Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Last year’s indie RTS Hegemony: Philip of Macedon slipped me by, although I already find myself feeling favourable towards it because the links at the top of the official website read “Overview”, “Screenshots”, “Discuss”, “Links”, and “Philip”.

Anyway, it looks like I’m getting a second chance. Big Download‘s posted that the developers have released Hegemony Gold: Wars of Ancient Greece, an expansion pack containing two new single player campaigns that allow players to play as either Sparta or Athens in the Peloponnesian War, which is actually my fourth favourite war, but even more excitingly developers Longbow Games have released a demo, and are selling the Ancient Greece expansion together with the original game for the reduced price of $30. Trailer after the jump.
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Last year Nexon announced a $1m fund for indies to submit their game projects to, with the chance of a publishing deal via the free-to-play publisher. It’s back again this year, and the details are here. What kind of games are they looking for? Well: “online games on the PC (web or client) that have potential of being (or is designed to be) cross-platform. A great example would be a game you can play on your PC and also have it be accessible on a mobile platform like the iOS or Android.”

And that sounds like it might coincide with the ambitions of a few indie devs out there. Furthermore, I think indies who are working on this sort of stuff can probably pitch pretty high, since this is a chance to get Nexon to support and co-develop the game. Worth considering, anyway?

Jason Rohrer, he of Passage and Sleep Is Death, has released a new game – Inside a Star-Filled Sky. Rather surprisingly, given his heritage of slow-paced, narrative-heavy games, it’s a shmup.

Rather unsurprisingly, it is far from a conventional shmup. I’ve given it a couple of hours so far, not yet enough to offer a verdict as such, but as there’s quite a buzz around it a few early thoughts seem more than sensible. Here they are.
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Correction: It seems that Ubisoft’s new DRM will be requiring one activation at install, and then not again. While this is problematic regarding DLC, and I continue to argue (as the post below explains) still not okay, it’s not quite as it was understood from the ambiguous statements given before the article was written. However, the “always on” DRM continues to torment users of Ubisoft games like Settlers 7. Apologies for the confusion caused, and to Ubisoft for the incorrect statements.

Don’t be fooled, I say. Ubisoft, amongst others, have been getting a lot of good press lately, including from this very site, for the apparent backtracking on the DRM that had crippled a number of games. By insisting that players be always online as they played, Ubisoft’s games became a subject of headlines – gamers’ progress would be lost, players dumped out of their games, because BT pressed a wrong button somewhere, or the Sun’s flares caused a blip in a wifi signal. It took Digital Rights Management to a whole new level of pointlessly ruining valid customers’ experiences; while the pirates they were pretending to fight continued to enjoy a far better game. And so we celebrate as they remove this, and we compliment them for backing down from the nonsense. But I (John Walker, whose views don’t necessarily reflect those of his (inevitably wrong) colleagues) say: let’s just think about that a little more carefully.

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I know this looks like an April Fools’ post, but bear with me. Dino D-Day, the Source engine-powered downloadable multiplayer game that Kieron posted about back in November will be genuinely entering an actual closed beta on March 1st, with all 12 classes (or rather, 9 classes and the raptor, dilophosaur and desmatosuchus). Those interested in acquiring a beta key (and how could you not be) should follow Dino D-Day on Facebook and Twitter, say the developers. I am genuinely excited about playing this with Spotify belting out some Wagner in the background. Full press release after the jump.
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Hurrah – some in-game footage of Battlefield 3 has appeared today. Unfortunately it was sent live by satellite from inside an imaginary warzone, and as such the image quality is quite blurry and sporadic. Because what we want, more than anything else, is confusing, unclear footage that makes it difficult to see the game we’re looking forward to playing. Oh, hush me – I am a one to complain. You can see the video beyond the clickzone.

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Oh, my cursed job is such a chore! I’m forced to load Minecraft in the middle of my work day to take a look at the latest content added today. Why, Lord? Why me? What did I ever do? I need to lie down.

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You may remember that Test Drive Unlimited 2 did not have a great Valentine’s Day. Launched to cries of, “Er, could you finish it now please?”, its buggy state did not win favour. Eden Games and Atari are attempting a big old “sorry” by offering not only a patch that addresses a lot of issues, but also the first globule of DLC for utterly free. More info lies beneath.

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Another week, another excellent Half-Life 2 mod announces that it’s going indie. This time, it’s one I hadn’t expected, but it is one I quite enjoyed. I went to Egypt when I was younger, and this mod brought back quite a few memories of standing around the pyramids at Giza. Can you guess what I’m talking about? Read on, either way.
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The accursed always-on DRM of Ubisoft’s last couple of games seems to be dead. VG247 have word from a Ubi rep that “The PC version of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, after an initial login, will be playable offline in single player mode.” So that’s better. Still internet-based, of course, but without the need to always be online.

The game is out March 17 in the US and March 18 in Europe. I’ve posted a tech specs and special editions detail release we received yesterday below, in case anyone is interested in that stuff. It basically says that The Da Vinci Disappearance DLC will appear immediately in the PC version of the game.
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I’m very pleased to say we’ve heard back from the last of the experts we contacted after the Fox News Debacle. We’ve now spoken to Jerry Weichman, Ph.D who was quoted by John Brandon as warning that games such as Bulletstorm could do serious damage to children, as an example of an expert who was “worried that video game violence may be reaching a fever pitch.” And while Weichman explains that he was not misquoted, he certainly has far more moderate views on videogames than someone reading the article may have believed. When calculating the rather odd maths that led to Brandon’s “nearly universally” angry experts, we counted Weichman amongst the two who were actually against the game. This was incorrect, as our interview with the clinical psychologist reveals, in which he explains, “there is nothing wrong with the game being produced and sold to the users it is intended for.” And we also learn that Dr Weichman is rather partial to a game of Call Of Duty.

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