Tweet
Happy final EGX Rezzed day! It's been a good time so far, the warrens of the Tobacco Dock playing host to so many fascinating games. We've come up with a quickfire list of our own highlights, games we've discovered or become reacquainted with old favourites (hello Gang Beasts, once again), and if you're looking for somewhere to head first thing this morning you might want to check some of these out. Our best advice, though? Go somewhere you haven't been before and discover something entirely new for yourself. It's a big part of what makes this show feel special. At first glance you might think, 'oh great, another card battler'; but that's not exactly what's going on here. Shadowhand is actually a solitaire game, an evolution of (and stealth prequel to) my guilty pleasure of last year, the Jane Austen-themed casual game Regency Solitaire. Its maker, a history buff from Dorset called Jake Birkett, has spent years toiling in obscurity on venerable PC gaming portals like Big Fish, having never fancied making the jump to mobile with the rest of the casual gaming industry. Now, he's decided to head for Steam instead, blending his trademark soothing card-clearing gameplay with a versus mechanic, collectable skill cards, loot, and an 18th-century tale about the lawless adventures of a highwaywoman. Puzzle Quest is probably a more apt comparison than Hearthstone, but in any case Shadowhand is a real original, with an alluring and distinctive theme. Plus you get to tidy cards away. Likely to be one of my top timesinks of 2016. (OW)
Sometimes, all it takes is the tiniest shift to see everything anew. I'm currently preparing my house for the arrival of a newborn, and it's slowly filling up with strange new items; cots, slings, a push chair and my favourite of them all, a big purple balance ball that my pregnant partner now sits on precariously when she watches University Challenge in the living room. They're all objects that fill me with gentle anxiety about what's to come.
Read more…
More...