Matt Elliott played Otherland so we don't have to. It's based on a series of Tad Williams novels I haven't read (though I did read Tailchaser's Song when I was a kid), and even by MMO standards it sounds rough as guts. Matt's writeup of its strangeness is worth your time. Here's a highlight: "I honestly feel my grip on reality slip like a grandma on an icy pavement. I'm glad I took so many screenshots, if only so I can prove to myself any of this actually happened."
Rick Lane played Remnant: From the Ashes, the latest game to win the Steam attention lottery. It's third-person co-op boss murder in a world that's generated afresh each time you start a new character, though there's no permadeath. Still, it seems designed for new game plus and there's an adventure mode coming soon that will give some control over what's seeded in your next run. Which is nice.
Natalie Clayton played Rad, the new Double Fine permadeath game set in a very 80s post-post-apocalypse. It seems a bit Enter the Gungeon/Nuclear Throne, in that it's a top-down shooter where you collect wild power-ups, but those two games are pretty tough competition and I'm not sure Rad sounds like it measures up. I've come away from a few Double Fine projects wishing I could take the story and characters and style, then put them in another, better game.
Andy Kelly played Telling Lies, the new game from Sam Barlow of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Her Story fame. It's another FMV mystery, but this time with four main characters and a small army of supporting characters. Unlike Her Story there's no database tracker telling you how much of the totality you've seen. I'm hoping this will keep my completionism in check, because it does sound fascinating.
Dominic Tarason played Anodyne 2, an indie game set in a 3D world that's got a very late 90s PS1 look to it. Only you can dive inside other characters like it's Pyschonauts, then find 2D worlds inside them as if you've traveled back even further in time. While you're diving into their characters, the developers start coming out of the game thanks to commentary, a break in the fourth wall that Dominic enjoyed greatly.
I've been playing Cook, Serve, Delicious! It's been a while since I first tried this restaurant management typing sim oddity, and I'd forgotten how into the flow you can get. I find myself bopping along to the soundtrack while slapping down the keys to pour a beer or layer a lasagne—I know you can play with mouse or controller, but it's a keyboard game for me. I've been on an odyssey through the world of typing games recently, and it's the one I enjoy most, even if my restaurant still only has one star.
Enough about us. What about you? Did anyone pick up Age of Empires: Definitive Edition? The Tim Burton-esque puzzle game DARQ? Let us know!
