And their gnolls and ogres and kobolds too
By Alec Meer on October 12th, 2011.
Orcs Must Die is the first game from Robot Entertainment, the studio raised from the ashes of Age of Empires dev Ensemble, and it was released on PC (via Steam) yesterday. It is a tale of many, many, many Orcs, and of their very, very, very regular deaths. And this? This is what I think of it.
Read the rest of this entry »
By Jim Rossignol on October 12th, 2011.
ENTHUSIASM! Those clever folks at Bioware have been able to explain what’s going on with Mass Effect 3′s new multiplayer (including some kind of drop-in and drop-out co-op mode) via a new move-o-screen presentation which is delivered via “Bioware Pulse”, and contains considerable enthusiasm for the idea of Bioware games. And why wouldn’t it? They’re quite literally some games you can play, if you want.
Video! Below! NOW!
Read the rest of this entry »
By Adam Smith on October 12th, 2011.
Last time I wrote about The Bridge, all I’d seen of it was the exquisite little trailer that I felt an immediate compulsion to share. Although I promised to keep my eyes peeled (and I haven’t closed them since), I feared that the actual game might be years away from release, since so little information was available. Thankfully, all of my fears were dispelled when a demo appeared to coincide, more or less, with the game’s appearance at IndieCade. Download it here or read some more brief impressions below.
By John Walker on October 12th, 2011.
It’s never been my dream to run an airline. But then again it’s never been my dream to shoot thousands of aliens in the face with an improbably large gun, and I do that in games all the time. You can now find out if simulating the running of plane-o-businesses is your sort of thing with the demo for Airline Tycoon 2. It offers three campaigns from the game’s single player mode, allowing you to plan routes around the world, meddle with four of the game’s planes, and, er, manage the finances. See, I never have to do the accounts when I play Mans-Shooter VII: Shoot Them In The Necks. You can get the demo from here and here. If you’ve ever run an airline, tell us how realistic it is below.
Ifs and ands, plots and plans
By Adam Smith on October 12th, 2011.
After failing miserably to conquer All Of Japan on my first attempt, I’ve been back for more. And then for some more. And just then, five minutes ago, a little bit more. I don’t think I’ll ever be the shogun but I have experienced enough of the highs and lows of the family feudal system to tell you if my excursion to Japan has been worthwhile and whether my desire for plotting and prevarication has been sated. Read on.
By Jim Rossignol on October 12th, 2011.
If you were brave/lucky enough to attend our Indie Arcade at the Eurogamer Expo then you might have noticed the quietly majestic Stellar Impact, which is a rather accomplished-looking PvP starship combat game. It’s really quite the thing: somewhere between MOBA-style play and classic ship-to-ship naval warfare, with you having out-manoeuvre your opponent, bring a broadside to bear, and so on. What’s more is that it has a sort of infinite demo, whereby you can play the game for free, but can’t level up your stuff without the full version. Neat! I’ve posted the trailer and also Total Biscuit’s blathering about it below. Go take a look!
UPDATE: Sigh, looks like their site broke as I posted this.
Read the rest of this entry »
By John Walker on October 12th, 2011.
Tis the season to launch your closed beta, it seems. Joining in with the flurry of secretive practise goes is Hi-Rez Studios, who have today announced their closed beta is to begin on the 4th November. Those who buy the “VIP Starter Bundle” are guaranteed a way in, and it’s pot luck for the rest. Oh, and there are two new screenshots.
By Alec Meer on October 12th, 2011.
Good, in fact excellent, tidings for those who find themselves able to enjoy Fallouts both old and new, and for anyone who lived through the 90s heyday of PC RPGs. Tim Cain, the main brain behind the original Fallout and later co-founder of the much-missed Troika, has fetched up at Obsidian. Until this July, he was at Carbine, working since 2005 on what turned out to be Wildstar, but today we discover that he’s now Senior Programmer at the Fallout: New Vegas/ KOTOR 2 devs. AVENGERS ASSEMBLE.
Read the rest of this entry »
By Adam Smith on October 12th, 2011.
The Baconing was a load of old nonsense, which suits me just fine. I like nonsense. The first time I realised words were among my favourite things I was but a young pup reading a giant Edward Lear tome and being struck about the face by seemingly infinite invention. But Edward Lear never included any “Bad Mothas” in his work as far as I remember and The Baconing is adding one such lady by the name of Roesha as a downloadable co-op character. To the patchwork pig-flesh stew that is Deathspank’s world, Roesha brings a dose of ’70s disco blaxploitation, with a glitterball special attack and, I quote, “a nasty attitude”. To celebrate her arrival, the game and the DLC are available at a 50% discount through Steam until Wednesday the 18th. Mr Caldwell found much to like. Perhaps you will too?
By Jim Rossignol on October 12th, 2011.
Well, sort of. Casual-gaming behemoth Zynga, which is now worth more than all the gold in the universe, has announced that its games will now appear in a portal other than Facebook. The new portal, which will be called “Zynga Direct”, will host the usual line-up of Zynga games, without you having to go to Zuckerberg’s House Of Wonders. That’s rendered a bit pointless by it still using Facebook Connect for the multiplayer sort of multiplayerness, allowing you to play on either Direct or Facebook without troubles. (I am guessing this is an advertising-related move?) Zynga also announced a casual medieval-themed MMO called CastleVille, because that name hadn’t been used yet and well someone had to. But that’s not all, they also announced Zynga Bingo, Dream Zoo, Hidden Chronicles and Mafia Wars II.
“Dream Zoo” is a lot more Lynchean in my imagination than I am betting it will be in reality. Shame. Shame.
By Jim Rossignol on October 12th, 2011.
Marv Wolfman is a great name for a person, especially if that person is a comics writer who launched Crisis on Infinite Earths and invented Blade. The same guy is responsible for writing the story for PlanetSide 2, according to Gamespy. Presumably that won’t be too much a stretch for Wolfman because wait… they brought in a pro for the story? Really? They needed to bring someone in to write the story to “three factions fight over planet, forever”? The source Gamespy story comments “Nice. PlanetSide definitely needs a bit of meaning added to its conflict.” And I am thinking: No, it really doesn’t.
I wonder, actually, if this is some kind of commercial response to Firefall hiring Orson Scott Card? Anyway.
