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In today's Fix roundup, Titanfall gets private matches and Peter Molyneux says the Kinect is history.

Ambient first-person puzzler Fract is gearing up for a PC release later this month via Steam, Good Old Games and the Humble Store, developer Phosfiend Systems announced this week.

In Fract, players build and shape their surroundings by solving puzzles, bringing derelict machinery to life against a backdrop of customizable electronic music. Fract's development was backed by Indie Fund, a company that previously supported indie standouts Monaco, Dear Esther and Antichamber.

Fract will be released for Windows, Mac and Linux on April 22. Pre-orders are available now at a 10 percent discount. [Image: Phosfiend Systems]

Python Anghelo, the artist behind many iconic illustrations from the golden age of arcade gaming, passed away at his home yesterday after an extended battle with cancer.

Born in 1954, Anghelo created marquee and cabinet artwork for Williams' landmark 1982 arcade game Joust. Anghelo had a prolific career in the pinball industry afterward, working as an artist and designer for tables like Pin*Bot, Taxi, Fish Tales and High Speed.

Friend Paul Kiefert confirmed Anghelo's passing yesterday. Kiefert established a GoFundMe project to pay for Anghelo's cancer treatment last month, earning nearly $20,000 in donations from friends, family and devoted fans.

"I can say with 100 percent certainty that with the help of this great Pinball Community we were able to deliver great joy and happiness during his final time on this earth and that the legend most people knew will continue to be honored for generations to come," Kiefert wrote. [Image: Williams / Arcade Crusade]

Is Sapphire’s Tri-X Radeon R9 290 the world’s best graphics card? I think it just might be. OK, it’s only the best graphics card in the world in a given context – one in which you’re willing and able to cough up £330 for a graphics card. Likewise, a few other add-in board makers have similarly impressive custom-cooled offerings based on the R9 290 chipset. And somehow all this would hang together a bit better if the Tri-X was available for £290, which is the figure I’d hoped the R9 290 would have to slipped to by now (damn you, cryptocurrencies!). But the Tri-X still ticks all my boxes, I reckon it’s right in the sweet spot and I’m going to explain why. In other news, last week I saw the most exciting thing in gaming since I gazed fecklessly at the goldfish-bowl-proportioned cathode ray tube that masqueraded as a PC monitor and experienced hardware T&L and filtered textures (Tomb Raider on a TNT2, if you must) for the first time. The funny thing is, the bit I’m most excited about I haven’t even seen. I’m talking Elite: Dangerous. I’m talking TrackIR. I’m talking Oculus Rift DK2. … [visit site to read more]

The name sounds cute until you learn about the very real, very possible doomsday scenario that could eat us all alive.

IGN will have more details on the new game immediately after the panel.

Battlefield 2, Bad Company 2, and 2142 will all be safe after the May shutdown.

You might remember that we liked sleepy-as-the-night, sharp-as-a-knife adventure Kentucky Route Zero quite a lot. We even gave it game of the year, doncha know. So when Last Life creator Sam Farmer told me his game was best described as “Kentucky Route Zero in space,” I nearly warbled with glee. The noir-themed tale of a detective trying to solve the mystery of his own murder has Double Fine‘s blessing and backing, and it’s taking to Kickstarter for one more boost. I sat down with Farmer for what turned out to be his first interview ever, and we discussed Last Life’s universe and story, Sherlock-style inspection mechanics, Double Fine’s involvement, what it means to be “noir,” and transhumanism. It’s all below.

… [visit site to read more]

The just-announced sequel goes online, free, and competitive.

“I would not be exaggerating if I were to say I think this is the most influential month of development so far,” says Josh Parnell. I’ve been used to letting the Limit Theory dev diaries just play, letting gaming’s equivalent of Bob Ross talk and relax me. Perhaps that’s why I’m so happy the game is being made? He’s pulling some sort of high-level vocal massage trick. Well it didn’t work in this update, because he’s very excited about this month’s work on his Elite-like space game. It was the month where he decided to focus on simulating the economy: creating a swarm of NPCs ships in a single sector and examining how they react to supply and demand. He’s breathing life into his gorgeous universe.

