The Chernobyl VR Project is meaty and ambitious, and definitely sets a precedent for this sort of thing: armchair tourism taken to a whole new level, and especially valuable when it works hard, as this does, to educate as well as stimulate.
‘Better’ isn’t the correct operative term, I think. ‘Different’ is, and honestly, that’s exactly what I wanted from DLC – a good reason to play through XCOM 2 again. As a total package, it’s substantial, even if not the equal of the Enemy Within expansion for XCOM 1
This is good VR. Let there be more of it.
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.
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.
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.
For a fleeting second I felt about 12 years old again.
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.
I unlocked a pug with a Santa hat! (Which is odd, given this game was released in May, so Christmas branding seems rather premature).
It’s a lovely thing, is Captain Forever, full of gentle tactical cleverness and aesthetic wildness.
It’s not Mechwarrior, no, but it scratches pretty much every other mech itch going, and with style.
While Time Machine VR is not a revelation, is does offer some promising signposts.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.