Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Caster, the game which Jim went all out on the hyperbole and claimed the jumping was quite good, has returned with a new episode. Which is splendid news for previous fans of jumping and/or spellcasting – I too am a fan of Caster’s devotion to the jump – mainly because if you bought the last episode, this episode (and all further ones) will be free. Crikey. So if you throw down your $5 now, you get two games instead of one. Certainly motivation to try the first game’s demo. Footage follows…
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Allan Blomquist, Kyle “2D Boy” Gabler, and Kyle “Henry Hatsworth” Gray have announced the formation of their new indie studio, Tomorrow Corporation. A very important press release stated the following information:

“For years, giant corporations have been hurt by scrappy indie studios hogging the limelight with titles like Crayon Physics Deluxe, Braid, World of Goo, and Super Meat Boy. To those tiny, un-American, indie developers, Tomorrow Corporation would like to deliver a message: Your reign of terror ends… Tomorrow!”

No game revealed yet, but it’s completely expected. More on this tomorrow at some point.

Continuing the RPS trend of being up-to-the-minute with its verdicts, here’s my brain-meanderings about the recent AvP sequel/remake. It’s late because, frankly, the PC port wasn’t in rude health. Like many other owners of the game, I suffered a bug which caused it to freeze for a few seconds every couple of minutes. A patch hit last week which, though it didn’t fix the problem, alleviated it enough that I could stand to play the thing. Despite the naughty words this bug had me shouting, this write-up’s consciously penned as though it wasn’t an issue – partly because I’m sure it will be fixed, and primarily because it seems the majority of players didn’t suffer it. So, on with the words. As RPS’s resident AvP expert, it is my duty. Er. Which one’s the Predator again? Is he that robot policeman, or is that someone else?
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Valve have confirmed that Steam and Source are to be released for Mac. After last week’s cunning campaign, they’re not only releasing their back catalogue of games for the shiny plastic blobs, but also intend to simultaneously release Portal 2 on both PC and Mac this Christmas. The other headlines are that Mac and PC gamers will be able to play multiplayer together, and that Mac is now considered a “tier-1″ platform by Valve, alongside PC and 360. Although I’m not sure how FPS games will be playable on single button mice. (Tee hee hee.) Details below.

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Build-your-own platformer Atmosphir, which has been developed by Minor Studios for the past couple of years, has now reached a beta stage, and you can sign up over at the main site. The co-op and competitive multiplayer platforming looks pretty cute, but it’s the capacity to easily generate and then share your own levels that looks like the big idea. Of course we’ve seen this particular idea before on other platforms, but it’s good to see a fresh take the same kind of principles for the PC. Illustrative video below.
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“Steam has done a tremendous job,” says Scott Reismanis, founder of DesuraNET. Their soon-to-be-released digital distribution platform, simply named Desura, might be competing in the same market, but Reismanis is keen to point out the worth of Valve’s own service. “Introversion software – makers of the great Darwinia game, among others – claimed they were ‘the last of the bedroom programmers’. Now, it seems that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
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Ubisoft have told Eurogamer that yesterday’s DRM server outages were caused by external attacks, and that they did not affect 95% of players. “Servers were attacked and while the servers did not go down, service was limited from 2.30pm to 9pm Paris time,” they explained to the big EG. They also apologise to those who were affected by this, explaining that they represented only 5% of players. This adds a sense of scale to the statements made by the Ubisoft community manager yesterday. It also acts as a confirmation from Ubisoft that their new DRM system is vulnerable to DOS attacks, meaning they are unable to ensure customers can play their single-player games.

I first saw Joe Danger about a year ago, in a fairly awful pub just off Soho. I liked it so much, I gave Hello Games pretty much every useful contact in my big bag of games journo-names. It’s a high-concept bike game for people who thought Trials 2 a little too trialing. It’s picked up a nomination for technical excellence and the grand prize in this year’s IGF. And it’s totally coming out on the PC. No, really. We take the opportunity to sit down and talk to Hello Games’ Managing Director Sean Murray and avoid Danger! Danger! High Voltage! gags.
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As you know, I’m first with the comment on all the big games of the day. Which is why Eurogamer now carries my ruthless breakdown of LucasArt’s Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders. In case you remember when it first came out, and in case you think gaming is a modern pursuit, let me offer you that slightly sicky feeling in your stomach: this game came out twenty-two years ago. I went to it remembering it as brilliant. I came out realising it was full of brilliant ideas, but not a brilliant game. Clearly others disagree. Let’s fight. But most of all, this was, to my mind, intended to be a piece celebrating my dad’s friend Ted. I hope I managed that.

“I wonder if I’m getting stupider. Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders came out in 1988, when I was 11 years old. It seems impossible to believe that at the age of 32 I can have become worse at games. And yet while my memories of playing Zak Mak when it first came out are extremely hazy, I certainly don’t remember getting stuck quite as often. What I do remember is that I really enjoyed it. I’ve since been told by those who should know that this cannot possibly have been true. So I’ve gone back to find out.”

Continues here.

Ubisoft’s servers have been down/overloaded for around the last ten hours, making it impossible for people in some parts of the world to play Assassin’s Creed II. Which is certainly not amusing if you’re someone who bought the game despite the DRM (that requires constant connection to their servers), and trusted that Ubisoft would not allow something like this to happen. Especially not in the first week. An enraged forum thread appeared on Ubi’s site, which eventually led to a post from Community Manager “Ubi.Vigil”, who explained that the situation was, “unacceptable”. And then time ticked on.

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This week I’ve been finding out what happens when a Ukrainian tank sim developer has a bash at WW2 strategy. If you’ve ever owned a game with War, Front or Combat in the title, you might be interested to read Wot I Think.

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