Steam Summer Next Fest

Dispatch is a Telltale style narrative adventure game in which you manage a team of superheroes by assigning them to tasks that best fit their skills. The demo was very short, but it won me over with a fun premise, quirky characters and some very funny dialogue.

You get Telltale style dialogue choices to make and the ‘choices matter’ promise (don’t get your hopes up) as you play as an ex-superhero who must dispatch a team of dysfunctional ‘superheroes’ to tackle various emergencies across the city. The game is split between the animated dialogue scenes and the switchboard part of the job.

Each hero has their own strengths and weaknesses, so it’s important to pick the best hero for the task. I’m not quite sure there’s any real way to ‘fail’ at this because the demo doesn’t make it clear what the benefits or consequences are for success or failure, but we’ll see how it plays out in the full release.

Whilst I may have my doubts about the ‘gameplay’ aspect of this adventure, everything else I’ve seen has me interested, so I’ll certainly think about picking this up at release.

No, I’m not a Human is more interesting in terms of concept than execution – at least based on this limited demo. You’re stuck in a house because it’s too dangerous to venture outside during the day due to something going ‘wrong’ with the sun. And at night, the mysterious ‘Visitors’ roam the streets.

The idea is that every night people will knock on your door. You need to decide if you’ll let them in or not and if you do, question them and try to determine if they’re Visitors or not. If you suspect someone is a Visitor, you get the option to shoot them – but you won’t know for sure if you’re right or not until you pull the trigger.

 

There are different ‘tests’ you can try to use to figure out who’s human and who’s not. It’s all very simple but, as I said, more interesting in terms of concept than execution. It’s really a game about paranoia but it all feels a little undercooked. I’m curious to see if the full game can expand on the idea in a more meaningful way.

ERA ONE is a space RTS game that’s clearly inspired by the Homeworld series. Actually, to say it’s simply ‘inspired’ by Homeworld would be generous. Just like Tempest Rising was ‘inspired’ by C&C, ERA ONE is a shameless Homeworld clone and just like TR, I’m totally okay with that.

If you’ve played Homeworld then much of ERA ONE will be instantly familiar which is good, because the demo has no real tutorial to ease you into things. Ship movement controls, tactical view, research types, building modules, resource collection – it’s all here and exactly as you expect, and the ship designs are lifted straight out of Homeworld.

That’s not to say ERA ONE has no new ideas of its own – I really like the ship customisation and the modular mothership aspect. But this demo certainly wasn’t perfect – the UI is an absolute mess to navigate and needs some serious streamlining. The combat / movement speed is way to slow, and ship / turret health balancing needs a lot of work.

Slow really is the key word and the reason I didn’t ‘finish’ the demo – at one point I watched two opposing fighter wings going at it for nearly 8 minutes. I’m glad the basic fighters aren’t made of paper, but this shit just got tedious.

And, of course, Homeworld wasn’t just loved for its gameplay but its strong narrative and setting. It remains to be seen if ERA ONE can provide a story and setting that’s not just a shameless copy, but something original that stands strong on its own merits. I’ll be keeping a close eye on this one.

Now Playing: State of Decay 2

I reviewed the original State of Decay back in 2013 in which I described the game as ‘an ambitious title with a lot of cool ideas packed into it. Unfortunately, the execution of a lot of those ideas is slightly flawed in one way or another, which sullies the overall experience.’ It was a game I felt was deserving of a more refined and expanded sequel.

So here we, over a decade later and I’ve finally got stuck into State of Decay 2 which I’m pleased to say is a refined and expanded sequel . . . but also not quite the step up I was hoping for – and in some ways, something of a step back.

I could probably copy and paste a lot of my review of the original game here because so much of it still applies to this sequel – the good and the bad. Like the original, State of Decay 2 is a third person, open world zombie survival game with an emphasis on scavenging, base building and community management.

If you’ve played the original you’ll be right at home in State of Decay 2 because it plays largely the same. You have a team of survivors with their own unique skills, each of which can be improved by controlling them directly and taking them out into the field, or by training them at your base.

Your base serves as your primary safe zone in which you have a limited number of building slots to construct various upgrades to keep your survivors fed, rested and happy. There are multiple base locations on each of the available maps – some large, some small. But the larger you go, the more people you need, and more people means more resources consumed, and more resources required to survive.

You’ll find these resources out in the world, split between items you can use immediately, or ‘backpacks’ of a specific supply type – ammunition, medicine, building materials, food & fuel – that you can return to your base and add to your supply pile which is needed to keep your base operational.

