Rock, Paper, Shotgun

As surely as the snow falls on any day but Christmas day, so the second day in December plays host to the second game on our incredible seasonal advent calendar. It also plays host to a feeling that we’ve forgotten something. Presents? Decorations? Is it the nagging feeling engendered by too many years under the heel of heavy consumerism? We can’t tell, so run, run! Run to the very tip of the indicative hand of the one true leader of the Autobots to discover…
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The Rock, Paper, Shotgunity project rolls on down the Road of Development like a shiny hubcap liberated from the dirty Lorry Of Gaming. For those still catching up we’re making a game – yes an RPS game – using the newly-free Unity engine. Caught up? Read on.

This week I’m reaping the rewards of our cunningly nurtured community and also poking around in the innards of some of the Unity extensions. Come on kids, grab a stick!
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Mythos is finally revealing its return. Back in May Alec wrote about how Hannbitsoft managed to hold onto the rights for the multiplayer Diablo-alike during the Flagship sinking, handing over development to Redbana and T3 Entertainment. Now seven months later they’re beginning to talk about it, with a new site, and a new trailer, below.

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Oh, tish and fipsy, my prediction for an unannounced new companion for Mass Effect 2 isn’t today’s. I’m telling you, one of the companions – and now I reckon it will be the last one revealed – is going to be a Geth called Legion. I base this purely on my own vivid imagination, rather than scurrilous industry rumouring. Oh, and all the images from the game’s official gallery – a game in which the Geth are supposed to only play a minor role. But today we get to meet super-biotic Asari, Samara. Which is frankly going to get confusing, as my Shepard is called Samantha.

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Sega says that the 1 vs 1 Campaign Multiplayer Open Beta of Empire: Total War will be available to all Empire: Total War consumers globally on December 7th, via Steam. This will apparently allow two players to enter into turn-based conflicts with each other, or cooperative against the AI nations on the full grand campaign map of Empire. Thanks, Mr Sega! You will, however, have to sign up to the beta program, because Creative Assembly want lots of feedback, and we don’t seem to have a link for that at present. I’ll update this post when it turns up.

It’s only three and a half minutes until Christmas! Quick! Buy socks and walnuts! Quickly, or all shall be ruined! Those of you who have already adequately prepared may stay here, and enjoy our exclusive advent calendar, counting down the scant time until Non-Denominational Festive Holiday Day (on which we celebrate the infinity of Horace The Endless Bear) with a clutch of chipper writings about the PC games we’ve most admired this year. Give your heartfelt thanks to Horace for this warm word-bounty, and take it away by clicking on door the first…

We shall be updating this daily with magic powers of doorian activation, by the way, so check back regularly.

Twenty-four games sit behind the windows of our festive pagan Endless Bear calendar, each one a thing that made the year of 2009 brighter and more interesting. But which game comes first? And what will we have to say about it? Follow the excitedly trembling hand of the one true leader of the Autobots to discover…

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The demo for energetic rally-sequel Dirt 2 is out, and we’re ashamed to admit we’ve not been able to get our own hands-on impressions of the offroad racer onto the site before the game hit. In short: we rather like it. The courses are fun, and the vehicles slide and jump commendably. The demo, which is here (and 1.32gb), features two events: a “Trailblazer” event, in which you thrash a Mitsubishi Eclipse GT along some Moroccan roads in a point-to-point course, a “Landrush” circuit race which takes place at the Ensenada Port track in Baja California. While the Trailblazer thing is against the clock, the Landrush is an 8-vehicle race in some big old American land-trucks. I prefer the Trailblazer track myself, as they’re amongst the best in the game.

Dirt 2 is out on PC this Thursday.

Now this is a surprise. Everyone was expecting the forthcoming Vigil 40K MMO to focus on the ever-commercial Zoat vs Jokero battles. But it seems that, at least in some small way, the game will feature the obscure “Space Marine” characters, as shown in the new gallery at Kotaku. As you’ll probably be unaware of, these are heavily-armoured genetically-modified space-fascists. It’s certainly a surprise that they’ll feature so prominently in an MMO – with the enormous development costs, you’d have suspected they’d have played it safer. Let’s hope the risk pays off.

Some less sarcastic commentary follows…
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We’re totally covering these awards! Bohemia Interactive, makers of Arma and Arma II, are once again running an awards competition for mods and other user-made content created by their community. I feel that this kind of acknowledgment of a community’s support for a game is crucial, especially since it’s unique to the PC as a platform, and absolutely vital to the ongoing life of these kinds of games. Needless to say, Bohemia’s CEO Marek Spanel agrees. He says: “We have always believed in the power of a strong community and the benefits which both sides receive from such a strong relationship. I respect each and every fan that spends hours and hours doing the precise and patient work on new ingame models, missions or even complex modifications such as completely new environments or campaigns. We would like to express our thanks to all these guys and we believe that an annual Community Awards is the best way to celebrate this exhaustive work and show the fruits of such labor, beyond the walls of our own community forums.” All the details on the awards, and how to vote, are below.
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People of the readership, I need your help. I need to know what the best in-game maps are, and why. To be specific: I need your reason. Is the map you mention best because it’s the prettiest? Because it maps things in a unique way? Or is it just a fun piece of design? Or is it something that is actually so integral to the game that it makes the game? Your nominations, please.