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Feature: Dead Cells meets Celeste
ScourgeBringer is a game that exists in your fingers. It's an action roguelite fidgetspinner about bish-bash-boshing across single screen levels of enemies. The protagonist Kyhra has a sword for slashing, a drone that can fire a blast of bullets, and a set of movements that feel sublime to control. I've been playing an early alpha ahead of an early access release planned for later this…
Feature: A game about death but not about killing
Spiritfarer is about death, but it’s how it treats life that makes it unusual
"We all die, everything dies, every living thing dies." Nicolas Guérin is reassuring me. He's the creative director at Thunder Lotus Games and they're working on Spiritfarer, announced at E3 2019 as a "cosy management game about dying." I need reassuring because I've played a 15-minute demo of Spiritfarer and I'm worried that a game that treats death lightly will make light of the suffering…
Feature: Get out of my dreams and into my car
Hitchhiker has left me in a small pickle. Alec already reviewed it over a year ago, when the first drive came out as a Humble Original. That drive is the bit I’ve played too. But I did really enjoy playing it, and got a small glimpse of where the game is going, and I’ve found I want to remind everyone it exists as a result.…
Feature: To the Max
This is Maximilian. As you can see, he is a very insecure criminal mastermind. Not content with having a scar on his left eye, he wears a monocle on his right. He is trying very hard to be the stereotype of evil. When you need this many sinister affectations to intimidate your staff, you are probably broadcasting your own neuroses straight to the camera. But…
Feature: Bask in his healing fart cloud
Intricate 4X strategy games don’t benefit much from short demos, especially during the annual videogames vomitorium of E3. But a short demo is what I got with Age Of Wonders: Planetfall. I would need far more time to get an understanding for the Civ-like encroachment of its world map. And I can't give you a solid impression of the battles based on the single brief…
Feature: Lonely rivers flow
You probably remember the reveal of Sea Of Solitude at E3 in 2018 because of CEO Cornelia Geppert’s excitement and sincerity when presenting the game. Geppert is self-effacing about it, and told me it was surprising to her that people responded that way. “The actual developers of course are always passionate about their project!” she said. “I think it's normal when you do your project…
Feature: Quit murderin' for a second, Joey, willya!?
Empire Of Sin is full of serial killers and drunks who need a good mobster manager
Ronnie O’Neill is a scumbag. But that’s okay. In about 20 minutes he’ll be dead, slumped on the tarmac next to a black truck. That’s what happens when you mess with Al Capone, you filthy mutt. At least, this is one way things can go in upcoming mob strategy game Empire Of Sin. It’s part mobster management, part turn-based tactics, with a splash of the…
Feature: Watch that mine, Mr Wolf
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint made me want to watch Tom Clancy cutscenes
Let me level with you: Ghost Recon: Breakpoint was mostly on my E3 schedule out of obligation. It’s the next big shooty Ubisoft game with all the military folk, sequel to the previous big shooty Ubisoft game with all the military folk. But now we're in the future, and it's got that bloke who plays the Punisher in it. Point being, I wasn't expecting much…
Feature: Endangering species
The fight to become the best panda in videogames is the smallest, fluffiest battle royale. Until last week, there were two serious contenders. The Just Dance panda was the bookies favourite, for clear reasons. And the panda who became last year’s Tekken World Champion is the other (don’t @ me). But now we have a third competitor. Contra: Rogue Corps is a new twin-stick co-op…
Feature: Golden goose
The Forgotten City dev on how he’s turning Skyrim’s best mod into a standalone Roman murder mystery
Throughout my chat with Modern Storyteller's managing director Nick Pearce about his upcoming game The Forgotten City, there are two things conspicuously absent from our conversation: "Bethesda", and "Skyrim". Ever since Pearce announced he was re-imagining his popular time-looping murder mystery mod into a proper game last year, Bethesda has become the publisher that shall not be named. Not in a properly evil, Voldemort kind…
