Simply keeping on top of the steady release of “AAA” game is challenging enough these days, with a larger market than ever before, and a massive number of devs and publishers trying to sate that demand. Unfortunately, that often means far too many good indie titles fly under the reader without the recognition they deserve. This weekly post aims to highlight some of those games we’ve got around to playing but never got around to reviewing. Project Warlock The game that kickstarted this feature is an excellent homage to retro FPS games of the ‘90s, like DOOM, Hexen, Blood, and a bit of Serious Sam. It shamelessly emulates the classic feel of movement, shooting, and the key-hunting gameplay, while using those games and classic movies as inspiration for the level and monster design. It’s not a pure classic shooter however, with its own (somewhat undercooked) spell system, weapon upgrades, and four stats that can be boosted every time you level up. The game also has, in theory, permadeath. Die and you must restart the level - which are never more than 5-10 minutes long - and you’ll want to keep an eye out for extra lives (I never came close to running short). If you ignore those modern additions, you can still swiftly lose yourself in a blur of winding corridors, multicoloured keys, horrific enemies, booming gunfire, and gratuitous gore. The visuals are distinctly retro, with some great sprite-based objects and monsters, but the “modern” lighting and particle effects enhance the experience (primarily by splattering the walls and floors with the innards of your demonic foes). There are a dozen levels in each of the five acts - bookended by simple walls of text describing your continued quest to hunt down all evil - ranging from Antarctic research bases (with creatures straight out of The Thing and Cthulhu stories), to modern industrial complexes (with robotic foes similar to the Strogg in Quake 2), to Hell itself (with no shortage of DOOM-inspired denizens). The levels are well-designed, often looping back on themselves, hiding monsters around corners and secrets in plain sight, while the final level pits you against a suitably challenging boss. The exploration and gunfire is backed up by incredible soundtrack - again emulating classic MIDI tracks - that always seems the thump along in sync with your shots (and it's free to download for those who pick it up on PC). What I didn’t expect was the ability to play this from the couch with excellent gamepad support that feels better than the DOOM and DOOM II ports for consoles; I completed the game on “Hard” without ever feeling the controls were a source of frustration. This is a game that started as a high school project, before generating enough profit on an early prototype to fund a small team for Project Warlock, and I’m disappointed it’s not gained more traction and exposure, given how damn good it is. I’m hoping that we’ll see some console ports in the near but, in the meantime, you can pick up Project Warlock cheaply on GOG or Steam. Max: The Curse of Brotherhood This was a game I finally got around to playing thanks to an Xbox Game Pass subscription; an indie title from Press Play and - temporarily - an Xbox One exclusive around launch. In it, you play as the titular Max who, after Googling ("Giggling") how to make his younger brother disappear, has to travel to a fantasy world and rescue him from a villain looking to transplant his consciousness into the young Felix. With the help and a grandmotherly guide, it’s a nauseatingly-charming story about Max realising his responsibility towards his brother that I begrudgungly enjoyed, despite the less-than-subtle storytelling. The game plays as a simple 2.5D platformer-puzzler, taking a lot of inspiration from PlayStation One classic Heart of Darkness, with one-hit deaths (but no particularly gruesome animations to accompany them). You run, jump, climb, swing, and manipulate objects to get through 20 levels {there’s no direct way to defeat your foes}, all with the help of a magic marker pen that can create pillars, branches, swinging vines, and eventually fireball-infused branches(?). There are auto-running sections, platforming puzzles, and a few complex boss encounters, making the game tougher than I expected given the audience. It’s a pretty game, albeit not technically so, and the writing, voice acting, and music ensure the atmosphere and tone is consistent throughout. The biggest problem with Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is that the gameplay often feels as dated as its source material, making for an enjoyable but shallow experience - with too many trial-and-error moments - that’s thankfully only 5-6 hours long. You can pick up Max: The Curse of Brotherhood on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and