Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Brain-provoking time-travel RTS Achron, which Richard had a good old chat about here, has been out for a couple of months, but it’s been lacking a demo for cautious, interested parties to have a play with before taking any kind of plunge. That all changes today with a demo that gives you a taste of the linearity-shattering multiplayer. Developers Hazardous say: “The recommended way to download the Achron Demo is via torrent,” but “The demo is also available via direct download.” Hooray!

I’ve also posted a video of some of the multiplayer action below.
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Ah, this meeting brings back memories. Childhood days, alto wine, romance! My life was wrapped around the quests. Her name was Lydia. I met her at the Stormreach Castle in 4E 201, marked down from 4E 241.

Ahhhh, Lydia. She was the most glooooorious creature under the suns. Marie, Ajira, Akorithi. Rolled into one.

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Earthrise is a peculiar sort of game. In lots of ways it’s an interesting experiment in MMO freedom, with Eve style skills, projectile weapons, and a big PvP-open world. The problems with it, however, are that despite being beautiful, it’s grindy, jittery, and has a low playerbase. Devs Masthead have acted to try and remedy that last bit by removing the monthly fee as of December 1st: “We decided to let all our players unlimited gaming experience until we all are satisfied with the experience in our game. At the moment Earthrise features one of the best visuals, content, and gameplay of all sci-fi MMOs on the market. However it is missing polish and has annoyances that spoil the fun in the game. We are learning from our experience and that is why we will remove monthly charges until we bring the game to a quality state that is satisfactory to us and our players”, said Atanas Atanasov, CEO of Masthead Studios. Earthrise is definitely an oddity, and if you like oddities you will soon be able investigate it for no pennies. I’d say it’s worth a look, because this is one game that just needs to realise its potential.

Aha! I’ve just received word that PC review code for Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is leaping towards my post box as we speak (WITtery due on Nov 29th, if all goes to plan), which means we can stop worrying that we’ll be waiting months for Ezio and Desmond to finally creep this way. So, it seems apt to run this AssCreed: The Story So Far videorama, given the time-hopping backstory of this series is fairly convoluted and not a little silly. Oh, I wish they’d lose the sci-fi stuff entirely, but ultro-lore does seem to be the default way franchises build frighteningly passionate fanbases.
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And do you plan to buy it now that it is apparently finished? I wonder if there is anyone out there for whom the “finished” status of the game really makes a difference. “At last!” thinks Mr Hypothetical, “I can finally a get me a release copy of Minecraft.”

Must be his lucky day.

The chaps at Cadenza Interactive – they of tower defence fancypants, Sol Survivor – have announced they are working on a “six-degrees of freedom” shooter (aka a Descent-alike) called Retrovirus. Apparently it’s all going a bit Tron, because you are sent “into the depths a computer on a search and destroy mission against an invasive virus”. You’ll have a customisable shootercraft, “focusing on strength, speed or cunning, with weapons and utilities to suit a variety of play styles,” and “two-layers of story”. I guess like the two layers of a cake, only narrativer. Sounds intriguing! The game is an early stage of development at the moment, however, so there’s no word on release just yet.

Adorable, colourful and surprisingly hefty, Dungeon Defenders action-orientated take on tower defense was like an unexpected rainbow preceded by the light drizzle of a delayed PC incarnation. However, the release of the development kit could be the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow and it’s a pot of gold radiant enough to actually dry any remaining bitterness out of your sodden clothing. Which is one way of saying that providing the ability to dabble with the source code is a fine gift. More details below.

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Just when you thought full price may be an option, here’s another gathering of discounted titles over at Show Me The Games. It’s called Show Me The Sales and includes well-known games such as Frozen Synapse but also some that I’ve never heard of, such as the delightfully titled Magical Diary: Horse Hall. It’s not a bundle, instead offering discounts on single titles and it lasts for almost two weeks. All money goes direct to the developers so if you feel ambivalence or blind rage toward middlemen and charities, these are the discounts for you.

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