Just Another Manic…Wednesday? – Hailing Frequencies for 2/7/18

Welcome to Wednesday, my friends! Sorry it’s been a few days since the last dispatch, but it’s been a wacky week. Let’s start with videos! First up is this week’s game of the week, the AMAZING Scavenger SV-4.

I’m not being hyperbolic either, it truly is an achievement. The attention to detail is monumental, the gameplay is just stellar, and it’s just a really fun ride. That said, it’s absolutely creepy as hell and terrifying, which is why tomorrow’s video will be the last. The details of the ship alone are noteworthy, with detailed rooms, lots of things to tinker with, and plenty of things to break and need fixing. The roguelike element is also done exceedingly well, with little details changed for each run-through, from the origin of your character to how clean or sloppy the bed in the quarters has been made. It’s truly a remarkable game that you all need to play.

This week’s other video is of the shooty buildy early access title, Galactic Shipwright. Right now the game is in its pretty early stages, but it’s still fun to play, and it’s building portion is very efficient and streamlined, which I particularly enjoy. The first few missions of the game are fairly basic, but once they add combat to the mix, it is ON. Looking forward to seeing this game mature over its early access period.

Yesterday, for our podcast, we talked to some of the folks behind Angels Fall First, a very fun combined-arms combat game that involves space and ground combat, along with both first-person and third-person vehicular combat. The game has a long history, starting as a mod many years ago, so we were delighted to not only learn all about its past, but also its future. We played a few matches and had a BLAST, though I realized near the end I should’ve used the game’s spectator mode so I could focus more on actually interviewing our guests, but overall I thought it was a really fun show, and the MP3 will go up tomorrow for those subscribed. :)

Tomorrow we’ll be playing Vermintide for the first time on the channel, and to be honest, I’d never played it before when it was chosen, so I fired it up for the first time the other day and played with some bots. I chose to play the archer — because that’s the kind of thing I’ve been enjoying of late, moreso than my usual mages — and had a blast running through a city on fire, killing all kinds of Skaven. I really can’t wait to play co-op tomorrow!

Besides Vermintide, I’ve spent a good amount of time back in Grim Dawn of late. I read that they enabled gamepad controls, so of course, I had to try them. After a bit of a learning period, the controls clicked, and my god if they’re not even more fun than the mouse and keyboard controls. I created a new melee character to get a feel for the controls, and once I did, went back to my rifle-based character and have been having just a blast, literally. Will likely be playing it quite a bit more in the days to come. I also got a key for Descenders, a downhill bike stunt game reminiscent of the classic Downhill Domination, only with procedurally generated tracks and so on. I’m terrible at it, but my GOD is it fun. It also has amazing music, so them not selling the soundtrack separately is a crime.

Tonight, since I’ve got some time to myself, I plan to play some more Dying Light, which I just got the other day and am not toooo keen on yet. I think I need to finish the tutorial and play some actual gameplay to really see if I wanna keep it. I also plan to spend more time in EVE Online. I’m training up for a drone-heavy destroyer that apparently is amazing at soloing combat sites, so until then I’ll be spending time exploring and missioning. Great fun! I might also spend some time with Imagine Earth, which I just got and looks pretty fun. What are you playing?

Alright, enough about me, there’s a bevy of news to share, and some of it is HUGE, so let’s dive in!

• Space Tyrant is hitting 1.0 on February 27th! Yay! I’m super excited, but also a tad worried because a ton of OTHER stuff is dropping that same day, so I hope it doesn’t have its thunder stolen.
• Star Tactics got a massively huge update that could be seen as an expansion, really. New ships, abilities, weapons and completely new campaign mean it’s time to revisit this gem.
• Rodina has a new dev update about revised xeno mines, which looks amazing. I really need to return to this game.
• Astrox Imperium has another dev update video showing off mercenaries!
• PULSAR: Lost Colony got a new beta patch with updates to ship claiming, science bots and more.
• Star Traders: Frontiers got a pretty big update which adds eras to its game, a significant addition.
• The Spatials: Galactology has a pretty big dev update covering security items, localization and more.
• Empyrean Frontier has a new patch which adds achievements, a borderless window mode and more!
• ASTROKILL has better joystick configuration options and larger fighters as part of its latest patch.
• Star Explorers got a beta patch or two which fixed storage lockers and blueprints.
• Origin Space now has gamepad support! Yay!
• Galactic Crew has posted the latest update to its multiplayer dev diary.
• StarMade has a new patch that adds an advanced reactor system, among other things.
• Frontier Pilot Simulator is taking suggestions for its next big update. Check it out!
• Boratium Wars dropped on Steam.
• Istrolid has a new patch that adds balance changes and more.
• CCP is shutting down its EVE: Valkyrie forums, which surprises no one, sadly.
• The Concept Ships blog has some lovely art from B S.
• Finally, the amazing pixel artist Pedro Medeiros has posted an entry on his Patreon about spaceship design. Check it out!

That’s it for today folks! Have a lovely day!