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so i got this to play while watching the GP, it's pretty good, looks like it might play like trials but really doesn't, there's lots more (and occasionally confusing) controls, and it's all about doing tricks and combos and collecting stuff, rather than just keeping your bike from crashing. each track has various objectives to win stars, such as finding hidden stars, collecting all the small stars, landing on all the targets, doing something in a time limit, comboing the whole level (not quite as hard as it sounds as wheeleing is easy and keeps the combo going, but still will require some heavy memorisation later on) etc. there are checkpoints which help for some of the objectives and for learning the tracks but will be usless for others where you'll just need to start again (like keeping the combo), and there's multiple routes on some levels, where you have to press up/down on the stick/dpad at specific lane change points. despite my moaning the controls are reasonably sensible its just you have to do a lot at the same time: L2/R2 - back/forwards L1/R1 - tricks x - boost square - duck/jump up/down - change lanes right/left - lean/spin forwards/backwards one race i was having trouble winning because while doing tricks and wheeleing as much as possible to get boosts to stay ahead and jumping over obstacles i'd keep forgetting which button was accelerate (i'd be pressing right on the dpad or x when i should be pressing r2) it's great fun boosting while wheeleing into a jump then spinning and doing tricks to charge the next boost while collecting stars and landing on a target then boosting off to the next ramp, but the stomp and spike obstacles have been annoying, especially the things that crush you just after a lane change where its hard to adjust your speed, and some targets it doesn't show you too well with the camera angle. so i've been quite enjoying it but i'm not completely sold yet, i need to get better at the controls. this was quite hyped - did anyone else get it?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LOHQTDPNyf0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Not sure what to say about this game quite yet as I have only put in an hour so far. It's was developed by an indie studio from Russia .... they have Eastern European accents in there dev videos and their game while fun it is broken, so they must be Russian. The gist of God Mode is simple kill the undead by yourself, Co-Op or PvP for XP and gold which in turn unlocks weapons and cosmetic items. The Good Frenetic arcade run and gun shooting. Addictive just one more round gameplay Fun when played with multiple people Narrator is the voice actor of Mother Brain from Captain N the Game Master The Bad Suffers from the "Call of Duty Effect" - Enemy in crosshairs, pull trigger, WTF how are you not fucken dead!!! Take forever to level up and all upgrades cost to much gold. Your basically forced to grind for gold if you want better weapons. The Ugly They list it as a single player and they say there is a campaign ... there is not. You can play by yourself, but God Mode was designed from the ground up as a multiplayer game. Spawn points are always in the middle of a horde of enemies. Then you die again. Overall Atlus and Old School have a very good game on their hands, but it is held back by bad design choices and a overall rushed product. They can fix it with patches and I hope they do, because I want to see God Mode to do good. Overall an enjoyable, but a flawed game.

