"We tried something different": Looking back on SiN Episodes: Emergence, the Valve-backed shooter that tried and failed to kick off an age of episodic gaming

On May 10, 2006, Ritual Entertainment released SiN Episodes: Emergence, the first of nine episodes set in the sci-fi megalopolis of Freeport City. Backed by Valve and launched on Steam just a month before Valve's own Half-Life 2: Episode 1, the game felt like it was the start of something new. Ritual even had Gabe Newell singing their significance, saying in Emergence's launch day press release that "With the release of SiN Episodes: Emergence Ritual is leading the industry's long overdue migration to producing episodic content."

Valve famously released just two Half-Life episodes before stalling. Ritual only ever managed one.

But, as I learned when talking to some of its creators, SiN Episodes: Emergence is much more than a hiccup in the history of gaming, it was a title torn between the old publishing traditions of the 90s and newly emerging technologies of the 00s. They also told me about the time they "faked the shit out of" all the screenshots for a PC Gamer exclusive.

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The Sunday Papers

Sundays are, and apologies in advance for the less-fun-than-average intro, for peeling back the layers of the smelly legal onion that is scattering pet ashes in the UK. The government’s Regulatory Position Statement (or RPS – no relation) suggests this is only easily done on property you already own, which makes things tricky for my flat leasehold – if you’re unfamiliar with this term, it’s a bit like what Steam is to games, in that I don’t technically own jack shit. My willingness to sneakily spread Roxy, who I’m more pleased to report went to sleep while blissfully stoned, across a nearby garden has also been sapped by the knowledge that ashes are highly alkaline, and could thus kill weaker plants and grasses. Shame, really. She loved destroying things.

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AlteredBlood+ is a movement shooter set at the end of the universe where the key to survival is soaking up your enemies' blood

The year is 3232 CE, a "self-replicating megastructure" named MOTHER is launched into the centre of space. Fast forward to the year 4,199,245,344,263,242,348,389,893,582,349,373 CE (no I'm not joking), and MOTHER has "consumed 99.99999997% of the Observable Universe." What's left of humanity hangs on in that tiny percentage that hasn't be consumed, which is where you, a Reaper, a creation of MOTHER's, steps in as part of AlteredBlood+, a movement-FPS platformer where the blood of your enemies is your strength. Also you're a furry!

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Europa Universalis 5's latest patch notes took up 72 pages on a Google Doc so I think it might be a big one

The latest patch for Europa Universalis 5 dropped earlier this week. Numbered 1.2 and titled Echinades, it is the game's "biggest update yet," as true a sounding statement as can be given that the patch notes come out to apparently 72 pages in a Google Doc. I don't have time to read all of that! So I won't, but I will tell you about the highlights kindly outlined by Paradox Tinto that feature in this update.

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Psychonauts developer Double Fine are the latest Microsoft-owned studio to unionise

Some good news for the day: indie developer behind the cult classic psychic platformer Psychonauts and more Double Fine are unionising. As spotted by Aftermath, a petition was filed by the Microsoft-owned studio to the National Labor Relations board on May 7th, and are doing so with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), following suit from a number of other developers owned by the tech giant.

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What are we all playing this weekend?

I really thought I'd be done with the decorating this week, but it continues. I have at least got all of the cabinets back on the walls, the larder unit painted and assembled, and regained ready access to the fridge. No more cheese sandwiches for a while, I pray. I'm in the last stretch. I need to touch up all the paintwork where I've left fingerprints and scratches, screw on all the door knobs, and then clean away all the paint stains on the floor and countertops.

I am so close to having a kitchen I can cook in again. I can almost taste it.

But, enough about my slow decorating, let's talk videogames. What are the team playing this weekend?

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Give yourself vampirism with a mortar and pestle in Dracula: The Disciple, an alchemist's castle puzzler from Styx devs Cyanide

Many are those who stray before Vlad the Impaler seeking eternal life as a vampire. Poor, ignorant cattle! Immortality is a goblet of ashes, a bouquet of thorns, an endless stairway among the fading portraits of bygone loves. Besides, you have to solve a bunch of alchemy puzzles first, and if I'm interpreting the announcement materials for Dracula: The Disciple correctly, you might only get halfway there and transform into a normal dude with a gross undead hand.

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