4A Games addresses Metro Redux pricing concerns: "vote with your wallets"

In the world of video games it's just one outrage after another until you just wish Flanders was dead.

In the world of video games it's just one outrage after another until you just wish Flanders was dead. This time people are upset about the pricing for 4A Games' forthcoming Metro Reduxpackage, which includes both Metro: 2033and Metro: Last Light. The former is a huge overhaul of the 2010 original, while the latter doesn't differ greatly from the 2013 shooter, though all DLC is bundled.

Of course, people who already own both games aren't happy that they'll need to pay again, despite 4A Games offering a 50 per cent discount to those who have either game in their Steam library. The controversy got so heated in the Steam discussion forums that it prompted a "blindsided" 4A Games to release a (rather lengthy) statement justifying the price.

"Almost the entire team of around 80 people at 4A Games will have been working on the Metro Redux titles for almost a year by the time we release next month," the statement read. "It has been a substantial project for the studio, with three main elements."

The studio went on to list the substantial new features, including engine additions such as global illumination and terrain tessellation, among other tweaks. Metro: Last Light will get some "minor" new features like a Check Watch and Check Inventory, as well as a whole new game mode. Finally, transferring Metro 2033 to the new engine, along with the new content and assets, was no small feat.

"We think the 50% discount is more than fair for the amount of work that has gone into this title," the statement continued. "It is a complete remake of the original game in the latest engine, that will offer a significantly different experience from the original throughout with improved graphics, performance and gameplay."

The studio's full statement is over on the Steam forum. A before and after trailerreleased last week, showing how the new edition will size up next to the old games.

Mortal Online Expands its Borders With Sarducaa

Swedish developer Star Vault has enjoyed great success with Mortal Online .

. Set in an open, realistically designed world, Mortal Online is free to play and described by its creators as “a next generation MMORPG both in terms of graphics and gameplay.” Adventurers partake in real-time combat and make hardcore decisions about the future of their character. With a wide range of races and professions from which to choose, players can discover new parts of the world, or simply concentrate on ruling their own small (or not-so-small) portion of it.

Now, they’re excited to announce to both longtime fans and new players that the long-awaited expansion is ready for launch. Sarducaa expands the game world by more than double its original size, introducing an entirely new continent – the eponymous Sarducaa – to be explored. The new location contains tons of new NPCs and settlements, plus dungeons to canvass, armors and weapons to acquire, and of course new monsters and enemies to destroy. It will also introduce new styles of landscape not previously found in the game, such as jungles and deserts, along with the natural dangers present in such environments.

Along with more than 300 new items to collect and plenty of other new treats, the Sarducaa expansion comes complete with a variety of bug fixesthat will make the game run smoother. Certain areas have been improved both aesthetically and structurally. A new world-chest system, called World Loot, has been installed to improve the process of looting. The game also now includes new and enhanced mechanics, such as improvements to the enemy AI to make their behavior more challenging, and player characters will experience other new challenges such as heat exhaustion. The developers have even expanded the game’s soundtrack, adding five new tracks.

Mortal Online has been Greenlit on Steam, and Star Vault hopes it will be available there soon. New explorers are invited to visit the website and set up their free account, and also to get to know seasoned veterans in the game forums. There is also plenty to be learned from the game’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTubeaccounts, and by reviewing the guild territory mapwhich is generated through player activity. As the developers ask: Do you have what it takes?

Homeworld Remastered 2.0 patch is coming next week

Gearbox has announced that the big Homeworld: Remastered patch we learned about last month , which will bring both games in the package to version 2.0, will be out on June 7.

, which will bring both games in the package to version 2.0, will be out on June 7. Patch notes haven't been released, but Gearbox programmer Dave E. said in a message posted on the Gearbox forumsthat the new systems and tools should enable mod makers to “do some really exciting stuff.”

“I equally hope that Mod authors see value in taking time to refine their gameplay and design decisions with respect to what we've added/changed,” he wrote. “'Old' choices run the very large risk of making no sense given the way systems in this patch interoperate. A major gameplay Mod that ends up in the public hands before... I dunno, August? Is probably rushed and an unbalanced mess; or just loaded with edge-cases and exploits. That, or many features have been gutted and systems neutered to reduce the complexity of their workload.”

Fists of Heavenposted a good breakdown of what the patch will change, and as befits its 2.0 designation, the list is significant. Highlights include reworked formations that will more intelligently handle mixes of different ship types, an overhaul of projectile-based weaponry, improved targeting and tactics, and various bug fixes, tweaks, and balance changes. If and when Gearbox does release a full changelog, we'll toss it up here for your viewing pleasure. In the meantime, here are a few screens to remind you that the majestic void of space is a beautiful and terrifying thing.

Metro Redux trailer lays out big changes in post-apocalypse Moscow

It may be premature to declare that before-and-after comparison videos are all the rage, but hot on the heels of yesterday's Project CARS trailer comes something similar for the upcoming Metro Redux .

. Major visual updates to both Metro 2033and Metro: Last Lightare at the top of the menu, but there's a lot more to it than just a new coat of paint.

The video initially focuses on visual improvements to the console versions of the games, which will now be able to provide the same level of visual fidelity as a high-spec PC on the originals. Contemporary high-end PCs will still have the advantage in Redux, however, through support for 4K resolution and a wide array of graphical enhancements.

But the really interesting stuff is happening under the hood. The AI is improved, and features that were previously exclusive to Last Light, including better stealth gameplay, weapon customization and non-lethal takedowns, will also appear in 2033. New secrets, hidden areas and encounters have been added, and previously separate locations have been "seamlessly stitched together." Two new play modes have been added, Spartan and Survival, and Ranger mode is now available in both games.

I was a pretty big fan of the Metro games when they were new, so I was sold on the Redux release pretty much from the moment I heard about it; if it's possible, I think I'm ever more sold now. Metro Redux launches on August 26.

PSA: ‘Chopper Mike’ Free For Today Only Via Amazon

Just a quick one here, but a worthwhile one nonetheless!

Chopper Mike by VAMflax is free for one day only on Android if you grab it via Amazon. The game is a lovely-looking 3D helicopter-based time trialler. 3D movement on touchscreens is often a struggle, but the developer has been very keen to emphasise how well the controls work in Chopper Mike. Furthermore, the quality of control has also been talked up by major sites such as IGN.

There’s no excuse not to pick it up right now, as it won’t cost you a penny. Pick it up via Amazon.

Obviously there's going to be another Borderlands," says Gearbox

"Obviously there's going to be another Borderlands," says Gearbox
Good, if entirely unshocking news: there's going to be another Borderlands.

Good, if entirely unshocking news: there's going to be another Borderlands. Gearbox CEO and president Randy Pitchford confirmed as much at the ongoing PAX East, stating in no uncertain terms that "it's no secret, obviously there's going to be another Borderlands".

According to Eurogamer, who attended the PAX East Panel, Gearbox will be developing the new game (2K Australia made the most recent game, The Pre-Sequel), while Gearbox's Mikey Neumann will be writing it, and Battleborn art director Scott Kester will assume the same role for Borderlands 3.