Bought Leviathan Warship today on Steam. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ab9e764D7cI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> The game is a really solid strategy game. Going in the only reference I had was the "jazzy" trailers, so I thought It would be a watered down arcade/casual style strategy game, but Leviathan is a deep game. Surprising for a game that is also on tablets. Leviathan is divided into two phases - Planning and Outcomes. Planning phase is where you give movement and targeting orders to your ships. When you're done with the planning phase you hit the "commit" button and you switch to outcome phase which you sit back and watch the results of your orders. Two types of weapons - Autofire and Manual. Autofire can be used as manual or set to autofire. Manual weapons are more advance weaponry like the Rocket Turret and can only be fired with manual input. Your ships can be damaged. Bridge Damage - Ship will have a reduced field of vision Out of Control - You have no control over that ships heading. It will go where it wants too. Engine Damage - You lose the ability to move your ship. It's basically stuck in the water. High Armor Piercing will do double damage on Low Armor Low Armor Piercing will do less damage on High Armor Low Armor Piercing will do regular damage on Low Armor High Armor Piercing will do regular damage on High Armor That is just barely scratching the surface. Like I said the game is pretty deep, but easy to pick-up. Reminds me a lot of Steel Horizon on the DS in that way. The in-game music is not jazzy like the trailer, but Paradox is releasing free "Jazz Boatman" DLC in the near future. That DLC pack will have in-game commentary by Jazz Boatman with smooth jazz music in-game. On the subject of DLC. Non-mandatory DLC like new ships packs for MP cost cash - around $4 and the MP map pack I think was around $2 and change. All mandatory DLC looks to be free. Highly recommend this game for strategy buffs. If any of you do get this game look me up on Steam for some ship your pants navel combat.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/R_XIcN33C9M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> The name brings up fond memories of the late 1980's hit American TV show Airwolf and the Sega arcade game Thunder Blade, but sadly Thunder Wolves does not live up to the standards of those two classics . That's not to say Thunder Wolves is a bad game, well it is a bad game, but not in the sense that it sucks. Confusing I know, but think of Thunder Wolves as a B grade game - cheese, campy and a guilty pleasure. You know you should not like Thunder Wolves, but it just puts a smile on your face. The plot feels like a 1980's buddy action flick. You play as a rookie helicopter pilot for a mercenary organization and your partnered with Max - a smart ass, slightly misogynistic douche bag with a mullet. I'm also pretty sure that he drives a Trans Am and listens to Def Leopard, but the game does not confirm that fact. Both you, your female commander and sometime the baddies takes Max's childish verbal abuse throughout the game. The script is just horribly written and would fit well in a Jason Statham or Stallone flick. The jokes are lame and the dialog between characters seem to take second place to the action. The combat is a weird mix of rails shooting and free roaming. It was like the developer wanted to give players free control over how they complete missions, but decided to force you down a predetermined path. A lot of the gameplay feels a lot like a 3D version of EA's Strike franchise and you even complete very similar task to those in the Strike games. The thing that truly holds Thunder Wolves back is the shitty camera system. Which will zoom in for an Resi style over the shoulder viewpoint, which is great for clearing the battlefield in combat while hovering, a standard pulled back behind the helicopter and a under the helicopter looking up viewpoint ............... which is great for navigating terrain Like many other B-grade games - Earth Defense Force, OneChanbara and Deadly Premonition, Thunder Wolves grows on you and you end up liking it more then it really deserves.

I really loved Sacred and Sacred 2: Fallen Angels, so I’m not sure why I first passed on Citadel. But I finally picked up a digital copy of the game on Steam the other day and I am loving every minute of this campy arcade hack n’slash. The story is very Saturday morning cartoonish. The Seraphim have laid down their weapons and have taken up a peaceful life of piety living in the Citadel. Ashen empire has used an Orc-like race called the Grimmoc to wipe out the Seraphim, so It up to you and your friends (if you play three player co-op) to save the land of Ancaria. Sacred Citadel is a prequel to the upcoming Sacred 3. The event in Citadel will build up to the story of Sacred 3. You pick from one of four classes – Safiri warrior, Ancarian ranger, Khukuri shaman and the Seraphim mage. Sadly The Temple Guardian from Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is not one of the classes in Citadel, but I will live. Mounts also make a return, which mixes up combat a bit. Enemies use them in battle and you knock them off to steal them à la Golden Axe. Loot drops range from potion, gold, armor and weapons. You can only carry three of each potion – Health, Rage and Power. You also have a limit backpack and can only carry one armor set and three weapons – main, secondary and power. If you want to swap out you weapons to something you found earlier in the game just visit the blacksmith in town. There is currently one piece of DLC available called Jungle Hunt it adds some more levels and story. Hopefully Deep Sliver has plans for more DLC. The map look like it can hold an act six, seven and eight. The visuals and audio are very well done. I would highly recommend this to fans of 2D hack n’ slash games and Sacred fans. 9/10