Scavenging for supplies in a world full of zombies is obviously dangerous, but you can take a companion survivor with you for support, and you have plenty of weapons and tools at your disposal to even the odds. Scouting locations is key to know what resources may be available, but also if any zombie hordes are wandering nearby, or if a plague heart is active in the area.

The ‘plague hearts’ are a new addition to State of Decay 2. How many there are and how active they are will depend upon your chosen difficulty. They spawn zombie hordes that travel across the map and ‘infect’ locations. Over time, these infections grow and spread so if you don’t deal with them – and destroy the plague heart releasing them – you’re going to be in for a rough time.

Although I like the plague hearts, I’m not so fond of the ‘blood plague’ mechanic in which your survivors can get infected by zombies and die if they’re not treated. It’s not hard to treat the plague, but it is hard to avoid it – it becomes a little tedious having to treat infected survivors every time they tangle with a single zombie.

The main game mode in State of Decay 2 is ‘Campaign’ which acts as a sandbox mode in which you pick your survivors, pick your map, choose your difficulty and get to work. The goal of the campaign is to clear out every plague heart upon the map and complete a survivor’s ‘leader goals’ which vary depending upon which character type they are. It adds a fairly basic story aspect to the sandbox, but it’s nothing to get too excited about. Once you’ve completed the goals you’re free to depart the map and pick the next carrying all your survivors, gear and skills with you and start again.

It certainly adds more replay value to State of Decay 2 than the original, but it can get a tad repetitive regardless of map – even on higher difficulties, clearing out the plague hearts becomes a matter of routine. It also, sadly, suffers from the same ‘mission spam’ as the original, as other communities on the map come to you far too frequently with their requests.

Whilst you can choose to ignore them, these smaller communities do become beneficial over time once allied with your camp. I just wish they’d be a little more patient – I had a mission from one community who I’d helped on several occasions time out because I was busy with something else, so they contacted me on the radio, told me to ‘go f**k myself’ and disappeared off the map. Rude!

It wouldn’t be so bad if you could send your survivors out to help you deal with all these annoying little errands, but you can’t. In fact, your fellow survivors are kind of useless when you’re not directly controlling them. This is why I feel a little disappointed with State of Decay 2 and why it feels like a bit of a step back.

In the original game you could, at the very least, ask your survivors to collect backpacks you’d dropped if you ran out of space – but you can’t in the sequel. I was really hoping to see an expansion on the kinds of commands you can issue to your survivors, not a reduction. It would be nice if I could could tell them not to just collect a backpack, but to loot a specific location, or clear out an infection.

It would be nice if I could take more than one survivor with me on a run, or order my companion to search and loot a specific object. It would be nice if I could send them to deliver supplies to other communities. It would be nice if they could actually drive and I could direct them where to go so I could take a break.

It would also be nice if, when a zombie horde attacks your base, they didn’t rush out through the front door, leaving it wide open and try to fight every zombie in melee when I’d built perfectly good defensive towers for them to shoot from. I’m really hoping State of Decay 3 improves drastically on survivor AI and functionality because they’re kind of f**king useless here. Oh, and you know what else would be really nice? A proper co-op campaign mode!

Beyond the Campaign mode you also have ‘Heartland’ which offers a smaller, more story focused experience. It’s pretty fun and I enjoyed playing through it at least until the end in which you have to fight your way through these very annoying and repetitive ‘plague walls’. It is, at least for me, a ‘one and done’ kind of experience. There’s no reason to go back to it unless you’re desperate for every achievement.

And then you have ‘Daybreak’ which is a simple siege mode in which you have to defend an NPC against several waves of zombie attacks. It’s intended to be played in co-op but you can try it solo – just don’t expect to have much fun as the AI companions it gives you can’t shoot for shit.

Overall, State of Decay 2 is a solid, refined and expanded sequel, but it doesn’t really innovate or dramatically improve upon the first game in the way that I’d hoped. It fixes some issues I had with the original, but it also still suffers from some of the same problems, and it also introduces some new ones of its own. Like the original, it’s frustratingly close to being great. Maybe in the next one, eh?

7/10

Oblivion Remastered: First Impressions

As a massive fan of Morrowind and its expansions, I picked up the collectors edition of Oblivion when it released back in 2006 without hesitation. But I was, I must admit, initially somewhat disappointed by the game. I recall disliking the main quest and thinking the map was less interesting to explore than the weird and wonderful Vvardenfell.

Nevertheless, I still played Oblivion for a good few hundred hours split between my disc copy, and a digital GOTY edition I later picked up on Steam. Because whilst there were aspects of Oblivion I felt were disappointing compared to Morrowind, I did come to love Oblivion in other ways.