… [visit site to read more]

Right, I’m calling in a favour. I really want to play Dead Synchronicity. This is in a large part due to my having played the first half hour or so, and its being properly good. It would be awfully kind if people could get the game funded so I can eventually carry on. And you too.

… [visit site to read more]

Supergiant Games will showcase a near-final build of the action RPG at PAX East.

Roguelike-like RPG Dragon Fin Soup first caught our collective composite eye last month, when all we had to judge it by was a short trailer, a few screenshots, and some words from the developers about how cool they think their game is. Oh, what wide-eyed innocents we were! How trusting! How naive! How… actually quite pleasant the game does actually look in a new 24-minute gameplay video with developer commentary.

… [visit site to read more]

The third chapter of Telltale’s adventure game adaptation of the ‘what if fairy tales were real and lived in New York?’ comic Fables was released on Tuesday. I played it on Wednesday. I then published an article about it on Thursday. I might play it again on Friday. Here’s why.

Ah, that’s much better. After such a strong start – for me, the most compelling Telltale opener yet – The Wolf Among Us hit lengthy and mysterious delays, followed by a disappointingly perfunctory episode 2. It left me wondering if the series was playing for time, but now it has had that time. Fortunately, it seems to have paid off. Longer, with many more decisions, a stronger sense of consequence and a wise focus on character development above melodrama, this series can once again be said to be a wolf rather than a poodle. … [visit site to read more]

Gaming filth pedlar and current vagabond Cara Ellison covered Alpha Muse almost a year ago, but I am returning to it and you can’t stop me. Thpptptpt! It’s one of those games that exist around the notion that music can be teased into the shape of a game. In its case, you’re floating through an underwater world and every creature you meet is a musical element. You act as a muse* to these creatures, dragging them around as a flock. There’s a pretty trailer beneath, musos.

… [visit site to read more]

Jim spotted Vektropolis back in 2012, and then there was nothing. Well, that’s not strictly true. There was nothing from the developers about the game, but in general terms stuff did occur, and you all lived through it. Now Vektropolis is happening again, joining the world as a bouncing baby Kickstarter game, and looking for £50,000 to fund what looks to be a city-defense, open-world sort of G-Police thing. Genre-ific.

… [visit site to read more]

Follow me, readers. We shall wander through a metaphorical world of cardboard and shelves, passing things that once were but now are not. Here is one. It is labelled Human Sacrifice. Let us ponder the significance of the metaphor within this metaphor. Look, there’s one that says Leech Therapy. And over there is another that is labelled Whigfield. There is no box labelled War. Do you see? We are getting closer, closing in on the recent past–be careful to not slip on the Pogs–and the box of game demos should be just about… wait. That can’t be. It was here the other day. No! NO! That means we can’t stop game demos from being released. They said this day would come! NoooOooooOOOoo...

Wait. That’s a good thing. Everyone release demos! What’s that, Wadjet Eye Games? You’ve released a demo of The Blackwell Epihpany? Hooray!

… [visit site to read more]

The newly revealed MMO is focused on player ownership and experience.

Kittymari Demolishy simulator Catlateral Damage is the first game announced as part of Fire Hose Games' accelerator/incubation program.

Catlateral Damage sailed through the Steam Greenlight process and won the People's Choice and Indie Prototype awards at the 2014 MassDigi Game Challenge.

The game's developer, Chris Chung, told us at the time that he was looking to get the game out soon, but he was dealing with promotion and pipeline issues common to indie development. It appears he'll be working with Fire Hose Games to get over that hurdle. The game in its current incarnation will be playable at the Indie Megabooth at PAX East this week.

Ubisoft says that Red Storm will assist Massive in creating authentic weaponry for the MMO shooter.

