Rock, Paper, Shotgun

While we may be suffering a delay on Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, there’s some good news. Ubisoft have just confirmed for me that the game will not be coming with their hideous “always-on” DRM – a sign that perhaps, since it’s absent from such a big title, that they’re finally recognising it shouldn’t be anywhere near any of their products. Instead you’ll need to be online the very first time you play the game for an activation, and then it’s yours to play offline at your leisure. Goodness gracious, that’s bordering on reasonable! Hooray!

The Assassin’s Creed: Revelations launch trailer has gone live today, to mark the game’s launch on Tuesday next week. Except of course it’s only launching on Xbox and PS3 next week, because as usual Ubisoft, after pretending it was going to come out at the same time, announced a delay. This time they were kind enough to make that announcement at the end of September, instead of at the very eleventh hour, but it remained just as depressingly predictable. But hey, we’re getting it on 2nd December, “only” two and a half weeks late. Compared to the five months for the first game, four months for the second, and four months for Brotherhood, it’s quite the fancy treatment! So, instead of a launch trailer, what with its not launching, below is a time-lapse film of thunderstorms.

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It seems like turn-based strategy was the pupal stage leading to the emergence of beautiful MMO butterflies for Jagged Alliance and UFO: Online, who are now poking their mandibles out of their coccoon in the form of beta sign-ups.

Which would make you the entomologists, prodding at the newly emerging life form from their development cocoon. If you manage to get on the beta that is. We’ve only been given brief glimpses of each game, but there’s no harm in joining the testing process to see for yourselves. UFO’s beta launches today and Jagged Alliance’s will follow just a few days later.

CCP have been releasing a series of videos explaining the technical side of EVE’s development of late. Certainly in need of some good PR at this point, it’s a fun look at the people behind the game, and reveals lots of new developments implemented and planned for the game. And the most recent edition includes the bonus of watching “CCP Mandrake” solve a Rubik’s Cube with frightening speed.

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How’s your Game Of Thrones game coming along? Everyone’s making one at the moment. Mine’s doing nicely – it’s a sort of driving game/match-3 hybrid, set north of the Wall. It should be ready some time in 2013. Game Of Thrones: Genesis is already out (and a bit poop), and then there’s the somewhat trademark infringing Khan Wars: Game Of Thrones, which just happens to show up on Google searches for the licensed versions. Anyhowever, the news is that Cynanide’s other GoT game, the RPG, has a North American publisher in the form of Atlus, and with that have come some more details and a couple of screens.

(Oh good grief, as I’m writing this, we find there’s to be a Game Of Thrones MMO from Bigpoint, and a Game Of Thrones social networking game too, hideously described as “FarmVille comes to Westeros.”)

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You know what the world is missing? A new Barbarian game.

So there is one. Pointless teaser below.

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To borrow a John-ism: oh my goodness! You’re either about to hate me forever, or laugh and offer to buy me a cupcake. Whatever the hell Nyan cat is, it’s clearly a meme of terrifying scope. The original video’s been viewed 46 million times, and now it’s been snuck into Unreal 3 as a mod for the Redeemer. Just look.
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As Adam and I lay out boxes of tissues (for crying, you disgusting pig) in order to discuss To The Moon for a Verdict this afternoon, it makes us wonder: what games have made you cry? Yes, yes, Tomb Raider: Angel Of Darkness. We’ve all done that joke. But really, bravado aside, when did you get moved to weeples?

I’ve written about the two previous games that saw me shed a tear a couple of years ago, and I talked to Charles Cecil about the process four years ago (wow, our site’s really old). (I mention these to stave off complaints from those claiming we always go on about this – twice in four years, whingebags.)

So go on – defy convention and name the game that made your eyes all dribbly.

Two female aliens and a human man probably. Whatever the logistics, it’s sick. Either that or I’m not referring to Kirkesque feats at all but rather to the fact that according to leaked beta assets, Mass Effect 3 will allow players to choose from three different playstyles: Action, RPG or Story. The full text from the menus is below but the names are fairly self-explanatory. I certainly wouldn’t want to play a Mass Effect game in ‘Action’ mode, although Mass Effect 2, eh? Improved combat did lead me to believe all traces of RPG had been completely erased and that only guns remained were once there was dialogue. Or not.

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