By John Walker on May 14th, 2009.
There’s something great fun about enjoying something without having the faintest idea what it’s about, or quite why you’re enjoying it. All Of Our Friends Are Dead offers this experience. It’s a side-scrolling platformer, movement with WASD and aiming your cursor with the mouse. And it’s strange.
By John Walker on May 14th, 2009.
I went to see Star Trek last night. Spoiler warning: they shoot stuff in space. But it’s the trailers that I’ve brought you here to discuss. There were a couple that stood out by looking like absolutely dreadful films, but dreadful films I found myself rather wanting to watch. On any other day the most embarrassing of these would be G.I. Joe. However, last night it was Night At The Museum 2. I’ve not even seen the original, but I’m blaming Hank Azaria’s awesome delivery of some super-corny jokes, and Owen Wilson playing a teeny tiny cowboy. Oh, and the bit where Ben Stiller grabs the pitchfork from the American Gothic painting on the wall. I know, I’m sorry. The purpose of this gripping tale? There’s a videogame to go with it. Can the trailers for that achieve the same remarkable feat?
By Kieron Gillen on May 13th, 2009.
Jim spotted this over on Offworld and in his continuing attempt to stereotype my interests in gaming (in short: anything with ASCII, anything with intercourse, Kenickie), thought I should have a look at it. Wayfarer is a Rogue-like running online, constructed in some kind of programming language and with a cute semi-3D look to it. Which you can turn on and off if you’re scared of perspective or something (the “Something” is likely to be a little lag. It’s still in Alpha). I had an enjoyable stomp through a few randomly generated levels. Married to its retro-graphics, it’s relatively stripped down in design (as far as I can see, there’s no levels or classes and progression is based solely on equipment) it’s an ideal game to experiment on if you’ve always been intrigued by Rogue-likes but letters scare you. Which does make you wonder how you read a website, but let’s let that go. Fun. Play!
By Jim Rossignol on May 13th, 2009.
Weird-lookin’ French sci-fi MMO Ryzom is back, Back, BACK! Again. Having been heading for death, for the second time, the game was saved a few months back and is now being relaunched as a commercial project. The subs are going to cost $10.95 for a month, with a discount for multiple-months. There’s also a three-week trial. I’ve never tried it, even when it was entirely free, but I figure I’ll give it a go now that it has apparently risen from the dead twice. I mean it’d be rude to ignore something so persistent. (It’s a persistent world game. DO YOU SEE.)
By Jim Rossignol on May 13th, 2009.
One of the Blizzardians has been getting a bit talkative over on the Blizzard boards and has stated that the next MMO is an entire new property. No WoW2, no World Of Starcraft. He seems to think that the Internet already knew that, but I can’t recollect when it was confirmed. Blizzard poster “Zarhym” said: “We have nothing to advertise for the new MMO because it’s a shell of a game thus far. We’ve already stated it’ll be a brand new franchise, which means the lore, art, and game play are being developed entirely from scratch. It’s an overwhelming process, but a process through which we excel. Our track record supports this.”
Oh, and Grunty The Spacemarine Murloc (above) will be the in-game gift for BlizzCon attendees this year. Cute.
By Jim Rossignol on May 13th, 2009.
That should be Award Winning Ship Simulator Pro. It was apparently awarded “Best Serious Game 2009″ by the right serious Lord David Puttnam at the 4th Apply Serious Games & Virtual Worlds conference in London. That’s gaming where you have to frown, and wear a suit, by the way. Is Ship Simulator Pro the best of such games? Perhaps, but I got more of a kick of Euro Truck Simulator. Anyway, good work, Ship Simulator guys, we do like your ships, and also your boats. There’s apparently a new demo up, but you need to logged into the Ship Sim site to get it.
By Jim Rossignol on May 13th, 2009.
The other 1c game that turned up on our gam-o-scopes this week is this rather handsome-looking medieval turn-based strategy game, Empire: Time of Troubles. It comes with the most sedate and unhurried trailer I think I’ve ever seen (posted below) and seems to include a promising-looking 3D campaign map and a whole lot of menus, currently rendered mysterious (to me at least) by their encryption in cyrillic. The game apparently covers the period of 1350-1650AD in Poland, Lithuania and Russia, where dudes get chopped and stuff gets plague and is buried. You take charge one of the twenty six different factions involved in the region and attempt to lead them to victory. Expect micro-management, beards.
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By Jim Rossignol on May 13th, 2009.
So I can barely even recollect the 2007 third-person fantasy RPG Dawn Of Magic (which was called something like “Blood Magic” in Russia), but that’s probably because it was deemed a bit rubbish. Undeterred by the picky Westerners, Russian developer Sky Fallen (who did Deathtrack Resurrection) is apparently working on what looks set to be sequel of sorts for the game, which will be called Time Of Shadows by new publishers Kalypso Media. Except no! We just got a press release thirty seconds ago announcing that Kalypso are calling it Dawn Of Magic 2, too. So what happens to Time Of Shadows now? No idea. They should probably just go for broke call it Blood Time Of Magi2 Dawn. Something like that.
By John Walker on May 13th, 2009.
DC Universe Online (I really want a crossover game where you can fight DC Universe Online characters against Marvel Universe Online characters) has released a new trailer/interview that goes into a few details about the game in general. There’s an explanation of how you can pick between your own from-scratch hero, or a mimic of a favourite DC character, as well as all sorts of in-game footage, and some info on missions. This is all explained by Sony’s global brand manager, Deby Sue Wolfcale, which totally sounds like the name of a superhero’s alter-ego.
By Jim Rossignol on May 13th, 2009.
The shootiest RTS of all time, Dawn Of War II, has just had a monster update, and should patch automatically when you start the game up. The update includes the 2v2 game mode we were all clamouring for when the game originally came out, as well as a bunch of other surface stuff such as new death animations. There’s also two new four-player maps, a benchmarking app, and push to talk for voice chat. There’s also some serious bug fixing and an overhaul of the AI. Full details of patch below. We’ll probably have a poke around on those new maps later today, but let us know below if you have any thoughts on this update, or the current state of DoWII.
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By John Walker on May 12th, 2009.
Valve have spun the giant wheel of classes and this time it’s settled on the Sniper. He’s getting his update “in the coming days”. This means the familiar pattern will take place: over the next few days we’ll be told about his three weapon unlockable upgrades, new user-made maps that are going official, and a big pile of new achievements. Today’s announcement: a bow and arrow!