What is it? Well it's Diablo 3, even down to the 'mmo' aspects, only it's free to play and lets you play as Marvel characters. I'm not a big fan of most of the sentence I've written above, but I've quite enjoyed my afternoon playing Marvel Heroes. You get a few free characters to choose from, off the top of my head there's Storm and The Thing (who I played as), I saw a lot of Hawkeye so I think he might be free, but then I got a drop that let me unlock him, so that's a bit shit if he was already free. As it is I don't really have any particular fondness for any Marvel character, not that I hate them all but there isn't any one character I'd desperately want to play as, so The Thing is fine for me, he's a melee character which is generally how I play anyway I've got to say the online aspect of it is pretty well done. You can pretty much play it solo, and when I've been in 'dungeons' (be it a lab or a subway) I've not seen anyone, on the more overworld parts, the streets leading up to the sewer for example, I've seen a fair few people. On the right side of the HUD there's often messages, usually it's what your mission is, but it'll pop up with events, such as defeat Electro, they're for everyone, so it might get done before you get to him, but it's pretty cool when you stumble on one then all of a sudden loads of other people rush in. I haven't actually seen anything that's been asking for real world money yet, not that it isn't there, there's costumes and characters to buy, but it's not shoving it in your face. A word of warning though, it's a 10 gig download, but so far it's been pretty playable without spending a penny

Been playin' Mini Motor Racing Evo from developer The Binary Mill on my PC. At first look Mini Motor is a clone of Digital Reality's Bang Bang Racing. Give it a closer look and you will see that while a clone, it is superior to BBR in every way. Forty different tracks, day and night cycles, changing weather, better visuals, MP custom track editor with Steamwork support and bonus exclusives like Portal and Team Fortress 2 themed tracks and vehicles put this above and beyond Digital Reality's classic racer. The camera is also closer to the action and not a pulled back as Bang Bang. This gives you better look at the detailed tracks and cartoony vehicles. Sadly, I would not recommend Mini Motors to my casual gaming friends. In fact I would recommend the lesser, but highly enjoyable Bang Bang Racing. This is solely due to the controls and the overly malicious AI. First the controls. They took a while to get use too, but I love them. Gas is set to the right trigger of whatever gamepad you use on your PC. There is no brakes ..... at all. Boost and other goodies are assigned to the A button. You use the left analog stick to steer. Steering is basically flicking the sticks around the corners. This might sound simple to most, but don't be fooled it's takes time to master. Now onto the AI. The AI vehicles will ram you and often. Turn a corner and the AI will use nitro boost to ram your car or truck sideways into the wall like a roided out hockey player. At green flag starts the car behind you will use nitro boost to pit stop your car or truck, spinning you around in circles. With that said I really like this game, but with out some changes Mini Motors will only be playable to the most hardcore of digital race drivers. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5BE_cvcO074" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I would just put this in the mobile thread but there's a PC version and I think a few of us might end up playing it. on paper it sounds like Puzzle Quest, it's an rpg based around match-3, where what you match dictates your actions. So if you want to attack you need to match 3 swords or 3 wands, if you need to unlock something you need to match 3 keys (or more). Unlike Puzzle Quest you don't have health, instead you're progressing along the top of the screen, the quicker you beat an enemy or unlock a door the longer you get to play. If you take too long or take damage you get knocked back to the edge of the screen which means ending your run. You need to collect wood and stone to repair rooms back in your home screen, these rooms are where the stat increases are kept, which means you get better, which means you last longer. You need gold to buy stuff, sometimes experience, and eventually you can upgrade the rooms (worth it for the first skills room you open because you'll max that stuff out pretty quick. I've probably explained it pretty badly, but it's Game Dev Story addictive. I think it's about £2 on phones, but there's no in-app purchase bullshit, it's just about doing repeated runs, and harder runs once you've met the bonus requirements

Picked this up on the weekend for 12 quid, because i wanted to get it ages ago but had heard bad things about it. Its alright, itd different to a lot of the FPS games out there at the minute. Its a little bit like if Bioshock had a multiplayer mode. It doesnt look anywhere near as good as bioshock, and to be honest, theres not really a single player game in there anywhere. The songle player is literally learning to use the powers and then playing a match against bots.. I can imagine it being quite a lot of fun against other players, although it takes a while to get used to the powers and you will need to have played for a while before you are anywhere near good. The game is played in a series of rounds and if you die, then you are dead until the next round, unless somebody has the 'resurect' power and then you can be brought back to life once per round, provided the person who brought you back doesnt die(it can be quite complicated, and you really do need to play a few games to get to grips with it). Some of the powers are quite good, theres teleport which moves you 8 metres along in the direction you are traveling, allowing you to move through walls and up or down floors. There are powers like strangle which creates a kind of rocky plant thing which grabs and injures anyone attempting to pass through it. There is a gust power, which is effectively a push, you can turn yourself into smoke which means you take no damage from bullets or falls, but you get seriously hurt if someone uses a gust. There are other powers and a fancy system for using magic, and theres guns too. Its not a terrible game but you need to bare with it and its very much a mulitplayer game, that you need to be good at to enjoy, and much as I enjoyed playing it, I cant recommend picking it up unless you find it cheap.