I may not have enjoyed the main quest a great deal, but I do recall enjoying my time exploring the faction and side quests. And although the general points of interest upon the map – old mines, abandoned forts, dank caves and ancient ruins – didn’t offer much in the way of reward or variety (but plenty of backtracking), the game possessed a unique charm that slowly won me over.

Oblivion is just . . . strange, in its own special way. It’s a game full of jank, of technical bugs, of wonky physics – but nothing game breaking. Just regular, unintentional hilarity. From buckets suddenly springing to life and breakdancing across a tavern floor, to NPCs ice skating down a road whilst swinging an invisible hoe . . . you never get know what you’re going to discover as you explore the wacky world of Oblivion.

And don’t forget the often bizarre NPC interactions. Or the very odd characters you meet who possess some of the most funny, inappropriately delivered or just bad – but in a good way – VA you’ll ever hear.

Oblivion may be a flawed game but it certainly possesses its own special charm. But honestly, it’s not a game I recall as fondly as Morrowind or as perfectly as Skyrim. I never invested the same amount of time into Oblivion as I did those other games. But that’s why I was excited to pick up this remaster. Oblivion is a game I’ve been thinking of returning to and this remaster has given me the perfect opportunity to do so.

The most striking thing about this remaster is obviously the visuals. They’re not perfect – there’s some odd issues with reflections in particular that need to be addressed – but overall, Oblivion now looks fantastic. The character models, despite a significant improvement in quality, still possess a familiar and goofy appearance.

This is one of those remasters where they’ve done such a great job with the visuals that it almost tricks you into thinking Oblivion always looked this good. It’s essentially what I always pictured Oblivion as looking like in my head – even though it never did. A few glitches here and there aside, I really can’t fault the visual overhaul.

 

Yes, you’re still playing Oblivion – warts and all – but you almost feel like you’re playing a new Elder Scrolls game entirely. This remaster is an upgrade that’s breathed new life into Oblivion in a way I wouldn’t have thought possible – a treat for fans of the original, and new fans alike.

There have been a few ‘modern’ tweaks to how Oblivion plays with a new levelling system, various improvements to combat and the ability to sprint but overall, this is still the Oblivion we all know and love because underneath all of the pretty visuals the original game still chugs away – all of the original jank, bugs and strange behaviour.

Within my first few hours of playing this remaster I found myself attacked by what I at first believed to be an invisible enemy . . . until I noticed the head of the NPC bobbing up and down from beneath the floor. Nothing a well timed arrow didn’t fix – and I knew this was still the Oblivion I loved.

Enemy AI is still terrible – particularly if you utilise stealth. But it is funny killing every enemy in a room one by one with a bow aside from one poor bastard who just stands there staring at his dead friends before boldly declaring ‘WHO’S THERE?’.

Will new players come to love and appreciate Oblivion for what it offers? I think they will as there is something very refreshing about it despite all the bugs and janky behaviour. It’s a game that offers the player so much freedom and doesn’t continually hold your hand. It trusts that you’ll figure things out on your own.

I never liked Oblivion as much as Morrowind or Skyrim and even though there’s so much of the game I’ve forgotten or don’t recall clearly, I’m not expecting this remaster to change my mind. But it’s certainly been fun playing it again. I don’t know when or even if I’ll write a full review because it feels a tad redundant given that this is – despite the visual overhaul – still the same game it was 20 years ago.

I still don’t really care for the main quest – I find the Oblivion Gate stuff pretty dull. The Fighters Guild quests are fine – if they didn’t continually send you bouncing back and forth across the entire map to pick up new contracts. The Thieves Guild is still fun – provided you acquire the Skeleton Key to avoid the tedious and excessive lock picking.

I’ve still got the Mages Guild and Dark Brotherhood to go (pretty sure the DB was my favourite back in the day), in addition to the expansion and DLC content and quite a lot of side quests. Maybe once I’ve cleared it all I’ll see if I’ve got anything more to say – maybe I will end up liking it even more than I did, or maybe I’ll like it less. I’m curious to find out.

E3 Special 2025

Not-E3 season kicked off with a surprise Sony State of Play showcasing a varied range of titles, but the only games that really caught my eye were Romeo is a Dead Man from Suda51, and Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, both of which are slated for 2026, so let’s not get too excited, eh? I’m not a Bond fan, so the big 007: First Light reveal didn’t really interest me. There was also a tease for a Ghost of Yotei gameplay reveal in July which is . . . better than nothing, I guess.