If it's even called Borderlands 3. Pitchford added that "we don't even know if we're going to call it that. We could call it Borderlands 4 for all we know." May I suggest 'Borderlands: Origins - Requiem'?

We already knew there was going to be another Borderlands way back in Januaryof last year, but it's good to hear a bit more about it, and hear confirmation that's it's still in the pipeline.

Gearbox is currently more concerned with Battleborn, which is set to release in just over a week.

4A Games opens new studio, working on another Metro and unannounced projects

I am just now catching up with Metro: Last Light and am beating myself up for not picking it up earlier.

and am beating myself up for not picking it up earlier. 4A Games' post-apocalyptic, subterranean world feels much bigger than what any one game could explore, which is why I'm happy to hear it's opening a new studio and working on more Metro games.

4A, which is based in Ukraine, announced that it's new studio will be based in Malta. "By basing our new headquarters in Malta, a member state of the EU, 4A Games will be able to better compete on the international stage" CEO and Head of Business Dean Sharpe said. "Malta offers fantastic incentives for game development, and we are confident 4A Games will be able to attract the very best talent from Ukraine, Malta and beyond."

4A said that Creative Director and Co-Founder Andrew Prokhorov and Chief Technical Officer Oles Shishkovstov will relocate to Malta, and continue to recruit for both the Malta and Ukraine studios as they expand.

Best of all, 4A also confirmed that it continues to work “on unannounced titles within the Metro universe as well as further, unannounced projects, powered by their cutting edge proprietary tech, the 4A Engine.”

That 4A Engine is really amazing, by the way. If you haven't played Metro: Last Light, you should at least watch a video of it captured with dangerously powerful Large Pixel Collider.

Elite Dangerous: Horizons beta heads planetside

The beta for Elite Dangerous : Horizons is now available to play for those of you secure enough in your love of space trucking to have stumped up £50 / $60 or who happen to be premium beta or alpha backers.

: Horizons is now available to play for those of you secure enough in your love of space trucking to have stumped up £50 / $60 or who happen to be premium beta or alpha backers. If that's not you, Horizons is a new 'season' of expansions for Frontier's galaxy, starting with Planetary Landing. True to simulated form, that means wrestling with gravity, gliding, not planting your ship in a cliff face and disturbing the virgin landscape in a surface recon vehicle called the Scarab.

It's mainly rocks and ice for now, but we had a wordwith director David Braben earlier this year and apparently they'll be joined by Earth-like water worlds down the line, all generated according to real astrophysical principles.

Frontier does look to be sweating a bit under the weight of the demand, with many hopeful testers reporting monstrous download times or finding that servers are refusing to provide them with the Horizons installer. Frontier's Twitter feedis alive with updates, though, and there's hope that things will ease once the initial rush is over. Here are some screenshots of the beta to tuck into in the meantime.

Leap Motion joins hands with Epic to offer official UE4 plugin

Newsbrief: There's an official Unreal Engine 4 plugin for the Leap Motion gesture controller out this week that developers can access via the Unreal Engine 4.7 source code repository on GitHub.

While Unreal developers have been experimenting with the Leap Motion since its release (an unofficial UE4 Leap Motion pluginhas existed for months), collaborating with Epic to bring official support for the controller to UE4 is a notable step forward for the folks at Leap Motion.

To promote how the controller might be used in a typical UE4 game, Leap Motion has been showcasing footage (embedded above) of Cherry Pie Games' Hollow, a Sleepy Hollow-inspired ghostly hayride sim that was entered in Leap Motion's 3D game jamlast October.

Metro: Last Light will come bundled with Steam Machine prototypes

Steam Machines are coming soon.

are coming soon. Very soon. In fact, they're supposed to come as soon as early 2014. Even sooner than that, however, Valve will send out a prototype of its own designto 300 randomly-selected users for beta testing and it announced a game to come bundled with those prototypes for SteamOS testing.

4A's post-apocalyptic survival horror gem, Metro: Last Light, will be that game. After a May release date on Windows in May of this year, the game landed on Linux and Mac earlier this week. Considering that Linux is the basis for SteamOS, the operating system that Valve plans to release early next year, it was already at least partially primed to work on a Steam Machine.

The entire catalog of Linux-compatible Steam games should be available to play on SteamOS when it launches next year. Although that currently includes just around 200 games, there will be no shortage of games to play if you switch to the OS. You can always manually add non-Steam games into your Steam library and SteamOS will be able to play non-Linux games. But with Metro and the recently-announced Linux version of Total War: Rome IIthat will also be compatible with the Steam Controller, we can count two more relatively high profile additions to the Linux slate.

Elite: Dangerous Horizons video offers work-in-progress footage of Europa

The Elite: Dangerous Horizons beta was meant to kick off on November 24, but due to some last minute setbacks Frontier Developments had to push the date back.

Horizons beta was meant to kick off on November 24, but due to some last minute setbacks Frontier Developments had to push the date back. It's expected to open up on November 30 now – or December 1 in Australia – according to David Braben writing in the Elite forums. In the meantime, he's Braben has uploaded some footage of planetary landings, specifically some orbital cruise around Europa.

"Here is another unedited video, this time showing some orbital cruise around Europa, then docking at Haberlandt Survey on the surface," reads the description. "Sub-surface scattering is not working on the ice, and a few other things that will be improved."

Braben also uploaded a shorter video showing Europa from orbit, with the ship transferring from supercruise into orbital cruise. A specific release date for Horizons has yet to be confirmed, but it'll be during 2016. Check out Andy Kelly's impressions on the expansion.

Threes Review – Math Without the Math

Threes is the new iOS puzzle game by PuzzleJuice developer Asher Vollmer, featuring an immediate, addicting charm.

developer Asher Vollmer, featuring an immediate, addicting charm. With graphics by Greg Wohlwend (of Ridiculous Fishing , Hundreds , and Juicejuice too), Threes earned an honorable mention for Excellence in Design at 2014’s IGF awards, and is the kind of game that you come to for the art-style, but stay for the gameplay. With a core design aimed towards accessibility, Threes provides a simplistic yet intelligent game for players of all types.

The main mechanic is simple: addition. The screen is a four by four grid randomly filled with a selection of empty spaces and cards which bear either the number 1, 2, or a multiple of 3. Swiping the screen up or down will slide the existing columns and rows in the respective direction by one grid, and a new card will enter the screen at the tail end of each move. If obstructed by either a wall or another card, a moving card will then come to a halt—unless the two have a matching number. When paired, the numbers on the two matching cards will add together and become one card, just like in third grade math class. Two cards with 3s will squish together and become a single 6 card, two 6s become a 12, and so on. The two exceptions to the rule are the 1 and 2 cards which can only add to each other in order to become a three. If the screen fills up and the player can no longer add any numbers, the game is over. While the core mechanic is simple, Threes manages to create both a complex, thinking man’s game, as well as an enjoyable one for the more casual player. It’s Bejeweled meets Minesweeper .

