This bumper edition of "what I played" covers not one but two months! Featured in this instalment:

• Need for Speed Unbound (2022)
• Metro Exodus (2019)
• Company of Heroes 2 (2013)
• A Plague Tale: Innocence (2019)

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This episode continues our look at the Humanx Commonwealth sci-fi series by Alan Dean Foster. The fourth standalone book, Voyage to the City of the Dead, is set on the diverse Commonwealth world of Horseye. Married human scientists Etienne and Lyra Redowl travel up the massive Skar river and could make an incredible discovery - if they can survive the planet's dangers.

To catch up with the series, listen to episodes #62 (Midworld), #65 (Cachalot) and #81 (Nor Crystal Tears).

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If humans mastered the stars and met other alien species, what would they do in order to stay on top? This short episode covers The Long Result, a 1965 sci-fi novel by British author John Brunner which is part of a transitional period in his fascinating career.

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The latest monthly roundup of the games I've played lately, new and old. Featured in November 2022: 

• Evil West (2022)
• Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 (2022)
• Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005)
• Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends (2006)
• Sniper Elite 4 (2017)
• Star Trek: Away Team (2001)

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My coverage of Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth series continues with Nor Crystal Tears (1982). This third novel focuses on the early history of the setting, and the first encounter between humans and the insect-like Thranx. Can the plucky agronomist Ryozenzuzex bridge the cultural barriers with a freakish species who wear their skeletons on the inside?

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Aliens, generation ships, dated social attitudes, and the horror of infinite nothingness. This episode is an overview of the book Spaceworlds: Stories of Life in the Void. Published by the British Library in 2021, this anthology of classic science fiction stories set in space features short fiction by John Brunner, Jack Vance, Judith Merril, Richard C. Meredith, and more. Which are the essential tales, and which should be tossed out of the nearest airlock?

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This month's bumper roundup of the games I played features seven entries:

• Asterigos: Curse of the Stars (2022)
• Dome Keeper (2022)
• Gotham Knights (2022)
• Titanfall 2 (2016)
• Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (2013)
• Cultic (2022)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)

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Another month bites the dust, and it was a busy one for me. Writing for Entertainium, I reviewed three games in September - a record. First up was Circus Electrique, an interesting mix of management and turn-based battles in steampunk London. I was much less impressed by No Place for Bravery, a Brazilian indie Soulslike which I found to be way wide of the mark. Conversely, I liked Sunday Gold far more than I expected to. My hatred of point-and-click adventure games is on the record, but this one won me over with its logical puzzles and the addition of its own turn-based combat.

This month’s update also features two older games. I caught up with Iron Harvest (2020), a noble effort to revitalise the ailing real-time strategy genre which meets with mixed results. And lastly for September, I finally played BioShock Infinite (2013), a full nine years after it came out. Irrational’s sequel is showing its age a bit, but it’s still easy to see why it received such a rapturous reception at the time.

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American author Patricia A. McKillip passed away in May 2022. This episode covers her breakthrough novel for adults, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (1974), which won the first World Fantasy Award. The book focuses on a wizard-woman who commands a group of magical animals and gradually becomes drawn into human conflicts. But how does McKillip's novel weave a spell of its own?

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Each month, I take a look back at the games I've played recently - be they new or old - and share my quick thoughts. In this instalment, I cover new releases Hard West II and Cursed to Golf, as well as Metro: Last Light (2013) and There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension (2020).

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