Rock, Paper, Shotgun

No, of course not. It’s something I scribbled in GIMP in a couple of minutes. But we’ll apparently have concrete information on “something” soon. GamesIndustry.biz report that the Ex-Infinity Ward group Respawn Entertainment will be up to something at E3. “big time announcement at E3 next week. stay tuned, kiddies!” they say on facebook, showing a Walker-worrying contempt for capitalisation. I’m actually not sure what to expect from a team who’ve existed for so short a span. I can’t see more than the game’s title and rough genre, and I doubt any imagery even as good as mine will be put out there. Hell, we’d be lucky with a logo. Or it could be the sort of Big Time Announcement which is more of interest to industry watchers than gamers, like some manner of media deal or major hires. Or maybe they’ve made up with Activision and are best buddies again. Well, let’s be honest. I suspect that’s as unlikely as whatever they’re working on being an FPS is likely.

EDIT: 1UP are reporting sources close to Respawn that this Facebook account is a fraud, despite the fact it’s existed for months with no censure – or identification that it’s fake – from Respawn. You almost admire the long-game played by – if it proves to be true – the account fakers. Do something vaguely credible for months at a time just to have one moment of lying. Which does nothing to excuse our culpability, of course. It’s an interesting thing, this E3 season.

DigitalMindSoft’s CEO Chris Kramer recently got in touch with us to insist that we talk to him about recently announced co-op/skirmish semi-sequel Men Of War: Assault Squad. We let out a long sigh, to pretend we weren’t puppyishly excited, and then began our questioning. You can discover the results below.
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I was wondering where the terrifying, brain-hurting ads were for the Serious Sam: Second Encounter HD update. It may have been out a month already, but there’s no way I can resist posting this trailer. It’s… unsettling.

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The reason being for hmming that Map Pack implies new maps, when this is actually expanded game modes for existing maps. Still, it’s free I suppose, which is nice enough, although no set release date for PC. It’ll provide for Squad Deathmatch on Nelson Bay and Squad Rush on Laguna Alta. Looks like BigDownload scooped the trailer, but thanks to the gentle magic of internet sharing, we have posted it for you below. In it you see dudes shot, and some buildings permanently crippled. Harrowing stuff.
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First thing of the day I saw was this video of Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis which Christopher Webb forwarded to us. It’s OLD! as people may say, but it started my day with a smile. Or a chill. This is a creepy Watson. A very creepy Watson.
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Cliff “Cliffski” Harris, creator of Kudos, Democracy and Gratuitous Space Battles, is launching another survey of his Positech customers to learn about their purchasing habits. Or more specifically, their lack of purchasing habits. He’s asking people, “Why didn’t you buy Gratuitous Space Battles?”

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Have a dash of Nintendo in your PC tea, with Michael Johnston’s fan-made, browser-based reimagining of the second NES Legend of Zelda game as an FPS of sorts. Large, flat open lands, caves and floaty heart icons, all from the player-perspective rather than a bird’s eye view. Dedicated/clever/fiddly/oddly grindy, but quite lovely in its strange past-meets-present genre-bending.
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Damnable over-long game names. YOU DENY US OUR PUNS, YOU BABBLING SWINE. Grr. Anyway (I lose track of how many posts I’ve written whose second sentences begin with ‘anyway’. Anyway.) at the 1C event during which I cooed at Men of War: Vietnam the other week, I was also privy to a few more details on 2011′s long-awaited sequel to mod-gone-pricetaggy FPS Red Orchestra. The series began life as a multiplayer title, but this one, sometimes referred to as RO2, will feature a solo mode.

While the game itself wasn’t playable at the event, and the only video footage was a slideshow of screenshots, I do have in my possession a clutch of new screens and facts. To see them, you must dance widdershins around Ludlow Cathedral at 4am on the first night of the summer solstice. The ancient legends do tell of another way to access them, but you could never hope to work it out.
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I was chatting to Mathew Kumar about the release of his new exp. zine when he mentioned that Hydorah has been finally released. I actually had a tab with its page open for a couple of months, as it was saying it was just about to release, and I knew that I would have to post about it when it was. It’s a freeware old-school shooter with a few modern twists – like limited saves and a sort of map-approach to level selection (Which reminded me – and probably only me – of Xain’d Sleena aka Soldier of Light). You also gather extra weapons when completing missions, with you selecting which one you want to arm up with each time you go in. I’ve only played a couple of levels of this, but I really like it. Go get here, or watch the trailer below…
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Dungeon Siege III is to be created by the busy men at Obsidian. The company, having put out Alpha Protocol, now seem to be re-enforcing their previous role as a team who pick up other people’s projects and take them in new directions. After Neverwinter Nights 2 and Knights of the Old Republic II, they’re currently creating Fallout: New Vegas, and it’s just been announced they’re taking the reigns from Gas Powered Games on the RPG series.

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Do you miss Quinns? We miss Quinns. His gangly form is still making his way around the world with only a backpack and a delightful girlfriend to keep him safe. He may be gone, but is clearly not forgotten by Eurogamer, who’ve published a retrospective of Mucky Foot’s finest hour, Startopia. He says things like…

It was Babylon 5 run by the Muppets, which is about as flippant a comparison as the game itself.

Which certainly sounds like Quinns. Anyway, read more here and wish for Quinns to hurry on home. And while we’re talking Mucky Foot, I’m reminded of the article I wrote about their rise and fall a couple of years back. You can read that too.