Rock, Paper, Shotgun

My cursory Googling can’t quite pinpoint whether this is the biggest banning from an online portal, but it must be be one of the top slots: Blizzard have kicked 320,000 accounts off Battle.net for violating terms of service. The full post on the bannings is here. It seems most of them have come about due to use of hacks, as Blizzard explain: “Many account closures come as the direct result of tips emailed to our hacks team by legitimate Battle.net users. If you come across a hack, find a site responsible for distributing hacks, or have a replay of a newly available hack, please report this to our hacks team.”

Blimey.

As we inch towards ten years of Deus Ex (10! That’s almost as old as my 48th child), there’s bound to be a ton of fun’n'hyper-nerdy celebrations. The members of RPS, for instance, will each be dressing up as their favourite pair of sunglasses for the entire month of June. Here’s a little pre-birthday celebration, though – Steam’s flogging Deus Ex for a mere £1.50/$2.50 in its mid-week sale. (£1.50! That’s almost as much as I spend annually on food for my 47th child.) Alternatively, £3/$5 buys you a pack containing DX and something called ‘Invisible War.’ Huh. Wonder what that is? It’s not as though there was ever a Deus Ex sequel.

No, there’s absolutely no justification for that title. I just wanted to write it. Yes, I know you’re tired of the joke. BUT I WANTED TO WRITE IT. Leave me alone.

The donking, such as it is, is a double-whammy of big updates to Valve’s software: the proper release of the new-look Steam, and a promise that item drop rates in TF2 are finallylikeactuallylikereally fixed.
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ChaosSmurf found himself inspired by the humanity of Starcraft commentator Day(9)‘s latest broadcast – a two hour confessional about his life as a gamer, and specifically Starcraft. He lobbed it over. I went to just briefly check its vibe, and all of a sudden I’m half an hour into it, just carried along with the enthusiasm and period detail. I suspect anyone who dug the hell out of Gaming Made Me series will find something to enjoy here. And I’ll agree that having a brother is one of the best peripherals a young gamer can have. You’ll find the footage below…
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Me Ugg. Me angry ’bout current societal acceptance of cave paintings as art. Art no painting on cave wall. Painting on cave wall practical communication between non-verbal tribal group. Me explain.

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An uncommonly slow week in mod news this week. Which has been fine, especially over the last few days, during which time I’ve been pretty obsessively playing the Frozen Synapse beta and being teased by Kieron for being rubbish at it. Frozen Synapse has a level editor, which is how I justify talking about it (and the equally awesome Sleep Is Death, which is all about editing stuff) in a column about mods. Frozen Synapse! And, subsequently, some mod news:
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Captivate (Capcom’s festival of gaming gubbins, which I stake the claim for having named – I can prove it with IM records) has revealed a new trailer for Dead Rising 2, which lest you need reminding is confirmed for PC. Unlike the first one. Capcom, we love you best when you release games on PC too. You can watch it with any of your remaining eyes below.

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This is disorientating. Much-delayed Obsidian secret agent RPG Alpha Protocol has hoofed out of couple of new videos. Thing is, they introduce characters we were introduced to at length a year ago. So, if the marketing cycle is taking it from the top again, just what have Obsidian been doing to the game for all this time? Applying a thick, classy layer of ultra-polish, hopefully…

Or maybe not. Carry On Spying below.
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Here’s proof positive that uncle Sid isn’t just a figurehead these days. In the fun mini-documentary below, the god of Civilization pops back to his old university to encourage and judge a group of wannabe developers in a 48 hour build-a-game contest. Which seems to frazzle their minds in and of itself, but then he goes and designs a game in 48 hours too, which pretty much blows their efforts out of the water. Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?
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The 1.07 patch for clever co-op platformer Trine includes a new free level called Path to New Dawn, which is a reward for veterans, as Frozenbyte explain: “Path to New Dawn is a unique level with new visuals and challenging gameplay, especially on Very Hard difficulty setting. It also features 10 special items for the player to collect. The level is unlocked and available in the Select level menu once the game has been completed.” The patch is automagically updating on Steam now, and should be available for the rest of the PC gaming crowd later this week. To celebrate, the Steam price has dropped to just $5/£4.25. It’s a neat little game, even single-player, and definitely worth it for that price, even if the last level is rubbish. I WIT’d it here. I’ve posted some footage below to remind you how cute it is.
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Frozen Synapse isn’t the only turn-based Beta I’ve been playing recently. Battle Dex is also in Beta, and basically a cross between Advance Wars (though I find myself thinking of Battle Isle/History Line a lot) and a collectible card game. The cards act as power-ups, with you being able to take a handful with you into a mission. You can download it from here and there’s a video and some more thoughts about how it all works below…
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