D&D-skewering, Disco Elysium-inspired RPG Esoteric Ebb had me trying my best to be a cleric while my Intelligence stat kept telling me to become a wizard-king - Related to new, my, best, gollop, now

D&D-skewering, Disco Elysium-inspired RPG Esoteric Ebb had me trying my best to be a cleric while my Intelligence stat kept telling me to become a wizard-king

Waking up in a morgue in the updated demo for Disco Elysium-like RPG Esoteric Ebb. The first thing I did was check out the other body lying in there with me. It's hard to tell what's a brand new interaction compared to my run through Esoteric Ebb's original demo versus pre-existing stuff uncovered by a fresh character build⁠—I went all in on Intelligence and Wisdom this time.

While I couldn't determine a cause of death, I did discover that this guy didn't have insurance: He was marked as a viable candidate for some good old fashioned D&D-style resurrection magic. But nobody had done the deed.

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"He clearly did not have an RF. A Revive Fund," my Intelligence chimed in, calling to mind the interior adventuring party/Greek chorus of Disco Elysium's personified skills. "Nor did he have family members with enough ready cash. Or maybe he was just an unlikable fellow. Who knows?"

My altruistic Wisdom suggested I revive this man with a valuable third-level spell slot, which the more pragmatic Intelligence immediately shot down. How will I get anything done if I try saving every lost life I come across? More ominously, what if they don't want to come back? Either way, it's a moot point for the demo. I'd have to pack on way more levels than this preview had room for and find a scroll of Revivify out in the world to boot.

But the interaction is illustrative of everything that's got me excited about Esoteric Ebb, evidence that it's not just crying "Disco Elysium" for attention from a hungry RPG community, but that it can back it up with the thoughtfulness. Charm, and dense, replayable design that Disco's legacy calls to mind. This body, one of the first things I saw in the starting room, is a potential game-spanning mystery, an "ooooh, I gotta come back for that" little tease that'll have me making tracks for the morgue the second I unlock Revivify in the final game⁠—even if it's just to quicksave, resurrect the guy to find out he's an ungrateful asshole, and promptly quickload.

Since the last time I checked in with Esoteric Ebb, lead developer Christoffer Bodegård secured a publisher. Raw Fury, leading to this updated demo, a new trailer, and a sheen of "we have a budget now" over everything. Esoteric Ebb already had a lovely cel-shaded art style, but everything has more depth and detail now, like when a cartoon gets a theatrical movie and. All of a sudden there's shadows and way smoother animation. Esoteric Ebb's soundtrack is also noticeably expanded, with a vibe of "chill beats to fail skill checks to" that calls to mind Tunic or Hyper Light Drifter's dreamy soundscapes.

The new demo consists of two core quests, same as the original: Deciding what to do with a group of protesting dwarves and the Pinkerton half-orc trying to get them to go home. And a sort of dialogue boss fight with a goblin queen that resembles the first Evrart Claire scene from Disco Elysium. The playable area of the town has been expanded, though, while the game has gotten a bit more forgiving and approachable. Character creation is more clear about how to effectively build the cleric, including helpful sample builds, and the dice rolls seemed to go my way a bit more this time around.

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Even though you are a cleric⁠—that's even what people call you despite your optional insistence on a skill check-gated, possibly misremembered given name⁠—you can build your guy however. You want. Max out Strength and Constitution like a dumb brute fighter, or go all in on Charisma and Dexterity like a wannabe rogue. The game takes note of this and has a bit of fun at your expense. My brainiac Intelligence kept insisting I was actually a wizard, unlocking new dialogue options to that effect. It even opened up choices to insist I would become wizard-king of the city, or to express support for the cryptofascist "rule by wizards" political party in the upcoming elections.

Esoteric Ebb has a "D&D rules pushed to their logical conclusion" sensibility that's half-Planescape and. Half-Shrek. One conversation implied that character alignment is a genuine force that can impact the world. While a lecture on magic hell law from a Lawful Evil imp is still my favorite conversation in Esoteric Ebb so far. Esoteric Ebb is very much imitating Disco Elysium from its user interface to some of its core conceits, but its more zany sense of humor. As well as its clever use of Dungeons & Dragons tropes and mechanics, have the potential to send things in an interesting new direction. Esoteric Ebb does not have a set release date, but you can check out its demo for yourself and wishlist it on Steam.

