Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Edit: Superior translation added, courtesy of RPS reader Shadewind.

All aboard the speculation train to Miseryville! VG24/7 reports that Swedish site Press2Play has posted an article (Googletranslate version here) detailing a brief chat with DICE General Manager Patrick Soderlund in which he describes that development of the sequel to the 2008 parkour-inspired adventure game has “stalled”. Then again, he also says that “the parties involved in the Dice now works with another” and that “Patrick himself seems to Mirror’s Edge near the heart”, which makes the whole thing sound more than some botched romance.

Dammit, Google! Don’t worry, readers. Read the RPS fan translation after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to everybody who sent this in! Beacon by indie dev randomnine (who quit his job as a paid-up developer back in November) is a 15 minute freeware game that pits you as a crashed astronaut on a miserable planet, alone and far from his home. Overall it’s a lovely bit of work, with some happy platforming and a touching ending that I think might get you lot talking. Go play, then read randomnine’s post-mortem of the game here. Or just listen to Shine A Light by the Stones below.
Read the rest of this entry »

Here at Rock, Paper, Shotgun we take the business of PC gaming entirely seriously. There is no smiling, or making rude noises at the back of class, there is only important gaming fact. So when it came to compiling an exhaustive list of the greatest, most important PC games of all time, we realised that the only way we could articulate the importance of the various titles was to present them as a five-part series of important lectures, explaining their importance. Over the next four articles and related appendices, you will discover why the various Great Games are great, and what their meaning is to you as a PC gamer. Follow this list, and play these games, and you will find yourself with very little spare time. But also, you will understand what it truly means to be a PC gamer.

Brilliantly, Intel have elected to sponsor this feature as part of their AppUp developer program. So thanks to them! And any developers reading should definitely make some All Time Best Games Ever alongside your apps, because that would just work out for everyone. Now then, let’s make a list. The first lecturer to the podium is Dr Rossignol…

Read the rest of this entry »

In a surprise move for a videogame, free-roaming racer Test Drive Unlimited 2 “was released” last week, and is now available to buy in shops both real and imaginary the world over. You can read John’s impressions of the beta here. It looks like all is not well in car land, however, as the game’s shipped with some nasty technical issues across all platforms that Atari are currently working to fix. Poor cars.
Read the rest of this entry »

EDIT: So, er, the video says that Portal 2 is now available for pre-order. Except it isn’t. Hmm.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Ah yes, that one special day each year when we can unleash our love in the direction of other human beings like an intangible sledgehammer made of words and spit. You know, as opposed to all the other days of the year, when saying that you love somebody is illegal and punishable by a six months in prison. To celebrate, Valve has released a Valentine’s-themed promotional video for Portal 2. Watch it right after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

What has eight legs, three eyes, and a nose that spits deadly mucus? Doesn’t matter, just kill it in the face and take its stuff. Richard’s been playing a pre-release version of Spore’s psychotic cousin, where life is simple, death is cheap, and the only good alien is one that drops a particularly snazzy hat.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ballin’ Outta Control is a lovely looking ball rolling game by Impromptu games, of Velociraptor Job Interview Simulator Pro fame. It has a mix of natural environments and weird greenhouses filled with abstract shapes and physics based puzzle platforming. I wonder whether this ball is friends with the ball from The Ball, the Monkeys from Super Monkey Ball, or the Marble from Marble Madness…

Trailer cleverly hidden beneath. Read the rest of this entry »

Sundays are for eating. Don’t stop! Eat and eat until you are like a balloon stuffed with cake, fit to burst. Only when you are precariously heavy with meat and plant-matter, can you stop, sit down, and have a look at this week’s words from the world of games.

• Will Porter’s retrospective look at the Acorn Archimedes is a thing you should read. Here’s a bit of what Porter wrote: “Yes, the Acorn was a gaming backwater. I’m not going to deny it. Like most tepid shallow pools though, there was a ton of interesting stuff growing in it and occasionally some great stuff floating in from elsewhere if the wind was in the right direction. My Acorn gaming habit was in a gated community, but I’m oddly proud of my hectic spanner-chucks in Mad Professor Mariarti, spherical space platforming in Fervour and mushroom tree destruction in Apocalypse. God bless the Archimedes. For the middle classes shall not see her like again.”

Read the rest of this entry »

A fresh batch of footage from Arcen has turned up, and it shows magic, robots, structures, vehicles, and plenty of running about. Just in case you missed it, Arcen talked to us about this unusual survival-driven action adventure project here and then here.
Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the weekend, time to party hard and buy cheap digital fun. Here’s your weekly guide to gaming reductions from all over the internet. Head to SavyGamer.co.uk if you fancy checking out even more discounted games.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ars is reporting that Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime has spoken a little about “Titan” the recently-confirmed MMO project being worked on by Blizzard. Speaking to some kind of gathering in Las Vegas, he reportedly said: “Without giving away any details, we have some of our most experienced MMO developers, people who spent years working on the World of WarCraft team, working on this project. We’re really trying to leverage all the lessons we learned through the years. Some of which we were able to address in World of WarCraft and others that maybe because of the design decisions we’ve made, you just can’t address. So we’re kind of taking a step back with all that knowledge to make something that’s completely new and fresh. We’re not trying to make a WoW sequel.”

Morhaime said: “To break the mold, sometimes you have to start over.” I wish he’d said “Sometimes you break the mould, sometimes the mould breaks you.” That would have been cooler, although it wouldn’t have made as much sense.