Rock, Paper, Shotgun

So with the biff and swish of an amusing comic, a reason to use the Steam Wallet is born: The Mann Co. Store. It’s going to allow players to trade TF2 inventory items in-game using their Steam Wallets. So hats and stuff can now be sold off or purchased for real cash. Here’s another thing: “Additionally, community contributors will receive a percentage of sales on items they’ve created!” Ooh, you say. Hmm, I mutter, my beard aflutter.

What does it mean? And why? Well it doesn’t look like it will change the game much, aside from people being able to get the kit they want for cash. It seems to be a way of generating a bit of extra cash with purely cosmetic items, essentially allowing the completely capitalist Valve Corporation to have a reason to keep developing TF2′s free updates, aside from being nice. FAQ here. Also PCG point out the prices. That’s a pricey knife.

There are certain games which, when their names are uttered three times into a mirror, cause Peter Molyneux to appear. Following serious testing, we can confirm that Monaco is not one of them. And that’s not all we know about Monaco, the game by Pocketwatch Games, aka Andy Schatz. We – all five – gentleman thieves of RPS recently played the IGF-winning four-player steal ‘em up (John and I had to sit out by turns) in an special group contrivance. It was a fun time, a giddy time, like the south of France on a balmy night. Monaco!

This was the recent PAX build of the still as-yet-unreleased game, with four entire levels, and – for some reason – there’s actually a video of us tackling one of them posted below. I’ve also penned some thoughts about the experience, which I previously looted from my brain, and those of my fellow conspirators.

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Onionbog is booming. Booming like a stinking, sulphurous deep-sea crater, emitting stinking hot burps on a regular basis. But I’m no fool. That’s why I’m building defenses. To keep my lovely hole in the ground safe.

I love this place. I hate this place. I’ll hate to see it fall. I’d love to see it fall.
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It’s an important week for the Rock, the Paper and the Shotgun. Not only are we partially lopping off one of the Hivemind’s core nodes (/sadface), but we’re also presenting our first-ever award.

Specifically, for the best title at the Eurogamer Expo’s Indie Game Arcade this weekend. Members of RPS will be performing mystic incantations and inappropriate mental snuggling in order to ascertain which of 12 splendid indie games (shortlisted here) will be presented with a surprisingly large and easily-weaponised trophy.

We’ve now decided exactly how, where and when we’re going to do that, and it’d be just super if you were there.
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Today I hit half my biblically allotted time on Earth. I’m also leaving RPS’ full-time staff. That’s my last regular commitment as a “real” games journalist. These fifteen years have been a pleasure.

For a little more of what it means for the pirate-ship that is RPS, read on.
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You know, when Spielberg got into games it was an “okay, yeah” sort of moment, but del Toro is a more interesting proposition. Speaking with MTV, director Guillermo del Toro – who is currently working on a movie adaptation of Lovecraft’s novella At the Mountains of Madness – confirmed he is a making a horror game with THQ. “It’s horror…but it’s a very different type of horror game. It’s not survival horror. It’s truly a strange, geeky mix. It’s a Lovecraftian thing. Let’s leave it at that.”

Interesting! No idea if it’ll be on the computer box, but since it’s THQ it seems like a fair bet.

Fancy shooting this website to bits? Head here, add the bookmark, and then click it while on any site. WASD steers, Space shoots, and you can blast any at website you choose. (I’m amused to note our current ads are indestructible.) Why not go to any of our rivals and fire holes in their websites? And in the game. There doesn’t appear to be any authorship credit on the site, so thanks to whoever made this. And cheers to Kim for the tip.

Primal Carnage, the dinosaurs versus humans multiplayer project from independent developers Lukewarm Media, has released some awesome new footage. It’s accompanied by quite a change – the team has switched from Ungine to the Unreal Development Kit, and what was already looking spectacular now looks super-spectacular. Below, along with lots of new details and screenshots, is an epic dino-fight, in realtime in-game UDK footage. I checked.

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Everquest II Extended, the free-to-play parallel version of the MMO grandaddy’s only child, has shed its beta tag and opened its microtransaction-funded doors to all comers. Which means it’s a bit more spit’n'polished since the earlier version, plus you get a free flaming staff if you sign up before end of play on Sunday.

“An unmatched quality and quantity of content and adventure that no other free-to-play massively multiplayer online game can offer,” it claims, though I have no idea how you measure that kind of thing. DDO and LOTRO probably have quite a lot of content and adventure too, I’d imagine. I’ll have to get out my content-and-adventure-o-meter to know for sure, though.
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Quick one: the third and penultimate part of the rather impressive Left 4 Dead gap-filling online comic The Sacrifice has arrived. It’s rather gory, gore fans. Also peanut-buttery, peanut butter fans. Francis takes the spotlight this time around, though I maintain that his hair’s drawn a bit too long.

Valve also explain that these words and pictures are “the official version of events”, compared to the choose-your-own-fatal-adventure morbid giggling of the upcoming Sacrifice DLC. So there you go, crazy Wikipedia people.

While the games industry at large continues to have a nice little a panic about declining retail sales and just a handful of games cornering the market, indie’s looking masterfully strong right now. Yesterday, we got a sense of how many money-hats Minecraft’s Notch gets to wear, and now we hear that marvellous profiteering/dungeoneering hybrid Recettear has “done what we barely hoped it would do.” I.e. sold a whole bunch, and given the folk at translator/co-developers Carpe Fulgur enough money in the bank to make this kind of thing their actual, honest-to-God jobs.
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