Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Either this was unheralded or I’ve been listening to the wrong heralds, but Carcassonne is now available from Gamersgate in a rather spiffy looking PC conversion. There has already been a version for your personal computing device, but it was only distributed in Germany and has since been discontinued so it can carry a relatively hefty price tag. This downloadable version is £7.95, or £23.97 for a four-pack. It certainly looks the part and several expansions are included: rivers, inns and cathedrals, dealers and builders, and king and scout. Multiplayer works over internet and networks, as well as in hotseat mode, which is proper and good.

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Rock Paper Shotgun has recently received a number of complaints about our foot-to-ball coverage. Upset readers have claimed that we do not take Britain’s most popular sport at all seriously, instead reporting on any of the extremely popular games related to the pursuit with tired running gags, false ignorance and undeserved disdain. It has been pointed out to us that a great many of RPS’s readers are likely not only foot-to-ball fans, but fans of foot-to-ball gaming, and in our incessant use of stupid jokes and degrading remarks, we are alienating these readers from the site, and failing in our duty to provide accurate, engaging coverage of a large element of PC gaming.

But then they’re foot-to-ball fans, aren’t they? That’s just the sort of thing they would say. The idiots. Meanwhile, there’s a demo out for EA’s FIFA Manager 12.

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Last time we brought you news of Counter-Strike: GO (go go!), we were able to show you nine new images from the game. Nine! That’s a lot of global offense. This time, prepare for an offensive overload because there is over an hour of footage waiting for you below, in the form of a competitive match between the United States and Europe. I wouldn’t spoil the ending even if I had managed to watch the whole thing, but I have found myself riveted to it for a while – partly to stroke my chin and pretend I’m picking up on every difference, no matter how minute, but also because I’m keen for the Old World to represent itself well in the ancient and storied sport of man-shooting. Scarves, rattles and chants at the ready…

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One of Starcraft II’s big boasts was how awesome its editor was going to be for making your own games and such. We’re just starting to see the fruits of that. One group of modders took Blizzard up on the challenge and got on with creating a Starcraft MMO. After some initial legal wobbles, the mod is now approved by Blizzard, and it’s PvP mode is now undergoing a beta test. You can find some more details here, and I’ve posted the developer diary video for it below.
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Most of the footage I’ve seen of the hugely ambitious and massively multiplayer shooter Firefall has made me nod approvingly at the scale and design of the world, which not only looks the part but also seems a place it’d be fun to soar through, raining death from above, and probably from the front, sides and back as well. Lo and behold, there is a new trailer that takes a different perspective; instead of whooping about size and numbers, this one zooms in on an individual piece of kit, giving a better idea of individual skills. It takes the form of an advertisement for the heavy weapon specialist’s Dreadnaught frame and it’s one heck of a sales pitch.

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Adam’s planning a longer post on the IGF Pirate Kart‘s multifarious and hopefully delightful content, but the download was taking ages and he had to go drinking with Lewie P (thus, the Northern England contingent of RPS represents). Mr Smith will hopefully be your more expansive guide tomorrow, but in the meantime it seems only right and just to at least advise you of this wondrous (and free!) indie compilation’s existence so that you might investigate its 300-game contents for yourself.

Every game The majority of games in it were made in 48 hours or less, with involvement open to anyone, and as part of a noble attempt to restore some of the wildness that perhaps has been lost from the most excellent annual event that is the Independent Game Festival in the wake of indie’s growing mainstream awareness and acceptance.
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This is a sad end to the story of Mythos. You might remember that this was the MMO being devloped by Flagship Seattle, a studio led by a band of ex-Blizzard employees, many of whom worked on the Diablo games. When Flagship floundered and died in 2008, the game was catapulted into limbo. Some months later it was given new life by Asian publisher HanbitSoft, who owned the IP and wanted to bring it to the Asian market. The game finally found its way to Europe via Frogster, who published it in April this year. Now, however, the company has announced that Mythos’ “long-term success unfortunately did not follow”. Consequently the game will be shut down at 11am UK time on the 27th of this month. Former Mythos players will all get vouchers for Frogster’s other game, Runes Of Magic.

What a shame. Another dead world committed to the abyss.

If you were to ask me what two of my favourite things were, and I’m going to assume you just did, I’d have to say exploration and atmosphere, because I like discovering things and I like those things to be redolent of ancient myths, or failing that just to hum ominously. Kairo, which John covered in some detail back in the summer months. News now reaches us that Richard Perrin has entered the game into the IGF 2012 and to herald the occasion, here’s a new trailer.

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Bleak news from CCP:

“…we have made the decision to sharpen our focus. Sadly, this means reducing our staff. We estimate that around twenty percent of global positions will be affected by this process. These will be predominantly in our Atlanta, GA office, although select positions in our Reykjavik, Iceland office will be affected.”

More on this below.
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