Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I once went back to a gathering after a friend-of-a-friend’s metal gig that I distinctly remember not because of either the party or the show, but because we drunkenly went to a big Tesco afterwards to get snacks. I also distinctly remember making a not-completely serious but also somewhat true statement at the party about how that Tesco trip was the most fun I’d had in months, after which one of the metal men sneered at me. I felt self conscious at the time, but I’ve since grown comfortable enough with myself to realise that the metal man was a joyless fool, and going to big supermarkets is at least as fun as going to average metal gigs. There is nothing a drop D power chord can evoke in me that compares to the feeling of blurrily espying a chocolate trifle in the reduced to clear section. So I wish to bring your attention to Supermarket Times.

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I don’t have a lot of interest in VR these days, but I do have an interest in the beautifully realised miniature doings of your villagers in Manor Lords, the city builder that is currently rather popular on noted purveyor of ye finest interactive entertainments Steam – and which now has unofficial VR support care of Flat2VR and Praydog’s UEVR.

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Bethesda Games Studios are thinking about how they can release games more frequently while still ensuring that they have a healthy audience for years, the Elder Scrolls company’s king wizard Todd Howard has remarked in an interview with Kinda Funny, from which Alice B has already scientifically extracted some titbits about forthcoming Starfield expansion Shattered Space.

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The debate on whether sticking the word ‘space’ in front of something instantly makes it better rages eternal with the heat of a thousand space-air fryers, but the yaysayers are at least victorious in the case of retro-futuristic RPG Beyond Galaxyland, in which turn-based combat is aided by your pal Boom Boom, who is a space hamster with a gun and a little waistcoat. I like this creature , but honestly, you could replace them with a sentient bin bag, and I’d be happy. With pixel art this vibrant and detailed, I reckon even a bulging sack of coffee ground and banana peels would be worth adventuring with. Don’t do it, though. It’s a good guinea pig.

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Trailered last night, Centum is “an unreliable narrative-driven adventure where everything may be a lie”, according to the Steam page. Does the suggestion that everything may be a lie also apply to the suggestion itself? Is this an unreliable Steam page? Perhaps the game is secretly a cheerful Playmobile platformer with plentiful ledge-assist, rather than a horrible point-and-clicker that starts you off in a dark cell with a bunch of obviously cursed artefacts, and gets steadily worse.

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Dungeons of Hinterberg’s alpine mix of dungeon-crawling and relationship-tending will be upon us this summer, with the fetching cel-shaded blend of Zelda and Persona now having a fresh release date announcement for July. Before then, though, we’ll all be able to spend a couple of days socialising and monster-slaying in the Alps next month thanks to a public playtest.

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If you’re holding out hope for another Ori and the Blind Forest sequel after Will of the Wisps, bad news: it’s probably going to be a while. Developers Moon Studios have said they’re all-in on Soulslike action–RPG No Rest for the Wicked, suggesting that their “magnum opus” will be their focus for up to a decade.

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Distinguishing one metroidvania from another is a dicey challenge, and not just because there’s a 37.8% chance that saying the word “metroidvania” will cause RPS regular Sin Vega to materialise in the mirror and assassinate you with cheesewire. Metroidvanias stand apart for me only in hindsight – it’s all about the precise ratio of abilities to ability gates, of jump-doublers to overhangs, all things that take time to assess properly. Echo Weaver sets itself apart early, however, by declaring that “time is your currency” and that “when faced with eternity, knowledge is the only gear you need”, a phrase that, admittedly, I would probably have extended to “…oh, and a spacetime-folding glaive that works like a throwable fast travel point”.

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Last week Dan Henderson, a former product manager at PC water-cooling manufacturer EK Water Blocks, made a public post on LinkedIn, in which he described almost four months of no pay, and being “strong armed and bullied into signing a new contract through fear of losing my job and also financial ruin.” He also accused the company – one of the biggest in the space – of “blatant racism…psychological manipulation, plain bare faced lying, [and] severe unprofessionalism.”

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Well, this was unexpected. Malakai Makaisson is the single best campaign experience I’ve had since strategy game Total War: Warhammer 3 launched, and might just be up there with some of the best in the series’ history. That’s over ninety lords he’s given both barrels to getting here and, honestly, I wasn’t sure Creative Assembly still had it in them. Not the talent, mind, just the passion. And nothing says passion like the amber mohawk of a furious dwarf quivering in the wake of a shakily-built zeppelin’s explosive payload. Warhammer!

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