Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Just a few thoughts on a few hours of Raven’s latest suckling at id’s IP teat… Lest word hasn’t reached you yet – perhaps unsurprisingly if so, given the dearth of pre-release reviews – BJ Blazkowicz’s latest corridor-based Nazi-gibbing adventure seems disappointingly flat. Given id are now a part of the Bethesda/Zenimax machine, it’s highly unlikely Raven will ever get a crack at the game universes they’ve (for better or worse) helped build, making this something of a sad farewell. At the same time, there’s a relief to knowing that some of the most formative names in PC-based man-shooting are no longer left in the hands of an Activision-owned studio who’ve not truly excelled themselves for years. Hopefully this isn’t Wolfenstein’s last gasp, but from what I’ve played so far it’s not going to be its proudest legacy.
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There’s a launch trailer appeared for Batman: Arkham Asylum. Launch, that is, for the console version of course. The PC version is being delayed until 15th September, so it can be filled with PhysX magic. In the meantime, of course, you can play the demo, and if you’re thinking of upgrading your graphics card for the occasion, NVidia has just announced they’re giving away a free digital download of the game with GTX 260, GTX 275 or GTX 285 cards. In the meantime, you can see the grumpy manbat in action below.

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Here’s a certainty to go along with death and taxes: there are going to be RPS community battles on Mount & Blade Warband. Oh baby, are we going to get our horse on. If you click below and check out the trailer for GamesCom, you can see why: detailed Medievalism and mounted combat. Not much more information at present, other than to say it’s got an overhauled graphics engine, 64-player fighting, and the ever-lavish single player campaign. And we’re going to play the crap out of it.

I’ll be the dude with the axe.
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Id’s bossman Todd Hollenshead (pictured above, thinking about stuff) has conducted a huge interview with internet newshounds VG247. In it they cover a bunch of stuff about Id, Rage, and the Bethesda deal. They also mention that there’s likely to be a demo for Rage, but no multiplayer beta. The most interesting points elucidate about about Rage, explaining how it’s an action game (and a “directed” open world) with some extra bits added on. Hollenshead also explains that the previous Id project – named “Darkness” – was cancelled due to changes in the tech. “We really didn’t expect the ability to have the massive texturing and the outdoor environments,” says Hollenshead, “the game wasn’t designed or conceived to take advantage of that. So we were like, ‘Not taking advantage of this technology would be a shame.’” All of which sounds like the megatexture stuff that Carmack came up with for the Quake Wars guys has ended up allowing Id themselves to move away from the corridor-shooter. What is that going to mean for Doom 4? Well, that’s left answered. Lots me through the link, anyway, so go read.

So Blizzard’s Starcraft: Ghost action game might not have seen the light of day, but it seems you’re going to be able to build your own third-person shooter within Starcraft II anyway. What? Yes, the editor is super-flexible, and is even going to support mouselook. Building a third-person shooter inside the RTS editing suite is going to be a possibility, as Blizzard demonstrated with their proof of concept at BlizzCon. Video of it in action below. The scrolling shooter is also acceptable. Cheers to sub edii for pointing out this link.
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The Champions Online beta has been in full swing for a while now, and the current phase is a beta for pre-order folks and Fileplanet subscribers. Here are a few thoughts on the game as it stands in the weeks before release.
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This is a little old now, but in the aftermath of Alec discovering the joys of Zombie Shooter I thought it worth mentioning that a sequel will be coming out this year. In the proverbial no-brainer, it’s called Zombie Shooter 2 and has a 50Mb hyper-short Smash-TV-esque arena-blaster teaser. The full game should be out this year – “soon”, they said in July – and includes improved graphics, more zombies, vehicles and over fifty-kinds of weapons or accessories. Including a splendid chainsaw. As all chainsaws are splendid. Footage of the tech demo follows…
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Rationalization is, as far as I can work out, pure art game. There is, as far as I can work out, not much game actually there. If you’ve no interest in this kind of thing, don’t follow the link, as it’s totally not for you. It’s also not, as far as I can work out, particularly great. I link to provide something for those of a certain mindset to chew over as they start the week. Go give it a shot, think about your interpretation. You’ll find mine beneath the cut, but don’t cheat. The one clue: according to the creator he made it to “to help me think through some philosophical ideas of Ayn Rand”.
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Sundays are for coming back from Poland full of admiration for their ability to throw down, getting disgusted at the idiocy of British Rail Staff, seeing how your Beta Ray Bill pages in issue 3 turned out and compiling a post of all the fine reading from across the week while trying to avoid linking to some piece of pop music you rediscovered in the last week.

• Average gamer is fat, depressed and 35. Yeah, a lot of people exploded at this one. I suspect we all will too.
• Comrade Ste sighed nostalgically as he realised it was 10 years since the wonder of Old Man Murray’s Drakan Theme week. It’s not actually 10 years yet, but such pedantry is only for the noxious. i.e. Walker.

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Flight simulation needs more men like Michael ‘Lotus’ Johnson. The maker of Elyonim, the only sim film that ever made me cry, has spent the last fifteen months fashioning his first FS add-on. Going by the post-jump trailer, it was time exceedingly well spent.

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Imagine a world where things cost less than they normally do. Go on, try. Unicorns prancing from floating platform to grinning mushroom, fairies casting spells of happiness over the children, and gaming at a more affordable price. There’s a man who brings you such a world – his name is LewieP of the SavyGamer nation. Below lie the secrets to such mystical joy.

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