Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Reader Darthy thinks this Metal Gear Solid fanfilm is one of the best he’s ever seen. It’s over an hour put together by an enthusiastic bunch of fans and Italian film students. All on a Budget of a mere 10,000 Euros, apparently. Of course, it’s been a while since MGS has appeared on the PC – MGS2 was the last – but Snake’s still a PC character. I always have a divided response to this kind of high-gloss fan-tribute. Part of me is amazed at the amount of effort they’ve thrown into it. Part of me is crushingly disappointed that they’ve chosen to waste their creative drive so… but even that’s tempered with the knowledge that someone’s creative drives is theirs to spend however they choose. Admittedly, I’m as about as likely to actually watch the fan film as I am to sit through any of MGS4′s cut-scenes – and there is the irony is that the fan-film is actually shorter than the longest MGS4 cut-scene. You can get it from here or find it embedded below…
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Eskil Steenberg sends word that he’s opening up the alpha of his game to the public. Because it requires servers to be run to test it, he’s asking money for access at this eatly stage. You will be helping test a game, but the fee is relatively small. You can get it for 3 Euros, which is about £2.80. HOWEVER, it is not a finished product and/or service, and it is the work of a one man team. If you don’t like the idea of paying for an explicitly unfinished game, then this is not for you. If you want access to a weird and beautiful indie MMO, and to help make it work in the long run, then get your wallet out. To be sure it runs on your PC please download the client and get the alpha access details via the game itself. That way, says Eskil, you can be sure the game will function on your machine, as the world displays in the menu screen. You can follow Eskil’s ongoing updates on Twitter. And very brief first impressions follow…
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A few months back I met up with Hello Games, a new British indie who emerged from places like Criterion, Sumo, Kuju, EA and Climax. And since there’s four of them, that’s a fairly impressive roster. Anyway! They’ve made their game public and while it’s a little off – Spring next year – I wanted to bring it to your attention. It’s called Joe Danger and it’s a much more free-flowing stunt-lead Trials 2 with a whole splash of Trackmania. I’d direct you to the hands-on with the ever-lovin’ Jon Hamblin over at Eurogamer for more information, and some splendid quotes. Oh – you can guarantee it’ll lead on a console, unless people like us make a lot of noise about it. On Steam first! Didn’t hurt Trials 2!

Oh, what a beautiful thing this is shaping up to be. You can now play the first three levels of Machinarium, and find out for yourself why Amanita Design’s latest hand drawn adventure is filling us with so much hope. The demo is available from here or here, and the full game is due to be released on the 16th October via Steam, Direct 2 Drive, Impulse and so on. Most of those places are taking pre-orders now, and while I’ve not played the finished game it’s a pre-order I feel fairly certain will be well invested. There’s also a new trailer below.

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