Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Funcom have announced that Age Of Conan’s trial will, up to January 1st, allow anyone who signs in to play up to level 20 for free. That’s the whole of Tortage Island, arguably one of the best bits of the game. Thanks to the dangers of gold-farming scum exploiting this system you won’t be able to trade with other players or use public chat channels during that time, but there are some in-game bonuses if you do decide to sign up for full access.

As previously mentioned, I’m going through my IGF judging now. Chalk Luxe was among its numbers, which made me go back and have a nose at the original 2007 Chalk game, which had passed me by. The relationship is a little like that between the original Noitu Love and the IGF-shortlisted Noitu Love 2 - as in, the former is a micro-model of the latter. The idea is basically a scrolling shooter merged with an Okami-esque painting mechanism as a weapon, and it’s just really a lovely design. If you haven’t played it before, I strongly suggest you go and do it now.

Go! Obey me! OBEY ME!

RPS chum RoBurky spotted this the other day: Perpetuum Online, which is a robot MMO being developed by a Hungarian studio, Avatar Creations. Nothing too unusual there, except the design of the game looks rather intriguing. If you take a look at the feature list then the game seems to be far closer to Eve Online than any other MMO out there. In fact, taking a closer look, it also seems to have the same kind of fitting-screens and third-person control of the robots that Eve has for its ships. Could this, finally, be an MMO that takes its inspiration from Eve? Let’s sign up to the beta and find out. (Disclaimer: dunno how much time the beta has let, to be honest, but worth a shot.) The most recent teaser trailer for the game is posted below.
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I intended to post a note on here when the paperback version of my book about gaming, This Gaming Life, was available in the UK, and I completely forgot. So you can now buy it directly from distributor Eurospan and have it arrive too late for Christmas. Or from Amazon UK, where it is now out of stock. Go. Me. You can read a bit more about the book here. The last of my hardback copies are being competitioned away for the subscribers today.

The lovely Icelandic folks from CCP have provided us with a handful of PLEX codes to give away. They add 30 days of game time onto an existing account. And that needs to be an active account, sorry lapsers. If you’re a current player then mail us via this link, and I’ll pick a few lucky winners. If you win, I’ll be emailing you for your account name, which CCP will need to add the time. If you’re not already familiar with Eve then why not check out the trial?

I must be getting some kind of geek sense. I woke up on Saturday morning and found myself thinking “I wonder if anyone’s done a Warhammer mod for Medieval 2 yet”. I start googling and discover that there’s one which is just about to come out. Call of Warhammer is promising its first release out for Chrimble (or there about) and actually looks pretty nifty. Playable factions in the first release are High Elves, Dwarves, The Empire, Chaos, Greenskins, The Vampire Counts and – somewhat surprisingly – Kislev. Well, somewhat surprisingly until you realise the mod’s primary language is Russia – the initial release won’t be fully translated, it seems – and as such you can sort of understand why they may want to Kislev it up. Also, bear cavalry. Footage follows…
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You’re probably wanting to open the latest door of our seasonally festive advent-o-calendar. But it’s a long way below. You’ve got a lengthy journey to go on, so follow the sure direction of the one true leader of the Autobots to begin a mystical clickery of timeless effect…

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Over at Eurogamer today I have a great big interview with Kim Swift, the project lead on Portal who has recently moved to head up a team at Airtight Games. It’s part of EG’s Retro Sundays, so the focus of the interview was on Narbacular Drop, how that game came into existence, and the path it took to become the seed that inspired Portal. We also discuss that games that preceded it at DigiPen, and later Swift’s philosophy of gaming and where she’d like to see the medium heading. Also she mocks me. Here’s a chunk of it. The rest of it is here.

Eurogamer: And what makes something fun?

Kim Swift: Well, I suppose the word fun is really relative. I think games should be something really entertaining and should make players react in a tangible way. Whether that be anxiety and tension from Shooters, or sorrow from a character dying in an RPG, or a good laugh at an amazing line of dialogue. Games should give players the opportunity to create their own story because those are the sorts of experiences that they’re going to really remember. When people talk about games to other people they talk about what they did or what they played through, not the cut-scene that they idly watched. It’s the player’s actions that really count.

Sundays are for waking up on the floor of Comrade Rossignol’s rural domain, stumbling around blindly until you find both tea and an internet connection then compiling a list of the fine (mainly) games related writing that caught your eye across the week, while trying not to include a link to some piece of pop music. Go! Slowly, while sipping tea.

• This is great. Midlife gamer interviews 3 MPs about their beliefs and plans for policy about games. Good work.
• Splendid piece by Leigh about people working on a game and not getting credit for it. As in, an actual credit. Of course, if you think about it for a few seconds, the problems become obvious. Look at the 5 year megagame cycles. Look at your own job. Do you have the same job title now as you did five years ago? Are you even at the company still? It’s an enormous issue, certainly, and the IGDA’s standards are required. And, no, I’m not bitter about not getting a credit for my work on Chaos League’s script back in the day. Main reason I did the job was to get on Mobygames. Sad emoticon.

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If you’ve ever flown a simulated jet in a simulated combat zone there’s a very good chance you’ve been killed by a simulated SA-2 Guideline SAM missile. Some young pasty-faced AI routine sitting in a radar caravan on the edge of an airfield, has spotted your plane on his scope, locked you up, set appropriate fuses, and – pulse racing – pushed the launch button. What would it feel like to be that young pasty-faced AI routine? A free sim from Hungary provides some fascinating clues.

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In the words of the prophet IT’S CHEEEERRR-ISSSSSST-MMMMAASSSSS. As such, it’s time to grab a last handful of bargains from the bucket of commerce. As well as this, expect a whole load of offers to come up next week – last year was mental, and there’s no reason to think this won’t be too. You’ll find news of the offers as they break over at SavyGamer.co.uk. Hurrah! But on with the offers…
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