Rock, Paper, Shotgun

What’s this? A press release has come tumbling through the RPS letterbox, bound in tattered leather and announcing the Spring 2011 release of The Sims Medieval. A full game of its own (presumably using the Sims 3 engine), The Sims Medieval will allow players to create their very own “Hero Sim (TM)” and then either head off on quests or focus on building up their kingdom. We’re promised “drama, romance, conflict, and comedy” involving “characters from all walks of life, from Kings and Queens, to Knights and Wizards, Blacksmiths and Bards.” Full press release, some screens and some thoughts after the break.
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Who wants a good 10-15 minutes of braindead zombie shooting? Ah, you do. You do! IndieGames.com informs us of Big Pixel Zombies (from the makers of Big Pixel Racing), a browser game that sees players steering a proud pixel through the streets of a zombie-infested London, occasionally visiting shops to buy guns, steaks or dogs with guns strapped to them. I’ve run it through the RPS supercomputer and am informed that it’s at least 62% as good as Hellgate: London, so there. You can begin blasting right here.

We are not amused. But we will be, soon! Paradox Interactive’s new political simulator, Victoria 2 (the sequel to their 2003 title Victoria: An Empire Under The Sun), has just gone gold, and it’s coming out on August 13th. Seems like it’ll provide more of that Europa Universalis style no-frills strategy, but with a few neat additions, like two countries colonising a province at the same time and engaging in a non-violent battle for influence. Mm! Features list and trailer after the jump.
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Sweet. The Master of Savy points me in the direction of One Step Back, which is another crisp arty platformer. Its “thing” is that a few seconds after you begin a level, a duplicate of yourself starts to ghost your path. Then a few seconds later, another follows. And another. If you collide with any of the ghosts, you die. The aim is to get to an exit – which only opens after a time limit. In other words, it’s about navigating a route which allows you to avoid your previous paths long enough. Helpfully, like that-bit-in-Braid time only flows when you’re actually moving. While its iffy wall jump is the main form of frustration, I found this a really lovingly designed shortform game, even before it hit its half-way change-of-pace. Do give it a try. And now, here’s the heavy-heavy-monster-sound of Madness…
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Is there a better genre name for these games than “a bit like Defense Of The Ancients”? I mean I was going to go with “Champion-based Tower Defence”, but that seems too wordy. Anyway, whatever the taxonomy of the game, it’s free to play Heroes Of Newerth for this week. I had a good old crack at this when it came out, and frankly struggled a bit with the arcane and unfriendly community, but it’s quite the game once you begin to master the rhythm of things, and figure out how to avoid getting insta-ganked when things go awry. Probably worth taking a look this week if you’re going to give it some time, that way you can be sure of full newbie servers. And I mean that in the kindest possible way. Even HoN’s newbie servers can be a little challenging for beginners.

Yesterday revealed that Fable III has a web-based Villager Maker, which allows you, yes YOU, to design villagers that could find their way into the full game. What a clever idea. (And saving someone some work, I should think…) However, if you’re planning to play the game on PC then you will be waiting an indeterminate amount of time longer to see said villagers, due to the PC version of game being delayed from the original October 26th date. MS say we should expect more detailed news on the PC version soon.

A splendid, PC-loving chap has made a 500-page book about the history of point and click adventure games – yer LucasArts, yer Sierras, yer Revolutions, yer all the rests. Even Simon the bloody Sorcerer. All the way up to Grim Fandango, bless its skull-patterned socks. Your coffee table would probably very much appreciate straining under the weight of Graphic Adventures’ nostalgia-strewn, many-pictured pages – though you can also read a free digital version.
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My dream game, until I have a grown-up’s dream: a Transformers MMO. Design your own character, get deep into factional territory war, a universe full of weird planets to explore, a slew of alt-mode upgrades to pursue, endless humans to squish, cameos by Death’s Head. The ideal sci-fi property for an online world, yes?

I will never have this. Too expensive, too ambitious. Yet Asia is getting Transformers Online. Dare I to dream the impossible plastic toy-based dream?
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It seems pretty clear that Mafia II is going to be one of those games where the publisher-released assets are going keep on coming until they flood the internet, burying life as we know it under a series of informative or excitingly-edited game footage clips featuring well-dressed men doing violence. (Because, if you hadn’t already realised, dudes are going to get shot.) This latest trailer is probably my favourite so far, because it’s not spoilering so much as just leaping from event to event. It’s also reminding me that I need to nip over and see John to get a glimpse of the thing in action. If you want to see what he thought about the early preview build, go have a read of this handsome preview.
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Lots of people nodded at Dustforce , which the ever-wonderful IndieGames blog brought to public light. It’s a platformer by Hitbox Team which is currently available in demo form, which includes two proper levels, a handful of custom levels and a (twitchy) level editor for you to play around with the custom ones with. Its controls take some getting used to, but this is startlingly beautiful, acrobatic platforming about brush-wielding sweepers whose devotion to leaf-obliteration humbles us all. Footage follows and the demo’s available here.
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Kieron: Hello Phill Cameron of the land of the north. How are you today?
Phill: I’m fine, although I’m still recovering from chicken-apoplexy.
Kieron: The chicken is the angriest of the fowl. I too have been thinking about Chick… wait a sec. Have you been playing Lord of the Rings Online‘s Free-to-play Beta?
Phill: I have! Or, as I like to refer to it: Watership Down-but-with-chickens.
Kieron: I think we should probably go around the back end to talk about that. You ever played the original version?
Phill: No, I’m a LOTRO virgin. But you have, I gather?
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