By Kieron Gillen on July 29th, 2010 at 8:32 pm.
Announced today via the medium of media is that Worms is returning. Ten years on from Worms Armageddon – which makes me feel terribly old, as I remember it being played in the office when I joined PC Gamer – it’s back and it’s on Steam. Well, it will be on Steam, upon its release on August 26th. It includes lots of game modes, 4-player multiplayer (both local and online if you don’t want everyone cramming into your bedroom to drink your vodka like we did back in 1995), level creation tool, customising your worm and… oh, more details plus the option to pre-order it with 10% off on its Steam page. The normal price? Eighteen quid. Which I suspect will make some of your eyebrows raise archly. Trailer follows…
29/07/2010 at 20:36 Novotny says:
Lol at the vodka sessions. For me, it was Final Doom, vodka/whiskey and 1996.
29/07/2010 at 20:38 wedge says:
oh god yes!!! Concrete Donkey here I come!!!
PS: Don’t forget the Worms 3D failure, absolutely horrible
29/07/2010 at 22:07 Rich says:
I actually rather liked the first 3D Worms. I was surprised I liked it, but liked it all the same.
30/07/2010 at 11:35 Toeofdoom says:
The 3D worms games were getting the technology pretty right, but lacked in content (weapons) and gameplay – one of the greatest things about worms was the mishaps where you miss and detonate half your own team. That was sorely missed in 3d. Hell, prod was a powerful weapon, and shotgun was pretty much the best in the game.
29/07/2010 at 20:45 Heliocentric says:
My eyebrow did not arch. It straightened out to join the other one in performing a furrow.
I was excited worms was coming, this price seems purely designed to scoop as much interest as possible when it hits its inevitable 75% off sale to its real price. But to be honest, by then any hype will be gone. I think alien breed was likely testing the waters for this. Like valve keep saying 75% off sells well even when the starting price was crap because of time pressure and panic buying.
Sad, £5 will sell worse than £20 on 75% off.
29/07/2010 at 20:57 Jeremy says:
I feel like you need a hug. You seem miserable all the time :)
29/07/2010 at 21:01 Vinraith says:
@Jeremy
How does an analysis (and a fairly accurate one, from what I can tell) of sales trends translate to Helio being miserable, exactly?
29/07/2010 at 21:03 Jeremy says:
The smile at the end was a clear indicator of jest. JEST. Maybe you need a hug too?
29/07/2010 at 21:06 Vinraith says:
Jest or not, I’m asking how the one has anything to do with the other? Maybe this is just one of those “90% of information is non-verbal” internet miscommunications.
29/07/2010 at 21:13 Jeremy says:
Tone of his post seemed sad/gloomy. Hence the need for a hug. That’s all really.
29/07/2010 at 21:39 DrGonzo says:
Don’t worry Jeremy. They are both grumpy!
29/07/2010 at 22:04 bloodypalace says:
Last time i checked this game wasn’t SC2, MW2 or l4d2. I don’t know why you’re calling it expensive…
29/07/2010 at 22:06 Rich says:
Look, if you’re not careful, all the children will dance about outside your window, singing “sourpuss” and “grumpy face”, and you wouldn’t want that, now would you?
29/07/2010 at 22:11 Heliocentric says:
Because worms has been bargain bin fodder since the late 1990′s.
I’m not sad, but i am tired. You are slightly misreading my emotional metatags. Have you updated your esplus plugin for firefox?
29/07/2010 at 23:20 Jeremy says:
I needs me some ESPlus.
30/07/2010 at 00:22 geldonyetich says:
I’m inclined to agree. Worms hasn’t changed much since 1997. At least they’re letting us create our own maps this time, which is sort of interesting, up until you remember that most of the maps are basically just things you blow holes in in order to get cheap kills from drowning the other worms. Something got lost in the translation from an artillery game, and at the recent offerings of the Worms games that I’ve played seem sorely lacking in that all-too-important requirement of aiming
30/07/2010 at 02:35 JuJuCam says:
Well he did say his brows were furrowed… that does to me indicate a negative, hug-inviting emotion…
30/07/2010 at 03:13 MD says:
Man, I wish hugs were this easy to get in real life. I’d see a pretty girl on the bus and I’d be all *furrows brow glumly* and they’d have an uncontrollable urge to hug me. That would be the life.
30/07/2010 at 08:33 Huggster says:
Are Team17 like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day?
