Rebellion’s game imagines the aftermath of a UK nuclear disaster that mixes folk
horror and 50s sci-fi with a dash of Last of the Summer Wine
When Atomfall was first revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase in June, it led many
to ask: is this the UK’s version of Fallout? “In some respects, yes. In some
respects, no,” says Ben Fisher, associate head of design at Rebellion, the
Oxford-based studio behind Atomfall, as well as games such as Sniper Elite 5 and
Zombie Army 4. He explains that Rebellion head Jason Kingsley’s initial idea was
to look at the freeform, self-guided experience of Fallout and think how it
could be applied closer to home.
The difference with Atomfall is in the structure. “It’s a much denser
experience,” says Fisher. “One of our reference points has been Fallout: New
Vegas in that it’s a more concentrated experience than, say, Fallout 3 and 4,
and largely builds one story that’s interconnected and has layers that are
influenced by the choices the player makes.” Rather than taking place on one
giant, open-world map, Atomfall features a series of interconnected maps,
similar to the levels of the Sniper Elite games. “That’s the kind of map that we
excel in,” says Fisher, adding that many of the game’s most interesting secrets
are buried in bunkers deep underground.
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Tag - Xbox
Firaxis Games needed to move on from Civilization 6 because, its developers
explain, ‘it was getting too big for its britches’
It’s been eight years since Civilization 6 – the most recent in a very
long-running strategy game series that sees you take a nation from the
prehistoric settlement of their first town through centuries of development
until they reach the space age. Since 2016 it has amassed an abundance of
expansions, scenario packs, new nations, modes and systems for players to master
– but series producer Dennis Shirk at Firaxis Games feels that enough it enough.
“It was getting too big for its britches,” he says. “It was time to make
something new.”
“It’s tough to even get through the whole game,” designer Ed Beach says,
singling out the key problem that Firaxis aims to solve with the forthcoming
Civilization 7. While the early turns of a campaign in Civilization 6 can be
swift, when you’re only deciding the actions for the population of a single
town, “the number of systems, units, and entities you must manage explodes after
a while,” Beach says. From turn one to victory, a single campaign can take more
than 20 hours, and if you start falling behind other nations, it can be tempting
to restart long before you see the endgame.
Civilization 7 will be released on PC, Mac, Xbox, PlayStation 4/5 and Nintendo
Switch on 11 February 2025.
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The creators of the Lego Star Wars and Lego Harry Potter games bring similar
energy and humour to this gentle action-adventure
Ever since they first clambered into shops in 2010, Funko Pop figures have been
an unavoidable part of pop culture fandom, lending their black-eyed large-headed
charm to everything from Ms Marvel to Mr Bean. After a couple of minor
smartphone releases it was inevitable they’d eventually make it into a major
video game. But what could have been a lazy cash-in looks to be a lot more
promising. Funko Fusion is the first title from Warrington-based studio 10:10,
formed by Jon Burton and Arthur Parsons, the directors on most of the vastly
successful Lego titles such as Lego Star Wars and Lego Harry Potter. Their aim
is to bring the same energy and humour to the Funko universe.
Funko Fusion, then, is a classic cartoon-style action adventure, beholden to the
Lego titles naturally, but also to PlayStation favourites Ratchet & Clank and
Jak and Daxter. Players get to explore seven themed worlds based around Funko
Pop figures and key licensor NBC Universal. As Parsons recalls: “I remember we
got sent a spreadsheet, which listed everything that NBC Universal owns from
back in the 1920s all the way to current day. And it was like, ‘wow, where do we
start?’ That was the fun bit.”
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PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series XS, Xbox One; Red Thread Games; Spotlight by Quantic
Dream
Dustborn tries to be more than just another narrative travel game, but its
half-baked focus on serious topics weighs down great dialogue and beautiful
character writing
The story begins on the road, miles out from a state border in an alternative
US. The stakes are clear, even when nothing else is: Pax, the player character,
is a Black woman in her 30s, who has just completed a heist with her friends.
The border means freedom. The police car telling you to pull over means trouble.
Pax and co are Anomals, people who wield manipulative vocal abilities called
vox. Pax can bend people to her will by making them feel bad, using abilities
named “trigger” or “cancel”. Her ex-partner, Noam, can soothe people with an
ability known as “gaslighting”. Dustborn certainly isn’t subtle in what it’s
trying to say. Soon you encounter people who get infected by weaponised
disinformation.
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In this week’s newsletter: We’ve become so used to digitally downloading games
now that it’s easy to forget how novel it once was, thanks to places like Xbox
360’s Marketplace
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The Xbox 360 digital store is the latest to go offline, following the Wii U and
3DS store shutdown in March. It shut down on Monday, taking about 220 games with
it, according to analysis by Video Games Chronicle. Preservation activists at
the Video Game History Foundation even made a funeral cake.
Microsoft is definitely the best of the major companies when it comes to
backwards compatibility and game preservation – despite those 220 lost games, a
huge percentage of the Xbox 360’s back catalogue can still legally be played on
later consoles. And it is remarkable that the Xbox 360 Marketplace lasted almost
20 years (the console was released in late 2005). It wasn’t the first digital
store on a console, but it was the first one I ever used, and I assume the same
was true for a lot of British players – the Xbox 360 was the most popular
console of its generation in this country. In retrospect, the Marketplace was
astonishingly ahead of its time.
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PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, PC; Hollow Ponds/Annapurna Interactive
Filling a field guide is the simple goal of this endearingly strange game, in
which you float on a giant bird, collect gently surreal sea life, and shave
sheep
You might expect from the name that this would be a game about herding sheep,
but it is significantly weirder than that. There are sheep, but they are fluffy
flying sheep that float around after you as you ride the back of a giant,
colourful bird. Now and then you shear them for wool with which to knit new
jumpers and hats with pompoms, making the sheep look like naked purple
hover-sausages with eyes. But the bulk of your flock is actually made up of sky
fish. Or are they fish? Some are sinuous like eels, others squawk like chickens,
others are feathered whales. As mentioned, it’s quite weird.
Your job in Flock is to fill out a field guide full of these wide-eyed flying
fishlike creatures, spotting them in the wild and then identifying them from
short, variably obvious written clues (“floppy proboscis”, “vertical stripes”,
“often mistaken for a loud radish”). They all resemble sea life through a gently
surreal pop-art filter, but they’re so well-drawn that I developed a sense for
the differences between a Cosmet and a Bewl, Thrips and Rustics. Some camouflage
themselves among weeds or leaves, some flee your approach, some just sit there
basking on rocks and clucking at you. You find whistles that teach your bird a
song, and then you can collect them Pied-Piper-style into a cloud of creatures
that trails in your wake.
Flock is out on Wednesday; £15.99
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