Rock, Paper, Shotgun

As I believe I whined about last week, I’m suffering a nasty spot of RSI at the moment – nothing to write home about, comes with the territory and all that, but it has meant that once in a while I have to use my mouse with my left-hand while the tendons in the right have a right old moan at me. It was whilst doing this to try and play the mouse-controlled platformer 3114, made in four days for the Experimental Gameplay Project, that I remembered I used to be a left-hand-mouserman anyway. What with my being a left-hander and all, just like King of Americaland Mr Derek O’Balmer, who’s clearly drawing something naughty in the photo above.

In fact, the only reason I use a mouse with my right hand nowadays is (no) thanks to a really hideous bout of RSI back in 2000 or so that briefly rendered my southpaw entirely useless for mousing. How did I cope?
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Fashionably late again… We managed to miss posting about this when the scandal hit last week, in one of those “oh, one of the others will surely cover it. Today I want to write about a happy thing!” confusions that sometimes afflicts the oft-scattered hivemind. It’s a major talking point, however, so you really should talk about it here. Y’know that Bioshock 2 DLC, the one with the new maps and characters and whatnot in? Apparently it was a whopping great 24 kilobyes big. Goodness, aren’t level designers economical these days?

Edit – I’m informed I’m wrong in believing the DLC in question contains maps. The 24k file unlocks character models, masks and achievements/trials to reflect the raised level cap you can pay for. The idea being that the people without the DLC can see the visual stuff that people who have bought the DLC have unlocked, without having to install a patch. I’ll leave it to you to decide if that’s any better.
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Metro 2033 is out at the end of this week. Who knew March was the month for games? Dragon Age: Awakening, this, Just Cause 2… It’s like it’s November or something. So to celebrate its arrival there is of course a launch trailer, which in this case acts as a sort of best-of compilation of clips, finally reaching some in-game footage toward the end. Shooting! Monsters carrying off cars! A man having a look inside a drawer! I’m really not sure how that bit got in there, but it’s clear that the whole thing was built to match the tune, John Murphy’s In The House In A Heartbeat, familiar from 28 Days Later.

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It’s been a while since we took a look at the videos for Dragon Age: Awakening, and all of a sudden it comes out tomorrow. Tomorrow already! In the US. Sorry about the confusion. Friday in the UK. (Secretly I’ve finished it, but I can’t tell you that, nor anything else. So shhhhhh.) So after we met Anders, Velanna, and some creatures that certainly weren’t their children, it’s time to meet a lot more of the gang.

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Bethesda Softworks send word that newly-signed studio, inXile Entertainment (headed up by Brian Fargo, formerly of Interplay), will be making a videogame called Hunted: The Demon’s Forge. It’s a game of the “third-person co-op action” genre. What kind of genre is that? Well, I’m glad I asked myself that, because Bethsoft say this: “Taking control of either E’lara, a ranged weapon expert, or Caddoc, a master swordsman, you must use a variety of weapons, powerful spells, and cover tactics to battle your way through menacing dungeons, overgrown ruins, and downtrodden towns. Discover secrets and complete co-op-based puzzles whilst exploring the sinister world to discover answers to the game’s deep, dark mysteries.”

So it’s basically an Unreal 3-powered hack ‘n’ slash dungeon-crawler with monsters and stuff. Apparently the game allows players to pull off “gruesome co-op kill moves,” which sounds like a thing that would happen in a videogame. More news on this soon, probably! Wow, that was quick, EG have a preview up: here.

The battle for galactic domination has been reduced to just a handful of titanic empires. Victory, however, hangs in the balance. Will exhaustion finally exact its toll on the generals of this epic war? If you’re enjoying these reports then EXCITINGLY SLOW SPACE WAR AWAITS YOU in Neptune’s Pride. You can also read a version of this diary over on PC Gamer.
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I was playing Borderlands yesterday, and an enemy dived behind some cover. Naturally, I pull out a missile launcher and squeeze off a rocket. As the smoke clears, something strange happens. The cover is still there, untouched by the explosive death I spat at it. It stands, defiant and unmarked. This is what Battlefield: Bad Company 2 does to you. It ruins everything else.
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Empires have risen, and now they are falling. The fifth part of our battle for Neptune’s Pride sees the final contenders struggling for ultimate victory in a long, drawn-out attrition that would tax their very souls… (PCG’s version of this diary is over here.)
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Sundays are for being at the Image booth at Seattle’s Emerald City Con talking to anyone who has the misfortune to walk past about splendid comics. Do come and say Hi, if you’re around. Which means that Saturday morning is for compiling a list of fine (mostly) games related reading for your delectation while trying to avoid linking to a pop-song, before heading off for the day. And setting it to post.

• Lots of responses to the IGF. James Glover pointed us at Greg Costikyan’s fury at the ceremony itself. It’s certainly one of the one of the more interesting responses.

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Who will rule space? No Sponge, that’s for sure. But who else might take the crown? Could it be Graham’s exploding Empire? Or Jim’s embattled corner of space? Or the vast Empire of Quinns? Place your bets for part four… And maybe go sign up to Neptune’s Pride yourself. (PCG are also running a version of this diary, over yonder.)
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Filmed off a screen at GDC, sadly, but it’s accompanied by game director Dave Jones talking through the various features. He talks about the way the two factions have different abilities and aims, the way characters weapons and cars can be upgraded, how players can become “famous” within the game world, and how the ranking and matchmaking work within the game world. All interesting stuff, although it’s tough to gauge if there will be any long-term appeal in all this. Also, whoever is driving the car in this video needs more practice… The video is via GameSpot’s archive of GDC stuff, and Pat gave us the tip off, because he is news.
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