings when you’re free of him and permitted to engage in the kind of wall-jumping, face-kicking heroics that are usually the domain of cutscenes rather than actual play. Multiplayer is where Titans shine, acting as both a cathartic death-dealing reward in some circumstances, and a welcome change of pace in others, but they’re still the worst thing about the game.

They’re great though. It’s just that everything else is so much better.

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The official sport of Halloween is, of course, iced hockey. The sport’s origins date to Halloween 1874, when trick-or-treaters refused sweeties by a miserly Montreal hockey millionaire retaliated by flooding his private hockey court. The water froze overnight but when Sir Stanley Cups took to his court the next morning, he discovered that iced hockey was a delight. And that’s why Franchise Hockey Manager 3 [official site] is being released today of all days. It’s an iced hockey management sim from Out of the Park Developments, the folks best known for their baseball games. This year’s big addition is an National Iced Lockey League license. … [visit site to read more]

The best free games are on PC, and if you want to know what the best 50 are then you’ve come to the right place.

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Hidetaka ‘Swery’ Suehiro, the mastermind behind Deadly Premonition, is retiring from Access Games. He’d been on sabbatical for almost a year while recovering from illness, but today announced he’s properly leaving. His future plans are hazy but I do hope he’s well and I’ll keep an eye on what he does. Deadly Premonition is wonky at best, and really buggy on PC, but has such heart and embodies such warmth that I adore it and think very fondly of him. He’s a certified Buddhist priest, you know. … [visit site to read more]

The final episode of Hitman [official site] lands today, bringing an end to “Season One” of the assassination sim. This also puts a bullet to my “I’m waiting til it’s all done before I play it” excuse for not yet progressing beyond its tutorial. Now I’m stuck with my other well-worn excuse, that I’m too busy, but the launch trailer which features clips from all its levels does tempt me to make extra efforts to inhabit Agent 47 again. … [visit site to read more]

The makers of Black Mesa [official site] have announced plans to add the final section of their Half-Life remake, Xen, in summer 2017. They explain that it’s taking so long because they’re really fleshing out that alien world.

I do admire the confidence to declare you’re making Xen bigger, given how unpopular that section is with some players. They might be happier to hear you’ve decided Gordon Freeman’s muteness is because he’s really three dogs crammed into an HEV suit, so you’re replacing his pain sound effects with barks and yelps. But no, the Black Mesa gang are determined to make Xen proper good. … [visit site to read more]

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

For a moment there, it looked like we might be seeing a resurgence in the traditional point and click adventure. All the big names from the 90s heyday leapt into action, but unfortunately (in hindsight) they all did it via Kickstarter. So we either didn’t see a final game at all, or mostly saw low-budget, under-realised mediocrity, and everyone refocused their attentions on RPGs again. Meanwhile, with minimal fuss, Clifftop Games release an absolute corker that reminds everyone how it should be done: Kathy Rain.

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One imagines that the recent glut of space games – yer Elites, Star Citizens, even No Man’s Skys – are eating a few of the spacechips from EVE Online‘s plate [official site]. Why else would the MMO be partially removing its subscription requirement after thirteen years in order to offer free-to-play options on November 15th?

While other games may scratch your itch for inky black, there’s still plenty that EVE offers that no other game does – which is exactly the tack taken by this new aspirational trailer. It gets me right in the spaceglands.

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Last night I played the game of my dreams. It’s a multiplayer first-person downhill parkour racing game, zipping through a steep fantasy village that winds into the skies. You dash across rooftops and down alleyways while carrying a physics-simulated cup of tea which sloshed and spilt with every leap and jostle. To win, reach the bottom first with tea still in your cup. Ace! Though my experience was soured by Hugh Laurie off the telly, the studio’s CEO, devising an ‘ARG’ dicking with my computer. I almost hit him. … [visit site to read more]