“Morning. What shall we do today? Lets remake Worms and Alien Breed”
“Morning. What shall we do today? Lets remake Worms and Alien Breed”
“Morning. What shall we do today? Lets remake Worms and Alien Breed”
“Morning. What shall we do today? Lets remake Worms and Alien Breed”
“Morning. What shall we do today? Lets remake Worms and Alien Breed”
“Morning. What shall we do today? Lets remake Worms and Alien Breed”
“Morning. What shall we do today? Lets remake Worms and Alien Breed”
30/07/2010 at 13:43 Heliocentric says:
Worms on my amiga A600 had level editing. You just imported a picture.
29/07/2010 at 20:45 SmartChimp says:
Am I the only one who preferred worms 2 over worms: Armageddon? Man it was so fun changing the prod into a 200 damage weapon, or just messing with the statistics in general. For some reason I think they decided it wasn’t as user friendly and went for this other interface. Which is fine but give me an advanced option that allows me to do what I could do in worms 2!
29/07/2010 at 22:14 Heliocentric says:
worms 2 is best worms. Modded weapons like sheep mini gun and the like were more fun because it was so changable.
29/07/2010 at 22:37 Fuu says:
Worms 2 was indeed the superior version, because of the weapon customisation. Cluster bomb that does 5 damage, but clusters that do 100 damage…
30/07/2010 at 14:35 jon_hill987 says:
I always preferred Armageddon. I felt the customisation in Worms 2 made it into more of a sandbox than a game. Armageddon was the first Worms release to be a game since Worms United.
29/07/2010 at 20:47 pupsikaso says:
Heck yeah! Exploding sheep and banana bombs all the way!
29/07/2010 at 20:48 Jimbo says:
I’ll wait for the Amiga Power review.
29/07/2010 at 20:48 LewieP says:
Nice to see they are making a proper one after all the ‘still ok but much worse than the proper ones’ console versions.
I have to agree, £18 seems like a lot, especially considering that most PC games are available for sub £20 at or shortly after launch these days.
29/07/2010 at 21:02 DeepSleeper says:
What you say is funny because having watched the trailer this basically -is- the latest console one, just slapped into a loose PC shell.
29/07/2010 at 22:00 Down Rodeo says:
To be fair this looks far better than the one currently on the 360 market. I’ve had a play of it – my flatmate bought it – and it’s just not the same. It’s a lot of fun, sure, but so many weapons are missing, the concrete donkey has been nerfed, the AI is… in some ways not really as good. I know the AI comment is a bit poor, really you ought to be playing with friends, but given that shots appear to flick between stupidly suicidal to pixel perfection, again something is missing. So at least from the video it appears there are a few more weapons (didn’t see a carpet or mail bomb though, sad).
29/07/2010 at 20:51 WiPa says:
DO WANT.
29/07/2010 at 21:05 Cooper says:
I remember cramming up to play the original worms, back on the amiga. But I would have been 12 then, so no vodka.
I absolutely adored the original. But hated the move to the later cartoony graphics. If anything, the move lost humour for the series rather than gained it, or possibly just tried to hard – the original just oozed charm. May seem odd, but 14 pixels of the original worms had so much more character than any later incarnation.
29/07/2010 at 21:45 Octacon100 says:
I was exactly the same way. Just didn’t like the cartoon worms. Maybe there’s a reason all indie people use pixel art….
29/07/2010 at 21:46 Simon says:
I hear you, Worms/Worms+ has more charm than all the others combined!
30/07/2010 at 00:13 littlewilly91 says:
Would be my dream mod. Tinkering away making new dark humor graphics, post modern silliness story, making my dream UI, and attempting to make it backward compatible so you can play against people who are running older games like armageddon or worms 2.
Plus all my other ideas.
Any enthusiasm for this?
Is it practically possible?
30/07/2010 at 04:33 Benny says:
The character and dark humor lost in the transition from Worms (+directors cut) to Worms 2 was huge. The box art alone for the original was alot more adult than the sequel’s, and slowly with every version since the quality of character and inteligent design went downhill.
Having played Worms: Director’s Cut not too long ago i can say it is easily the best version of the game and truely if released again now on PC it would probably sell a hell of alot more than this current release.
30/07/2010 at 19:09 Nick says:
The action movie piss take intro was awesome too. and the worms song on the directors cut CD.. heh. I loved those games.
29/07/2010 at 21:40 BAReFOOt says:
18 quid? Well, I just go into my archive, and take Worms Armageddon out there, when I want. Price? ZERO quit. Case closed. The monkey is dead. QED. ^^
29/07/2010 at 21:40 BAReFOOt says:
t=d
30/07/2010 at 05:15 Red Avatar says:
Worms Armageddon lacks one big thing though: players. Also, It was still in 256 colours which meant the maps were quite annoying to make. I’m well willing to pay to have a new version that works without work arounds on a modern PC and which will allow custom maps once more.
