Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Would you like a Christian game for free?! No, based on all that have existed so far, me neither. And I’m one of the God-botherers. But that’s the deal being offered by Left Behind Games – the gaming wing of the giant media empire born of the books based on what would appear to be a woeful misinterpretation of Matthew’s Gospel, ignorance of the events of AD 70, and a complete lack of awareness of the fall of Babylon. But we’re not here to argue eschatology – we’re here to further evidence the claims by the Left Behind people that there’s a secular media conspiracy to denounce them despite the brilliance of their games. A brilliance you can discover for yourself if you’ll only “like” them on Facebook. Because, as they explain in the trailer below, these games are THE MOST IMPORTANT games ever produced.

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Ah, here’s a spot of good mini-news for platform mini-zealots such as you and I. We’ve become all-too accustomed to PC versions of games being cursorily ported cast-offs of the console editions, riddled with references to X buttons and triggers, but Gearbox aren’t thinking that way for Borderlands 2. While the game’s still, at best guess, around a year from release, already they’re plotting on how the PC version needs to differ from the console version.
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We last wrote about online-only, free-to-play ARPG Path of Exile in April and it was already looking like an interesting proposition. It’s in closed beta now and there’s a terribly agonising countdown clock on the website to inform the world of when another lucky player will be allowed in. It’s like a cruel competition that I never win. Has anyone had any luck and if so can you bring back any reports from the entirely lootable dark and gritty world (that’s the official description) in which you have found yourself? There’s several feature length films worth of beta footage after the jump as well as a trailer for the Templar class.

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EDIT: Well, I enjoyed that! Not bad. Definitely “old school”, mind you…

The first mirror I’ve found for the demo of this “old school” PC-only shooter is here. The second is here. And it’s also on Steam. If you want something to read about what is in store for you while it downloads, you can go here. John says: “That’s mostly what Hard Reset is about. Having some weapons, and shooting at the enemies. Also, shooting at the scenery to make stuff blow up to destroy the enemies. And it’s no more sophisticated than that.”

Sounds okay. I’m downloading it right now. Race ya’!

It’s true! Vic Davis says: “I’ve been working on a free mini expansion pack for Solium Infernum. It’s in pretty good shape at this point and I hope to have it available in a beta form by the end of the month for adventurous players who would like to give it a go for a few weeks to find bugs and give me some game play feedback for tweaking the new mechanics.” There’s a full list of what’s included here.

And you want to remember why this game is so great, go here with your reading. Yeah, I went there. (Thanks be to the vigilant few who sent this in.)

The list of crimes committed by videogames is a long and dark one. Our hobby causes ordinary citizens to turn into crazed sociopaths, rapists, murders, environmentalists and thugs. Wait, hang on a second, go back one? It appears that the latest charge levelled at gaming by those arbiters of decency at FOX News is one of spreading leftie-pinko liberal thinking, and by golly it’s got to stop.

This is being perpetrated by “the green police”, who apparently are breaking into people’s homes and installing Sim City Societies on children’s PCs. We’re alerted to this horror by legendary videogaming and environmental science expect, radio presenter T.J. McCormack, who observes that people are “profiting of an environmental cause.” Because that’s now his argument?

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Vindictus, Nexon’s free-to-play fantasy melee game, will be arriving in the European inter-tubes very soon. To celebrate that they’ve put out a trailer, which you can see below. Of course if you are a North American or reside therein you have been able to play this game for about seventy-nine months. So North Americans, is it any good? What do we have to look forward to? Your Old World cousins need to know!
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I’m going to talk about an indie game called Reprisal, but first some theology. In the recent past, From Dust came out and it wasn’t Populous. It wasn’t even Populous with iffy controls, it steadfastly refused to be Populous at all despite being based around Godlike powers and terrain manipulation. Before that, Black and White came out and flirted with the idea of being Populous but then decided it would just be a bit like Populous with a lot more lobbing of poo and caressing of cows. Cardinal sins. Earlier still, Magic Carpet came into being and was actually incredibly similar to Populous, despite the fact the player controlled a wizard riding some flying fabric rather than an actual god of any sort. Heretical. Odd that despite its massive influence, much of Populous’ core remains its own. Now, electrolyte* have delivered unto us a mini-Populous for the browser. It’s in a pre-beta state but it’s playable for two short levels and, by God, it’s all rather lovely and nostalgic.

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Cyanide’s A Game Of Thrones: Genesis finally has a release date. The RTS set in George R. R. R. R. R. Martin’s grumpy world will be with us this very month, on the 29th. Being a strategy game, clearly I’d have to receive an odd number of bumps to the head to play it, but were I to I would insist on only ever making honourable decisions, no matter how frequently this led to my entire family getting enslaved and murdered and everyone’s heads getting chopped off. Because Boromir says that’s how it should be. Which interestingly is almost something the game offers. You can see some new screenshots below, too.

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