Face still feeling tired after the whole Mass Effect: Andromeda debacle? Well, the earlier, better games haven’t stopped existing, y’know. Maybe revisiting them with a slightly more 2017 look will scratch your itch. For instance, with these mods that add over 3,000 replacement, higher-res, 4K-friendly textures to Mass Effect 2 & 3.
Have You Played?is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.
I love swarms of things! Galcon Fusion is about taking over planets by directing an enormous swarm of spaceships in their direction. (more…)
What the hell is Seven: The Days Long Gone? Is it cyberpunk or technofantasy? Is it an isometric homage to Thief, or an open-world version of Shadow Tactics, or some kind of bug-eyed, zoomed-out Assassin’s Creed? It’s too early in the day (half past twelve in the afternoon) for me to answer these questions with any clarity. But the developers would probably say it’s all of the above. It’s out today if you badly wanted to find out. (more…)
For the past decade GIANTS Software has had the farming sim sector pretty much to itself. None of the competing agri offerings that have arrived in the years since FS2008 first lowered a plough and spreadeagled a sprayer have succeeded in loosening the Swiss stranglehold. Might Cattle and Crops have what it takes? Now approximately a month away from a Steam Early Access release, C&C’s not-so-secret weapons are physics, mud, and weather. Developer Masterbrain Bytes want to remind us why tractors are such stocky fellows and why they wear such big boots. (more…)
Avast, et cetera! Abandon Ship is the FTL-like game of nautical combat and crew management where you sail across a big oil painting of the high seas. We’ve previously peered through the news telescope at its exploration, lifeboats and flailing tentacles (Kraken ahoy!) It’s been a bit delayed, say developers Fireblade Software, and now sails into early access in “early 2018”. As compensation, we’ve been given a 30-minute playthrough to inspect, with running commentary from the lead developer. Spoiler: the navigator gets blown overboard and drowns. (more…)
XCOM’s 2013 squad-based shooter spin-off The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is available free for the next day-and-a-bit from the Humble Store. Our Alec will tell you it’s one of those enjoyable-enough 7/10 perfectly average action games, which makes it not bad as a freebie. Me, my interests are slightly more morbid: I want to see the game which changed form wildly as its development dragged on and ultimately was the final game from BioShock 2 studio 2K Marin before 2K killed them. Also I want to shoot aliens with zapguns. (more…)
Being terrified in the sea is so undignified. In space, no one can hear you scream but in the sea, everyone can feel you wee yourself. Thankfully Soma now has a ‘Safe Mode’ for people who want to be deeply unsettled in the 2015 undersea technohell from the makers of Amnesia but not full-on terrified from being chased by monsters. The dreadful monsters are still in the explore-o-horror game, mind, but they won’t murder you to bits. Their presence will still be awful. As someone who hasn’t finished Soma because they’re a giant baby, I appreciate this. (more…)
