Open the gates Lil Guardsmanis a game that wears its heart on its sleeve. In a victory for normative determinism, this is a fantasy adventure about a small girl named Lil who somehow becomes the first (and seemingly only) line of defence at a city’s border patrol as a guardsman. At various points, both Lil and those around her frequently call attention to the fact that, yes, you are merely a 12-year-old child who is massively underqualified for this task, and that if you’re going to continue filling in for your good for nothing father who’s down the pub gambling on the latest ball game, then really, what do your superiors expect?...

The gaslamp fantasy survival game entered early access as online-only After launchingNightingaleinto early access on Tuesday, developers Inflexion Games (led by former BioWare CEO Aaryn Flynn) have quickly realised a big miscalculation: lots of players want an offline mode. The gaslamp fantasysurvival gamerequires you be online even if you want to play by yourself, which dovetailed poorly with server issues at launch to frustrate folks. Inflexion say that early in development they needed to make a choice between focusing on co-op or offline first, and now think they made the wrong call....

Need a hint for today’s Connections? Read our guide for help with Connections #257 This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today’s solution? Check out theConnections hint and answers for Thursday 12th December! Want a hint for Connections today?Piggybacking off the monumental success of daily puzzle gameWordle, the New York Times has another fantastically popular word game out now. It’s calledConnections, and if you haven’t played it before, now’s the time to start....

Do not let the campfire go out Yesterday I was off sick with a fever and, as I often do when I’m laid up ill, immediately set out to consume the most nihilistic and depressing entertainment media I could find. On the film front, I watched Session 9, in which some men hired to remove asbestos from a collapsing 19th century asylum do not have a very nice time. On the game front, I playedThe Tribe Must Survive, a colonymanagementsim from Walking Tree Games GmbH and Starbreeze Publishing, which isnow available in early access....

Sunk cost Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot recently saidSkull And Bonesis a “quadruple-A game”, which I think is very accurate, actually. “AAAA” is the sound that escapes my lips as I embark on yet another hour-long sail to retrieve some logs, or when I’m doing my little deliveries and a brigantine starts on me. After 11 years in development, Ubisoft’spirate gameisn’t necessarily a disaster, I just think its live service model has transformed piracy from a roguish lark on the waves into atremendouslydull series of shipping tasks....

Shadow Of The Erdtree will be a more “seamless” and “diverse” creation From Software president Hidetaka Miyazaki has acknowledged that members of theDark Soulsstudio had misgivings aboutElden Ring’s shift to a full-blownopen worldformat, while qualifying that Elden Ring’s vision for an open world was never “traditional”. Rather, Elden Ring is an “open world” game in the same way that Dark Souls is a “hard” game, Miyazaki feels. Confused? Well, thisisthe godfather of the notoriously unforthcoming Souls series we’re talking about....

Cute raccoons also feature Sons Of The Forestlaunches out of early access and into 1.0 today, bringing with it a whole host of tweaks and improvements. Most notably, there’s a new ending, new mutants, new points of interest, proximity chat, a creative mode, and new uses for the game’s mysterious artifacts. The rest of the changelog is an exhausting list of bullet points with the occasional hidden gem, like the introduction of raccoons and golf cart radio stations to give your drives some added pizazz....

Knee-Deep in the Shed When dramatic parents panicked over the satanic influence ofDoomin the 90s, maybe they had a point. Doom has burned through people’s souls and minds, filling them with a desire to play Id Software’s seminal shooter on every device they can. The question “Can it run Doom?” has driven these demonic vassals to make it playable on everything fromtractorstoteletext. These hellbound hearts are even daring to corrupt the totemic device of American liberty: the lawnmower....

Also works with ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go. Steam Deck docks are a great upgrade for anyone that wants to use their Steam Deck (or similar PC handheld) with a TV or monitor, but the official Valve option is a little pricey at £69. Thankfully, cheaper third-party options are available, including this discounted Ugreen option that costs just £26 thanks to a voucher available at Amazon UK. This particular dock ticks all the boxes when it comes to specs and features, with 4K 60Hz video output via HDMI, gigabit ethernet, up to 100W of USB-C PD passthrough charging and three USB ports - two USB-A and one USB-C....

Stuck on today’s Wordle word for February 23? Read our hint or find the answer below! This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today’s solution? Check out theWordle hint and answer for Thursday 12th December! Need a hint for today’s Wordle answer?If you’re on your last guesses for the day, don’t fear! We have you sorted with a list of hints as well as the answer itself to help you along the way....

Another Crab’s Treasure in April! World Of Goo 2 in May! SMT 5 in June! Kicking things off, 3D platformerPenny’s Big Breakawayis availableright now. The new game from the creators ofSonic Maniawas stealth-dropped right after Nintendo’s presentation yesterday, and you can find it over onSteam. I played a chunk of this at the start of the month and came awaya little befuddledby its high octane yo-yo-ing, but I’ll try and bring you further thoughts on it now it’s out properly....

With modern graphics and controls Epic Mickey, Warren Spector’s action-platforming love letter to early period Disney, is heading to PC more than a decade after its original Wii exclusive release. It’ll arrive asDisney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, a “remake” with modern graphics and controls. Here’s the trailer, which recreates the original opening cinematic from the game: Epic Mickey sucks its titular character into the Wasteland, a crumbing world of forgotten Disney characters like Oswald The Lucky Rabbit....

New gameplay tease has arrived ahead of an extended reveal next month The trailer begins with Nor and her (cat? dog? squirrel? fox?beaver???) companion Enki leaving a coffee house as they venture into a dusty sandstone ravine, presumably on their way toward the giant upside down Toblerone piece hanging up in the sky. I suspect the Toblerone is the home of one of the old gods that Nor and Enki are on a journey to go and destroy....