Nintendo Switch. Headlander Another game I finally got around to playing thanks the Xbox Game Pass, Headlander is a 2.5D Metroidvania-style game was developed by Double Fine Productions; so you can expect fun gameplay paired with a ridiculous setting, narrative, and quirky characters. Waking from cryosleep, as one of the few surviving humans from some prior catastrophe, you find yourself trapped as a disembodied head in a rocket-propelled device, which allows you to connect with several robotic bodies. Initially trapped in a giant space station orbiting the Earth, you’ll explore a retro-futuristic setting in which an AI called Methuselah now traps uploaded human consciousnesses in their robot bodies, forcing them into a life of submission and passivity. Eventually teaming up with the “resistance”, you set out to overthrow the AI and find other surviving, whole-bodied humans. Gameplay is an eclectic mix of conventional 2.5D platforming, bullet hell-style firefights when things become intense, some out-of-place cover shooting, and a whole bunch of door-puzzles that usually rely on taking over appropriate robotic bodies. Boss fights crop up occasionally, with an emphasis on puzzling your way to victory, rather than pure shooting. The world is sprawling but you’ll quickly learn to tear through the game once you’ve mastered the controls and earned a few upgrades and skill points, switching between bodies on the fly, while blasting away at enemies with multi-coloured laser beams. As with all games in this genre, you’ll be backtracking to hunt down secrets and upgrade points as you unlock new story-related skills. Headlander is fast, fun, and fluid, helped no end by the great writing, music, and garish visuals. You can pick up Headlander on Xbox One (on on Xbox Game Pass), PlayStation 4, and PC. Let us know in the comments below what you think of our choices, or if you’ve been playing an indie game this week you’d like to promote to the community.

There is an old notion that to be an effective hunter of one's prey, one should be able to think like that prey, in order to truly be able to anticipate its every move by understanding its thought process. Thus a hunter in the wilderness might know where to look for signs or tracks of the animal which he is after, he might know where it would go if being pursued, and how it might react when being wounded. Such information could be invaluable, it could even save his life. A soldier, in thinking like his enemy, might identify an ambush location before it's too late, or be able to obscure a potential target, or even know which locals might be sympathetic (or otherwise) to aid his cause. A cop that is able to think like a criminal could apprehend suspects with ease, catching them in the act, as if he was somehow aware of their secret plans all along. But to catch a psychopath, a serial killer, a merciless and remorseless mass murderer, would one need to be a monster themselves? It's the extreme case scenario. How does one get into the thought process of someone who seems completely and unreservedly insane to any regular person? How can their actions be imitated, or replicated, or understood by someone who can’t even comprehend their motivations? It probably can't. So then to use a monster to catch other monsters, besides the moral implications of working with a murderer, there would also be the whole issue of trust. These are the most vile specimens of mankind, the remorseless and manipulative killers that operate in ways that are unthinkable to normal individuals. Normal individuals just can't think like they can, they can't see the patterns, they can't see the signs, but they also seldom see when they are being used by the very people they are trying to use in the name of justice. Think Hannibal Lecter. Would, or could you ever really trust such a man? Should you ever really try to? Bedlam explores this dynamic of using a psychopath to identify and catch others like him, but does so with its own special blend of situational storytelling, which will leave you wondering exactly what you should believe, and what is really real. It's a glimpse into the mind of a complete lunatic, one who appears to seek redemption, to want to try to make up for the atrocities he was once responsible for, but as events unfold, and as more of his past is revealed, we're left wondering if he is still just manipulating those around him. We even begin to wonder if he himself truly knows his own mind, and perhaps he is just completely insane and delusional. To dance with the devil is always a risky prospect, but at least you know what to expect. But to work with someone who is totally and clinically insane, who possibly doesn't even know himself what his actual intent is, that is so much more than dangerous, maybe even