Rock, Paper, Shotgun

BioWare have just tweeted a barcode. Scanning it, it reveals the numbers 001101010011010100101110001110000011010000110101. Decoding that we’re left with 55.845, which is, as you’ll all be shouting at your monitor, the atomic weight of iron. And iron makes steel. And steel is a word in “Shattered Steel”. And Shattered Steel is a 1996 BioWare game about battling mechs. And BioWare are announcing a new game this Saturday. Any other thoughts? (Alec is the genius behind this, but give me the glory anyway.) And now there’s more…

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It’s that time of year again, folks: the time when ModDB’s annual awards roll around and everyone seems more eager to spam that website with pleas for votes rather than a great deal of anything interesting happening. Still, cutting through the mix – both there and elsewhere on the ‘net – are a few gems. So here we go: the last seven days in interesting mod-related gubbins.
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They said it couldn’t be done, but Bioware did it anyway. Their next – as yet unrevealed – game will feature a man with a gun. We at Rock, Paper, Shotgun have often said that more games should feature a) men, or b) guns, but to combine the two in a single videogame product is something we had hardly dared to dream of.

I can scarcely contain myself for the full announcement of what this teaser image is implying about the future of videogames. I’m crying here. Crying.

Teaser below. Update: also an ode to men with guns. Thanks, internet.
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Oh, I know! A new bus simulator game has been announced by Aerosoft. It will be published in “early 2011″ for the bargain price of €29.99 You need to look at the screenshots here. Also, it uses TrackIR head tracking, if you have that fancy stuff: “TrackIR by NaturalPoint now offers the complete freedom of movement in the OMSI cockpit too and intuitively helps checking the mirrors, operating the dashboard switches and reading the instruments.”

Imagine that.

It seems a slightly imbalanced fight. But these are some resilient humans. Zallag’s Gods Vs. Humans is a tower-destroying puzzle game, and while I’m beyond certain that there’s an obscure example of the same idea released for the Amiga in 1992 that someone will point out, it’s an original approach for me. You play a god, whose job it is to prevent the humans from building a tower that reaches the heavens. To do this you use a combination of offensive and defensive powers, while attempting to not turn the humans completely against you. It’s a balance of destroying their heretical creations, but without losing their faith. It’s also about as complicated a set of instructions as I’ve ever seen.

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EA’s slick-looking physics contraptions puzzler is out on the 19th for PC download, and the main website can be found here. I’ve had a bit of a fiddle with Create this morning and I can report that it’s extremely slick and accessible. Fortunately for us there’s a 500mb demo, too, so you can corroborate my wild claims. The full game has a mighty level editor, to allow you to make your own puzzles in a decent amount of depth, as well as decorate and tweak the core game levels as you see fit. Not exactly something I am likely to sink my life into, but I like how the levels are tidy but undecorated, so that players can lay down detail as they work on the puzzles.

I’ve posted the launch trailer below. For £20 it’s not looking like a bad little game.
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Remember the guy who was making a working CPU in Minecraft? Well, he’s finished. You can get his saved game from here here. He’s also done a little explanatory release video, which I’ve posted below. The file also contains an instruction set so that you can see what is going on. Well, that’s the intention. I just climbed up a nearby mountain and said “woo!”
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Have you ever actually played Yars’ Revenge? You can play it here. Of all the games to remake, Atari choose that? A classic, perhaps, but it nevertheless boggles the mind. Big Download got the scoop: “This new version is the first game that’s due to be released by Killspace Entertainment… Its remake of Yars Revenge will have a Japanese anime art style as it tells the story of a nameless Yar who was previously brainwashed by the Qotile empire. Now having broken from their control, the Yar battles back against its former masters. Look for massive aerial battles, multiple endings and local support for two player co-op.”

It’s out in early 2011 for digital download. I have posted both the new trailer and the original TV ad. Compare and contrast and wtf.
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The internet moved at especially frightening speed this evening, with a tale that 007 Blood Stone/Blur/The Club/Geometry Wars/Project Gotham developer Bizarre Creations was allegedly to lose staff or even close its doors slamming from 0mph Twitter rumour to 100mph damning Activision statement within 90 minutes.

Online chatter’s divided into roughly two camps. 1) Owners Activision are greedy so-and-sos who have no right and far too much to money to do this 2) Bizarre have been churning out duds in recent years and this is only logical.
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Released a few months ago, but only just catching my eye (thanks to creator Theo Waern alerting us to it), The Journey Down is one of the most remarkable-looking AGS indie adventures I’ve seen. Taking five years to put together, it’s obviously a true labour of love, this opening chapter telling the tale of gas station owner Bwana and his attempt to rebuild his aeroplane so he can get out of crippling debts. An evil power company is demanding huge payments, while making it illegal for anyone to explore a region of this world known as The Edge. To get there, a bunch of inventory items are going to be needed, that’s for sure.

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Amidst the web-wide frenzy resulting from the announcement of 2K Marin’s shooter-sequel to X-COM, those who were unwaveringly disappointed/infuriated that the series’ strategy roots had been abandoned had at least one source of turn-based solace. That was Goldhawk Interactive’s Xenonauts, one of more X-COM remake projects than any sane man could count – but this time determined to retain the original game’s key systems and concepts rather than slavishly recreate every feature, aesthetic and plot-point. Cold War-set and going for military grit rather than early 90s comicbook scifi, it promises to be familiar yet different.

However, a great many X-COM tributes have been, gone or simply stalled midway through development – indeed RPS gets advised of a new one at least every couple of months. So how/will this one be different? Best leave that one to the developer, really – read on for project lead Chris England’s thoughts on why do this, 2K’s FPS, bastard Chrysalids, and what’s going to be better than the original.
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