Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Well, finally on the PC. It’s still as un-PC as ever. Manhunt 2 is finally coming to the PC on Direct Download (with no retail release). Well, apparently it is. It doesn’t appear to be on Direct2Drive’s site in the UK, but this link will apparently work for yanks. Bar that fact it exists, what’s interesting is the fact it’s actually the full uncut game. So rather than the neutered experience that was finally released on the consoles to get its M rating, we’ll get the game which allows you to neuter people with a big ol’ pair of pliers (or similar things of equal violence). Also 3D monitor support, but I don’t know what that means. I barely know what “monitor” means. I’ll ask Alec when he gets back from holiday.

In other notes, yes, the lead character looks like yours truly if the word “gym” wasn’t as unfamiliar to me as “monitor”.

College Humor gets it right pretty often, and this remarkably well produced Sims spoof is perfectly aimed. Sure, we’ve all told our own version of the time we made our Sims die in a puddle of their own urine, but CH realises those jokes with impressive production values and a superb horror movie vibe. In fact, it’s because we’re all so familiar with the themes that it works so well. Watch it below.

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Always good to see a developer who knows exactly what they’re doing. I’ve clicked on the link to play the flash demo of Rocketbirds Revolution, and come away thinking “a modern Flashback, but with Chickens”. Going back to the mail and I discover that the Delphine-classic is the top of their list of influences. In other words, it’s in the line of the original Prince of Persia of slower-paced, “adult” 2D platform adventures. But with – er – chickens and assorted other fowl. The other thing to note is that it’s what I’ll describe as a premier flash game – in that while there’s a demo to play, you have to pay to unlock the full adventure, which you play on their site by logging in. The advantage is being able to play wherever in the world there’s a net connection. The disadvantage is requiring a net connection to play. I’ve only played the demo so far, and plan to go back soon, but this is an enormously slick and stylish experience so far. With chickens. Footage follows…
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You may have noticed Quintin’s enthusiasm about The Void. It really is a remarkable game, and we’ve certainly not heard the last of the analysis and attention it deserves. Me, however – I didn’t fall in love. Which made it an interesting one to review. Well, you can see what I thought of it over at Eurogamer. Then there’s some new bits and pieces of interest below. It starts like this:

“The Void makes me feel stupid. I’m more daunted by writing this review than I have been by any other. Perhaps not surprisingly, the last time I felt this terrified about writing a game up it was Pathologic, the previous game from Void developer Ice Pick Lodge. This is a game that’s an awful lot smarter than I am. Or perhaps just weirder. See, I don’t know. A review is designed to provide the reader with a description of the game, and then act as a buyer’s guide. This will fail on both counts, since The Void is so far outside of the realms of helpful description that I might as well phone you up and make animal noises at you, and since I honestly couldn’t tell you whether you should buy this or not. Instead let’s fumble along together, and at the end you can decide for yourself.”

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Ah, boring old reality, how you deny me my action-heroics in the stars. It’s depressing enough that we seem to live in a post-space age era, but the fact that the space shuttle is being retired next year seems to put us even further away from our glorious future of zero-G combat in the vacuum of space. Thank goodness for videogame fantasy fulfillment, that’s what I say. Shattered Horizon is out this week, and it’s probably going to be the best astronaut deathmatch you’re going to play this year. Probably. The launch trailer is below, and it features lots of dudes in spacesuits going limp and ragdolling into the void. Just like in my dreams…

Go read our interview for some more developer insight on the zero-G shooter. I’ll probably conjure up a review once the launch game has been live for a while.
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Last month I spent some time in Cities XL with another RPS ally as we tried to figure out the MMO side of the game. We both ended up feeling a little frustrated by the way it wasn’t really possible for us to construct complimentary cities. “You be tank city, I’ll be DPS city” was the joke that came to mind, but there was a serious side to it: the metagame of economic interaction needs to be improved if Cities XL is going to fulfill its lofty ambitions as a series of online worlds with a player-driven economy. You can read my thoughts on that and the single-player city-builder aspects over on my Eurogamer review.

Over the weekend the Dragon Age pre-loading has started, meaning if you pre-order it – er – it’ll start downloading. Early. And similar. Anyway, to celebrate this momentous event, Direct2Drive have given us five copies of the Digital Deluxe Edition to give away to you. Our fine readers. So it’s compo time! To secure your copy of this much anticipated game, you have to use the recently released character creator to make the most interesting looking character you can. What does “interesting” mean? Well, you read the site. That’s your job to work out. Reverse analyse our evil noggins. Anyway – when you’ve done that, send a link to a grab of your creation, perhaps with a little in-mail elaboration of why you think it’s so splendid. Don’t actually mail us the screengrab. Mail us a link to the photo. I repeat, mail us a link to the grab of your character. We can’t have our compo inbox bunged up with enormous jpg files, you understand. Anyway – get the creator from here and get cracking. The compo will close at 6pm EST GMT on Thursday 5th, so those who don’t win still have time to actually pre-order the thing. The usual compo rules apply.

EDIT: If you have trouble grabbing, try FRAPS.

Divinity 2: Ego Draconis is already out in Germany and some other EU countries, and is due for UK release later this month (apparently) and US release in January. I have to admit I’ve not been following it, but the claim that “The main character will also have access to their own personal tower where they can create their own creature from monsters they’ve killed” intrigues and vaguely horrifies me. European reviews seem to suggest the free-roaming RPG is actually not bad, albeit rather slow. I imagine we’ll take a look for ourselves when the UK edition turns up. In the meantime, go and examine these flickering images below. (The dragon-riding is looking a bit familiar.)
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It looks like Cliffski wants modding to start for Gratuitous Space Battles even before he’s properly released the game, as he’s releasing the ship models for people to fiddle with. “Basically I couldn’t think of a good reason not to give modders access to the raw models that are used to make the art in the game,” says Cliffski, “and I know that if I was a modder, I’d find that very handy indeed, and be churning out lots of variants and tweaks of it.” The full game launch is apparently happening this week, with the release version of the game going up on the Positech site on Thursday.

EDIT: Turns out the trailer is fan-made, and not official in any way. Which is kind of a shame, because it’s awesome.

The new Alice game, which will be called Return Of American McGee’s Alice, is miles off, being set for release in 2011. It is being developed by Shanghai studio, Spicy Horse. There’s not much more to go on at present, other than the teaser site, and a brilliantly creepy teaser trailer, posted below.
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Sundays are for doing work and compiling a list of interesting (primarily) games related reading from across the week for your delectation. Also, desperately resisting linking to a pop song that’s set my head on fire all week. Resist. Must… resist.

• Following from Jack Arnott’s wry look at adults hiding their gaming, Splash Damage’s Ed Stern writes for the Guardian on the inevitable evaporation of the stigma around gaming … well, when we get past the horseless carriage stage. It’s commonly held stuff – but it’s also good seeing a developer on a large public stage doing it. I wish more would. That said, I also remember going clubbing with games journalists who introduced themselves to girls as “I’m a mumblemumble journalist”. Man! We suck.

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