Up next was Summer Game Fest. I wasn’t able to watch it live, so I just spun through all the announcements the next day. I liked the look of End of Abyss, Atomic Heart 2 (even though I’ve still not played the first one), Acts of Blood (AKA The Raid: The Video Game), and Ill.

I guess Resident Evil 9 was the ‘big’ reveal but the trailer didn’t show us much. Nor did the Death Stranding 2 cutscene, but there’s already been a fair bit of gameplay footage released for that one so I can’t really complain. There was also The Expanse: Osiris Reborn featured at the Future Games Showcase. As a fan of the show, that might be cool.

With so many of their heavy hitters not arriving until next year, I was expecting a more low-key Xbox and Bethesda Showcase and that’s exactly what we got. I can’t say it wasn’t a good show, but I was pretty disappointed because the one thing I really wanted to see wasn’t shown at all – the next Starfield expansion. Seriously, Todd, where’s my Starfield content?

But what did catch my eye? Well, Mudang: Two Hearts looked pretty cool, as did Clockwork Revolution. We got our first look at the Indiana Jones DLC – The Order of Giants. There was also Beast of Reincarnation, The Blood of Dawnwalker, At Fate’s End, Aphelion & Cronos: The New Dawn. Oh, and Keeper and Super Meat Boy 3D! Lots of good stuff.

We also got a release date for Ninja Gaiden 4 which I’m purely interested in because of Platinum Games . . . but with so many high profile departures from the studio over the last year, I don’t know if the magic will still be there.

And finally we got to see a lot more of The Outer Worlds 2. I wasn’t a big fan of the original (I reviewed it back in 2020), so I’m a little wary about this sequel, but everything I’ve seen does look good. Overall, a really good show (Starfield disappointment aside) even without the heavy hitters.

Now Playing: Tempest Rising

To say Tempest Rising is simply ‘inspired’ by the Command & Conquer Tiberian series would be generous to say the least because it is – unashamedly – a new C&C in all but name. And I’m totally cool with that. After the absolutely abominable C&C 4 all but killed the series, fans have been waiting for either a new entry, or a new RTS game to pick up the torch.

In C&C you can play as the GDI – a NATO-esque Western military alliance. Or as The Brotherhood of NOD – a cult-like organisation that covets Tiberian. In Tempest Rising you can play as the GDF – a NATO-esque Western military alliance. Or as The Tempest Dynasty – a cult-like organisation that covets Tempest.

GDI – GDF. The Brotherhood of NOD – The Tempest Dynasty. Tiberian – Tempest. The two Tempest Rising factions even, to a degree, play like their C&C equivalents – GDF is more focused on low mass, high tech forces, whereas The Dynasty relies more upon cheap, but plentiful units. But I’d say that, overall, there’s a closer technological balance between GDF and The Dynasty than GDI & NOD (at least in the early C&C games).

The plot of Tempest Rising will also be instantly familiar to any fans of C&C because it is, more or less, a rehash of the plot from C&C 3 – the two factions fighting it out on a global scale until the arrival of a new, third faction that’s connected to the Tiberian/Tempest.

In C&C 3 it’s the Scrin. In Tempest Rising it’s the Veti. But unlike C&C 3 in which the Scrin had their own mini-campaign, there’s no such equivalent for the Veti in Tempest Rising. That’s a shame, but I have a feeling we may see a Veti campaign added via DLC in the future.

I guess the question is – does Tempest Rising, by so strongly mimicking C&C, lack its own identity? I don’t think so. In fact, I’d say Tempest Rising does a strong job of building its own over the course of the two campaigns. It utilises the C&C framework to provide a solid and familiar foundation on which to build, one that should be appealing to old C&C fans waiting for something new.

I think it’s a pretty smart strategy, and I’m also pleased to say that the game doesn’t just try to copy what came before it – it has plenty of new ideas of its own. Both factions feature an impressive range of unit and building types that allow you to put together varied army compositions based on how you’d prefer to play.

And this isn’t a game where you can just spam a handful of units to win – you really do need to utilise and combine different units and their unique abilities to your advantage. The range of special unit abilities can seem a little daunting at first – in a fast-paced RTS, you don’t necessarily want to be juggling so many cool-down limited abilities across several units. But Tempest Rising does a decent job of easing you into things so you’re never overwhelmed.

Of the two campaigns, I’d say I enjoyed the GDF more as I feel they offer a better balance and variety of missions. I feel The Dynasty campaign is a little weaker, with too many missions relying upon you utilising small strike teams with more linear maps and objectives. There’s surprisingly little base building to be found in The Dynasty campaign – more often than not you’re working from existing bases or capturing enemy facilities.