In its design, Threes makes many conscious decisions against flashy puzzle-game syndrome, the first of which is the complete lack of pressure. When I first started, Threes design had me inherently expecting a time-limit. Playing with that in mind, I would rush too fast and never reach a score higher than a couple hundred. I realized quickly that once the screen starts to fill, it requires thinking ahead rather than sheer luck. By swiping but not letting go, players can “see the future,” allowing them a preview of what their move will accomplish. At the top of the screen, Threes also provides a numberless preview of what card will come after the move is confirmed. A blue shape represents 1, a pink shape represents 2, and a white shape represents a 3.

As the game progresses, and the player begins adding bigger and bigger numbers, the chance of the white shape representing a multiple of 3 will increase. Because of this, players can judge what the best move will be. A 2 is coming? Slide the cards so that it will enter near a 1. Running out of space and not sure if the next number is a 3 or 6? If possible, slide so that it will enter a space near both numbers, rather than just one and relying on luck. Sometimes that’s not possible, however, and in those times luck can completely screw you over in a disheartening way. One time I spent about twenty minutes in one game, thinking over each move carefully, before getting unlucky and missing out on a high score. As the game progresses further, it becomes more than just about the next move, but the next few, and the lack of time-limit promotes that ability of foresight.

Instead of outrageous bonus-points flashing every five seconds or “super-ultra-mega-combos,” Threes only tallies up the player’s score after the game is finished. There’s no quick way to a restart either, so the whole thing promotes a sense of patience not often seen in similar puzzle games. Instead of flashy combos, Threes ’ appeal is in its “characters;” each multiple of three is actually its own character with a name, voice, and even a short, humorous bio. Almost every time cards are combined, the new number will greet the player with a cute little quip that helps to keep the game loveable for all ages. My personal favorite is “Tristine” who says “hi” in an adorably sleepy voice that makes me blush every time. There’s other subtle inclusions too, where characters say “nope” if a move is invalid, or hassle you if you take take too long. Threes’ personality and addictiveness isn’t in flashy gimmicks or puzzle game generics, but in a humble design aesthetic.

While its simplicity works for the most part, the sheer magnitude of it leaves some to be desired. The initial tutorial smoothly drops the player right into their first, full game, and provides a few quick hints during the next few playthroughs. Most of the game is learned through experience though—you’ll have to teach yourself how to avoid “stuck” situations. Finishing a game brings up a clever, personal leaderboard which displays each record as a snapshot of final board with an accompanied score. There’s also some barebones Gamecenter options and personal records that will surely deprive any stats-junkies. Some that I felt were sorely missed were a “most combinations in succession” stat and a “most combinations in a turn” stat. It’s all in the name of simplicity and accessibility, but the lack of modes was somewhat disappointing as well. Because of the size of the game however, it will work on almost any device. Threes never varies its deep, simple on the surface mechanics, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It feels polished and rewarding in smart gameplay and charm rather than a contrived sense of accomplishment.

In the end, Threes is complex but never intimidating, and every aspect of its design feels purposeful and polished. It features an awesome, jazzy soundtrack that complements the quirky attitude of its characters, and a smooth aesthetic that marries the gameplay. It’s not only accessible to those who don’t have the time to sit down and take it seriously, but also rewarding for those who learn the method to its madness.

Threes is now availableon iOS at 33.33% off during launch.

Metro: Last Light will come bundled with Steam Machine prototypes

Steam Machines are coming soon.

are coming soon. Very soon. In fact, they're supposed to come as soon as early 2014. Even sooner than that, however, Valve will send out a prototype of its own designto 300 randomly-selected users for beta testing and it announced a game to come bundled with those prototypes for SteamOS testing.

4A's post-apocalyptic survival horror gem, Metro: Last Light, will be that game. After a May release date on Windows in May of this year, the game landed on Linux and Mac earlier this week. Considering that Linux is the basis for SteamOS, the operating system that Valve plans to release early next year, it was already at least partially primed to work on a Steam Machine.

The entire catalog of Linux-compatible Steam games should be available to play on SteamOS when it launches next year. Although that currently includes just around 200 games, there will be no shortage of games to play if you switch to the OS. You can always manually add non-Steam games into your Steam library and SteamOS will be able to play non-Linux games. But with Metro and the recently-announced Linux version of Total War: Rome IIthat will also be compatible with the Steam Controller, we can count two more relatively high profile additions to the Linux slate.

This Is the Police trailer asks a hard question about the nature of corruption

This Is the Police is a game about a mostly-honest cop named Jack, the chief of a small-town police force, who's been unceremoniously told by the entirely-corrupt mayor that he'll be out of a job in 180 days.

is a game about a mostly-honest cop named Jack, the chief of a small-town police force, who's been unceremoniously told by the entirely-corrupt mayor that he'll be out of a job in 180 days. Jack's retirement carries a pretty hefty price tag: He needs to have $500,000 in his account before he's shown the door in order to finance the lifestyle he's accustomed to. What will he do to get it?

The obvious answer is, he'll do what he has to: Take a few bribes, run a few guns, maybe drop a hot tip to the right people now and then. Or maybe not. Corruption is a choice, after all, and not a destiny. Jack may even be capable of a certain amount of introspection that could round off some of his more jagged temptations. And of course, looming forced retirement notwithstanding, he still has to be a cop, with all the responsibilities, decisions, and consequences that entails. Whichever way he goes, there are risks and rewards—and rules that must be followed.

This is the Police had a successful run through Kickstarter early last year, and by all appearances the work is coming along quite nicely. I really like the visual style, and if the narrator's voice has a familiar ring, it's likely because it's coming from Jon St. John, better known as the man behind Duke Nukem. He clearly won't be portraying that kind of character in this game, though: There's an obvious element of dark comedy here, but some of the screens are just flat-out dark.

There's still no release date, but This Is the Police is expected to be out sometime this summer. Until then, you can find out more about what's coming on Steamor at Weappy-studio.com.

Astro Golf – An iOS Hole-in-One?

Normally, when anything is said to me that even sounds like ‘golf’, my eyes glaze over and I start thinking about games, films, books, wildlife, what I had to dinner the night before… well, anything other than golf, really.

like ‘golf’, my eyes glaze over and I start thinking about games, films, books, wildlife, what I had to dinner the night before… well, anything other than golf, really. The developers at Bolder Games managed to break my habit of a lifetime, though, when I received a press release about Astro Golf , their wacky sci-fi twist on mini golf, set to release on the App store on the 20 th of February, 2014.

In the words of Bolder Games, which consists of seven developers whom can add such impressive companies as Bethesda, Lego Universe and THQ to their resumes, “ Astro Golf offers a unique blend of gameplay, sci-fi, physics tricks and adventure to bring the concept of mini golf to a whole new dimension”.

Astro Golf is set to be the first of four games in a series, and will spoil the gamer with ‘console-quality’ 3D visuals. A hard-working physics engine also means that your golf balls will be bouncing, jumping, teleporting and quite literally flying around space. That is, if you can use these abilities well enough to your advantage that you are able to keep your ball out of the reach of bots, corrosive goo, steam, fire and an assortment of other obstacles. As you can see, there are more than sand dunes to worry about in Astro Golf.

