Mainlining

Pyre

Supergiant Games has the habit of knocking things out of the park. Bastion and Transistor were both incredibly well received and as it tradition, Supergiant announced a new title right before PAX East. Pyre has the same level of lore and high caliber writing that you’ve come to expect from the indie studio, but the gameplay has changed rather drastically. It’s split between a point/click adventure/survival game ala Oregon Trail and a competitive 3v3 capture the flag game.

Between battles, you’ll interact with the crew of travelers you’ve been lumped into and find out more about the world. Each night, you can teach the crew, try to learn more about the world, or gather resources for your journey. Your three cohorts all have different stories and presumably different ways of interacting with you based on your choices.

When it’s time to battle, you control your allies on the battlefield. The game is to get a ball in your opponent’s goal and depending on the character who does it, you get more or less points. You can eliminate your opponents temporarily by touching them with your aura, a circle of light around each of your teammates. Your aura goes away when you hold the ball, meaning passing is essential to strategy. It’s a simple game, but one that requires strategy and quick thinking.

Pyre will be coming to PC and PS4 sometimes in 2017

Everyone remembers their days of hacking on Windows XP, right? No? Well Mainlining can give you that quintessential early millennium experience as you play an MI5 agent hacking criminals to gather evidence for prosecution. The whole game takes place on your computer as if it were running a pixelated version of Windows XP, complete with startup sounds and blue/green taskbar. The challenge you’re presented with is a screen name that you need to tie to a person, a crime, and a location. There’s clues on how to go about doing that on the computer, but for the most part, you’re just trying stuff out and hoping it works. There’s no location switching, pictures of you, or anything like that. Just an OS, you, and a chat program. The strict adherence to the idea that you’re just a guy on a computer is carried throughout. Even when you type, there’s a subtle key clicking sound which really adds to the atmosphere. It’s a really interesting, immersive title that should definitely be on your watch list.

Mainlining is out for PC October of 2016.

Streamline

Twitch is becoming a huge part of gamer culture and we’re finally starting to see games that play into that. Streamline was built from the ground up with streaming in mind. At its core, it’s a 1v12 game in which one hunter tries to eliminate 12 players. The other players have no weapons, but can stun. The objective for the runners is to score as many points before dying as possible and the hunter is to eliminate all players.

Then there’s the viewer mechanics. First off, stream viewers can bet on who will win the round and even play bingo against other viewers. Then comes the in-game curve balls. The viewers can vote for different game mechanics to put in the game to trip everyone up. Like reverse hunger games. For instance, the floor can be turned to lava, time slowed down, everyone has to crab walk everywhere. It’s awesome.

The game is well into development and looks like an absolute blast to play on stream.

Streamline will be available later this year on PC.