Sci-Fi – Page 4 – Stately Play

Early Access Preview: RimWorld

January 30, 2017 Nick Vigdahl 3

PC/Mac • RimWorld is a colony building and survival simulation game that has everything you’d expect from the genre. You’ll act as the architect for a new colony and guide its residents to ever greater levels of survivability, self-sufficiency, and success. This includes zoning the settlement area for residential buildings, farming, and storage as well as identifying what structures should be built, how electricity should be generated, and what tools of production, furniture, and artwork should be used. There’s also the usual research function to build out a technology tree and open up new options. What’s cool about RimWorld is not that it hits these hallmarks of base-building and survival games. It certainly does. It’s not that it does it really well or better than most—though this is also true. What really makes RimWorld so good–I had to force myself to stop playing–are two things: a true open-world style and a relatively unique story-infused narrative.

Early Access Preview: Factorio

January 23, 2017 Nick Vigdahl 2

You’ve crash landed on a strange planet and need a plan to survive. There’s a couple different ways you can go. There’s the Mark Watney way—eking out an existence thanks to potatoes fertilized by your own feces. Alternatively, you could build a massive, sprawling, and fully interconnected factory complex using your off-the-charts engineering know how. Which do you choose?

To alpha and beyond: Hades’ Star

December 23, 2016 Nick Vigdahl 65

“Captain Drigo, sir, system VXG-0199 is now in view of our long-range sensors.” Drigo turned from yet another review of the ship’s inventory projections to face the helmsman. “Visuals if you please, Mr. Gupta.” A three-dimensional image of a star appeared before Drigo. It was a type-G, a yellow dwarf, as promised. Drigo let out an inaudible sigh of relief. That was one anxiety laid to rest. “There she is, sir. A beauty, is she not?”

Short Cuts: Sethian

November 28, 2016 Alex Connolly 2

Arrival appears to be the hot new business at the box office. Being industrial-grade Parentcore, I’ll get to it when I can — presumably just before heat death ruins home-streaming — but have it on good authority that Denis Villeneuve’s film is the new Contact, stripped of cheese. Alright, alright, alright.

Talisman: The Horus Heresy Goes Free All Weekend

November 3, 2016 David Neumann 1

If you’re like me, you have no friends and weekends are simply long stretches of not seeing other humans and, instead, binge-watching old Cheers episodes while binge-eating custard and sipping Boone’s Farm. Please don’t tell me that it’s only me doing that. I said please. Luckily, this weekend I can turn off the tube and, instead, play a little Talisman: Horus Heresy on my Mac because it’s gone free all weekend long.

Feed the Universe in Just Released Space Food Truck

November 3, 2016 David Neumann 0

Be honest, when you hear a game’s called “Space Food Truck” and the art looks like it came right out of Phineas & Ferb, your first reaction is to click over to another website. WAIT! Don’t let the silly name or cartoony art fool you, Space Food Truck is a real game with real strategy and deserves a look-see. What can I do to convince you? Well, first of all it’s developed by One Man Left of Outwitters fame.