Never leave a Broforce bro behind
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Yesterday was for getting up to my eyeballs in the carcasses of slaughtered Saxons; today is for hanging out with some bros while making things go boom. There might be other loud noises that aren’t allowed in libraries. I’ve taken a break from gorging and slightly melted chocolate eggs to play some of the Broforce beta. Brobeta.
Free Lives’ 2D action platformer is the ultimate crossover. It’s the Wold Newton Universe of ‘80s and ‘90s action heroes, from Robocop to Judge Dredd. And it’s as explosive as you’d expect given its roster of bros who’ve taken out terrorist groups single-handedly, waged one-man wars and defeated legions of Deadites.
Underneath the silliness and nostalgia, though, I think it might actually be bloody brilliant. Clever in all sorts of ways that you’d never expect from a game with a set up that isn’t far off The Expendables. Most impressively, Broforce is a game of instant gratification that never lets up; where the action keeps on escalating and lulls don’t exist.
Prisonscape will have you shanking your first gang leader in no time
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I’ve not been to prison yet but when I do go I like to think years of rewatching Oz and The Shawshank Redemption will have adequately prepared me for penal life. If you want a more interactive guide, however, then you should take a look at Prisonscape.
It’s already taught me a few new tricks. (I didn’t know you had to take turns in prison fights and move around in a grid.)
Silence is (too) deadly: Riot explain crowd control nerfs in League of Legends
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There’s a suite of abilities in League of Legends that falls under the old, unnervingly-named MMO umbrella of crowd control. Though kettling is mercifully unimplemented, effects like Silence offer a modicum of control over the opposing team.
Too much control, in some cases. Riot have lately stripped three champions of their silencing prowess - and lead designer Ryan Scott is on hand to explain why.
Noah's lark: Cat Simulator to be the "premiere next-gen cat simulation"
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Given the growing popularity of agricultural experiences on Steam, the relative dearth of realistic animal simulators - from the other side of the fence, as it were - is somewhat surprising. Here’s another, though. To Shelter’s harrowing portrayal of badger parenthood, and Goat Simulator’s tale of a misunderstood monster, add Cat Simulator - “the world’s first next-gen cat simulation”.
Codies talk GRID Autosport - an "authentic" racer to "move the series back in line"
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Codemasters have emerged from beneath the company car, oil-smeared but grinning. This new Codies is more responsive - and more amenable to flipping open its bonnet at a moment’s notice if something’s not right. Hence GRID Autosport - out on PC between June 24 and 27 this year.
“When you’re making games, you always have to make choices - which features to include, what emphasis to put on various aspects of gameplay,” said the devs of the series’ last iteration, GRID 2.
“Even if we had unlimited resources (we don’t by the way!) there’s always people who are going to be disappointed. And we’re obviously aware, that some of you were. We’re not ok with that.”
The Curse of Icewind Dale to take Neverwinter players beyond Infinity from May 13
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I don’t think Emotional Geography is an academically-recognised field, but a decade of games dotted along the Sword Coast has infused some of its locations with mushy feels.
Neverwinter? Pleasantly temperate, but ultimately a bit wet. Baldur’s Gate? Earthy, filled with potential. Icewind Dale? A little cold for its lack of dialogue, but undeniably spine-tingling.
That fact hasn’t escaped Cryptic Studios, still plotting the map for their growing MMO. They’ve decamped to the yeti-bothered peaks for Neverwinter’s third expansion.
Why Triumph returned to Age of Wonders (and PC-only development)
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We like Age of Wonders, yes we do. Our Fraser fancied the pants off it at length in his Age of Wonders 3 review. But Triumph seemed to go off the series for a clean decade there, preferring instead the cheeky, console-friendly RTS charms of Overlord and its sequel.
So, er, what was that about guys?
Dragon Age: Inquisition to lob demons from the sky beginning October 7
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Dragon Age: Inquisition is aptly named. It feels like the result of an internal investigation at BioWare: into how Dragon Age II’s streamlining squad managed to cut quite so close to the bone; into why the team abandoned the cleverly-scripted encounter design that had served them so well since Baldur’s Gate; into where their mojo went.
The appearance of a firm, final release date suggests they’ve found satisfactory answers to all of those questions - as does this all-too-short trailer.
Hazard Ops is a cover shooter that forefronts all the rocket-wielding dinosaurs Gears forgot
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Let’s dissect that name, then: the ‘Ops’ part is there to point out that this is a third-person cover shooter, in the grandest of traditions. And the ‘Hazard’ part? That denotes the zombies, the monsters, the robots, the mutants, the mummies, the “angry dudes”, the “totally pissed” demons, the spontaneously-exploding zombie dogs, the “really big ass” robots, the bone-crushing traps, the rocket-wielding dinosaurs, and the “ghost bitches on high heels”.
Yep: that sounds fairly hazardous.
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