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Gone Home was an inspired, beautifully heartfelt thing that clearly had a profound affect on people of multiple codes and creeds. It was powerful, delicate, and… we’ve probably said everything about it that it’s possible for one website largely made up of hairy men to say. At some point, it becomes time to move forward and explore new territory. That’s exactly what Steve Gaynor, Karla Zimonja, and the rest of the Gone Home team are doing right now: exploring. They don’t know precisely what form their next game will take just yet, but in a lengthy (and frankly, often very silly) interview, they let me inside their creative process. Go below to find out what lies beyond Gone Home for the Fullbright Company. 

… [visit site to read more]

Drunken Robot Pornography is an FPS/bullet hell mash-up in which you wear a jetpack and shoot a whole load of robots, while your own robo-suit makes a whole load of quips. It’s out now, and I played a bit of it earlier.

Was that giant mecha-octopus-thing wearing a top hat? Maybe I imagined it. Everything moves so fast, it’s gone (i.e. dead, or has deaded me) before I get a chance to look at it. It’s like a canal ride by speedboat. “Was that a duckling? Wait, did we just pass a castle? Is this Manchester already? Oh God, watch out for that…” [DEAD].

Only with a jetpack rather than a boat. And in the future rather than on a quiet waterway. And with huge, deadly, robots rather than ducks and Manchester. Er. Okay, look, Dejobaan’s Drunken Robot Pornography is a first-person bullethellish shmup that throws more at the screen than there’s possibly time to see, and tries extremely hard – too hard, perhaps – to be funny. Oh bollocks, I think I’ve just written my conclusion right at the start of this piece. … [visit site to read more]

Check out our hands-on previews of Avalanche 2: Super Avalanche, Blood of the Werewolf, Videoball, and Krautscape.

First-person puzzling is a genre there can never be enough of, and Space Budgie’s Glitchspace is adding itself to the gang. Immediately visually reminiscent of InMomentum, this isn’t so much about speed, but more – well – reprogramming the platforms to allow you to achieve your goals. It’s best that you watch the video.

… [visit site to read more]

Steam Greenlight seems to have settled into a fortnightly routine for approvals, and that means it's time for another 50 games to frolic past the gates and into the heady lands of the Steam marketplace. We'll try to point you towards some of the highlights.

The Star Fox-like Arc Squadron is one of the most recognizable names on there, and the Unreal Engine 3 iOS and Android game is warping to PC now, courtesy of Greenlight. If you prefer your space combat with more Minecraft, the first-person multiplayer of Blockade Runner may be more for you.

Meanwhile, after arcade classic Ikaruga came through Greenlight to launch on Steam this week, the Japanese-styled Danmaku Unlimited 2 is another vertical shoot-em on the way.

Finally, moving away from the space shooter theme, challenging action-RPG A Wizard's Lizard is Steam-bound - and Wii U eShop-bound eventually - and we also like the look of loot-grabbing dungeon-crawler Dwarf Quest.

That's not to say the other 45 games aren't worthy of your perusal, more that it's hard to keep up when Greenlight is pumping 50 at a time every two weeks. Anyway, you can find the full 5-0 of Greenlight approvals here. [Image: Psyonix]

Wurm Online, the long running MMO famously co-created by Notch, is currently Wurm Offline. Some scumbag DDoSpots took the site offline this week, and it’s not yet back up. In response the developers, Code Club AB, have offered a €10,000 reward for “tips leading to a conviction.”

… [visit site to read more]

After 2012′s peculiar diversion into side-scrolling beat-em-up territory, the long-awaited Sacred 3 is finally properly announced, and due to reach us in the Summer months. And this time out, the emphasis is on co-op.

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Graham recognised the brilliance of Democracy 3 in his review while also drawing attention to its limitations. I agree that the joy of the game is in tweaking and plucking, observing the way that a decision influences the cat’s cradle of government, and how the taut lines of the interface tremble and intersect. The new Social Engineering expansion adds 26 new policies and eight new dilemmas. Cliffski explains: “with social engineering you get to influence the population in far subtler ways. From TV ad campaigns to promote healthy eating to free parenting classes, city farms and a smart-meter program”. The scalpel rises and a country dies by a thousand subtle incisions.

… [visit site to read more]

Alleged on-disc DLC is put down to a 'marketing error' and a 'misunderstanding.'

