Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Majesty 2 is the only sequel on our Unknown Pleasures list. It’s because the first Majesty was something of an unknown, unique pleasure upon its first release and the nine years since then will have done nothing to change that. It explored an area – indirect control of forces – which few RTS have dreamed of touching, and that topography of tactics is as fresh now as it was then. Also, in terms of a classic PC licence being passed eastwards, we’ve got hopes that it’ll end up being this year’s King’s Bounty. Some initial swift takes on the Alpha Code plus some swift words with 1C:Ino-Co’s Producer and CEO Alexey Kozyrev follow…
Read the rest of this entry »

We usually avoid posting random pre-historic retro stuff, but I have a soft spot for ultra-weird proto-shooter Yars’ Revenge. Peerless gaming esoterica journal Offworld dug up this 1982 Atari 2600 TV ad that somehow manages to capture just how profoundly sinister Yars’ Revenge actually is. The bizarre setup and constant droning of the game means it’s quite a unsettling experience, and subsequently it often goes forgotten in retro musings. I’m amazed it was actually advertised on TV. The commercial goes on to have a monologue about Asteroids and Star Raiders too. Have a look at this and then stare out of the window for a moment, while considering how much modern advertising fails us. Clickwards for the ad.

Read the rest of this entry »

Remember how we laughed and cried over arcade physics racer Trials 2? Okay, well we did. And lots of people loved it, and lo it was some kind of hit. Well, Red Lynx haven’t been sitting on their hands staring at the ceiling since they made it, no sir, they’ve been making another silly side-on zooming and jumping game, called Monster Trucks Nitro. (Secretly been around for a while, we just weren’t paying attention. Shh!) There’s a demo through that link, but the download is slow. Fortunately you can also get it on Steam too. Hooray!

Read the rest of this entry »

Mr Kyle Gabler, who apparently made something called World of Goo, has posted on the 2D BOY blog his first night keynote speech at the Global Game Jam 2009. Immediately leap below to see his guide to a group of people attempting to make a game in 48 hours.

Read the rest of this entry »

Zeno Clash is different. Which is refreshing. A melee-focused first-person game in the Source engine, in a world that doesn’t look like anything else around. Which isn’t a thing you get to say about many games. Nominated in the 2009 IGF Awards, the independent game from the start-up Chilean developer is rapidly gathering attention. We’ve had a preview of a few levels, and spoken to one of the founding members of the ACE Team, Edmundo Bordeu, which marvellously you’ll find below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yet more robots and killing – in fact, robots who like killing so much they’ll turn their murderous attentions to themselves if no-one else is around. Plain Sight’s been in its Open Beta for a while, and Eurogamer asked me to pop over to Beatnik’s Headquarters in South London. And then write about it. For money! It’s amazing, this games journalism caper. And for explanation of the pun, see beneath the cut!
Read the rest of this entry »

Or AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity to give it its full title. If you want to be certain RPS will cover your game, you need a name like Robokill, or AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity.

This one, from Dejobaan Games (who brought us the lovely The Wonderful End Of The World), gets further points for me, since it features the primary reason I play many games: jumping off buildings.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bohemia Interactive’s latest game of simulated war is looking pretty healthy, and the latest trailer – which is a mock news bulletin – shows the engine running some pre-scripted scenes. It all looks rather realistic and – dare I say – rather polished. Could BIS actually be delivering a game that doesn’t need to be finished off by the mod community? Hard to say, but even if the game does land in the same kind of state that its predecessor did, we’ve every reason to be excited: this is one of those unfashionably ambitious projects that really makes the PC interesting. There’s no release date for this yet, but we expect an announcement from publisher 505 Games fairly soon.

Read the rest of this entry »

Or so say the RPS readers anyway. I wanted to do a follow up on the polls Jim ran a few weeks ago, highlighting the results and what they say about the state of the PC nation (in short: People buy stuff on direct download! Man!). Some of them didn’t require much other interpretation. Others – like the one in the header – required a little maths to arrive at. And more beneath the cut…

Read the rest of this entry »

Alec pinpoints Mirror’s Edge‘s failures and successes like a laser-guided missile of critical accuracy in last week’s Wot I Think. When playing it recently, I was extremely surprised to find the game making mistakes that were ironed out of the Tomb Raider/Prince of Persia games years ago, as I haplessly tried to guide the suicidal Faith away from her determined attempts to plunge off every rooftop. I couldn’t help but feel this pro-active Samaritans simulator might be interesting to play in the third-person, so I could at least see what ledge she would be aiming to plummet from next. My wish has been granted.

Read the rest of this entry »

The developers of this premium flashgame – and I’ll get to that in a minute – dropped us a line about this. While Walker’s played it before, because it’s called Robokill – thus buying into RPS’ dual loves of robots AND killing – I had to play too. It’s actually an interestingly direct mix of Diablo and Smash TV/Gauntlet with a Captive-esque surface layer. It involves Robots and Killing. More beneath the cut…
Read the rest of this entry »