I tend to prefer grappling hooks when they are taut and predictable, but 2014’s Spiderling [official site] wrings satisfying physics puzzles from the springy, sticky web its main character can fire. It’s a free game that runs in your browser and it’ll eat up your afternoon.
While Elite: Dangerous makes planetfall and Star Citizen makes another million, there’s a thriving 2d space RPG scene for anyone without the horsepower to run those modern behemoths, or anyone who prefers singleplayer simulations to multiplayer playgrounds. Starsector is a recent addition to my playlist of galactic sandboxes, as is the splendid Endless Sky, and now we can add another to the list. Star Nomad 2 [official site], the sequel to a game I don’t remember even hearing about, is another challenger to Space Rangers 2’s position as Best Open World Dynamic Space Game.
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
What a shame it is that Dominions IV doesn’t do more to teach you how to play. It’s a turn-based strategy game in which you choose an amateur god and aim to ascend to professional god status by capturing thrones across a region map, and it’s excellent for the diversity it offers in race and units.
Star Wars fans seem awfully excitable lately, and it’s not just about Star Wars Battlefront [official site]. Surprisingly, for a fanbase usually so discerning and wary of merchandising, they’re worked up about a new Hollywood movie adaptation of EA’s video game. Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits the silver screen later this month, and fans are going wild even though the only connection is the movie’s inspired by a level that wasn’t even in Battlefront at launch.
That inspiring level, The Battle of Jakku, has sorta arrived, with EA unpleasantly holding it back from people who didn’t pre-order Battlefront. Oh, and a new patch is here.
PlatinumGames pleased our resident Transforman Alec with Transformers: Devastation, satisfying his twin passions of virtual murder and gushing over children’s toys from the 1980s. Now it seems the studio behind Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Bayonetta may be tackling another ’80s merchandising powerhouse next, going totally tubuluar with those radical Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Or so The Man says.
Just Cause 3 [official site] is pretty great, you might’ve heard our man John Walker say. He’s been all over the parachuting, wingsuiting, exploding, exploring, and kissing a cow (we’ve all coughed politely and pretended our phones were ringing every time he mentioned the cow-kissing – boy has he ever mentioned the cow-kissing!), but some folks with AMD/ATI video cards are suffering graphical glitches. They’re finding nasty big holes in the ground, jagged polygons littering the landscape.
Switching to new beta drivers might fix it, and publishers Square Enix say they’re working with AMD on a driver update.
Avalanche’s Just Cause 3 is officially released Tuesday morning online and in something called “shops”. “Officially”, because it was apparently released early in a few naughty nations, prompting the developers to make a list of planned Day 0 fixes. Of course, that means the code we’ve been reviewing from for the last week also lacks that patch, making it tricky to know how many of the issues I encountered – in an otherwise stupendous game – will affect you. Bearing this in mind, here’s wot I think.
