Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The fountain of splendiferousness that is Ludum Dare spurts up another mini-gem: spooky platformer Hollow. Retroesque indie platformers are ten a penny, but the vital trick in Connor Ullmann’s free browser game, created for Ludum Dare 21, is to make you afraid of the dark. For in it, monsters lurk. Many of these monsters can be defeated, with a consistently joyous flying headbutt move, but that’s not the point. You can’t quite see where they are and when they’re coming for you until they’re basically about to eat your tiny, pixel-art, spelunking face.

Therefore, scary. Only a little, but enough, and with a wide range of impressive grotesques lurking in the all-too-near shadows. Beneath the spooks, it’s an artful and rapidly fiendish wee platformer in its own right. Play!

Via Indiegames.

Dead Island released today in the EU while our American cousins have been slaycationing for a few days already. Later this month, there will be more, deader bits of island in the form of the rather unhygienic Bloodbath Arena DLC. The game first showed its rotten face at E3 in 2006 and its prolonged development cycle didn’t manage to iron out all the wrinkles, though John was suitably impressed by what he played. Now that the game may finally have stumbled through the hurdles of its difficult release, maybe the DLC will have a smoother ride. Or I might be back next week to tell you it’s been delayed until 2017. Details below.

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I’d been meaning to write a reply to Ben Kuchera’s “In gaming, everything is amazing, but no one is happy” all week, and I’ve finally had enough tea and enough of a break to think about what he said. Go and have a read of it, please, and then come back. I’ll be here, typing away. Read it? So you can probably see why it didn’t sit quite right with me. Yes, games are pretty amazing, and yes we complain a lot. And the implication of Ben’s piece is that… we probably shouldn’t complain? That things are much better than we imagine? That we are too fussy? You know, in this age of fear and fundamentalism, when the media does little to promote satisfaction or optimism, it’s hard to disagree with anyone who says that we should just take a look at what we do have. It is pretty amazing.

The flipside is, well, it could always be better. If people didn’t strive for better then we wouldn’t have all that amazing stuff in the first place. And the first step in striving for better is often the complaint. “This isn’t good enough. Something has to change.” And that is why gamers complain: they are smart, imaginative people, who can quite easily imagine how things could be better. Whether those imaginings are right (or even feasible) is another matter, but no one should say that they are unacceptable.
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A brief “vehicles” trailer for Saints Row: The Third has turned up. It shows off the game’s street-cleaning machine, so that’s good, but it also shows off a hoverbike and what appears to be a rocket-boosted sportscar. It neglects, however, to demo the VTOL jet or the the terrifying pedestrian-launcher thing. I’ve posted the previously revealed (and extensively bananas) game footage which includes those things for good measure.
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Codemasters have already talked about their multiplayer focus for F1 2011. Cynics might think that’s because people were upset about the AI last time out so they’re hoping we’ll replace it all with real people. Imagine that. Your friends may be part of a nefarious plan to improve a game. This new video is all about the co-op championship mode, which will allow you and a friend to enjoy a bitter rivalry disguised as teamwork. Video below, as well as an earlier dev diary which does have some talk about AI.

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Ding dong, the witch is dead! As promised, Ubisoft have now removed the legitimate consumer-punishing always-on DRM from the disappointing PC port of their strategy/puzzle/sorta-god game From Dust. Let Steam auto-update it and the unpleasant eggy stench of a constant internet requirement will be gone, plus it’ll grab your savegames from Ubi’s servers and sync them to your PC.
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You there! Remember the parody video in which the likes of DLC references, object highlighting and iron sights from Human Revolution were added to the original Deus Ex, and how even-tempered everyone was about it? Well, now you can recreate that past-meets-present, JC/AJ mash-up yourself, as creator Ceski has released the mod he made to achieve the video.

Also includes instant wristblade takedowns (press use when behind an enemy), regenerating health and a surfeit of black and gold. Grab Deus Ex: Unreal Revolution from here.