Rock, Paper, Shotgun

This morning I’ve been playing the demo of first-person physics puzzler, Twin Sector. Here’s a mirror list – it’s about 800mb – and all the installers would appear to have multiple language options. I’d usually link to the GamersHell mirrors, but the file seems to be corrupted in this instance. Also, turn the subtitles off before you start playing, they’re totally out of sync with the voice acting, which is more than enough. Anyway, more thoughts on the game below.
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Hmm, Bizarre Creations do rather seem hyped-up about their new racer, Blur, which features a kind of real world street-racing system with science-fictional power-ups. In this trailer they explain some of effects, such as a “shunt” energy ram (aka red turtle shell?), a nitro, and an EMP blast. All these allow players to have more influence on the outcome of the race than mere driving skills would allow. Anyway, go take a look.
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So it seems that DirectX 11 will be supported by Call Of Pripyat, although it’s not clear what difference that will make to the visual fidelity of the game. This new video (below) shows off lots of lovely real-time shadows and stuff, but I was under the impression that Stalker did that in DirectX 9 anyway… (There’s a slightly bizarre comparison of DX9 and DX10 versions of the game here, in which I’m not sure whether one mode could identifiably called “better” than the other from the stills on display.) The trailer, fortunately, also features an encounter with a monstrous psychic dwarf (above), just for good measure.
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A lovely sunny demo has arrived on the shores of the internet: it’s for banana-republican management sequel Tropico 3! It’s 1.1gb in girth, and can be downloaded from here. As in previous games, you take the mantle of a benevolent dictator of a small island, and try to make the wheels of monopolistic money practices turn for both you and your citizens. The demo contains the tutorial and two missions from the full game, so it should give you a decent taste of how the full thing pans out. Have a play, let us know your thoughts.

Finally growing tired of the “It’s the 2010th version of FIFA” gags, EA’s latest edition of the foot-to-ball game is just FIFA 10. Which is just a lie, innit? Anyway, there’s a demo available. I find this very interesting. It’s very interesting because the English/French/Italian/German/Spanish demo is 2.15Gb in size, while the Russian/Czech/Hungary/Polish demo is 1.72Gb in size. Which means, by my calculation, Spain is .43Gbs in size, which I’ll send off to the atlas people so they can add it to their files. And there’s some footage of the game in action below for those who are beneath their quota of staring-at-men-in-shorts for the day.
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The Boycott Left 4 Dead 2 campaign has taken some very strange turns in the last few days. You may well have heard the remarkable story of Valve flying two of the campaign’s figureheads to visit their Seattle HQ last week. Walking_Target and Agent of Chaos were flown to the developers and shown the game running, as well as given behind-the-scenes access to the continuing development of the original L4D. And it seems to have made a difference. You can read their reaction to the trip here (and of course the furious reaction of others). Then the story gets more strange.

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If you’ve been following the Blurst gaming phenomenon you’ll know that their superlative-invoking games have been free in an embedded web-player version for some time now. However, they’ve now launched a bundle of Time Donkey, Crane Wars, Raptor Safari, and Blush for a handsome $20. These mean full-screen, unlimited version of each of these games for – no, wait, you can use the coupon code ROCKPAPERSHOTGUN to get the entire bundle for a irresistible $10 (£6.34!). Now that is some cheap entertainments for the weekend, eh? Or were you planning on going outside? You monster.

Ooh, I’ve just noticed that there’s a new version of Evochron Legends out. The 1.128 update for StarWraith 3D Games’ space combat and trading game contains only minor tweaks, but I need little excuse to link to this excellent space adventure. If you’re the kind of gamer who wistfully yearns for open-ended space games of yore, then this is likely to be what you’re looking for. Unless you play it already, in which case you’ll know precisely why RPS recommends this particular corner of the gaming universe. There’s a demo on the site, which can be unlocked to get the full game. I recommend you go try it.

We’re suckers for a good bad pun, and today Knight Of The Living Dead fits the bill. It’s Sir Galahad, of the Holy Grail fame, versus zombies, hence: Knight Of The Living Dead. You slay zombies and level up, getting some divine inspiration in the form of various power-ups as you go. Annoyingly the game requires .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Microsoft XNA Framework Redistributable 3.1, and it’s not really worth going to the trouble of installing those if you don’t already have them in place. Boo.
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I don’t need this. But by God I want it. ATI’s upcoming Eyefinity (ouch) tech allows rich, mad men to run six monitors from one graphics card, all of which combine to display one game. Six monitors! Where in Dolly Parton’s name do I get that many? Still, exciting stuff: ULTRO-SCREEN LIVES. It requires, inevitably, a brand new graphics card – the titular Eyefinity range, ATI’s next generation of 3D chips – but that the one card can share a real-time 3D image across up to six screens is incredimagic. It’s refreshing to have a card upgrade that isn’t simply about nebulous performance boosts, too.
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Orcs and Goblins. Skin of green. Surly. Violent. They’re the same, surely?
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