Oh and Kieron, you neglected to mention you were the only one in the PC Gamer office who didn’t like Worms ;) I DO remember the review where you kept adding you didn’t like it, over and over.
29/07/2010 at 21:50 DazzeL says:
I want it not because I think it will be a better game than Worms Armageddon but because being on Steam will probably mean more gamers to play against online.
Then, they went and priced it. What a shame. I’m sure this will be a sale top seller as previously mentioned.
29/07/2010 at 21:51 zak canard says:
I’d like more than exclusive pre-order hats (I think Team 17′s spent too much time in Valve’s company when implementing Steamworks into this) and forts for my £18 thankyouveryglad. What I’d actually like is a re-release of Director’s Cut, complete with HD pixel art worms.
29/07/2010 at 21:55 DJ Phantoon says:
Weird because it’s 18 bucks here and I know the dollar isn’t as much as the pound. Guess they’re still doing that pound = dollar BS?
29/07/2010 at 22:28 Hidden_7 says:
I was just about to comment on that. It seems openly insane. Isn’t a pound worth nearly twice as much as a US dollar? Doesn’t that mean these bits and bytes cost twice as much to download depending on which side of the Atlantic you are on?
Openly ridiculous.
30/07/2010 at 00:45 MD says:
Ah, no wonder people were complaining about the price. $20 AUD seemed highish but reasonable, but I can understand some eyebrow-raising by those who have to pay the equivalent of $30+ AUD.
30/07/2010 at 05:18 Pmeie says:
@MD
I even think $18 USD is stupidly high for it … here in australia (you know we pay USD here right? i do anyway, maybe my steam account is usd by mistake)… even if it was $18 aud… make it $5, even $10 is pushing it, I reckon.
30/07/2010 at 08:17 MD says:
I pay in US dollars too, but 18 USD is equivalent to 20 AUD at the moment. And yeah, in most cases I’d be waiting for a price-cut (and I still might), but I’m a big ol’ Worms fan(boy), so my price-complaint threshold is higher this time. $20 is towards the upper end of what I’ll pay for a game, and I usually wait for things to drop to around $10, often less. But yeah, it’s Worms! As long as this isn’t some sort of rush job and they don’t do anything silly like stuffing up the rope physics, it’ll be worth it for me.
30/07/2010 at 23:40 TeeJay says:
@ Hidden_7:
At the moment:
$1.00 = €0.77 = £0.64
€1.00 = $1.31 = £0.83
£1.00 = $1.57 = €1.20
http://www.xe.com/
For doing mental calculations I always use £1 = $1.50 (add 50% to get dollars or subtract 33% to get pounds). It’s true the rate was up around $2 between start-2004 and mid-2008 but then over six months fell right down to $1.40. It then stabilised and c. $1.50 is the more ‘typical’ long-term value although as it all depends on various economic hocus-pocus I won’t pretend to have a clue where it’ll head next…
£1 = €1.50 used to also work OK with the Euro until start-2008 when the rate started to fall… by start-2009 it had almost hit £1 = €1 but as stabilised and started to head back up again. The above caveat also applies here – I don’t really understand what is going on with the eurozone at the moment.
29/07/2010 at 22:01 bloodypalace says:
You Europeans are always whining about the price. It’s worms for fucks sake. I would have gladly payed 100 bucks for it if they were asking for it…
29/07/2010 at 23:04 xtal says:
Shut up, you American. You Americans, all you do is talk, and talk, and say “let me tell you something” and “I just wanna say.” Well, you’re dead now, so shut up.
;)
29/07/2010 at 23:16 Drew says:
Speaking as a red-blooded, beer-drinking, marshmallow-eating Yankee, I would not pay $100 for an HD’d, Steamworks-enabled Worms game that runs hassle-free in Windows 7. I would absolutely pay $10 for such a product, and I am considering paying $18 for it, but anything more than that would be pushing it.
And sorry to be cynical, but the higher price tag simply screams “Sale price coming soon. Suck it, loyal pre-orderers.”
29/07/2010 at 23:17 bloodypalace says:
@ xtal,
I’m not American. Now what? ;)
30/07/2010 at 16:36 Jeremy says:
Oh ho… plot twist!
Also, I just wanna say, as an American I am of course terribly offended that you would so confine us into this negative box. Let me tell you something, just because someone says something offensive and sounds kinda… arrogant, doesn’t mean he or she is an American.
On top of that, I am not dead.
29/07/2010 at 22:06 kenmcfa says:
HATS!
Good to see Team 17 learned an important lesson from Valve.
29/07/2010 at 23:04 DJ Phantoon says:
Yes. I’m surprised this isn’t their main selling point!
