By Quintin Smith on October 30th, 2010 at 10:31 am.
Sometimes working for RPS means poking through the internet for news, like a dirty gremlin. And sometimes you wake up, see something, raise one eyebrow as high as it’ll go, spit, do a pressup, and post that stuff, because it could not be more news.
Wondrous-looking indie climate change sim Fate of the World has just become available for pre-order. If you missed Kieron’s comprehensive interview with developers Red Redemption, you can, and should, read it here. The pre-order gets you a 50% discount off the price of the game (making it £9.99 + VAT), and from this Monday you’ll have access to the beta, plus you’re ordering the Special Edition, so you’ll get some extra gubbins when the full game is released in Feb 2011. Anything else? YEAH! New trailer after the jump.
30/10/2010 at 10:41 Gehrschrein says:
This looks intriguing.
I’m kind of a sucker for any game that has a rotating 3d globe.
30/10/2010 at 10:49 Snall says:
maybe Superpowers 3 will be good…..heh, anyway I’m not too interested in this as the topic is sorta meh- I’d be more interested in a mp game of corporations trying to make the most money before the planet dies…but if done well I’ll check out a demo or something.
30/10/2010 at 10:50 Dance on Numbers says:
I would like to give this a shot, but I really don’t trust Quintins’ opinions, I’m not going to buy it until I see some more reviews, but the mechanics do look pretty interesting.
30/10/2010 at 10:53 Jim Rossignol says:
What are you talking about? Quintin doesn’t even offer any opinions here except to say that it looks wondrous. Which, as climate sim games go, is true. He’s not recommending it or otherwise. Simply reporting the news.
You need to learn to distinguish critical opinion from simple reportage.
30/10/2010 at 11:31 noom says:
I think we can read “don’t trust Quintins’ opinions” as “am bitter about Quintin’s review of Fallout 3: New Vegas”.
30/10/2010 at 11:33 BooleanBob says:
Good grief, looks like the honeymoon is well and truly over. Poor old Quinns.
30/10/2010 at 11:33 mlaskus says:
It’s quite sad, that people read reviews for validation and get angry when they disagree.
30/10/2010 at 11:51 Antsy says:
Nothing is true! Don’t trust Quintin, he’s shifty! Now where’s my tinfoil hat.
30/10/2010 at 12:54 Fede says:
Maybe he was, you know, acting like that, not meaning it. Like our resident Fred Wester, the jokes about Quinns’ lack of iron and John’s healing skills :)
30/10/2010 at 17:57 Sarkhan Lol says:
Heh. A video game? Available for “pre-order?” A likely story, “Quinns” (if that IS your real name,) but you’ve got a lot of trust to earn back before we can trust these radical fantasies of yours.
30/10/2010 at 17:58 Sarkhan Lol says:
Damn, hoisted by my own tautology.
31/10/2010 at 01:31 Thants says:
Quintin’s dislike of Fallout New Vegas is a betrayal that will echo throughout the ages.
01/11/2010 at 11:24 Dawngreeter says:
A trailer after the jump, huh? Right. I bet that’s exactly what I’ll find after the “jump”.
Also, Quintin is really just a British version of Quentin, which comes in the Tarantino variety. Tarantino directed Inglorious Bastards and I’m told Gillen hated that movie. This can only mean that Quinns has assassinated Teh Gillenz0r in order to spam us with empty promises of trailers and jumps to nowhere.
01/11/2010 at 12:52 Sigh says:
Perpahs Dancing was referring to Quinn’s “opinion” about Stardock “breaking” their own Gamer’s Bill of Rights.
30/10/2010 at 11:01 pakoito says:
Waiting for prereview before buying. Interested, though, 10€ is my price tag for a week’o'gaming with any game.
30/10/2010 at 11:03 Corrupt_Tiki says:
Why would you want to do that?
Also captcha monster, go die in a hole please.
30/10/2010 at 11:24 Rii says:
I’d been refreshing the Red Redemption site often enough of late for it to pop into Chrome’s “most visited sites” thingy. Pleasantly surprised by the price, the pre-order bonuses are just the icing on the cake. Can’t wait to check out the beta. xD
30/10/2010 at 11:31 mlaskus says:
I was waiting for it ever since you first wrote about it.
Pre-ordering now :)
30/10/2010 at 12:27 Xercies says:
I would get this but I don’t think climate change is Man Made so yeah…
30/10/2010 at 12:39 Foxfoxfox says:
Hello Troll.
Hello person with a misunderstanding of some very basic principles
30/10/2010 at 12:40 Foxfoxfox says:
(please pick most applicable response)
30/10/2010 at 13:00 Daves 1.1 says:
I’m going to go with option (2) especially as he has managed to spell Xerxes incorrectly.
Love you.
30/10/2010 at 14:13 Corrupt_Tiki says:
@ fox,
No you see the question is, who cares about it?
Also if you don’t like it, leave, NASA is taking volunteers for a one way trip to mars.
30/10/2010 at 14:21 Sunjumper says:
That guy is obviously on drugs, everyone knows that one of the mission statements of Mann Co is to set the entier planet on fire. As any real, manly planet should be.
He is probably some hippy plant…
30/10/2010 at 14:36 Xercies says:
Who says I was trying to spell Xerxes? My nickname is spelt right because it comes from a fantasy character from a fantasy book I haven’t wrote yet.
30/10/2010 at 16:14 kyyninen says:
In my unwritten fantasy book everyone will be named John. Except for Bob.
30/10/2010 at 19:42 nanophage says:
Does it matter if its manmade or not? We have to save the polar bears none the less!
*sarcasm*
31/10/2010 at 07:00 Jack says:
Sarcasm? So you hate polar bears?
