Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Patrician II was one of the earliest game reviews I ever wrote (the first was something called Stunt GP), and the first one that anyone ever told me was any good. It was a game about old-world tax and trading, ambient and cheerful but definitely on the boring side – and it was the moment in which I thought “yes, I am a games journalist.” I distinctly remember that Bruges wanted to buy an awful lot of coats, but not a lot else. I don’t have a copy of that review anywhere, because I’m hopeless at filing and backups, but as I’m sure that nine-year-old piece of writing is probably awful in the harsh light of 2010, this is probably for the best. Now we have Patrician IV, and it sounds like the same deal – Elite in the middle ages, without any of the shooty-bang-bang. It is German. Oh boy, is it German.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve wanted to write about SpyParty for a week now, since Destructoid’s brilliant write-up. When Wired article’s followed the urge only got worse but… well, I’ve really got nothing else to add to the coverage, as I haven’t played it. So I’ll just point you there. Read both pieces and get excited. It’s the every-controversial Ex-Maxis’ Chris Hecker’s indie game of competitive asymmetrical multiplayer. One player is a spy, trying to perform set tasks at a party. The other is a sniper, with a single bullet, who has to shoot the spy. Pure battle of wits stuff here, and seems totally fascinating. It’s a couple of years away, at least in part due to a major general aesthetic upgrade, but we’ll be watching it. Closely. Trying to work out if it’s a spy.

This Stalker-meets-Doom shooter arrived late last week, and made quite the change from shepherding around tiny armies in that bizarre glut of real-time-strategy games which have marched onto our hard drives this month. 4A’s sci-fi/horror FPS is arguably the biggest-budget, highest profile Russian/Ukranian game to date, a real break from the eyes-bigger-than-their-stomach fare we’re used to from that neck of the woods – which makes it a fascinating moment in time. Is it worth the ride down its menacing, ultra-graphicked train tracks? Join me do.
Read the rest of this entry »

International man of mystery Skeez187 has kindly donated a North American-based Battlefield: Bad Company 2 server for your gaming pleasure. It’s called Rock, Paper, Shotgun US Ranked [RPS], it’s currently a standard settings Rush server. (Still no hardcore, sorry! We’re a bunch of softies.) Thanks to Mr 187 for that, and I hope our North American ranks have a fun time slugging it out on there.

Incidentally, the UK server sponsored by Multiplay is back up after it fainted earlier. We’re going to password it in the evenings to make sure it’s an RPS readership on there. I know it fills up fast, so sorry if folks can’t get on, but do try again later if it’s full. See you on there!

The scenes shown at GDC of Funcom’s forthcoming MMO, The Secret World, are finally online for non-attendees to stare at. This is the first time we haven’t been seeing rendered cutscenes, so what will it be like? Well, like lots of combat. Against big things. And story. It’s about those two elements that we lassoed project lead Ragnar Tørnquist to one side to find out more.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Earth’s leading PC gaming site, is now appearing inside Steam. After having to go into our engine rooms and hit absolutely every single thing with a rusty spanner, we now have managed to bash and bend the thing so that it fits neatly into Steam’s news feeds. You’ll see our every update from within the Steam Beta (which appears to be working again now after a bit of a blip in the last 24 hours) if you head to the NEWS tab, and then find us in the column on the right. Or this link shows you the same on their site. And if we ever remember to capitalise our tags correctly, you should also see Steam game related news from our site appearing in Valve’s main news feed, and attached to the games themselves.

Read the rest of this entry »

Within seconds of playing this Simon Parkin Special, I knew I was going to post it. And now, you’re all going to play it, because it features the best single thing you’ll experience today. The “it” is Specter Spelunker Shrinks. The execution leaves something to be desired – checkpoint positioning is off, is occasionally a bit laggy, etc – but the core wonder is just plain wonderful. The vague De Stijl art vibe is great, but the central Alice-In-Wonderland device deserves applause. There life in the indie-platformer-with-a-novel-idea formula yet. Go play! Some video follows! Yes!
Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a sad start today’s posting. Kotaku report Robert Culp has died, aged 79. Despite his long history in television, he’ll be best known to UK PC Gamers as the voice of Dr. Wallace Breen in Half Life 2. For full details, I’ll direct you at CNN.

Beautiful and weird co-op combat and settlement-building MMO Love has been released. After months of furious development, one-man studio Eskil Steenberg has finally brought his project to completion, and it’s one of the most individualistic, esoteric experiences in gaming. It really is not like other games, and as such it’s my opinion that you should probably try it for yourself. Love is a challenging thing, but worth investigating. (And in the game! – RPS joke-o-matic.) It’s €10 for a month, and you can download the test client to make sure the game runs on your machine, before you buy. All the details are here, while Eskil’s Twitter records the vast catalogue of changes he’s made in the past few months.

Go take a look. (Also forum help and basic tutorials here.)

British videogame designers have long been campaigning for tax breaks in the UK, similar to those in New Zealand and Canada. In today’s budget, it seems that something has finally been done to help. Alistair Darling has today announced a pledge for a tax credit system that will aid creative industries, including game development.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fans of increasingly unadventurous corridor shooters, rejoice! It appears Monolith’s horror-FPS F.E.A.R. is due another sequel, and it is to be known as Effthreearrr. Rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it? I have a dream. The dream is that Effthreearr and Thifourf are released on the same day, and the resulting shop displays look so ridiculous that no publisher ever attempts to bring about game titles which look like a rich idiot’s personalised numberplate again.
Read the rest of this entry »