Rock, Paper, Shotgun

UPDATE: Our informants tell us it’s some kind of stats tool. BORING!

Something’s happening in Call Of Duty world! Our sinister agents have picked up some information about Activision preparing to make a major announcement regarding the Call Of Duty franchise, and it sounds like the PC could be at the heart of it: Call Of Duty Online. We understand that the “online solution” Activision have been hinting at might finally be ready to be shown to press. No other details now, but I’m going to speculate that this is Activision’s big move against EA’s Battlefield Play4Free and the like.

Will it be a browser-based shooter? A free-to-play MMO? A side-scrolling beat ‘em up? We’ll find out soon!

Earlier today I got a chance to look at the upcoming wargame, Sengoku. Paradox’s games come in a number of flavours. Space flavour is good, as is fantasy and jellied goblin, but I have say I am also partial to the burnt caramel whiff of pseudo-real-time feudalism. Various Paradox games deal with European feudalism – and we’re particularly interested in Crusader Kings 2, as you can see from Quintin’s preview – but look East and you see less coverage. That’s where Sengoku comes in. Based on the Crusader Kings 2 engine, it’s a take on Japanese feudalism, and is an interesting “where next” for folks who got a kick out of Shogun 2′s campaign map.
Read the rest of this entry »

That’s me done for the day, but I saw this over at gaming.reddit and basically needed it to be on the RPS frontpage over the weekend.

Seattle-based artist (edit- and Valve employee) Tristan Reidford has made a 1970s-style movie poster for Portal 2. It’s an absolutely stunning piece of work, and awaits you in full after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

How many of you guys have tried Die2Nite? It’s a free-to-play zombie survival browser game that sorts everybody into rinky-dink townships of some 30 or 40 people and then sees how long the lot of you can hold off the inevitable in real time, with the zombies attacking every night. It’s interesting for a couple of reasons- (1) It’s hilariously brutal. (2) It’s social. As I covered in my impressions piece, when another player breaks into your hovel and steals your sandwich, you will experience a rare, crystalline anger you have never felt before.

Better yet, the game’s just begun Season 2, with a collection of new features, including trained dogs and “extreme camping”. I get excited and provide details after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

Bethesda’s sent VG247 some stats relating to Brink prior to the game’s release one week from now. There’s no actual story here, but these numbers are too mad to not post. I guess you could argue that they’re a statement of precisely how much work goes into the modern videogame, but instead I’m going to simply raise both my arms into the air, start spacking them every which way like a bugged ragdoll animation and scream the following:

Brink has 102,247,681,536,000,000 possible characters variations. And that’s just the start.
Read the rest of this entry »

Great as it is, Sanctum isn’t going to be the only action tower defense title that we’ll be gifted with this year. Orcs Must Die is arriving this summer, and is looking like a neat counterpart- dark and dingy where Sanctum was bright and shiny, and slapstick where Sanctum was all business. Our Dan Griliopolous made it sound fun enough in his preview, too, and the new trailer features exploding barrels, which as we all know is basically a seal of quality.

I actually have a plan regarding explosives barrels. If I ever make a video game I’m putting a single red barrel in it. If the game doesn’t feature guns, I will also place the game’s one and only gun next to the barrel. The moment the player shoots that barrel, their character will explode. That’s my plan.
Read the rest of this entry »

I know why you guys read RPS. It’s for the artisan-quality headlines. Admit it! There’s no shame in it. I personally have a first-class Journalism degree, which I bought at the Khaosan Road in Bangkok for a song.

A new developer diary has been released for From Dust, the terrain-sculpting puzzle game that tasks you with protecting a tiny tribe who love huge masks. The game’s looking plenty impressive, so if you haven’t had a look at it in motion yet then you’re in for a pleasant surprise. I’d also like to give thanks to this trailer for reminding me of the Yemeni island of Socotra, which I’ve been trying to remember the name of for years.
Read the rest of this entry »

Valve have added a replay editor to team-based FPS Team Fortress 2! Replay-enabled servers will now record matches in their entireity, allowing players to go back and cherry-pick clips, and even add “sexy motion blur”. How are Valve celebrating? With an award ceremony, naturally.
Read the rest of this entry »

PC Gamer have the latest on all the different technical set-ups that Deus Ex: Human Revolution will support. First up, it’ll support DirectX 11, which is great! It’ll also support 3D, which is great if you don’t have astigmatism and don’t mind playing your video games looking like a D-list celebrity with a hangover. Finally, it’ll support AMD Eyefinity, which you can see above, but don’t be fooled! AMD Eyefinity doesn’t just stop at three monitors- it actually supports up to six monitors, which is perfect for me, as I was wondering what to do with my five spare monitors and my five-foot long desk.

Click on through the jump to read what Jurjen Katsman, founder and president of Nixxes (the Dutch studio doing the PC version of DX:HR) told PC Gamer about DirectX 11 support. It will amaze you!
Read the rest of this entry »

“Give me 1,200 words. I’m going to make you pre-order something you’ve never even heard of,” began Kieron’s preview of turn-based tactical squad combat game Frozen Synapse.

If you haven’t read it yet, now’s the time to blow the dust off and take a look. With the game’s release just around the corner, developers Mode 7 have today released the game’s 55 mission single player campaign into the open beta that’s available to all pre-order customers. Yes, fifty five.
Read the rest of this entry »

The 2.5 update for Aion, Empyrean Calling, brings in some graphical tweaks and a new character customisation system. It’s really rather lavish, as you can see in the trailer below. It always amazes me to see the amount of content that gets poured into these games, and it’s a strange kind of cruelty that the actual game structure means the likes of me will never actually get to see it. I’d happily wander around as a tourist for a few hours.

Aion players can apparently already access the new patch on the test server.
Read the rest of this entry »