Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Hmm, this is interesting. The streamlining of Mass Effect’s more traditional RPG mechanics that occurred with Mass Effect 2 (the removal of the inventory screen, for example), is going to continue with Mass Effect 3. Eurogamer has the full story- John Riccitiello, the CEO of Electronics Arts, publishers of Mass Effect, yesterday told investors that the game would have greater “mass appeal” and be a “shooter-meets-RPG”. As opposed to whatever it was before. An RPG-meets-shooter? The full quote’s after the jump. Thanks to RPS reader Edward “Fiasco” Fiala for the tip.
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Alien Trap are a Canadian indie dev from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I know! You like them already, right? Well, here’s an even better reason to like them- their debut commercial game, Capsized, is far too beautiful for the likes of you and me. Could any game live up to those visuals? Well, this one does. And how.
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Two more Brink videos have arisen from the crackling fronds of the interweb, detailing the classes and the HUD of this objective-based future-combat extravaganza. I’ve posted them below. Of the two, I would say the Classes one is worth watching, because it shows the most important mechanics, like how you can change classes in game (without dying) and how many of the objectives depends on the abilities of specific classes to be completed.

Anyway, that’s enough videos for now. Let’s get to the game, please. Thanks, Slow March Of Time!
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It seems the return of the space-man (or woman) will be delayed until the first quarter of 2012, which is probably a good thing as I didn’t have any plans for that quarter anyway. The news came via Facebook, for some reason. Don’t these games companies have websites of their own? Ah yes, the Bioware forums have a similar message, but no reasons or other details. Mm.

Tripwire’s lo-fi mining game, Dwarfs!?, has arrived on Steam. It has a demo, and harkens backs to games like Diggers and other 2D tunnelers. It might not look like much from that screenshot there, but it seems to escalate pretty spectacularly, and also to have its heart in the right place. It manges to reference both Dwarf Fortress and Lemmings in a single promotional blurb. If it really is the arcade version of Dwarf Fortress then I suspect the internet is beginning to eat itself, but that’s probably inevitable anyway. Eventually we’ll just end up with some much reciprocity that the internet will turn inside out and vanish in a puff of meme.

Also, I don’t trust anyone who says they don’t like digging. Or mining. We all like it. Or else. Trailer below.
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Recently we put out an appeal on Twitter (@rockpapershot) to indie devs to get in touch if they thought their game deserved some coverage. We had a lot of responses. I’ve taken a look at some of them (and only some, so far – we were inundated), and given some thoughts below. Today we have underwater swimming, telekinetic green rectangles, space battleships, and, um, the ghost of Bin Laden.

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French developers Cyanide Studios might be best known around these parts for fantasy gore-sport Blood Bowl, but they’re also the proud developers behind Pro Cycling Manager, which I imagine is a bit like Princess Maker in that it’s all about supervising a pet human and making them peddle/pedal their ass.

The press release after the jump informs me that Pro Cycling Manager: Tour de France 2011 will feature an improved 3D engine, more in-depth sponsorship management and updated AI that will boast “unpredictable behavior in the pack”. I can see it now- the AI front runner is overcome with a crippling bout of ennui, and stops cycling altogether. There! Zoom in with the camera- a tiny polygonal tear is forming in his eye. There there, imaginary cyclist. It’ll be alright. Full press release after the jump, and thanks to Blues for the tipoff.
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Science fiction FPS Section 8: Prejudice is finally out on PC today, for the slim price of $15. I’ve had a go at the single player campaign this week, which is a few hours long and encompasses most of what you’ll find in the multiplayer, while still being very much a scripted story sequence (as opposed to the pseudo-multiplayer single-player of the original.) It’s okay. I’ve not yet bothered with multiplayer, since we really need servers and PC community to be live and playing to make any judgement about it. As such I’ll say more about Prejudice in a few days time. What we can say now, however, is that TimeGate have announced a new mode “Assault”, which will unlock once the game sees 10-million online kills. Assault is apparently a race to capture the control points in the fastest time, with one team defending and ther other attacking. Since it’s already been out of Xbox for a while no, the kill-counter already reads six million, so I don’t think that new mode will too far away.

Indie team Surprised Man got in touch with us yesterday to tell us about their new game, The Wager. Which is how I’ve spent most of the last couple of hours. I think you ought to do the same. Especially because it’s free. Taking bits of inspiration from Colonisation and Sid Meier’s Pirates, it’s a simple but detailed exploration game, as you attempt to chart islands and make more money than your arch rival, Sir Lester Marwood. I HATE Sir Lester Marwood!

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I appreciate we all have an important job to do in beeing gloomy that the PC won’t be getting a demo of 3rd-person destruct-’em-up Red Faction Armageddon (I personally have sipped my way through a whole cup of tea while staring furiously out of the window), but look at this trailer! I’m sure most of you out there would agree that Armageddon appearing to trade the wide-open outdoor demolition of Guerrilla for some dingy caverns was a crying shame, right? Well, now it’s looking like a good chunk of the game will be outdoors after all! Come see.
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More sites should interview mod-makers, I feel. If one of this week’s picks is anything to go by, they can have some interesting things to say. Modding might not usually be quite as huge a process as making a full-on indie game, but as a modder you face your own unique problems, ones we don’t always get to hear about. Maybe we should take note of that at RPS. Either way, read on for this week’s roundup.
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