Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Every May Day weekend here in the UK, Network Rail, the company that owns the railway infrastructure, rotate all their track 180 degrees to promote even wear. Travellers caught up in the ensuing chaos are forced to use slow, crowded, substitute transportation misleadingly called ‘replacement buses’. It’s a miserable business. Which is why I prefer to stay home and do my train travel through fine freeware like Rails. Read the rest of this entry »

Sundays are for avoiding tidying up the house by compiling a list of interesting reading from across the week, while trying to avoid mentioning a certain comic that may have been released. And how much I’m trying to avoid tidying can be ascertained by the length of this hefty Sunday Papers special…

• The most essential thing from the week was Chris Delay’s look at Introversion’s 2008, where he talks candidly about how Multiwinia almost brought down the company. Full of totally hearbreaking vignettes. Choice one: “Tom had always fantasised about building a sales counter that would sit in the corner of the office and tick up whenever we sold a copy of a game. This time around he actually did it, building the device out of second hand parts bought from Ebay and writing custom driver software for it that linked directly to our Multiwinia sales counter. During our launch party dinner and celebrations that evening, what was truly amazing about this counter was how little it was actually going up. I’m not kidding when I say that we actually checked the connections and the software several times to make sure it was actually working, only to find out it was. Even then that very night we knew it was bad, that our whole future was in doubt.” Go read.

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After an accidental week’s hiatus, our regular round-up of agreeably-priced videogames to while away a lazy weekend returns. As always, Savygamer‘s marvellous marquis of money-saving LewieP has his hand at the till. This week, a fair few modern classics rethink their pricetags…
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Bioware have released another trailer detailing the development process of their MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. There’s a bunch of stuff here about the art direction of the individual planets, Tython, Korriban, Hutta, and Ord Mantell. The stuff about the Hutt world is particularly fun.
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Yes, the latest digi-delight from the goodly Minotaur Chinashop / Offroad Velicoraptor Safari chaps is now up and running for your cost-free enjoyment. Go, go, go! These people make excellent games.

John shared some details earlier in the week, but there our words shall rest for now, as it is currently past the witching hour on Britisher shores and the Hivemind must retire to its briny jar-bath for the night. Thoughts on this pretty thing – which has splendid shades of Braid and Paper Mario – to follow at a later date, now doubt.

I don’t believe we’ve yet posted about the most recent Team Fortress 2 patch. Y’know, the one with the mysterious 50-item backpack and new slot for head items. SECRETS!

The reaction to this strong hint of future collectables seemed to be half “ooh!” and half “uh-oh”, but until now there hasn’t been much word on exactly what these new toys would be for. Hints are trickling in…
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It’s always fun to see what relics will appear on Good Old Games next. Plundering the PC gaming archives, they pull out a Duke Nukem 3D or a Stonekeep, and suddenly you’re back in the mid 90s, the blocky graphics and absence of physics are immediately forgotten, and you’re having a damned great time. And then there’s MegaRace. It’s fascinating to see it appearing – one of the most famously terrible games of all time, given new life. But is it really as bad as everyone remembers?

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Look at us, ma! On the pretend radio! Again! This week’s podcast is the Gillen (sweary) and Meer (muttery) show again, this time also featuring a special guest – sometime RPS contributor Quintin Smith, with his big, floppy hair and everything. Download it directly here, browse the archive or subscribe here, or grab it from iTunes shortly here. Beneath the cut: I gamely attempt to to decipher Kieron’s monstrously illiterate notes (apparently Fahhyuhi = Fallujah) into a running order.
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The word from the rumbling innards of Steam is that a Zeno Clash demo is now available. The demo contains a slice of the single player campaign, and the first level of the challenge mode, so you’ll be able to sample both. Then, should you fancy, you can compare and contrast your impressions with our verdict.

Capcom have stated that Resident Evil 5, Bionic Commando, and Streetfighter IV will come out on PC across the summer (although only SFIV is firmly dated, for July 2nd, as far as I can see). Bionic Commando will also land in July, with Resident Evil 5 coming “later in the year”. There will be PC-exclusive features for each of the games, as we’d already seen with Streetfighter IV. I asked a Capcom spokesperson about Lost Planet 2 on PC earlier today, and received the reply: “No word on Lost Planet on PC. Yet.”

Full press release below, and thanks to Sub Edii for the tip.
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I was just poring over some of the newer information on the Arma II site, and I realised that we hadn’t posted the major game-footage trailer (below). Now I have to argue – having played a bit of the game for a huge, awesome feature which is in this month’s PCG UK (redesigned mag out next week, fact fans!) – that this isn’t entirely representative of how the game plays. It does look this good, however. You’ll have to go pick up a copy of the mag for my full, honed, beautifully illustrated brain-dump on the subject – and this 4-player co-op soldier-sim in open, living world really is a game worth keeping an eye on. Mmm.
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