Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Sundays are for colouring in maps, being surprised by the news of sudden passings and compiling a list of the fine (mostly) games related writing from across the week, while trying not to include a link to some piece of pop music or another.

• Julian Kett points us as DMCool of the-comment-thread’s fame’s occasional blogging. I especially liked his initial piece, arguing Making Games Is Easy. Well, thats’ not really what he’s saying at all – but he’s raising an eyebrow at the indie scene’s tendency to gravitate to certain game types, arguing that we’ they’re perhaps just as conservative as the mainstream.

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Happy weekend everyone! What are you doing today? Why don’t you invest in some cut-price digital entertainment courtesy of The Bargain Bucket. This week we’ve got something for everyone. Games where you can shoot people, games where you can do things to sheep and games where you have to do a bit of thinking. If you want more savings, get yourself over to SavyGamer.co.uk. For now, onto the bargains…
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The next Tomb Raider game won’t be a Tomb Raider game. Rather, it’s called simply Lara Croft and The Guardian Of Light, it’s to be download only, and it looks to be an arcadesome, isometric action-platformer. Albeit one with lots of tomb-raiding. Wuh?
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Hmm. RPS sort of forgot about Order of War after its demo was released. Men of War devoured our RTS playing time in 2009, basically. We don’t even know if it was any good. Metacritic says… no, not really. It must have done reasonably, however, as a demo of its expandalone follow-up has just been released. It’s taking a more multiplayer approach, it seems, with the demo allowing you to play the three sides in six of the game modes. Game modes involving tanks! Almost certainly the best of the game modes. The game is out at the end of next week, you can get the demo from here or watch the trailer below.
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ZOMGPDATE: Apparently there’s some kind of crazy co-op mode included, although the source is a now-edited GameStop description, so hmm.

As confirmed by the cover of next month’s Game Informer. GI’s Jeff Marchiafava says:

Our 12-page cover story gives you the first details on Portal 2′s new gameplay mechanics, storyline, and some surprising new twists.

So no, they’re not giving much away. Cheers to Pat for the tip. Official word from Valve saying the game is out “This Holiday Season”, below.

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Speedypost: Shank, the really very splendid-looking 2D action platformer that’s currently in the running for the Visual Art Excellence award at the IGF, has been confirmed as coming out on PC as well as PSN and XBLA. There’d been doubts before, so hip hip hooray – all three, with EA Partners doing the publishing. Which is rather splendid news. I know this because IndieGames tells me so. You can read Kieron’s interview with Klei, the makers of Shank, by clicking here, which is a thing you should do.

It is the year 2138. Since the terrible conclusion of the great war between Simon Cowell’s X-tremes and Charlie Brooker’s Tweetonauts, humanity has been at peace. And, for the first time in 131 years, the PC gaming website Rock, Paper, Shotgun passes an entire week without mentioning DRM.

That’s then, but this is now – and UbiGate continues apace. Yesterday, seemingly cracked versions of Silent Hunter 5 and Assassin’s Creed 2 appeared. Ubisoft have since responded to say these DRMless versions are not complete, backed up to some extent by various forum comments observing that the SH5 scene release can’t make it past the first mission. Other comments claim otherwise. What’s a poor website to believe?
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By putting on my Tim Stone hat – which is a handsome cross between a deerstalker and a camoflaged Brodie helmet – I can bring you news of the Strategic Command WWII Global Conflict demo’s release, in advance of the full game. It features the whole world circa 1942, at the high water-mark of Axis power. Will the allies pull it back? Well, they won’t in the demo, as it’s limited to two months of game time. Poor Western Democracies. Sad face.

Er… tralier follows.
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The demo for adventure game Clover, by Binary Tweed, is out now. I’ve been playing the full game for a short while, and shall have some more thoughts about it for you next week. Meanwhile, have a quick explanation and some first impressions.

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That subject line makes no sense, but bear with me. It’s early and I’m tired. If you’re coming to Avernum now, of course, you’re not early. You’re late. In fact, as late as it’s possible to be. Except not too late. And… start again. Shorter sentences. Control. Avernum VI released. Demo available. Final part in Avernum series. Long-running, successful niche-targeting indie-RPGs. There’s also a deal to buy the whole second trilogy in one go. Hurrah! Well done Spiderweb for finishing their series. And user-created footage from the demo follows…
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The new Mafia II trailer (below) shows some neat gangsterism, and has a John Lee Hooker soundtrack. That’s going to doom me to a morning of Blues while I get on with writing all the words about videogames. The game itself has been delayed again, apparently, with 2K saying that it won’t make the first half of 2010, as anticipated. However, the game is coming along handsomely, and we might just have some more news on that progress soon. Worth keeping an eye out for, I think, because this could just be one of the games that makes 2010 worthwhile.
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