Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The last time Valve updated their list of Steam Early Access games they somehow managed to switch off all the Press accounts. That was the worst hour of my life, let me tell you. This time around, with the addition of free-to-play cartoon shooter Loadout to the raft of in-development games on Steam, I cautiously looked at my library. Everything was there! Though when I downloaded Loadout nothing was actually installed. I just have a DirectX folder, not a game that promises billions of weapon and gloopy violence. Still, baby steps and all that. Having something installed is better than having my livelihood taken away from me. Until Valve fixes this second egregious assault on my Steam library, I’ll just have a stare at this trailer.
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While I doubt there’s a game out there that will ever match a certain cartoon shooter’s hold on me, I will pop into any example of that particular niche and have a nosey, asking hard questions like: ‘Why is this not TF2?’, ‘Has anyone played TF2?’, and ‘I have a hat in TF2, do you?’ Loadout is not TF2, but it’s not it in the best possible way: it’s cartoonish, but with a level of violence that makes even an animated death connoisseur like me look around and hope people haven’t spotted me giggling at it. The trailer below has some examples of the implausible bodily harm you can wreak (38 seconds in is just eww), and a peek into the heavy customisation options: you can build your own character and roll your own guns.
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