Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Totally hot for transport infrastructure? Me too! We should totally get together and test Paradox’s new transport management game, Cities In Motion. Hey, we can even sign up here, because the open beta has, conveniently, just started. The client is here. Quintin’s impressions of the game are here. Why not see if they match up with your own? (They won’t, because Quinns is a haywire hobo robot who cannot love.)

Also, I keep typing “Cities In Emotion”, which is clearly a cry for help from some part of my brain that I am trying suppress.

Visceral’s space-action horror sequel Dead Space 2 has been out on PC for a few days now, so I thought it might be time to put a tentative toe into the vacuum, step out, and tell you wot I think.
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Interviewed in the latest episode of Game Theory with Scott Steinberg (below), Lord Richard Garriott of Britain explains that as far as game narratives may have come, be believes they’re still falling far short of those in books and films. He says,

“I don’t think we’ve yet mastered the techniques of true interactive storytelling.”

You can see the full interview, along with contributions from Charles Cecil, Jane Jenson, Bob Bates and others, in the third episode of this new series, this time focusing on game narrative. Oh, and I have a little rant, too.

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Last December I told Rocksteady that I wouldn’t be using correct grammar in my Arkham City posts until they released some in-game footage (see here, and here). Today Gamespot published an interview with Sefton Hill, game director at Rocksteady, containing a few new details on Arkham City. But do we have any footage? Do we heck. So, here we go.

Batamn! He moves though the night, like a fart or other invisible thing. But how will you and I be moving down the meanie streets of arkham city? How big will it be? As big as a REAL CITY? Why will we do it? Only batman knows, and hes not telling. But also Sefton Hill knows, and he says.,.
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So yes, the audience awards for this year’s Independent Game Festival Awards are up, and you can vote, right here. Minecraft seems like a fair bet for the winner of this particular award, of course, but maybe, just maybe, that rabid Amnesia community will pull it together and give that game the big thumbs up it deserves.

Can anyone else suggest a contender?

And now, some guns! GamersFirst have released the first few screenshots of APB Reloaded, their upcoming free-to-play reboot of Realtime Worlds’ cops’n'robber MMOG. There are four of these shots, all showing a man enjoying a day out with his gun. The screenshots accompany a long blog post from designer Zak Littwin (previously the QA Lead at Realtime Worlds) detailing just some of the changes coming in the game. Not convinced? You might be after you read the quotes I’ve pulled from the post below.
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Last year we heard that Ice Pick Lodge – they behind the extraordinary Pathologic and The Void – are working on a new game, Cargo! (Exclamation their own.) As Kieron noted last time, it’s hard not to see this bright, colourful project as a satirical response to the criticism their previous dark, barely-fathomable games have received. Described as being an “absurd comedy with musical numbers and dancing”, it’s already hard not to think this could be one of the more interesting games of the year, appearing in perhaps just a few weeks. And finally we’ve got lots of screenshots of it to get an idea just quite how strange this potentially subversive peculiarity is.

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Zero Point want to explain their (frankly fairly impressive) Unity-powered first-person shooter, Interstellar Marines, to you. To do this they have created a four-minute trailer, which shows off the game in action, and talks about how you can support their attempt to make a full-blown FPS without the resources of a big studio. It’s fun. It’s even got some jokes in. Go take a look.

We’ll be talking to Zero Point about their project quite soon.
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This forum post on the Bioware forums has detailed how the Dragon Age 2 DRM will work. The Steam version will use Steam, and nothing else. For the retail version there is no limit to install, no disc check, and are online checks, which mean that only five PCs can be used to play a single version of the game within a 24-hour period. While this game can also be played offline, you will need to “check in” after a number of days to keep playing.

The way things are going will mean that the retail version will end up being cheaper, but the digital version will be more convenient…