Wot I Think: Just Cause 3

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.

… [visit site to read more]

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun http://ift.tt/1jvvNpZ
via ifttt

Elite: Dangerous Horizons Beta Now Roaming Planets

Beta access opened tonight for the first phase of the planet-roaming Elite: Dangerous [official site] expansion Horizons, which I believe is for folks who pre-ordered.

“Aha! But Alice,” you say, in a snide tone of voice that you know makes people want to twat you in the nose but makes you feel so clever, “I thought you said never to pre-order? I distinctly recall you saying that several times.” Very good, clever clogs, so you get the biggest treat of all: watching Elite head honch David Braben prepare to die of asphyxiation on a lonely moon:

… [visit site to read more]

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun http://ift.tt/1jvdZLF
via ifttt

Premature Evaluation: Sketch Tales

Each week Marsh Davies turfs through the crude doodles of Early Access and comes back with any masterpieces-in-the-making he can find and/or amends his discoveries with an enthusiastically rendered dick or two. This week there is ample opportunity to append such appendages in Sketch Tales, a firstperson hack-n-slash in which you’re encouraged to re-draw and animate everything on the island you inhabit. I’m guessing the name “Tales from Penis Island” didn’t make it past Steam’s terms of service.

… [visit site to read more]

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun http://ift.tt/1jve1Db
via ifttt

Why I Hate Fallout 4’s Stupid Dog

I’m not very far into Fallout 4. I’ve mostly been pottering around with it, trying to find useful things to report to you, YOU, my favourite reader. So I’ve yet to gain any other companions than Dogmeat, the stupid idiot Alsatian. I hate him.

… [visit site to read more]

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun http://ift.tt/1l39Mkf
via ifttt

How To Make Sensible Soccer Interesting Again

Sensible Soccer was my favourite game when I was a kid. I still own an old Sensible World of Soccer Amiga disk, which I keep as a memento of childhood like a favoured cuddly toy. But I have no interest in playing that game, anymore. If I did, I could play the 2007 XBLA release, and if I wanted an indie attempt to recreate the experience I could play Natural Soccer, Active Soccer 2, Super Soccer Champs, Kopanito All-Stars Soccer, Super Arcade Football or a dozen others.

So let’s try to come up with something more interesting. Let’s come up with some tenets for redesigning Sensible Soccer.

… [visit site to read more]

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun http://ift.tt/1TgG5ql
via ifttt

I Kind Of Miss The Tech War

The slow-down of PC tech has left a strange hollow in my life. If you’re older than a tiny baby, you’ll remember the days when your PC was perpetually on the verge of not being able to play the current crop of games no matter how frequently you upgraded it. Now, my PC insides are a couple of years old, and playing everything on maximum. This is, I think on balance, a good thing. But there are downsides to it too.

… [visit site to read more]

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun http://ift.tt/1Q97sTU
via ifttt

What Makes A Videogame House A Videogame Home?

Oh boy, am I conflicted. Fallout 4’s main plotline requires that I do this thing and as far as things go, it’s a pretty major thing and a major thing that you’d expect someone with the maternal instinct of my character Halle to crack on with straight away. The trouble is, rather than doing this major thing, for at least an hour now, she, and when I say ‘she’, I mean ‘I’, have been poking around Sanctuary, scrapping anything that glows yellow so I can salvage enough materials to build a house big enough for me and my Minutemen companions. I had largely avoided Bethesda’s drip-feed of Fallout 4 pre-publicity but when I somehow found out that the game had settlement building, I think I might have involuntarily passed a little wind in joyous anticipation.

That’s because I’ve felt a similar rosy inner glow while hanging around other hubs and houses in many other games I’ve played. I think it’s easy to underestimate the value of having a ‘home’ base option, especially in open world games where there is a free-roaming element, but it’s a part of why I love certain games.

… [visit site to read more]

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun http://ift.tt/1OAfqU8
via ifttt