Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Here you go, an hour ahead of the rest of the world (unless they embed it, the bastards), comes Red Orchestra 2‘s latest trailer. Part game trailer, part Werther’s Original commercial, and with a splendid ending, you can see it below.

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You foot-to-ball chaps sure don’t get bored easily. I’d get fed up of any game after 2012 years – why, I’d even be willing to bet my ardour for X-COM would have cooled by just the 819th sequel. There’s no stopping plucky Brit studio Sports Interactive though: they’ve just announced Foot-to-Ball Manager 2012, which as is the custom contains a raft of new features, improved graphicsability, a whole lot more foot, and much more ball.

In the years to come, 50% of men will only buy one game each year – whatever the new Call of Duty is. The other 50% will only buy Football Manager. By 2018, the two will combine into Weapon Unlock Manager, and no other game will ever be required.
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Friday saw the sudden news of a brand new, all-formats Counter-Strike game, which in PC gaming news terms is probably the equivalent of simultaneously swearing in a crowdpleasing new president and announcing a world war. The coming months will be characterised by both excitement and rage, I don’t doubt. What we don’t know is much about it, other than that it’s broadly going to be CS with new stuff. Turns out, Valve have been quietly showing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (I don’t know how long it’s going to be until I stop initially typing ‘Global Agenda’) to pro-gamers to get their thoughts on how it’s shaping up. Craig ‘Torbull’ Levine from ESEA is one of the lucky few, and he’s shared a few details on what to expect from a game Valve are claiming will fit alongside, rather than replace, CS 1.6 and CS:S.
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Word flies in from all directions that the PC version of the forthcoming Batman: Arkham City is to be by far the definitive one. Details scavenged from October’s PC Gamer (oh, magazines) reveal that it has been super-enhanced for various bits and bobs of tech that the consoles don’t support. So of course there’s 3D, for anyone mad enough to have bought a 3D monitor. But more excitingly, it’s supporting DirectX 11 and PhysX. And other stuff too!

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There’s no looking back for A Valley Without Wind now – its new, side-scrolling look is signed and sealed, as the below humungo-chunk (17 minutes!) of in-game footage proves. Also now on show from this time-straddling exploration and survival game are brand new character models, plus assorted armour for them to find, craft and wear.

I’m still not entirely sure what to think about the side-on perspective, but it’s definitely growing on me. As it is, this is a game I’m increasingly excited about – procedurally-generated world-roaming with, apparently, a proper layer of game on top of it.
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It’s the Monday morning before Gamescom. Potentially the quietest morning there can be for gaming news. Most publishers and developers are currently sat on planes, flying toward Germany’s Frenchiest-sounding place, Cologne, ready to being their publicity assault on the world. Oh, it’ll be a busy week. Too much news all in one tiny space, in advance of the gigantic Autumn madness that is gaming. Cinema may have all but given up on its Summer-focus for blockbusters, but gaming still clings on to the pre-Christmas release-o-frenzy, and we’re about to hear about everything all at once.

So I’m wondering, what game do you play when you want to relax? What’s your happy-place game? Does yours constantly update, as does mine? (Currently Dredmor, previously Terraria, before then Minecraft, etc.) Or is there something that sits on your hard drive from years past, always there just in case you need to hide from the world and slip under that safe, warm duvet? (Oh Burnout: Paradise, I’d be alone without you.) Which is your cosy, fire-lit cave and heather bed on the scary island of life?

You couldn’t wish for a vaguer statement, but when it comes to what may well prove to be the year’s best RPG, talk of a ‘new and improved PC version 2.0′ is EXCITING TALK. This news comes from the end of a noodly, AOR music video featuring some silly rocker put out by CD Projekt RED late last week. Most of the video is Geralt striking a pose, but the end boasts of the upcoming 360 port – and a major new patch for the PC version, dubbed version 2.0.

I have no details for you than that, but at a guess it will involve bringing the various tweaks, updates and newosity from the console edition into the PC original. Win-win, hopefully. You can watch the music video below, if you must.
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Just when you thought gaming websites getting hacked was soooooo last month, Bethesda have sent out an email to forum users warning them that it’s happened to them all over again. The new email reports that the “potential” attack to their forums took place on Friday (12th) morning, and says that all forum passwords have been reset once more. No details of what happened are given, but the full email is below. (Admittedly this story broke yesterday, but I only received my email about it this afternoon.)

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Sundays! Sundays are for refreshed victory. On Sundays we can consolidate and peer into the week ahead. Will it be better than last week? Damn straight. Let’s prepare ourselves with some written edification for mind and soul. Internet, you are a strong.

• The Creators Project talk to the man behind mod de jour The Stanley Parable: “I love any game that rattles my expectations a bit, so I’ve been equally delighted with Counterstrike and with Dear Esther. But a mod is just a tool, you can use it however you want, and if you go on ModDB, most of the mods there are sci-fi/history actions games. Even though modding can be a wellspring of innovation and creativity, it’s just as easy to use it to make something that looks identical to everything else. The more open your platform is, the more imitators you get. As far as actual success goes, I think it has far more to do with your intentions than with the openness of your platform. Case in point: i released a game that’s actually kind of difficult to install, on a limited number of platforms, with zero marketing and zero details available about the game, and it was downloaded 70,000 times in a week. That speaks to my desire to do something crazy and unexpected. If your intentions are just to imitate the formula, than no amount of technological liberation will help. But I’m kind of an anomaly here, so what do I know?”

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I just spotted this extremely minimal horror-FPS over on Denby’s free games round up, and it’s worth taking a look at. It’s a clunky, grainy first-person game set at night in a snowy wood, under distant searchlights and sirens. The object of the game is find five locations, and read the five plaques, before the thing that is searching for you – some kind of disturbing mobile searchlight thing light – manages to find you. Sprint and you’ll get out of breath and need to stop to recover. It’s stupidly lo-fi and quite tricky to find your way about, but it’s startlingly atmospheric for a game of so little content.