a little crazy in itself. But in all fairness, Detective Acevedo from the Extraordinary Crimes Task Force doesn't actually know that the incredibly helpful informant, Fillmore Press, who volunteered to help her investigations and who has given such illuminating insights into the horrific cases which she has been dealing with, is actually probably the most notorious of all mass murders to plague the city of Bedlam, Madder Red. As Madder Red, Filmore Press terrorized the city for years, ruthlessly and indiscriminately killing religious leaders, women, children, and anyone else who he felt like eliminating really, with elaborately planned and completely chaotic acts of homicidal mania. If she'd known who he really was, no doubt Detective Acevedo would have immediately put a bullet between his eyes, but with her believing he’s just an odd but mostly harmless informant with a sketchy psychiatric history with far too useful information to really pass it up, she begins to trust and rely on Filmore more and more. But does Madder Red really still pull the strings in Filmore's head, or has he really turned over a new leaf? For me, Bedlam reads like what I would imagine the perfect Joker story would have. Madder Red is what DC's Joker should have been. He is a complete psycho, utterly insane, entirely remorseless, but in his own sick and very twisted way, he is quite the clown. He is a master of manipulation, he strikes fear into everyone in his path, and he inspires the legendary and misguided idealization which serial killers often do from the scandal seeking public. The insanity that engulfs his schemes makes them enthralling and unpredictable, horrific yet scarily entertaining, like watching a gruesome car crash played out before your eyes. Nick Spencer writes the character so well in fact that I'd have reservations about being left anywhere alone with Nick myself, because as we said before, to know the mind of an insane killer so well, it is only really comprehensible if you yourself are not completely right in the head. Sorry Nick Spencer, you write one hell of a book, but it does make me question your personal sanity and morality. I'll just read this one from behind my locked doors.

It’s been seven years since the last installment in the franchise that introduced us to the shadowy organisation tasked with protecting the earth from the scum of the universe. Black-suited heroes that police alien threats to all life on the planet, so we can continue, oblivious, with our lives. They are them, a rumour, recognizable only as deja vu and dismissed just as quickly. They are the Men in Black! And this film isn’t them. Men in Black: International, instead, is a generic action comedy, trying and failing to live up to the legacy of the black suit. Welcome to Meh in Black. As the plot goes, several years ago, Agent’s T (Chris Hemsworth) and H (Liam Neeson) heroically defeated the Hive, halting their attempt to destroy the earth. Now, H is a layabout with little ambition, cruising through MiB with his former partner (now head of the London office) always covering for him. H is suddenly teamed up with MiB frothing fangirl and probationary Agent, M (Tessa Thompson) to protect a visiting alien royal. Things go pear-shaped and they must navigate the pitfalls of being partners while unraveling a plot that could lead to galactic destruction. Or what the MiB probably call Wednesday. The film opens with two flashbacks in the wrong order that cut back and forth between each other. One three years back, the other 25, so I hope you have Ritalin. The Hive - super-duper-evil space aliens - have less screen time than the opening credits and the bulk of their story is handled as exposition. The tagline of this film should be “Tell, Don’t Show”, because that’s all they do. There are paintings depicting the battle too. Notably, yhere’s a painting of K and J’s battle from the first film. That, along with the one line from Frank the Pug and a walk-on by the Worm Guys, are the only reminders of the franchise you won’t be seeing. The tagline of this film should be “Tell, Don’t Show”, because that’s all they do. The story feels like they downloaded the basic action/comedy plot off HowTaRiteGud.com and tried to squeeze it into an MiB suit. But no amount of fine tailoring can hide this poor fit. With this being the fourth iteration in this series, the look and feel is established and should be easy enough to follow: Step One - The suit doesn’t come off! As Z once said to K, “It’s the last suit you’ll ever wear”. Agent H can’t seem to leave his on. The tie comes off, the shirt comes off, and then, let’s bang an alien or two. And then, let’s put him in pastels and have him drive a wood-paneled speed boat too… and he does. No! It's Men in BLACK! At least the lacklustre