Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The latest TIGSource competition, this time with a theme of “versus” is now open for voting, with eighty-something (count ‘em!) entries up for your voting attention. There are some strong entries in there, such as the philosophically significant Jesus vs Dinosaurs, the attractively cloudy Brigands, of the peculiarly conflicted Tetris Fight Club. Experimental! Indie! Affirmative!

You should take a look.

The European version of free-to-play RPG Dragonica is having a big old giveaway of prizes for people logging in over “the next few weeks”, starting today. “The very best prizes will be available for players who log in for one hour on 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 days,” say organisers gPotato. Prizes include “an Alienware Laptop, three XPS Dell PCs, Wireless keyboards, headsets and mice, along with lots of gPotato merchandise and in game prizes such as EXP Potions.” Mm, potions. If that isn’t going to get you playing, well. Yes.

I’ve no idea if the game is any good. It’s looking a bit cute.

In a moment of sleepy wire-crossing I saw “pride” as a collective noun, like with lions or something. But I suppose Pride Of Nations is actually referring to the collective ego of the European nations as the struggled for dominance through the historical period (1850-1920) featured in this complex grand strategy. Anyway, there are two new videos illustrating the game, one with devs Ageod talking about the game, and the other a gameplay trailer, such as it is. You can watch them below, if you want.
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Mm! Reader Lars “Best” Westergren writes to inform us that Playstation Network strategy title Hoard will be available for purchase on Steam on April 4th, according to Destructoid. This one sounds cute- a sort of negatively charged RTS where you prevent the human settlements around your hoard from developing by attacking wagons, burning farms, snatching princesses and generally brutalising settlers, all while trying to let the towns grow just enough so that you get a nice stack of gold when you do tear them apart. And look! That’s an 8/10 Eurogamer review, right there. A juicy pullquote from that and a video await after the jump.
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Photo by David Wilbanks

As I mentioned just the other day, today marks two years since I have been rounding up all the best digital distribution discounts every weekend in the Bargain Bucket. A lot can happen in two years, and from where I’m sitting the market for downloadable PC games has radically changed even in just those 24 months. Come with me, on a journey through time and space, beyond the Bargain Bucket, as I look at just how different the market of today is to that of yesteryear, and perhaps provide some thoughts on where things might be heading. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s often the case when reading a review of a longer game that you’ll see the phrase, “The first few hours struggle to get going,” or perhaps, “It takes a while to find its feet.” Which I think is enormously unreflective of the experience, and indeed the experience others will have when playing it. When other games regularly last five or six hours, an RPG having a poor opening five or six hours seems pretty hugely significant to me. And so it is that today I’m writing about the opening eight hours or so of Dragon Age II, before the improvements I’m already starting to see wash the memories from my head.

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I don’t know a Rod, actually. But if I did, I would definitely be telling him that this news is hot. At least once a year since RPS has formed I’ve whined “whyyyyyyyyyyyy doesn’t someone make a Transformers MMO?” Even the news that there was to be one purely for the Asian market didn’t shut me up. I do whine a lot. However, hearing that UK MMO devs Jagex, best known for Runescape and War of Legends, are on the case with their own Hasbro-sanctioned, reconfigurable-plastic themed game, means my slightly over-large man-child ears prick up fully. That’s just prime.
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Last week we suggested to RPS contributor Brendan Caldwell that he investigate physics sandbox Garry’s Mod, which is a bit like encouraging a kitten to investigate a saucer of gin. We shouldn’t have. But with Garry’s Mod and its community continuing to evolve like some heavily irradiated practical joke, we needed someone to take a look. Below, Brendan presents his miserable (yet hilarious!) report.
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We’ve been hearing all manner of rumours about this over the last week, and now official word has arrived. By which I mean “an email.” Games journalism: not always rocket science.

Yes, Bethesda Softworks are going to publish a game called Hunted this year, and then a game called Prey 2 next year. Hooray! They sure do like their hunting and preying, though. What next? Victim? Target? Assassinee? Bloke What Is Running Away From Another Bloke What Is Trying To Kill Or Eat Him Or Something?
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One thing we didn’t write much about in our Human Revolution ultra-wittering last month was the in-game security systems, and the hacking thereof. It’s an oddly tricky one to describe, a sort of a halfway house between Uplink and Pipemania. Definitely best seen rather than described, I think: and that’s something you can do below, via the medium of PAX-attendee shakycam. That’s a portmanteau that’s always irked me slightly – it’s not like it’s the camera’s fault it’s shaking, is it? Develop stronger, more stable arms, game convention visitors. In fact, Quinns suggests we refer to it as Weakman Footage from hereon in. SO BE IT.

Anyway, hacking. And guns too!
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There are a great many ways and places to donate money to assist victims of the tragic events in Japan last week. Nonetheless, it’s good to see game companies also doing their bit to tempt their players into lending a financial hand during this time of need.
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