How To Teach An AI To Play Hex: Shards Of Fate

Hex is getting smarter. It’s learning. While it might not quite be approaching the colloquial indifference (or destructive potential) of Wargames’ WOPR, it is watching you play – it’s watching everyone play – and it’s adapting.

After their tremendously successful Kickstarter (warning: contains clown death) and while settling a protracted lawsuit with the creators of Magic: The Gathering, developer Cryptozoic have been diligently ploughing through the alpha and beta stages of Hex [official site], regularly bolting on new features and laboriously constructing the vision that CEO Corey Jones first prophesied nearly two and half years ago.

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Claymation Adventuring: Armikrog Released

Armikrog [official site] is more than onomatopoeia for a belter of a burp, it’s the first game in yonks from Earthworm Jim and The Neverhood chap Doug TenNapel. It was Kickstarted in 2013 as the “spiritual successor” to The Neverhood, offering more claymation adventure game jollies, and has today finally launched – only a year and a bit behind schedule.

Here, check out some of its squidgy pretties and boingy noises in this here new trailer:

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Metal Gear Solid V: Fobbed Off

Oh God suddenly my private desert adventure is a PvP game in which other players can invade my base and steal my stuff and my men at any time. THIS WASN’T WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR HELP HELP

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League Of Legends 2015 Worlds Anthem – More Esports Or Less Esports Than Imagine Dragons?

This evening will be spent watching Legends Rising – a bunch of League of Legends [official site] documentaries focusing on specific pro players – but right now I’m digging through everything else the Worlds hype train deposited while I was on holiday. I like taking a look at what Riot do in the run up to Worlds because it’s a total contrast to Valve’s approach with Dota 2. Valve didn’t even play Basshunter’s Dota when a Swedish Dota team won The International.

Gather round as we listen to the official League of Legends Worlds anthem and then watch the official League of Legends… make up tutorial? Facts of life video? Hype thingummyjigger reminding you that there’s only one trophy and so forth? Or go read my ACTUALLY INFORMATIVE (but pleasantly chillaxed) guide to what the hell League of Legends World Championships is.

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Unplayably Broken Horror Calendula Looks Pretty Swish

I like the idea of games masquerading as strange and forbidden software. Memory of a Broken Dimension and TIS-100 are odd explorations of strange computer systems, Deabirth is made by satans and draculas in Hull, and now Calendula [official site] is an apparently broken game which seems to actively resist attempts to play it. Sounds like someone’s got a frankenstein dad or two in their CD drive.

Calendula a curious upcoming horror game by Spanish team Blooming Buds Studio, and its computery chills looks pretty dang swish in this new trailer:

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Concept Artstravaganza: The Elegiac Art Of Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight [official site] was a Kickstarter project I remember being captivated by because of the art style. It’s all bluey greys and underground exploration to solve a mystery – kinda elegiac. There’s a beta awaiting further exploration in my Steam library but I’ve only been able to dip in for small chunks of time thanks to a set of trips and other distractions. HOWEVER that didn’t stop me emailing the game devs about the artwork. As a result artistic lead, Ari Gibson, has opened his sketchbooks (at one point literally) for RPS.

Here is a whole bouquet of concept art along with Ari’s own comments and explanation.

N.B. Clicking the sketchbook images takes you to a slightly larger version but otherwise what you’ll see when you click through is the same picture, but it turns them into a clickable slideshow which can be a nicer way to look at concept art as it greys out the rest of the page and lets you concentrate :)

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Circle Of Protection: Hex And Magic Settle Lawsuit

Magic: The Gathering has been such a popular collectible card game that it’s no surprise to see traces of it in many modern CCGs, but Hex: Shards of Fate [official site] looked more like Magic than any digital CCG I’ve seen. Magic makers Wizards of the Coast noticed the similarities too, and in 2014 sued the Kickstarted CCG’s makers for allegedly infringing their intellectual property rights. Well, that’s now settled outside of court, and Hex will continue on its merry deckbuilding way.

… [visit site to read more]

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Darkest Dungeon Adds New Region Called The Cove

Darkest Dungeon‘s [official site] recent updates have divided opinion with their new features and then made those features optional in response. Its latest Early Access addition seems more straightforward, adding a new dungeon region, new monsters, bosses, art, music and more to be traumatised by.

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Have You Played… The Sims?

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

Later Sims games were probably better games, in terms of how they fleshed out the fantasy (and accidentally gave it more than the intended degree of consumerism critique subtext with all those expansion packs and DLC), but Will Wright’s original people simulator remains unsurpassed, I think. It has this detached, sciency atmosphere, far more interested in people as behaviours than people as people – like an experiment which coalesced into entertainment.
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Mushroom 11 Sprouts On October 15th

Designer Itay Keren set out to create a game where the character you control never actually moves. The result is Mushroom 11 [official site], a puzzle-platformer about steering a mass of cells through a level by destroying those on one side to cause them to re-grow on the other. The game is now finally being released next month on October 15th – which, it turns out, is National Mushroom Day. Watch the launch trailer below.

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Impressions: Else Heart.Break()

The entire time I’ve spent with Else Heart.Break() [official site] I’ve had two concurrent thoughts:

– I think this game is probably extraordinary
– I am not having any fun playing this game

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Biggest Boss: Metal Gear Solid V’s Hardcore Mod

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain [official site] is a fine game, but is not a difficult game – at least, not unless you want it to be. Sure, you can roll through everything with big guns and a murderbot or Quiet without breaking a bloodsweat. The challenge comes in following weird whims and trying strange ideas with its arsenal of guns and gadgets, or I suppose you could install a mod.

If you want everything to be tougher, the Hardcore mod by ‘JRavens’ ups the difficulty by pushing it more towards realism, with enemies more aware and you weaker.

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Humble Indie Bundle 15: Gang Beasts, Skullgirls, More

Gang Beasts alone is easily worth £6.50, so the fact that the Humble Indie Bundle 15 will give you another six-plus games on top of the silly local multiplayer brawler for that price is… yeah, it’s quite the bargain. Also in the pay-what-you-want prize packet are X-COM ‘em up Xenonauts, girl-puncher Skullgirls, and oh hey it’s RPS co-founder Jimmy Ro-Ro’s Sir, You Are Being Hunted. The bundle’s not all sunshine and roses, but dang, it’s still a fine deal.

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