Rock, Paper, Shotgun

There will be blood.
Read the rest of this entry »

The sort of thing I’d normally put in the Sunday Papers, but when I saw Soren Johnson twitter it this morning I think it’s worth linking by itself, especially because it deals with a lot of topics which have been floating around the RPS comments threads (and the inside of my head) recently. It’s Greg Costikyan notes from his presentation at GDC Austin, splendidly entitled Randomness: Blight Or Bane. This is the sort of thing I love seeing Costikyan do – a large, sweeping, cultural history of the topic which grasps and tackles the seeming paradox that we’re dismissive of randomness yet it’s persisted and thrived in gaming culture. One of Costikyan’s many strengths here is examining that innocuous “we”.

Another of 2009′s Unknown Pleasures inches ever closer. Samorost’s creator’s commercial adventure will debut on October 16th via all the digital channels you can imagine, including Steam and Impulse. If you want to pre-order you can do it from their site for a mere seventeen – count ‘em! – dollars. Which saves you three whole dollars over the release price. I’m not particularly interested in the pure adventure genre any more, but this really has be intrigued. Here’s the latest short video…
Read the rest of this entry »

A new trailer emerges for the first project from the indie-influenced LucasArts Workshop, Lucidity. Bearing quite a lot in common with the previous game footage, it also contains a few twists of its own, not least the one 55 seconds in.

Read the rest of this entry »

The footage from the game of James Cameron’s Avatar shown at the Tokyo Game Show is shooty indeed. (And reminiscent of the early footage of Lost Planet 2.) I couldn’t help feeling a bit sorry for all that blasted and mutilated alien wildlife – I’m assuming that’s going to be the point of the film, and therefore the game, since the plot centres around consumerist humans hoovering up resources from the lovely alien world of Pandora. I can already sense that it’s going to be considerably more satisfying to shoot up the humans and mechs than it will be to fire your guns at a trumpeting bird-o-saur, righteous or otherwise.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dark tidings from Camp Bioware, in this seemingly rather ill-judged trailer for the new Mass Effect 2 character Subject Zero. Bitch. Shoots for Strong Vengeful Joss Whedon Villain-Type, but comes off like an insipid, low-rent exploitation movie. Bitch. Hopefully this is simply an unfortunate marketing misfire, as with those very silly Marilyn Manson/low-budget porno trailers for Dragon Age, and not representative of the tone of the game itself. Bitch. But I must say, they’re going to have to fight to win back my anticipation for the game at this stage. Bitch.

Read the rest of this entry »

Just finished writing up the penultimate Blood Bowl match report, which I’ll be posting tomorrow, but I found myself reading Mat Kumar’s piece on his reservations on Blood Bowl. The Caledonian Chaos Warrior is a bit of a dice-head on the quiet, but he’s found himself frustrated…

“Now, I wish I could say I picked up Blood Bowl and it’s everything I’ve dreamed of and more, but it’s really not. Blood Bowl, on the PC, brushes so close to perfection that it’s driving me utterly bonkers.”

A lot of people have been turned on by the match reports, despite me really trying to talk about the interface problems too. I think, just a a matter of balance, it’s worth linking to Mat’s piece which really stresses them – and not just because he’s terribly nice about my journals. Go read.

Walking-gaming-polymath Richard Cobbett brought this to my attention. Wadjet Eye Games’ Dave Gilbert has decided to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur by making their Shivah free to download today. All you need to do is go to the buy page and enter the coupon code “FreeShivah”. And lo! A game will be yours. Why should you do this? “Put simply, if you’re into adventures or games that tell stories, Dave Gilbert is one of the guys you should be watching,” says Richard, before pausing to allow us to put a page-break in.
Read the rest of this entry »

Sundays are for Bacon, Batman and compiling a list of interesting (mainly) game related reading from across the week for the RPS-readers’ delectation, while trying to avoid to linking some quasi-ironic piece of pop.

• Quinns has started blogging about games more regularly. You may be aware, he does a lot of traveling. Here’s things he learned about real traveling versus 16-bit RPG adventure traveling. For example: “1) On a real adventure, you will not find the lowest-level enemies first. Low-level enemies must be found through trial and error. 2) Warthogs are not low-level enemies. 3) Bandits are not low-level enemies. 4)Rats are DEFINITELY NOT low-level enemies”. Lots more, natch. He also reviews WET without having played it.

Read the rest of this entry »

The last time I used ‘innovative’ or ‘refreshing’ to describe a hex wargame, Good Queen Bess was on the throne and bear-burning and witch-baiting were legal. While HPS explore some unusual themes now and again and Matrix flirt with modernity occasionally, on the whole six-sided PC strategy seems firmly wedged in the past. Three cheers for Hours of War then. This Finnish-made WW2 operational wargame currently in open beta, blends the unorthodox and the familiar in a most enticing way. Read the rest of this entry »

Hold onto your hats, it’s a new podcast. It’s almost too much to bear. Jim and John ascended in the RPS Zeppelin to discuss matters of PC gaming. And in a shocking twist, this time they do discuss PC gaming. It’s beyond belief.

Read the rest of this entry »