characterisation is consistent. The villains have a plot motivation that’s barely explained, except for one sentence that’s easy to miss if you’re distracted by the umpteenth explosion. The tone has shifted from conspiracies and subterfuge to a light and fun romp with lasers and multicoloured creatures. The message about diversity is present but not pedantic, which isn’t hard to do considering there’s an alien every three feet – like the four-eyed alien MiB with the South African accent. The question of a group calling itself the Men in Black when two of the core characters are women is mentioned about three times. But, little comes of it except a rather cheap attempt at a joke. The villains have a plot motivation that’s barely explained, except for one sentence that’s easy to miss if you’re distracted by the umpteenth explosion. There’s also a tiny sidekick that follows M around, called Pawny. He drops one-liners at H’s expense and is the mouthpiece for all of Agent M’s frustrations, because Vulcans don’t show emotion. Let me explain… Molly/Agent M’s character arch is a straight line. After seeing her parents neutralised for seeing a rogue alien, that looks suspiciously like Disney’s Stitch, she vows to find the Men in Black and become one of them. To this end, she applies for and turns down the CIA and FBI because, though she scores are off the charts in her evaluations, they don’t have a checkbox on the application form for MiB. She then hacks MiB’s satellites to find their next starship recovery and so, locates their headquarters. After getting caught, the conversation that leads to her being hired is: “Why should we hire you?” “Because I’m awesome.” “You’re absolutely right.” She’s driven, emotionless and practically perfect in every way. She is free from failure; a higher being playing the game of life with the cheat codes on… She is a Molly in Black! Hollywood did the same thing with Rey in Star Wars. I hope one day they realise that every story can have a strong, capable character that happens to be female and not a strong capable female character that happens to be the messiah. Agent H. *Sigh*. He is a rogue and a rapscallion… I was half-expecting him to toss his head back and laugh like a swashbuckling sailor going “Haahaaaa!” He drinks, he womanises, he’s a discount James Bond without the class aka Austin Powers. Naturally he works alone and has a gloominess to him that feels unmotivated. His self-destructive behaviour is him trying to deal with… something… but the amount of time it took me to write this sentence was longer than the film spent addressing it. His brash behaviour goes well with a film that’s left subtlety neuralised in a dumpster; a film for the teen market, peppered with humour and dialogue that’s trying desperately to be cool. Liam Neeson’s Agent High T (cos we’re in London, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, oh God!) is H’s father figure, constantly covering for him, the reason why barely established. It could have gone a long way to removing the feeling like they phoned his backstory in. Lastly, if you put scenes depicting beloved characters in your trailer and on the poster, and then not in your film, there is a special circle of hell just for you. Like Hellboy, this film is like eating a pallet-cleansing sorbet, and no meal. In the end, you feel unfulfilled and slightly dizzy from the want of something better.

The Last of Us 2's release date has been on the mind of every PlayStation fan since E3 2018, and it seems that Ashley Johnson - who plays Ellie - kinda-sorta-almost confirmed the release date for the highly anticipated sequel; February 2020. The Last of Us 2 is the next ambitious project from veteran developer, Naughty Dog, and in a recent interview with the real-life star protagonist. In the interview below - courtesy of Critical Role - it looks as if Johnson is just about to reply with "February", when asked about the release. Note: You can hear Ashley almost spill the date at one hour and seven minutes - 1:07:00 Not too long ago, Jason Schreier also mentioned in a tweet, that The Last of Us 2 would possibly launch in February 2020, as Death Stranding would be taking the expected November release date. Looks like Death Stranding is about to get announced for a November release. The Last of Us 2 was also planned for fall 2019 but I actually just heard it got bumped to early 2020, possibly February? Either way, wild final year for PS4 https://t.co/wh6kimA73b— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 29, 2019 It is important to remember that this release date is not confirmed, but all evidence does point towards it. If this is true, then it seems that PlayStation is going to have yet another dominant year before the expected release of PS5 in Christmas season 2020.