Artful dungeon-crawler Bastion charmed us with its strange world, solid combat mechanics, and elegant narration. John loved it. It even inspired Alec to a big old cleverthink. I decided to have a chat with Greg Kasavin, creative director and writer on the project, to find out a bit more about how Bastion came to be, and what the future holds.
Read the rest of this entry »
Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Archive for October, 2011
Writing With The Kid
Be Heartening: A Bastion Interview
By Jim Rossignol on October 5th, 2011.
Storyseeking: Interactive Fiction Competition
By Adam Smith on October 5th, 2011.
I’ve been taking a look at some of the games in the 17th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition and though I’m not going to refer to these as “the cream of the crop”, having not harvested the entire crop yet, they should fulfill a variety of your text-based needs. With storytelling in games high on the agenda today, it’s a particularly interesting moment to look at the different ways narrative can be explored through interactive prose. Far from fetch quests and attempts to second-guess a limited vocabulary, interactive fiction at its best can allow a reader-player to discover stories in all kinds of interesting ways. This way to words about words.
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident Sequel? Maybe.
By Jim Rossignol on October 5th, 2011.
Here’s an interesting thing that has arrived from a number sources into my inbox (thanks, all! I know you aren’t intentionally supporting World Space Week…) – the possibility of a sequel for much-beloved space combat strategy Nexus: The Jupiter Incident from members of the original team, now called Most Wanted Entertainment. They talk about their plans here, but the upshot of it is that are hoping to crowdfund it via the GamesPlant service. They want to raise quite a lot of cash, and I’m a bit sceptical as to whether that is going to happen. Either way, it’s the first serious effort we’ve seen toward a sequel since a tech demo leak (video below) from six years ago. I’ve also posted the more recent Nexus 2 concept trailer below.
Read the rest of this entry »
Nanbu No More
Sengoku: Diary Of A Nobutoki #3
By Adam Smith on October 5th, 2011.
(See here for the story so far.)
“We live on the promise that we will not inherit the problems of our fathers in this time of Sengoku but will instead be Lord of the new worlds they have wrought, able to take pride in their works and in turn grant our own children the honour of a name and the produce of rich and stable lands. It is the dream of every generation to improve the lot of the next, to elevate their position in society and their power over the weak and the wanting. We live on the promise that our fathers are not fools and some of us will die on the empty, rotten nature of such a promise. Screw you dad. Screw you with a shinai.”
Nanbu Akifusa, January 1478
Narrative Design And 'The Art Of The Possible'
Telling Tales: The Art Of Game Stories In 2011
By Lewis Denby on October 5th, 2011.
Videogame storytelling is evolving, and the past few years have seen some fresh approaches to spinning the interactive yarn. Lewis Denby, on a mission to find out a little more about what stories mean to modern games, spoke to Splash Damage’s Ed Stern, who created the huge backstory for Brink, and script writer Tom Jubert, most famous for his work on Penumbra, to find out how we’re telling tales in this modern gaming age.
Read the rest of this entry »
Albion The Bridge: X Rebirth
By Adam Smith on October 5th, 2011.
When X Rebirth was announced back in April, there wasn’t a huge amount of information to ponder so it seemed natural to expect something similar to previous games in the series. Turns out that while there will still be a great deal of piloting and trading, some things have indeed changed. The most significant shift is the focus to one ship, The Pride of Albion, which is upgradeable and customisable but cannot be switched out for a different vessel. In a forum post outlining some details about the game, Bernd Lehahn pre-empted the horror of the fanbase: “But before you get upset and complain about the lack of freedom to steer other ships, WAIT”. Are you waiting? Because that command was capitalised. OK, now click.
Pre-Flight Snack: Take On Helicopters
By Jim Rossignol on October 5th, 2011.
Take On Helicopters Pre-Order Beta access thing is now live. The full game of commercial hovering is released on the 27th, but you can get it now if you are so inclined. For some insight into what the simulator contains you can read Mr Stone’s take on the thing, where he says: “Even if the campaign turns out to be a bug-spattered nightmare, I’ll still be recommending ToH to anyone with even a passing interest in simulated flight.”
Gosh.
Yeah, Pretty Epic: Unreal In Flash
By Alec Meer on October 5th, 2011.
Last night saw just the latest sign that civilisation is on a nosedive to hell, as the entire internet lost its mind over the prospect of seeing pictures of a new telephone. Subsumed by that news was far more interesting news for people who prefer their technology in a hot metal box: Epic have gotten their Unreal Engine 3 running in Flash. In theory, this means running the likes of Unreal Tournament 3 in a browser – as is demonstrated below.
WITCHCRAFT.
Read the rest of this entry »
Serious Sam: Double D Single Demo!
By Jim Rossignol on October 5th, 2011.
There’s a demo out for insane side-scrolling Serious Sam spin-off Serious Sam: Double D. You can get it on Steam. That will allow you to create your own opinion on the game. If, however, you remain unsure, or were born without vital critical faculties, then you can still read our Wot I Think, which sums up this gun-stacking absurdity rather nicely.
Working Rage ATI Fix Now Out
By Alec Meer on October 5th, 2011.
Why, that’s the most boring headline I’ve ever written here. Still, it’s late, I’m tired, I’ve spent half the day unsuccessfully trying to track down an NVIDIA card so I can play Rage without feeling nauseous, but now I don’t have to because ATI have put out a fix for the unhappy state of the game on Radeons. Unlike the first supposed fix, this makes things better rather than worse.
Read the rest of this entry »
Why Don’t You Review Portal 2: Peer Review?
By Alec Meer on October 4th, 2011.
Aha! In rather happier news from the land of big-name gaming, the Peer Review DLC pack for Portal 2 landed on Steam earlier today. Its cost? £0. $0. €0.
Your game should already have updated with it, if all is well. I uninstalled the game but two days ago to make room for Rage, because I’m a bloody idiot, but have any of you lot given the new adventures of Peabody and Atlas a spin?
Is the price right, or would you have paid real money for it?
Search
Read our finest words
Respond to our gibber
- Post-Internet Syndrome : “Can't be 100% sure, but it actually seemed faster than onlive. Tried a bit of crysis 2 and it was perfectly playable. It still looks ...” on Head In The Cloud: Dave Perry Disrupts
- Josh W : “Well a pseudo-random number generator is how most "die rolls" in games are done, it is randomness. Which means that how random the game is ...” on Frozen Synapse DLC Mutates
- _PixelNinja : “I really hope that would be the case -- just like O'Donnell I loved Pixeljunk Monsters and would really like to see it come to ...” on Pixeljunk Eden Coming To PC
- Belsameth : “Instabuy! I loved Cannon Fodder! \o/” on Pineapple Smash Crew Coming To Steam
- Davee : “^ This. I actually liked what G1 was doing to the old thing - until they started churning out tons of pay-exclusive weaponry (including the ...” on Interview: GamersFirst Explain APB Reloaded