Unlike C&C, which had its glorious live-action mission briefings and colourful cast of characters, Tempest Rising, perhaps out of budget necessity, instead uses in-game engine characters to provide briefings. This does allow them to add some interaction in the form of optional dialogue questions, but they’re not half as much fun.

They’re . . . fine, but very stilted and they lack the personality of the best C&C briefings – like Michael Ironside barking orders at you in C&C 3, or Kari Wuhrer as Best Tanya from Red Alert 2. The story, as I said, is essentially a rehash of C&C 3, but it’s also . . . fine. The two campaigns play out in parallel so you get two sides of the same story.

So how does it compare to the C&C games it so closely resembles? Well, I’d say it’s up there with the best – but not quite the very best. As a first game in a new series I’d say Tempest Rising is great, but it does rely a lot on that C&C nostalgia to carry it through. I think what really matters is where they go from here – and the story certainly sets up a potential sequel.

You have one great campaign (GDF) and one okay-ish one (Dynasty). The factions are well designed and the units and their abilities really do feel like what you’d expect in an actual C&C sequel. The visuals are great and the game runs smoothly. Oh, and the music is great too – if a little overbearing when it continues pounding even during mission briefings.

I’ve not tried multiplayer because that’s not really my thing, but I’ve tried a few skirmish maps and had some fun, although I do think the skirmish AI could do with some tweaks so it’s a little less stressful to fight against – right now, even on Normal you only really have two options – spam and rush, or extreme turtle.

Overall, Tempest Rising is a very good RTS game that doesn’t quite match up to the best of the series it’s so heavily ‘inspired’ by, but it certainly comes close. The question is – what’s next? Can this game spawn a new series that can stand on its own? That’s not so reliant on C&C nostalgia? I think it can, but it’s certainly not going to be easy.

7/10

Stellar Blade (DEMO)

When I first saw Stellar Blade I thought it was going to be an action game in the style of Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, but that’s not what it is at all. In terms of combat, I’d say it’s a pretty interesting mix of Dark Souls and Sekiro. It’s what I’d describe as a more ‘reactive’ action game than a ‘proactive’ one. You’re not dictating the pace – you’re reacting to enemy pacing / animations. It’s a game that – like Dark Souls – rewards careful, deliberate play and patience.

Your movement and attacks are somewhat slow – even your basic dodge is limited in range. You have simple combo attacks, but these won’t cancel or stun enemy attacks (not unless you complete an entire sequence) and you can’t easily break from a combo to parry, dodge or block. If you try to play Stellar Blade like DmC or Bayonetta you’re going to be in for a rough time.

Enemies have ‘balance’ points which is essentially the ‘poise’ system from Sekiro. Every time you perfectly parry an attack, they lose a point, and if they lose them all you can perform a stylishly animated ‘retribution’ attack for massive damage. This isn’t a game where you can rush in and spam buttons – you need to bide your time and creating openings to exploit.

 

Some attacks can’t be parried, only dodged, and some ‘lethal’ attacks can only be countered with unlockable skills. The combat in Stellar Blade is all about proper timing and once you understand that, and accept that’s how the game wants you to play, it’s pretty damn fun and satisfying – especially when you down a boss without taking a single hit.

There is a bit of trial and error at play in the sense that until you’ve fought an enemy or boss once, you won’t be aware of their attack patterns, so be prepared to die a few times until you learn their moves. I also feel that some enemy attacks aren’t adequately telegraphed to the player.

You can rest at camps as you go and, like Dark Souls, these heal you but also re-spawn local enemies. I did like exploring the (limited) map available in this demo – there’s quite a few little nooks to discover containing supplies or lore to collect. Oh, and I really like the enemy designs.

 

I played through this demo twice to get a feel for things, including the additional boss challenge and although I enjoyed it, I’m not sure if I want to pick this up at release because despite coming to like the combat, there are other aspects of Stellar Blade that feel a little weak.

The story and character aspects are clearly evocative of NieR: Automata but kind of terrible in comparison. All of the story stuff in this demo fell flat for me with some bad dialogue and a main character with the personality of a brick – which is unfortunate, because a game like this really benefits by having a strong personality at its core. It is only a demo, so maybe these things improve / get better as you go, but it’s not a great first impression.

Overall, once I did get a feel for the combat, I did like what I played. I’m not sure I like it enough to drop 60 quid at release, but I’ll see what else I’ve got lined up to play.