Nasty, brutish and short – Rust and the state of nature

Facepunch’s violent, vile Rust isn’t an obvious starting place to learn about philosophy. You might explore virtue ethics with the Ultima series, or free will with Bioshock, or concepts of self and moral worth with Soma. Even when looking at political philosophy, you’d perhaps be more inclined to stop by the totalitarian bureaucracy of Paper’s Please, or Crusader Kings II’s massive variety of governmental forms, or Eve Online’s+ unique democracy/tribalism.

But Rust…? Rust, a primitive world of dingly-dangly dongs and caved-in skulls? A transient land of ramshackle fortresses and roving gangs of hostile thugs? What can we hope to learn from that?

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Wot I Think: Battle Chef Brigade

They say the best meals start with the finest ingredients. For example, if you take a freshly bought Pot Noodle, add a splash of boiling water and a soupçon of sachet sauce, you have a tasty meal for the bachelor in a hurry. Trinket Studios’ Battle Chef Brigade is a little more omnivorous, and a lot more ambitious, drawing from puzzle games and anime and reality TV in a way that, perhaps, should result in a steaming mess. It’s not a steaming mess, I’m happy to report, even if a couple of the ingredients do feel a little underdone.

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Life Is Strange original voices return for Before the Storm bonus ep

The voice actor behind spunky punky teen rebel Chloe in the original Life Is Strange, Ashly Burch, will reprise her role in the bonus episode of prequel series Life Is Strange: Before the Storm. While Chloe is the main character in Before the Storm, Burch couldn’t play her because of the voice actor strike so publishers Square Enix replaced her with another actor, Rhianna DeVries. Oh dear oh dear. But the strike is over now and Burch will voice Chloe once more in ‘Farewell’. Life is strange but business is stranger. (more…)

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The Elder Scrolls Online launches week-long free weekend

If the news outside of the game-o-sphere wasn’t enough to convince you we’re living in a post-truth world, then maybe this will change your mind. The Elder Scrolls Online is launching a free weekend that starts from today and ends on December 6th, but apparently that doesn’t mean you can take every day until Wednesday as a day off. I’ve checked.

TESO was pretty shonky when it released, but three years of updates might have brought it to the point where it’s worth giving a go. The Elder Scrolls VI isn’t coming out any time soon, after all.

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Football Manager 2018’s best wonderkids

Football Manager 2018 isn’t just about playing for a season, giving up, then starting over – it’s about building a legacy, relationships and a squad to be proud of. With that comes the need to sign people who are still legally children for more money than most of us will ever see in our lives. Wonderkids, then.

With that in mind, I’ve trawled through the game to find 36 of the best young players in the game, across all positions, and for a selection of budgets. The days of genuine bargains have faded into near obscurity, but you’ll still be able to put together a winning squad for a reasonable amount. Just remember they probably won’t be winning anything until 2023 at the earliest.

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Total War: Rome 2’s Empire Divided DLC is out now

When Empire Divided, Total War’s latest expansion, trundled into our garage, Fraser was the mechanic on duty. He walked around the chariot, kicked the wheels, took the pencil from behind his ear and made a few notes. “It’s not in bad nick,” he said, after some deliberation, “but it’s no Warhammer.”

You should read the rest of his review if you’re considering buying this new expansion for Rome II. It’s out now, gives the game a brand new grand campaign and loads of other gubbins, and might scratch that historic itch. But it also highlights one of the issues of a post-Warhammer world; namely, that loads of people with various pointy or clubby things don’t quite match up to dragons, dinosaurs and man-eating trolls.

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Have You Played… Another World?

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

(Out Of This World if you are not tea-swilling, toothless Brit who cleans chimbleys in old lahndahn tahn). SPOILERS for a 26-year-old videogame follow.

The first time a game broke my heart, or at least left me in a state of shocked disbelief. (more…)

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Room-deep in the dead: DOOM VFR out today

Lest 2017 didn’t already feel like the year in which everything happened all the time constantly, also joining the fray is Bethesda’s three-pronged attempt to adapt their biggest games into virtual reality. Skyrim VR is PS4 exclusive for now, Fallout VR arrives on Steam in a fortnight, and DOOM VFR – well, that’s today. Prepare for Cacovision.
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Son of Scoregasm blasts out today

I haven’t played Scoregasm, but I can describe it in one word – and that’s ‘crisp’. Ok, actually I also need to tell you it’s a top down shooter that might not qualify as bullet hell, but at least counts as bullet limbo. Building up combos enhances your weapon and opens up new levels based on which combo targets you go for, but ‘crisp’ is my main takeaway from what I’ve seen. Your brightly coloured foes stand out against the blackness of the void behind them, and every ‘zap’, ‘plink’ and ‘thunk’ sounds just right.

Scoregasm’s follow-up, Son of Scoregasm, is out today, and you can soak it all in via the trailer below.

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Tough platformer Rain World gets easy mode in beta

The harsh and wet ruins of Rain World are now slightly less harsh (but still just as wet), say developers Videocult. That’s good, that’s real good. In the summer we learned there’d someday be an easier “Monk” mode for anyone struggling with the game’s “disco lizards”, as well as a harder “Hunter” mode for anyone who thought death by a dozen leeches did not come quick enough. Well, it’s here in the form of a beta. (more…)

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Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies gets Minecrafty

No one believes me when I say Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies is fascinating. Nexon’s free-to-play spin-off uses good ol’ CS 1.6 as the foundation for what feels like a self-contained mod scene, throwing in oddities including a base-building cooperative survival mode, humans vs. zombies modes, football, arena boss battles with giant monsters, races, a mode similar to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, and so very many ‘sexy’ ladies. It’s a wide and surprising range of games which often have little in common beyond using CS guns. I have hugely enjoyed wandering from server to server, feeling out what this even is. And now CSNZ has a little bit of Minecraft or perhaps Garry’s Mod, thanks to its new Studio Mode. (more…)

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Legendary Gary is an RPG about an RPG

You know how Gatsby was, in many ways, not all that great? Well, Gary is not legendary. He might be a heroic character in the games that he plays, and he might well discover that he is more important than he knows in his dealings with family and friends, but he is not the stuff of legend.

He is, in fact, a man with a fairly ordinary life who spends his evenings playing a game called Legend of the Spear. It looks a bit like The Banner Saga, with tactical grids and gorgeous graphics. I’d definitely rather spend my days living an ordinary life and my evenings playing Legend of the Spear than spend my days living an ordinary life and my evenings playing Skyrim, so Gary is probably having a better time than 90% of RPG fans I know.

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Asus ROG Swift PG258Q review: 240Hz gaming gone mad

There’s something faintly ridiculous about the Asus ROG Swift PG258Q. Maybe it’s the fact it has a glowing red Asus ROG light coming out of its elevated, three-pronged stand. Maybe it’s the colossal 240Hz refresh rate. Or maybe it’s the price, which most retailers currently have pegged somewhere around the £500 mark (or $513 if you’re in the US). That’s a fair bit of cash for a 25in 1920×1080 screen, especially when the Acer XF270HUA gives you a 27in, 144Hz 2560×1440 display for the same money. Nah, on second thought, it’s definitely the light.

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