By Alec Meer on August 2nd, 2011.
Facebook games struggle to make an appearance on RPS without a boo-hiss from the crowd, but this one bears a little more patience. Words With Friends – owned by but not created by FarmVille frighteners Zynga – was a quiet giant on mobile platforms, due to basically being a persistent, online, score-based, multiplayer Scrabble, geared towards play with chums’n'family. Now it’s on its way to Facebook.
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By John Walker on August 2nd, 2011.
Clearly at least five new MMOs are announced every minute. Since I started writing this sentence, the five from the previous minute have each received over three million sign-ups, with over $400,000,000 of micro-transactions processed. If a PC gaming website were to report on each of these MMOs, not only would the readers all pluck out their own eyeballs, but the internet would simply stop in protest. Although every now and then one of them captures my eye. Today it’s Tiara Concerto. Which leads me to ponder some thoughts.
By Alec Meer on August 1st, 2011.
On the one hand this isn’t too much of a surprise, after how earnestly the rumour mill has been grinding lately. On the other – well, given how good Valve are at fooling folk, official confirmation that their competitive strategy game Dota 2 will indeed be on public display at Gamescom later this month is a pretty big deal. Oh yeah, and they reckon the game itself will be released “later this year.” Woo!
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By Alec Meer on August 1st, 2011.
Are you listening, Blizzard? ARE YOU? Here are three minutes of why PC gamers deserve the option to alter their games, and why the world is a better place for it. Madness, beauty, comedy, juggling, land-swimming, flying horses and most of all modding await you in this completely, gloriously batshit Oblivion machinima.
Why am I posting it? Why didn’t I post it sooner, more like.
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By John Walker on August 1st, 2011.
As Alec brought to our attention on Friday, Brink’s first DLC, Agents Of Change, is due out on the 3rd August. That’s in two days time, calendar fans. Let’s celebrate this proximity with eleven screenshots of the runny, jumpy, shooty content. Except, er, without the runny, shooty or content. These are pics of the environments. Until the very last they somewhat forgot the players. But still, they’re very pretty. And pretty things distract me from the turmoil within.
By Alec Meer on August 1st, 2011.
Oh, ‘voxel destruction’ are two words that so truly belong together, like cheese and chips, apple and pie, seagull and evil. Indie alterna-flight sim (also with tanks) A New Zero has updated its voxel-based engine to include structural physics – meaning that when you bring the rain onto a building, it’s going to crumble spectacularly into a shower of distressed voxels. As you may see below.
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By John Walker on August 1st, 2011.
Some astonishing controversy from Friday that escaped our gaze – Devolver Digital, they publishing Serious Sam 3: BFE, have announced that they’ve scrapped their planned proprietary digital distribution service, Krundle, and instead are opting to use Steam. And not Origin. The press release, containing their reasoning and what could have been (including features such as “Free-to-Play-for-Fifty-Bucks games wherein the consumer is free to play the game once it is purchased for $50″, and velvet-covered jet skis), is below.
By John Walker on August 1st, 2011.
I’m very pleased that Really Big Sky is adding a big patch that adds game modes and more, because otherwise I’d never have heard of Really Big Sky. It’s a classic side-scrolling shmup, that almost certainly qualifies for “bullet hell” status. It’s exceptionally pretty, packed with different ways to play, and rather importantly, has controls that – to my cackhanded fists at least – feel more tangible than most. The new features include a really splendid-looking retro mode, of which there’s a video below. And there’s a demo.
Smash TV, Anyone?
By B Caldwell on August 1st, 2011.
Caldwell has been abroad in London town to bring us the first look at MMOFPS Hedone. Here’s what he made of those initial impressions.
I really wanted this to be stellar, so that I could run “Hedone Good” as part of the headline. “Hedone Maybe OK I Don’t Know” just isn’t as eye-grabbing. Hedone is an upcoming free-to-play first-person shooter from German developer Acony. It sprung up from the ashes of a cancelled game called Parabellum which apparently ran into “issues”, as games often do. It’s got shooting in, as you can see from the pictures below. It’s also online, which means Social stuff. Let me explain.
Balanced Discourse
By John Walker on August 1st, 2011.
I’m not denying this is territory I’ve covered before. There’s no disguising that I’m a fan of single-playing gaming over multiplayer. Finally it’s time to just say it. We need to stop avoiding the matter, stop not saying what everyone’s thinking. I’m the man brave enough to do this. I am a valiant man, and maybe I won’t be recognised within my own lifetime, but by God one day I shall be heralded as the prophet and man of integrity I truly am. But please, don’t think me immodest. I would hate that.
By Alec Meer on August 1st, 2011.
The morning brings a trio of horror-news about Diablo III. I’m outright bewildered about what Blizzard have done, and shuddering about the likely reaction in comments. I won’t muck around here, and instead shall just wade straight into the things that are probably going to end up being PC gaming’s biggest controversy of 2011.
1) The game requires a constant internet connection. It cannot be played offline.
2) Mods are “expressly prohibited.”
3) Items in the auction house are bought and sold for real-life money.
