Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Oh no! Square Enix have announced that the third Deus Ex game will be pushed back to April. The news came as part of an announcement to investors. Here’s what the investors were told: “With weak sales performance of console game titles that have been newly released during the current fiscal year as well as harsh market feedback regarding a key title, the Group recognizes the reinforcement of development capability in our Digital Entertainment segment as our most critical managerial issue.” I’m not sure how criticism of (presumably) the Final Fantasy MMO’s dodgy launch has implications for DX, but oh well. More time could mean a better game come April.

It’s not fair to damn a game for being competent. But it’s an unfortunate position that lies between interestingly good, and interestingly bad. That’s where I’d put Dark Visions – a Flash-based point and click adventure that probably deserves a lot more credit than I’m going to give it.

Adventure forth »

Were you interested in Elemental: War of Magic but put off by all the reports of it being buggy? Did you instead choose to spend your week’s shekels getting proper bum-guzzled on the danger liquid at your local alcobuilding? Well, perhaps now is the time to reconsider that lifestyle of yours. Stardock has released its monster 1.1 update for the game, fixing a whole hive of bugs, adding spells and upgrades, changing the mana and population systems, updating the UI and rebalancing everything else. As always, a changelog of this size holds plenty of gems, including “Balanced Children” and “You can no longer drink some quest items (like the magic flute).” Version 1.2 is apparently already underway, and we can look forward to a demo in January. Latest trailer follows…
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We’re used to corridor shooters, but corridor strategies? That’s what Sigma Team (they of Alien Shooter) are up to with Alien Hallway. It takes place in… a… hallway. Yes. Aliens are attacking and you have to use your mind to organise the defense. Of the hallway. Sort of tower defence with creeps on both sides, or something, single path sort of DOTA thing. Yeah, it actually looks about a million times more fun than I am making it sound. I’m terrible at this. Go watch the video, below.

Alien Hallway is out now. (News via Blues! Love you, Blue.)
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Iron Helmet, the devious devs behind Neptune’s Pride, are releasing their next project, Blight of the Immortals, in January, and I couldn’t be more excited. I’m like a sugar-loaded child over here. I’m even more excited because I’m currently in the beta of Blight of the Immortals, and over the last few days I’ve been learning precisely what the game’s about. Basically, it’s about worrying.
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The Grim Christmas Of The Future, there is only that stuff that isn’t Lego, but wants to be. It’s sort of similar, but not as various or as versatile. And you can’t really build anything good with it, so that’s just a waste of money basically, isn’t it, eh? Some people. Tsk. On the other hand, we’re probably all going to be destroyed by the hordes of aliens sweeping down upon us, so why worry? By which preamble we must mean that the fifteenth game of Christmas is close at hand…
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Did you know indie devs Chair Entertainment were working on an official Ender’s Game game? They were! And now you’ll never be able to play it, ever, because in the words of Chair Entertainment co-founder Donald Mustard, “Epic’s primary objectives is to create original and unique franchises. I don’t know that Ender’s Game fits into that strategic objective anymore.” Mustard also says that the team had an “amazing” design for the game, which is mean of him. Oh, Mean Mr. Mustard. You know who doesn’t fit into my strategic objective anymore, Mr. Mustard? YOU! That is all. Thanks to Joystiq for the news.

Usually we expect mods – amateur creations, let’s not forget – to utilise game engines to a less effective degree than professional developers would manage. But what I love about the mod scene is that sometimes we’re thrown a complete curveball in that respect. We’ve seen what Robert Briscoe’s doing with Dear Esther, for example. And sometimes, it’s an even older engine that has new life breathed into it by some talented bedroom coders. Have a read below the jump to see what I’m talking about, and to peruse the week’s mod news.
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Like so many series that saw their beginnings on the PC, then ABANDONED US LIKE DIRTY TURNCOATS, the Oddworld games hitched up their trousers and stomped off to the consoles in the last decade. SCREW THEM! you may cry. But it’s important to be forgiving, especially in the face of contrition. So it is that we’ve known the complete collection of Oddworld games, amidst rumours of a new addition to the series, is to appear on all manner of PC download services, maybe later this month. And now we know the prices.

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This is the worst trailer I have ever seen.
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Having watched Lego Star Wars creator John Smith get up in front of a thousand bemused Nordic game developers at a conference in Malmo a couple of years ago to sing a song about all the games he’s failed to finish, I know I’m not the only person who feels bad about abandoning a couple of games each year. In fact, I quite often use a few quiet days over the Christmas holiday break to finish something I started in the year. All too often I have a bit of a play of something and then have to quickly move on to something I need to play for review, or otherwise spend more time with. That leaves a bunch of excellent games hanging. This year that’s Starcraft II, whose multiplayer I have caressed lengthily, but whose single-player game I have left unloved in favour of Men of War’s co-op delights. Christmas, for me, will be in real-time, and full of Terrans.

So, I’m certainly not alone… but what about you guys? Anything to finish?