By Kieron Gillen on January 19th, 2009.
It looks like it’s going to be a day for returning 2007 RPS-favourites. Well, there’s another one later. Maybe more. The day’s early. Anyway – we loved Puzzle Quest‘s mix of light-RPG and gem-matching action. We were excited at the announcement of a space-based sequel. And now you can actually play the bally thing in a web-based demo. Some initial thoughts and a little gameplay video beneath the cut.
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By Kieron Gillen on January 18th, 2009.
Sunday. Articles collated. Attempt to not link to pop music. Inevitable failure. Go.
By Tim Stone on January 18th, 2009.
Most of the people that made high-fidelity flight sims in the Nineties are now making low-fidelity games about snowboarding, car theft, and pony care. Moscow-based Eagle Dynamics is one of very few studios that has survived and kept the faith. They’ve just released Black Shark, a helo hymn that doesn’t so much simulate the Ka-50 ground attack chopper as steal its soul. Sadly, I can’t say too much about the sim at present (because I’m scrutinising it for the lovely PC Gamer UK) but I did catch-up with project lead Matt Wagner recently and ply him with questions.
By Jim Rossignol on January 17th, 2009.
Okay, so you guys were really into that idea. We’ve had hundreds of applicants, and the keys are now fully accounted for. The mighty seventy will be notified with an email instruction within the next 48 hours. Thanks for your interest, folks.
By Kieron Gillen on January 17th, 2009.
We’re not going to let a little fact like us strenuously and repeatedly arguing against the validity of NPD’s statistics regarding PC Gaming cause us to not post something fun like this. NPD have provided IGN a list of the Top 20 PC Games sold in… oh, you can read the post title, yeah? You’ll find them and a little commentary beneath the cut…
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By Alec Meer on January 16th, 2009.
Every so often I suffer from serious mouse-hunger, and I am far too prone to indulging it. As a weedy man who sits in front of his PC all day, I fairly inevitably suffer from varying degrees of tendonitis. Rather than doing anything about it, like exercising regularly or learning to sit up straight, I manage to use this as an excuse to buy expensive mice – ergonomics, or something. I dunno. Really, I just like luxury mice, which all their flicky buttons and blinking lights and ridiculous adjustable weights. Specifically, I’ve been hooked to the Logitech gaming range, which I used to swear blind genuinely made me better at FPSes – until I got roundly thrashed at Quake III by a guy using a beige PS/2 ball-mouse.
By Jim Rossignol on January 16th, 2009.
Previously I articulated some positive feelings towards Defence Grid in this here blog posting. More recently we are to discover, thanks to the eagle eyes of one Sam Jeffreys, that the demo for the game is now available on the Steam digital download service. I think that you should have a play of that demo, if you have not already played the game. In fact I insist.
By Jim Rossignol on January 16th, 2009.
UPDATE: Sign ups now closed!
We’re going to war! Yes, it’s time to see who is hardest out of Rock, Paper, Shotgun, BoingBoing Offworld, and The Escapist, via the medium of Planetside. Naturally we’re favourites to pwn, but we’re going to need you lot to pitch in. The devil, of course, is in the details, so cry havoc, and let click the jumps of war. (Did that work? Details below, anyway.)
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By Alec Meer on January 16th, 2009.
Just a quickie about GameDaily’s fairly candid interview with Lord British hisself. The sometime space voyager mostly shares about his thoughts on the upcoming Tabula Rasa closure. He seems saddened but not devastated; perhaps that’s because the old boy’s seen plenty of his games suffer in the past, or perhaps it’s endemic of how TR was never what it should have been.
The bombshell, such as it is, comes at the interview’s close, where he says he would gladly work on a new Ultima game for EA given the chance: “I think that if, by hook or by crook, I had access to that property, either in solo-player or multiplayer, I would absolutely love to continue to play in the Ultima universe.” EA has this nasty habit of jealously guarding its old franchises yet doing nothing with ‘em, but lately we’ve heard rumours of new Syndicate and Dungeon Keeper titles. Maybe now there is a chance the Avatar will get to lock horns with that big red guy again after all…
By John Walker on January 16th, 2009.
A number you might see a lot over the next few days is 14%. This is, according to the US games sales data compilers NPD, the percentage drop in PC game sales in 2008 from 2007, the market pulling in $701m. As reported by GameDaily, the figure suggests the PC has fallen in sharp contrast to the soaring figures for console sales. But of course this number doesn’t mean an enormous amount – it does not include so much of the PC market, including digital downloads, micro-payments or subscriptions. Which is a big deal.
By Kieron Gillen on January 16th, 2009.
Ever since RPS’ inception, Stardock done nothing but to do things to further endear themselves to PC Gamers. A fountain of Gal Civ splenditude. A move into publishing with the brilliant Sins of a Solar Empire and the looking-brilliant DemiGod. Even pushing a gamers bill of rights. This is simply their next step, a Master-of-Magic inspired fantasy game which they’ve been working on for years but only finally gave it a name towards the close of the last. It’s time we all learned it. It’s Elemental: War of Magic and looks set to becoming the next PC-strategy game du jour. We talk to Brad Wardell about it…
