Alec Meer
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Rock Paper ShotgunLatest Reviews
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 island I bungled, just to spare me from doing the same starting loops of minor buildings again and again. On the other hand, this would be entirely against the snowballing nature of the game, and as such is an entirely terrible suggestion on my part.
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 a logjam somewhere). Such ugly chips on the tub's enamel disappear once it's filled with lovely bubbles.
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 long, slow journeys through places in equal parts beautiful and monstrous, even if the collect/deposit a box objectives can be wearisome. The soundtrack's gorgeous too; like so many other elements of Skies, it's a delicate amplification of what made Sea so distinctive.
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.
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 convinced was I that I must be missing something or playing it wrong, but now I have reached an inescapable conclusion. If you want a picture of BattleTech, imagine a giant robo-tank silently firing an ineffective laser at another giant robot-tank - forever.
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 is a platform for wonderful things here, but if Rare don't build new things atop it PDQ, it will soon crumble forever.
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, tinnier soundtrack), I see the scribbly art whose looped, toonish animations conjure a thousand times more character than almost any multi-million photorealistic megahit I can think of, and I feel warm and welcome and happy and where I'm supposed to be.
Technical addendum: Dead Rising 4 has a few issues, the most frustrating one being that several of its cutscenes cause it to crash to desktop. The only way to avoid this was to skip the cutscenes, which I was able to do with zero regret. It also has a number of bugs, such as clipping errors, disappearing items and friendly NPCs which spawned half a dozen duplicates of themselves who then spoke in a terrifying chorus. Bar the crashing, none of these things meaningfully interrupted the experience, but it could definitely use a patch or two.
THUMPER, with its minimum of menus and explanation and guidance is absolutely pure, to the point that those who do not enjoy its light-from-darkness aesthetic will think it too small, to samey, too one-note, too much about the same sound playing forever. Perhaps it really can offer nothing to those people, or perhaps accepting that is it very fucking sincerely intended to be the same state of mind held for an eternity will let it seep into their veins after all. For the rest of us, let it take its place alongside Devil Daggers, reigning in hell.
But, sadly, not this one - not for me, at least. 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.