Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Blizzard (them again) have high hopes for Starcraft II’s editor. Increasingly, so do I. For instance, it’s enabled one enterprising chap sidestepping EA’s failure to make Dungeon Keeper 3 and instead creating his own functional DK prototype in SC2′s engine and universe…
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Are you one of the frightening mountain of people considering relapsing returning to World of Warcraft in the wake of Cataclysm’s rather noticeable release? Did you log on to dredge up your old character, in whatever ludicrous mish-mash of loot he was garbed in, only to discover that the entire world had set up camp on your server during your away time, and now you have to queue for forty million and 12 hours to get in?

Blizzard may be willing to help.
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Over on The Escapist we get some hints from SOE’s John Smedley about the next PlanetSide game:

“We have a very big launch coming in the month of March,” Smedley said. “It’s a big first person shooter franchise that we’re really happy with.” I took a leap of logic and asked whether it was Planetside. “Could be,” Smedley said sheepishly. “We haven’t technically announced it.”

We have also received a number of anonymous hints about this being in development, something which seems to corroborate both what we speculated about last year, and what we heard about the mysterious “PlanetSide Next“. Imagine if we got PlanetSide 2 next March! Blimey.

Telltale have dropped a fat update onto the official Back to the Future site, with hot new details on each of the five upcoming episodes, plus voice acting samples from the game’s cast including Christopher “Oh My God It’s Christopher Lloyd” Lloyd. I wasn’t taking too much of an interest in this game previously as I like point’n'click games almost as much as I like eating fiberglass insulation, but hearing Lloyd’s voice has made me come over all conflicted. Hmm. One piece of information that did confuse me was that the synopsis all imply you’ll be doing a lot of time travelling back to the 80s, until I realised that the game’s present is the 80s. Obviously.

You know, I think the more confusing this game is, the more I’ll like it.

Kieron sends word that Mythic’s Paul Barnett sends word that Realm of the Mad God is one of his games of the year. Well!

Jim posted about RotMG back in January, and following a quick investigation I can report that it’s still the rockin’ free-to-play massively multiplayer fantasy RPG shooter that it always was. Yes. How that works is that you send your character skittering through the world, blasting monsters, collecting loot and attempting the odd quest, and you’re free to chat with/join with/ignore any other players you encounter. It’s an absurdly lightweight experience that a stiff breeze could catapult into space, yet it’s plenty compelling and the shooting is crisp. Go play! If you need me (you won’t need me) I’ll be the frantic priest in an area several levels too dangerous for him.

If RPS’s slave army ever rises up to destroy us, then we’d like to imagine that the heroic central figure in the story would have as much fun as we did playing this game. Not that it will ever happen, of course, because our experiment in the manipulation of human beings is flawless and, frankly, unstoppable. What are we talking about? ACCESS THE NINTH WINDOW!
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We’ve heard there’s a few people playing this World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Some people like to play it together. And so it is that Rock, Paper, Shotgun readers have created a guild. It’s a Horde gang, on EU Aggrammar, called Rock, Paper, Saurfang.

If you’d like to join, then you need cast the following spell: /w “Narune”

Thanks to “Serenegoose” for bringing this to our attention, who explains it as, “for people who want to explore the world together, and who are bound together by our love of RPS as a general community.” So that’s where to go if you wish to WoW in the finest company.

It’s such a shame that Settlers 7 was overshadowed by the DRM issues around it. It’s a wonderful piece of work, as pretty on the outside as the inside. You have to manufacture these great, heavy supply chains, working out all the puzzling kinks in them, and then you start swinging them around your head and beating the crap out of your opponents. Brilliant. As of this week it’s just hit version 1.11, with the new patch adding not just a new map but a whole new “Occult Science” branch for the tech tree. Did you play it, readers? What did you think? Trailer for one of the game’s two pay-for DLC packs follows…
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Revolution has announced that there’s to be a director’s cut of Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror. This is the second remake of the series, following 2009′s embellished Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars. (Which in the interests of disclosure, I must add that I worked on, script editing, and writing the diaries and the hints. I’ve nothing at all to do with this second re-edition.) Unlike the first game, this new version will not contain any new story or puzzles, but will improve the graphics, animations, and cutscenes, as well as adding in a diary and hints.

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Want to shoot men in the company of men? Then you’ve come to the right place! We’re going to be playing Operation Arrowhead this weekend, thanks to the heroic band of brothers who operate the server. Details? Yes! You are best off with Mumble & Operation Arrowhead 1.56. Server IP: 81.19.209.123 Server Password: rumpus

Action will start at 8pm this coming Saturday. I believe it filled right up last time, so you might want to get in early. If you’re very lucky there might even be a session on Sunday, too. Regarding other Game Club events coming up over Christmas, I am planning Killing Floor, World In Conflict, and possible some Quake Live, for freeness. Any other suggestions?

Last night I got an exclusive sneak preview of the Christmas update to Killing Floor, in which the familiar range of nightmarish mutants are replaced with an even more disturbing group of gingerbread men, murderous elves, fiery snowmen, and super-powered death Santas. It’s an impressive piece of work, and also a little strange, and comes with free stuff for TF2 players. More on these things, to the slightly off-key tune of Jingle Bells, below. (Also, a seasonal trailer.)
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