Rock, Paper, Shotgun

We’ve had word back from EA regarding their peculiarly-worded terms of service for Origin. Senior director of corporate communications John Reseburg explains: “The Origin terms of service are designed to protect against misuse of the Origin system. No Origin user who has paid entitlements and/or downloaded games will have their account cancelled or games expired due to extended non-use. The term regarding account cancellation for non-use is designed to guard against creation of non-active accounts for inappropriate reasons.”

So that’s good. As long as you weren’t intending to create non-active accounts for inappropriate reasons, anyway.

COMPETITION CLOSED, PRIZES SENT.

John thought Limbo was great, even if the PC-porting was a bit shonky. So perhaps you might be interested in winning a copy? I thought so. We’ve got twenty Steam codes to give away. Email us here with the answer to this question: “If you were stuck in limbo – the metaphysical/theological state, rather than the platform game – which PC gaming character would you want to be stuck there with?”

The most metaphysical answers, as judged by us, will win Steam codes. Usual rules apply. Closing date is midday, 10th August.

Blizzard have removed the Starcraft II demo from Battle.net, to replace it with a “Starter Edition” – a move which echoes World Of Warcraft’s free 20-level trial. The Starcraft II starter edition allows you try out a bunch of the single player game, and also the Terrans in custom games and single-player vs AI games. More details below.
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The next instalment of Blops multiplayer cash-for-maps, Rezurrection, is to be set on the moon. Activision claim that the DLC will feature an “enhanced zombie soundtrack”, whatever that means, but the core of it is a new “low-gravity” map set on Earth’s favourite orbiting rock. So Moon Zombies, then. The Windows version of the DLC will be available after 23rd of August (although precisely when isn’t clear) and the price isn’t yet clear either. This is a terrible news story. Must do better.

This concludes your Call Of Duty news for today. (Probably.)

EDIT: Alternative trailer.

Kalypso have sent word that their follow-up to dungeon management game Dungeons is closing in. Dungeons – The Dark Lord will land on 23rd September, bringing with it a new single-player campaign set in an “ice-crystal” cavern, and multiplayer. Kalypso report: “Three multiplayer modes for up to four players: Deathmatch, King of the Hill and Survival,” which represents a big change for the game.

Needless to say, there’s a trailer chained up in the dungeon below.
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Air Buccaneers is getting an HD remake! You can even watch a trailer, below. Air Buccaneers – a multiplayer combat game between teams of balloon-piloting, cutlass-wielding canoneers – was 2004′s greatest mod, and arguably one of the finest mods of all time. And it is being remade. RPS veterans we recall our revival of the mod on a couple of occasions, events which always ended in a “why isn’t this being remade in UDK…” Now it is.

It’s also due for release in 2012. And that’s all I know for now, having just been alerted to this forum thread by Comrade sponge. I’ve contact Ludocraft for more information.
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Much-delayed “action MMO” TERA has finally got a Euro release slot, roughly speaking. It’s going to hit in Spring 2012. Frogster’s Daniel Ullrich explained: “By launching TERA in Spring 2012 we ensure that the game will not only live up to expectations, but surpass them. We’ll be unveiling various features at Gamescom and rest assured these are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what players can expect when TERA is released early next year”.

I’m not entirely sure what my expectations for this game are, but if they are surpassed then it’ll be time for a cup of tea. Hey, why not see if you can formulate expectations of your own by watching the game footage that I’ve posted below?
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“Oh God, not again – can’t I just play the damned thing? WHY? [Stomp, stomp, stomp."] This is a sound surely as familiar to the residents of the Brunswick area of Brighton as are the constant squawks of seagulls fighting over the contents of their recycling boxes. This is a sound I make, or at least variations upon it, every single time I first run a game I have downloaded via Steam. This time, I always think. This time it won’t ask me to install DirectX again first. Surely the 1023rd time’s the charm. That dream will likely never come to pass. However, at least we now know why – Valve have explained this particularly modern annoyance.
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Eurogamer had already called it, now 2K and Gearbox have officially announced it: Borderlands 2 will be revealed at Gamescom later this month (I’m just about to pester them for an appointment) and released at some point beetween April 2012 and April 2013. Almost no details whatsover – this is how the games industry rolls – but there will be a”ll-new characters, skills, environments, enemies, weapons and equipment, which come together in an ambitiously crafted story. Players will reveal secrets, and escalate mysteries of the Borderlands universe as they adventure across the unexplored new areas of Pandora.”

All of these things are good things, though it puts paid to that rumour a couple of years back that ‘Borderworlds’ was the direction Gearbox were heading in. A PC version is confirmed, by the way, as well as the inevitable playboxes. The first image from the game is below.
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