Either I'm blind or at least 3 of you are lazy bastards. So, it's Hitman through and through and I'm happy not to have found the criticisms accurate at all. The amount of content and replayability is thrown into your face immediately and the controls are introduced in a fine way. The levels so far have been varied and each one looks real pretty. Even when there's 100's of people walking around. I was concerned the pedestrians would resemble a Fifa crowd (100 of them blow their nose, then the other 100 all bend down and tie their laces) but they're mostly unique as far as I can tell. The music is great, as Hitman's usually are and the cinematics are nice to look at. So I really like it.. Oh and there's a lot of Easter Eggs.

Dear Esther came out last night, it's a source engine game and as far as I can tell its selling point is how it looks and its atmosphere. I'm not fully clued up on the story, I think that's deliberate, but you have gone to an island in the Hebrides looking for Esther, whoever or whatever that is. Thoughts are given through a spoken diary (not a selectable diary, more you see something and the guy narrates his wistful memories), and you wander round aimlessly for a while. It's not all that aimless though as like Stanley Parable there's only so many paths, if you're meant to be somewhere you'll end up there. But you do walk in to the first house wondering if you're meant to be doing something. It all looks very cold and windy, it reminds me of a few holidays I went on as a kid, and it is dripping with atmosphere thanks to the howls of wind and seamless way the music starts up. I've no idea what it's going to end up being, but the markings on the walls suggest it's not going to stay as plane as it has been. Feels very arthouse and, with all due respect, pointless so far, but it's clearly telling a story so you cant judge it in the first chapter

I had a quick look to see if there was a thread on this already and couldn't see one. I can understand why, as there's very little to the game itself, but t really deserves on, because that premise is fantastically simple but fiendishly difficult. You rotate an arrow while walls come into the centre and try to carve a path between the gaps for as long as you can, in the meantime the screen pulses and rotates trying to throw you off your stroke. It really is one of those zen games where you start watching yourself play and wonder how the fuck you just did it. Here's my best time in the short time I've spent with it. Those squares really fuck my shit up!

A bit of background, Thirty Flights of Loving is the game you get if you backed the Idle Thumbs kickstarter. I didn't do that, but it's now up on steam for a few quid. I was blind going in to it, I've never even heard of the prequel only that people were looking forward to this, so I didn't know what to expect. It's a first person game with minimal interaction, a bit like Dear Esther. You go where the game leads you, bewildered as it jump cuts from one scene or time to another. At first it feels a bit like you're missing something in the environment, but it soon clicks that it's an interactive story, full of quick cuts and montages, bouncing through its timeline so you don't know what's going on. Which is where I have a bit of a problem with it. The game kept crashing on me, booting up at the wrong resolution, freezing, so I've seen parts of that game 3 or 4 times, but I still had questions when it finished. I read around a bit about the plot and there's some things I completely missed, nothing that I'm going to spoil here, but stuff that should have been more apparent and cost the experience. To be positive about it, the papercraft style graphics are awesome, the sound is brilliant, and it has some really nice, funny touches to it. I'll give it a 2nd play through to see if what I read was right, and it does include the first game as part of the package (Gravity Bone). I do however feel a tad ripped off, it's cheaper than Dear Esther (although a fraction of the length) and I loved that, so I think it is purely down to one having more impact than the other if you got it through kickstarter then it's definitely an interesting play through. If you didn't then it's still interesting, but maybe not so fantastic that you should rush out and buy it