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PUBG: Blindspot. The first proper PUBG spin-off, is a bit of an oddity. Despite the Steam page for its Next Fest demo saying the game was.

I'm pretty sure Julian Gollop now thinks I'm an idiot, but his new game Chip 'n Clawz vs. The Brainioids won me over

You are playing a co-op session with Julian Gollop, Snapshot Games's CEO and the man who created XCOM. He's showing you Chip n' Clawz vs. The Brainioids, a real time strategy game where you'll gather resources, fabricate structures, and give orders to robot minions in battles against an alien menace. The twist? It's all in third person, with split-screen couch co-op, real time ranged and melee combat, and. Even a little platforming.

You're playing as robot cat Clawz, and Gollop is plucky spacefarer Chip. He's zipping around the map hoovering up resources on a hoverbike he's nabbed from a building that gifts you both special tech. You've got a rocket pack that lets you double jump, accessing new structure blueprints hidden in high places. It's time to take the fight to the aliens, and Gollop calmly hints at building troop spawners near your main structure - it's got mounted guns, after all.

a.) For god's sake. Listen to the man. This is sort of his wheelhouse, not to mention his game.

b.) Gleefully sprint off, ignoring Gollop's warnings as you hastily erect a haphazardly positioned forward base in a deeply suboptimal location, forcing you both to spend the rest of the level playing catch-up as angry brain aliens make mincemeat of your structures and waste the resources you've already invested.

In my defence. I'd pulled a shoulder muscle the night before and was mildly out of it on delicious painkillers. Also, I was having fun. I've taken solace in the fact he had several other interviews that day and probably doesn't remember who I am. We won the level in the end, which I suggested was proof that my strategy was actually very clever. "No comment," replied Gollop. I leave the session with a 92% chance to dunk my own head in the toilet.

You'll likely have noticed the bright, Saturday morning cartoon vibes. And that's a very conscious departure from the alien threat of Snapshot's previous Phoenix Point. "There's way too much grim, dark, horror, post-apocalyptic, zombie, whatever stuff going on at the moment in video games. The change in tone is obviously very deliberate indeed," Gollop says. "The game is quite satirical, though. The aliens are essentially a kind of a dysfunctional corporation, and they have all the issues and backstabbing and. Infighting that corporations have." You can still sense his old love for pulp sci-fi, too - most noticeable in the comic book collectables. "Mars "Attacks is definitely an inspiration."

Another was playing co-op games like the LEGO series with his kids. That's how the game felt to me, too: something for parents or guardians to introduce their love of strategy to younger players as a shared experience. He also namechecks Nintendo's Pikmin, evident in the rally points you can set for individual types of robots and puzzly optional challenge stages. Another inspiration is Sacrifice, Shiny's 2001 third person RTS ("a very interesting little game," Gollop says).

But that lighter tone is also a bit of a Trojan horse. I think. While the game is certainly very chirpy and accessible, it doesn't take long to get the sense there's some depth here. Even beyond the more obvious aspects like hard difficulty or a competitive mode for up to four players. "Every story mission will introduce something new," says Gollop - new buildings or abilities, or new enemies, allies, or objective types. "Sometimes you get a bit of a tower defense style scenario. Sometimes you have escort missions. Quite a few of them, you have to destroy the enemy HQ."

Lots of options means lots of decisions - juggling real time building placement alongside commanding your robots. Destroying enemy buildings is best done with artillery bots - cute rockets that shuffle around on two tiny clockwork feet. They're defenseless, though, so you'll want to support them with a frontline of boxer bots and a few fliers. Both Chip and Claw have their own special abilities, too. Chip can poke both bots and buildings to send them into overdrive for a short burst, either boosting production or damage output. Clawz can repair and heal. These both cost a small amount of Brainium, though, which is also your building resource - making multiple systems feed into each other nicely.

