By Alec Meer on May 25th, 2011.
Once there were demos (something I plan to write about soon). Now there’s just promotion, and promotion of promotion. The below video is an attempt to make you preorder the super limited megascloosive ultrobucks version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and contains lingering, porny close-ups of the various paper’n'plastic’digital goodies therein, to the accompaniment of what sounds like the Battlestar Galactic soundtrack.
Do you want these things? WELL DO YOU?
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By Quintin Smith on May 25th, 2011.
No one knows the need for speed better than yours truly. Why, many were the nights I’d stay up late to streak around the ring roads of Surrey in my Rover 200, the engine singing like a broken kettle, the exhausted speedometer showing speeds of 30 or even 40 miles per hour. Those were the days.
If you too are a bit of a speed demon, DiRT 3 might be for you. It’s out, and as you’ll see from the launch trailer below it’s more than a little pretty. Or, if you’d prefer, you could wait for Jim’s review later in the week later today!
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By Lewis Denby on May 25th, 2011.
It’s been an unusually quiet week in the world of mod news. Perhaps all our humble developers have been scurrying away in front of their PCs actually getting some work done, and that’s why we’ve seen very few items of news but another collection of new releases and updates, ready for you to play right now. This week: the first Portal 2 mod, a new version of Action Half-Life 2 after several years, fan creations for Oblivion, Fuel, Battlefield 2 and – goodness me – a bunch more below the jump.
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By Jim Rossignol on May 25th, 2011.
This article over on Gamasutra is a little skewed by its title, “How RPGs Were A 30-Year Detour”, because inXile’s president Matt Findley doesn’t actually say that specifically, but it’s interesting and provocative all the same. What he said was this: “Well, you know, we analyzed the long history of video games. I think these games always wanted to be action games at their heart. I think all those old turn-based games, it’s just that’s all the technology would allow.”
Controversy! Some thoughts on that below.
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By John Walker on May 25th, 2011.
I really wish Orion: Prelude would hurry up. I feel like we’ve been posting about it for six hundred years. It’s actually only been about eight months, making me massively unfair. But still. The exciting news today? TWICE AS MANY DINOSAURS! Spiral’s FPS multiplayer will now include the T-Rex, raptor, rham-phorynchus (as everyone was expecting), stegosaurus, argentinosaurus, and crowd favourite, triceratops. There’s pictures of them below, and some screenshots (at last), along with an amazing new video.
By John Walker on May 25th, 2011.
Hothead Games – they behind Deathspank and Penny Arcade Adventures – have announced a Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy project. And that’s just about it. Their very brief press release explains that the game is to be published by Megadodo Publications, which is a form of joke. Other than that, it doesn’t even explain that it’s a game – merely a “new edition” of The Guide. Videogamer are reporting that it will be on digital platforms, but none has been named. Although Hothead tends to release across the board, so it seems likely it’ll come our way.
What a license to take on. Will they be as ambitious as Adams was himself when he had a go? (You can read Victoria Regan’s Gaming Made Me all about it.) Will it be an adventure, action, fourth-person turn-based platformer? What do you reckon?
By Jim Rossignol on May 25th, 2011.
Red Five Studios have taken some time to answer community-derived questions about their forthcoming free-to-play Tribes-but-an-MMO game, Firefall, and have posted it up as a developer diary, which you can see below. They talk about the nature of the world’s openness, PvP, autonomous vehicles and robots, and a bunch of other stuff. Go. See. Judge.
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By Alec Meer on May 25th, 2011.
OK, I’ve spent far too long wondering about this before, but can someone please explain to me how we’re only on Windows 7 now, and then Windows 8 next year? We’ve had Windows 1, 2, 3, 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista and 7 on the consumer front, plus NT, 2000, 2003 and 2008 on the business/server front, plus any number of sub-versions. Grah! Do I really trust a company that cannot count to 7 properly with so much of my life?
Anyway, Windows 8 is next, and turns out it’s due next year.
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By John Walker on May 25th, 2011.
It’s all change in the Age Of Conan. First he was promoted to replace Leno, then Leno screwed him over and they tried to bump him back to midnight, but no, he cried, and now his show on TBS is going grea… Oh wait, I made a comedy mistake that about no one outside America will get! Of course I mean Funcom’s MMO, Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. Huge changes are afoot, including turning free-to-play, along with a name change.
By John Walker on May 24th, 2011.
Gosh, this is excellent news. When I first wrote about indie puzzle/adventure The Tiny Bang Story I wanted only to sing its praises, but I was held back by what seemed just too high a fee for such a short game. I’m so delighted to say that the game has been relaunched on Steam, now at the perfect price of £7, and there’s even a demo. This is a lovely game that a genre description does not fairly summarise. While it’s a combination of casual adventure and hidden object, I want you to throw your preconceptions and prejudices aside. This thing is heartfelt and sweet. Have a read of my article about it here, but substitute the price concerns for, “BUY THIS IF YOU HAVE ROOM FOR LOVELINESS AND JIGSAWS IN YOUR LIFE.”
By Jim Rossignol on May 24th, 2011.
So Mike Ryan from Cloudfrag got in touch to tell us about his service, which is coming soon. His plan is to provide gamers with dedicated servers, but only for the time they want to play on them. “Instead of paying a set monthly fee you only pay for the number of hours you are actually using the server,” explains Ryan. “I think this will save a lot of players a lot of money, and make dedicated servers accessible to people who do not want to pay a monthly fee.” Yep, he’s planning to charge for a dedicated service by the hour, which should work out a lot cheaper than a 24/7 server if you’re just playing a few hours a week with chums. There’s a beta for the service coming up soon, and there’s a sign-up email on the site for interested parties. Possibly worth a look.
