No Man’s Sky is an upcoming science fiction adventure survival video game set in an infinite procedurally generated galaxy with 18 quintillion planets to discover and explore in an endless universe, where the surroundings materialise on the fly, rather than random generation of environments.

Possibilities are literally endless with this game, and completion of the entire game is impossible in a single players lifetime; this game literally redefines multiplayer games in MMORPG where gamers come together in collaborative play.

Players will run into other players in competitive play and race to discover unique creatures, prehistoric reptiles, etc… ; they will fly to different planets, climb mountains, destroy asteroids, and more. Though players will only be able own a single spaceship at any one time, but be able to customise their speed and firepower; they are not limited to owning only one though, and they can choose which one to use from a pretty awesome range of spaceship designs.

No Man’s Sky Release date is in June 2016, and should cost around £49 on pre-order.

My friends are all online right now playing some games. Well, I use the plural, but in truth they are only playing one game. That game is not new, it has not had any massive content updates recently, but Battlefield 4 has quickly worked its way back onto our hard drives and into our hearts. It was always a strange thing for me to see, though, when people stick with games for a longer period of time – especially multiplayer titles.
People find one game that clicks with them, the ebb and flow of the action, the graphics, the maps, the community – whatever the reason people stick with multiplayer games for several years, sometimes even longer. Battlefield 4 might not be that old, but the player count is still quite high – people are enjoying the game now more than ever and my friends are no different. In fact, if I was not working, I would probably be online playing with them as well.

Another one to chalk up to an early access success story, and this time is not a surprise at all. Broforce is a game that has slowly been getting better with every single update that has come out on Early Access – and the final release to push it to version 1.0 – was the biggest of the lot. More levels, a new lick of paint and a slick UI have taken Broforce from “good early access title” to good game. Period.

We should not be surprised though. Devolver Digital, the publishers behind the game, have a history of being consumer friendly and making some extremely intelligent business decisions (in addition to locking down some excellent titles to publish.) Credit, too, needs to fall with the developers who had a great idea and executed on it to, almost, perfection. The game been extremely successful during that early access phase, but now it is out it has gained even more traction with the anti-early access brigade finally willing to jump on board.

I have written a lot about Rocket League; my hopes and dreams for the game, talking about stats and sales and talking a lot about the competition that the game is beginning to foster. Unofficial tournaments have begun to spring up all over the world with top players competing for peanuts. However some of the bigger sponsors are beginning to get involved; they have seen how many people are playing, they have seen the sales and they finally want a piece of the pie.
ESL are involved – and that is always a good place to start. They are attracting the top teams, the top players and, finally, the top “teams” in the world are involved as well. eSports teams like fnatic are taking Rocket League seriously and, with their support, we could well see Rocket League emerging into the big time of eSports.

Games do some seriously amazing things sometimes. The virtual worlds created are breathtaking displays of imagination, artistry and passion allowing players to immerse themselves in ancient lands, alien worlds or stunning fantasy locations. Very occasionally, though, games will try things a little bit closer to home. I am not talking about things like Call of Duty where you shoot various Middle Eastern groups in “real life” situations.

I am talking about things like Euro Truck Simulator 2. The game is exactly as you would imagine it to be; you are tasked with driving a heavy goods vehicle across various stretches of European road. The game is painstakingly crafted to perfection; creating an extremely realistic, and oddly relaxing, experience. It’s not just the realm of the uber nerd, either, the game is massively popular and the success is well deserved.

Free to play has really taken off in the past few years. It is an alternative business model where instead of charging, say, £40 for a game you make the game free but certain things within it cost money for players. So you might have certain characters that cost money, or have cosmetic designs that you charge for. In the mobile phone space those in app purchases (IAP) tend to revolve around extra lives, more turns, more money to build things etc and do very, very well.
It has also become a toxic term among more “traditional” gamers who prefer all of their product in one place, in one purchase. Unfortunately, for their sake, times have changed. Downloadable content is now the norm, not the exception, and many games are experimenting with alternate payment models to supplement expensive development costs. With many people going out of business in the last generation it’s to be expected that companies look for alternate revenue streams.

Tale of Tales have a reputation for making obscure games. They make games based on well known stories from around the world; ranging from little red riding hood all the way to the story of the death of John the Baptist. In a world where game stories are frequently about American people travelling to unusual worlds and killing whoever they find it is an extremely welcome break. The latest game from the husband and wife studio, who put much of their success down to their passion for each other and for life, is called Sunset.
The game is about a young African American woman who works as a cleaner for an absent gentleman. They communicate through notes and various things left around the house, though the two of them never meet. It is an extremely clever approach to storytelling and one that, if the reviews are to be believed, has been extremely successful. In fact the game is on sale right now, so you should go and buy it.

I “get” some games and genres. There are some things, however, that I simply do not understand. EVE Online is one such game. For those of you who don’t know EVE Online is a massively multiplayer online game where players create pilots and enter into a world that is almost entirely driven by the players themselves. It sounds great; and to read about some of the stories that occur in the world is simply amazing and fascinating but the game itself? That’s something else.
The game has a massive barrier to entry though; it is boring as anything. Many people simply describe the game as spreadsheets in space, and they are not wrong. The game has a lot of real time elements that require you to wait until the timers have reset. Everything takes time; travel takes a long time, researching takes longer and even combat is slow. My advice? Simply read about the game instead.

The Chinese Room, Edinburgh based indie developer, half of the minds behind Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, have announced their latest game called Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture coming to Playstation 4 and PC later, I hope, this year. The developers are quickly approaching the beta phase of their development process, and are getting extremely nervous. This is a nervous time though; fine adjustments need to be made based on feedback from players and partners alike. It sounds minor; but all of these factors can play an impact in the story depending on how they’re handled.
The studio’s producer has headed out to help compose and orchestrate the game’s soundtrack, which they believe is going to be one of the strongest of any game of the year, or any game of all time. They have high hopes, but the game is extremely mysterious and extremely beautiful; that alone should drum up enormous interest in the game when it releases.

One of the most recent phenomenon in gaming is the need and desire for people to remake or remaster classic games from the past. Some of the game that are being remastered, though, are not exactly old, or not exactly classic. Some games that are a couple of years old are seeing HD versions released on current generation consoles, however Fable: Anniversary is one game that falls somewhere in the middle. Released for the original Xbox, and later PC, Fable was the first game in a role playing game series that promised consequence and direct reactions to any decision you make.

This version of the game has received mixed reviews from both journalists and from players. With many people talking about how this version is an improvement graphically and not much else, while other remasters include downloadable content and fixes and changes that weren’t present in the original version. This version is, at least, on sale frequently.