On top of this, which sounds like enough fun for me to have actually considered having a golf game on my mobile devices, there are also multiple characters to use, with their own personalities and unlockable skills, and a whole host of upgradeable abilities for your futuristic golf ball; laser-guided putting, anyone?

There are three gameplay modes to test your skills across, too – story mode, time attack and strokes attack – with a total of 30 playable holes and a further 15 bonus levels to unlock. Right now, wherever you are, it’s probably too wet or snowy to even think about playing a round of golf in the real world, so Astro Golf looks to have enough unique content to keep you going for a little while.

All this golfing goodness – which may be the first and last time I ever use that phrase and mean it – will initially be exclusive to the Apple Store for iOS devices, but will later be made available on Android, Linux and even Steam. We’ll hopefully have a full review of Astro Golf up on IGM on release day (20 thof February, remember?), so we’ll let you know whether this iOS title is truly on par with the rest of your mobile games.

Metro: Last Light single-player DLC now live, adds three extra missions and a bike shotgun

Metro: Last Light has had a fairly random assortment of downloadable content so far, but the latest is perhaps the most fully fledged, particularly if you enjoy getting slabs of new story content rather than extra guns or alternate modes .

. The Chronicles pack has just been bolted onto Last Light - er, if you part with $4.99/£3.99 first - and adds three additional single-player missions centered around side-characters Pavel, Khan, Ulman and Anna. It also adds that fan-made bicycle shotgun weapon because, hey, old habits die hard. As do mutants.

Want to hear more about those single-player missions? We have you covered. "Discover how Anna, the unflinching Polis Sniper, tried and failed to rescue Artyom from the Reich forces in the ruined botanical gardens," reads the press release. "Put the irrepressible Pavel's deadly skills and ingenuity to the test as he attempts to escape the Bandit Lair beneath Venice. And guide Khan and Ulman through the forgotten, haunted tunnels of Polyanka in a chilling supernatural tale that reveals a dark secret from Khan's mysterious past..."

Metro: Last Light is quite good, by the way.

This Is the Police is a stylish, risky crooked-cop sim

Battlefield Hardline is the hot cops 'n' robbers currently in development, especially with the multiplayer beta running next week , but for my money This Is the Police sounds far more intriguing.

sounds far more intriguing. You play as Jack Boyd, a 60-year-old cop on the verge of forced retirement, with nothing to show for his years of service but a bald spot, a bad back, a moved-in mother-in-law, and three kids who are about to bury him with tuition fees. He's frustrated, he's angry, he's got 180 days to set himself up for the future—and he's not playing by the rules anymore.

Except he does have to play by the rules, sort of: He can take bribes, cook the books, sell guns or drugs on the side, and indulge in all sorts of other bad behavior, but as the chief of police he still needs to stay on top of the day-to-day operations of his force. Which, for the record, doesn't sound like a particularly solid unit: Corruption abounds, from rank-and-file officers all the way up to the Mayor himself.

The Kickstarter describes the game as a "strategy/adventure," and says the focus is on "ensuring that everything that happens on the screen is an important part of the story. You won’t get bogged down with the numbers and the attributes of your units, and it’s not just a set of puzzles to solve. As you move from one event to the next, the city of Freeburg will change around you, in response to your actions. The story is not constrained by a particular genre or narrative format, so you can truly take part in the life of a desperate man trying to regain his self-esteem."

It sounds like there's potential for some dark comedy here, especially given the presence of voice actor Jon St. John, best known as the voice of Duke Nukem. But there also appears to be a very serious edge to it as well, as illustrated by a screenshot on the Kickstarter page referencing a planned protest in the city: Since most of the protesters are expected to be black, Boyd is being ordered to pull all black officers from duty that day, and to come down hard on protest ringleaders. It obviously isn't the sort of "cop experience" you're going to get from a major studio release—but that's a big part of the appeal.

This Is the Police is the first game from Minsk-based studio Weappy, which has thus far raised about $7500 of its $25,000 Kickstarter goal. If the campaign is successful, the game is expected to be ready by the end of the year.

Monstaaa!’ Review – Accelerometer-Based Gaming Needs Some Improvement

‘Monstaaa!’ Review – Accelerometer-Based Gaming Needs Some Improvement
When you see a game with a crudely spelled title, the first thought that comes to mind is the game may not be so good.

When you see a game with a crudely spelled title, the first thought that comes to mind is the game may not be so good. As for this game, Monstaaa! , this assumption is correct in some ways. Developed by Pixel Elephant and made universally for iOS , it uses simple gravity-based gameplay to show off the abilities of the iOS accelerometer capabilities. Even though the game isn’t the best, it’s fairly adequate, and the decent boredom relief could be of some value.

Honestly, the graphics and visuals of Monstaaa! are well made. However, this is squashed by the fact that the whole game has the same generic background. Though there are four different-colored levels (green, red, yellow, blue), the levels and the menus for that matter, are all generic cave scenes with a similar dark-colored scenery. The sprites for the bugs and Monstaaa! itself are very cartoon-y, as if it was from a 90’s Cartoon Network program.

The worlds in this game are referred to as “caves”, and as said before, there are four available to play. Each has 15 levels and a secret level, unlocked when you obtain every star in the cave. The levels all have stars that can be collected for score in the more out-of-the-way areas of the level. Though they may be inconvenient to get, you can usually obtain all the stars on your first try, if you don’t meet a cheap death/end-level-too-quickly trap.

Your goal in every level is to guide the bugs you “play as” to Monstaaa ‘s mouth using gravity and physics. The three stars which you collect are simply bonus points. There are two different bugs to deal with.  The red bug, is a generic ladybug that has no gimmick and comes in several different sizes to fit the level, and the blue bug, which grows over time. This adds strategy to collecting the stars, as some alcoves the stars are in are too big for the bug to get them.

The levels in Monstaaa! are very basic, as they are designed with several bumps and cracks to house the stars. There may also be colored keys that have corresponding blockades to unlock. The challenge comes with the plethora of instant death obstacles. These include spikes, periodic flames, cannons that shoot fireballs, and crushing, usually caused by blue bug growth in an inconvenient place. Later, in the yellow cave, you control rocks with the same gravity control, which can also crush bugs.  These instant deaths can become increasingly annoying in levels with about 10 or so tiny red bugs. They are all controlled by the same gravity, and you are forced to keep track of all of them. Furthermore, if exactly one dies, you have to start over. Certain levels also have wind currents, extremely strong ones, which usually lead to a trap that you need to counteract with physics.

For the most part, the controls works. There is a little arrow around each bug that shows the gravity, and it is accurate most of the time. However, in several instances, it may become unresponsive. This is not the type of game to play during a car-ride, because bumps can mess up the sensor just enough to send you into a nearby spike. Also, the game forces you to be extremely careful, as the physics are accurate and you can’t change direction immediately. As a result, while slowing down from a sharp turn, you will most likely run into something if you tilted too harshly.

Another thing that is a little annoying is the rocks that I mentioned earlier. As they are controlled by the same gravitational input as the bugs,  they also go at about the same speed. If you are trying to get a rock out-of-the-way of a bug, you will have to get lucky with the bounce physics, unpredictable as they are. And being too hasty and impatient will cause your death by crushing.

