Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Tip-tap-tippy-tap-tap-tap. That’s me treading carefully so I don’t wake the vicious, slumbering Litigation Beast. Not that it’d necessarily wake up anyway, but some people have accused NCSoft’s response to a recent security scandal (related to MMO player accounts) of having a slight whiff of porky-pie about it. As those accusations aren’t proven, I’m wearing my Ballerina Shoes of +4 vs dangerous sweeping statements.

These are the key facts to this story: 1) There’s been a sudden, large spate of apparently hacked Aion, Guild Wars, City of Heroes et al accounts. 2) there’ve been reports of an apparent security hole in the NCsoft master account (an umbrella login for multiple NCsoft games), which has caused some players to find they’d somehow logged in as other players. Could these two things possibly be related? NCsoft says no. Hmm. Where’s Poirot when you need him?
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It’s as if the holidays never happened. I’m back here posting sixty seven Mass Effect 2 trailers and wondering if I really should be invoicing EA for the advertising. But how can I help it when each trailer (since that one) makes the game look so tantalising? It’s going to take a gear shift in my brain to remember that I’m okay with all the TPS action after spending the holidays in the warm, loving arms of Dragon Age, but if BioWare meet half their promises for this game it could be a real treat. So there’s three more of the videos that have appeared since the Space Year 2010 began below, showing off Grunt and Thane some more (still no reveal on the Geth, Legion, being a party member, though it will happen), and a long cinematic trailer with them both at work.

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As an ambitious, macho, overwhelming soldier sim, you might think Armed Assault 2‘s multiplayer is perhaps ambitious, macho or overwhelming. Well, you’d be WRONG! Drop and give me 20! Less than 20 is fine if you can’t quite manage that! Oh, you just ate? Never mind then. I’d feel dreadful if you got indigestion. Basically, playing Armed Assault 2′s official missions co-op might be a bit of an undertaking, but a mass of community missions offer an experience that’s a little less Falklands War and more Tropic Thunder. If you’re sitting on the fence as to whether Arma2 is for you, the following might just manhandle you off it.
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Splinter Cell Conviction, eh? It’s certainly a video-isual game in development currently. But it’s more than that. It’s a video-isual game in development which Gamespot have put up 12 (Count ‘em!) minutes of Footage of. Crikey. With that kind of exposure, you could probably watch it and not bother playing the game when it comes out. The video is hiding nearby. Find it. Go find it!
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Dragon Age is getting bigger. A little bit bigger tomorrow, and then perhaps rather significantly bigger in March. If the words spoken by Czech Eurogamer are true, we could be seeing Dragon Age: The Awakening in a couple of months. (Via That VideoGame Blog.) When I spoke to EA bods before the game was released I was told, “We’ve got at least 30 hours more content ready for the game already,” so it’s no surprise that the expansion rumoured for March should be about 15 hours long (or, for perspective, twice the length of the average console shooter). Tomorrow, however, definitely brings us the smaller DLC pack, Return To Ostagar.

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The MechWarrior: Living Legends mod popped a few times in comments over the break, and it has been landing in my inbox from various people, too. I can see why there’s excitement. It’s a Crysis mod based on the Mechwarrior universe, the beta for which is now underway. That means, well, robots piloted by men, with lasers, and missiles. You know the sort of thing. You can grab the most recent version of the mod over at the Moddb page, but you’ll need Crysis to play, obviously. Judging by the beta footage (posted below) this is look very promising indeed.
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Happy change of two calendar digits, younglings! While I attempt to warm up my brain farm, let me distract you by throwing my aforementioned leftovers from my recent interview with Bioshock 2′s Jordan Thomas and Melissa Miller at you. They’ll only go to waste otherwise, which would prolong my inevitable torment in Writer Hell. Read on for their thoughts on heading up a new studio and why they don’t think the game’s divisive multiplayer is throwaway…
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That the new year starts with the short-list of spangly new indie things is one of my favourite things about the gaming calender. Here’s what the 160 (Count ‘em!) judges – including Jim, Walker and Myself, though our total judging record wasn’t (er) that (um) impressive – thought were the finest Indie achievements in each category. Well worth digesting this. The previous winners have included some of the most important Indie games of recent times – Darwinia, Braid, World of Goo, etc. The list and initial thoughts follow…
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A demo for the recently-released naval combat game from Akella and Battlefront, PT Boats, turned up while we were off-air. You can grab it here for a price of 838mb. Battlefront report that: “The demo includes 3 airplanes, 16 naval units, 3 tutorial missions, as well as a demo campaign playable from both the Allied and the Axis points of view.” So that sounds interesting. Recentish game footage posted below.

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The “beta” version of build ‘n’ shoot micro-MMO Love has almost arrived. It’s not beta in the usual sense, of course, because like the previous alpha-test version you’ll need to pay a 3€ fee for access. Currently the testing stage is only for previous subscribers, but it’ll be opened up as access for all on the 7th. Eskil has been working hard squashing bugs and introducing new features, and it’s reflected in a new level of polish within the game world.

And Love’s world is not like that of other games, as I’ll explain below.
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The truth is that we had to get eaten by that monster. Like seeds that can only germinate once they have passed through the gut of a bird, so the four members of RPS must occasionally be pushed through the colon of a monster so that they might blog. Kieron needed two turns, you understand. Now though, with a little help from a disgusted-looking Belgian man with a splendid moustache, we are pulled from the warm dark of digestion, slightly sticky, but at full power. And so RPS commences for another year.

That means it’s time to ask: What are you looking forward to in 2010, readers?