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Halo Studios rebuilt Combat Evolved in Unreal Engine 5 and the sandbox is still untouchable, but the writing hands the Chief a personality he was never meant to have, turns a death cult into a political faction, and lets Cortana explain the mystery. Beautiful, and the wrong version to start on.
A twin-stick roguelike where you play the infection, tear organelles out of the cells you kill and bolt them onto your own body. The build system is the most inventive thing I have played all year, and I lost a week of evenings to it. The basic movement rules are the weak link.
Melbourne's Gameclaw Studio built a side-scrolling RPG about rebuilding a dwarven home one rescued kinsman at a time, and I lost a string of evenings to it. Gorgeous pixel art, a compulsive settlement loop and honest jank in the combat. Recommended.
Season 2 kept my Friday-night tea ritual alive for ten weeks, and I loved being back on the road with Frieren, Fern and Stark. But this season is a bridge, not a destination: gentle, lovely, and clearly saving its biggest feelings for what comes next.
Ubisoft's Black Flag remake is a genuinely lovely rebuild of the best pirate game the series ever made, and a case study in souring your own launch with nine day-one DLC packs. The ship is great. The gift shop can walk the plank.
MAPPA returns to the well with Culling Game: Part 1, and the action animation might be the best the series has produced. The trade-off is a season top-loaded with rule explanations that test even seasoned shonen viewers.
Rebel Wolves' vampire RPG lands on 3 September with a thirty day deadline, days split into eight spendable units, and a directional parry its director compares to Guitar Hero. Everyone who has played it writes about the clock first.
A leaker claims Ubisoft's eighteen year old sequel has been quietly rebranded and could resurface at The Game Awards. Treat it as rumour, then enjoy the fact that this game has now been in development longer than some of the people waiting for it have been alive.
◆ BREAKINGLance McDonald has surfaced the internal presentation Japan Studio's Daisuke Ishidate gave at GameShare IV in May 2007. It carries a working title, a ship date of June 2008, and a build with a first person camera and no lock-on.
