Awesome Friday!

Happy New Year! As you may have noticed, we had a quiet second half of the year here at Awesome Friday, but that’s not to say we weren’t busy. It’s the opposite, actually; between work, and kids, and writing an entire bloody book in November, I’ve barely had time to indulge in my twin pleasures of games and movies, let alone write about them. Looking back over the year, there are a number of titles that I wish I’d had the chance to watch and play, but I also discovered I engaged with enough entertainment to put together a list.

So, here is it: my Best Of 2015.

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And praise be to the Suspend/Resume function.

Childbirth is a miracle. I’ve seen a tiny human being come out of another human being twice – the first emerging like a stone skimming over water, the second grumpily being pulled out after refusing to budge, both heralded by the battlecry of a woman adding a +1 to the world with thunderous determination  – and it’s really something. And by really something I mean completely changing your view of yourself and the Universe, but it’s a more relatable summary.

Having kids reframes your world in the best, most exhausting ways possible, but one of the biggest hits comes to gaming time. The nightly hours playing TimeSplitters are a memory so ancient they might as well be from another dimension. Even finishing a game becomes a novelty, and up until recently there was no solution to the frequent sudden instances where the game has to go off now. Thankfully, Sony has solved this with a firmware addition that should be renamed Every Dad’s Best Friend – the glory and brilliance of PS4’s Sleep and Suspend mode.

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Spelunky has a lot to answer for. Ever since it single-handedly championed procedurally-generated levels back in its enhanced 2012 version, many other games have been lining up to try and emulate its perfect blend of slow progression and brutal punishments. 17-Bit’s Galak-Z is the latest to follow this trend, openly shifting from its initial open-world design in favour of a chaotic and frustration-filled set of tough challenges. And it so nearly gets it right.

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This is it, then. The last big show of the day. Let’s see what secrets Sony has ready for us.

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It’s finally real and official: Just Cause 3 is coming to PC, PS4 and Xbox One next year and, contrary to earlier rumours, it will be a full-price release with zero micro-transaction bullshit tying it down.

Boom.

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If you have the wonderbox that is Sony’s PlayStation Vita, today is a very good day for you. Just don’t plan to get much done for the rest of this month.

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It’s Free (with subscription) Games time again. Let’s see what goodies are being thrown at our feet this month.

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Want some new games? Of course you do. Check out September’s offerings for the two competing subscription services.

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As I got into bed last night I slipped my hand under the covers and something buzzed against it. I instinctively yanked my arm away while something black and striped and angry crawled out from underneath the duvet and headbutted the light in determined repetition. I wish I could say that my response was calm and measured, but it was more like Free Willy jumping out of the aquarium with a high-pitched yelp to match. It was dealt with.

Now, imagine that scenario but you’re in the middle of a swarm of hundreds of these bastards and all you have is an machine gun. Or replace the bugs with zombies, or lizard men, or tiny red demons, or mechanical spiders that split into more spiders, and more spiders, and more spiders, when you destroy them. Welcome to Crimsonland, where Borderlands meets Earth Defense Force in a bloodied frenzy.

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This week has seen the big names in gaming gather in Germany for the annual Gamescom conference. Though not as likely to contain the kind of news bombshells that are a basis of E3, it’s still a good opportunity for the mayor players to add detail to their upcoming rosters, and even throw in a few surprises. Also, once again Nintendo opted to not hold a conference but instead had their most recent games running in a booth to try and maintain the WiiU momentum.

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Nathan Drake is back for one last time, if the trailer shown today at Sony’s E3 conference is anything to go by. And, if this is really in-game engine footage, then he’s going to go out in style. Have a look!

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You know those books you got obsessed with when you were younger – Harry Harrison, Arthur C. Clarke, any novel that had weird aliens and spaceships on the tatty covers? Well, in today’s Sony E3 conference, UK indie studio Hello Games showed off gameplay footage of No Man’s Sky and, if you loved those books, this is the game of your dreams. Take a look!

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Here we go! The last of today’s big conferences. Let’s see what Sony has in store to counter this morning’s strong show by Microsoft. Come on in!

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Dice used today’s E3 conference to finally show Star Wars Battlefront in all its (very early) glory. Let’s take a look!

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The biggest event in gaming kicks off tomorrow when E3 2014 begins its week of hyperbole, broken promises and overbearing dubstep. Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft and Sony will be holding their conferences on the first day, and I’ll be liveblogging every single one of them! Take note of these times and get the kettle on.

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