Alec Meer
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Writing For
IGN
Rock Paper ShotgunLatest Reviews
Islanders
Perhaps because of this, though, it runs short on unpredictability after a few sessions, and becomes all about finesse rather than surprise. I'd be interested in a leaderboardless mode that (somehow) either made everything available from the off or gave me the option to restore a game from before the...
Foundation
And this is just the first alpha build. Oh, you'll be able to tell right away that it's an early access affair, from the straight-outta-Windows-95 UI to occasional game-stopping glitches to an outright useless problem-locating system (which means a whole lot of close scrutiny and guesswork when you end with...
Sunless Skies
And so, for all my complaints about Sunless Skies being more Mary-Kate than Elizabeth to Sunless Sea's Ashley Olsen, I've found it very hard to step away from it. It is a place of wonderful sights and terrible people indeed, and I remain a sucker for the atmosphere of its...
Bury me, my Love
These are minor things, but slightly destabilising things. Not to the point that this is not a journey worth making. The intensity of the decisions, the mounting fear when things go wrong or days pass without hearing from your partner, the relief when a message comes, the joy of silliness...
Overland
In practice, as Alice Bee also found in our Below review, there's a sense that its striking art and world remained tethered to early, even rudimentary mechanics with a misjudged sense of hard graft vs accomplishment. A sense that, perhaps, both games have clung doggedly to aggressively punitive ideas that...
Bus Simulator 18
As much as I enjoyed learning the rules and rhythms of bus driving - thanks in part to the warm words of Mira Tannhauser - once that was done, I just couldn't find waters deep enough to swim in for long. On the other hand, Bus Sim 18 mostly smoothly...
Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset is out now for Windows and MacOSX as a £20/$30/€40 upgrade, or a £30/$40/€40 purchase with the base game, via Steam or direct from Bethesda. You'll still get the pre-purchase offers if you buy now, even though you'll get instant access to the game.
MachiaVillain
There are a ton of great ideas here, and I particularly dig this whole concept of a management game that's about a production line for silent slaughter rather than cash-generation as such, but the best stuff can struggle to breathe through the excessive micro-management. The stereotype-heavy gags and iffy translation...
BattleTech
There is something great glinting just below BattleTech's dour and crusty surface. So much now depends on whether future updates will dig for it or not - I pray they do. I've put an inordinate amount of time into playing Battletech, even starting the campaign over at one point, so...
Sea of Thieves
Rare unquestionably need to apply new meat to these beautiful bones. I've enjoyed the ambience of Sea of Thieves so much that I want it to be something that stays in my life for a long time to come, but, in its current state, I know that is impossible. There...
West of Loathing
This doesn't stop WoL from being a joy, though it may mean I drift away from it after a while. For now, whenever I fire it up, I hear the bouncy cowboy soundtrack (itself full of gags, like a tiny wind-up piano you can carry around to play a different,...
Get Even
I recommend it nonetheless. Get Even might not stick the landing, but it works so hard to be to distinctive - there's so much craft in here, as a disturbing psychological experience, as a basic investigation-puzzler (involving scanners and UV lights on your smartphone), even as an oddball shooter, if...