Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Griefing in a single player game may seem slightly self-defeating, but in a game like Red Faction: Guerilla it’s just so incredibly tempting. A game that makes everything but the ground itself destructible and then gives you a giant hammer is asking for trouble – when you realise you can smash up your own bases, including their inhabitants, it becomes a battle with your own consciousness not to constantly destroy it, ally moral be damned. This is something that clearly couldn’t be resisted by Idle Thumbs who have created a superb song about the exploits of a Space Asshole. You can watch it below.

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Oft-RPS-championed Flashbang have just celebrated their Blurst site’s one-year celebration. However, perhaps somewhat muting the cheers, they’ve announced they’re changing course. We talked about their one-game-every-eight-weeks cycle before. We’ve enjoyed the fruits of their labour. But no more! It seems they simply haven’t gained the audience they were hoping for, so they’re changing course and making a full-retail version of Off-Road Velociraptor Safari instead. More details follow…
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Mr Mayfield mentioned mod-magnificence in a mail this morning and… that’s enough alliteration for today. Anyway – the latest version of Skulltag has gone live. The mod basically updates the old Doom bits and bobs to allow you to play 32 player multiplayer, multiple game-modes, including co-op waves. The invasion maps sound particularly amusing. You can get it here. To make it run, you’ll need some Doom files with the whole process explained herein. Easiest way is if you own the game – which is, of course, cheap now – though there are free options which aren’t-quite-right. And here’s the trailer for an earlier version…
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A few new bits and pieces on Assassin’s Creed have appeared, partly in the form of a preview by GameTrailers, and partly in an architecture video from German site Gamerglotze.de. You can see both of them below, learning a bit more about the background behind the new central character and his motivations, and see a lot more of the city that you’ll be clambering all over.

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We normally reserve talk of discounted games for Saturday’s Bargain Bucket post, but this one’s too good to leave for then. STALKER: Shadow Of Chernobyl is a title that instantly flickers into the forebrain of both myself and Jim whenever the question of the last few years’ best/most important PC games is raised. It is not a perfect game, but it realises a world, a place, an atmosphere, a dream of what games can and should be that pretty much nothing else even tries to come close to. And it’s £3.50 on Steam (not sure of US price – presumably around $5?) until Monday. I find that almost insulting. On the other hand, it means there’s essentially no excuse to not buy the thing if you haven’t already. What else could you spend that £3.50 on? If you do invest in it, I strongly advise you apply the STALKER Complete 2009 mod compilation for maximum post-apocalyptic prettiness.

A man called Billy emails us with a link to a video. He includes the word ‘zombie’ in not just the email, but even its subject line. The cheek of the man. The gall. Doesn’t he know we’re better than that? Doesn’t he know we’re so much better than this ubiquitous zombie fad? Doesn’t he- OH HE TOTALLY TOOK ITS HEAD OFF OH GOD NOW IT’S NINJA VS ZOMBIE OH HE’S SHOOTING A FAT ONE OH ZOMBIES ZOMBIES ZOMBIES
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2K Games have released another trailer, via CVG, for Bioshock 2, this time narrated by a lady who is, presumably, the person who appears in a clever twist/cutscene about three-quarters of the way through the game. Or Shodan Under The Sea? Hmm, perhaps, but I guess it’s all a matter of philosophy, as we’ll no doubt find out soon. Anyway, go watch the action – for it is actiony – in the video-bathysphere below.
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Some rather juddery in-game footage from Fort Zombie has been released by publishers Paradox Interactive, and you can check it out below. We talked to Kerberos, the creators of the forthcoming zombie action-RPG (and 4X classive Sword Of The Stars before that), about their plans in this brains-filled interview. The game will apparently be available on digital distribution portals on October 30th, for just $10.

EDIT: Devs release another video!
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These still aren’t properly in-game, but they’re nevertheless a lovely target for Lego Universe to aim for. Apparently the idea of “build” underlies this latest release of images and, according to LEGO themselves, it “represents the power of building and customization that is core to the LEGO Universe experience.” And furthermore “players will be able to build with an abundant supply of virtual bricks. And they’ll be able to add these creations to their own personal space or to areas within the game’s diverse environments.” The game is due some time in 2010, and is being developed by NetDevil in conjunction with the toy brick geniuses themselves. Go click on the images below for full size shots.

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When the Modern Warfare 2 thing kicked off I said to my fellow RPSites, “gadzooks, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is so going to capitalise on this.” And lo, I see on Blues that EA have posted a Dedicated Server FAQ on the game. “Other games use player-hosted or ‘peer to peer’ solutions,” says Gordon VanDyke, presumably with a smile, “often resulting in a “host with the most” situation; where the player hosting the match has an advantage over other players connected to their game. Everyone else is dependent on the host’s internet connection and if they don’t have a great connection neither will you regardless how great of an internet you have.” (Further PC related info here, via Planet Battlefield.)

Well, it made me laugh. It’s a bonus that the game looks pretty good (see old trailer below). Roll on Battlefield 3, I say.

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Could it be a premium service with the capacity to create private matches? Id’s Marty Stratton talks about the possibilities in this extensive interview on Bethesda Blog.

We’re toying with a number of ideas for features, functionality, and even content that will translate well and represent a real value for players wanting an affordably-priced premium service. One of the most requested features in QUAKE LIVE and something that I think would be at the core of any premium service, would be the ability to very easily and quickly start a private match (that only you and the players you invite can join). Right now, all of our matches are open to the public and started by our back end systems. So, what we’re looking at creating is a totally integrated and very easy to use method for starting and running a personalized private match.

And that is basically what I want from Quake Live, as well as some kind of pickup team functionality, and Rocket Arena 3. I used to live for that and CTF pickup games back in the day, and if Quake Live offered a similar service I would be all over it. They’d need to add Spider Crossings, too, obviously.