I sit here on a Saturday evening watching a live stream of Metallica playing at Glastonbury. Who would have thought that would happen? This weekend also marks the footballing World Cup (sorry England fans) which is proving to be an electric competition, while as you read this, I will be watching Progress Wrestling’s version of the World Cup. Good times.

Despite all of this awesomeness, this past week saw another ‘Games Journalism Drama’, one shouldn’t be surprised as they seem to crop up every two weeks. This drama had something to do with freelancers, a lack of people pitching innovative article ideas and such like. I didn’t follow things too closely, but I would recommend you read this blog by Keza MacDonald and this one from John Walker. Games journalists eh? Who would live without them.

Chris

Once you’ve had your fill of that, on with my week in games. It mainly have revolved around the three titles I’ve talked about this week with off roading Spintires, indie title Concursion and Early Access game Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms.

In amongst those titles, I’ve further explored Spec-Ops: The Line and have witnessed the slow crumbling of a tit-nit squad and a grisly tale of the horrors of war. I think I am near the end, it all feels very much like a final assault, hopefully I can push through and finish it off soon enough.

Strangely, the other title I have been playing is Wii Fit U on the Wii U. It was something my girlfriend bought a few weeks ago, and I decided to take a chance on it. I had a period a couple of years ago when I was using UFC Trainer quite regularly, but eventually I got tired of having to move the whole lounge around to make room for the Kinect sensor to recognise me. This will probably just be a passing fad for me, but I always like to think gaming can do more for us than provide us with things to shoot or footballers to play with.

Nick

Speaking of not just shooting at things or playing football, this week I picked up Starbound as part of Steam’s mandatory discounted games purchasing period. Having bounced off Terreria almost instantly a few years back, I wasn’t expecting to give Starbound much more than a cursory glance. It turns out I was wrong.

Give me destructible terrain and a means of digging and it doesnt take long before I look straight down and start shoveling. Hours of Minecraft have taught me that digging can often lead to surprise and excitement, and Starbound certainly hasn’t disappointed in that regard. After digging for seemingly an eternity, I still haven’t hit the bottom of the map – I’m not even sure if there is one, but I’ve explored massive caverns, swam underground streams and battled terrifying underground beasts, often in near-pitch darkness.

This week has also seen a surprising return for me to the N64 version of Goldeneye, albeit in an emulated form on my tablet. It’s a strong reminder of hanging out with school

friends and chatting over some split-screen multiplayer many years ago, simpler times before DRM, DLC and other unpleasant acronyms became the norm.

I just wish that N64 controller wasnt so stupidly designed. I mean seriously, who has hands like that?