Rock, Paper, Shotgun

NCSoft have reported that they are shutting down that most Korean of RPGs, Lineage, two months from now in North American and Europe. They had this to say about the closure period: “As of today, no new accounts can be created. We will no longer charge anyone whose account is set to recurring billing, and Time Cards can no longer be used to add additional game time. We have reactivated all existing accounts in good standing, and everyone can play for free* for the remaining time that the servers are open.” There’s also going to be refunds for any unused game time.

The MMO first appeared in Korea in 1998, and launched in the West in 2001. I never played it, and now I never will.

Because there’s a demo out. Granted, this thankless wargame won’t be for everyone, but for desktop generals with a bit of grit there are three demo-specific scenarios in there, as well as a not-quite functional version of the scenario editor, to show you how all that stuff works. Lovely AAR video below.
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Dark Energy have rejigged their infamous Hydrophobia game once more, releasing it for PC at an extremely cheap price for a full length game: £9. This is an Impressions, rather than a Wot I Think, because I’m my own editor, and there’s no one in enough authority to force me to carry on past the first four or so hours. It’s safe to say I haven’t enjoyed my time in Hydrophobia‘s watery future world of terrorists vs. dryness. You can find out why below.

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I have been to the Zion National Park in Utah, but I don’t remember there being any murderous men with bandaged-wrapped faces, desert renegades being killed in slow-motion or weird naked masked dudes. It’s possible I just went to the wrong bit, though – I’m not very observant. Fortunately, the second spot of Fallout: New Vegas DLC means to address my errant tourism. It’s called Honest Hearts, it’s out May 17 (same day as the Witcher 2 and Fable 3 – the gods of roleplaying can be so very cruel), and it goes a little something like this…
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Because I am the luckiest man alive, I spent this weekend playing the first ten hours of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which is starting to look like it’ll be the biggest release of 2011. When I finished those ten hours, I went back and played them again, and have finally managed to compress my thoughts into a handy list of thoughts that’ll occur to you, too, as you play. Five reasons to be hugely excited Deus Ex 3 and five reasons to be knuckle-chewingly nervous await you below.
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Eden Games – they behind Test Drive Unlimited 2 and the V-Rally series – and have had enough of their treatment from Atari, and in the face of enormous redundancies at the company and have gone on strike today. GI.biz report that in the face of sackings, the French studio has said enough, and are refusing to work. And they’ve a few choice words to explain why.

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We like our historical grand strategy games like we like our cup of tea: deep, complex, and with some nuance to its presentation of political relationships. Fortunate for us, then, that Paradox are thinking about precisely this sort of thing in the design of Crusader Kings II. Their latest developer diary (chained up in the dungeon of this post) looks at how the game handles relations between different powers and delivers a more authentic experience of deal with the political intrigues of medieval powermongering.

We’re keen on seeing more of this beast ever since Quintin gave it a feel earlier this year. The game is out on the 13th of January 2012. Gosh, that seems like a long time away.
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Notch has just floated the idea of a Minecraft convention to celebrate the game’s ‘release’ on 11/11/11. “There’d be contests (costume, speed building, whatever else), Q&A sessions, parties and awesome food and such”, he says. Awesome food! He means cheese and pineapple on a stick, I can only presume. His question to you, however, is whether you’d be prepared to pay $90 to attend this fan-gathering, and whether the sleepy, unflashy city of Las Vegas is a location you’d be willing/able to get to for it.

You can vote yes/no/I’m helplessly indecisive here, with the results of the poll being a major factor in whether this inaugral MinecraftCon happens or not.

It’s out! It’s here! If you a) loved Portal 2 and want more and b) were one of the lunatics who claimed it was only five minutes long or c) felt it didn’t get as hardcore as it might have done, you may in one or all of those cases be very pleased to hear that the official modkit has been released – a flurry of fan-made extra game content hopefully awaits. Read the rest of this entry »

The Cursed Crusade has not one but TWO vicious templar thugs for you and a chum to control as you do some fancy crusadin’. What this means is that you can team up for takedowns: one guy locks swords with an enemy while the other puts an axe in his rump, that sort of thing. Kylotonn and Atlus have released a video to demonstrate this, and while it’s actually a video of the split-screen Xbox version of the game, the principles of online co-op on the PC will be much the same. That means dudes getting axed, in a co-operative fashion. I like the cut of it.
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Rockstar have released a spread of new screens of Max Payne 3, showcasing the game’s flashback-heavy plot (but not its less corridor-focused structure, sadly). We’ve got Max in his current role, as a baldy bodyguard in Brazil, but we’ve also got him as a less baldy cop in Brazil and even as a less baldy cop in America, looking flash in his trademark leather jacket and disgusting tie (if the flash in question is a flashbang, going off inches from your face). Come take a look.
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