Developer details its three-month plan, shows off new screenshots.

Blizzard's bringing gamers together with clans and communities.

Though exceedingly common in video games, blood and guts are not a necessary component of good design - an oft-forgotten point that developer Gone North Games hopes to demonstrate with its upcoming indie platformer A Story About My Uncle.

Officially described as a "non-violent first-person platform adventure game built in the Unreal Engine," A Story About My Uncle tells the tale of a boy searching for his lost uncle, only instead of finding him down at the pub or watching a baseball game, our protagonist somehow stumbles upon a fantastic world. We urge you to watch the trailer above, as it reiterates all those plot points we just mentioned but does so with the aid of attractive, intriguing visuals.

Originally conceived as a university project, A Story About My Uncle was nominated for a Swedish game of the year award in 2012. That success drew the attention of Coffee Stain Studios - the people responsible for the baffling yet mesmerizing Goat Simulator - which now plans to publish A Story About My Uncle on Steam at some point in 2014. [Image: Gone North Games]

A space strategy game that veers wildly between its brilliant tech tree and its boring combat.

Female Orcs in World of Warcraft got a makeover. What do you think of their new look?

Sega has not been using the property and did not appeal to renew the registration with a declaration of continued use.

Game designer Shawn Elliott and IGN editor Mitch Dyer examine the moral repercussions of Rust's flexible systems.

The recent release of the Beasts of War downloadable content pack for Total War: Rome 2 has ignited a backlash among series fans, who accuse developer Creative Assembly of deliberately withholding finished content from the retail version of the game in order to release it later as paid DLC.

Players claim that the Camel Cataphract units featured in the Beasts of War pack were originally seen in a Creative Assembly-produced Let's Play video prior to Total War: Rome 2's release. The video additionally outed the existence of the Mercenary Naked Swords unit, which wouldn't be seen until the later release of the game's Caesar in Gaul paid DLC.

Players posted these allegations at Creative Assembly's Facebook page and on the official Total War forums. Further complaints arose when forum mods allegedly moved related threads to the Rants and Raves sub-forum, which is only publicly viewable by registered users.

Speaking to Eurogamer, brand director Rob Bartholomew apologized to fans, explaining that the content originally featured in Creative Assembly's Let's Play videos differs significantly from the paid DLC units.

"At the time of this video's recording, these units were not finished in terms of art, gameplay or design and as a marketing team we should have double-checked the likelihood of them making it into the final game," Bartholomew said. "Obviously we don't want to feature content that won't be in the game intentionally, especially when it would otherwise be pointless, as in this case where there was a huge variety of other great units to show off. That's our basic human error and I apologize for letting that through."

Bartholomew additionally detailed company-wide plans to carefully check pre-release content prior to publication, in order to avoid future conflict. "[The units] weren't working pre-launch in the sense that they were finished, being largely placeholder and subject to change," he said. "However, I completely appreciate that this sounds like a 'get out' on a technicality to a fan feeling aggrieved by this, so again I do apologize for not thoroughly checking enough that all content in that video was absolutely ready for public viewing and understanding. We've put checks in place now that should prevent that in the future."

[Image: Creative Assembly]

Microsoft's cloud storage service has changed its name and now offers Achievements on Xbox One.

No release date for the free FTL ‘Advanced Edition’ addon as yet, which makes me an even sadder boy than I already was. Especially in the wake of the new Clone Bay subsystem being revealed.

“The goal of the Clone Bay was to really disrupt the core way you play the game,” the devs have explained. “You’ll be able to send crew off into dangerous situations without fear of death. Giant alien spiders will no longer be the terrifying, unstoppable force that you’re used to, since the system can simply revive your crew after the event.”

“Giant alien spiders will no longer be… terrifying” is a bold claim, isn’t it? … [visit site to read more]

Attention hungry iOS Threes addicts and sad Android users: You, too, can play Threes all day long with the browser game, designed specifically for those who want to spend hours avoiding actual work (or those who forgot their spectacles at home). Seriously, only open this game if you're OK with not doing anything productive the rest of the day.

You already opened it? Oh, man. We warned you.

Threes comes from artist Greg Wohlwend and designer Asher Vollmer, and it's a brilliantly simple premise: On a four-by-four grid, slide numbers together to create larger numbers, all divisible by three. One and two make three, three and three make six, six and six make twelve, and up from there, squishing together the same, three-based numbers to achieve the high score.

