Recent reviews by The MacGovern

Quake II, but way too shiny for its own good. Stick with Quake II Enhanced.

I remember fondly a particular program back from the Windows 95 days: Dilbert's Desktop Games. Made before its creator had his...meltdown, shall we say...it turned my desktop into the background for a variety of fun games, from gallery shooting to platforming to corporate management (naturally). Looking back, the games were simple, but the novelty, using the desktop for the games themselves, I could never replicate with another game. Yes, there's Dogz/Catz/Petz/Orbz and such "desktop toys", but none of them were as charming as Dilbert's Desktop Games.

Until Lumi and her Desktop Adventures showed up. It recaptured that novelty from all the way back in the 1990s and made it fresh again by actually playing with the idea, making it so you have segments which are, explicitly, a game, and then you have the game taking place on your desktop, which makes use of your system's actual files and folders. (Nothing destructive, mind you - Lumi knows better than to screw around with your operating system and anything which isn't hers.)

With a decent narrative and fun gags tying the experience together, I highly recommend playing Outcore! It's truly different, and it's free, with no strings attached. Unless, of course, you want to give Lumi an Nvidia GeForce GPU shaped as a wearable clown nose. Or a budget clown nose which is just a generic red clown nose. (Or buy the wonderful soundtrack, which is far more reasonably priced.)

A fun meat-grinder, "turn-your-brain-off" kind of an ARPG, Greed: Black Border is good for burning time and chilling. The story is nonsense, the skill system is strange - you can only have one type of passive ability (defensive and offensive) active at a time - and they throw in some puzzles requiring actual thought. But if you can get past that, definitely recommend getting when on sale like I did.

(Plus, for the graphics snobs out there, the game, despite releasing in 2009, has some truly ahead-of-its-time effects, such as particles being realistically-lit by dynamic lights, including gunfire, in addition to clever use of 2D textures for some extremely smooth-looking graphics, especially with forced antialiasing.)

Bounce and bash through Hollywood-ized versions of history, from the Vikings to the Space Race to Japan to the Golden Age of Piracy. The levels have a crazy amount of destructibility, and the gameplay is simultaneously challenging while also being relaxing. Plus with co-op, adjustable difficulty levels, and tons of playable content, you'll definitely be coming back for more.

George Orwell wrote 1984 because he didn't want such a society as IngSoc to exist. Yet in Orwell, power and control-hungry politicians of The Nation have taken Orwell's name, now synonymous with societies which sharply control culture and thought, and used it as the 'slick' name for their fancy new AI-assisted, human-driven state moderation platform. And YOU'RE part of the platform's initial rollout.

In 7 days, if left unchecked, The Nation will solidify its hold over its citizens thanks to Orwell and its moderators. Will you try and undermine the system? Or will you join the establishment and ensure its success?

The only game which lets you barrel-roll a bus as part of standard gameplay, Omnibus is a jam-packed package of arcade bus-driving fun. Smash through cities like you're a Kaiju, drive your bus of choice like a skateboard, avoid a herd of barrel-busses, and so much more wonderful weirdness. Combine that with a wide array of busses, each with their own special powers, and you've got a very replayable experience.

An unnerving Lovecraftian CYOA (choose-your-own-adventure)/RPG hybrid, Omen Exitio: Plague sets you up as yet another hapless individual getting themselves caught up in affairs beyond their understanding, yet must somehow find ways to maintain their physical and mental health if they are to stop the summoning of the Great Old Ones. Your in-game life choices affect your starting stats, as well as giving you items and connections which will help or hinder you once you get sucked up into the Lovecraftian underworld. Play as a hated pragmatist who play people like fiddles, including the Great Old One's cultists, a lawful soul who will not bend to the temptations of the eldritch, or anyone inbetween.

Plus, if you're left wanting more, the game comes with two free, meaty side stories which use the same gameplay mechanics as the main game, both exploring the settings' particular take on Lovecraft and putting you in the headspaces of two very different protagonists.

The epitome of Blowing Stuff Up (TM), Red Faction: Guerrilla lets you fight the bad guys by literally collapsing their buildings right on top of them with explosives. Or ramming them with vehicles. Or ramming them with vehicles fitted with explosives. Any way you choose to destroy, buildings collapse (mostly) believably, meaning the baddies can get crushed by debris and actual chunks of the building rather than the simple "guy inside dead building = dead guy" formula of other games.

It's like mowing the lawn if mowing the lawn was actually fun and involved shredding the undead with bullets, explosives, rockets, and energy weapons. Plus there's those stubborn weeds (bosses) which need a more gentle touch, kudzu (horde mode) to outlast, and competitive meat lawnmowing (races)....

Come for an early example of a 4X RTS space game, stay for the literal galaxy decimation through autistic levels of dedication to a particular weapon technology, clown car carriers powered by QUANTUM PHYSICS, and superships so super, they actually dwarf the galaxy you're playing in.