Rock, Paper, Shotgun

As Jim alluded to in the comments thread for our Demigod discussion last week, one of the many interesting issues around writing for the web instead of for print is that a verdict passed on a game doesn’t have to stay static in the event that game’s problems improve/worsen. Demigod’s a fine example – if one of us had written it up on compressed tree-matter and shoved a number at the end, that number would reflect its enormous netcode screw-ups, and would sit as a faintly damning judgement upon it for all time (of course, damnable parasite-site Metacritic means that problem still exists for a lot of web stuff too).

While releasing a game that was problem-riddled in the first place is scarcely something that should be condoned, as GPG and Stardock (I’m becoming increasingly confused as to who’s really in charge of DG now) have been frantically racing to patch the thing up over the last week, such a judgement would already have been innacurate. Especially as it appears – oh dear – piracy may have significantly exacerbated DG’s multiplayer problems….
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I’m quite excited about Ubisoft’s enormo-RTS Ruse (let’s not dignify marketing idiocy with the capital letters or full stops), but last time I nattered about it here all I had to show you was a trailer that seemed more like it was advertising haircuts or watches. So it’s way past time I nudged y’all in the direction of some in-game footage. Oh, it’s worth watching the HD version of the first vid if your bandwidth can stomach it…
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Obviously you’re a fan of You Have To Burn The Rope, and thus it follows you enormously admired the closing credits music. Good news, fans of extremely silly songs about videogames, Henrik Nåmark’s next song and video is finished, and it’s below.

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What do we do to make sure we do a podcast this week, when RPS comrades cannot meet? We turn to Skype. So Kieron and Jim try and talk to each other via tiny microphones and, despite the fact we’re only across the country rather than across continents, it sounds somewhat worse than when we did it with Leigh (You said “Do it” – Ed). Anyway – you can download it direct here, it has an individual net-home and here’s the iTunes page, and you’ll find the running order of this short and sharp podcast beneath the cut. Woo!
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Battlefield Heroes has teased us a few times, but this time it seems to be with us for good. The beta’s in full swing, and you can sign up for it yourself at the official site. In fact, there’s some in-game footage to watch. Watch it you shall, if you’ll only click on below.

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2009 is looking pretty healthy as far as games based on super-dudes go. Batman is looking reasonably solid and Wolverine has The Blob in it. In fairness there does seem to be a rather staid formula to how these third-person action games are rolled out, but Wolverine’s clawing is pretty enough that it might not matter. Still, I think he’d look much better in that old yellow and blue X-Men outfit. Whatever happened to those? I digress: below is a lovely trailer via Joystiq, and the game is out May 1st.
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Starcraft II has changed substantially since I first played it almost two years ago, and yet it remains fundamentally the same game. That provides some real insight into how Blizzard work: they have a kind of pure idea of what they’re aiming to achieve, and the development process is one of repeated iteration: UI after UI, art style after art style, each wave of changes bringing them closer to the perfect balance of what’s playable and what’s beautiful. Anyway, I expect we’ll be awash with fancy trailers in a couple of months time, but for now I’m enjoying the sort of back-to-basics game footage approach Blizzard are taking. Below the jump is a multiplayer battle report, with the designers commentating on a game being played between Blizzard employees. It’s revealing stuff.
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We don’t actually often link to news of Closed Beta registration. Frankly, we wait for the open one, as it’s a lot less effort. Who are you to select me, Mr Developer? WHO ARE YOU? In this case, I’m making an exception. Firstly, because it’s great to see someone trying to do a very different sort of MMO, in this case a City Builder with a mass of promising twists. Secondly, because I interviewed the developers in January, haven’t got around to transcribing it yet and feel terrible about it. That interview and possibly some Beta impressions coming shortlyish. Until then, consider signing up if building stuff is you “thing” and watch the two quite-old walkthrough trailers beneath the cut to give you a taste…
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This is about as pointless as an RPS post has ever got, but possibly amusing. I did a My Brute post last week which lead to everyone joining as my character’s student. Which leads to my in-game dojo looking like this. I recommend clicking the link so you can see the computer have a little think as it fills in the 700-odd followers. That’s you guys. Awesome! Er… always room for more though.

Gearbox have revealed the first online screenshot of the Borderlands’ not-cel-shaded-but-a-bit-like-that style. Just one shot, the meanies, and peculiarly they’ve stamped a big advert for the forthcoming PC Gamer US June edition all over it. Peculiar because the current ish of PC Gamer UK has the same shot. Meanies because PCG UK has seven more in its pages that aren’t online. But shitting crikey, we’re looking forward to this. There’s an advert-cropped version of the shot if you click on the pic above, and you can see the whole thing at the game’s site.

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I had a look at Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising the other day, and then happened upon the notion of writing down what I saw and publishing it on an international gaming website. And so it came to be that Eurogamer has a couple of thousand words of details as well as interviewy gobbets with lead AI man, Clive Lindop. It goes,

“First and foremost, the scale of the game needs to be expressed. Dragon Rising presents a 135 square mile island, with an engine offering a draw distance of up to 35km. This isn’t an exaggeration – we’ve seen it with our own eyes as a Cobra helicopter rises above the hills to reveal the extraordinary vista. The new engine is designed to allow a great deal of stuff on screen at any one time, which is essential for one of the game’s most distinctive features: shooting people from miles away.”

And carries on over here.