The Threes browser game doesn't include the amiable chatter and unique personalities of each number featured in the iOS version, but it has the option to play the game's music. The big version comes from Angela Li, @angelaconstance on Twitter, and it's been approved by Wohlwend and Vollmer.

"We're really flattered that a fan would take the time to put Threes in the browser like this," Wohlwend tells Joystiq. "It's a fan-made, free game that doesn't try to profit from our hard work on Threes. We're currently trying our hardest to stay focused on the next update as well as on porting to Android. While the obvious feelings of 'uh-oh, people really want to play Threes everywhere' kind of permeate our thoughts more and more, and it's hard to focus on what we need to because of that, we feel this homage was done with the right kind of heart."

Free to Play is a feature-length documentary created by Valve.

Uber reveals the first details on the next update for its Kickstarted MMO.

When we first posted about Windborne, Jim commented on what a departure from Hidden Path’s usual fare it was. Social sandboxing is far enough from their bang-bang, pew-pew norm, but the tone is perhaps the biggest change. It’s tranquil in the extreme, expanding the theme of creation and peaceful co-habitation to encompass not only the mechanics but the world as well. They’ve taken the Early Access plunge and I’ve never felt calmer watching a trailer. I’m slightly worried I dreamed the whole experience. Am I even awake now? As a test, check it out below.

… [visit site to read more]

Browser-based RPG Therian Saga is available now in English. Developed by Quebec-based studio Virtys, the game has been building an audience of 50,000 French-speaking players for about a year, but is ready to explore the English lands for vous.

"The focus of our open beta will be to gather as much final feedback from English-speaking players as we can to ensure a smooth and enjoyable launch, which is scheduled for the near future," said Therian Saga Lead Designer François Desrosiers.

We've slowly seen an interesting transition in the browser space with games like last year's Card Hunter. You can sign up now for the game at TherianSaga.com. [Image: Virtys]

Browser-based RPG Therian Saga is available now in the English. Developed by Quebec-based studio Virtys, the game has been building an audience of 50,000 French-speaking players for about a year, but is ready to explore the English lands for vous.

"The focus of our open beta will be to gather as much final feedback from English-speaking players as we can to ensure a smooth and enjoyable launch, which is scheduled for the near future," said Therian Saga Lead Designer François Desrosiers.

We've slowly seen an interesting transition in the browser space with games like last year's Card Hunter. You can sign up now for the game at TherianSaga.com. [Image: Virtys]

In 2011/12, Richard Perrin and his Locked Door Puzzle studio brought us the enigmatic and fascinating Kairo. Journal is utterly dissimilar – a minimalist adventure game about teenage life and loss, driven by conversation choices rather than puzzles or inventories. As RPS’s oldest teenager, here’s wot I think:

… [visit site to read more]

Look, we abhor violence as much as the next website, but when an authoritative disembodied voice tells us to enlist in a space war against evil alien bugs while patriotic horns blare, we find it difficult to argue for diplomatic conflict resolution.

Let’s get real folks: I’m what is colloquially known as a “scaredy cat.” It’s not so much that the more terrifying of this hobby’s fine works prevent me from sleeping as they do prevent me from playing. I got about an hour into an Amnesia Let’s Play before deciding there were other ways to spend my time. A friend had to sit with me for the majority of Outlast, or I never would have got through it. So take it as the highest compliment, or the lowest evaluation of my character, when I say I look forward to probably never fully experiencing sea-bound run-away-’em-up Monstrum. There’s an announcement trailer below the deck if you’re brave enough, but it omits some of the most interesting details.

… [visit site to read more]

As a writer for Rock, Paper, Shotgun I am contractually obliged to know absolutely nothing about the series that Capcom are most recently rebooting. Previously consigned purely to the arcades and consoles, protagonist Strider Hiryu and his menagerie of robots was firmly beyond my grasp. I was disallowed any knowledge of his wall-hanging, ninja-running, platform-jumping ways and any investigation into the original late 80s arcade game, which this remake is based on, was redirected to Monkey Island Studies. Thank goodness for other people’s nostalgia, as from today the pyjama-clad death machine is available on Steam with a launch trailer below, if you’re quick enough.

… [visit site to read more]

The cast and characters of Wolfenstein: The New Order are revealed in a gory new trailer, that also happens to contain the game's release date.