Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The News Corp scandal of the last few weeks brought a lot more eyes to Prime Minister’s Questions than would usually tune in, which in turn led to poor old Speaker John Bercow pleading with MPs to try to behave a bit better this once. But of course it was a typical rendition of the Wednesday tradition, where MPs give their scripted questions, and the PM gives his scripted answers, and only occasionally does one match the other. The rest of it is jeering and poorly delivered, pre-scripted jokes/insults, followed by more jeering. And this is something captured wonderfully, just in time to replace the real thing during the Summer recess, by Mark Richards in Prime Minister’s Questions: The Game.

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We all loved Terry Cavanagh’s wonderful VVVVVV last year, didn’t we? Well I certainly did, that Kieron bloke did, and a straw poll of my hands unanimously voted in favour it. Universal approval if ever I saw it. Fantastic news: Terry has joined up with programmer Simon Roth to push out a major update to VVVVVV. Here’s the what’s new in VVVVVVersion 2.0: Read the rest of this entry »

First there was a Humble Indie Bundle. Then there was another Humble Indie Bundle. And now, there is a third Humble Indie Bundle! So it goes.

Yes, the pay-what-you-want pack that has brought welcome funds to indie devs and philanthropic organisations alike (not to mention giving gamers a fat pack of splendid indie games for bargain prices) has returned for a new Summer of fun. But which splendid indie games are in it, exactly? I’m glad you asked.

You know what to do…

Buy three Strongholds, get one free? No, no, that’s not right at all. It’s ‘buy Stronghold 3, get Stronghold 1 free.’ Because that’s what happens should you pre-order Stronghold 3 on Steam: you’ll get to re-dabble in the beloved 2001 castle sim. But when does it happen, I hear you ask? (I didn’t hear you ask anything,actually. I’m not a psychic or a madman who hears voices. I did hear a seagull go ‘qwaaaark’ in the distance however, and I’m pretty sure he meant ‘but when does it happen?’ Then he insulted my mum.)

This is when it happens: it happens RIGHT NOW.
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There are occasions when a studio forms and you just know that we’re going to be writing more about them in the near future. This is one such happening: veterans of 2K Czech and Bohemia have come together to form Warhorse Studios. Games under the collective belt of this team include Mafia, Mafia II, Arma, Arma II, UFO: Aftermath, and Hidden & Dangerous. The team is apparently working on an RPG project which they describe as follows: “There is a common thread running through our previous games: open worlds, strong storyline and, last but not least, realistic design. We can proudly say that the games Mafia and Operation Flashpoint were the vanguard of this approach and millions of players worldwide clearly share our view. Even if our new project is different in many respects, it is a game that is not going to disappoint fans of open realistic worlds and quality stories. We are positive we are not making this game for ourselves only but for you as well.” And given the name, and art, I think we can expect a medieval setting.

Needless to say, we’ve got in touch to find out more. Watch this space.

What will the next game from Super Meat Boy creators Team Meat be? Well, it probably won’t be a Super Meat Boy sequel, going on their earlier comments. But it does, apparently, have something to do with one, some or all of these things: stabbing, cardboard, cats, trolls, teabagging, ninja sais, Benny Hill.
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Dwarf Fortress is, in so many ways, the very apex of PC gaming. It is its alpha and omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. It’s almost impossible to imagine another game ever approaching its scope, complexity and cold brutality. We should worship at its all-knowing feet. Of course, 99% of us will never be able to play the bloody thing, thanks to it having history’s most obtuse control-set. Help is at hand, in the form of a free online class.
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You think you have had enough of The Old Republic news? WE ARE JUST GETTING STARTED. By the end of the year you’ll actually have had your childhood memories replaced by SW:TOR marketing materials, and the world will seem a better place for it. The latest cocktail of sparkling hype-juice to be pumped energetically from the info-nozzle of Lucas/EA/Bioware is the Join The Fight trailer (below), which shows the various character classes strutting their talent trees. Each class has a pithy line and a bit of fighty to illustrate their unique appeal. Off-screen, however, it’s my suspicion that the Sith Warrior looks at the Imperial Agent and says “Lol, nerd.”

Go take a look.
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Excitable Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter – who is allowed to comment on the games industry for some reason – has been talking about crunch time at development studios. Here’s what he said (via Industry Gamers): “The cool thing about this industry is, if you’re good, you’ll make a ton of money. I just don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for people who say ‘I worked for such-and-such, and I didn’t get paid, and that’s not fair’. If you want to be an hourly employee, go build automobiles, and what will happen is they’ll close down your autoplant some day and you’ll be out of work.”

Uh-huh.
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