PC – Page 6 – Stately Play

Short Cut: INSOMNIA: The Ark

November 26, 2018 Alex Connolly 2

PC I recently waffled in a Scrye about INSOMNIA: The Ark, written calmly henceforth as Insomnia. It’s quite the thing, especially if you go in blind. Given that you’re reading this, I suspect there’s a forfeiture of surprise in your immediate future, but that doesn’t detract from Insomnia’s beguiling premise overcoming its somewhat flawed execution. Flawed, I hasten to add, in that Eastern Bloc way. An ambitious pursuit of atmosphere; a journey through time and space, anchored to a colossal star city, where dimensions appear to be a lot less demarcated than first thought.

The next expansion for Civ VI is coming in February, The Gathering Storm

November 20, 2018 David Neumann 7

PC (and, hopefully, other platforms a bit later) • While a new expansion for one of my favorite games would usually be a cause for excitement, I’m looking at the announcement of another full-blown expansion with a bit of sadness. After all, my favorite platform for Civ VI is my iPad and we still haven’t gotten the first expansion on there yet. Just when I thought we were catching up, Firaxis throws this at me! The nerve! In all seriousness, this new expansion looks fairly incredible adding environmental factors into a game that has largely ignored them. More info on The Gathering Storm after the break.

New mission comes to digital Lord of the Rings LCG tomorrow, new pricing on the horizon

November 20, 2018 David Neumann 3

iOS/Android (eventually), PC/Mac (Early Access now) • When Lord of the Rings LCG from Fantasy Flight Interactive launched in Early Access back in August, reviews were rather tepid and some were downright hostile. It’s a shame because the game itself is pretty good, but it’s not what fans of the physical version wanted: a direct copy of their favorite LCG to play on the go. If we look at it as a completely separate game, however, it’s pretty fun, albeit a bit limited by the growing pains associated with an Early Access game. What may have been the biggest gripe was the pricing scheme which was confusing as hell, especially compared with the simplicity of the LCG model it was attempting to emulate. Well, that’s all changing as free-to-play is going out the window. More on that later, but for now you need to know that Asmodee and FFG just added a new mission to the game that can be had for the low, low price of free.

Return of the Obra Dinn is a goddamned miracle

November 9, 2018 David Neumann 2

PC/Mac • I went into Return of the Obra Dinn with high expectations, stemming from its designer, Lucas Pope. You might know Mr. Pope as the creator of the thought-provoking and terrifying Papers, Please, a game that crawled into your skull and stuck with you well after you closed your laptop. Return of the Obra Dinn does the same, and it’s one of the best experiences I’ve had on my laptop in a long time.

Mechanised Dungeon Crawler Das Geisterschiff Set For Steam

November 6, 2018 Alex Connolly 0

PC/Mac/Linux • The first game I ever played was PC Research’s 1983 survival horror game, 3-Demon. And by survival horror, I obviously mean a first-person vector riff on Pac Man. John D. Price and Rick Richardson’s intimate maze-em-up was austere and unsettling, branded as a seminal experience into soft, impressionable neurons. So, imagine if that sort of ambience dropped tired old phantoms for battlesuits in a near-future subterranean lair? Das Geisterschiff, which arm should I present for cannulation, come November 25th?

Kickstarter for Handelabra’s next game, Aeon’s End, is now live

November 5, 2018 David Neumann 6

PC/Mac/Linux • Since the release of Sentinels of the Multiverse on iPad way back in 2014 Handelabra, has established themselves as one of the top board game devs in the biz, right up there with Playdek and Czech Games. While I get that Sentinels, Bottom of the 9th, and One Deck Dungeon aren’t in everyone’s wheelhouse, you can’t deny that everything they touch is polished to a blinding sheen. Thus, when they announce a new project or, as is the case today, launch a new Kickstarter, we listen. We already knew they’re working on digital versions of both Spirit Island and Aeon’s End, and it’s the latter that is now available on everyone’s favorite crowdfunder.

Drone Zone – Isotopium: Chernobyl Multiplayer Keeps It Real

November 2, 2018 Alex Connolly 0

Here’s a collision of interesting things. Remote Games are the blokes behind Isotopium: Chernobyl, and the premise is pure magic. Players control wheeled drones and remotely roll around a scale model of the infamous reactor and nearby town, searching for energy caches and seeking out new locations. Slivers of escape room meets Joe Haldeman’s Forever Peace. It’s currently in Kickstarterdom. And you can play a timed demo right now. Go on.

Carrier Battles for Guadalcanal is trying to become Carrier Battles for PC/Mac and more

November 1, 2018 David Neumann 1

iOS Universal, Android, PC/Mac • While I used to talk quite a bit about iOS war game gem, Carrier Battles for Guadalcanal, over at another site I used to write for, our coverage here at SP has been shamefully light. I apologize not only to the one-man development team of Cyril Jarnot, but to you as well. CB4G is a pretty great hex-and-counter war game for iOS (the only one I can think of) and we’re the kind of audience that should be eating it up. With a little (or a lot–that’s a big $ number) luck, CB4G will be a little less niche than it currently is. A Kickstarter started today to not only bring CB4G to other platforms–namely, PC/Mac–but also adding a ton of functionality making “the little war game that could” into the sprawling epic war game that Cyril envisioned from the beginning.

Dig Your Own Hole – Pit of Doom Hits Early Access

October 31, 2018 Alex Connolly 4

PC • Here’s a bold prediction. Kerberos Studios‘ Pit of Doom will be a runaway hit. And not just one of those cult sleepers, name-dropped for cred at gatherings of those in the know. A bona fide smash. It sounds ludicrous to predict the fortune of an unfinished game, one still slick with Early Access afterbirth, but I have that tingling sensation. Could be the creeping onset of Zuul poison, though. You never know.

I realize I’m the only one who cares, but Divine Divinity 2 is finally coming to Mac

October 30, 2018 David Neumann 2

Xbox, PS4, PC/Mac • Before 2014 I had never heard of Larian Studios or their Divinity universe. Somehow, I stumbled onto Divinity: Original Sin that year, however and instantly became a fan. Here was a throwback to the Baldur Gates and Icewind Dales of my youth [late 20s. Your “youth” involved games like The Bard’s Tale and Pools of Radiance -ed.], only better. I mean, it didn’t use the D&D license, so I was confused as hell about how to build a decent character and whatnot, but here was an isometric RPG with turn-based combat. I don’t hate the real-time, pausable combat of the Infinity Engine games, but it’s definitely stopped me from getting giddy about other epic, recent RPGs like Pillars of Eternity. On top of the turn-based sundae, the story, graphics, and sheer amount of stuff you could pull off in their engine was pretty great, as well. In other words I fell, hard, for what Larian was selling. Fast forward to Kickstarter in 2015 and there I was putting down cash to ensure that Divinity: Original Sin 2 would, someday, be on my laptop next to its predecessor. It’s more than three years later and I’m still waiting, but not for long.