Author: Jack Boyles

What is that sound? That distorted surge making my eardrum cling to all hope; is that my own breath exasperating? I think it is.  As I stand here in this cold and withered mausoleum it is the walls that regain my memories of the past five minutes.

Walls decorated with blood tell me of the battle I just participated in, but it is the floor, it’s the floor that tells me of the outcome. The red reservoir populated with bone and sinew speaks of a Genestealer ambush. As I spectate the carcasses, I notice familiar pieces of steel sporadically scattered throughout the turmoil.

Steel frames occupied by men, my men, noblemen now nothing more but an object amongst a clutter of death. It is I who is left standing, it is I who is alone, and it is I who is victorious.

Space Hulk: Deathwing Enhanced Edition

Being a gentleman from Nottingham, it only seems right that I write a news piece about a Warhammer 40K game – this time it’s Space Hulk: Deathwing Enhanced Edition.

Made by the Nottingham-based board giants Games Workshop, it happens that my best friend is a graphic designer for them as well. And no readers I can’t get you a discount.

But a long time ago I use to play Space Marines with my father along with Hero Quest (yeah, sit down board game nerds), I painted the figures with him too – my father not being too impressed when I painted one completely in gold with my child-like imagination.

So, anyway, an enhanced version of Space Hulk: Deathwing has you fight through hordes of Genestealers in claustrophobic confines that the series is known for. You gain new skills, abilities and weapons along the way in both single and multiplayer modes.

Key Features Of The Enhanced Edition Include:

• Play as a Space Marine Terminator, including a powerful new class – the Chaplain and his powerful Crozius Arcanum power mace
• Customize each class in solo and multiplayer and unlock devastating weapons, including an expanded arsenal exclusive to the Enhanced Edition
• Plunge into the Space Hulk and experience a desperate battle against the Genestealers, including new, deadlier enemies
• Special Missions bring infinite replayability to both solo and multiplayer modes, with randomly-generated objectives and enemy spawns for every game chapter

The original version received average scores at best, so hopefully, the Enhanced Edition irons out some of the kinks and makes for a more polished and overall better gaming experience. No doubt the game will be somewhat successful with Warhammer’s loyal community pushing its sales.

Space Hulk: Deathwing Enhanced Edition is out on PC and PS4 now. For the Emperor!

Homo Machina is a mobile game coming to iOS and Android. But wait, what’s it all about? Well, read on.

Simon, like all the workers in the pressure wing, needed to ensure that all pipes are regularly maintained and that the pressure is stable enough not to cause unwarranted or abnormal changes.

It takes a special person like Simon to do his job. Many people would lose focus and motivation simply of the mundanity, but Simon never did.

He, like others in the workplace, knew the importance of the role, neither big nor small, grand nor grotesque, each role was as pivotal as the next.

Every component within this machine must be operational and work efficiently otherwise they, like the company, will cease to exist.

Homo Machina And Dr Kahn

I imagine somewhere along the line, we’ve all seen the images of Dr Fritz Kahn’s medical illustrations, more than likely in some biology class – you know the images, the ones of our autonomy being operated on by little tiny workers.

These images are so iconic and for good reason too, they help you understand the human anatomy by making it relatable and satirical. Entertain, Educate and Inform.

Parisian multimedia studio Darjeeling understand the relevance in Dr Kahn’s work and how important it is to educate people in the workings of our body in an easily digestible (pun intended!) way by developing Homo Machina, a mobile game adapted by his work.

Looking at the game you can’t help but think if the Dr was alive today, to see his images come to life in an interactive medium would have done him proud – almost like his work was intended to be.

The interactive media of video games is a great way of educating children. Most children love to interact with things, making this an important step for video games to be taken seriously as an art form.

Hopefully, we’ll see more games like this, we’ll see parents downloading this game for their children, and we’ll see it being used in schools because education should be fun, it should be engaging, and it should be entertaining.

Homo Machina uses simple game mechanics allowing the game to be accessible from the ages of 7-77. The game focuses more on the art style and poetic narration to create a more educational experience than your typical gaming experience.

The game is only a touch away (pun intended again), as it’s available now on Google Play and the App Store; for parents out there, why not sit down and enjoy it together with your child, who knows, you might learn something yourself?

“Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt this news feature with an important announcement. Earth is under threat by alien life forms.

Approximately around 12 pm BST, planet earth will be going to war with the Mantis beings of planet M-79.

We have been aware of planet M-79’s threats and capabilities, and from the information, myself and all the other world leaders have gathered, we have set up a specialist team to deal with this threat: The Galactic Pest Control Company.

The Galactic Pest Control Company will be going to planet M-79 and eliminating the threat of the Mantis soldiers and their leaders who have taken the form of various earth pop culture references.

We have named this operation, ‘Bugs Must Die’, an operation that’s been in development for some time now by DG Games Workshop, who have developed multiple weapons and vehicles to ensure the Galactic Pest Control Company will eliminate the threat and ensure the safety of earth.

We thank those brave souls who will risk their lives for the safety of ours and god bless Planet Earth.”

Bugs Must Die

Bugs Must Die is a top-down twin-stick shooter, a genre that has garnered more popularity in recent years.

The typical twin-stick shooter is usually counterphobic and cramped, yes, a choice by design, but a choice that is never the less limiting to player expression.

Here DG Games Workshop has gone with an open map design which was more prevalent in the top-down shooters of the 80s and 90s.

It’s clear the game takes its inspiration from these titles, with its sound design, soundtrack and aesthetic choices.

Again, Pixel Art is very common, but as anyone who’s played retro games on a CRT television will know: the games didn’t look pixelated, in fact, everything looked smooth and the colours contorted together giving the illusion of detail on a low fidelity visual.

