I’m just hoping we can skip ahead a few years, okay? In the same way that shoulderpads sometimes become cool again, and everyone is buying over-sized hair scrunchies like wot I used to have when I was 11, games journalists are destined to be trapped in repeating discourse cycles of ever-decreasing size. This is why I will often specifically advise people to never, ever pitch me opinions aboutBioShock. Any opinions about BioShock have already been had....

Although it’s free-to-play and looks a bit like anotherGenshin Impact, Blue Protocol doesn’t have any of them there gachas to fuss over. It’s still quite fantastical, but has a tinge of sci-fi about it. Set millennia hence in the technologically ravaged world of Regnas, your character will wake up amnesiac and struggling to understand what’s going on. NPCs you meet on your travels will help you take down Regnas’ many monstrosities, and unlock some of your missing memories....

The Carpet Man returns Earlier this year I compared the MMOLost Ark to grey carpet, in the sense that the MMO Lost Ark is exactly like a grey carpet: trendy yet drab. At the time I’d been in the market for a new – and entirely necessary - underfoot experience, so I turned to a local Carpet Man to procure said plush. In the end he seemed pleased that I rebelled against the majority and opted for a sunny corn colour....

Tell me fantastic? Here’s the new “Arlekino” trailer, which features more backpedalling than aSerious Samgame: Atomic Heart initially seemed like it might be reminiscent of Stalker andBioShock, with a striking world to explore filled with creatively-designed monsters to fight via thoughtful first-person combat. Each trailer is more bombastic than the last though, with this newest one featuring quick cuts, swarms of enemies and huge explosions. It’s all a reminder that developers Mundfish refer to Atomic Heart as an “action RPG”, suggesting Diablo and its ilk are as much a relevant point of comparison as BioShock....

A mod for the expansion to a remake of a classic Chapter 4: Captive Freight comes out tomorrow, so it’s a fine time to jump in. Watch on YouTube The mod aims to do for Blue Shift what Black Mesa did for Half-Life: not just faithfully recreating every moment with fancier graphics, but adding and changing bits too. It’s got five stars so far onthe Steam Workshop, so they must be doing something right....

Along with fresh looks at tons of other indies at Wholesome Snack Yesterday Wholesome Games hostedanother showcaseof fresh indies in collaboration withThe Game Awards. Though the TGAs proper were full of big games, names, and announcements, the indie showcase was no slouch, highlighting over a dozen exciting indies. One of the most notable wasSpirittea, a life-sim where you manage a bathhouse, build relationships with the local NPCs and help various spirits that only you can see....

A closed playtest is coming real soon, too Wayfinderis a new free-to-play action-RPG developed byBattle Chasers: Nightwardevs Airship Syndicate and published by Digital Extremes, the folks behindWarframe. And it shows! The game certainly looks like an ARPG, akin to say, Torchlight, with heroes battling against shadowy monsters to earn lots of rare and epic and legendary loot. It looks fine, good and dandy, so why not give the reveal trailer below a nice little watch?...

Celeste developers Extremely OK Games have announced their new game atThe Game Awardsthis evening, and it looks like they’ve gone in a new direction from their previous tough-as-nails platformer.Earthbladeis a high-fantasy exploration game that takes place in a ruined world with magic and monsters. It looks pretty cool, so check out the trailer below. Story details are light too. All we know is that the game follows Névoa, a “child of Fate” returning to Earth, which is in a bit of a state....

Big Train Speaking as a grown-ass man, I love trains. Not to the extent that I will ever bother to learn anything about them, or to identify one with any more specificity than “the pointy type”, “the blunt type” and “the chugga chugga choo choo all-aboard type”, but to the far milder extent that I simply enjoy watching them whizz around the place like big metal worms, and hearing their various little noises and honks....

Crime Boss: Rockay City has a bad name but a good cast The Geoffries tonight saw the announcement of a new cooperative heist FPS with set in the 90s, with an extremely 90s cast. 90s actors featuring inCrime Boss: Rockay Cityinclude Michael Madsen, Kim Basinger, DannyGlover, Danny Trejo, and even Vanilla Ice and Chuck Norris. The game looks a whole lot like Payday but honestly, I’m always up for more heists....

The original Colossal Cave Adventure released in 1976, damn Originally created by Will Crowther in 1976, and with help from Don Woods in 1977, this new 3D remake of Colossal Cave is being headed by noted gaming pioneer Roberta Williams. Her name will most certainly ring a bell for PC retro game fans, as she and her husband Ken are the founders of Sierra On-Line, the game company behind 1980s retro classics like Phantasmagoria and King’s Quest....

The WW2 RTS will be hitting consoles after it launches on PC next year I mean, they only said at launch, right? Maybe there’s still hope for crossplay support further down the line. After all, Relic did also tell me the other week they’ll"go where the players are"when it comes to supporting the game long-term, so you never know. Still, even though I’ll be playing COH3 on PC when it arrives early next year, part of me’s quite intrigued to see how it runs on consoles....

Meet Your Maker sees players building and defending their own fortresses complete with mazes, guards, and traps, while other players try and raid said fortress. To win as a raider, you need to reach the centre of the build, grab a glowing orb, and make it out alive. Winning as a builder entails designing a tower that no one can successfully survive. The story gubbins is that you’re a “Custodian of the Chimera,” a living experiment created as a last resport to save Earth - whatever that means....