THE SETTLERS
Classic strategy game The
Settlers is returning to PC
courtesy of Blue Byte, and
creator Volker Wertich is back
as creative director. Harvest
materials, build settlements,
create supply lines, and lead
your cartoon army to victory.TRIALS RISING
After 2016’s disappointing
Blood Dragon mashup, Trials is
going back to its roots. The
gimmick this time is that the
stages are set around the world,
built around landmarks such as
the Egyptian pyramids and the
Eiffel Tower.CODE VEIN
“What if Dark Souls was more
anime?” That seems to be the
question behind the creation of
Code Vein, a Souls-a-like RPG
featuring a cast of characters
that seemingly got lost on their
way to a gothic fetish party.
Videogames, eh?AFTERPARTY
From the studio behind cult hit
Oxenfree comes Afterparty, a
game about two deceased
besties outdrinking Satan. They
say it’s to get out of spending an
eternity in Hell. We say it sounds
like an average post-deadline
team drinks scenario.CONTROL
2019
THE BUREAU’S
HQ HAS SOME
TRICKS UP ITS
SLEEVE. IT’S A
SHIFTING
SPACE, FULL
OF SECRETS
Y
ou play as Jesse Faden,
the new director of the
Federal Bureau of
Control—a job she earned
after acquiring a
transforming gun. Rather than spend her
time overhauling the Bureau’s Byzantine
hiring policies, she must instead fight to
take back control of its HQ from an
invading force called the Hiss.While a stark, brutalist office building may
not sound like the most varied setting for a
third-person shooter, the Bureau’s HQhas some tricks up its sleeve. It’s a shifting
space, full of secrets. In one section of the
demo we saw at last year’s E3, Jesse
comes across a light switch that, when
pulled, teleports her to an old motel. In
another, she finds a Bureau employee,
who must watch a refrigerator at all
times so that it doesn’t “deviate”.
This is a Remedy game, so there’s
fighting, too. But while your abilities will
help you deal with the Hiss, they’re also
useful for exploring hard-to-reach areas of
the House, adding an element of nonlinear
exploration to proceedings.