Feature: Another Story
‘I hate repeating a trick’ – the writer of Telling Lies on going back to the desktop thriller
When Sam Barlow released murder mystery game Her Story in 2015, he probably didn’t expect to get a two-page spread in Le Monde about this three-hour FMV game. Her Story worked because it was simple. You had a fictional desktop and a search engine that would bring up videos of an ongoing police interview. When you typed in “dead” or “argument”, you’d get a video…
Feature: A trip worth waiting for
Disguises and slow-mo combat have me itching to visit The Outer Worlds
I've just seen a game that reminds me of Deus Ex. It's set in a dystopia where corporations call the shots, and you can approach situations how you see fit. Guards can be persuaded, tricked, intimated or shot. Robots can be hacked. Sewers can be snuck through, if you can first lockpick the entrance. There are no punks in sight. I'm talking about The Outer…
Feature: Odd balls
“It’s a little bit like a molotov cocktail,” says Lorne Lanning, the head of Oddworld Inhabitants. He is holding a bottle full of flammable soda pop with a rag stuffed in the top. “So if I was about to use that on a guy who was pretty helplessly bound up,” he continues, gesturing at an alien henchman lying on the floor wrapped in duct tape,…
Feature: All for nauts
Psychonauts 2 is funny, surreal, and has a lot of teeth in it
If Disney Pixar did a remake of Inception, it would probably look like Psychonauts 2. At least, that’s how I’m going to explain it to those who have not played the original. Yes, I know Psychonauts explored the mind invasion angle years before Leonardo and the girl from The Last Of Us got lost in the brain of a trust fund baby. But that's still…
Feature: Whoops, I forgot to mention some of the guns have legs now
This is a weird preview to write, because I'm about to describe a game you can already vividly imagine. Borderlands 3 is a shoot 'n' loot about tearing through wacky enemies using outlandish weapons and abilities. From the half hour I've played at E3, it's a very good one, and a subtle improvement over boundary grounds 1 and 2. Is that enough? Maybe.
Feature: Technically, these are tortoises
You can race turtles in Shenmue 3 and, OK, yes, this is nice
Let’s get it out of the way: I have not played the Shenmues. For some this admission will immediately disqualify me from having a valid opinion on one of the most eagerly awaited (and expensive) Kickstarter throwbacks in history. I know how this will go. I will tell you I have played a bit, that the characters feel wooden, that the English voice acting is…
Feature: A rolly good time
Roller Champions is by far the best game at E3 and I might never play it again
Before your pants get too twisted, let me clarify with some italics and nuance I couldn't fit in the headline. I mean Roller Champions is the best game to play at E3. As in, the best game to play in a context where nobody has any idea what they're doing, can all physically see each other, and are up for a laugh. I finished half…
Feature: A beast for the eyes
The beasts of Monster Hunter: Iceborne are good, and I have killed one
Have you ever seen a Banbaro? Oh, you sheltered child of reality. They are quite lovely creatures. Banbaros are large herbivorous snowbeasts with big, chunky antlers, presumably used for bickering and clashing with other Banboys down at the Banbar on a Friday. Bantlers. Ignore my jokes, they’re beautiful creatures. Serene, tranquil, perfectly at home in the cold ecology of their glittering wintry domain. I murdered…
Feature: Bite me
Bloodlines 2’s vampires are scrappy fighters and goofy dancers
Press X to dance. It’s not the first demonstration of demonic prowess I expected to see during my brief hands-off playthrough of Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2. But it is one of the very first things developers Hardsuit Labs show off. Our character has just been sauntering through the streets of Seattle. Sewer grates pump steam into the air, the lights of the city glare…
Feature: Hive been killed
Escape mode in Gears of War 5 is about teamwork and bullet scrounging
I’m frozen to the ground, unable to run, unable to move at all. A big hulking alien is lurching towards me. It was the icy blast of his frosty cannon has immobilised me. I would have shot him to death to avoid this, but I ran out of bullets a while ago, and I tried to make up for this by charging headfirst into the…
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