I was checking out Greenlight, which I haven't done in a while, thanks to Floyd's thread, and one of the more recent games is a game called Depression Quest, which is also free to play at www.depressionquest.com It's an awful name so I wasn't sure what to expect from it, but it's a text adventure type thing set very much in the real world. You have depression, a girlfriend you rarely see, you have a job you hate. you get a chunk of text telling you about the days events and then you get to make a decision, depending on how depressed you are some of the options will be unavailable, the music will change, they'll be more static on the page. It's really well done, it's not overly dramatic, which I think makes it more effective. It's uncomfortable though, there were a few gut punches in there, a few things that were very close to home. It's hard to say whether anyone who's suffered from depression should play it or not, it's probably a good way of seeing that you aren't alone, but it's sniper accurate

More or less the same gameplay as the first but I only played the demo of that. Visually, though, it is pretty different as it's gone for a more cel-shaded look which really suits it, seeing as it's come from a comic book graphic novel. It's pretty grim and gory at times and Mike Patton is back on full, deranged extreme metal vocal style. Also, a brilliant way to open the game with a bang.

https://warframe.com/ It's a free-to-play 3rd person online co-op shooter (a F2P3POCS? Could catch on) from Digital Extremes with minor influences from Mass Effect, Borderlands and an art style borrowed from Dark Sector. The art was what drew me to it in the first place and after watching the Giant Bomb Quick Look I thought it looked pretty solid. There's a closed beta going on atm, I've just grabbed a key and will be having a go over the weekend if anyone fancies it. Giant Bomb Quick Look: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UiX-Lp360Ek" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

WARNING: DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. Rewarding these people for creating this trash is just encouraging them. I managed to play it for about 2 hours before I realised my brain had liquified and was dripping out of my ear. The intro is the best part, it nails the feel of the show, but then it sucker punches you with it's badness. I think the gif from Kotaku's review is perfectly succinct: http://kotaku.com/5991559/the-walking-dead-survival-instinct-is-the-worst-game-ive-played-this-year Worst two hours of my life

Today was a great day. No scratch that today was a most excellent day. Today I joined Ubisoft ManiaPlanet and got my hands on the open beta of Trackmania 2 Stadium. I spend a lot of time with the classic Trackmania games and I can honestly say Trackmania 2 lives up to my expectations in every way. The game runs flawlessly on my Inspiron 5040m. I mean fucken FLAWLESSLY!! This is surprising as the 8-bit wannabe Stealth Bastard Deluxe and beautifully hand drawn Hell Yeah have issues running on the 5040m. I'm planning on buying both Trackmania 2 Stadium when it drops next month and Trackmania 2 Canyon later this week. I’m also quit interested in Questmania, which is an user generated RPG. Sounds a bit like World of WarCrack meets MineCrack. Hopefully they show something off at E3 this year. I was also looking at ShootMania, which I would be interested in trying if enough people here are interested. You can get the ManiaPlanet games and access the ManiaPlanet hub trough the Steam client.

So, who has bought it then? I'm downloading the demo so that I can play it tonight. I have my MS Points at the ready (they arrived today, a sign?), although I'm not that keen on shelling out 1200 on an Arcade game. But, going by Eurogamer's 10/10 review, I think I may have to.

I've spent a few hours playing this now so thought I'd put something up here, because I think it'd appeal to some of you. Miasmata is a first-person adventure/survial game for Windows, available from Steam and GOG.com. When you start a new game, the intro text identifies you as a man called Robert Hughes. You are infected with a plague and are looking for a cure. At the start you wash up on the shore of a lush, green (and rocky) island and head off to search for your cure. As you head inland you find huts, a map and compass and a few notes to get you started. as you go along you find scraps of notes an journals from the scientists who were here trying to find a cure, and build up an idea that something has gone wrong. There's no HUD, and your map is pretty much empty apart from what you find on scraps of paper, and what you fill in yourself. Pretty early on you find a lab, and get instructions on analysing plants and using them to create medicines. This is pretty much essential to keep the fever at bay. The cartography and orienteering is really interesting and satisfying. You find where you currently are by getting out the map and clicking on a known landmark. This will draw a line on the map through the landmark in the direction you're looking. Do the same with another known landmark and where the lines intersect is where you are. You can also triangulate unknown/undiscovered landmarks from 2 different locations to triangulate them and add them to the map. The game is incredibly tense and atmospheric. The mapping is challenging but rewarding. Getting lost in the woods as the sun starts to set, without a visible landmark and just a branch as a makeshift torch is actually quite scary. I did just that the other night, when suddenly something growled. It was a pretty low, menacing growl. I panicked a little bit and span around to see where it came from, and that's when I fell off a cliff into the water and drowned.

