Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The power of the Humble Bundle is extraordinary. Their latest sale is not a bundle at all, in fact. It’s not even an old game. It’s a brand new game, Voxatron, that as Adam mentioned this afternoon will eventually be properly released for $15. Right now, in the manner of the previous Humble releases, you can pay what you want, giving as much of that to the three charities as you choose. But here’s why I’m posting about it again: This deal has been alive, at the time of posting, for five and a half hours. And has already made over $112,000. I was typing $111,000 but it just ticked over another grand. That’s along with the 22,000 tweets, 196,000 likes on Facebook, 18,000 Google Pluses, and it’s currently sitting at 994 upvotes on Reddit, at the number one spot on the Gaming page, and number 4 overall. These people get some attention.

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Mechwarrior Online never actually happened as planned (about a decade ago) but now it is a planned again: for 2012. We knew this was in the pipeline, but things seem to be shaping up, because the website that hails this fresh announcement is here, and it allows you to sign up and register your pilot name. I did that. You are not having my name. The FAQ is almost comedic in the range of things it addresses, failing to really address what the game is actually going to be like, but explain that long-ranged missiles will be “semi-guided”, and the status of melee combat is undecided. It will, however, be a team-based multiplayer game. Also, bafflingly, it states: “MechWarrior® Online™ is running an offset timeline of the BattleTech® Universe. As of this writing it is 2011 and the year is 3048 within the game. In 2012, when the game is launched, it will be 3049.” Okay then!

More details on PCG.

Not nearly enough people took notice of my review last week and bought adventure The Book Of Unwritten Tales. I mean, I can’t prove that, but I’m assuming people didn’t. People tend not to do things that are good for them. But during it, I made a wish. I said I wanted them to make a game based on one of the characters, Critter. A strange, pink… thing, that babbles in nonsense and is ludicrously adorable. Well, it turns out they are.

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Jolly voxel-based isometric shooter Voxatron is now available, in its alpha form, as part of an Indie Humble deal. Not a bundle, just the offering of this one game, which is debuting today, at a price of your choosing. After this, it will be available for $15. I’ve been playing for a couple of weeks and reckon it’s worth every cent of that pricetag, but if you want it cheaper, now’s your chance. The graphics are lovely, as you can see in the new trailer below, but it’s the completely destructible world that most often made me want to applaud with delight, either dramatically when pillars collapsed or in the smaller detail of walls chipping away during fights. Imaginative and fun, this is a fine deal.

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Hello youse.

After the jump, you can watch a special Halloween edition of Cardboard Children, about zombie games.

Happy Halloween!

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Since we first heard about Jagged Alliance: Back In Action, one very important thing hasn’t been entirely clear. As soon as I see evidence of a new tactical game, particularly if it’s based on one I’ve previously attempted to legally wed, I have one question: are you turn-based, my darling? Back In Action has been coyly avoiding the answer to that question, claiming to be turn-curious but with a strong tendency toward real-time. Well now, it seems, the truth is out with this word from the developers:

The Plan & Go system could be described as an extended “real time with pauses” system. Back in Action essentially runs in real time, but the game can be paused at any time. The player maintains control of the game events even during the pause, and can input more entries which can only be implemented when the pause is removed.

Oh, baby, why can’t we take things slow and make our moves alternately in a well-paced fashion?

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Brriiiiiing! Briiiiiiing! Briii-
“Hello, Alec Meer speaking.”
“Hello, is that Alec Meer?”
“Yes, that’s why I said ‘Alec Meer speaking’. God, why do people always do that?”
“Sorry, yes, it annoys me too. Alec Meer here too – you said I should give you a call.”
“What?”
“You said you have so many half-forgotten interviews to transcribe that you needed to find some sort of fool-proof reminder system. This is it. When you sell RPS for $4 billion in 2027, you spent your share on a machine that could send phone calls back through time.”
“What?”
“So this is your reminder to transcribe the Wildstar interview you did back in August.”
“What? Wait, that’s actually really useful. Thanks.”
“Oh, and if you post that beta sign-ups for the new NCsoft MMO are now open, that’ll further help you to remember. Bye!”
“Oh, that’s a very sensible idea.”
“Oh, and don’t play Duke Nukem Forever, it’s rubbish.”
“Hang on, I thought you said you were from the future?”
“Er… Gotta go!”
[Click]

Having nothing to do with Wizball or Wizkid, the latter of which I remember as one of the truly surreal games of my formative years, Wizorb is an Arkanoid style game with NES-styled graphics and a basic JRPG backdrop. It’s been out on the indie segment of Xbox Live for a while, where I’ve played and enjoyed it, so I’m glad to see the PC release is happening sooner than I’d expected. November 7th to be precise, on Gamersgate. Paddle control should benefit from mouse control, although it could also make the game easier so hopefully there’ll be at least a basic tweak to ball speed. Trailer below, the graphics and music of which are either ‘charmingly retro’ or ‘a pungent throwback’.

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Batman! A game so good that Yahoo awarded it 6/5, thus unwittingly demonstrating that review scores are little more than a media pissing contest whose only real beneficiary is publishers’ marketing departments and people who like to shout at other people on forums. Which is exactly why we don’t give scores here. Can Arkham City possibly live up to such drooling superlatives? Well, I can’t yet speak for the PC version – which isn’t out until November 18, though we’re hoping to have code before then – but I did spend far too much of my week off playing the console version (I’m sorry, I just fancied getting a different sort of RSI on top of the one I already have from my mouse and keyboard), thus have a very good sense of the game itself if not its technical aspects and improvements on PC. So, if you must, consider this not a Wot I Think, but an extended preview offering some idea of what to expect in a few weeks.
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It’s hard to find the right word to describe the launch of Sword of the Stars 2. Troubled? Early? Turnippy? Kerberos CEO Martin Cirulis says the game will advance from “a turnip to a jewel”, which does unfortunately involve calling it a “turnip” in its current state. Both Kerberos and Paradox have released statements apologising for the state of the game, with the developers going into more detail about their hopes for the future. The original built up a strong fanbase in large part because Kerberos improved it over time, but with the sequel initial reports of an accidentally released beta and then an update with serious problems of its own have caused, let us say, a furore.

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This is how I’m going to play all games from now on.

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