Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Yay! This first surfaced over on Tigsource and is clearly splendid, and on more than the much-discussed Good-Name=RPS Coverage grounds. We’ve talked about No Quarter as part of our Unknown Pleasures 2009, the Edmund McMillen/Alex Austin Cryptic Sea project of six games. This was what they were called GUN then. Now it’s called Hitlers Must Die! This is what we call progress. For surely, if the RPS readers can agree on anything, it’s on the idea that if presented with many Hitlers, offing the lot of them would be the thing to do. The above screen’s from the Hitler Must Die intro rather than the Beta footage. Its physics-heavy Hitler-annihilating action is found nestling below…
Read the rest of this entry »

While I feel slightly nervous to dare add further comment after an RTS-expert like John Walker has had his say, I actually did cross London town to have a look at Wargaming.net developed and Squaresoft published Order of War and have a few shareable thoughts. Before seeing the game, the initial interest is in the industry machinations of it. It’s Squaresoft’s first PC-only Western-developed game. Wh… at? And after playing the Belarus-originated game, I’m smiling at a tiny observation. That no matter how much a PC-game this is, Squaresoft’s first RTS still manages to work out a way to make the whole thing into a cut-scene.
Read the rest of this entry »

I just spotted this exquisite little game by Adam Saltsman over on Offworld. Fathom starts with blistering chip-core-fuelled platform battling and… well, there’s a little surprise waiting in there, which I couldn’t possibly spoil. It might seem a little confusing, and it is cryptic, but all the clues are there. Oh, just go play it – and beware of spoilers in the comments, please.

But which maps? And will they ultimately disappoint? The first isn’t too inspiring, it’s Hidden Fortress from the Dreamcast version of Quake III. Not a bad map, it seems, but still not one of the classics. Will one of the new maps be my ultimate CTF dream date, Spider Crossings? What would you choose, readers? (Link ‘em for classic Q3 download if you can be bothered.)

But they have dissolved the DNF dev team. Shacknews has the full statement.

Despite rumors and statements to the contrary, 3D Realms (3DR) has not closed and is not closing. 3DR retains ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise. Due to lack of funding, however, we are saddened to confirm that we let the Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) development team go on May 6th, while we regroup as a company. While 3DR is a much smaller studio now, we will continue to operate as a company and continue to license and co-create games based upon the Duke Nukem franchise.

Lots more through the link, complete with the response to Take 2′s lawsuit.

Just a quick note to say the official version of Meet The Spy is now available on Valve’s Spy Update pages, and available to download in HD via Steam. There’s also the traditional unveiling of the achievement names, with their descriptions to be added tomorrow. Also, kudos to Valve for their good humour over the weekend’s accidental early leaking of the video via YouTube, with the bonus achievement shown above.

As Britain’s foremost expert on real-time strategies, it’s my pleasure to bring you these three videos of the forthcoming Order of War. I mean, what can I say about the RTS, and the role this game plays in it? Well, “War”, that sure implies there will be battles, and they certainly do require strategy. And you can’t be strategic without some manner of order, I’d imagine. So I think we can all agree, it definitely is an RTS, and they are games that people like. And they have tanks in them. And something about resources. Look, everyone else is out, okay. More helpful information below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone loves an underdog – but Doom 3 is in the curious position of being an underdog whilst simultaneously being big enough to be widely loathed. Arguably, only Bioshock has stolen its crown as king of the PC FPS whipping boys – both being heavily-trumpeted games that didn’t live up to their own enormous hype, and suffered a disproportionately vicious backlash as a result.

Doom 3 -which I found bland and repetitive but often fun and certainly atmospheric, its major crime being stretching its few ideas over too many hours – however, has managed to enjoy a huge and enthusiastic modding scene nonetheless. There’s everything from extensive co-op versions to an infinite array of flashlight tweaks and assorted mini-campaigns, maps and graphical upgrades. It may not enjoy the profile of the big Half-Life 2 mods, but its scene remains alive. Hoping to throw this underdog a bone (I have no idea why – these cursed whims of mine), I’ve spent today wading through a few of them.
Read the rest of this entry »

This is fun. As part of the hype up to Sims 3′s release, Electronic Arts have done a facebook app inspired by the Sims. Simsocial is basically a turn-based single-character life-simulator, which seems terribly derived from Positech’s lovely Kudos 2. And for good reason, as the about file reveals: EA commissioned Cliffski to make something based on Kudos 2 for it. It’s similar but different – there’s Sims 3 elements plugged in plus some Facebook social networking, minus Jamie McKelvie’s lovely art and a load of Kudos’ complexities. Either way, it’s accessible, free and only a click away. Assuming you’ve a facebook account, anyway. And, no, I won’t be your friend. I’m barely my friends’ friend.

This was going around at the weekend, but (I think) Darrt forwarded it to me, so gets the heads up (or maybe it was Poisoned Sponge. Man!). A gentlemen of the internet has been doing some painted-style images of old 8-bit games. And as lovely as they are, he’s been keeping his attention to Games Without Mice And Keyboards. There’s an exception though: his fantastically murky image of Lemmings, as if they’d marched (in a large blob) out of Dante. Abandon All Hope Of Blockers Ye Who Enter Here.

Via the strange magics of download service Gametap, the original STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl (not its deflating sequel Clear Sky) can now be played for precisely zero pennies. No region restriction (apparently), and it joins a freebie roster that also contains the stalwart likes of Deus Ex, Hitman: Blood Money, Psychonauts and – yes! – Hotdog King.
Read the rest of this entry »