Being from Texas, I can count the number of snowmen I’ve built on one hand. Being from Texas, they were also about the size of said one hand. I did get the chance to slap together a bulbous yeti of truly epic proportions in college, though. I took so much pride in that dumb thing that I nearly tried to put a hit out on whomever kicked it down during that coldest of winter nights. I can identify with A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build‘s title, is what I’m saying. The game itself, however, is probably not what you’re expecting – a thing of snow-white relaxation and contemplation, not astute snowperson defense. It’s a simple yet wickedly challenging puzzler from Sokobond designer Alan Hazelden, with lovably, huggably soft personality to match.

Each snowperson has a name. A name! Awwwwwwwww.

… [visit site to read more]

Statistically speaking, you are probably not Ken Levine. That’s fine. I’m not him, either. And neither is Graham. But thanks to all the silicon and electricity and stuff, you can at least be a bit like him. One of the ways in which he’s been special recently is in the role of cheerleader for the Chaos Reborn Kickstarter, where he’s been championing Julian Gollop’s return. He has already played (or should that now be ‘Let’s Played’?) the hexy beast, and now you can too. Head here to grab the time-limited prototype of the strategic wiz thing, and bring some friends.

… [visit site to read more]

Everyone's read about pro gaming success stories. But what about the teams that don't make it? Is the money really there?

Mysterious things, boxes. What’s in them? Biscuits, cats, our wife’s severed head… we simply won’t know until we open them. How enigmatic this makes The Evil Within‘s villainous Boxman, so named because he’s a man with a box on his head. What ever could this box contain! It’s quite comforting, though. Seeing Boxman and co in a new trailer for the scare-o-shooter reminds me of Resident Evil 4, which is certainly welcome. We’ve got cruel countryfolk, silly science, mansion deathtraps, honking great fleshy monsters, and characters taking very seriously things which are quite absurd.

Capcom have clearly lost the knack of making good Resident Evil games, not to mention that it’s drowning with tons of horrible lore pushing it down into dark waters, but perhaps other people can nail that tone. To a wall. Then write something cryptic in blood. Then a shocked character cries “Wha- what is this!”

… [visit site to read more]

Rehearsals and Return is the new game from (primarily) Peter Brinson, creator of the remarkable art/history/politics vignette The Cat & The Coup. This shares a certain cut-up appearance and a maudlin tone (well, depending on how you approach it), but it’s a rudimentary platform game set to surrealistic, sometimes chaotic backgrounds, wherein you collect dialogue options then make decisions about how to treat assorted famous and infamous figures. And a few less famous ones too.

At present it costs just $1, and will eventually rise to $4. This is a discussion of the experience I had with it, not of its value proposition. … [visit site to read more]

VoidExpanse strikes me somewhat as an inevitability. The years of Eve coupled with Elite and Star Citizen’s stratospheric success means a lower budget, retro-styled take on the same idea was viable. Its isometric viewpoint sets it apart from those peers, as does its extremely unpolished, early access state. As with any member of the space trading, exploring, bang-banging massive, the promise of the final game is an incredibly enticing one. The difficulty is seeing through the crashes, balance issues and unfinished mechanics to judge its core worth. VoidExpanse made that especially challenging, but there’s hope.

… [visit site to read more]

Boldly go where no Claptrap has gone before.

A new Borderlands set between the original and Borderlands 2 is on its way.

Sony Online Entertainment, the studio behind EverQuest and Planetside 2, is teasing a major reveal.

It’s testament to Armello that as someone with very little experience of board games, upon seeing it running I was immediately entranced. The tabletop-inspired PC game is a vividly alive and remarkably gorgeous turn-based hexxy strategy, that would normally be the sort of thing I’d walk right past. But when it was on display in GDC’s indie quarters this year, I not only didn’t walk right past, but stopped and stared and chatted for ages. And that’s not least because the game will offer a single-player role-playing adventure for soloists like me, as well as cross-platform (PC and eventually tablet) multiplayer for more sociable types. You can see it running below. Oh, and there’s a Kickstarter.

… [visit site to read more]