Incoming: some excellent new gaming CPUs from Intel

I’m jumping the gun just a little but a few of you have sent emails on precisely this subject and there’s a significant quantity of fairly solid info out there, so let’s talk about the shape of all things CPU and gaming. AMD’s Ryzen chips have very obviously been the big news thus far this year. But completing the picture for the next six months or so is what will shortly amount to the most significant update to Intel’s CPU line up from a gamer’s perspective in about five years. For once, it’s going to be unambiguously good news… (more…)

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Pathologic remake confusingly renamed Pathologic 2 ‘to avoid confusion’

Ice Pick Lodge’s remake of Pathologic, their wonderfully unpleasant 2005 horror, has picked up a publisher and a confusing new name. The crowdfunded full remake is now named Pathologic 2 [official site], though it definitely is not a sequel. New publishers Tinybuild say that the name is, somehow, “to avoid confusion”. Right-o. Accompanying today’s weird news is a gameplay vidblast showing sickness, autopsy, and purification in the diseased and dying town. Observe: (more…)

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Wot I Think: Life is Strange: Before the Storm Episode 1

Life is Strange: Before the Storm [official site] is the episodic narrative adventure Life is Strange prequel which shines a light on grieving rebel Chloe’s sudden and intense friendship with school queen bee, Rachel Amber. Rather than this being a Dontnod game the story has been entrusted to third party devs at Deck Nine, although Deck Nine have kept the look and feel of the original episodic teen tale intact, rooting a lot of the action in familiar locations and involving familiar faces. It struggles with characterisation and motivation at times, BUT it also made me laugh out loud and furnished me with an unexpected weepy moment. Here’s Wot I Think: (more…)

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Unknown Pleasures: Steam’s latest diamonds in the rough

Welcome back to Unknown Pleasures, our weekly deep dive into the deep, dark waters of Steam new releases. These are the games that we most liked from the past seven days (with the exclusion of those we’ve already wittered about in detail).

This week, we have Inner Space: The FPS, globular cats, rollerskate simulation, platforming goldfish and a spiritual Myth sequel.
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Sonic Forces spinning into November

Against all odds, Sega have released a decent Sonic game. Can they do the impossible and follow Sonic Mania up with another? We’ll find out in two months, as Sega today announced Sonic Forces [official site] will launch on November 7th. While Mania is an olde schoole stylee 2De Sonice revisiting paste gamese, Forces is one of them there newfangled modern Sonics with 3D levels and the occasional side-scrolling section. It also has players create their own characters, which means your fanfic dreams of adventuring with Sonic can come true. (more…)

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XCOM-like tactical espionage thriller Phantom Doctrine was my Gamescom highlight

At first glance, Phantom Doctrine [Steam page] looks an awful lot like a Cold War flavoured XCOM. That’s quite an exciting prospect and the closer I looked, the more exciting it became. There are agents instead of aliens, and some novel infiltration and reconnaissance systems, but everything from the UI to the cover system is immediately familiar. The tactical missions are hiding unexpected twists though, and zooming out to the campaign map shows that the setting informs every aspect of the game.

It’s early days, and there’s a lot of work to be done, but Phantom Doctrine might well be one of 2018’s strategy highlights.

(more…)

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Mekboy’s treat: Dawn of War 3 launches new mod tools

While Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 3 [official site] has not been to everyone’s tastes (our review was fond of its multiplayer but not the singleplayer, for the record), players do now have extra options to tinker with and improve it. Developers Relic Entertainment today launched a big update which includes new mod tools to let folks create new modes and bits, fiddling with it in ways beyond the level editor that was already out. And for those who already like what Dawn of War 3 is, hey, the update included a shedload of balance tweaks. (more…)

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Sunless Skies rockets into early access

After exploring a cheerygrim subterranean Victorian city in Fallen London, the seas around it in Sunless Sea, then beneath those seas in the Zubmariner expansion, Failbetter Games have blasted off to the dark and dreadful cosmos above with Sunless Skies. Continuing in the same explore-o-trade-a-cannibalise RPG vein as Sunless Sea, Skies today rocketed into early access. The full release should follow in mid-2018 but if you’d like to develop space madness sooner and maybe help shape the game, you can now buy into early access. (more…)

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Wot I Think: Alphabear – Hardcover Edition

The process from phone to PC is often a troubled one. But how does a long-time mobile favourite fare with its transition to Alphabear: Hardcover Edition [official site]? Here’s wot I think: (more…)

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The games chasing EVE’s vision of a single shard MMO

The planet is full of aimless people. Dozens of non-descript robots silently going to and fro, with no discernable purpose or meaning. Yes, I’m at Gamescom, the annual gaming conference in Germany, but I’m not talking about the visitors on the show floor. I’m talking about the on-screen player bots of Dual Universe [official site], a sci-fi survival MMO making big promises about player numbers and control.

“This is going to be unlike anything else you’ve ever seen before,” says Jean-Christophe Baillie, founder of studio NovaQuark, “because it’s a giant sandbox shared by everyone at the same time where they can build everything they want.”

Like nothing I’ve ever seen before. That’s something I’m hearing a lot these days.
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Tanks ever so much! World of Tanks adds 30v30 battles

The free-to-play arcade tank battles of World of Tanks [official site] today get a whole lot bigger with the official launch of a new 30v30 mode. Grand Battles is its name, and grand battles is its game. Along with bringing a higher playercount — double the regular high of 15v15 — Grand Battles packs a large new map, Nedelburg, uited to megafights. Only Tier X tanks can join in, mind, so it’s not open to everyone. (more…)

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Have You Played… The Dagger Of Amon Ra?

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

Because I haven’t. And I have absolutely no idea how or why that is. (more…)

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Warhammer: Vermintide 2 bringing more co-op action

The ‘Left 4 Dead but with ratmen’ cooperative first-person action of Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide will return with a sequel, developers Fatshark formally announced today. Bearing the shorter, simpler name of Warhammer: Vermintide 2 [official site], it will… do about the same? Fatshark don’t have much to say or show right now, holding their secrets back until October. But screenshots show more outdoors-y areas than the first, and beyond that I’d broadly guess you and your mates kill giant humanoid rats in the face unto death? (more…)

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