Awesome Games

This little black box adds a gaming PC to your living room. It’s capable of playing over 1000 titles from the Steam library, and plays with either the mouse-accurate Steam Controller or an Xbox 360 joystick. Full review on Technabob. Available from Dell or GameStop.

(SPOILERS) Nathan Drake is now working behind a desk, but he’ll be dragged back into adventuring to help a long lost loved one. Our latest look at Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End isn’t filled with action, but it adds a smattering of intrigue and a new RPG-like feature.

A hilarious trailer for the upcoming “Secret DLC” for Goat Simulator in which the menagerie argues the pros and cons of buying DLC, and doubles as a thinly-veiled tribute to Reservoir Dogs. We love that Mr. Pink is a flamingo.

This lengthy gameplay video for Far Cry: Primal reveals that the protagonist is highly skilled at taming animals, including direwolves, bears and an extremely useful owl. It also shows a bit of the game’s crafting system, enemies and equipment.

Angry Video Game Nerd counts down to Christmas by highlighting one bad video game cover art each day, from 12/1 to 12/25. Here he takes on the numerous mind-boggling missteps of Capcom’s art department.

Josh Romito’s massive mod for Grand Theft Auto V tweaks many aspects, but the most apparent are the graphical enhancements, which include 4K textures for many objects. It’s too saturated and shiny for us, but it still looks way better than the stock game.

Adam Conover takes a look at the way that early video games embraced women both behind the scenes and as players, and how the industry evolved to marginalize female players over the years. Man, we almost forgot about Roberta Williams.

A social deduction card game in the vein of The Resistance and Spyfall. Secret Hitler splits players into Liberals and Fascists (including a Hitler) in 1930’s Germany. Download the printable prototype here (pdf), and the rules here (pdf).

The sequel to the 8-bit Grand Theft Auto tribute Retro City Rampage. Shakedown Hawaii has 16-bit graphics, destructible environments, and lots of new weapons. Coming to Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, PS Vita and perhaps other systems as well. SEGA Genesis, anyone?

Coffee Pot Terrarium is half turn-based tactical strategy and half-puzzle game. Instead of attacking enemies, you get rid of them by removing the tiles they’re standing on. Coming to PC first, then to mobile devices and consoles.

From the creator of Braid comes a first-person open world puzzle game inspired by Myst. The Witness is set on a strange island with varying terrain and weather. The game will have about 650 puzzles, many of which are optional. Drops 1/26/16 for PS4, Windows and iOS.

One lucky Awesomer reader will win a Steam key with access to every VALVE game ever. Get every Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, Counterstrike, Left 4 Dead game and more, thanks to Alienware and their new Steam Machine living room game PC. (Ends 11/23/15)

A point-and-click mystery game and digital choose-your-own adventure book in one. Play as both author Arthur Finklestein and his character, the young detective Jenny LeClue, to determine the outcome of her story. Coming to PC, mobile and PS4. Demo here.

The Polycade is an arcade machine and retro console emulator. It has a 28″ Insignia LED TV, room for two players and is wall-mounted to take up less space. It uses RetroPie to run games from classic systems. Available in different colors or with vinyl graphics.

Musician Samurai Guitarist created this unusual, but somehow just right cover version of the familiar Russian style theme song from the arcade classic, Tetris. We just wanted to shout Rawhide! at the end.

Head on over to The Awesomer Shop now for a chance to win this awesome bundle, which includes a brand new Sony PlayStation 4, and three big sports titles: FIFA 16, Madden NFL 16, and NBA 2k16. Share with friends for extra entries! (Ends 12/16/15)

The guys at Cracked asked readers to apply Twitter’s 140 character limit to describe a number classic video games. We’d like to add our own: “Go underground. Eat a carrot. Overinflate fire breathing dragons until they explode. Get crushed by a boulder and die.”

The definitive version of the underrated horror comedy action RPG trilogy. The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut has all three games and DLC, new end game items, a randomly generated Scenario mode and more. It’s free if you already own the three games.

In what appears to be a reboot of the beloved aerial shooter, the Wii U exclusive Star Fox Zero reunites the Star Fox team. Play as ace pilot Fox McCloud and enlist your squad’s help along with new vehicles to protect your solar system.

It looks like a PlayStation 2 game, but Clandestine is actually two solid and very different games in one. You can play solo, but it shines when played with a buddy: one is the stealthy infiltrator and the other is the tech and comms support.

This portable arcade machine can emulate classic games and play new homebrew titles on its 4.2″ display, mounted behind a magnifier for a vintage arcade look. Has an arcade joystick and buttons, stereo speakers, HDMI out, and a rechargeable battery pack. More on Technabob.

At the 2015 Day of the Devs, Xbox showed a live gameplay demo of Studio MDHR’s unbelievably gorgeous run and gun game Cuphead. It’s a potential live streaming gold mine. We hope it gets its own video editing tool. Drops in 2016 on Steam and Xbox One. Skip to 1:41.

“You don’t find the Institute. The Institute finds you.” The launch trailer for Fallout 4 hints that MIT’s post-nuclear incarnation will play a significant role in the game, with its androids being a particularly significant concern among survivors.