This cottagecore platformer is ultra charming, and out this week

There’s something very sweet about playing as a postal carrier. As we’ve seen in games such as Tiny Echo and Lake, it can be a relaxing and enjoyable job delivering mail in a small community, and that’s the pitch-perfect tone that solo developer Kela van der Deijl has managed to capture in their cutesy mail-delivery game Mail Time. After playing the Steam demo, I can tell you that it’s one of the most charming games I’ve played all year, and it looks like I’ll be able to play the rest soon because Mail Time is out this week on Thursday April 27th.

Read more

Apex Legends’ newest hero Ballistic is wine-fuelled, retired, and deadly

To celebrate Apex Legends’ upcoming Season 17, developer Respawn have announced the newest hero to join the roster: old-timer Ballistic. The battle-royale’s last season had no new Legend, disappointing a few Apexers, but Ballistic is coming out of his comfy wine-fuelled retirement and joining the fight on May 9th, just for you guys.

Read more

Sega Of America is the latest game studio to organise a union

Employees at Sega Of America’s Irvine offices have announced plans to unionise and have filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board. This means Sega management can now voluntarily recognise the union, or wait for the union election to take place. The newly announced Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS for short) is composed of around 144 employees working across several departments, including QA, marketing, localisation, product development, and live service.

AEGIS have also teamed up with the CWA, the labour union that assisted other studio’s unionisation efforts and who previously filed unfair labour charges against Activision Blizzard.

Read more

Get EVGA’s Z20 full-size UK mechanical keyboard for just £40

The EVGA Z20 optical mechanical keyboard is a super-solid option with a boatload of features – and it’s currently 69% off at Amazon UK, bringing it down to a measly £39.98. This is an awesome price for a keyboard of this size and quality, and well worth picking up even if you’ve already got a mechanical keyboard – or if you’ve never tried one before.

Read more

Screenshot Saturday Mondays: indie FPS bonanza (with bonus animals)

Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter’s #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This week, genuinely by chance, my eye was caught mostly by first-person shooters. Come for those, stay for the impressive puppet tech, the giant snake, the cute dog, and the colossal crocodile. Check out all these interesting and attractive indie games!

Read more

Steam’s Puzzle Fest has a killer free demo you must try

Steam Puzzle Fest kicks off today, offering tons of discounts on all of your favourite puzzle games. Really, though, one of the best experiences you can have this Steam Puzzle Fest week is by downloading the free demo for upcoming puzzler Viewfinder. Developed by Sad Owl Studios, I had a sneaky peek at this at GDC last month and was properly blown away by it. It might look like just another Witness-like, but don’t be fooled. There are some real smart ideas in here, and I dare you not to go ‘OooOOOooooOOOooooh’ when you see the in-game photos you take come to life in all their full, 3D explorable glory.

Read more

This murder mystery Stardew-like lets you accidently romance the killer

I do love me a good farming sim, and I also love a good detective game, so imagine my brain exploding when I saw Grave Seasons for the first time, a farming murder mystery hybrid in the works by developer Son M and their studio Perfect Garbage. It’s still very early in development (like there isn’t even a Steam page for it yet), but it’s still an incredible-sounding concept, as every time you start a new game, a random NPC will be selected to become a serial killer. You can grow crops, fish, raise cattle, and also help save your fellow townsfolk from a rampaging murderer. Cute!

Read more

Stranded: Alien Dawn review: a survival sim that nails the crashlanding

As our shuttle hits the ground, the world erupts into smoke, chaos, and confusion. Samantha, one among my ragged band of survivors, breaks down sobbing on the ground and I direct Maki, a veterinarian, to do something about it. She punches Samantha full-on in the face, knocking her unconscious (“Oh, I guess that’s what ‘knock out’ means,” I realize a moment too late). Well, at least I don’t have to worry about her running off into the woods or something. It’s a rough start, but they have no choice but to work together from here on out.

For fans of the survival simulation genre, crashlanding on an alien planet is a familiar premise, but it’s one Stranded: Alien Dawn absolutely smashes. This game has been at the top of my to-be-played list for a while and now that it’s exiting early access for a full release, it’s safe to say that Stranded is the closest thing to my dream human vs nature survival game I’ve seen yet.

Read more