An Answer For Everything
By John Walker on July 5th, 2011.
Funcom’s The Secret World is five years deep into development, and still some way off. But having spent a couple of days in their Norwegian HQ, I’m reasonably convinced it exists. I mean, it could just be one heck of an elaborate conspiracy. Below is my report on where things are just now, which I’m pleased to report is somewhere genuinely exciting. We also have four exclusive new screenshots, which you’ll only have to click on to enjoy.
By Alec Meer on July 5th, 2011.
Eve Online’s laughably expensive pretend clothes drama seems to have settled down – officially-speaking, at least. Last week, developers CCP flew the Council of Stellar Management (a collective of player-elected Eve, er, players) to Iceland for crisis talks about what the hell to do about all the online screaming. Both parties have reached some accord, and as far as I can tell it didn’t involve locking the CSM in a dungeon and slowly flaying all the skin from their bodies until they whispered “Yes, charge for everything – the clothes, the ships, the ammo, additional starfield colours… You’re right. You were right all along. Kiiiiiiiill meeeeeeeeee…”
What seems to have been determined in the wake of of this “perfect storm of bad luck, bad planning and bad communication” for sure is that there will be no pay-for-unfair-advantage microtransactions, that lower-priced vanity items are necessary, that more communication is needed and that there are tech issues which need a-fixin’ asap. The problems were “a perfect storm of bad luck, bad planning and bad communication,” apparently. Watch a chat between two very tired-looking representatives of both sides below…
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By John Walker on July 5th, 2011.
After the brouhaha at Eden Games, leading to the team going on strike over what they claimed was poor management from Atari, a number of the key players have had enough and broken off to form their own studio. So Blossom Minds is born. There’s ten former Eden peeps in the new team, describing themselves as “veterans and high-profile game developers”, declaring they are done with AAA, and now intend to release games digitally, beginning next year.
By Lewie Procter on July 5th, 2011.
Poking around in my Steam account the other day, and what did I see? Well, as you might have guessed by that big screenshot up there, a listing for Ms. Splosion Man popped into my library. I’m not entirely sure why – no one else I spoke to has seen it. You can see the screenshot in full here. It didn’t actually launch, and since then it has been replaced with the equally mysterious “ValveTestApp105420″, but I reckon it’s a safe bet that at some point there will be a PC release for what was currently still only announced for an XBLA release. Read the rest of this entry »
By Jim Rossignol on July 5th, 2011.
Speaking to PC Gamer, Hi-Rez COO Todd Harris said of the decision to take Global Agenda free-to-play: “We have many many more people creating accounts every day, many more people playing concurrently, our revenues are higher than they ever have been before which means we can develop content and put it into the game faster than ever before,” and also: “We now have five times as many interested players every day going through that same experience knowing that it’s free to play and it’s not a demo.”
I suspect this is going to be a story that we hear regularly in the next two years. What will be interesting will be to see who survives, and who fails. As with retail, there’s only going to be so much money available for these games, and it’s hard to judge their long-term appeal, or ultimate lifespan. As f2p competition intensifies, I suspect we might see some parties forced out of the race entirely. Whether Hi-Rez are one of the major contenders is going to be a combination of extending Global Agenda’s life and making Tribes Ascent into a big hit. The competition is going to be fierce, and predict Firefall will be the big player in the shooty-jetpacks arena.
By Alec Meer on July 4th, 2011.
Indeed yes, the herald spoketh true: The Boy is today leaving the company of the RPS elders in search of adventures new (and which don’t involve daily posting about PC games), hence our advertising for New!New!New! last week. It’s a sad day for sure and obviously his decision to depart the dank but loving walls of Castle Shotgun is a ferociously silly one, but who are we to deny a young man his wanderlust? So, we wish him all the very best and hope to see him offering occasional revisits to his singular blend of oddball comic analogy, passionate argument for a little-known gaming cause and panicked, determined diarising of disaster on RPS again sometime.
Quinns has already listed his greatest hits – the Quits, if you rather appropriately will – but you can browse the complete Smithsonian archive here. Sniff.
Farewell for now, young Quintin. Let your travels take you to grand places of merriment and fascination, and no doubt we shall see your fine words grace these pixel-pages again soon.
By Quintin Smith on July 4th, 2011.
Hello, ladies! Men.
I joined the RPS team this time last year. Following almost twelve months of PC gaming news, reviews, thrills and spills, some of which the RPS server was actually up for, I’m announcing that today, the fourth of July, or Quindependance day, will be my last day on the site. I’m going back to ordinary freelancing. But before I go, I’d quickly like to say thanks.
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By Quintin Smith on July 4th, 2011.
The best indie games are the ones that immediately make you feel slightly unwell, clearly. Braid. Narbacular Drop. Space Funeral. Here’s a new one with more in common with the gravity flipper VVVVVV than anything else – ibb and obb is an entirely co-operative platformer where players can leap through gaps in the floor to walk on the topsy-turvy version of the world. It’s more than a little mind-bending watch two players solve the game’s puzzles in tandem, as you’ll see in the video after the jump. The full game’s due out in early 2012.
Check this out, though. After receiving a 7+ age rating in Europe and 12+ in Japan, the American ESRB have given the preview build of ibb and obb a 17+ “Mature” rating, stating, among other things, that the “main characters sexual preference is perceived as ambiguous and not suitable for all audiences”.
EDIT: Oh OK it’s an April Fools joke. Wow it’s even funnier being caught out by that stuff when it’s not April 1st.
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By Alec Meer on July 4th, 2011.
They’ve not even got out their second game Chantelise yet, but already Recettear‘s translator/Western publisher Carpe Fulgur have lifted the lid on project the third. It’s another translation of a Japanese indie game – this time being side-scrolling RPG/platformer Fortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone, which apparently has been something of a pet project for CF boss Andrew Dice. Have you heard of it? I haven’t. But then I haven’t heard of most things, like dinosaurs, cheese and the offside rule.
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By Quintin Smith on July 4th, 2011.
BOOM! That is the noise of the drinking drum, summoning you lot into action, because the London branch of the Rock, Paper, Shotgun Social Club has finalised the dates for its next three meets. Including, no kidding, a Ladies Night.
What are you doing on Saturday the 16th of July, Saturday the 13th of August and Saturday the 27th of August? That’s a trick question, by the way.
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By John Walker on July 4th, 2011.
A man from the government doesn’t hate videogames. It’s a news story. It’s more of a news story when that man is sinister Pob-lookalike Michael Gove, admittedly. He’s taken time off from shitting all over British education to say that he thinks videogames are a useful means of teaching. Which is a bit like Jack Thompson saying he likes to relax of an evening with a game of GTA IV.
