Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Er… by which, I don’t mean giving a sort of guide to what it’s like to date Agatha Christie. But… well, I saw there was a demo of Agatha Christie: Dead Man’s Folly. Being unfamiliar with period detective dramas, I realised it was time to call in an expert to see whether it lived up to the legacy of mustachioed Belgians. Hence, I turned once again to expert Christie-ian, Delightful Girlfriend who spent some time with the game. And then I interviewed her on what she made of it. Find the results below…
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On the unlikely chance you’re familiar with Sci-Fi MMOG Entropia Universe, it’s probably because of the record-breaking prices achieved by its virtual sales. Reading about these figures is a lot like coming under artillery fire but with numbers instead of shells.

All of the following figures are in US dollars. Entropia Universe launched in 2003, and in 2004 the developers created a huge island complete with a scenic beach, monsters, and a massive mine. At auction, a player paid $26,500 US for that island. In 2005, another player paid the developers $100,000 for a space station. In 2006, that same player purchased a unique monster egg for $10,000, though the highest figure ever paid by someone for a piece of equipment is $30,000 for a high-tech Healing Kit. In 2007, five players (or more accurately five ‘avatars’ since one represented a real-world banking organisation) paid a total of $404,000 for five two-year licenses to operate banks within the game world, with each of the five avatars expending a further $100,000 investment to start their business.
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Well, not really. While John and Alec play the Torchlight demo, I try and up my indie-cred by playing this comedy-WW1 action-RPG instead. More fool me. To be fair, it’s a hyper-lo-fi thing, and does feature a three features I really like. Firstly, that there appears to be some hit-location elements, so if you head-shot, the comedy-Hun go down quicker and you save ammo. Secondly, when you get shot, occasionally your trousers fall down in an International-Karate-Plus fashion. And thirdly… well, the unusual setting married to more traditional mechanics. I’ve love to see more Indie RPG push in this direction – the Lovecraftian Cyclopean will be great, but I’d love to see a whole lot more. The rest… well, it’s not enormously good. I wouldn’t recommend someone buying it even if I could work out how to buy it. The demo doesn’t include any mention of it. Its website doesn’t either. And neither does its documentation. I highlight this, because it’s worrying Indie Marketing fail. Releasing a demo is the first and possibly last burst of publicity your indie game gets – even if the full version isn’t available, you should have explained that. Man!

The folks over at ENB Emulator Portal have announced that their brave attempt to resurrect the long-cancelled Electronic Arts space MMO has reached a vital juncture: a stress test of the alpha build. They’re trying to get as many people on board as possible to test for bugs and capacity. It’s hard to know whether this particular fan project will remain operable in the grey-area of non-commercial relaunches of lost games, but the desire to see the aged spacecraft MMO take to the skies again seems genuine, and if you have a passing interest in the game it might be worth checking out.

Mordy Koots describes itself as “the world’s first MOGIE (Movie Over Game Integrated Entertainment)”. While I don’t believe for a second that it’s the first, it’s possibly the first to be done with the support of a broadcast network. It’s an Australian project by brothers Shane and Clayton Jacobson along with producer Jim Shomos, about an overweight, brash World War II pilot who sounds fresh from New York. The reason we’re mentioning it? The action is greenscreened onto footage created in Heroes Over Europe and Blazing Angels.

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There have been hints, rumours, perhaps even ancient prophecies – but now we know it for sure. Revolution Software’s Charles Cecil, main man on the Broken Sword games and owner of John Walker’s immortal soul, is once again working with Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons on a new game. Years and years and years and years ago, they joined forces for the near-legendary pointer-clickerer Beneath A Steel Sky (which you can get for free here). Annoyingly, Cecil wouldn’t say what it was as part of this rather exciting confession. “We have a number of ideas for premises and we honestly haven’t decided which road we’re going to go down. But I love writing and playing adventure games and that is what I’m going to stick to“, he told Eurogamer yesterday. DO YOU THINK IT COULD BE AN ADVENTURE GAME?

The demo for Runic Games’ charming-looking hack ‘n slash RPG Torchlight is up on Steam, and should be appear on non-Steam mirrors soon too. The full game is also out this week on Runic Games own site, and we’ve been delving into the randomly generated dungeon levels so that we can offer our own verdict later in the week.

VG247 seem rather excited about Black Rock racer Split/Second, and they’ve supplied a video from the demo of the game at the Eurogamer Expo in Leeds, UK, which I’ve posted below. It shows of some of the track-exploding special powers, things destroyed and burning on the track, and a glimpse of the other craziness that the full game will feature. The car having its own HUD readouts attached is an intriguing touch. I can’t say I’m massively excited about this one, but it’s promising. Apparently it’s out early next year on PC, published by Disney. Bizarrely, the official site seems to be the game’s Facebook page.
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People looking to avoid Modern Warfare 2 spoilers should not read on. A remarkable video (below) of what’s purported to be the beginning of Modern Warfare 2 has appeared. It’s in French, and we’ve obviously no idea if it’s definitely real at this point, but it seems to be showing the first level of the game, in which you play a terrorist mowing down innocent civilians in an airport.

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EA appear to be releasing some UK localised viral marketing for Left 4 Dead 2, which seems to be aiming for the Shaun of the Dead fanbase. Two guys in a shed, explaining how to survive the zombie apocalypse caused by the “L4D2 virus”. But this one’s a misfire.

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Just picked up from Richard Cobbett’s twitter, it appears that Interplay are re-releasing Planescape Torment. Its release date is listed as the 30th October and the price is a – not-much-change-from-the-nature-of-twenty-quid – 17.99 of your Earth pounds. In fact, it appears to be a whole load of Interplay other material too. It’s a surprise to see a decade-old game released at a mid-range price… but it’s also one that I find hard to argue against. A game that’s still placing high in all-time lists, that’s been unavailable for years, that goes for full-price when it turns up on eBay and hasn’t been superseded in any way. If the gaming equivalent of the Beatle’s price never going down and this means that Dan Gril has no excuse but to finally return Alec’s copy to him. Hand it back, you bast.