Rock, Paper, Shotgun

What is a Sunday? For some it is a day for considering how best to invent underwater weapons. For others it is a day to lament the inevitability of the future being very much like the present, only more expensive. For others still it is a day for worshipping a bossy giant named Gawd. For us, though – the unwitting minions of a vast, subterranean brain that has spent three decades using videogames to control our behaviour – it is a day for compiling and then browsing the words written regarding our special interactive lexicon. These here are some examples of that.

• We’ll have more of our own breakdown of Dragon Age II next week, but in the meantime a really strong take on the game has tumbled from the fingers of Richard “Who Also Writes For RPS Sometimes” Cobbett. His big critique basically hangs on the role and delivery of magic in the game, but here’s a bit where he just poke it with words: “Much of Dragon Age II feels like every team working on it did so in complete isolation, only communicating via Chinese Whispers. I’ll say this up front – I enjoyed playing it. I don’t pump 22 hours into a game I’m not enjoying. However, it’s one of the most fragmented, half-baked fun RPGs I’ve ever played. In terms of world design, it’s a game where an elf member of your party is horrified at the cramped, poverty-stricken conditions of her peoples’ part of town, despite the fact that the level designers have given her nothing short of a mansion to live in. It’s a game where you, as a refugee in a city that doesn’t want any of your kind in the first place, can walk into a brothel, kill a hooker (it’s okay, she’s evil) and just walk out without anyone even noticing or caring.” He thinks it’s rushed and sloppy. What do you think, readers?

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Homefront was finally released in the UK yesterday after a pointless three day delay. Unfortunately a wayward postie failed to deliver our copy in time for a day one review. Day two it is then, because wow, this isn’t very long. But is it concentrated glory, still worth your time? Read on to find out Wot I Think.

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Here’s your essential weekly guide to living in the “post-full-price” world, all the cheapest downloads from across the internet compiled into one handy list for your appraisal. There’s all sorts going this week, and I bet there’s probably something for everyone. If you don’t find something that tickles your fancy here, have a poke around SavyGamer.co.uk for more recent discounts on game for all formats. Read the rest of this entry »

In this week’s Gaming Made Me, Richard Cobbett reminisces about an old crush. No, not on the sexy vampire villainess of this classic adventure/RPG hybrid, but on one of the first games that taught him to demand better of story in these silly little computer game things.

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Well here’s a thing – a lump of in-game footage of Deus Ex: Human Revolution on Gamespot, narrated by the game’s story director, Mary DeMarle. You can see it below. It demonstrates their “multi-path, multi-solution gameplay” (which was a phrase I don’t think Ion Storm ever needed to use), in the game’s first level. The four “pillars” are combat, stealth, social and hacking, as well they should be. Except of course “combat and stealth are the main pillars”, so that’s what they’re showing now. So what you’ve got is the same level played through three times, perhaps inspired by Kieron’s famous review. (And for those worried about spoilers, it’s a man running from one building to another.)

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Digital religion, memory kingdoms, mules, purloined music and surrealist Mad Men: that was the week that was in PC gaming news. Here are the best bits of the last seven days of RPS, and a few of the most ludicrous too.
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Peter Molyneux, who was speaking to IGN about his BAFTA Fellowship win earlier this week, has said he thinks Minecraft is the game of the decade. More accurately, he said this in response to IGN’s suggestion that Minecraft represent a hallmark of a new golden age of gaming: “I think Minecraft’s the best thing I’ve played in the last ten years, and what’s so brilliant about it – and I’ve met Markus and he’s a real inspirational person – he did everything on his own, and I think how brilliant and inspirational that is, to not need the full force of publishers and marketing people. He did everything on his own. I agree with you about it being a golden age – there’s so much choice, and I feel there’s so many opportunities as well.”

In the beginning, there was a GDC presentation. Just a quiet little talk between developers, and a what-if experiment wherein a one-off, modded version of Minecraft was personally passed by Passage/Sleep Is Death/Inside A Star-Filled Sky creator Jason Rohrer to a curious audience member, who would then be the only person to see what Rohrer had built inside the game. The rules: you do not talk about Chain World. You do not keep on playing Chain World once you die in it. You then pass it on to someone who has ‘expressed interest,’ and to no other.

That was the plan, anyway. Then this secret world’s first inheritor, Jia Ji, came up with his own, rather different plan: a philanthropic auction, which closed at $3,300, and a promise to later send Chain World on to gaming luminaries Jane McGonigal and Will Wright. He told us why he did that earlier today, as well as why he offered RPS a copy (the temptation was you-would-not-believe strong, but we ultimately declined). So how did Rohrer feel about his quiet attempt at founding a digital religion being so quickly turned to a new, and very public, belief system? Did he even intend for this to become a talking point that’s infuriating as many people as it’s exciting? Were those rules he made actually designed to be broken all along? And if this is a religion, who is its god? Let’s ask him.
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Into The Pixel is “an exploration and celebration of the art of video games from around the world”, and a competition into which game art pros can submit their work so as to have it featured in part of exhibition. It’s a gallery show that has in the past featured at GDC and E3. Needless to say, there’s tonnes of astounding artwork that could find its way into this show, and if you are one such artist then you should probably pay attention and submit your stuff here. Also, if you are simply an idle reader, why not link your favourite concept art in the comments below and we can all nerd out a bit.

[Image from Guild Wars 2's ludicrously awesome concept media gallery. The day when games look like these paintings, only in motion, will be the day techno-lich Jim will finally close the lid on his gaming sarcophagus.]

A bit rude, but not very rude, almost as if the trailer was carefully edited to imply rudeness while being shown at a trade show where there are minors around. The end result is something a bit like the daydream of a tiny boy who knows that boobs are awesome, but the specifcs elude him. Take a look and see what I mean.
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PC Gamer spotted that Minecraft programmer Jens “Jeb” Bergensten has uploaded a video of the wolf pets for beta v1.4 of Minecraft, and you can see it below. They sit and watch you, hunt cows, and even shake off water. That’s pretty cute.
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