By Lucy Ungaro

Happy Thursday! This week’s Roundup was particularly exciting for me because of a newly announced Mass Effect theme park attraction, more GLaDOS music, and enhanced opportunities to crash a spaceship in Spaceteam. Read below to immerse yourself in game news: 

Have you ever wanted to live in Mass Effect‘s universe? It’s been a longterm fantasy of mine. Imagine it–FTL travel, gorgeous planets to explore, dozens of exotic, beautiful, and occasionally dangerous alien species to learn about and love, and a host of synthetic gods bent on destroying all organic life. Ok, maybe not the last part. With Mass Effect’s upcoming 4D motion simulator experience, you will theoretically be able to experience what it’s like to be immersed in the world. Read Samit Sarkar‘s article for more information.

Who has heard the phrases “sports game,” and “compelling storyline” uttered together? Thanks to Spike Lee’s involvement in the latest NBA game, you probably will.  Harold Goldberg reports that NBA 2K16 might be the start of something new for sports games in regards to narrative. Sports and story? The world might never recover. In all seriousness, however, if more mainstream game franchises such as NBA 2K start to notice the importance of a strong narrative, games have the potential to become both deeper and more respected.

Speaking of new games, check out Jeff Bakalar‘s video on the games coming out this October.

One of the new October games mentioned in the video is Uncharted: the Nathan Drake Collection, a remastered bundle of the three Uncharted games. To celebrate the collection, Jorge Jimenez suggests reliving the iconic train wreck scene from Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and provides a handy video for doing just that.

In the spirit of new old games, there’s a “universe-blending” game coming out that blends all kinds of universes you would never expect to see together, called Lego Dimensions. GLaDOS is back, and in Lego form, equipped with the same songwriter who wrote the beloved songs Still Alive and Want You Gone for Portal 1 and 2. Chelsea Stark interviews the songwriter, Jonathon Coulton, and presents us with our newest GLaDOS love song to Chell. Spoiler: it’s really good. If you haven’t heard the aforementioned Portal songs, please listen to them here and here.

Ah, back to the weekly Metal Gear Solid V news. Jeremy Voss gives us a small snapshot of his much larger review of MGS V, and this time it’s not from someone who absolutely adores the series. Check it out here, I found it really interesting and honest. It’s also refreshing to see a review from someone who isn’t a Metal Gear Solid fan.

Here‘s a really different top 10 list for video games, by Ben Gilbert. You won’t find a lot of these games on the usual “top 10 games you need to play in your lifetime” list. It includes mostly modern “good” games, as well as influential games, and is especially for people who claim to not really play video games anymore, though it applies to everyone.

I usually get really frustrated when I encounter a boss I can’t defeat, over and over. And over. Evan Narcisse explains why the boss battles in Jotun are incredibly difficult, but in an exhilarating way.  Check out the article, as well as videos of him defeating the boss, here.

Stu Horvath played D&D for his bachelor party, and that is amazing. It also happened to be the end of a 10 year campaign. Read about his thought processes behind creating the end of the role-play experience, as well as how it played out, here.

Spaceteam is a game that lets you pilot a spaceship with your friends. It really captures the feeling of those hectic, chaotic movie scenes where everything on the ship is failing and people are yelling out in sci-fi tech lingo. It’s really fun, and now it’s being made into a card game! Check out the article by Matt Gerardi right here.

And now for news outside of the circle…

From October 8th through October 30th, there is a virtual reality event at Babycastles in New York. You can go play a bunch of virtual reality games with a “living room lifestyle” theme in the world’s coolest indie arcade. Information is here.

PRACTICE is probably the biggest indie game event in NYC in the fall. It hosts game designers from all over the country who come to show games and give lectures. There are also some memorable after parties. Check out information here, and buy passes here.

Thanks for reading!