Rock, Paper, Shotgun

That’ll be the initially Asia-only game being developed by Chinese outfit Netdragon. Toy-makers Hasbro (also responsible for brands such as GI Joe, My Little Pony and Nipple Torture Adventures In The 28th Century) revealed in their latest money hat conference that they’ll be releasing the game in the US and Europe too. There remain no details, other than a tiny JPG that just might have enough hints of red and blue to suggest Optimus Prime will appear in the game. In fact, I am willing to say right here, right now that the most well-known Transformer of them all will appear in an upcoming Transformers game even though that has not been confirmed. Yeah, crazy huh? I’m a daredevil, me.
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What’s this? Why, is it an irreverant indie point’n'click game in the style of old scumm engine titles? It is! Hooray!

If you like, you can watch the Kaptain Brawe: A Brawe New World trailer below. If you like that, then you can get the demo here. If you like the trailer and the demo, then you can buy the full game from Gamersgate for the price of $20. Would you like that? I think it’s likely.
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You’re new around here. Let me tell you who I am. My name is Quinns. I am a scavenger, and I am a survivor, and I have had a shit day. I spent ten hours searching for salvage out in the desert, and when I finally came back to this town dragging this here piece of scrap iron, I discovered that some desperate soul had raided my tent and stolen the only belonging I left at home. They took my doggy bag of food. Do you know what a gallows is? Well, I’ll tell you. A gallows is what we build when souls take my food.
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Kieron points out that this is probably, realistically, literally the “ultimate” RPG for the Commodore 64, as its website claims, since it’s likely to be the last one ever to be produced. Newcomer is part adventure, part RPG, and it’s coming out on the C64 this year, probably. Protovision claim to have spent twenty years working on the game, the details for which can be found on the product page here. At 70-280 hours on the first playthrough, it’s certainly a contender for one of the bigger single-player games to be hitting our personal computers this year, even if it might be tough to find a working C64 to play it on. If we can dig one up, we might even have to give it a look. The game certainly seems ambitious for a C64 title. Two megabytes total data! How did they fill up all that space?

[Thanks to Mihai, who first wrote about Newcomer here, for pointing this out.]

Hmmph, the instruments must be playing up. I somehow didn’t get a proper reading on The First Templar which was announced earlier this year. It’s a sword-based Medieval-dude-ending experience from Haemimont Games, whose name you might recognise from Tropico 3 and Grand Ages: Rome. A bit of a departure then, from management to third-person action. (I spent a long moment there trying to come up with a “management to man-rage-something” joke, but it just couldn’t happen.) It’s the story of the Holy Grail, apparently, and that involves co-op melee action, stealth kills, ogres, and all sorts of other third-person violencing possibilities. Possibly worth a look.

I thrust a trailer into the bowels of this post, killing it dead.
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Ah, the working week hasn’t begun until we’ve posted a dreadfully sinister indie game. Courtesy of the Indie Games blog, Activate the Three Artefacts and then Leave has you navigating an ominous, claustrophobic environment using your mouse, the WASD keys and by listening out for sounds, though that description doesn’t convey the game’s nightmarish atmosphere. It plays a bit like the hallucination of a sedated hospital patient who’s been left staring at white ceiling tiles. Videogames! Go play.

The Darkspore team are busy getting their game, Darkspore, finished off, and they’re also flexing their hype muscles in prep for the big launch. Below you can see they’ve gone and played through one of the levels co-op, and explained what they’re up to. A “walkthrough” is what they’re calling it. Could catch on. There are a few interesting insights in there, too, such as the variety of combat skills, and the fact that the enemies are spawned and controlled via an AI director, as you would get in games such as Left 4 Dead. It’s a huge chunk of game footage, so if you want to know more about this game, this is where your eyes should stare.
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IndieDB – the spin-off from ModDB – is launching its Indie Of The Year Awards for 2010. Clearly there’s going to be big contest from Super Meat Boy and Minecraft, with surely one of those two winning. But you can cast your vote for the Player’s Choice over on their site now. Our own mod expert Lewis Denby is part of the judging panel for the Panel’s Choice. There’s a little confusion on how long’s left to vote – the countdown clock says 15 days, but the top of the site says until the 1st Jan. Assume the former, and cast your vote before it’s too late.

As expected, Good Old Games have added to their catalogue Baldur’s Gate II. Which means they’ve now got a pretty definitive collection of BioWare and their spin-off’s RPGs from the turn of the century. It’s the Complete version, which comes with the main game, Shadows of Amn, and the add-on pack, Throne of Baal. At over 200 hours long, it’s probably the best ratio of game for money you’ll find, even though GoG have put it at their higher price of $10. There’s a bunch of goodies in there too, art work and the soundtrack, along with the manuals and the map. So, there it is. Baldur’s Gate I and II, Icewind Dale I and II, Neverwinter Nights, and PlaneScape: Torment, all in one place, preserved. Phew.

(Don’t forget to check out the Gibberlings BG2 fixpack, the BG2 Tweakpack and their widescreen mod, along with a bunch of other extras including new characters, before playing.)

The UnderGarden was recently released by Atari for download. Promising a zen-like experience, does it induce calm and joy, or demand determined meditation? I’ve finished it all up, and am absolutely determined to tell you Wot I Think.

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Dirt 3 is going to have a good balance between arcade accessibility and realism, say Codemasters, as they unveil the latest adventure in offroad antics in this early developer diary (posted below, obviously). The racing game, which is due to turn up some time next year, also seems to feature time travel, as one of the races will be “a Mini Cooper in the 1960s”. It’s also going to shift the focus back more towards classic rally, compared to Dirt 2, which can only be a good thing for those of us who are fans of sending nightmare versions of normal cars hurtling down roads made of leaves and optimism.
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