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The reboot of TimeSplitters started life as a “clone” of Fortnite’s battle royale mode before becoming a remake of TimeSplitters 2, according to a former developer at recently shuttered studio Free Radical Design.
Elden Ring expansion Shadow of the Erdtree might see a release date in February – just in time for the game’s second anniversary – if an accidental retailer leak is to be believed.
Video game actor James McCaffrey, whose roles included the iconic voice of Max Payne and Alex Casey in this year’s Alan Wake 2, has passed away.
Multiplayer shooters have become defined in recent years by the methods they use to withhold power from players, whether that’s a hero shooter’s unlocks and battle pass or a survival shooter’s vast map of scattered goodies. Even before these systems became du jour, however, shooters often required you to be good at them before you unlocked their real pleasures, whether by perfecting your rocket timing in Quake or memorising level layouts in Counter-Strike.
The Finals‘ real master stroke, I think, is that it has found a design that lets it be generous with power – even while containing an unlock system, a battle pass, and a not insignificant skill floor. Those things aren’t an obstacle between you and the childish joy of smashing the world to bits.
We’ve reached another day on our Advent Calendar, shipmates! Yo ho ho and a bottle of stealth!
It’s the last week before the Xmas break, and the grapevine runneth dry. Soon, we will commence the annual Engluttification ceremony, a ritual of banishment in which we feed the Maw our entire Steam wishlists while singing an arcane carol of our own devising, Nth Days of Solstice, in which the famous partridge in the pear tree has Twice-Twenty Wings, and on each Wing I saw an Eye, verily, and a Mouth rejoicing for lo, the Great Catch-Up Period has come. But before that, there is still a little more News to cover.
Some games we’re keeping under surveillance before we flee the premises: surreal turn-based RPG Entogious (18th Dec), construction-minded endless runner Project Bridge (18th Dec), 90s-style RPG Prophecy of the Shadow (19th Dec).
Time for day seventeen on the 2023 Advent Calendar! What’s Christmas without a bit of nostalgia, eh?
Stealth tactics ’em up Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is an “all-time treasure”, according to Katharine’s review, and it has to be given that developers Mimimi announced their closure almost immediately after its release.
This might help extend its life closer towards eternity: as a “very final parting gift”, Mimimi have released a modding tool that lets players create their own missions and stories.
The nominees for the public-voted Steam Awards have been announced and they are, perhaps more than ever before, baffling to me. If I was being uncharitable, I’d say that’s because the list is overrun by games with large multiplayer communities that can be encouraged to vote for them – but who would want to be uncharitable? Let’s instead say that the list is certainly not boring, even if Starfield gets a nod for “most innovative gameplay”.
We come to the sixteenth door of the advent calendar, but unfortunately it’s quite far up above you. You’re going to have to climb.