You're also scoping out for when to get stuck into combat yourself. Melee is very simple and a bit stiff, but the one gun I tried felt fine. How much of a factor does this stuff actually play in the long game? Depends on your playstyle, Gollop says. You'll collect blueprints for HQ mods ("the essence of your strategy"), and can equip up to three. "If you're more strategy focused, you might go for, say, elite minion types, or economy mods. Or you can stick with more combat character focused mods"

"The weapons are also interesting," he continues. "For example, Clawz has a frenzy grenade, which will overdrive your own minions and cause enemy minions to go haywire, which is a panic status. There's this constant consideration: am I doing something useful right now? Or could I be doing something more useful? And what would it be?"

Gollop has been designing strategy games for over 40 years now, starting with titles like Time Lords and Chaos: The Battle Of The Wizards in the early eighties. But he says the fundamentals of the genre are pretty consistent. "Outhinking, outwitting, experimenting with different ideas and different approaches."

"The fundamental rules of strategy design is you've got to allow the player to experiment and bluff and. Counter-bluff," he says. "Obviously PvP is a little different from single player, but strategy is about having a plan, trying to execute it. Then when it goes wrong, coming up with a plan B. A game should allow the player to do all of this. You're always trying to react to your opponents. Plan B and C probably come in because your opponent has probably done something you've not expected, and plan A isn't working out. So that's what I think strategy games are all about."

He laughs a little when he says "your opponent has probably done something you've not expected". I was experimenting, Mr. Gollop. Chip 'n Clawz vs. The Brainioids is out this Spring, with a demo out for Steam Next Fest on February 24th.

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Look, 4 new games that are NOT Monster Hunter Wilds

The dust on the yesterday's horizon has become today's stampede. Monster Hunter Wilds has launched and we are all choking on up-kicked sand. So far the action game has hit a peak of 987,000 players on Steam and all my news feeds are nothing but Rathalos screams. This is what we call a "big 'un".

But what trembling critters are eking out an existence in the disturbed ground beneath Capcom's feet? Other games still exist, and some are just unlucky enough to step out of their bolthole the same moment a much scarier freak is on the prowl. Here are 4 games that just released which may be worth a look if you have no time for big beasties.

It's golf. And probably the most expensive game on the list, with the biggest publisher name attached. PGA Tour 2K25 came out today, which hints at 2K are comfortable launching their sports game alongside Capcom's gargantuan freak, perhaps concluding that the venn diagram of golf likers and. Lizard enthusiasts leaves only a slim overlap. But Steam itself strangely seems to disagree. In the box titled "Is this game relevant to you?" the store states this putt 'em up is similar to at least one other game I have played: Monster Hunter Wilds. Okay.

Not a full game, but a significant improvement to the long-running space sim. Trailblazers makes it possible for space pilots to stake a claim on whole star systems, and start building the orbital stations, refineries. And planetary outposts that commanders usually frequent, but in currently unpopulated systems. There's a big rundown here from the developers, which explains in brief the many steps it will take to build your frontier spaceport. As a lapsed space trucker it is an appealing fantasy.

"Turn your system into a gateway to the unknown - a perfect home base for your expeditions into the black," they say. "Become a destination for Commanders looking to make a name for themselves in a bustling hub for missions." In reality, this is sure to involve enough grindy shipping to complete whole seasons of true crime podcasts while flying back and. Forth between a rubber factory and a glue store. It's also technically in beta. And if you want to give your colony its own name, you'll have to pay extra real money for Elite's special spacebucks. But as an extra bit of grindy endgame, it does seem to open up the Milky Way quite a bit.

Forget what I noted about the golf game being the expensive one. Is £55/$50 a good deal for 14 old Yu-Gi-Oh games stretching back to the original GameBoy titles? Longtime fans and retro game dweebs might be pleased - some of these old card battlers were only released in Japan but. Have finally been localised for this collection. At least some of the games will feature online multiplayer battles, such as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 4: Battle of Great Duelists. And the games boast a "rewind time" function, that's like the much-appreciated fast-forwarding of Squeenix's Final Fantasy re-releases. But, uh, in reverse.

Anyway, there you go. A small menu of other games if you're not into making pants out of majestic symbols of raw nature. There are, as ever, a bunch of other small games released today in Steam's ever-expanding soup of personal projects, sex games, and cynical AI trash. But these are the four that made it through the RPS bullshit filter. A frightening machine that no single worker here knows how to operate in its entirety. You want more good curation like this? It's easy, just keep coming back. We like it when your eyes touch our words.

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