Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Men Of War, seriously, look past the name. This is a game that is at least as interesting for real-time strategy lovers as Dawn Of War 2. If you ignored the demo, please go play it, and understand that even that undersells the immense battlefield missions with hundreds of units, not to mention to vast scale of a game that has three full sized campaigns. Campaigns whose maps are also playable in co-op. I’m posting the videos after the jump with a sense of futility, because I know they don’t and won’t sell it to many people. Nevertheless Men Of War is second only to Empire in awesomeness for games I’ve played so far in 2009. It really is a fine thing. I recommend you take a look. The game is out now in Europe and will be out on the 17th in North America.

Update: you can steal the hats of your fallen enemies. Yes!

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Well, either that, or Little Big Planet is taking a really grim direction for a sequel. I wake up to a mass of mails from this – FinalSin was first, but cheers to you all – which shows how much even a sliver of information on Bioshock 2 excites people. I suspect we’re reaching the point when a lot more is going to be forthcoming soon. But while we wait, we’ve got some clues on this teaser site to pick over. It’s a map, with a series of faux-press clippings pinned to it and a mark on the West of Ireland. Presumably, we’re going to get more marks and more evidence as the month goes by. But what to make of it all?
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If you’ve not yet grasped the squig and tried Mythic’s Warhammer Online for yourself, then now might be a good time. The main website has just launched a 10-day free trial for the game. But Europeans are excluded from the offer. And, ah, okay, I missed this completely: Euros have a separate offer entirely.

So that’s good.

There’s a new video showing Zeno Clash, which I suspect is the best yet. ACE Team’s game has really caught the imagination of many, partly through its remarkable artistic style, and partly through the use of melee combat – people are really interested to find out if this could be the game to satisfyingly pull it off. (With a respectful nod to Dark Messiah, of course.) The new video begins with two of the trio of brothers at the helm of the game explaining the offensive and defensive nature of it all, and then cuts to some lovely in-game examples of the combat in action. It is, of course, below.

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Having dabbled with Empire: Total War for the best part of a week, I reckon I’ve slain enough redcoats, sunk enough sloops, and lost enough rakes to sit in judgement. After the jump, the thoughts of a man who’s now so enthusiastic about 18th Century warfare, he’s bought himself a tricorn hat, a bicorn hat, and a unicorn hat. Read the rest of this entry »

Meer’s Journal, March 5 2009.

Nobody cares but me. And thousands of other comic book geeks.
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The mighty Brad Wardell of Stardock has done a lengthy narration of in-game footage for Demigod, and it’s been hosted over at GameTrailers. I’ve embedded that after the jump for your eyebrow-raising consideration. Wardell is playing as one of the demigods we’ve not seen before: the Oak, who has some splendid necromantic talents. The man from Stardock also talks about the Pantheon, which is Demigod’s “persistent world” battle tracking system. That will basically allow you to put your efforts into fighting for a particular faction, pushing one of the demigods towards ascension to full godhood.

Anyway, go take a look. Demigod is due to ascend to digital retailhood in April.
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I admit, I can’t actually differentiate this and Men of War in my head. I’m going to try. This is the one which Jim doesn’t keep on ranting for me to try. I think. Anyway, the Single-player demo has been out for a bit. Now there’s a sister Multiplayer Demo, which is a mere half-gig in size. Half what the SP one was! The reason for this is classified. I know, but can’t tell you. I’m sorry. Oh – and here’s a new trailer explaining the “WHAT IF!”s which drive this alternate timeline post-WW2 war. Which, as many have noted, doesn’t look particularly like a cold war to us. You can tell by the explodeage.
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Browsing the lovely pages at AGS I found this recent adventure release, Shifter’s Box, by Ben Chandler, creator of the cute Annie Android. It’s the story of a young lady, Sally, who discovers a mysterious box in the park. Prising it open, she finds herself dragged through into a series of other worlds.

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You’re excited. We’re excited. We’re so excited we’ve got a microexpansion. It probably doesn’t make much sense to you now, but will do after you’ve finished episode 9 of the RPS Electronic Wireless Show. This is the one where RPS’ London contingent hit back at the provincial sorts and talk about all things PC gaming, and a few things that aren’t. Main topics? World in Conflict: Soviet Fisticuffs, why games journos go into development, Dawn of War 2 and the relative merits of bugginess and shortness. Oh, and Empire Total War, with some terrible understanding of history. Simon Schama would be disgusted.
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Russian racer Armageddon Riders (or Clutch – both names seem to be being used) is a Carmageddon-meets-Burnout looking game, which is something we haven’t seen in a while. Splatting pedestrians with a car has obviously become the domain of GTA and its many illegitimate children, but none are pure racing games. This one’s all about zombies, racing cars, and hitting zombies with racing cars. It’s out in Russia via developers Targem right now. (Google’s translation of that page here.) No word on an English release (that I can find), but there’s a trailer packed full of in-game splattage, below.

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