Not sure how to embed Giant Bomb videos from their new site so here's a link to how it plays - http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/quick-look-zeno-clash-ultimate-edition/2300-2338/ It's fucking weird. The gameplay itself is pretty odd as it's a first-person brawler (with the odd bit of shooting) but the art style, setting and characters are just plain off the chart. I think I'm somewhere near the end and it keeps threatening to reveal the major plot point from the beginning of why you killed Father-Mother which is a giant crow-human thing which gives birth to everyone in your village. I got it on the cheap the other week and I'm enjoying it but a couple of sections have proved annoying, where someone chucks bombs at you while you have to shoot him/her/it. Anyone else played it? Couldn't find a thread on it or even a post in the random PC thread.

A proper sequel to Anomaly is coming to Windows, Linux (w00t!!! More Linux support!!) and Mac this summer from 11bit studios. http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/02/28/anomaly-2-bringing-more-tower-offense-this-summer.aspx

I've put a couple hours into GRID today, and it's very good indeed. It's graphically the best racer I've played, and it all runs super smooth even with multiple cars and crashes going on at the same time. The handling takes a short while to adjust to, but now I feel very confident in chucking my car into a corner and flooring it out of the bend. The drift events which were my least favourite part of the demo are actually very good. By default the traction control is set to on, turning this off made the car nice and slippy, ideal for drfiting and getting decent multipliers! The presentation is spot on, and everything is laid out nicely. As you progress through the World Tour, you get sponsors. These sponsors can help you get extra points for achieving certain criteria in a race, providing you are wearing their decals on your motor. Earning money allows you to buy more cars and enter events. You also earn reputation for completing events. The three main area's are US, Europe, and Japan, each focusing on a different style of racing. There is also the Le Mans 24hr which instead of taking a whole day to finish (Gran Turismo 4, I'm looking at you and your 24hr Nurbugring race), it takes 24 minutes. It takes you through the day-night cycle throughout. There are even Formula 3000 cars in here, which are super fast and handle brilliantly. If the F3000 part of GRID is a taste of what to expect from the forthcoming Formula One game from Codemasters, then it's going to be something special. From what I have played so far, the racing is intense and action packed, keeping you on your toes. The AI seems excellent, you will see cars ahead of you spinning out after they have misjudged a corner for example, and they generally put up a good fight. It's not a sim, so don't go getting this if you want this to be the next Forza because it isn't, and isn't trying to be. It's more in the vein of PGR4, although it isn't as arcadey as that. Try it with all the assists off though, and you are in for a huge challenge. If you like racers, it's pretty much an essential purchase.

I played a few minutes of Home. Don't know why i naively thought it wouldn't be creepy. Speakers all the way...

I'm such a noob at times. I've never played more than a few minutes of Doom 3 before as it just past me by. No idea why I never got it at the time: I had an Xbox, I was quite into shooters at the time and I like monsters. Can't really figure out why I wasn't there. Maybe it was because it had some negative reception, I dunno. Anyway, I'm playing it now and I'm quite surprised how much I'm enjoying it. All it is is a ghost train with monsters you shoot at and it overuses the 'spawn enemies behind you' trick a bit to often as I've learned to pretty much always check my 6 (maybe that's the point?) but I've3 been yelping and laughing my way through, always being slightly lost, so it's not like it isn't fun. Though I do wish the weapons had more kick to them, like I just wish it felt a bit better killing things. On this collection Doom and Doom 2 are also there, and I've also never played Doom... I got Doom 2 on sale on XBLA and played it a bit. I actually really enjoyed my brief time with it and I'm liking Doom even more. That's a game that's still fun to play. The movement feels like you're coasting and sometimes there are loads of enemies and weaving about while shooting that hellishly satisfying shotgun is some top gaming. I think that's what annoys about Doom 3 a little; I wish the shooting felt as good as that. So yeah, it's 2013 and I think I may have just properly discovered Doom. Dunno if you've heard but it's good.