In conclusion, Monstaaa! is a weird mix of being cheaply hard and extremely easy.  I 100 percent-ed it in a day, but the ride was nerve-wracking and gameplay is not polished enough to be any more than short boredom relief.  The level design is hit or miss, because certain levels I found extremely fun in comparison to the rest.  It’s too bad, because the problems present afterwards will eventually get you cursing at the device.  As an “extra” after the game, there is a random stegosaurus puzzle, that I never figured out because it has no interface. Long story short, you can find plenty of better games for free, instead of buying this game.

More information on Monstaaa! can be found on their official website. The iOS version can be downloaded at the App Store, universal for iPhone and iPad, for $0.99.

[review pros=”Easy to complete” cons=”slow control, annoying/cheap obstacles” score=55]

Metro: Last Light's Developer Pack DLC detailed, arriving next week

Deep Silver have revealed details of the third of Metro: Last Light's four planned DLC packs.

Deep Silver have revealed details of the third of Metro: Last Light's four planned DLC packs. The 'Developer Pack' is due out next week, and... well, I'll level with you, it's a bit of an odd one. Of all the DLC bits we've seen for the post-apocalyptic shooter, it's the one that most resembles a random assortment of disparate ideas, mixed together into a thick goulash.

Here are the three main parts, as announced over Deep Silver's PR tannoy:

"Players can experiment with every gun and attachment combination in the Shooting Range, and complete unique marksman challenges for each weapon." "The AI Arena allows players to pit customisable squads of human soldiers and mutants against each other or prove themselves in several challenges." "Lastly, players can explore Metro's cast of characters, and human and mutant foes, up close in the 'Metro Museum'."

There's a solo mission, too. The Spider's Nest traps you in a arachnid-infested catacomb, with just a lighter, a torch, and a giant flamethrower for company. That'll be a fun one for arachnophobes.

Despite the weird mix of ideas here, I quite like the sound of the AI Arena. It's unlikely to usurp Salty Betas the king of the AI battlers, but - as someone who has spent hours creating random fight scenes in Gmod - it's bound to be an amusing distraction.

Previously, Metro: Last Light received the Faction Pack, adding three single-player missions that each dealt with a different group in the game, and the Tower Pack, an out-of-universe combat arena. The final DLC release will be the Chronicles Pack, which will add more single-player missions that explore the side-characters Pavel, Khan & Ulman, and Anna.

Metro: Last Light's Developer Pack is due out September 17th, and is priced £3.19, $3.99 and €3.99.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst has been delayed two weeks

The bad news is that Mirror's Edge Catalyst has been delayed.

has been delayed. The not-as-bad-as-it-could-have-been news is that it's a relatively slight delay: Instead of coming out on May 26 as originally planned, EA now says it will be out on June 7 in North America, and a couple of days later in the EU.

“As you know, we’re about to open the gates to the city of Glass for participants of the Closed Beta. One of the key features of the Beta and the full game is Social Play, detailed in our latest developer diary,” EA explained. “To support the Social Play features, we are using a brand new online technology. We also want to make sure we have the opportunity and time to address player feedback from the Closed Beta. That is why we will give ourselves a bit more time to perfect the game, with a new release date for Mirror’s Edge Catalyst of June 7th (NA) and June 9th (EU).”

Not great news, obviously, but at least it's only a couple of weeks. And on the bright side, now you've got extra time to read our Mirror's Edge Catalyst hands-onfrom last week, in which Sam declares that fans of the original game "should feel right at home."

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel's DLC lets you play as Handsome Jack

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is out, and you know what that means: the DLC avalanche has begun.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is out, and you know what that means: the DLC avalanche has begun. The first has just been announced over on the Borderlands site, and adds Borderlands 2 villain (and The Pre-Sequel not-villain) Handsome Jack to the game's roster of playable characters. Kind of. It's not actually him, but a doppelganger of equal handsomeness, able to summon tiny digital versions of himself in battle.

Here's Gearbox detailingyes-Handsome not-Jack's various talents, while studiously avoiding explaining why there's a Jack doppelganger running around.

"Jack has stood by for far too long watching the Vault Hunters go on exciting adventures, so he’s decided to join in on the fun…sort of. With the Handsome Jack Doppelganger Pack, you’ll be able to play as everyone’s favorite maniacal tyrant-in-training, “Jack” the Doppelganger. As “Jack,” you’ll be able to summon multiple Digi-Jacks, which will join you in battle to mow down enemies and earn you more sweet, sweet loot.

"Depending on how you spec out your Skill Trees, these Digi-Jacks can earn you bonuses or even get you a Second Wind in Fight For Your Life. “Jack” can also shoot enemies with wrist lasers, get buffs every time he picks up money (in typical CEO fashion), or even get upgrades for using guns made by specific manufacturers."

The Handsome Jack Doppelganger pack is out next Tuesday, and it's included in the season pass (well, you'd have hoped so), or available separately for just under $10. There are three other packs currently in the works, which will include, among other things, "another character, a level cap upgrade, [and] a new campaign".

You can find our review of The Pre-Sequel here.

Here's what Metro: Last Light's new DLC, the Tower Pack, is all about

A soggy, post-apocalyptic underground is no place to find oneself trapped in—so let's jump right back into it, shall we?

A soggy, post-apocalyptic underground is no place to find oneself trapped in—so let's jump right back into it, shall we? The second of Metro: Last Light's DLCs was released yesterday. Okay, so the screenshots don't look like the post-apocalyptic Metro we've become far too familiar with—in fact, there's an odd, clinically Portal-like feel to some of these scenarios. That's because 4A Games is using this DLC as an opportunity to focus on what it feels wasn't given enough attention in the base game: the combat.

"We changed everything [about Last Light's gameplay]—from the control scheme, to our animation system, AI, projectile modelling, audio…" 4A says in a. "And ultimately, all this work only really came to bear in a few gunfights spread across the campaign!

"We wanted to create some DLC that took advantage of these new, refined combat mechanics, that allowed players to explore the system in more depth—and so the Tower Pack was born."

The Tower is a "combat simulator" almost entirely removed from the Metro universe, with the only familiar carry-over being Last Light's combat mechanics. It's a kind of arena, filled with all of Metro's enemies and weapons, in which you'll get to really let loose with the mechanics in a place separate from Artyom's mission.

The Tower Pack went live on Steamyesterday. If you previously purchased the Season Pass, your game should update automatically. This is the second of Last Light's planned four DLCs, and we've also got some vague hints about the content of the final two DLCs. The next pack, the Developer Pack, will include a shooting gallery, an "AI arena" and a museum of all things Metro, as well as a new solo mission. The final Chronicles Pack sounds like it'll be the real corker of the bunch, though, offering three new single-player missions played from the point of view of four side characters.

Correct the bad decisions of horror movie victims in Dead by Daylight

Screaming, panicking slasher flick victims are always making bad decisions, but who can be trusted to make good decisions while being chased through the woods by a murderer?

