Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Side-scrolling indie strategy oddity Swords & Soldiers gets unlocked on Steam in ooh, three hours – having been ported to our personal computing machines following a warm reception on WiiWare. This version features sparklier graphics and the addition of multiplayer, as it’s mercifully no longer bound to a device that’s afraid of the internet. I’ve thrown a few hours at throwing lines of 2D troopers at each other, which leaves me rather conviently placed to share some manner of opinion with you.
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Had you heard you can pre-order The Witcher 2? It’s been about fourteen seconds since the last time I saw something saying I could, and I was darned close to forgetting. So below is a trailer released in honour of pre-ordering’s possibility. As we know, the game will come with no DRM, but if you download it they’ll murder your family*. It’s orange and blue. And Alec ruined your chance of seeing some boobs. RPS brings definitive coverage on all games. The new trailer’s below, and it’s a goodun.

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Offbeat sci-fi MMO Earthrise sounds pretty intriguing, at least going on the information the devs have put out so far, and the interview we did with them over here. That said, the assets that have been coming out of the ongoing beta are… disappointing. The latest beta footage, which I’ve posted below, doesn’t seem to break that them. And I know this is beta footage and everything, but that landscape seriously needs some vegetation and, well, the video itself needs some serious editing pizazz… Sci-fi dudes standing around, lifelessly shooting each other at a range of ten feet isn’t selling this to me. Hell, it might be honest, but no. Go see for yourself.
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It must be a Christmas time generosity thing. There are literally heaps of mod news at the moment. Yes, literally. They’re stacked up tall, like so many piles of gargantuan molehills. Read on with your beady eyes for all the splendid details.
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EDIT: The following is based on extensive time spent with the 360 version of SMB, and we’re hearing reports that the PC version currently has memory leak and gamepad support issues. We’ll be posting a full review of the PC version very soon.

EDIT 3: Pow! Team Meat slurp into action.

Super Meat Boy is OUT, you know. You could be buying it over at Steam right the hell now with £11.99 of your (let’s face it) ill-gotten money. The only problem is, there’s no demo. This is me letting out a sigh like a shot from an air rifle.

Super Meat Boy is a steaming steak of brilliance, served with a rich, leathery wine with a label that reads Chateau Just One More Go. A demo will unquestionably result in Team Meat selling more copies, and the sooner it arrives the better. Until then, I suppose I’ll have to sell you this game with my trademark hyperbole. You got a minute? If so, let’s do this. You need Super Meat Boy in your life because…
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This first Game Of Christmas is a game that is all about unwrapping things. Unwrapping them with explosives. Let’s see what we’re jabbering about behind the first window…
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Yesterday lots of us joined hands and got angry at the news that Americans who pre-ordered Deus Ex: Human Revolution at GameStop would be gifted with not just new weapons and items, but an exclusive mission entitled Tong’s Rescue featuring a cameo of a character from Deus Ex. Ooh, we were so angry.

This morning Squeenix has revealed the European pre-order bonuses for Human Revolution, and it’s good news. Anybody who lives in the land of good cheese and bad television will be getting what I think is a much more reasonable deal.
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EDIT: I didn’t realise this was a mandatory update. Expect to download 2.6gb next time you play the game! Ugh.

There are two pieces of Battlefield news! First is that the latest BFBC2 map pack will arrive some time today. It’s looking like the best of the map packs so far, with four new maps. FOUR NEW MAPS. JESUS CHRIST! There are two maps from the original Battlefield Bad Company multiplayer, and two from BFBC2′s single player. They’re all redone to make for BFBC2 multiplayer awesomeness. I am going to be playing the hell out of them on the RPS server a bit later. Also, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam will be appearing on 18th of December on Steam and EA Store, and 21st everywhere else. We shall also be playing that. Then.

I’ve posted the splendid, explosive map pack trailer below. Go. Me.
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This is interesting. Bigpoint send word that the moderately popular German RPG Drakensang will be reappearing as free-to-play online RPG. Apparently it’s going to feature top end 3D graphics in a browser, too. Bigpoint tell us that “The in-house developed Nebula engine – which was used in the development of the PC versions of Drakensang – makes it possible to play the game in a browser without players needing to install any software onto their computer.” The site isn’t fully up yet, just this German-language email registration page.

I’ve posted the brief teaser trailer below, and it’s got a bit of in-game footage in there. Not looking bad at all, although it’s set more at a Diablo sort of angle than the last Drakensang game. Go take a look.
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The next Need For Speed game, Shift 2: Unleashed is headed for the PC in Spring 2011. It’s looking rather strong, too, and you can see Executive Producer Marcus Nilsson talking about the project in this GameTrailers interview, below. In this video Nilsson talks about improvements to the engine – a new “helmet cam” view makes it look even more like the real-world view of racing – but also specifically about the “Autolog” feature, which also turned up in Hot Pursuit. This basically allows you to network with gaming chums, and to compares your accomplishments in the game against theirs. It’s looking good.
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