Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It might be a little quiet here today due to it being a UK Bank Holiday. Britishers mostly get the day off, see. RPS doesn’t generally notice or care about such things, because we’re of that quasi-employed caste of the freelancer, but the team does need to rest and go out blinking into the sun, on occasion. So I thought we could turn the discussion over to you guys for a bit and see what you’ve actually been playing. It’s all very well us banging on about the latest and greatest, but what are you guys actually playing? What games kept you entertained in April? What have you dabbled in this weekend?

Over the past couple of days I’ve finally got around to starting Mass Effect 2, I’ve played a bit of Quake Live CTF – which remains wonderful, even if the servers are a bit quiet – and, speaking of quiet servers, I took a look at this ambient multiplayer thing: Tranquility, which is apparently shutting down later this year. Something sad about that. Discovering something beautiful at the end of its life…

Sundays are for only begrudgingly compiling a list of the fine (mostly) games related reading from across the week while trying to avoid linking to any pop music. Because I’d rather curl up on the floor and lament the wrath booze have wrecked upon my noble brow.

• Steve Gaynor takes a swing at the art and games debate. As he argues convincingly, Fuck This Conversation.
• Lewis Denby has a nose at Codename: Outbreak, what GSC did before STALKER. Which is an interesting game to talk about in the same way that Codename: Eagle was the forerunner of Battlefield 2. There’s probably an article somewhere charting all the John The Baptists to later Jesus’ from Developers who required an earlier swing to prepare to hit the target. That metaphor is hopelessly mixed, but I’m going to press on and hope no-one notices.

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Bargain time, wallets at the ready folks. We’ve got the highest density of games the bargain bucket has had for a while. It’s bursting from the seams. There’s a mega bundle from a big name developer, a collection of another developers recent output, a large game made bigger with multiple expansions, a trilogy, and a whole damn galaxy. For more gaming bargains get yourself over to SavyGamer.co.uk. Here’s this week’s deals.
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…the game he’s making with Valve software will be revealed soon, uh-huh.

Q: When will we hear more about you and Valve? Some people say it will take 2-3 years, can you give us any clues?

A: It certainly won’t take that long. There are a lot of very talented people here at Valve that are working hard on it every day to ensure high quality in a timely manner. We’ll be making an announcement soon actually, and based on the feedback I’ve been getting since the last mention, I’m sure you all will be as excited as I am.

DOTA mainman + Valve = magic, presumably strategy-based mystery. (Thanks to Loctasy).

This is one of the more interesting political games-related stories in the US, which we haven’t covered yet. The Supreme Court are going to consider whether a proposed California law to band sale of videogames to minor is unconstitutional. This would be the first time the obscenity law has been applied to violence rather than sexual content. Let’s let GRITtv take up the slack here, who interview Gizmodo’s Joel Johnson and the New York Times’ Seth Schiesel on the psychological effect of games and whether there’s any chance of this coming to pass…
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As reported earlier-yesterday, later-yesterday lead to the unveiling of Call of Duty: Black Ops on gametrailers. Very fast flashing imagery, so be warned strobe-fearers and be excited obsessive-panel-pausers. Also, the release date is on the site. 9th of November, this year. So – er – the trailer, yes? It follows.
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