Screaming, panicking slasher flick victims are always making bad decisions, but who can be trusted to make good decisions while being chased through the woods by a murderer? I tried to avoid being put on a meat hook at PAX East yesterday, and practically ran backwards into a meat hook.

Dead by Daylight, which has been playable on the PAX show floor all weekend, pits four survivors against a murderer in procedurally-generated levels. The survivors play in third-person, running and creeping around the woods in search of generators (it's always generators) to repair. Fix up enough and an escape route opens. The killer, meanwhile, plays in first-person and earns points by injuring survivors and hanging them on meat hooks. The round ends when all survivors escape, are hung up or dead, or some mix of both.

Playing as a survivor is pretty rough. The killer is usually easy to spot when he's close, but even if I saw him before he saw me I panicked. My instinct was to run, but that gives me away with a red streak on the killer's screen, so taking it slow is usually better. If I did have to run, though, I had to zigzag and vault over obstacles and double-back a couple times to get away.

What's most interesting to me is the victims' relationship to each other. Ostensibly you're all on the same team, working together to win, but it doesn't quite play out that way. If someone's been put on a hook, finding and saving them helps the team, but you also risk walking into a trap. And if you see the killer, how often are you going to encourage him to chase you and not the player next to you?

Yesterday, I spoke to producer Mathieu Côté about all of the above and more, which you can watch at the top of this article. I'm not sure if I like it yet, but I didn't get well acquainted with Dead by Daylight's nuances through one session with all new players. We should be playing more pretty soon, though, as it's scheduled to release on Steamon June 14.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel mod enables third-person camera view

I've never been a big fan of the third-person perspective in shooters.

I've never been a big fan of the third-person perspective in shooters. I can tolerate it for particularly good games, like Max Payneor Spec Ops: The Line, but all in all I'll take the first-person perspective any day of the week. But if you're a third-person aficionado who wishes Borderlands: The Pre-Sequelcould be enjoyed from an over-the-shoulder view, this mod will be right up your alley.

Developed by YouTube user TFXLive, the mod enables an over-the-shoulder camera in Gearbox's latest Borderlands game. TFXLive made a third-person mod for Borderlands 2 a couple years agobut it required the separate Cheat Enginesoftware to operate, whereas this one is entirely stand-alone and works on all versions of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.

It's also quite easy to use: Just download and unzip the file, fire up Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, alt-tab out of it, run the mod executable (as an admin), then alt-tab back into the game and press F5 twice to activate. At that point, assuming you hear the "beep," the F5 key will switch between first and third-person perspectives; if you're comfortable horsing around with .INI files, you can also change your character's on-screen alignment to be more centered in the third-person view.

The mod automatically switches from third-person view to iron sights or scope when appropriate, and of course it allows you to really enjoy all those character skins and heads you pick up during the game. Based on the gameplay trailer, it seems to work quite well, and looks pretty good, too. Want it? Get it at YouTube.

Deep Silver CEO: More Metro games are planned for the future

Good news, Metro fans!

Good news, Metro fans! According to Deep SilverCEO Dr. Klemens Kundratitz, more Metro games are planned beyond this year's Metro: Last Light. Speaking to Joystiq at Gamescomlast week, Kundratitz refused to officially announce a Last Light sequel, but emphasized that the franchise would have more entries eventually.

"I'm very glad we acquired that brand," Kundratitz said, referring to Deep Silver's purchase of Metro from THQ during that troubled publisher's asset auctionearlier this year. "While it launched in a very dry space in the gaming calendar this year, it still got a lot of attention."

Kundratitz also said that future games would be made “more accessible to a broader gaming audience," but insisted that Dmitry Glukhovsky, the author of Metro 2033 , still holds the license and has some say in the creative process. Any changes to broaden the audience for future Metro games will have continue to be approved by Glukhovsky.

We enjoyedMetro: Last Light, so we're happy to see that more Metro games will probably be heading our way in the near-ish future. Now begins the long, long wait.

Thanks, Joystiq.

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Our Verdict
Rough around the edges, and some bad puzzles, but this is an atmospheric detective adventure that actually lets you do some detecting.

NEED TO KNOW

What is it? Period crime adventure starring the famous London detective.
Reviewed on HD 7890, Intel Core i5 @ 3.40GHz, 16GB RAM
Price £30/$40
Release Out now
Developer Frogwares
Publisher Focus Home Interactive
Link Official website
Multiplayer None

A sailor pinned to a wall with a whaling harpoon. A train mysteriously vanishing in the night. An archaeologist killed in a sauna that was locked from the inside. These are just a few of the mysteries you’ll be investigating in Crimes and Punishments, a surprisingly brilliant detective adventure with, like its hero, a very silly name.

You are, naturally, Sherlock Holmes, the legendary Baker Street-dwelling detective who can suss out your entire life history with a glance. You might be wondering where the challenge lies in playing as the world’s greatest sleuth, but that’s what makes the game so great. You might have all the evidence, and it might all make sense, but you could still be wrong—and even pin the crime on the wrong person.

You can move freely around each case’s setting—usually the streets of Victorian London—via a map. This is a stunning-looking game, and its environments are dizzyingly detailed. From Sherlock’s home at Baker Street and foggy railway platforms in the English countryside to ornate Roman baths and the cells of Scotland Yard, everything is rich with handcrafted detail and drenched in atmosphere.

When you interrogate someone you can freeze time and study their body language and clothing, picking out clues to form questions. This shows off the insane detail of the character models and visualises Holmes’s knack for figuring someone out by just looking at them—a neat visual trick borrowed from the recent BBC reboot.

Built in the Unreal engine, the game boasts ludicrously high-resolution textures and dense, cluttered levels, and as a result, weaker PCs might struggle to run it. The mouse and keyboard controls work fine, but I ended up playing with an Xbox controller. It’s a slow-burning adventure that you’ll want to sink into a chair and enjoy. Flipping between menus and moving around the world feels nicely intuitive with a gamepad—a result, no doubt, of it being simultaneously developed for PS4 and Xbox One.

It’s no open world game. There are, sometimes annoyingly lengthy, loading breaks between areas. But being able to choose where and when you travel gives you a nice feeling of freedom. You’ll visit the crime scene, gather evidence, then travel back to Baker Street to conduct science experiments, or to Scotland Yard to grill a suspect. Then you might visit a dingy pub or an archaeological dig site to chase more leads.

Once you’ve compiled your evidence, you can enter the ‘deduction space’, which is like peering inside Holmes’s amazing brain. Clues will usually offer two possible outcomes, and by selecting the right (or wrong) ones, they’ll connect and give you a likely conclusion—and you’ll have to decide if it’s accurate or not. This gives you some genuine agency over each case, which detective games rarely offer. Interestingly, Holmes can choose to convict or absolve who he thinks the guilty party is.

Cases are self-contained, however, which means the choices you make won’t carry over into later crimes. You aren’t shaping a dynamic narrative here. It’s all about the per-case satisfaction of piecing the evidence together and choosing the right suspect.

There are six in total, and each one can take a couple of hours, depending on how thorough you are. Crimes range from gruesome murders with links to the occult, to mysteries with seemingly paranormal leanings. Every case grabbed me from the very start, and I was always compelled to find the answers, which is surely the driving motivation of any good detective story.

