Rock, Paper, Shotgun

You know what your eyes need to see? The inside of the Titanic, recreated in CryEngine 3. That is all.

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I have a theory. If you took some babies, raised them isolation – perhaps on the Moon – and gave them no cultural input at all, they’d still eventually develop adventure games. They’re like an inevitability, an unavoidable direction for things to head toward. Don’t believe me? Look what’s happening to the so-called casual market, as every game type starts morphing into proto-adventuring. You can’t get a match-3 these days without it trying to include an inventory. Hell, look at the painfully mediocre L.A. Noire, and its almost sweet attempts to invent the graphic adventure genre as if it had never happened in the 80s/90s, thus making all the same tiresome mistakes as they did in their earlier days. As for the hidden object genre – it’s like a pupa, waiting to emerge. Unfortunately, some of those attempts to convert to a beautiful butterfly are still a little, well, awkward. They’re moths. One such moth is Pahelika Revelations.

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Google just told me that today is Thanksgiving for our North American chums, so presumably they get to stay off work, avoid their families and play games all day. In keeping with the spirit of the occasion, Dungeon Defenders is receiving three new chunks of DLC, the first of which is a thematic exploration of the ancient American tradition of gratefully devouring turkeys. It’s a single map with a giant turkey boss and four unlockable costumes, available for no pennies until December 2nd. Further treats come in the form of New Heroes, which provides four new classes that at first appear to be nothing more than gender swaps for the original heroes, but actually have new abilities. Then there is the Warping Core pack, with four new challenges and a smattering of unique loot. Videos and prices below.

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There are the jetpacks, of course, which instantly drew out a nod of approval, but my first impressions of Firefall were only of mild interest. The marketing campaign has been rarely effective though, not because of increasing bombast or social network integration which would be more likely to make me ignore it’s attempts to inflitrate my life, but because it has increasingly taught me what it will actually be like to play. The latest developer diary is another convincing burst of information. It sits before me and tells me how the various classes will work and, most importantly, why that will be fun. Observe.

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We mentioned this on the podcast yesterday, and it’s well worth a look. People’s capability with an on-off switch is utterly terrifying, and this creation from the Redstone Development Foundation (brilliant name) is the most impressive I’ve seen. Before Minecraft, creator Markus ‘Notch’ Perrson made a game for a Ludam Dare competition called Prelude Of The Chambered, a super-simplified Dungeon Master-style first-person game. And the RDF, and one Berick Cook, have recreated a wire-frame version of it in Minecraft. Which is meta, as well as bloody impressive.

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Gamespot have bagged a huge video interview with Max Payne 3′s art director, Rob Nelson, and you can see that below. Nelson starts out talking about the style of the game, with reference to the series’ inspiration in Hong Kong cinema, but also touching on the choice to set the new game in South America. The goes on to discuss some of the choices in physics and animation, and what that means for how the team are developing Max Payne’s gunplay potential for the new game. The interview clip also features a bunch of in-game footage.

Max Payne 3 will glide slowly into our reticules in March of 2012.
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In case you hadn’t already noticed, Steam’s Autumn sale is up and running. Not that you need any more games, of course, because if you are anything like me you’ll need a time machine just to get through what has been released in the past two weeks, but still. There’s some big old deals on there, including 75% off Orcs Must Die, 50% off Renegade Ops, and 50% off Risen. Those three games are, by coincidence, my recommendations from that sale if you are looking for purchases. Anyway, more deals will be along, I am sure, so do you own bargain hunting, lazypants!

I conceal my love for Distant Worlds quite well by never actually mentioning the game but I do love it, very much. If I actually owned a physical copy rather than a digital download, I’d probably give it a hug occasionally. Now, the gigantically scaled but manageable space strategy behemoth has received a second expansion pack, following last year’s Return of the Shakturi. The core appeal of the game is its representation of a living universe, with the masses of information made vibrant by effective visuals and customisable automation levels. It’s easy to build an empire and then sit back and watch it function in meticulous detail. The Legends expansion should add to that appeal. Details below.

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It seems like the correct time of day to lift spirits with a free, open source economic simulation game that takes place in a randomly generated archipelago. Thankfully, Unknown Horizons is just such a thing and it’s a damn fine one as well. The project was originally intended to be an Anno clone but it has evolved from those beginnings to become its own master. With economics, diplomacy and combat already handled well, it’s already a tiny slice of delicious isometric cake and regular updates along with its open source nature mean all manner of fancy ingredients should be added. Download here or watch a video showing the latest features below.

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