Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Here’s a classic bit of puzzling. Heavy Hogur, from Swedish indies, Spelagon, is the sort of puzzler that would have fit in well during the Amiga days. And indeed today. You play a fiery dwarf who’s somewhat over-familiar with gravity, who must mine all the crystals from a level before reaching the exit door. However, the majority of the tiles he walks across will crumble down a level after Hogur’s stepped upon them. Since he can’t climb, it’s about figuring the correct route that won’t leave him stranded.

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It’s time for another round of my favourite gameshow: Guess The Genre! Watch the trailer below from indie audio and video production team, Digital Media Workshop, and try to guess exactly what type of game Prominence is going to be.

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I can’t tell you how often we hear the same plea: “Dear RPS, please can you fix it for me to be even more bewildered than I already am by the vast array of different ways to digitally purchase PC games?” Your prayers have been answered. Added to your DirectToGoodOldSteamGetGates today is Chrome Web Store – Google’s browser-based plan to muscle in on PC gaming (and apps too, but let’s face it: games).

Snark aside, it’s a markedly different prospect to the existing stores.
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South of our clicky bit is a video in which Epic Games lead singer Clifford Bleszinski claims that Bulletstorm’s manshooting isn’t simply shooting men, but a lot of other creative stuff, much of which appears to involve smacking people around using “physics” and killing them with “explosions” and stuff. You’re apparently going to want to toy with them, to farm them for points. This says something about the world we live in, but I dare not hazard an interpretation. Go see him say stuff and then, ultimately, go do something else.
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Batman! He fights badguys, not police. Not unless he has to! But when he has to, he will fight a police as hard as it takes. That is what this trailer lets us know. Rocksteady Studios! If you would like me to start using correct grammar in future posts on Arkham City, please release some in-game footage. Thanks.
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Here’s a big quote from EA on the future of The Old Republic, as reported by MCV: “Our assumptions for break-even and profitability are not seven-digit subscribers. We think we can run and operate a very successful and profitable MMO at different levels,” said CFO Eric Brown, speaking at and event in New York. “The key thing here is to really perfect the product. We’re shooting for an extremely high quality game experience. We view this as a ten-year opportunity.”

So they’re not expecting to get into millions of subs, and decade lifespan suggests a long roadmap for expansions. It feels to me like EA/Bioware are gambling that there are enough people who want more from their game that free-to-play titles are perceived to supply that kind of continuous subscription income. And maybe they’ll be right: it could be so high quality that we’ll be fine with paying subs, even against the backdrop of better and better free-to-play stuff out there. Interesting, anyway.

Warsoup is an upcoming indie blend of real-time strategy and FPS. It’s looking pretty smooth, too. It’s being built in the Unity engine by Moon Game Studios (too early for a proper website, it seems) and it’s going be a lo-fi meeting point between Halo type FPS mechanics and Starcraft style RTS play. With Natural Selection 2 sitting pretty high in our expectations for this kind of genre hybrid it’s possible that this – even more focused on the RTS side of things – could be a success. The promise of the earlier alpha footage (posted below), in which the devs explain the basic principles of the game, as well as some of the more advanced features, backs that up. Go take a look.
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Our eighth game of Christmas only wants to be loved. Did you know, more games are returned at Christmas than at any other time of the year? And do you know what happens to returned games? That’s right. They burn them. Have a heart and adopt a game this Christmas. Ideally, adopt this one. It’s…
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Bejeweled 3 is out, and if you like putting gems in a line then you can play it on your computer. It’s quite good! Look, here Bejeweled 3 is on Steam, here it is on Direct2Drive, and if you head down to the official PopCap page then you can get yourself a free 60 minute trial. If you missed John’s rundown of the new features, that’s worth a look too. He is acerbic yet uplifting, like an Alka-Seltzer.

A video of Bejeweled 3′s new Zen mode follows, with its customisable mantras, ambient sounds, breath modulation and binaural beats. I am not joking. Take a look at this.
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I’ve got to be honest: I was expecting a Black Mesa update. It’s been tradition to do one around this time every year – a big post with new information, a trailer, some new screenshots or, last year, a big apology for having not released the mod yet. But nothing. No word. I’ll keep my eyes peeled, but I gave up trying to get in touch with the devs ages ago. Fingers crossed for next week, eh? Until then, here’s some mod news.
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To be honest, I usually go out of my way to avoid the commentary of industry magic 8-ball analyst Michael Pachter, but his recent comments on Activision’s public declining of the suggestion to charge for Call of Duty multiplayer made me laugh. Via Industry Gamers: “We were disappointed to hear Activision’s new head of publishing flatly deny the company’s plans to charge for multiplayer,” says Pachter… “Considering that each of the publicly traded publishers exists to maximize shareholder value, we view their reticence to monetize multiplayer as a betrayal of shareholder trust.”

What a shame. I wonder whose trust Activision were considering when they said they would never do that, eh readers?