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Fragpunk could be brilliant, if it wasn't so obsessed with being a hyper-rewarding slot machine

Eurogamer's early impressions of Fragpunk, Steam's latest free-to-play FPS hit.

One round the other day began with a wave of frantic team chat screams - standard, for a competitive shooter in the CS:GO mould - only this time the usual storm of verbal friendly fire came with a twist: "BIG HEAD MODE! In fairness, I thought that too at first, and came here fully prepared to write Fragpunk off as another one of those nearly-shooters, where a series of anonymously punky characters, backstories about some magic whatever, and a few neat and tidy added mechanics that are smart-ish in theory all come together to form a perfectly adequate new FPS - one that leaves the public consciousness as fast as it arrives. The point is, as this blog notes, citing Natasha D. Schull's book Addiction By Design: many video games are using the same techniques employed, to devastating effectiveness, by barely-regulated gambling machines of Las Vegas to encourage an unhealthy, obsessive compulsion not necessarily to spend more, but simply to play more.

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