Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I’ve been playing around with Sims 3 code for Eurogamer for a few weeks now. Impressions start like this…

I’m not sure what my highlight so far has been. It may have been having a guy die while making out with me, before immediately proceeding to call up his sister, have a little mourn, flirt, make out, ask out and then dump her, whilst standing over the grave of the brother. Or it may have been discovering the patriarch of the town has a daughter, who I end up going out with, only to dump brutally, before hearing the patriarch has died, chatting up the widow in the gym (I ask her if she’s single – surprise, she is!), and flirting with her enough to go steady. All in front of a crowd, including the upset daughter. Before dumping the widow. Only to later, in my dotage, get back together with the daughter and move into their epic townhouse.

Ah, business is good. Or at least slutty.

And continue ever-onwards. Review before launch. And RPS-members-in-game, obv.

It’s taken me a while to get around to Starbreeze’s remake and expansion of Chronicles Of Riddick, but I’ve finally punched and stabbed my way through it. The original game is one of my favourite olden FPS games, as detailed here, but can this contemporary-tech revamp and sizable sequel live up to the legacy? Here’s Wot I Think.
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Inspired by my recent plea for Zeno Clash/Garry’s Mod mash-ups, veteran RPS reader Dartt revisits his own past glory to delightfully strange effect. A bigger version awaits you upon a click. The tragic absence of Tall-Nut aside, most excellent work, sir.

Sunday cometh. Hence we compile a fine and noble list of all the interesting gaming reading from across the list and strive towards an equally fine and noble day when I don’t slip into a link to a piece of pop music that’s been working on me over the same period. We really do try.

• We didn’t pick up on the Star slagging off social internet game My Queen. Thoughtshake did, and spoke to developers Blouzar about the controversy, and the actual game.
• It’s not just Walker who’s been obsessing over Thief this week. Jim has some thoughts about Thief and Thief 4 over at OffWorld.

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It’s here! It’s very funny! It’s absurdly violent! It’s like Poirot with more splattered brains! It’s one of the most incredibly-animated things I’ve ever seen! It even includes ‘your mum’ gags! It’s been unofficially leaked in low res! It’s… Meet The Spy!

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With the announcement of Thief 4 (Thifourth) this week, it seemed an apposite time to go back to the very beginning and remember why this series was so special. Armed with a commission from Eurogamer, I snuck back to 1998 to play Thief: The Dark Project once again. It begins:

“This is a game where turning the difficulty up reduces the number of enemies you have to kill. Certainly it also increases the number of guards (but slightly and smartly, never feeling unfair or unrealistic), and repositions them into more strategic patrol routes. But it doesn’t make your weapons less effective, or raise enemy hit-points, or artificially hinder you in any ‘gamey’ way. It simply asks you to be a better, subtler, smarter thief.”

You can read the rest here.

The hardest part of my new role as president of the International Hexagonal Society? Trying to persuade the motor industry to adopt six-sided wheels. The easiest part? Disseminating news of new hex strategy like Conquest! Medieval Realms. A swift tappity-tap on the old word-piano and suddenly every RPS reader knows that two-man UK outfit Illustrious Software have recently finished a friendly Hundred Years War game that hides chess-like depth behind unassuming Noggin The Nog visuals. A bit more tappity-tap and you’re aware the lazy varlets haven’t released a demo yet. Read the rest of this entry »

Another round up of luvverly gaming deals that are gentle upon that becredit-crunched wallet of yours, courtesy, as always, of Savygamer‘s duke of denarii LewieP. Big games! Big savings! Big, er, dogs, or something.
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I spotted this over on Offworld, and it’s both fairly funny, and a pretty strong advocate of what the new “mash up” tools in The Sims 3 will be able to deliver in terms of machinima. I’ve been playing around with some of the preview code EA sent out, but I had no idea their toolset was quite this capable. I’ll have to go back and take a look at that stuff for myself. In this trailer parody Trekkie sims fight, die, make-out, while simlish voice-over man makes with the gravitas in gibberish. It’s a fun time. (Speaking of made-up languages, has anyone seen the new Trek film yet?)
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Bioware are getting busying hyping up the major unveiling of Mass Effect 2 at E3, discussing the aim of “intensity” in the game, the amping up of combat, and the darker “Wild West” storyline. The trailer mostly focuses on the devs talking about what they’re excited about, but does include a fair bit of in-game footage. I’ve linked the to the Joystiq version of the video because there seems to be something funny going on with the main site.
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So it was all true. The Sniper update for TF2 has indeed been infiltrated by the Spy, Valve’s URL for the new content now changed to “/spyupdate”, the “/sniperupdate” address now gone. What on Earth does it all mean?

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