By John Walker on June 30th, 2009.
Thanks to the fine folks at Bonus Level – the create-your-own Flash gaming site – we’ve word of another absorbing puzzler to distract you from the mundanity of your life. It’s called Push, the work of one Ian Snyder, and it’s a completely new (until someone tells me I’m wrong and references something from 1984 on the Amstrex CX44) approach to platforming.
By Alec Meer on June 30th, 2009.
There’s something strange in the PC neighbourhood of this johnny-come-lately movie adaptation, and it don’t look good. The surely vital co-op mode the consoles enjoyed has been axed entirely from the PC port, and the European version delayed by nearly half a year. Yes, it’s true. These men have no dicks. Nonetheless, I took a very quick look at the US version to get some sense of whether it’ll be worth the wait for Euro-folk… Read the rest of this entry »
By Alec Meer on June 30th, 2009.
In case you’ve not caught the news, download site The Pirate Bay – a name that’s become almost synonymous with bittorrent and illegal filesharing – has been bought out for a princely sum, and its new owners have announced their intention to go legal. A little laughable, given this is a site with ‘pirate’ in its name, and also likely to be the end of TPB’s world-straddling popularity. No doubt it’ll hang around for a while, as the similarly born-again Napster does, but it seems highly unlikely the bulk of its existing audience will continue to visit if they can’t get stuff for free. The question for us chaps is whether the potential effective closure of the internet’s leading filesharing hub will have any effect on what’s so often accused of being PC gaming’s smoking gun. In other words: are we about to witness a sharp decline in PC game piracy?
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By Kieron Gillen on June 30th, 2009.
We’ve written a little about the Neverwinter Nights 2 adventure pack the Mysteries of Westgate before. But not enough. We grasped the chance to talk to Ossian‘s Ex-Bioware head man Alan Miranda about all things to do with the Mysteries of Westgate. Candid and expansive, he expounds about the long route from Darkness over Daggerford, the DRM situation which delayed Mysteries of Westgate’s release for getting on for well over a year, the problems of creating RPGs as a small team, their love for the genre and how audiences differ from country to country. And it all starts below…
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By Jim Rossignol on June 30th, 2009.
Sadly nothing to do with the classic Captain Blood, and everything to do with classic novel Captain Blood. It’s a hack ‘n’ slash adventure game from the developers of Sea Dogs, complete with pirates getting stabbed, cannons getting primed, and bosses getting – wuh-oh – quicktime event’d. I played this a bit in Moscow last year and it was actually pretty fun – especially the arcade boat violence between speedy galleons – but I’m not exactly holding out for a masterpiece. Go take a look at the dev walkthroughs below, and you can judge for yourself.
By Jim Rossignol on June 30th, 2009.
Update: see this blog entry.
Informationweek has reported that the Chinese government’s latest internet reforms include a ban on trading virtual currency for real currency. Richard Heeks at the University of Manchester, who is quoted in the report, estimates that around 80% of the world’s gold farming takes place in China. Furthermore:
“The Chinese government estimates that trade in virtual currency exceeded several billion yuan last year, a figure that it claims has been growing at a rate of 20% annually. One billion yuan is currently equal to about $146 million.”
I wonder what that will mean for China. I guess it’s a drop in the ocean for their entire economy, but it’s going to put people out of work. Will it continue illegally? Where will I get my 1000 gold for magic hammers from? Aiie!
By John Walker on June 30th, 2009.
Yesterday saw the rather subdued announcement of a new game from Painkiller: Overdose developers Mindware Studios, a “mega-bloodbath” called Dreamkiller. Subdued since the game tantalisingly teased as a cross between the brainless shooty nonsense of Painkiller and cerebral entertainment of Psychonauts is mentioned on neither the developer nor the publisher‘s websites. Which seems an odd tactic. Anyway, more details below.
By John Walker on June 29th, 2009.
I would pay…
£3 a month for all tutorials to not explain how to move the mouse, but rather explain key aspects unique to their game.
£21 for all tutorials to not freeze the action while I’m trying to do the required task in order to tell me how to do the required task.
By Kieron Gillen on June 29th, 2009.
Sometimes I’ve amazed what we haven’t written about. A recent update to 4.07 reminded me that we’ve never even given the slightest plug to New Star Soccer 4, unarguably the most critically acclaimed Indie football game existent. The updates include a general boost to AI – both players and goalkeepers – but it’s really notable for just being its own take on the genre. You play a single player, following him through his career. I admit, I haven’t had a chance to really delve it into much, but the worth of being independent is clear when there’s obvious options to do illegal drugs to boost your performance at the risk if you’re found out. Plus, going gambling, drinking and getting a girlfriend. In other words, all the stuff which you’ll never see in a game with an official licence. You can get the demo here or watch some footage beneath the cut…
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By Jim Rossignol on June 29th, 2009.
UPDATE: This story on VG247 suggests that they really mean it: no LAN support of any kind. Bananas.
An abundance of Starcraft II stuff has appeared on the grainy info screens of RPS HQ, including project lead Dustin Browder saying that the beta is set to last “four to six months”. Which means they’ll be right up against it if they’re aiming to get the game out before Christmas. In rather more bizarre news, Blizzardian hyperboss Rob Pardo has said that that the game won’t support a LAN option, and that the decision not to include it “is because of the planned technology to be incorporated into Battle.net.” Which presumably means they are going to support play over a local network, but you’ll still need to be online and logged into Battlenet on individual accounts to play. Maybe. I could be quite, quite wrong.
Seven minutes of footage – watch those tiny dudes eviscerate! – courtesy of Joystiq, below.
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By Alec Meer on June 29th, 2009.
The Diamond Job
The armed guard wasn’t the problem. The child was. I’d successfully lockpicked my way through the upstairs door, sneaking into this alchemist’s store from their unwatched balcony. The guard, I knew, was downstairs, watching the front door. If I stuck to the shadows, I should be able to get past him to the storeroom, where the jewel awaited. Easy. Straight in, straight out, cash reward, and if I was lucky a spare diamond for myself.
But the child almost ruined it.
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