Rock, Paper, Shotgun

That’s Angels Fall First: Planetstorm, to give it is full overwrought title. This was an enormously ambitious UT3 mod that came third in MakeSomethingUnreal, and is now being coverted over to UDK for possible indie release. Comrade Rob Hale noted that there’s a demo (with bot support) up over at the UDK showcase, and it’s quite the showcase: fighters attacking enormous capital ships on one level, and an infantry-led vehicular assault on the other. AFFP is a combat game that encompasses space combat and ground warfare, complete with a range of sci-fi military hardware, ship-boarding assaults, and vehicular spectacle. I’ve had a bit of a play with the demo and you can see that the game remains a work in progress – plenty of rough edges – but also that it’s one of those games that is just aiming for the stars. Perhaps, with a bit of support, they’ll get there. Worth a download if you want to investigate what they’re up to, anyway. (Most recent trailer below.)
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Steenberg has announced that there’s going to be a free expansion for his mini-MO, Love. It’s called Avail, and it’s going to allow players to benefit more from their progress within the game, specifically in a player advancement system and in being able to extract a number of precious resources from the landscape. Progression will be based on standing with other players who are online at the time. Co-operate with more people and your standing rises. Resource, it seems, will be used to upgrade certain tokens and produce better equipment and tools. No release date yet, but more info here.

Okay, this bumps into the same conflict of interest as last time – i.e. I’m currently working for Littleloud and Marvel Comics – but I’m going to power right on through because this is incredibly stupid and amused me terribly. It’s another Unity-powered Webgame based on the new Iron Man film. It’s somewhat simpler than the last rail-shooter, being based around that scene-from-the-trailer where Whiplash stands in the middle of a racetrack and whips cars in two with big electric-lash-things. It involved tapping right or left in tip to smash up the speeding car and, until you get the knack, does create the somewhat hilarious image of this teched-up dude standing in the road desperately waving his arms around while cars speed past. Being called Whiplash And Burn, it’s also got the sort of title which I give posts to create groans. Next up: Rum, Sodomy And the Whiplash, yes?

The APB Pricing model has been revealed and it’s not quite what we were expecting. Previously it was stated it would be subscription free. And it still kinda be. Basically, buying the game comes with 50 hours of actual shoot-and-driveage. After that, there’s other options, varying from seven dollars for an extra 20 hours, to a play-as-much-as-your-want (gasp!) monthly subscription fee for ten dollars. I’m going to quote the full current FAQ answer below, because there’s some stuff which is worth highlighting and talking about. Join me!
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News of Test Drive Unlimited 2 has caught me by surprise, despite its having been announced in March. I’m so good at my job. The original, released on PC in 2007, was an unfairly overlooked driving game set on the Hawaiian island Oʻahu, with 1,000 miles of roads to race about on. What made it so interesting was the population of this island: other players. It was so casual about being an MMO – not shouting and screaming about it, but rather just letting you take part in the many races available, and then on a whim see another car coming toward you, flash your lights at it, and then begin a frenzied race with them for glory. And for money. So much money. Below is the first-look trailer of the sequel, along with Game Trailers’ interview with senior producer, Nour Polloni.

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Goodness, that was quick. Well, by Blizzard standards – I wasn’t expecting this until 2011, to be honest. Hottish on the heels of the ongoing closed beta test, long-in-the-making strategy sequel Starcraft II has finally been accorded an official date on which it will be available in shops: July 27 2010. Ah, shops. Like the internet, but located in annoying places, asking higher prices and carrying the risk of having to physically talk to other human beings. Hopefully Blizzard are planning on a download-only version of the game, given the inherent onlininess of the new Battle.net, but notably they’re not talking about pricing yet. Will Battle.net be free? Will the first chunk of SC2, Wings of Liberty, be as expensive as a standard videogame? Will the game really meet its promised street date of July? Will Batman and Robin be eaten by a giant plant? Tune in beneath the cut – same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Er. By which I mean “the press release is below.”
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I suspect this isn’t exactly worth a post, but it amused me. The previously announced before-Christmas Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition has just revealed the first images of their Halfling team. And they amused me, because they just scream doomed, and recalled me of a teenage Blood Bowl game I played against my brother with a pure team of halflings versus a pure team of Ogres, which grew so hysterical I let him move the Ogres off the pitch and into my dug-out to clear up. This sort of game is hobbit deforming. Does that work? Close enough.

Positech’s popular hands-off build-and-release strategy game Gratuitous Space Battles have just released an expansion pack. How does it expandier the game’s expansosity? Well, for six dollars you get a whole new race, 2 scenarios and a cent. The aliens in question are the swarm who deploy masses of fleets with smart bombs and focusing-in disruptor beams. All the while looking like the big gold bird out of Mysterious Cities of Gold. And a trailer follows! Yes! No, really.
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A whole bunch of people have mailed this in to me or to the RPS address, each one mentioning how Infinity had been forgotten, neglected, or otherwise ignored by everyone else. So perhaps it’s the case that there’s actually a lot of people following this, it’s just that it’s been teetering into the realms of vapourware for so long that no one really dares tp say much about it. The most recent offering was the combat prototype, which didn’t detail the really impressive stuff, such as planetfall or Infinity’s proposed sandbox. Could this latest offering do a bit more to excite? It’s a long slice of footage from a recent tech demo, which Infinity’s creator talks about in detail here. In short, the videos posted below are the most recent footage from the all-encompassing persistent-world space opus that we hope one day will make it to the PC. It’s lavish-looking: startling decents from orbital space to a planet’s surface and back again. If just for the reality of landscape tech, you’re going to want to take a look at this.
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There’s something distinctly feminine about choosing to get really good at a game. Unlike the very male experience of playing whatever, whenever, basically playing as much as you can get, basically waddling around the game shop with your trousers round your ankles, choosing to get good at a game requires commitment, or even devotion. More difficultly, it also requires that you choose a suitor.

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No, I don’t mean that in a 1000 Year Reich way. In this season of political fisticuffs, I’ve been meaning to have a proper look at this political simulation where you can play any of 16 political parties, even the fascist ones. As in, most of them, man. I gave it a shot, and bounced off the surface – it’s obviously an intricate game which featured a bit too much clicking for my liking to even get playing. However, it’s clearly a serious beast and if you fancy, you can get a demo from here. There’s also versions for America and Germany. Footage follows of an older version, playing a scenario of the 1992 election. You can “be” Kinnock, which is less fun than “be”ing Goro, I suspect.
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