Six months ago, the train heading to Timelapse Vertigo was derailed and henceforth delayed. It’s been brushed up and hoisted back onto the tracks since, and it’s also been renamed. That may fool a few, but those who were following the game’s development will most certainly recognise the unmistakeable blend of Metro 2033′s setting and the gameplay of the original Fallout games in Underrail.

Timelapse Vertigo was a game that most would have ignored many months ago due to it looking quite lacklustre. Its resurrected self is quite the beauty though, for its much improved art and gameplay depth as seen in the newly released alpha gameplay. About the only thing that could really do with tweaking is the interface, but there’s plenty of time for that. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, you’ll no doubt want to know more about what this wonderful game entails?

As said, it’s almost a near-perfect cross of Fallout and Metro 2033. The story goes that the Earth’s surface is uninhabitable and so those who have survived are doing so underground. Much of the game is based around the ‘underrail’, which is a vast system of metro station-states of which your custom made character will be a member of. You’ll soon get caught up in the violence of the warring factions but that’s not your focus. Instead, the last hope for humanity, whatever it may be, is your mission but you can’t expect your journey to be easy with all of the conflict surrounding these dark tunnels.

Underrail plays out as a tactical, turn-based RPG, in which character stats and equipment is hugely ranged and determines your effectiveness in the many situations that will present themselves. Much has to be revealed but anyone who has played these deep RPG experiences before should know what to expect. Combat is a big focus and nothing has been said about if there is a way to avoid combat altogether – which is often a test to see how diverse an RPG really is.

The alpha gameplay sees the developer playing as a sniper with some psi abilities, such as going stealthy in the invisible sense. There are of course many other weapons up for grabs, as well as energy shields and throw explosives for instance. Again, details are pretty scarce but there is mention of an “elaborate” item crafting system too. It’s not all green tunnels and railway tracks either; you’ll also come across natural caverns and abandoned building complexes, all of which hide secret areas to find. Not everything living is a threat either, in the most punk looking of survivor groups are looking for a helping hand if you wish to give it to them. It’s a pretty safe bet that most of the creatures roaming around are pretty hostile though.

If, like us, you’re interested in Underrail then most certainly check out the game’s website and regularly from now on too – the developer claims that now the six months of silence is broken, frequent updates will be provided.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about Lifeless Planet. A rather high-concept sci-fi adventure that claims to be in the spirit of Ico, The Dig and Another World – three lofty names to invoke for sure. It was one of the early Kickstarter success stories, and has  now rolled out an official E3 trailer, celebrating the involvement of Lace-Mamba Global, who are handling publishing duties and distribution of the boxed retail version. It’s intriguing stuff, as you can see in the video below.

Stepping into the space-boots of an American astronaut, you land on a distant planet expecting to find it teeming with alien life, only to discover that not only is the planet a barren, Martian-esque wasteland, but that the Russians got there first, a long time ago – there are settlements, labs, and a mysterious woman who saves you. It looks like there’s going to be some platforming and some physics-manipulating puzzling via a handily portable industrial robotic arm, as well as a bit of a mystery story told through presentation rather than dialogue. After all, you’re alone on a distant world, and the only other human you’ve seen probably doesn’t speak English anyway.

The trailer has some pretty striking imagery, such as the house-lined street in the middle of an alien desert. There’s definitely a lot of potential in the concept here. It’ll be nice to see how the full game shapes up. Lace-Mamba are estimating that Lifeless Planet be released in the last quarter of this year, so perhaps we’ll be seeing a dusty red Christmas? We’ll be keeping a close eye on this one.

I Wanna Be The Guy is arguably one of the most notorious indie games due to its unforgiving design. Many people refer to it as one of the hardest platformers ever made, and that’s a pretty fair reputation. Carrying that kind of weight upon you as a developer means that your next game has a lot of expectations already placed upon it – players crave that same kind of experience once again. Michael O’Reilly, better known as “Kayin” on the internet, who is responsible for IWBTG isn’t necessarily delivering that same experience though.

In a more commendable effort, he’s been developing a 2D platformer which is heavily inspired by “NES era Castlevania and [draws] cinematic inspiration from Ninja Gaiden”. The name of the game is Brave Earth: Prologue and it’s intended as a six level (or thereabouts) introduction to the characters, gameplay and atmosphere of the full game. We’ve been waiting patiently on news of it nearing release since its announcement in September last year, but as that hasn’t happened yet we’ve found another excuse to write about it.

