Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It’s time for a new twist in the tale of Duke Nukem Forever. Shacknews are reporting that Take-Two are now filing a lawsuit against the remnants of Apogee and 3D Realms, suing them for failing to deliver the promised game, and demanding a copy of the source code. Cor blimey. In a round-up of who’s suing who today, business news site Bloomberg mentions the case, stating that Take-Two are making the case because “Apogee breached an agreement to design the latest installment of Duke Nukem.” And in recently discovered papers, it’s been revealed that the publisher are demanding a copy of the source code, and assurance that none of the game be leaked or destroyed.

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There’s an almighty debate going on between the creators and consumers of videogameland today – whether a proposed European law that allows refunds for buggy games is good or bad for the industry.

For the defence: the right to get your cash back if there’s some showstopper bug in there. Or if it fails to meet “fair commercial conditions”, to use the legalese. Potentially – less games released in a hurried or unfinished state.

For the prosecution: developer/publisher fear of this becoming commonplace preventing them from taking risks. Additionally, the potential for consumers to abuse the system and claim there’s an error once they’ve finished playing (or copying) the game.
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Nothing to do with Downfall, natch. In fact it’s been a while since I’ve seen anything like this. Downfall is a old school point-and-click horror adventure, and has apparently just been released on D2D by tricky-to-pronounce developer, Remigiusz Michalski. The game begins with your character arriving in a rainy town, accompanied by a girlfriend who seems to be having a psychotic breakdown. Needless to say, things get worse from there. There are some rather disturbing scenes from the opening moments, although the effect is offset slightly by the crude and clunky animations of the characters once you get into the game proper. Still, you don’t need to rely on my judgment in this instance, as there’s a demo to be found here. The trailer (below) suggests that it’s not going to have a happy or (stain-free) ending.
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[Friend of RPS and General Editor of Resolution Magazine, Lewis Denby, had a revelation about games through Half-life 2 mod Dear Esther. We thought it'd be an idea if he told you all about it.]

Gaming revelations arrive in the unlikeliest forms. Through the thick, sodden haze of British autumn, peeking out past the thrill of zombie infestations and post-apocalyptic wastelands, I discovered a tiny little gem that totally defied my expectations. I’ve sat on this for too long. I want to tell you about it. I need to tell you about it.
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Zombies zombies zombies. Zombies zombies zombies. Zombies. This one could go huge, I suspect. It’s the next game from the makers of the evergreen Red Orchestra, and it’s stealing a little bit of long-term supporters Valve’s thunder by being a co-op zombie shooter. Cheeky! Left 4 Dead 1.5 it ain’t though, thanks to more arena-like playing areas, abilities beyond simple shooting and healing, and persistent player upgrades. It’s a lot more OTT and Doom-y than L4D, too.

Reportedly, preorders have been pretty high. Us gentlemen of the internet do so enjoy shooting zombies in the head, after all. It went live on Steam today for a reasonable price, and while RPS hasn’t been blessed with a review copy yet, we hope to have some sort of verdict very soon. Anyone else playing it yet? Whaddaya think?

Below the magic words of information protection, some video footage of this violent delight.
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Someone posting in a Duke Nukem thread recently asked “what are Croteam doing now?” Well the answer, according to a recent update on the studio’s website, is that they are still developing Serious Sam 3, and that we should expect a publishing deal soon. The other title they had been working on is not facing such a rosy future, however. Roman Ribaric reports: “Regarding military game we were working for some time, that development was halted some time ago by investors and publishers. We were doing a ‘work-for-hire’ development there, so after the game was put on hold, there was nothing more to do there and we moved back to our projects. Obviously, the above also means that our next title won’t be published by Gamecock, as contrary to last year’s published press release by Gamecock.” We’ll keep an eye on the Croteam site for further developments.

Valve seem to be messing with us. As the Sniper update rolls out, suspicious things have been happening. Suspicious, sneaky, back-stabby things. Spy-like things. Yesterday saw the reveal of a new game mode (the one hinted at in the background during the Scout update), the Payload Race. Two carts, one per team, uphill. Today brings us the Sniper’s second unlockable – the Razorback – a “tribal shield” wired up to a battery, designed to protect the Sniper from being backstabbed by Spies. But it gets weirder.

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Giving the monthly PC sales charts a sideways eyeball now and again is always interesting. Yeah, it’s short-sighted of the NPD to not include digital sales in any form, but nonetheless it’s some sort of picture as to what’s going on in the wider world of PC gaming. Beneath the cut: game names, with numbers next to them. You’d never have guessed. There are a couple of bonafide surprises in there, however.
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If there’s one thing we like, it’s cartoon puzzle-adventures. If there’s one thing we hate, is screenshots with logos on which means we can’t crop them attractively. In which case, The Adventures of Ambages is scoring 1-1 before you even actually play the bally thing. The game’s coming out in the age known as “Q3″ but this is a cell-shaded and… waitasec. This is interesting. Its feature list states it’s “Free for all ages” and then says it’ll cost “$14.99″. Presumably it’s a translation error from German (“Accessible to all ages”?), but at least it fills this post until I get to the bit where we stick a video beneath a cut. Phew.
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Always fan of a bit of maths on RPS. So when Simon Parkin made me watch a little procedural city demonstration that’s been doing the rounds, I thought I should share. If you want to know how it’s done, you should turn to the developer’s enormous diary of its development. If you want to know what it does, you should look at the video beneath the cut or consider downloading its very-much-pre-alpha screensave incarnation.
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When a bunch of us scruffy journos wrote our Bioshock 2 previews a few weeks back, this is the bulk of what we based it upon: a nine-minute scripted walkthrough, accompanied by an enlightening commentary from Creative Director Jordan Thomas. Included: Big Sister action, the Little Sister adoption mechanic, and horribly messing up splicers’ faces with your drill-arm. Make your own judgements and crazy theories about who or what’s really pulling Rapture’s strings below. And for the love of Roy Orbison don’t drag this thread into yet more tedious mouthing off about how Bioshock 1 disappointed you. Look not to the past but to the future, friends!
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