Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Telltale really does have a gift for picking up licenses people are craving for. Sam & Max, Monkey Island, and now Back To The Future. And they’re not going in alone. As the making of videos below show, they’ve got co-creator Bob Gale involved with the project. And as we’ve seen before, Christopher Lloyd is on board to provide his all important voice. Michael J Fox won’t be providing his voice, but has given permission for his likeness to be used. And so they set about casting a sound-alike. You can see all this below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last we saw of Two Worlds II, developers Southpeak were cheerily mocking the first game in a series of videos. Evidently with the game’s Jan 2011 release date coming up, the time for such jokes is OVER.

The trailer below shows a FEROCIOUS BATTLE between HUMANS (I think?) and NOT-ORCS. The bloody fight takes place at the coast next to OSWAROTH, a city next to the DRA’KAR DESERT. There is an AXE. There is PAIN. There is a BIRD, who may or may not be the NARRATOR. Have you had breakfast yet? Did you sleep well? Because if not, you might just LOSE CONTROL and POP A BONER.
Read the rest of this entry »

Sundays are for food. Towers of roasted meat, galaxies of vegetable, seas of cranberry sauce and gravy, biblical visions of multiplying booze and bread. Clearly, I am going to feast. But I might also rest my tired laptop on my bulging gut (heavy with the flesh of beasts) to prepare something worth reading. Something worth digesting. For starters, try these morsels:

• Story of the week, for me, was the extraordinary revelation that the DDOS attack on the Minecraft server was perpetrated by players demanding more updates. It’s astonishing, if true. A comment, purportedly from the attackers, read: “It’s purpose is to send Notch a clear message of how the future of minecraft will turn out unless he gets to work, namely by influencing the amount of sales taking place, due to the attacks.” A couple of people forwarded this commentary on the situation, which I think pretty much sums up the general reaction.

Read the rest of this entry »

Looks like Firefall is going to have some competition in the persistent-world jetpack revival stakes, as Global Agenda developers Hi-Rez have announced that they now own the Tribes licence, and will be creating a PvP-focused action MMO called Tribes Universe. Details in the announcement post on the Hi-Rez forums are fairly encouraging: “We can’t transform Global Agenda to a large scale battle format but since we liked this concept a lot, we decided to create a new game based on large scale fighting. In order to develop the new game many significant steps had to be taken, including: A significant rewrite to the unreal engine servers to allow for 100+ players to be fighting in the same map, a new UI system that is more efficient, a different implementation of character visuals, a new terrain system, etc.”

Hi-Rez will continue to support Global Agenda, but this new, far more ambitious game will be the focus. Hi-Rez sez: “Alpha testing will begin at the start of the year (about 3 months from now) and Global Agenda players with level 50 characters will have priority in entering Alpha and Beta testing.” Exciting stuff. And interesting that this new game looks like the game Global Agenda players came away from that game wanting.

Given last night saw all manner of hullabaloo around Diablo III, now seems a fine time to point you at the utterly throwaway Glorg. It’s a free, browser-based dungeon crawler, focused as all dungeon-crawlers are on hitting stuff, collecting loot and levelling up. All of it, though, is based around one button. To hit, to loot, to move, to heal, to explore, to block, to equip, to mega-bash: all of it. This is not a game that pretends it’s anything other than a click-fest – the dark truth at the heart of Diablo III and its ilk. Let’s be honest here. When you play games like that, you just want to get stuff. You don’t actually care about how you do it. Hit button. Get stuff. Hit button. Get stuff. TRUTH.
Read the rest of this entry »

Hello, youse.

This is the column that will see me looking at Arkham Horror, the board game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. It’s a column I only feel prepared to write after spending a few years with the game. You’ve been asking for it, and I live to serve.

I get asked about Arkham Horror all the time. When someone starts taking an interest in board games, it seems that Arkham Horror is a game that draws their eye more than most. I think I know why. People who like board games are probably a bit more likely to be geeky and into reading books than people who don’t. And many of those people will have read Lovecraft. A board game based on Lovecraft’s work is a very attractive prospect, partly because you ask yourself just how a board game could possibly capture the crawling horror and hopelessness of that world.

When I get asked that question – “Hey, man. How is Arkham Horror?” – I know now what to say. This column is that answer in long form.
Read the rest of this entry »

Uh oh, one of the discounted games this week had John on the payroll. I didn’t even want to feature it in the bargain bucket, but he threatened send a clown to blow me up if I didn’t*. Still, I’m standing up to his demands that this week’s selection just be his game listed 5 times, so here’s a variety of cut price computer gaming fun. For more cheap gaming goodness, use your nearest web browser to have a look at SavyGamer.co.uk. Here are the deals: Read the rest of this entry »

Aaaand the final class reveal for Diablo III. It’s the Demon Hunter, a class which which Blizzard describe as a conventional ranged class with a dark twist. So a kind of sexy dark-magic ranger with dual-wielded crossbows, then. There’s a trailer for the class below, mixing FMV with a bit of in-game stuff. Looks pretty Diabloy. Diablo-ie. Diabloey. Hmm.
Read the rest of this entry »

Blizzcon is a-happening, and the news is flowing. First up is a Team PvP arena announcement for Diablo III. Small scale maps that are tied into the wider world seem to be the order of the day, and it’s all, of course, going to be tied into Battlenet rankings systems with the attendant achievements for your, er, achievements. Video and full details below.
Read the rest of this entry »

Bah, I thought this was now. This starts on Monday. I will bump this post then, and we shall play next week!

ORIGINAL OVERZEALOUS EXCITEMENT:
Blimey, awesome flight-fight aero-battle game Dogfighter is just slightly more than £1! (Soon, anyway.) So you and me, tomorrow afternoon, in this game. Right? It’s on! The game also has a big update on the 25th, which means you get even more for your quid.

Seriously for £1 we might as well all get stuck in. It’s a bi-planar riot of a game – check out the trailer below – I’ll see you on there tomorrow. (Or next week, when this actually starts.)
Read the rest of this entry »

RPS’s own Lewie Proctor tipped us off about this. The Polynomial: Space of the Music is a shooter out now on Steam, boasting a demo, a reasonable £5.99 pricetag and the prettiest screenshots in the world.

Lured by these magnificent images, Jim and I had a play. We then picked ourselves up off the floor for a chat.
Read the rest of this entry »