The Pillars of the Earth is a historical novel (the real kind, with pages and everything) dense with intrigue, murder and revenge centered around a fictional 12th century English town’s plans to erect a cathedral. Adapted to digital, interactive format in a style not entirely unlike Telltale’s choose-your-own-adventures by experienced point-and-clicker creators Daedalic, by all accounts, this is something I would have deeply enjoyed, having eagerly consumed every episode of Cadfael and a few of the novels, but I’m sadly late to this party. Fashionably so, at least.

Today, the final part of The Pillars of the Earth was released, completing the 21-chapter digital adaptation of Ken Follett’s novel. Perfectly timed for a spot of lazy Easter weekend reading.

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Last year’s Snake Pass was a truly lovely thing. What happens when you take the platformer genre, and remove jumping, running, or even legs? Good times, that’s what. Alec reckoned it was rather brill, too.

A year on, and Sumo Digital haven’t forgotten their beautiful little experiment, even if it didn’t sell quite as much as it should have. Today, all versions of the game have been updated with a new score-chasing Arcade mode, providing a solid reason (as if it were needed) to take another peek at the game.

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While some would dismiss the concept of the ‘walking simulator’ as a modern development and a sign of the medium losing its edge, the roots of the genre go almost as far back as 3D environments themselves. One of the most memorable of the old trailblazers was LSD: Dream Emulator for the original PlayStation. Years before its time, it used procedural generation to construct strange, unique and occasionally unsettling little worlds to explore.

The currently-crowdfunding horror exploration game Bvoid is more than a little heavily inspired by LSD (no snickering over there in the back), and is the latest project from Toni Kortelahti, better known for his work under the 98Demake banner; deconstructions of modern games, reimagining them as they would have been in the early 32-bit console era.

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It’s time to say goodbye to Chloe and Max again, at least for a while. They’ve had their ups and down over the course of episodic adventure Life Is Strange and its prequel, and today they’re getting a final send-off in one extra episode, out now for owners of the Deluxe edition of Before The Storm.

Expect heartstrings to be tugged on with great gusto. While the stakes may be low this time around, heartbreak seems inevitable as the two childhood friends take one last adorably dorky walk down memory lane before they have to go their separate ways, as Max’s family moves away from Arcadia Bay.

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Final Fantasy XIV‘s update trailers continue to surprise and impress me. To call these ‘patches’ sells them short. Every few months in-between major expansions, the revived and highly successful story-driven MMO receives a good slab of episodic content continuing both the main plot arc, as well as expanding outwards into various side-stories and crossover events.

The next such episodic adventure, entitled Rise Of a New Sun (officially ‘patch 4.2’) is due at the end of the month, and looks set to be a nostalgic trip for Final Fantasy 6’s fans, as you can see in the video after the jump.

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One of my greatest gaming regrets of this year is getting about halfway through Team Cherry’s excellent metroidvania Hollow Knight, then getting sidetracked by a pile of work. In order to get properly back up to speed, I reckon that I’ll have to start fresh, although with the rate at which they’re pumping out free DLC I might just wait a little while longer.

We have previously mentioned upcoming expansion The Grimm Troupe, but now it has an official release date: October 26th, and it’s bringing a lot of exciting new stuff to the already densely-packed game.

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We tease Valve for not making games any more, what with their not making games any more, but it’s really starting to look most peculiar as the company loses its fourth big-name writer in less than two years. According to a Facebook update on Jay Pinkerton’s timeline, he left the company last night. Read the rest of this entry »

Hot on the heels of his hero Erik Wolpaw, Valve’s VR top-dog and grizzled bossman Chet Faliszek has announced that he’s leaving the company. Amicably, he claims, but anyone who’s ever met him will know that’s not possible. Read the rest of this entry »

What is Crusader Kings II [official site] missing? I’ve been playing again recently, drawn back in by The Reaper’s Due and its perfect simulation of the general snotty sickness of an English winter. I’d never have thought of disease as such an important addition, which is a bit silly really considering the historical impact of the Black Death, and the fact that entire military campaigns could be undone by infection and illness. Disease is important.

So too are religious societies and cults, and that’s what the next expansion, Monks and Mystics, will bring. Read the rest of this entry »

At 9PM BTS/4PM ET, we’ll find out whether the new Battlefield game is Battlefield 5, Battlefield: More Uncomfortable Police Brutality Allusions, or something else entirely. I’m wondering if it could be something a little science-fictional, in order to go toe-to-toe with what COD is up to. Also, wild speculation funtimes: the seconds-long teaser trailer below suggests that its Big Face Man is looking up at something enormous and maybe a little scary. Maybe a mech? We’re overdue a return to 2142. Although the rest of the internet seems to think we’re going back to 1942 at long last.

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Street Fighter V [official site] will run on Linux. There’s a sentence I never expected to write. Through the Steam community pages for the game, Capcom have confirmed that the latest in their glorious series of biff ’em ups will support Steam OS.

“We are working closely with Valve on this endeavor, and will have more details to announce in the near future, so stay tuned for updates. Street Fighter V will also support the Steam controller, and you’ll be able to try that out right away during the upcoming beta test that takes place from December 18~20.”

The beta is open to anyone with a preorder.

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Black Desert Online [official site] is an MMO about sprightly, perfect-skinned warriors doing battle with various grimy monsters. The latter part looks fine, but it’s the enormously detailed character creator that let’s you influence those sprightly fighters that makes it interesting to me. After being released in Korea last year, it’s now in closed beta in the west.

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Haha, that could be anyone in there. Though if you look really closely, you can just about make out a wince of shame in his eyes. But yes, this is our very first look at Michael ‘Big Boy’ Fassbender in the movie adaptation of Ubisoft’s jumpy-stabby Assassin’s Creed series.
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