Alec Meer
It just adds to that sense that Hard West is a turn-based strategy game with a strong core surrounded by a fragmented, uncertain exterior. I'd say it's definitely worth picking up if your XCOM and Jagged Alliance itches currently feel unscratched, but expect something to dip in and out of, not some grand timesink opus. The best times with it will come from playing it on maxed-out difficulty in Iron Man mode, and its wounds system – whereby the injured are weaker in the short term but even stronger in the long term – turned on. Make the central battles as long as involved as possible, because that's where Hard West has the surest footing.
Twenty minutes. No cost. You'll laugh. Bargain.
It doesn't have the cleanness or the slow-burn escalation of your old-school C&Cs or the first Warcrafts and StarCraft, so certainly don't approach it as a return to the old ways, but if you want a giant sci-fi army bashing buildings and monsters to death while a crazy lightshow rages, Legacy of the Void is hard to argue with on that basis.
It feels like a game which knows exactly what it wants to be. And like a game which someone really, really wanted to make.
It'll keep you busy for a long damn time too, even if you only play it once – though, of course, for many there'll be later playthroughs in co-op or at at unlockable higher difficulties. I think it's the (admittedly presumed) desire to be the spiritual sequel to Diablo II which holds me back from heaping breathless praise on Grim Dawn, though.
The thin storyline around it is entirely superfluous, I'll admit to tiring of the spaceship looking identical every single time I play and it's fair to say there's less motivation to keep on going back once you finally beat it, but even if you only get a few days out of it, right now the price is right.
Deserts of Kharak does manage to be standalone as well as prequel to an old series, and if you're tired of the twitchy frenzy which grips so many latter-day RTSes, Kharak is a smart and beautiful destination whether or not you still dream of Hiigara. It might be set on land, but by recent RTS standards it's nonetheless reaching for the stars.
American Truck Simulator is a simulation of driving a truck across America, and while it can claim many successes in terms of mechanical authenticity, its most effective simulation is state of mind. That zen-like focus and calm of driving, when every other worry evaporates from your mind. Only the road. Only the music. The music and the road as one.
It’s delightful, but it’s delightful for about 90 minutes – with the very important exception that you might very well bust it out every time someone new comes around your house.
Propulsive, thrilling and breathless, DOOM is the triumph I never expected. I just can't see there being a better shooter this year, I really can't.
While Time Machine VR is not a revelation, is does offer some promising signposts.
It’s not Mechwarrior, no, but it scratches pretty much every other mech itch going, and with style.
It’s a lovely thing, is Captain Forever, full of gentle tactical cleverness and aesthetic wildness.
I unlocked a pug with a Santa hat! (Which is odd, given this game was released in May, so Christmas branding seems rather premature).
There’s too much stuff on screen and I keep dying without knowing quite why, and then respawning without realising it because my pug is so damn tiny.
For a fleeting second I felt about 12 years old again.
I happily add 35mm to the swollen pantheon of RPS’ highly-recommended games from the first half of 2016. It is janky at times, but it is something special.
It makes me too sick, and because the underlying experience collapses from operatic space disaster into rinse and repeat all too soon, I am not minded to endure that awful lurching sensation. Despite that, some of my VR confidence has been restored. Maybe this thing can happen after all.
Current VR is a technology which, for the time being, is positively defined by being able to look around a believable place but not necessarily do a whole lot else. It is very, very good at making our senses believe that the unreal is real, and ABE VR takes merciless advantage of that.
This is good VR. Let there be more of it.