Bombshell
"Let me tell you," opined videogame and culture critic Leigh Alexander, "a game about a girl's first relationship is more engaging to your average person than collecting cow armour in the wasteland". Bombshell isn't quite as compelling as rohypnol, but in charting a young woman's journey out of the shadow of her father, it's certainly getting there. The title began life as Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction, until a lawsuit from Gearbox Software - who retain a legal team at least four times larger than the number of people playing Battleborn right now - forced them to ditch the use of Duke Nukem and switch the protagonist to Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison, who was originally set to appear in Duke Nukem Forever as an NPC sidekick. Developed by Interceptor Software (responsible for 2013's Rise of the Triad remake, which was banned in multiple countries after a ruling by the UN's International War Crimes tribunal), Bombshell is a top-down shooter with light RPG elements, allowing the player to upgrade their health, armour and energy, unlock various alternate fire modes for the different weapons available to Shelly, and gain an extra level or two via sidequests. It's a moderately entertaining experience, though there are a few critical missteps, such as the as-yet unpatched glitches and CTDs (particularly repellent in combination with checkpoint saves), agonizingly slow (approximately 8-10 second long) execution animations, and glacial pace of progression.
Crashes aside, it's worthy bundle-fodder, with a fist-pumping soundtrack by Andrew Hulshult, some satisfyingly powerful weapon upgrades (love the railgun mode for the Ion Cannon), showers of gore, plus great performances by Valerie Arem and Jon St. John (the latter voicing lunatic scientist Jadus Heskel). The eponymous heroine was slated as an obnoxious "hard-ass riot grrl" in her original 2014 reveal, but I can safely assure everyone that she's a real peach in the final game, with a great pair of hooters and remarkably expressive facial animations which masterfully capture the heartbreak and drama of her bionic
Bildungsroman (the facial animations, not the tits).