When a case is done, you can reveal if you were wrong or not, but this spoils the fun and is only worth doing after you’ve finished the game. You can go back and replay the last part of a case if you don’t like a choice you’ve made, but this feels like a bit of a cop-out and cheapens your efforts. It’s better to live with your decisions, then look back at the end and see how right, or wrong, you were. The game also compares your solutions to other players if you’re connected to the internet, Walking Dead-style.

Sherlock himself is the weak link. He isn’t particularly likeable, and has a snooty self-regard that makes it difficult to empathise with him. Watson is always on hand, but is rarely useful, and feels more like an adoring fan than a right-hand man. The voice acting is decent, though, if not exactly the stuff of an HBO drama. There are some colourful, well-written supporting characters in the game’s impressively large cast, but I would have liked to see a little more humanity from Holmes.

The puzzles are hit-and-miss, and it’s telling that I skipped a lot of them. But it depends on what you want from the game. I was in it for the story, atmosphere, and crime-solving. But if you’re into logic puzzles and brainteasers, you’ll find an abundance of them here. It’s just nice to have the choice. If you want Crimes and Punishments to be a puzzle game, it can be. If it’s a story-led adventure game you’re after, it can be that too. Or both!

This is the detective game L.A. Noire claimed to be. It doesn’t have the inflated budget of Rockstar’s game, but it makes up for its rough edges with quality detecting, compelling cases, beautiful world-building, and endearing gusto. Frogwares have been making Sherlock Holmes adventures for ten thousand years, but this is their best yet, and improves on its predecessors in almost every regard.

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The Verdict

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments

Rough around the edges, and some bad puzzles, but this is an atmospheric detective adventure that actually lets you do some detecting.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Andy grew up with PC games, losing countless hours of his youth to Quake and Baldur’s Gate. Today his love for PC gaming is just as strong, and now he loses countless hours of his adult life to them. He loves horror, RPGs, sims, anything set in space, anything set in rainy cyberpunk cities, adventure games, and you.

We recommend By Zergnet

Retrobot’ – Making Wall-E Look Like A Weak Ass Bi*ch

‘Retrobot’ – Making Wall-E Look Like A Weak Ass Bi*ch
Before you crucify me, I loved Wall-E just as much as you did, trust me.

Before you crucify me, I loved Wall-E just as much as you did, trust me. But you can’t have a game where you just roll around picking flowers, trying on bras, and convincing the obese to start walking again can you? Well, maybe you can, but let’s save that for the obscure Japanese developers. That’s where Retrobot comes in.

It’s 2025 and humanity has shifted menial tasks to a network of automated robots. In the small town of Fairfax, Arizona (that’s not far from where I live!) Retrobot has been built by Spencer, a socially handicaped 32 year old genius who still lives with his grandmother. Retrobot was built to handle all sorts of tasks, but best of all, he was built to play online co-op games

There’s one thing wrong, after a huge server crash an army of robots are now attempting to take over the world and they’ve kidnapped Spencer who has been deemed a threat to their world domination. Together with Spencer’s pet monkey, (cause why the hell not just throw a monkey in there?) Retrobot is going on a mass robot genocide so he can get back to playing Borderlands 6 with Spencer.

That’s right, Retrobot isn’t wasting his time playing with trash and cross-dressing, he’s out saving humanity for the sake of video games. The game will also comes packed with some old school’ video game references. If you check out the trailer we’ve embedded below you’ll see a tribute to Metal Gear Solid in there.

Retrobot just released on the App Store last week and I suggest you pick it up at the low price of. Be sure to follow Endeavor Bros. on Twitterto keep up with their latest projects.

Metro: Last Light's Faction Pack trailer is packed full of factions

It's a little late - Metro: Last Light's Faction Pack DLC came out a couple of days ago - but this launch trailer gives you a good idea of the styles of play associated with each of the game's factions.

Faction Pack DLC came out a couple of days ago - but this launch trailer gives you a good idea of the styles of play associated with each of the game's factions. Essentially: sneaky, snipery, and - er - hate-y, as you complete three missions as a Polis Ranger, a Red Line Sniper and a Reich Heavy. It never said they were nice factions.

The Faction Pack is the first of four planned DLC updates for Last Light. Other add-ons will include the Developer Pack, which will "give creative players some interesting tools with which to explore the world of Metro"; the Tower Pack, which is said to offer a "unique solo challenge to Metro veterans"; and the Chronicles Pack, which will bring more single-player missions to the game.

Metro: Last Light Faction Pack is out now, available for $4.99 / £3.99 / €4.99

Best of iOS News: From NFL Pro 2012 to Desert Bus

Horror Slasher Villains and Teenagers Clash in Last Year

Slasher villains all seem to operate in similar ways in horror movies.

Slasher villains all seem to operate in similar ways in horror movies. Despite a slow walking speed, they tend to show up right where the heroes have run off to. When not around, they set traps. They kill off the heroes one by one, cutting off escape avenues. They are brutally strong and nigh-unkillable. All of these things sound like they would make for a great video game villain, don’t they? What about a multiplayer game where five players take on the roles of teenagers while the villain stalks them? If that sounds exciting to you, you should look into the Kickstarter campaign for a game designed purely for horror movie fans.

The Kickstarter shows little more than some concept art and ideas so far, but it proposes something neat. The five teenagers all have their own roles to fill in the game, such as being able to find items easier, repair broken devices, or heal. If the killer gets to one of them, you no longer have that ability to help yourself. With these abilities, the players must fuel an escape vehicle and find its keys, so it involves exploring large complexes for items while being dogged by a relentless killer. Do you split up and find the items or work together? If you said split up, I don’t think you’ve ever seen a horror movie before.

Sticking together doesn’t guarantee safety, though. The killer, while slow, has the ability to unspawn from the map when out of sight and then spawn anywhere else. There are limits as to how close you can spawn to the players, but if you want to leap from a nearby closet while swinging a machete, it’s up to you. You can quietly pick them off one by one, or lock them in a room and go wild with a chainsaw. With available weapons and several different villains to choose from, it’s up to you how you intend to stalk your prey.

If hunting your friends down and outwitting them sounds fun, consider tossing some cash to Last Year ‘s Kickstartercampaign. The response has been great so far, with the game already reaching its goal and looking to fund some stretch goals, so I’m looking forward to being jumped and killed, as well as doing my own jumping and killing, when the game gets underway.

For more information on Last Year, you can follow the game on Facebookand Twitter.

Metro: Last Light to draw faction lines with new DLC

Deep Silver has announced a new mutation of Metro: Last Light DLC called the “Faction Pack” which straps you into the soggy boots of three different soldiers who—like the name suggests—belong to separate factions.

There's the Redline sniper who must defend an outpost during a radioactive storm, a “Reich Heavy” charged with holding the frontline, and a Polis Ranger rookie looking to navigate a forgotten library. Each character has his or her own unique mission, though we wouldn't be surprised if each of the missions tied together somehow.

