A masterpiece hits PlayStation Plus

Not in your wildest Dreams

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This week, Dreams hit PlayStation Plus.

In case you don’t know, Dreams is a create-your-own-game, um, game, from Media Molecule that took the ‘Play, Create, Share’ mantra of the studio’s beloved LittleBigPlanet series and expanded upon it in quite staggering fashion. And then some.

Where LittleBigPlanet allowed the remixing of levels and assets found within the game to create new ones, Dreams allows for the creation of pretty much anything and everything on a granular level.

It’s fluent in the language of video game design, of course, and any genre is within reach, but it’s wholly open to artistic expression of any kind.

Visual novels? Sure. Still artwork? Yep. Musical numbers? Of course. An elaborate mechanical calculator? If you wish. Anything’s possible; the lovingly rendered plates of photorealistic English Breakfasts are testament to that.

But where do you start with a game that can be anything?

You may think coming to such a complex game three and a half years after it launched would be intimidating. But Media Molecule are masters of accessibility, and Dreams provides players with both a staggering supply of pre-made content and a remarkably comprehensive set of tools with which to create your own.

Make no mistake, Dreams is a masterclass in content creation and discoverability; its in-game options and external resources - alongside wonderful initiatives such as The Impy Awards (which celebrate the best and most unique content created in the game) should be held up as a shining example for others to follow. The Dreams website itself can even be used to browse content and save any projects you find to a playlist, which will appear in-game the next time you fire it up.

Of course, content creation isn’t for everyone, but in the time since Dreams’ release it has become stuffed with incredible creations. And not just time-killing distractions either, there are some lengthy and remarkably polished games in there from all different genres.

Media Molecule have provided their own examples of what can be achieved with the supplied tools too (the single-player story ‘Art’s Dream’ and dungeon crawler ‘Ancient Dangers: A Bat’s Tale’ are absolute treats, and the recent “Train Adventure” Tren looks predictably delightful). But it’s by putting all of these tools into the hands of players and making them so user-friendly that elevates the game to something truly special.

Dreams is a joyous and often magical experience for anyone with even the slightest interest in gaming, and a monumental achievement from a studio that is no stranger to ambition.

So where do you start with the game that can be anything? Well, start wherever the hell you want, of course. If you haven’t explored Dreams’ ocean of content for a while - or if you’ve never so much as got your toes wet - there’s never been a better time to jump in.

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Are you a Dreams fan? Do you have anything in the game you’d recommend? Reply to this email and let me know and I might make a little feature of them in an upcoming issue.

As always, thank you so much for reading.

Have a great weekend, enjoy your games, and I’ll see you next week!

Jeff

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THE WEEK IN GAMES

The week’s best news and content

NEWS

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MORE!

The best N64 games of all time

Ah, the N64. A landmark and ground-breaking console that was home to some truly landmark and ground-breaking games that, for some reason, has become a bit of a whipping boy online these days.

If perfecting 3D gaming and introducing the analogue stick, built-in 4-player support and controller rumble isn’t worth celebrating then I don’t know what is.

Frankly, I love the N64, so I’ll always try to fit it in whenever I can. A my-newsletter-my-rules kind of thing I’m afraid.

Anyway, here’s a list of the best N64 games from Time Extension, which inexplicably doesn’t even include Wave Race. You can check out the list for yourself here.

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Recommended Read: The Stupefying Success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Recycling old intellectual property is a default formula in today’s Hollywood. But few franchises have managed to yield so much by doing so little, says Kyle Chayka of The New Yorker.

You can read how and why right here in this week’s recommended article.

INDIE SPOTLIGHT

Shining a light on noteworthy indies

Ratatan

The makers of Patapon are back with a Kickstarter campaign for their brand new game. Ratatan promises a “combination of rhythm and side-scroller action” for up to four players where you can “engage in huge melee brawls with more than 100 characters.”

Patapon was a cult favourite back in the day, and this spiritual successor looks set to continue that game’s bizarre sense of style and fun. If you’d like an idea of how much interest there is for this one, the game’s £110,000 funding goal was hit in less than an hour, and at the time of writing the campaign is currently sitting at well over half a million.

You can find out more and back the project over on Kickstarter. The campaign ends on Friday September 1st .

NEW RELEASES

The big releases for this week and next

OUT NOW:

OUT NEXT WEEK:

Stray - Out next week on Xbox!

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…and that’s it for this week!

If you have any comments or suggestions, or if you just fancy talking about games, simply reply to this email directly or catch me over on Twitter. I’d love to hear from you! If you’d like to advertise your product or game to The Week in Games’ readers, click here.

Thanks again, and see you next week!

Jeff

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