Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Valve have announced the new Team Fotress 2 beta: “As you’ve probably seen by now, we like to change things in Team Fortress 2. A lot. And while we’re perfect most of the time, we occasionally get something wrong. One reason for this is we just don’t get enough data from internal play testing, and another is that we spend too much time watching Tom Bui serenades on Youtube.”

It seems that with the game being patched so regularly, a beta phase of the game is going to need to run, concurrent with the latest version. More info on the official blog, and forum pages here.

Can it really be almost a decade since the original Emergency game? If you think about it, a tactical management game based around manipulating the emergency services – putting out fires, taking people to hospital, rescuing the stricken – is the kind of thing that not only makes sense as a game, but would largely act as a positive image for games as a whole. Well, if it was any good. You can judge whether this modernised making of Emergency 2012 is any good by checking out the demo.

Emergency 2012 is out now. Game footage below.
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You there! Have you ever played Munchkin? It’s a multiplayer card game about dungeoneering, created by Fighting Fantasy co-creator the other Steve Jackson. It’s enormously entertaining, primarily because it’s designed almost entirely around screwing people over. It’s shallow as all hell and has arguably been flogged into semi-embarrasing status by the endless slew of expansions and modifications, but it’s also a great night in. Or even out, if you live near a pub that isn’t full of large, angry skinheads who like to punch boardgame players in the face.

There isn’t a videgame version, and I’m not entirely convinced there should be (this is, after all, a game about getting really, really cross with the people you’re sat next to) – but there is now a ‘rigged demo‘ intended to explain the cartwheeling, sadistic rules of play.
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Across the internet, a wave of worried grumbling. It’s one thing when terribly shlocky UK TV stations like ITV gun for games, but when the generally more sober BBC announces an upcoming episode of its documentary series Paranorama will investigate “hidden psychological devices in games that are designed to keep us coming back for more,” things get a little more troubling.

Of course, no-one knows what the show will actually decide about games.
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The fourth episode in the Dr Who adventure game series, Shadows of the Vashta Nerada, will go online as soon as the television Christmas special episode finishes airing in the UK. That’s the plan, anyway. Producer Steven Moffat says: “Shadows of the Vashta Nerada takes place entirely underwater – something which would be impossible for the TV series, as water is so expensive. It’s thrilling, terrifying, educational and fun. Just steer clear of those shadows…” The BBC’s game budget is set to expand, too, with more Dr Who games turning up next year, and probably some other stuff, too.

Britons can get the rest of the games for free here. I haven’t played a single one of these. Any good?

A new game based on the comedy wraith-wrangling movies has been revealed by Atari, via USAToday for some reason, and it’s going to be called Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime. Mmm, sanctum. Although it returns to the tale of the rookie ‘buster from the previous game, it looks like Atari (and developer Wanako) are going down a slightly different route, with this game being a top-down action game distributed via the magic of a series of tubes. There is online and offline 4-player co-op. You will be able to drive Ecto-3, too. So that’s a thing that will happen.

The original game apparently sold of a million copies, which seems like a lot. Release date: No.

The second game of Christmas is leaping out of the side of a skyscraper and plunging, unflinching towards the world below. It’s not that it’s suicidal, you understand, it’s that it really doesn’t think much of gravity. What could it be? Let’s look behind the second window…

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Sound the Castle Shotgun Happiness Bugle! The English-language release of free-to-play zombie survival browser horrowshow Die2Nite has come about. Invitation keys are no longer needed. Bin ‘em if you got ‘em. You can sign up and start playing right here, and you can read my impressions of the beta here.

In short, you and a few dozen other players are tasked with surviving as long as possible, with fierce waves of zombies crashing against your walls each real-world night. Work together, improve your defences, lynch the griefers and be sure to drag any corpses outside your town, and you just might last a week. The game’s mad and willfully uninformative trailer follows…
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RPS reader (not making this up) Fuggles the Lightfuggly One sends word that PETA, aka People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has published a parody of Super Meat Boy. You can play Super Tofu Boy here. Is it still a parody if it’s just kind of… Super Meat Boy, again? There’s not much ridicule going on here, except for Bandage Girl two-timing Meat Boy. But you know, I always suspected she was bad news.

Which brings us to an interesting point. While Super Tofu Boy is a hundred miles away from the 24 carat running and jumping of SMB, it does use the same running and walljumping mechanics. For a quick & dirty look at the mechanics of Super Meat Boy, Super Tofu Boy can provide.

EDIT: Brave RPS commenter Terry points out that you could just play the Flash version of Meat Boy. So, I suppose this doesn’t need to exist after all.

It’s remarkable that I am able to bring you any news today, since all other services in the UK seem to have been buried alive, or consumed by panic at the sight of frozen water. We at RPS Ltd fear no weather, however, and will bravely sit in our warm houses to bring you latest in PC gaming news. Except John, who is supposed to be going to London to interview famous people. Good luck, John! Anyway, there must be news. Like this: BitComposer send word that they intend to publish a flying, shooting game based on World War I & II, called Air Conflicts: Secret Wars. Look, there’s a picture of it above these words! See the little men. Air Conflicts is, apparently, a game about attacking ground targets with a selection of planes from the era, with missions including convoy raids, escort exercises, and other air-to-ground goodness. The secret bit comes from the air raids all being about historical resistance or espionage: “Seven campaigns, each based upon a resistance movement of the second world war.” I’m not sure where that leaves the aforementioned World War I. Maybe that’s the tutorial level. The game is described as having two control schemes: “Arcade and simulation.” Hopefully one of those will be good.

When is the game out? Q2 2011, that’s when.

Kieron had big love for this year’s Toki Tori, a fiendish puzzle game by indie developers Two Tribes. They’ve got a new game that’s due out in two days, and just received a debut trailer: RUSH. It’s a puzzle game, but completely different from their previous game. This time it’s a 3D cube-rolling affair, which at first glance made me think of the iOS game Edge (the one that suffered from Tim Langdell’s impotent attacks.) But it quickly becomes apparent that it’s not the same at all. It’s about guiding multiple blocks to their targets, creating paths for the perpetually moving cubes. And from the trailer below, it looks pretty lovely.

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