By Alice O'Connor on June 20th, 2014 at 8:00 pm.

Look, Heartwood will not mean to you what it means to me. As I follow spectral animals through a dark grove, I see so much of designer and programmer Kerry Turner, and my friendship with her: riding a miniature steam train in Hove Park, coming close to tears in a magical doll’s house shop, being those terrible tall women cackling through games events, and things I don’t want to talk about. And through Kerry I met Cara (and through Kerry Cara met Kieron, through whom Cara met you rabble), and look, this game is a keepsake of a friendship for me and I’m being honest about that.

Heartwood won’t mean all of that to you, but you may very well enjoy the dread of being lost in it. It’s short and it’s free, so go see something weird.

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By Adam Smith on June 20th, 2014 at 6:00 pm.

If you have ever played and enjoyed Secret Of Mana, you may already be aware of Wanderlust: Rebirth, a top-down action RPG with combat and graphics reminiscent of Square’s real-time battler. Wanderlust Adventures is a sequel/spin-off to Rebirth, expanding into a free-roaming open world, as the ‘Wanderlust’ of the title always suggested. The freedom of exploration aside, the big draw for Adventures is stronger online implementation. The game can be played with three chums cooperatively, or with up to eight players in competitive modes. Connections will be handled through Steam’s network API rather than, allowing for ‘seamless’ shenanigans.

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By Alice O'Connor on June 20th, 2014 at 4:00 pm.

I do have a soft spot for studios who started in modding, but I look forward to ACE Team’s games for more reasons than Batman Doom. From the first-person face-punching of Zeno Clash to Rock of Ages‘ competitive tower defence/demolition, their games have been weird and interesting and fun and ambitious and surprising and attractive. So I’m pretty pleased to hear that Abyss Odyssey is coming in only a few weeks–on July 15, to be precise.

In another genre shift (I also like that ACE Team do this), Abyss Odyssey is a roguelike-like 2D platforming beat ‘em up with and a pretty deep fighting system.

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By Alice O'Connor on June 20th, 2014 at 3:00 pm.

According to Origin, I have played Titanfall for three hours. I enjoyed those three hours but look, the world has so many other video games, and I feel antsy staying indoors on a sunny day, and Titanfall’s giant revolver is so far down the unlock line I couldn’t bear to be apart from it. It is certainly worth a try, though, especially as it’ll be free to play for 48 hours this weekend.

EA are launching an Origin equivalent of Steam’s free weekends, letting everyone play the full version of a game free for a short while, under the name Origin Game Time.

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By Nathan Grayson on June 20th, 2014 at 2:00 pm.

Hey, remember that free-to-play – sorry, “free-to-drift” – Ridge Racer game, Ridge Racer: Driftopia? It went into Early Access beta late last year, and now it’s finally about to not be in beta anymore. Normally, that’d mean it’s crossing the finish line, champagne and confetti raining down as other car culture imagery looks on. Unfortunately, the future is not so certain for Driftopia, whose perfectly drift-shaped roads may never see another car again.

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By Nathan Grayson on June 20th, 2014 at 12:00 pm.

Good thing: Watch_Dogs on PC can look nearly as good as the (in)famous 2012 E3 demo that started at all, and it’s not even that hard to do thanks to some hidden graphics files that modders dug up. Bad thing: they were hidden. That certainly doesn’t look good. Ubisoft has an explanation, though.

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By Nathan Grayson on June 20th, 2014 at 11:00 am.

Want to get paid to play videogames? Well TOO BAD, THAT’S MY JOB. But getting a college scholarship on pure League of Legends e-athleticism offers similar benefits, I imagine, if not my incredibly sexy lifestyle of mashing out stories on my crumb-ridden keyboard and clothing my repulsively hairy lower half on whenever I sense an intruder approaching my room. But yes, Robert Morris University in Illinois is hoping to establish a varsity e-sports team, and there’s tuition money on the table if you’re good enough.

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By Nathan Grayson on June 20th, 2014 at 10:00 am.

I hate to be that guy at the official RPS million-person dinner table, but you know what I hate about dead people? The fact that these days, they never stay dead. They’re always rising, marching about like they own this mortal plane. And then we have to mop up after them, in Dead Rising 3‘s case by combining things with other things. Why would I ever want a steam shovel motorcycle? Where will I keep it? How will I stay in my traffic lane? Inconsiderate, that’s what those zombies are. Capcom has announced that they’re due to rise and groan in September. Oh, and despite Xbox One roots, there will be no framerate cap. The experience might be a little janky, though.

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By Alice O'Connor on June 20th, 2014 at 9:00 am.

I remember Trine as being awfully pretty but no, apparently it wasn’t pretty enough for developers Frozenbyte (and, having now returned to the game, it seems my memory’s not quite what it was). They’re porting Trine over to the Trine 2 engine, giving the puzzle-platformer a fairytale makeover and its sequel’s online co-op.

While Frozenbyte may disappearing off on their summer hols soon and don’t know quite when it’ll be finished, they’ve released a beta version so we can all argue with Skypepals over who gets to be the Wizard. (Tip: start this argument then sigh “Fine, I’ll be the Thief” because actually she is the best. Thank the pro-wizard lobbying of Idle Thumbs, I guess.)

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