DG Games get this, it’s pixelated but smooth and detailed, not just a bunch of squares.

Bugs Must Die looks like the top down shooter I’ve been waiting for. One that values player expression instead of feeling like a series of challenge levels, horde or survival modes.

One that wants you to sit, play and just have a good time.

You’ll be able to sign up for The Galactic Pest Control this year on Steam.

…

No bugs were harmed during the writing of this piece, in fact, we must be kind to bugs and nature. So, let your garden be wild and full of bugs.

I am a predator, I am prey. I am the creature that lurks in the tangible kaleidoscope of creation. I am comfortable here, silent, watching, waiting for my opportune moment to strike. I want to disappear, I don’t want to be known. The strenuous lifestyle the others live; the constant contact with others, the faces of faces and the prospect of instability. No, I am comfortable here. I am the predator. I am prey.

We gamers are perceived by the big gaming media as hermits, devoid of any social lifestyle. We are ‘lonely abominations’ locked away by our own choice, popping vitamin D tablets as we never see any sunlight. Now, my milk bottle legs may lend some creed to that statement, but I also believe many a gamer has led fruitful lives.

Exposure, A Game of Camouflage

The developer, The Sheep’s Meow, is going to put us gamers to the test: how good are we at being chameleons? We’re going to find out with their new game ‘Exposure, A game of camouflage’.

In Exposure, you play as a small creature guiding your children over 36 branching, and hostile, paths and 11 areas that introduce new parasites and predators along the way. It’s up to you to blend through the environments and lead them to safety.

When you blend into the environment your creature is also invisible, leaving you, the player, to not see the game, but to feel the game with its intuitive controls. The title will also feature Boss Battles, Daily Challenges and Leaderboards.

The art style is this game is so unique, with its heavy emphasis on geometry, colours – an almost optical illusion. It’s not just the visuals that are minimal, the soundtrack is too, with this limited instrumentation and the sound interacting with what’s happening in the game – Exposure is shaping to be an audio-visual masterpiece.

With the studio only comprised of two people who have worked on and off for years on the project, the studio name is a reference to their cat named “Sheep” who passed away. They wanted their cat to be remembered… the developers are sincere then, and hopefully, this passion extends right into their work. Passion, after all, is the key to being creative.

Exposure, a game of camouflage is set for a 2018 release on Steam and Xbox One.

Have you ever wanted to know what it’s like being an extremely wealthy business tycoon with immense power?

Sigma Theory

Well, you might get a bit of that feeling with Sigma Theory, the new game by developer Mi-Clos Studio who were behind the award-winning Out There.

It’s a single player espionage strategy, set in the not-too-distant future during a new cold war. The power resource known as Sigma Theory has the ability to collapse the global financial system, wipe out entire countries or gain immortality. It’s up to you to take control of it and become the superpower before the other global superpowers.

The game features the following, from the developer:

• A bold new take on the espionage game genre, set during a future global cold war
• Recruit your team from 50 unique spies and field agents
• Turn-based strategical and tactical-level gameplay
• Order your spies to conduct operations all over the world
• Experience tense and thrilling exfiltration missions where you guide your agents on a covert operation to extract high-value targets from foreign cities
• Infiltrate the enemy’s Sigma programs, abducting, coercing, and seducing scientists to your side
• Deploy your drone fleet to turn operations in your favour
• Deceive or cooperate with your rivals during diplomatic summits
• Use your diplomatic skill to balance the demands of multiple relationships: with your agents, with your superiors, with powerful private lobbies, and with your counterparts around the world
• Discover 30 world-changing technologies
• Hoard Sigma Theory discoveries for yourself to gain an edge in the cold war — or share them for the benefit of all mankind — or sell them to powerful private lobbies bent on preserving the old world order
• Experience a dynamic emergent narrative where every decision matters and the complex web of character relationships means that no two games of Sigma Theory will ever be the same
• Multiple distinct endings that respond to the player’s ethical and practical decisions throughout the game

Sigma Theory’s satirical nature could be a game that speaks of the time, tackling themes of political and social divide, the political business model and the paranoia of another cold war.

The title is set for a 2018 release on iOS, Mac and PC.

Darkness, nothingness, a plain canvas, nothingness again, quiet, tranquil, and then… BANG!

Matter, colours, shapes, particles, atmosphere solar systems, planets, cells, organism, parasites, plants, nature, wildlife, animals, people, pedestrians, slaves, gods. Hussle, busy, move out of my way please, the cries, the tears, the years, another baby another being, another baby another killer, climate change, freedom of speech, will you please shut up, love, love, love, and then… nothingness, darkness, another plain canvas to start again.

Genesis Noir is Avaliable To Pre-Order

Genesis Noir is a game set before, during and after the big bang on earth and higher dimensions. In this adventure game, you play as ‘No Man’ and save your loved one from being shot to stop the big bang. With a cast of gods and men, a love triangle and a story spanning time and space; this is one point and click adventure, may I say, out of this world…. (I’ve won awards for stand-up comedy, you know?)

Developed by Feral Cat Den, inspiration has been taken from various forms of media to give the game a worldly look – the themes being expressed artistically:

Personally? I think it looks absolutely fantastic, from concept to art, to sound. I love film noir, as you may remember from my Pixel Noir piece, and I love adventure games – oh, and some jazz.

It’s only been announced for PC and iOS, but console ports will surely follow; come on Feral Cat Den, you know it makes sense.

Genesis Noir has hit its Kickstarter pledge and is available for pre-order now. Anyone else gushing over this like me?