The Faction Pack hits Steam worldwide on July 16 for $4.99 / £3.99 / €4.99, though it won't cost you a pretty penny if you snagged the season pass.

Deep Silver also briefly touched upon three new DLC packs, with the “Chronicles Pack” being the most promising as it features new single player missions as well. The other two featured a challenge based "combat simulator" and an AI arena, which sound slightly less interesting than new single player content. The publisher didn't announce release dates or prices for the other pieces of DLC, but hopefully the Faction Pack sets an example the rest will follow.

A Mirror's Edge television show is in the works

Mirror's Edge Catalyst will be bouncing onto PCs and consoles early next month, after which Faith's next stop seems to be her own TV show.

will be bouncing onto PCs and consoles early next month, after which Faith's next stop seems to be her own TV show. A Deadlinereport says Endemol Shine Studios, the “scripted division” of Endemol Shine North America, home of such fine fare as Big Brother, The Biggest Loser, and MasterChef Junior, has acquired the rights to adapt the property into a “female-centered action series.”

“We clearly see Mirror’s Edge as a franchise for the global TV audience,” Endemol Shine Studios President Sharon Hall said. “It has a strong female protagonist, a wildly rabid fan base and a worldwide brand that Electronic Arts and EA DICE have done an amazing job establishing.”

Statements from involved parties in the early stages of creative projects generally veer towards the hyperbolic, but even bearing that in mind I'm not sure that describing Mirror's Edge fans as “wildly rabid” is really the sweetspot in terms of PR mots justes. The game was more of a cult classic than a smash hit, and while there are plenty of people dearly hoping that Mirror's Edge Catalyst will be a satisfying sequel, it's not like we're talking about the Call of Duty crowd here.

Nonetheless, at least the reception isn't like to be worse than the one the Warcraft movieis receiving, right? Right?

Telepath Tactics Release Date Announced

the team’s plans to release their strategic turn-based RPG Telepath Tactics .

Independent developer Craig Stern of development studio Sinister Design recently announced
. The game will launch on April 16, 2015.

The developer cited March as a “bloodbath” for independent game releases. In the words of Craig, to
release Telepath Tactics now would be like “sending [your] best front-line fighter into the middle of a throng of 20 enemies on open ground. We all know what’s going to happen to the fighter if [you] do that–she is going to die.” and thus has opted to delay the release of their title for a month to allow some time for the waters to settle, so to speak.

Telepath Tactics is a turn-based tactical RPG. Similar to other entries in the genre, such as Fire Emblem and Advance Wars , Telepath Tactics features gameplay that takes place within a turn-based battle system wherein you are responsible for controlling a “squad” of units on a grid-based map. Gameplay is designed to be highly-varied, with over 23 playable classes, destructible terrain, tactical environmental bonuses (i.e. height, lava, etc), a combination of hand-crafted and randomly generated maps, a built-in map editor, full mod support, and more.

The game has already been Greenlitby the Steam Community, and thus will be making its way to
Steam- But if you’re interested in a closer look at the game, feel free to check out the
page on the developer’s website, or download the free demo for Windows, Mac or Linux.

Watch Dogs trailer shows off Season Pass content, explosion-happy protagonist

As a fellow hacker-warrior in Watch Dogs , T-Bone has a special complementary relationship to gruff nerd Aiden Pearce's vigilantism.

, T-Bone has a special complementary relationship to gruff nerd Aiden Pearce's vigilantism. Where Pearce douses for critical data within ctOS's sprawling net, T-Bone taps a few keys on his phone and blows up a bunch of cars. When Pearce draws heat from the law and kills power to a city block to sneak away, T-Bone shoots at a bunch of cop cars. Which blow up. I'm sensing a pattern here—and I'm sure there's more to T-Bone beyond detonations and dreadlocks—but finding out more means nabbing the $20/£12 Season Passfor the single-player DLC, as Ubisoft's latest trailer reveals.

T-Bone seems like an outcast from a Grand Theft Auto game, ranting to Pearce with the air of someone gripped by conspiracy theory before jumping into a car and wreaking havoc on the streets. As Tyler touched upon in his preview, the Season Pass content looks like it's trying to simultaneously deliver a story-driven episode and another outlet for just running around and causing chaos in Chicago. I'd like to know more about T-Bone and how he got involved with Pearce—or I can switch on They Live mode and start zapping disguised robo-civilians. At least that's a bit more subtle than giant spiders.

Watch Dogs and its Season Pass launches on May 27. Until then, take note of its system requirements and reliance on Uplay.

Mirror's Edge gets easier combat and an open world

I completed Mirror’s Edge four times, so I know the first person parkour-’em-up stupidly well.

I completed Mirror’s Edge four times, so I know the first person parkour-’em-up stupidly well. To me, Catalyst feels almost exactly like the Mirror’s Edge of 2008 in all the right ways. The platforming feels identical minus a couple of button press changes that only super hardcore players will notice, and my same muscle memory and sense of timing served me well during my hands-on at E3. For those worried that Catalyst might lose the very specific essence of the original, this doesn’t feel like a reboot—it feels like a true sequel.

My demo took place in a tiny snippet of what is apparently a seamless open world in Catalyst, a series of rooftops with three tasks to perform: a time attack run (Race), a chain of combat encounters (Delivery) and a challenge to climb to a high point in the world and hack a propaganda billboard (er, Billboard Hack). My main reaction to the demo was delight at how it felt to finally have more Mirror’s Edge in my hands, after seven years of championing the game to any poor bastard that will listen. There’s been six Call of Duty games since the first one came out—that Catalyst exists in a landscape of absurdly expensive triple-A games is a bit uplifting to me. Even better, what made the original Mirror’s Edge so special is seemingly still intact here.

What this 13-minute demo didn’t do was outline how open world play will work, since this area of shiny rooftops was boxed off and honestly felt like it could be a level from the first Mirror’s Edge. This setting will start small then open up, but how big does it really go? The map screen in the menu suggests a huge open city, but the demo doesn’t answer the question of how that’ll feel to the player to travel from one place to another.

Greater changes come in the form of the combat, which was divisive the first time around, but has been overhauled so it’s noticeably easier. While it seemed a little too simple to me on first inspection, it might suit players who found the original’s fighting too challenging or fiddly. Attacks are now mapped to the x button on an Xbox controller, rather than the trigger (this is now just the barge button for opening doors), and as long as you hit the button in close proximity to an enemy, Faith will quickly take them out, sometimes with a pleasing third-person finishing animation.

The demo didn’t really have enough combat to make a call on it either way. Combat presented no immediate threat, and with no guns for faith to pick up, DICE clearly gave this a little more thought than the platforming. What’s obviously different is that you can pretty much fight while still running, whereas Mirror’s Edge sometimes required more of a duelling mentality, where you had to circle around cover and ambush enemies, distracting from the pace of level. Maybe a complex fighting system just isn’t that important to Mirror’s Edge—I’ll need more time with Catalyst to be convinced by this change.

Mirror’s Edge was well worth reviving, and this demo tells me that Catalyst will look and feel familiar to the game’s existing audience. DICE should now focus on showing players how the open world really adds to that.