The Last Jedi is worth your time. Not just as a good Star Wars film, but as a fun, beautifully made adventure that sets the stage for the series to come. It has flaws, but the sum of the many parts is worth the whole experience.
Shadow of War is a game that demands the player’s attention. It is brash and loud, hurrying the player along a path of constant engagement Not a moment goes by without a prompt or an icon or a mission or an encounter with enemies. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I’ve had a great deal of fun playing, but it is utterly exhausting.
Even to this day, I’m still kind of stunned that Machine Games Wolfenstein: The New Order is quite this well written and designed as a game. Wolfenstein is the literal grandaddy of shooting games. You are B.J Blascowicz. A man with a gun, shooting from the first person.You shoot Nazis. Till there are no more. Sometimes the Nazis have magic, sometimes super science, sometimes both. You shoot them till they fall over.
Rust is an online only, always active survival game where your player character is random and fixed and the world is full of other players who want to ruin your day. Yet it’s a game that I’ve sunk hundreds of hours into, and it is fascinating to play.
Let’s get it out of the way. LA Noire is not a game for everyone. The story is cliched, oddly paced and tropey. The incredibly expensive facial recognition tech is somewhat let down by the clunky dialogue system. But in spite of all that, it does a fantastic job of capturing the feel of being at the heart of Noir Detective stories. Even Better, LA Noire is a perfect game to play with a group of friends. Following the clues, making connections and catching lying witnesses out is better with company
Heat Signature is a fascinating exercise in how well and how quickly you can improvise. You’ll be given a problem to solve. You’ll have a very short time to solve it. You’ll have a limited set of tools. You’re going to come up with some very fun solutions. Or die trying.
Absolver is an online 3D fighting game. In this game the moveset is created by the players, the fights are gorgeous and fluid and it’s all wrapped in a paintstroke aesthetic.
Nidhogg 2, from Messhof, is a 2D duelling game that is built around multi-player combat. Specifically, Nidhogg shines when being played with friends. Whether it’s local couch Co-op or online, fighting against a person you know creates a wonderful experience as you try to best each other in this superb duelling game.
Tacoma is a story you know, in a place you don’t. The characters are familiar and real, but the setting is literally otherworldly. It is the story of ordinary people in an extraordinary situation. Tacoma is a first person interactive drama from Fullbright. You play as corporate worker named Amyitjyoti (Amy) Ferrier. You’ve been sent to gather the Onboard Management AI from the abandoned Tacoma Space station. You’ve been hired to go and gather all the recordings of the crew, to find out what happened to cause the station to stop functioning a few days ago.
Kingdoms and Castles is a charmingly cute medieval city building indie game from Lion Shield Studios that also features tower defence elements.