30/10/2010 at 13:16 Rii says:
The free BBC Climate Challenge game is still around and isn’t a terrible way to spend an hour or so for those interested in exploring a very stripped-down version of the game concept prior to parting with their cash.
P.S. In my expert opinion, the Space Program is a waste of time. Or, more importantly, money.
30/10/2010 at 13:39 Bob Bobson says:
Write 100 line: “Money is *not* more important than time.”
Money is a very convenient illusion. Time is a fundamental resource.
30/10/2010 at 18:21 jaheira says:
Isn’t Time the very definition of a “convenient illusion”?
30/10/2010 at 19:02 Harlander says:
You want a convenient illusion? Consciousness.
Think about that.
Or, assuming consciousness is an illusion, think you’re thinking about that. Or think you’re thinking about thinking about that. Or [STACK OVERFLOW]
30/10/2010 at 19:32 Mister Adequate says:
Oh dear, now you’ve gone and said something I can’t abide and I have to be an angry Internet man because I have no self-control when people question the validity of space programmes.
Without space exploration we wouldn’t have half the inventions of the modern world. Space improves life on Earth. The computer you’re using to read this exists thanks to NASA. Kidney dialysis? NASA. CAT scanner? NASA. Cordless power tools? NASA. Athletic footwear? Modern stuff is all based partly on NASA’s inventions. I know that’s more mundane but I’m just trying to show how ubiquitous it is. If Tesla invented the first half of the twentieth century, NASA invented the second. The urgent pressures of space exploration, and ultimately space colonization, demand extraordinary advances which can be applied to us on Earth. Imagine what useful things could come out of a mission to Mars or a lunar base! And yes, the money could be spent on Earth instead, but the only two things which have historically increased standard of living are more wealth – which space could give us in unmatched levels, both through inventions and raw materials – and new political philosophies and ideas. And given how tiny space budgets are when compared to, well, any other budget you can think of I don’t think it’s particularly fair to charge it with being a waste; there are enormous sums of money spent on things that are of much more debatable need than space.
30/10/2010 at 20:31 MadMatty says:
I jus wanna get up on the moon, stone cold on cheap vodka, and just tharsh that moon rover around.
31/10/2010 at 01:56 G-rad says:
@jaheira: lunchtime doubly so.
30/10/2010 at 13:41 pissant says:
I was really looking forward to this, but after following the vague updates and seeing this trailer I’m slightly concerned that they may have put too much effort into getting the underlying science and message across at the expense of game design. I got bored of the BBC climate challenge game very quickly as it devolved into nothing more than sliding meters, and it looks like this might be more of the same.
30/10/2010 at 14:07 Rii says:
The ‘problem’ with Climate Challenge was that, so far as I could tell at least, there was no interaction between policies (beyond those directly associated via prereqs) or between policies and events. This meant that the game felt like an endless series of disjointed decisions rather than forming an overall narrative.
Needless to say, addressing this problem is undoubtedly one of the first uses to which the greatly increased time/resources available to the devs for Fate of the World would’ve been put.
30/10/2010 at 14:46 Daves 1.1 says:
@ XerXES…
You sir are a big silly.
30/10/2010 at 15:17 Freud says:
I know it probably makes me a bastard, but a climate change game doesn’t interest me at all. And I am for the most part a pro-save the planet kinda guy.
30/10/2010 at 15:44 Rii says:
The ability to covertly sterilise the population of North America doesn’t appeal to you?
30/10/2010 at 16:18 kyyninen says:
IIRC, you don’t have to necessarily save the world in this game to win. You can also burn it down, or save only one particular region and let the rest fend for themselves, etc.
30/10/2010 at 18:24 mwoody says:
For us filthy rebels: $15.94 is the current USD price.
30/10/2010 at 19:24 Mister Adequate says:
I was just thinking about this last night and wondering what had become of that climate change game I saw on RPS but could not remember the name of.
I’m pretty sure I will be preordering this if I get beta access from Monday. I am hopeful that they have included as deep a model as they promise and that this, in turn, means I can be a megalomaniacal lunatic. References to a “Dr. Apocalypse” reaffirm this hope.
30/10/2010 at 19:30 mwoody says:
Any idea how long this preorder offer lasts? I might be a jerk and wait for those with more disposable income than me to give a verdict…
30/10/2010 at 19:47 sfury says:
SOLD!
30/10/2010 at 20:10 sfury says:
I’ve been checking their site ever since you featured them on RPS. I hoped it would be out by now, but half-price pre-order and access to the beta suits me fine.
31/10/2010 at 00:01 noom says:
Yeah, I’ve gone ahead with the pre-order too. I’m happy to part with a tenner for what looks like a pretty unique game.
31/10/2010 at 02:30 malkav11 says:
I’d love to do a preorder, but I’d much prefer to do so in some fashion that acknowledges that I am not British and do not understand your filthy Royalist currencies.
31/10/2010 at 02:45 Ellie says:
I totally read the title literally, and it made me sad.
31/10/2010 at 09:12 sfury says:
Haha, that’s deep.
01/11/2010 at 02:38 Chris says:
While the climate change bandwagon seems to get so many people excited, the fact they’re trying to flog the idea for sales here works against them for me. I’d give this a fair go if it wasn’t for the social propaganda crap I’d be wading through every step of the way.
ps- I’m not a dirty denier, I just don’t care :0
01/11/2010 at 04:33 Oak says:
Oh, in that case.
01/11/2010 at 04:51 Torgen says:
Hmm,
Using the term “social propaganda crap” and “I’m not a denier” in the same post.
01/11/2010 at 11:32 Bullwinkle says:
Don’t worry, Chris. No pressure.
01/11/2010 at 05:32 AL GORE says:
I APPROVE! stoopid. let them eat cake with global climate change. because they’re poor.