Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It seems the guys behind real-money economy MMO Project Entropia have relaunched their science fiction colonist game world as Planet Calypso, this time powered by CryTek’s CryEngine 2. Of course it’s free to sign up and download, but the money you get in the game world will be largely dependent on the cash you put into it yourself. That said, there should be ways and means to make money in the world if you’re crafty enough. MindArk are once again selling it as an entrepreneurial experience, where the wheeler-dealing gamer can get along: “As always a player’s real life business skills can still translate to real money in their bank account,” said Marco Behrmann, CEO of First Planet Company. So that’s good.

As academic projects go, Emergence is a corker: a science fiction MMO of the 22nd century, based on global diplomacy on the wake of robot apocalypse. It’s an idea being developed by a small team of students and professors at Duke University NC, in the wake of a conference about the effects new media might have on politics and diplomacy in the 21st century. Having been ravaged by robots it’s time to rebuild the Earth, and you’ll do so via game mechanisms which “allow players to negotiate and enter into contractually binding agreements, alliances, and associations.” While they’re not quite on the ball by claiming that it will be “the first massively multiplayer online game to encourage cooperation and diplomacy over violence,” the principles are sound, and it’ll be fun to see if the small academic team can pull it off. You can read about their plans via a blog post here, or watch their trailer below. I don’t know if this project will get beyond the conceptual stages, but I hope it does.
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G4 and their exclusives, eh? They’ve just gone and put up a new comedy commercial for the forthcoming Serious Sam HD. Much like the majority of my pun titles, it’s a bit Trying Too Hard, but it’s highly likeable. It also reminds me of the first Old Man Murray interview around the dawn of Serious Sam, especially the bit where they really don’t know what a crate is. I’m also reminded the time we howled down the phone until all of Edge came all around the future building to see the glorious final battle against Notorious mental. I’m also reminded of the time I actually tried to hand in my notice over some publisher backstabbing to do with Serious Sam. Ah, the memories.

I’m actually really looking forward to this. Serious Sam was a profoundly splendid first-person shooter, and nothing has been nearly as dumb and brilliant since.
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I always like this kind of community experimental games compos. RPGDX have finished their 48 Hour RPG competition, where developers attempt to do everything on a small game in 48 hours. They’re voting on the results now. The theme this year is “side-scrolling”. I haven’t had a chance to play them all, but the pair which are leading the voting – Ham Sandwich RPG and Feyna’s School Project certainly are impressively completely envisioned. Also, one stars a Sandwich, which is making me peckish. Others look fun – the more unfinished Jade Figurine – pictured – is actually impressive in looks, and its Golden Axe/Barbarian approach one I think pursuing. Well done everyone. Find some videos of the games beneath the cut, or follow the links to see more.
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My present “spare-time” gaming could not have two more extreme poles. On the one hand I am playing a bit of Quake Live – jumping onto capture the flag maps to realise I still know how to use a railgun (weird how it returns, like different programming, hardwired into fundamental bits of my brain) – and on the other I am poking about in Cities XL, slowly trying to drag my farming town into megalopolis status. Cities XL – which is still in a long, long beta – has proven to be a slow burner for me. I’m not spending a lot of time with it, but I’ve been spending time on it regularly. Today I’ve been browsing other people’s cities (your avatar can go and visit other player’s cities anywhere on the planet) and realising that I still have a long way to go to get a properly functioning large city. I’m definitely a long way off worrying about the stuff featured in this trailer, which is about maximising the “attractiveness” of the city, which means big, geometric city-plans, parks, and status the size of skyscrapers. Hell, I’ll settle for being able to develop a decent number of skyscrapers on my commercial district. There’s a single glass tower on the map right now. I feel like I have made the Swindon of the Cities XL universe. Maybe I have. A recession-banged Wiltshire of virtuality.

Anyone else building? Or Quaking, for that matter…
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Why? Why does he want to eat me? What did I ever do to him?

I’m just skiing, man. I’m not a threat to him or his people. I can’t believe I taste that great, underneath this garish windcheater and plastic boots. I’m certainly not going to replace all the calories he spends chasing me down a frozen mountain slope at about 90mph. He wants to eat me because he’s just a massive bastard. There’s no other possible explanation.
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Imagine a world where there was a new Rock, Paper, Shotgun Electronic Wireless Show to listen to. Imagine harder! You made it happen! Jim and John teleported into the RPS under-sea bunker to record an episode of game-based chitter. With your tweets much frivolity occurs, in what is unquestionably the most edited podcast of all time. Plagued by knocks at the door, madmen strimming outside the window, helicopter attacks and an earthquake, a lot of fun is to be found seeing if you can spot the concealed gaps.

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Threadless makes some nice t-shirts. It’s a sort of community submission thing, where designers send in ideas, the audience votes, and the popular ones go on sale on the site (they also have real life shops in America, apparently). Which seems a good system. I mention all of this to link to a particular cute videogames-themed design. Cute! Full pic below. Oh, and of course if you want another super-smart t-shirt, don’t forget to get yourself an RPS torso-coverer!

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GameTrailers has interviewed 2K producer Denby Grace about the forthcoming Mafia II. They did it on video, so we can watch it, without all the hassle of reading boring old words. Stupid words. It shows off some of the lesser-spoken about features of the game so far – the open world elements. There’s discussion of how encounters on the street occur, as well as side missions. The second video goes on to talk about environmental destructibility, and then the plans for realistic police. (Which means not only their being strict, but also it being easy to escape their primitive ways. Finally it goes on to discuss the ways to upgrade cars. So that’s most of the things I’d be wondering about – good work, GameTrailers.

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Seems a little disingenuous to be releasing new content for Mass Effect 1 when Mass Effect 2 is due sometime within the next six months (incidentally, we hear tell that unlike the infuriatingly tardy first game, the PC version will be released at the same time as the 360 version. Huzzahs!), but shouldn’t grumble really. Now live on the EA digistoremacguffin is Pinnacle Station, which promises 2-3 hours of bonus space bimbling for $5/£4. Not extortionate by some DLC standards, though it does sound as the contents are all a bit shooty-bang-bang…
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Today on “Games We’ve Barely Posted About And We Don’t Know Why”, Vogster’s Unreal 3-powered guns’n'gangs MMO Crimecraft. It’s like Warcraft, but with Crime instead of War. Teasing its name aside, it’s a fun idea – GTA’s on-foot element as persistent online world, in theory. In practice, well, we dunno. There’s a hint of sorts in that it doesn’t like to call itself an MMO, instead opting for “Persistent World Next-gen Shooter.” Seeing as it was released today, I’m rather hoping someone reading this has a pretty good sense of what it’s really like and if it’s any cop. (Cop! Ha! Sigh.) Care to share? Meantime, let’s have a look at some videos of the thing and have a nose at its odd subscription model.
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