Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Veterans of our adventures in Air Buccaneers will understand why I was excited to discover airship-defence game Guns Of Icarus, which is web-based 3D combat thingy with both multiplayer and single player campaign aspects. The basic “lite” version allows you to play through a limited version of the game, which gives you a taste of the aeronautical antics. I’ve not braved the multiplayer as yet, but I’m a little disappointed by how far away the sky-pirates remain from your aerial cargo-ship. Running around manning the guns is fun, and the tech-tree progression gives you something to aim for, but a genuine successor to Air Buccaneers, I suspect, remains the stuff of optimistic dreams.

Do you know what the one true leader of the Autobots is pointing at? You don’t, do you? But you must. Imagine if you never found out, perhaps dropped dead of a heart attack in the next fifteen seconds? Life would be meaningless. You must click, click now, to see what lies within the mighty seasonally festive advent-o-calendar.

Read the rest of this entry »

As much as I dislike the beta-access for pre-order trend, this is one case in which I’m sorely tempted to just slap down the cash. Sins Of A Solar Empire’s second expandy update thing, Diplomacy, will open its beta (currently in progress) to anyone who pre-orders via Impulse. It requires the original game and Entrenchment to play, but I have been playing the crap out of Entrenchment over the past few weeks. Diplomacy pretty much adds everything I’ve been lusting for in the 4xRTS, which means diplomatic tech tree, diplomatic ships, and a host of other non-violence options for your Solar Empire. The problem of course, is that I haven’t really got time to be playing another reinvigorated RTS. Anyone else’s finger hovering over the button?

Our second favourite Scots-Malaysian person of all time (behind Betty Boo), occasional-RPS contributor and general games journalist king Mat Kumar has done a zine. Exp. is “Intended to offer a different and defiantly print-orientated style of video game writing, the magazine takes the form of several experiential articles considering the games Mathew experienced from the 21st September to 25th October 2009 (though not in chronological order.) The articles aren’t reviews or critical essays, and are instead intended to reflect the thoughts had while playing”. Crikey! Lots more details here, plus ordering info for where you can put down your COLD HARD CASH. Of course, this isn’t the end of his recent extra-curricular activities. He also designed a cocktail for Ste Curran’s All-Tomorrow’s-Parties’ festival chalet, inspired by the famed incident where he crashed the ListenUP podcast whilst steamingly drunk, as described here.
Read the rest of this entry »

Lord of the Rings Online expansion The Siege of Mirkwood is now online. Are you already there? Or planning to return? I must confess to having had no real experience of LOTRO, beyond a disastrous pre-release event where I was abandoned in some weird place with nothing to do for 45 minutes before quitting in confusion. I’m assured this isn’t how the game works, but instead it’s a deep, involved and rather musical MMO. And now it’s even bigger with this new chunk of game. There’s a launch trailer below to get you in the mood.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a sorry tale that when I see the National Science Foundation’s logo, “NSF”, my immediate reaction is, “Not Safe For what?!” I’m more disgusted with me than you could ever be. The letters come up via a game created as an educational tool called Immune Attack. It’s a Fantastic Voyage-style (oh heck, I’m young enough to want to call it “an Inner Space-style) exploration game as you fly about inside the human body, interacting with things on a cellular level.

Read the rest of this entry »

In September, Neocore Games released Crusaders: Thy Kingdom Come. This week, they released King Arthur (as recently opinionified by our Jim here). Next year, they’ll release Lionheart: Kings’ Crusade. Got that? Goodness, these people really do like their crusading kings. Or perhaps it’s an insidious attempt to hypnotise PC gamers via repeated code words crusade. Unfortunate naming policy aside, what manner of beast is Lionheart exactly king? Well, it’s an RTS crusade. Of course it’s an RTS king. Specifically, it’s a Total Warry kinda thing set during the Crusades crusade. This has of course been documented to some extent already by Medieval TW 1 & 2, but this is a rare opportunity for the Richard the Lionheart/Saladin argy-bargy to stand front and center king crusade king king king. Footage below…

Read the rest of this entry »

At long last there’s finally a proper website for BioShock 2. Goodness knows what was going on before – some combination of an ARG no one I knew was playing and various mysterious bits and pieces of confusing information (some of which kept getting posted through my front door, which started off weird and became junk mail). Now it’s got its own site and… oh good heavens, it’s a mess. A volcanic explosion of Flash, there’s enormous streams of nonsense lava to aimlessly click on without understanding why, occasionally stumbling on a trailer or a plastic lady shouting “tits up!” Hit the menu button top right and you’ll get – a screen full of scribbled words. These will at least lead you toward vague information on the game, some screenshots and videos, and a…

Read the rest of this entry »

This is… well, tricky to post quickly about. There’s a 450 Mb demo of the new action-RPG Greed: Black Borders (Which, is a terribly appropriate name for anything that feeds into the old MUST LOOT EVERYTHING urge). Splendid, let’s do a post. But googling manages to find pretty much no information on it. In fact, it’s pretty hard to find anything which isn’t scene-piracy sites. It’s apparently out! But where to get it from? And how? And why? I’ll wait for a journalist to find out, as I’m off to eat dinner. Here’s a video until further facts emerge…
Read the rest of this entry »

I woke up, like many of us, to Steam telling me that TF2 had updated. I had no idea why. And then I turned on my browser, where PCG’s twitter pointed me at a youtube video of all the soundfiles in it. Which appears to be some game mode about forming and betraying friendships. It’s life at RPS as a TF2 mod, basically. Listen to them below and then speculate wildly…
Read the rest of this entry »

Oh God. We’ve gone all seasonal. Everyone in the world has mailed about this – someone’s taken the ancient classic strategy game M.U.L.E. and done a modern version of it. M.U.L.E. was – along with Seven Cities Of Gold – one of the games which solidified designer Dani Bunten’s reputation, especially in the US. It’s good to see a modern version, because as a Spectrum gamer, I never got a chance to even see it. I’m downloading now – though slowly, as I suspect the servers are being hammered – and am looking forward to giving it a shot. You can go get it here.