Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Following yesterday’s DRM-alarm going off, GSC have now said that using an always-on solution is for them “a possibility, not a choice.” We also received this statement:

“The idea of implementing DRM came in as a possible anti-piracy solution. You know the severe level of commercial piracy we have here in ex-USSR region. This said however, there is no firm decision to go for DRM with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 as of now. Be assured, we do realize how uncomfortable this solution is for the players, so we’ll continue looking for most effective, yet acceptable for all, way of protecting the game by the time of its release.”

Sundays are for driving across the hills, and through the forests. Sundays are for getting home to a cup of a tea and a boiled egg, and realising there’s still a compilation of the week’s words to do. These are those.

• This week’s winner in the game of words is this dictionary development studio jargon that has been compiled by Gamasutra. I am sure some of them are fallacious, and I have never been used in anger, (while others are just silly), but I couldn’t help smile at “Gone All Kurtz”, “Save the Astronauts”, “Eating Your Own Dog Food” and “Pink Lightsaber”.

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Despite cancelling third Ben and Dan game Revenge of the Balloon-Headed Mexican, Size Five Games (formerly Zombie Cow) have begun design-drafting a new adventure starring their foul-minded/mouthed point’n'click avatars. Or, at least, they’ve gone down the pub and brainstormed and even made a bunch of ideas and puzzles, ending up with something which might just turn into a full game. The Swindle remains project no.1, but happily we might be in for more crudified Lucasartsesque merriment too. It even has a codename: SOBAD.
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Oh, not again. Paypal is increasingly the scourge of indie games – it’s opted to cruelly and unnecessarily freeze funds for Minecraft and Project Zomboid in the past, and the latest victim of its administrative idiocy is enticing X-COM reimagining Xenonauts. “Currently our Paypal account has been locked down and closed, so we don’t have access to any of the new money coming in or any access to the funds currently in the account,” say devs Goldhawk Interactive. “As a result of this, we’ve temporarily disabled the pre-order page.”
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id’s legendary robo-brain John Carmack has broken the developer’s rather inadvisable silence about the mucky state of Rage at launch on PC last week. Apology? Nah? Accepting blame? Nah. It’s all ATI’s fault that id released a game designed for future rather than existent drivers, he says. Oh, and the reason the game, once working, is still not as super-shiny as we might have hoped is because “We do not see the PC as the leading platform for games.” Here we go again.

In happier news, the first Rage patch is out, and thank the god of textures, it introduces a much-needed graphics settings menu to the game.
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The Binding of Isaac, Ed McMillen and Florian Himsl’s icky, ingenious Zeldalike now benefits from an online demo, hosted in the browser-based medium of Flash at Newgrounds.

It only includes two areas of the game and a few of the items and foes, so may struggle to convey the randomly-generated wonder/horror of this shooter/roleplayer/matricide curio, but if you’re still confused about exactly what this game is, this will give you a broad sense of it.

Hello youse.

I want to talk to you about a game that really makes me smile. It’s an expensive game, but I think that if you have a group of players who find the theme appealing, it’s certainly something worth chipping in to buy. I also think it’s the best game that the publisher has yet released.

It’s Flying Frog Productions’ Fortune & Glory.

I JUST FELL INTO A VOLCANO! Click through to see if I survive!
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Surely you lot know the drill by now? I’ve spent this morning drinking tea and finding all the best download deals from across the web, and compiled them into a convenient list format for you. What’s there going to be to tempt you to hit that download button this week? Read on to find out. As always, SavyGamer.co.uk is your round the clock hub to cut-price gaming deals. Here’s your bucket: Read the rest of this entry »

Tripwire Interactive have released a large statement on the “the state of the game” for Red Orchestra 2, a statement which you can read in full below. It addresses both the commercial success of the game and the technical failures in the opening weeks. The company admit that: “To put it bluntly, the game had a rough launch. We’ve been working diligently since launch to get these issues sorted and have made great progress fixing issues with matchmaking, VOIP, and stability as well as improving performance.”

The company claim to have addressed most of the issues, and will now be doing a stats reset due to problems with how people were earning stats and achievements. Hopefully things will be smoother sailing from here. We’ve requested an interview with Tripwire to talk about some of these issues and future prospects for the game.
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There was no doubt, of course, that Prototype 2 would be violent to the point of grotesque silliness, and the “Art Of Combat” trailer below, in which a number of the devs talk through their choices for the design of Prototype 2′s various super-powered combat moves, proves that. I’ve posted it below, and in it you can see a range of ways in which people are turned into red dust by a cross between a pro-wrestler, an alien, and a flying spaghetti monster.
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A big old Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 trailer appeared last night. It’s very exciting. I’ve posted it below. (Via Blue.)
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