Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Sundays are for trying to ignore the amount of work you have to do on Monday, because today you are free in the oceans of leisure. Languidly sail through hours of videogames, drinking tea and thinking about magic swords and maybe, if you find the time, do a little reading. Here’s something you might want to browse through:

• Robert “Radiator” Yang says “Welcome To The Indie FPS”, and then goes on to examine how the FPS genre has failed to capitalise on its huge potential for alternative mechanics. Not to worry, though, because there are some first-person indie games that are exploring the possibilities and potential of the genre. I would absolutely add the Mondo games to that list. Can you think of any others, readers?

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This week’s Spotlight on Biscuit sees UK games commenter Total Biscuit asking WTF is Space Pirates and Zombies, a commendably eccentric top-down action RPG in space type thing. If what you see takes your fancy, you can pick up a demo of S.P.A.Z. or pre-order for beta access over on the game’s official site. Speaking of fancies, when was the last time any of you lot had a French Fancy?
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Looking to part ways with a bit o’ cash in exchange for some cheap games? Why not throw your coins into the Bargain Bucket, and see what leaps back out at you. For cheap games every day of the week, SavyGamer‘s got you covered. Read on for this week’s best digital discounts. Read the rest of this entry »

This week in our ongoing retrospective series on games journalists’ most formative games, we very proudly welcome Eurogamer‘s god-king and operations director Tom Bramwell to the word-stage. He’s here to tell you about his long years spent with arguably one of the most definitive PC games of all time, and what for one generation of gamers was a global obsession that today’s shooters, no matter how much bigger they might be, just can’t seem to match…

I also wanted to write this about Grand Theft Auto, and I might still do that another time if RPS will have me back. There were probably other factors, but no one game is so singularly responsible for my being a games journalist (or at least having been one) as DMA Design’s original PC game. But I’m really here today to bang on about Counter-Strike, and I owe that game a massive debt too, because it’s thanks to Counter-Strike that I don’t play Call of Duty or Battlefield or Medal of Honor or any of that stuff on the internet nowadays for a moment longer than my job requires.
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It’s a mistake, in light of Lego Pirates Of The Caribbean, to accuse Traveller’s Tales of diminishing returns with their Lego series. I keep seeing that happening. It’s wrong. If anything the problem is the stability of their consistency. I’ve had a think about why.

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Torchlight II is due in July. That’s only ten minutes from now! Quickly, we must read as much as we can about the creation of its randomized worlds! Oh God, if only there was something to hand… but maybe there is, because Runic have published this piece on the creation of Torchlight II’s world, and this Q&A on level design. It contains gems such as this: “We do have random events! A few examples of these are, maybe you run into a injured person on the road with a broken down wagon that asks you to do something for him/her in the immediate area. Or you could be out exploring and find a campfire with bandits that have tied up hostages that you can rescue for a reward. We are still working on these, and coming up with new ideas to keep them exciting for players.” Cor!

Eko Software have announced Storm, a physics puzzle game where you play a force of nature guiding a seed towards fertile ground. Which sounds a bit like how I spent my university days. The game will see players using lightning, rain, wind, tornados and so on to guide the seed through each of the game’s single-screen levels, which sounds nice enough, but seeing as it’s coming out this Summer it’ll almost certainly have to duel with Confetti Carnival for my affections, the poor thing. Debut trailer after the jump.
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Did you like Bulletstorm? Did you enjoy the multiplayer modes? So did I! I can’t imagine anybody’s still playing them, but that’s for Epic and not me to decide. They’ve just released the Gun Sonata DLC pack, offering three new maps for Anarchy, the game’s arena co-op point-scoring mode, and two new maps for Echo, the game’s corridor-shooter point-scoring mode. For this they are charging ten American dollars, which is a number that is a little more than nine dollars, but significantly less than twelve dollars.

I think I need another mug of tea. Press release after the jump.
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Digital Reality, who Wikipedia assures me is the oldest Hungarian “video game developer company” in existence, has gone and announced SKYDRIFT, a download-only racing game that looks a bit like Crimson Skies crossed with Playstation high-speed headtrip Wipeout. Why do I feel the need to make all these comparisons? I suppose it’s so my brain doesn’t drown in all these games, each of which is secretly as unique and beautiful as a snowflake. Trailer and press release (“spectacular and exotic locations,” “extreme maneuvers,” “aircrafts”!) after the jump.
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In a rather peculiar move, Zombie Cow – the indie developers behind the brilliant Ben There, Dan That, and Time Gentlemen, Please – have changed their name. No longer are they post-bovine, and have now become Size Five Games. Why? I’m not sure even they know why. Something about “Zombie Cow” being embarrassing to say in business situations. Well, I recommend trying to be “Rock, Paper, Shotgun” in a meeting with accountants. But Dan Marshall, the main man behind the name, has always hated it. And now he has the far more official sounding title, would everyone mind awfully rewriting their memories such that it was always the case? I think he’d prefer that. It also seems they’re quite close to announcing a new game, which is rather spiffy news.

Flagship, poor dead Flagship, made a game called Hellgate. It wasn’t great, and not enough people bought it to save them from destruction. Now, however, the techno-fantasy action RPG is back, and will be relaunched in North America as a free-to-play title. No game can rest! All must live again under the banner of the undead F2P army! There’s a website for the relaunch here, telling us that there will be a beta in June.

Game footage below!
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