Worms: With hats!
29/07/2010 at 23:51 bloodypalace says:
Er, Worms forts introduced hats to the series, correct me if i’m wrong.
29/07/2010 at 22:38 phuzz says:
+1 internets to the person that provides me with the Father Ted voice pack like I used to have back on the amiga. I can’t look at Worms without hearing “Down with this sort of thing” as a worm goes flying off screen :)
29/07/2010 at 22:43 zak canard says:
Careful now!
30/07/2010 at 02:36 Daniel Klein says:
WANT. GIEF.
I imagine pain sounds being replaced by Father Jack’s punch lines (“ARSE!” “FECK!” “GIRLS!”)
Me, I always played with the French soundpacks. It just felt appropriate.
30/07/2010 at 12:00 lhzr says:
http://www.eclipse.co.uk/~ac4531/worms/original/sounds.html
this?
29/07/2010 at 22:59 Shadrach says:
Oooh yes this is great news. I’ve tried getting a few online games going in later years but that ancient lobby system was too much of a hassle. If this integrates with Steam friends it will be made of win! Pre-order is in order me thinks.
I could never really get the hang of ninja-roping though :(
29/07/2010 at 23:28 Zerotime says:
Customising my worm? I don’t think my girlfriend would approve.
29/07/2010 at 23:33 James G says:
Hmm, tempted. The price is admittedly a touch higher than the insta buy point (I spent £400 on a bike yesterday, and am still wincing), but I do love myself some worms. Haven’t played it for a good while, but it was great during school and university. If the Steam version gets some good natured online play going then I’m up for it.
Actually, if anyone hasn’t touched WA in a while, they did quite a nice series of patches later on in its life.
29/07/2010 at 23:52 Stu says:
So which resurrected Amiga game would you pay a silly-in-2010 amount of money for? I’ll go with Gravity Force 2 for £15 (sorry KG, but I actually preferred it to Gravity Power for some reason I can’t quite remember)
30/07/2010 at 00:07 itsallcrap says:
Given that I already own Worms World Party (which is roughly the same as Worms Armageddon, which is roughly the same as this), the only reason to buy this is the Steam-powered multiplayer.
It’s a good reason, but probably not one worth sixteen quid.
30/07/2010 at 00:15 Kazang says:
Haaaaaaaallelujah! Hallelujah, hallelujah, halleeeeluuuuujah!
But 18 pound!?
My eyebrow was raised at price, it raised so much it made my hairline retreat in fear. Mostly due to the fact that I already own multiple copies of various worms games, I think I have 3 copies of Armageddon for different platforms. So 18 seems a bit much for what seems to be essentially just a updated version of an old game.
I do hope that this version combines all the best features of the previous as well as adding new stuff.
Custom weapons, game modes, the best voice packs, etc. And a easy way of finding games on the interwebs would be very welcome feature. The horrible internet support on the old versions is really the only reason I don’t play them any more.
30/07/2010 at 00:41 MD says:
Have you tried ProSnooper? It’s very handy, saves you from having to run W:A to join the multiplayer lobbies. http://rndware.info/products/prosnooper.html
Not sure how long since you last played (and it’s actually been a while for me too) but there have been some excellent patches too. I think the latest one is at http://wormsarmageddon.team17.com/main.html?page=home&area=welc , but there’s always a thread on the latest patch in the Team17 forums.
30/07/2010 at 00:38 MD says:
Yay! So tempted to pre-order, but maybe I should just dig out Armageddon. Still, as long as it is as good as Armageddon, I’ll be happy.
30/07/2010 at 00:52 MD says:
Because at the very least there’ll be more players, and hopefully some of the new features will be fun as well. Also, I kind of feel that they deserve my support for supporting W:A so well. It’d be a bit of a cruel irony if people didn’t bother with the new game because of all the brilliant updates that had kept W:A playable, and the fact that they continued to host a master server long after most companies would have abandoned the game entirely.
30/07/2010 at 01:10 Skinlo says:
I want this, but I don’t feel its worth £18, when I got Worms Armegeddon for £5 7 years ago.
30/07/2010 at 01:58 mejobloggs says:
So why are we being restricted to 4 players? I’m sure Worms Armageddon had more
30/07/2010 at 02:26 standardman says:
Is this any different from Worms Armageddon/World Party? Team 17 enjoy re-releasing the same game over and over.
From wikipedia:
Worms 2 (1997)
–
Worms Armageddon (1999)
Worms World Party (2001)
Worms: Open Warfare (2006)
Worms (2007)
Worms: Open Warfare 2 (2007)
Worms: A Space Oddity (2008)
Worms 2: Armageddon (2009)
Worms: Reloaded (2010)
Pretty much the same game.
