Narrative-driven dystopian crazy golf. It’s a high concept, but all three elements are crucial – Golf Club: Wasteland works because it adds up to more than the sum of those three parts. The dystopia is enjoyably bleak. Having made an absolute mess...
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Islanders looks like a city sim, it plays like a puzzle game, and might just be a comment on class politics and land use in the modern world. What’s not to like? You start with a procedurally generated island, a beautiful little...
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Alveole is intriguing. It drops you in a giant hamster wheel, gives you the absolute minimum of instruction, then leaves you to get on with it. And ‘it’ is pretty limited: all you can do is start running, and once you’ve started...
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Appearances can be deceptive. Sumire might look twee at first glance, but it very quickly puts that right. Sumire’s grandmother has died, her father had left, and her mother is withdrawn. She is, quite understandably, unhappy bordering on hopeless. Let’s have a...
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Say No! More has an excellent trailer. The unique say-no mechanic, with superbly overblown results; the ’90s tech aesthetic; the over-the-top Hogan-esque instructor – what’s not to like? There’s nothing not to like. But there’s also not a lot left for the...
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It’s always interesting to play something created by just a couple of people – there’s something almost intimate, getting a glimpse into what’s going on in their head. And with Isolomus, what’s going on in their head is grotesque. It’s a follow-up...
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No. Which I know because a rather neat tool came up on social media this week, which very efficiently searches Hansard (the extensive official record of the UK House of Commons) for the first mention of any word or phrase. Inevitably I...
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One of the advantages of working from home – due to one thing and another – has been listening to more music than I have done probably since I was a student. Without the Melody Maker to guide me, I’ve had to...
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