Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Here’s something: since the release of Valve’s free Source-based co-op shooter Alien Swarm which took us all by surprise last year, hippies and socialists have been able to get their hands on a Source-based game without paying a thing, which in turn lets them play those lovely Source mods for free as well. Well, we’ve just received word from Valve’s Robin Walker that due to the recent release of a free Team Fortress 2, the Source SDK will soon become free to use in its entirety, for everyone.
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I’m quite glad. Stalinglad, in fact, and it’s all because I have these new shots of upcoming gritty multiplayer FPS Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalinglad. Grad. Stalingrad. Look, give me a minute, I’m still reeling from that Call of Duty convention thing.
We will not give you a minute! We demand INFORMATION!

UPDATE: Confirmed by bizarre communique from Valve. I’ve posted the content of the email below. It seems to be suggest that shenanigans will produce wishlist prizes. See if you can decipher it.

Wuh-oh, there’s something wrong with the Bargainometer! It says there’s something big out there, and it’s closing fast. This Valve Complete Collection for £25 is probably just the first fragment of something much, much larger. Something much bargainer.

I pray for us all. (Lewie’s keeping an eye out over here, too.)
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Ye Gods. Activision has announced Call of Duty XP 2011, a convention for Call of Duty fans taking place in Los Angeles on September the 2nd and 3rd of this year. Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg cheerily admits to the event being based on Blizzard’s yearly Blizzcon and says that it will allow CoD fans to “feel like you stepped into the game.”
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Age of Conan’s free-to-play reshuffling, Age of Conan: Unchained, arrives tomorrow. How do we know? Well, it’d be pretty hard to do this job if we didn’t know stuff like that. Also, a launch trailer just came out.

John’s comprehensive detailing of the “freemium” business model and what changes to expect can be found in the above link (including new content that’ll relate to the upcoming Conan movie), and you’ll find the launch trailer after the jump. Beware! It’s guarded by nine Cimmerian swordmaidens, each more beautiful and deadly than the last.
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It’s a bit confusing when someone sends you a screenshot of an “unannounced” game. I’d say sending in-game pictures of it is pretty much announcing. And that game is, er, oh okay. The title hasn’t been announced yet. This is what we call in the trade, “stupid”. What we do know is that it’s a PC only shooter from new Polish developers Flying Wild Hog. And we’re promised that the shot is entirely in-game, and built with their own-made engine. Which is looking seriously impressive. We understand that there will be a name for this soon, and indeed we should be getting our hands on a copy of whatever it might be. So in the meantime, um, you’ve looked at a picture of a game that you can’t even know to remember you looked at. Sorry, I wasted your time.

Which browser game should you be playing right now?! Why, it’s very rude of you to jump me with a question like that, but I do happen to know the answer. It’s arcade shooter Luftrauser by Vlambeer, a flawless little bit of work that Vlambeer released “with massive losses… and at a high personal emotional cost”, which was nice of them.

Seriously though, play this one. Incredible music, plus it’s rare for controls to feel quite this good within seconds of the game starting. Footage after the jump.
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An adventure game that doesn’t make me want to pluck out my own lungs is always a rare treat, so the demo for Alpha Polaris from Turmoil Games offered a pleasant surprise. Despite an apparent low budget (this is a team of five in Finland, entirely self-funded), the usual hateful elements don’t immediately appear. The voice acting, while nothing outstanding, is inoffensive and does its job. The inventory puzzles (in the demo at least) are logical. And the setting isn’t about a 23 year old girl with a mobile phone trying to find her missing father/solve a brutal murder. It’s much more interesting – a Greenland research centre, where you play a 27 year old Norwegian guy who’s tagging polar bears. Which will apparently find its way toward horror.

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Attention modders! Hot on the heels of the recent DX11 patch, the Crysis 2 Editor is now available (with a bunch of other tools) to download at crymod.com and mycrysis.com, which was named after a fairly strong-handed self-help book expounding advanced military weaponry over sit-ins with your therapist. The Crysis mod scene came up with some properly fantastic stuff, and armed with all the tech and tools of the bleeding now, the CryEngine looks like it’s got it’s work cut out for it as all those artist types take full advantage of the “Make It More Shiny, My Portfolio Isn’t As Bright As The Sun Yet” buttons.

The official documentation is hiding under cloak over here. He’s shy and wonders what to do with his hands alot, but he’s gradually overcoming his public speaking issues.

German games mag GameStar has managed to get a look at Arma 3 in action. The tech is looking several strides ahead of the previous Arma game, and surprisingly bright and colourful, too. The demo shows a bit of sniping, vehicles, and the new physics in action. The resolution and view distance of the landscapes also appears to be better than real life. At the end of the demo, there’s something a bit new, too: underwater combat. It’s all the rage, eh?

And don’t worry, Englishers, the actual presentation is in our default language.

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