30/07/2010 at 04:44 Benny says:
Honestly since the worms 2 change in graphical style, nothing released after is worthy to be called a true sequel. Expansions maybe, and minor ones at that, but not true sequels.
30/07/2010 at 05:17 Red Avatar says:
Yeah I agree there. To be fair, they did try with Worms 3D – it wasn’t a terrible game but Worms was so good because it was easy to show a friend. Worms 3D wasn’t that easy. But you have to realise that that list is spread over a dozen systems so it’s misleading. The PC hasn’t had a Worms release in well over 10 years and the previous version doesn’t even work on modern PCs unless you patch the hell out of it so it’s not that unfair for them to release another game.
30/07/2010 at 11:59 Tom says:
Why should want a sequel. Armageddon was perfection. Perfection doesn’t need sequels. Just updates to keep it running.
30/07/2010 at 02:38 JuJuCam says:
Liero. Just putting it on the table and backing away slowly…
30/07/2010 at 04:18 P7uen says:
DEATHWO… wait, what?
30/07/2010 at 06:09 Spacegirl says:
WHERE IS LIERO : SOURCE IMO ??
30/07/2010 at 06:46 notlimahc says:
I think I’ll stick to Hedgewars.
30/07/2010 at 08:51 WWP says:
Console Worms suck and that looks exactly like a console Worms.
30/07/2010 at 12:00 Ben says:
@Phuzz
ARSE! Do some work :)
30/07/2010 at 12:16 GHudston says:
It’s Worms! I preordered as soon as I saw the trailer.
30/07/2010 at 13:10 Devenger says:
I’m tempted because I don’t actually own Worms: Armageddon (I ended up with the somewhat inferior Worms World Party – inferior because it hasn’t received all the support, and thus survived for much less time than its predecessor, although it had the edge in some ways I believe). But the price… yeah, it’s uncomfortably high.
I think the real clincher for me would be if they put some effort into Forts mode. Forts in WWP were really, really fun – the fort choices weren’t balanced, but the choice was still fun (personally, I liked the big ol’ Worms flagship). For anyone who didn’t play it, Forts mode was a game of two sides – two teams, each starts on opposite sides of the map on a fort of their choice (selected as part of the team’s options). These forts remained very destructible, so it became a game of trying to prevent your opponent from destroying your fort’s best firing spots, or perhaps more importantly, the floor your Worms stand on…
But, the price! Ach!
30/07/2010 at 13:31 Lambchops says:
I love Worms. Part of me wonders whether I need to buy this what with them perfecting the game at Worms Armageddon. However that will probably be overridden by the other part of me that bought Worms World Party anyway. Plus Steam integration is nice.
Had a wee blast of Worms HD on a friend’s Playbox thing and it did have me all nostalgic abnd hankering for a new PC version not least because of my friend’s crude worm naming policy leading to perhaps the only appearance of the phrase “Never underestimate the power of Vaginal Infection” in gaming history.
30/07/2010 at 17:04 Mark S. says:
hmm…now that im into TF2 with all the customizing like smelting metals and creating and finding items. I think that would be a welcomed addition to the Worms line. But there has to be a shift of some kind to make this stand out on it’s own once again. I only know Armageddon, and that was fun as hell.
Achievements great. Hats greater. Customizable weapons and loadouts greaterer!!!
30/07/2010 at 17:11 Dave says:
I still play the original 1999 Worms Armageddon sometimes. It’s installed on my netbook thanks to the wonders of ISO images.
30/07/2010 at 18:05 KillahMate says:
Ignoring the added weapons, maps, voice packs, HD graphics, new game modes, and all that nice but nonessential stuff, I think this release is worthy precisely because of its full Steamworks integration.
FULL STEAMWORKS INTEGRATION. Leaderboards and friends, voice chat and achievements. This makes playing Worms with my friends across the country a click away – not exactly the case with Armageddon. Plus, you know, full compatibility with and full use of Windows 7 and modern hardware.
Worth it, IMO.
30/07/2010 at 20:25 Flimgoblin says:
Hmm, yes, I may have to buy this. Argh another game I have no time to play :(
31/07/2010 at 11:32 DelTaGC says:
Only 4 players coop ? Sad… In these days, if you have more or less than 3 friends you are screwed
31/07/2010 at 11:38 SpakAttack says:
DOW2 was three player centric…
31/07/2010 at 20:45 DarkNoghri says:
Never really played Worms that much. I loved Scorched Earth, though.
02/08/2010 at 19:04 naked steve says:
Eyefinity support?