In an interview with Gather Your Party about the game and his design philosophy, Michael discussed the difficulty players should expect. Let’s be honest – that’s the thing people mostly want to know about. Hints of it being tough were given at the time of the announcement, with Michael describing the intentional retro feel including stiff jumping and a slow but powerful main attack.

Those looking for a IWBTG level of difficulty may be disappointed to hear that Brave Earth: Prologue won’t be as tough. The rest of us are glad to hear such a thing; it really wouldn’t work for a Castlevania type game, more than likely.

“It’s Castlevania hard, and that’s about it”, Michael said in the interview. “It actually might be a little easier. I don’t want the reputation as that guy who only makes insanely hard games.”

There is some better news for IWBTG fans as it seems Michael has returned to doing some more work on his original game on the side. No really, don’t believe us? Take a look at the quote below then.

“I do believe in tough difficulty, and I’m still making a few side levels for IWBTG as a break. It started with those guys in the Fighting Game Community playing the game on stream. I had Mr. Wizard ask if I could make some levels for Flo to play at EVO. Maybe in 2 months there will be some IWBTG material released.”

We’re glad to see that Michael is delving into some slightly different territory with Brave Earth, while still maintaining that punishing gameplay that has made him a name to look out for. It’s probably no surprise that we’re loves of big pixels so the authentic 8-bit graphics of this retro throwback are something we want to share in our admiration. So what were going to do is shoot you off to the official site and tell you to stare at more screenshots and find more information on the game.

A release date, like we said, still isn’t any nearer to being announced but the game is expected to hit online stores soon. It has to be soon! Please?

Making a debut game is always a harrowing experience – so many things to learn, unpredictable mishaps to delay proceedings and the pressure of making something people actually want to play. The 2D Team have managed to pull through with John Lee’s Day Of Awesome Power; an action platformer of sorts. Oh sorry, I meant a SMASHING action platformer.

Those blasted aliens have landed on Earth again. As the boy who has “never had a boring day in his life”, it’s up to John Lee to sort them out. John Lee’s is certainly a praiseworthy effort for a first game. There’s not a whole lot to it really, and that’s a good thing we might add, you travel to the right running and jumping and occasionally bringing a rather large hammer atop the heads of the foe scattered around. When that fails: fireballs! There are power ups too, these can be stacked as well so that they more you have, the more devastating your attack will be.

Then of course you have the bosses, of which we’ve only seen the giant eye at the moment. Seems like a good thing to look at but lacks much in the way of ferocity – maybe some more animation to spruce it up? We’ll give the game a full review soon but from what we’ve played so far it’s pretty fun and worth trying out. Until we give our more full verdict, you can have a look at the trailer below and grab the game yourself for free from the official download page.

More information on John Lee’s Day Of Awesome Power can be found over on the game’s official website.

Considering the saturated state of first person shooters today, it’s not too surprising that many of us are looking to the roots of the genre to remind ourselves why it was so enjoyable in the first place and to find where it all went wrong. Some are taking further action by actually releasing FPS’ with a distinctly old school style.

One of those is Brad Carney who was also the creator of the Doom source port Skulltag which makes the game much more playable for modern day computers. His game is called Wrack and it features the fast movement, multiple enemies and lack of corridors of FPS’ old. The setting is markedly different though so that it drops the dark undertones of Doom and Quake and settles with a more friendly and cel-shaded sci-fi backdrop.

You’ll be playing as Kain Sagar in the year 2050 during a war between humans and a whole war-load of hostile aliens. The reason for their attack on Earth is to steal the Hyperion Generator which brought peace to our blue and green planet as it could create matter out of energy. So literally anything could be created in a flash; thus poverty, war and suffering was largely abolished.

If you’ve never heard of Wrack before but want to give it a go, then you’re in luck as it’s now available to pre-order which gives you immediate access to the a playable version of the game. This includes the first three fully completed levels, access to the game’s level editor and mod tools so you can create your own levels as well as play other peoples’ creations. You’ll also get the first episode of the game as it becomes available.

You can now pre-order Wrack over on the official pre-order page and save 33% off the full price in doing so.

You can seek out more information on Wrack by trotting over to the official website.