Rock, Paper, Shotgun

So then. There was this leak of an internal schedule from within Blizzard, which we were a bit sceptical about and didn’t bother to post. It mentioned a game called “Titan” slated for the end of 2013. Then in these VGA interviews Frank Pearce of Blizzard admits that this is the next-gen MMO, but won’t say any more about it.

My bet? I’m confident that the MMOFPS rumours are true. It’ll be a sci-fi action game with hefty social and trade elements, and it’ll be a new franchise. Not World Of Starcraft, but close enough. Blizzard will be looking closely at APB, Firefall and everything else in that area, and then they’ll make their move. I think this ties neatly into the “No Subscriptions For CoD”, too. No, there won’t be subscriptions for that, but Activision can rely on Blizzard to create something else that we will pay subs for, something that will bestride the Halo/Gears space marine manshoot genre at the same time. It’s going to be bold, and it’s probably going to look like a big risk, just like WoW did.

Two Minecraft posts back to back! What’ll we do? Well, I suppose we’ll just have to deal with it. It’s all the fault of RPS reader SF Legend for pointing me towards FancyPack v1.4, a fan mod which expands on the game’s farming and cooking as well as adding piles and piles of new decorative items and furniture to the game, including a smoking chimney. Yes. Ooh, and above you’ll see all the different bonecrafts you can make from skeletons. I had no idea Minecraft content mods had gotten so ambitious. More details on the pack plus a download link right here.

Bucyruss’ BiomeTerrain Mod is a modification for Minecraft that lets you fiddle with Minecraft’s world generation algorithms- anything from biome size and type to custom trees. Now, that’s probably worth a post in itself, but far more entertaining is this playful competition over on the official Minecraft forums where people are battling to create and post the best settings to use with that mod. I’ve made a gallery of the best ones below, and I’m going to try my hand at some VVVVVV-style naming. Above, we have Zarkauff’s Continental Rift, or what I like to call “Wet Tiers of Sorrow”.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve dithered about posting this, because the acting and dialogue is… well, let’s go with “enthusiastic”, but the concept and the special effects are pretty stonking, by and large.

Beyond The Real Life is Who Framed Roger Rabbit with Warcraft, essentially. WoW machinima overlaid onto and blended with real-world footage. “Almost every shot is a combination of in-game items, characters, or environments with real life footage and special effects,” it says here.
Read the rest of this entry »

Kieron posted about turn-based Steampunk dogfightin’ browser game Steambirds back in March, and now it has a sequel called Steambirds Survival! Fancy that. I spent the last 20 minutes trying and failing to get to grips with its homing missiles, but I still had fun. Man, I wish I could fly planes. Just think- while I am sat here at my desk, literally dozens of men the world over are sat at their planes. Watery-sounding and somewhat underwhelming footage of Steambirds Survival beneath the jump, s you’re better off just playing it. Thanks to RPS reader Michael “Fingers” Nørskov for the tipoff.
Read the rest of this entry »

Will games be perfect when the AI is perfect? Possibly, but it’s only half the battle, as the thing which lurks behind the sixteenth window so amply illustrates. It doesn’t matter how smart the entities in your game are, the real power is in the tools they have to change things in the world… What manner of cryptic yammering is this?
Read the rest of this entry »

Now we’ve gotten to the bottom of why the boulder is smiling, we at RPS haven’t a single reservation about Rock of Ages. Just look at it! It is literally rock and roll. This is going to be an amazing game. And if you watch the following trailer, you’ll discover that even the powerups are going to be pretty good. We’ve got Iron Bands, Fireball, Wings and, uh, Petroleum.
Read the rest of this entry »

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Does he mean Warriors of Elysia, the famed sequel to 2002 smash hit Bikini Karate Babes?” Yes! Yes that is in fact exactly the game I mean. For the low, low price of £14.95 you can now pre-order Warriors of Elysia on Direct2Drive right here, and when the game is released on April 19th 2011 you lucky punters will also receive the accompanying Escape From Exile full-length movie and the original Bikini Karate Girls. A trailer follows. It is not safe for work, unless you work in a lubricant factory or something. I used to work in a lubricant factory, actually. I didn’t stick around.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ooh, we’ve got the first official game footage trailer from the Natural Selection 2 beta! The hybrid RTS-FPS multiplayer sequel is in pre-order-based beta at the moment, where it is being tweaked and honed and squeezed into shape by the testers and developers alike. For those of us who haven’t dared dip in, however, it’s not been clear quite how this thing plays. Unknown Worlds have addressed that with a brand-spanking new video, which you can check out below. It shows the RTS mode, as well as lashings of combat. There’s also perspectives from both alien and marine side, giving you an idea of how the game should play out.

And it looks good.
Coming out of the goddamn walls >>

We knew battlesuit drop-pod extravaganza Section 8 was getting a sequel entitled Section 8: Prejudice with plenty of new content. What developers TimeGate have announced today is that when the title released in Q1 2011 it’ll be download-only and will cost a mere $15, which actually makes it the second download-only multiplayer FPS coming out in that quarter with that price bracket together with contemporary terrain-destruction showcase Breach. Seems more of people want a slice of the invisible pie that was revealed after Battlefield 1943 was such a hit. Mm, invisible pie. A completely awesome trailer awaits below. How awesome? Have a look, and take these protective goggles.

EDIT: Celebrating the announcement, TimeGate have put together a video re-eneacting what I guess they imagine will be everybody’s response. I can only approve of this level of positivity.
Read the rest of this entry »

Rob ‘Oddbob/RetroRemakes‘ Fearon’s games have been on RPS a fair few times, and he’s known for consistently spreading cheer and ingenuity amongst the UK indie community. Genuinely, he’s one of those chaps that videogames are just a little bit more delightful for.

Which is why it’s just awful to hear that he’s been hospitalised from pneumonia. The costs inherent in his family travelling back and forth to visit and care for him are apparently monstrous – so they’re super-grateful to anyone who fancies throwing a little or a lot their way for his Bundle Of Wrong collection. Which you should totally do anyway, on its own singular colour-carnage merits.
Read the rest of this entry »