Considering the nightmare that was 2020, I don’t think I’ve seen a more collectively cathartic New Year’s celebration than 2021 s. Granted, what separates one year from another is largely arbitrary, and many of 2020’s problems have continued into 2021. But with COVID-19 vaccines trickling out, we can at least begin to vaguely imagine an end to the pandemic that made life in 2020 such a locked-down disaster.
Hopefully, we ll get past the mass death as soon as possible, but we’re going to feel the impact of this pandemic in all parts of life for years to come. Video games exist as part of this larger world. This young, new console generation has already been shaped by the current crisis, in some ways we may never see. So as you prepare to wait longer than expected for a highly anticipated title, appreciate the great games that you can play right now.
Clever Beans Ltd, the team behind 2012 s
When Vikings Attack! and, perhaps more notably, the fantastic
WipEout Omega Collection of remasters on PlayStation 4, make its first foray onto Switch with Gods Will Fall, and what a successful first foray this is. What we have here is a properly challenging and highly inventive dungeon crawler packed full of unique roguelike elements that lays a tough test before those willing to take up arms and dive into its punishing death chambers. There
are a few little niggles here and there along the way with regards to certain randomly-generated elements of combat but, overall, this is an excellent hack and slash action-adventure that s got us pretty much hooked.
Geeky Gadgets
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NVIDIA has this week confirmed the new games that will soon be arriving on its GeForce Now game streaming service. The Medium with RTX ON and Free Immortals Fenyx Rising Demo are included in the line-up expanding the GeForce Now library to over 800 games. In January alone, 23 games have been announced by NVIDIA which will be coming to GeForce NOW, including HITMAN 3 and Everspace. “Games will continue to be added every week, but that first GFN Thursday of the month will give you a glimpse at what to expect. That way you can shop with confidence, knowing what’s to come.”
Bad religion. Updated on 1 February 2021 Numinous landscapes and skull-rattling combat combine in this leftfield classic
Lochlannarg s dungeon is nothing like a dungeon. It s not even a lair, really. Outside, by the gates, clear water falls from one bronze urn to another in a peaceful overspilling burble. It s practically inviting: a spa. Inside, rivers of jade flow through channels worn in dark grey stone, between little islands of swaying straw. Lochlannarg in person awaits at the top, inside a temple - I say in person, but they re a sort of earless stone cat-monster caught in the act of having a bath. Maybe it really is a spa? Anyway, the stone tub is lofted by zombies. Lochlannarg surprised me, the first time I met them, with lightning, which I was not remotely expecting, and which killed me.