Here's a move I pull in most gunfights in Trepang2: slidekick into an enemy, grab them out of mid-air, briefly hold them in front of me as a human shield, only to pull the pin on their vest's grenade and hurl them into a group of their pals, who do try to scatter before this meaty bomb bursts but sadly forget that they also need to avoid me and my shotgun. Often this is all in slow-motion. Trepang2 is unashamedly aiming to be a new F.E.A.R. and does a pretty great job of it for a game made by a core team of only four people (plus external artists and such). Give me a shotgun, a slidekick, and slo-mo, and I'm happy.
]]>A new mod for Elden Ring adds one of the most important things a game can have: a really hefty kick to boot people onto their bums and over edges. This has come with an update to First Person Souls, an impressive mod which gives FromSoftware's game a good first-person camera view. And thanks to the mod's recent update, you can now punt ragdolling baddies across The Lands Between, following in the bootprints of games like Deathloop and Dark Messiah Of Might & Magic.
]]>As our resident walking simulator enthusiast, I was instantly onboard when Alice Bee asked me to play a new game exploring a forest. I'm always up for a wander in the woods. I am a bit of a genre purist so with a name like Sons Of The Forest, I was concerned it might be another of those so-called walking sims that are more concerned with making you listen to a Radio 4 dramatic monologue. Thankfully, no, this is simply a pretty walking simulator exploring an island bustling with wildlife. Here, enjoy this video with some sights from my peaceful strolls.
]]>What's the best thing in video games? Go on, name it. You don't know, do you? Oh sure you might have an opinion on the best game or RPG or FPS or whatever, but what's the very best feature of video games? Reader dear, together we can answer that question. Starting today, join me as I pit feature against feature in wholly logical comparisons until we're left with one perfect thing. Even if I do suspect we'll eventually decide that the answer is orbs.
Let's start with an simple one. What's better: cloud saves, or seeing your own legs in first-person games?
]]>The Resident Evil 2 remake is a blood-soaked good 'un. The infested police station and sewers of Raccoon City have been recreated to bring the 1998 zombie romcom kicking and biting into the present day. Among other polishes, it gets rid of those dated fixed camera angles. The good Capcom boys and girls have given us an over-the-shoulder camera while injecting their survival horror classic with new life. Excellent.
Actually, sod that. Would you not rather play it in first-person mode?
]]>Robert Yang has whipped out his digital loofah to scrub, exfoliate, and polish Rinse And Repeat, his 2015 game about scrubbing the hunky stud you're crushing on in the gym showers. Rinse And Repeat HD is updated with new graphical fanciness and gamepad support (though moving a mouse still seems a more fitting motion for a sponging). And yep, it's still fascinating, still about returning to the digital shower following a real-time daily schedule of gym classes with names like 'Pain Yoga' and 'Combat Pilates', still as thought-provoking as it is funny.
]]>For stags and hens who want their last free nights more dangerous than a stay at Paradise Resort, Vostok Games today launched battle royale 'em up Fear The Wolves into early access. It follows the basic recipe of Playerunknown's Battlegrounds but takes stags and hens to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone with added radiation, anomalies, hungry mutated wolves, and a whole load of jank. Vostok's claim to fame is being founded by some former S.T.A.L.K.E.R. folks from GSC Game World, but Vostok as a studio have only made Survarium and that's no S.T.AL.K.E.R. I've had a quick go and this sure is no S.T.A.L.K.E.R. either.
]]>Take the open-world loot-o-murderhiking of Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, add wacky physics, then sprinkle over a few actually quite good ideas, and you might have something like Totally Accurate Battlegrounds, a game I've been enjoying more than I'd expected. It's janky, wait times for a round are huge, and it won't replace Plunkbat in my heart, but it's free its first few days so hey, you may as well grab it before it costs $5.
It's also one of the few games containing my three favourite FPS features: mixed-weapon dual wielding; seeing your own legs and body when you look down; and physics so goofy that you can boost yourself by jumping then firing at the ground.
]]>Playerunknown's Battlegrounds [official site] will soon start rolling out a mode locking all players to the first-person view, coming with this month's big 'Monthly' update. The splendid 100-man rumble lets players switch between first-person and third-person cameras with the press of a button, see, and some dislike how the third-person view lets players peek around corners and into places they couldn't otherwise see. For those folks who fancy a stricter challenge, the new servers will block that. It'll initially be available in Plunkbat's Solo and Duo modes, rolling out to full Squad mode later.
]]>It's been ages since we last visited the Twin Peaks-inspired-ish first-person vignette 'em up Virginia [official site] but whoa hey hello, here's a release date and a demo out of nowhere. The demo is about twenty minutes long, offering a taste of life as a '90s FBI agent investigating a missing child in a small town and answering basic questions like "Okay but what is it and what do I do?" That is now answered for me and so I'm quite looking forward to its full launch on September 22nd.
]]>It's late in the year, but between Shower With Your Dad Simulator 2015, Metal Gear Solid V, and now Robert Yang's Rinse and Repeat [official site], might 2015 become known as The Year of the Video Game Shower? Maybe. You know. It could happen.
A game about scrubbing a hunk in a gym shower, Rinse and Repeat is the latest in Yang's fascinating series of free sex games exploring physical intimacy, boundaries, body image, gay male culture, and waiting. It's also his second Twitch have banned.
]]>I never knew how much I wanted games to have a button to let me forward-roll whenever I jolly well pleased, and now I don't want to leave Lemma [official site]. AND! You can look down to see your arms and legs and body. If you're a bitter cynic who demands more than SEEING LEGS! then I suppose the first-person parkour with mantling, wall-running, and wall-jumping might please you. Or the voxelicious world which materialises walls and platforms as if by magic as you run.
Lemma launched yesterday, and has a demo you can give a whirl.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
No, not that one. The other one. Yes, the FPS. EA trying to resurrect Bullfrog's top-down tactical series as an FPS was obviously going to rile up the people it was supposed to excite, but ignore the name. It's a pleasant spot of face-shooting in a sumptuous cyberpunk world of gleaming clean lines and filthy neon. I don't remember much of the campaign, but writing this has me wanting to dive back into the co-op.
]]>An oversized revolver, a chunky pump-action shotgun, a bolt-action rifle, and seeing my own legs: the four things I most want to see in first-person games. Perhaps the first three wouldn't fit too cleanly into Portal 2 but that fourth, yes, certainly! And joy of joys, a new mod has added that very feature, so I spent half an hour this morning running around staring at Chell's toes as if the mod turned Valve's puzzle-platformer into Kyphosis Simulator 2014.
I suppose technically the 'main feature' in the Thinking with Time Machine mod is a time machine which'll have you creating time loops to solve puzzles with the aid of your past self, which is great and all but look, LEGS.
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