By John Walker on December 14th, 2011.
The next MMO making its inevitable way to being free-to-play is NCsoft’s Aion, the flying game that does its best to never let you fly. Come next February and you’ll not need to pay to get into the game, via the powers of Gameforge. This is, say Eurogamer, NCsoft’s plan to “boost player numbers in Europe”. In other words, people aren’t playing the disappointing Western incarnation of the MMO, and they want to reawaken the servers. And this is a long-proven method.
By Alec Meer on December 14th, 2011.
It’s going to be Mass Effect trailers from here until March I reckon, at which point we can finally play the game and enjoy the conversation as well as the guns. This new’un resolutely focuses on the latter, or more specifically giant space beasts at war as tiny ManShep legs it around a collapsing cityscape in their wake. Spectacular stuff, but scripted from here to eternity and all a bit Gears of Warsy.
Read the rest of this entry »
By Jim Rossignol on December 14th, 2011.
First there was an indie game development conference event called World Of Love and now there is one called Bit Of Alright. Secretly, they are the same thing! So that means talks by indies, for indies, about the art, business, and overall satisfaction (or lack thereof) in making indie games for a living. Bit Of Alright is taking place on 3rd February in London. Tickets cost £20 for the early birds, which is here. Fragments of the Hivemind will be there, so do say hello if you come along.
By Jim Rossignol on December 14th, 2011.
Moderately-entertaining free multiplayer-only browser-based Diablo ‘em up Drakensang Online is going to expand before Christmas. Bigpoint have told us that “The NORLANDE expansion update is bringing several new quests, more than a dozen new levels, numerous monsters and champions, new bosses, and new character items and equipment to the game.” More importantly, there’s now some additional class variety with Rangers. These chaps are “agile archers, but also pack a punch.” According to the info “The Rangers will be accompanied by a whole new skill system that makes skills easier and better to use”. This is, apparently, part of increasing the currently limited skill sets for all characters, and making the game’s customisation have a bit more depth. So that’s good!
By Jim Rossignol on December 14th, 2011.
As previously leaked, the latest Humble Indie Bundle‘s pay what you wantness contains: Super Meat Boy, Shank, Jamestown, Bit.Trip Runner, and NightSky. For people who pay over the average there’s also Cave Story and Gratuitous Space Battles. The cash split has changed a bit this time, because the EFF is no longer one of the charities, and you can choose how your donation gets split between the developers, Child’s Play, and the American Red Cross.
Trailer thing belowwww.
Read the rest of this entry »
By John Walker on December 13th, 2011.
Ubisoft have just dolloped out a dose of paid-for DLC for Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, and by my grandmothers long dead knees, they’ve released the PC version at the same time as the 360! The Ancestors Character Pack is out even before the PS3, which gets it tomorrow. This explains those cracks that have been appearing in the streets, and the low, dreadful rumbling of rising beasts. It is indeed, as foretold in the ancient prophecies, the end of days. Enjoy it while it lasts. Or, perhaps, don’t.
Star skirmishes
By Adam Smith on December 13th, 2011.
I’ve been playing The Wreckless on and off throughout the day, and during that time there have been moments when I’ve thought – “holy crap, this is the answer to my TIE Fighter cravings”. Hopefully that’s enough to send plenty of people scurrying off to download the demo immediately. I’ll move onto my reservations later but I’ll leave them to one side for now because this is an honest-to-goodness space combat simulator, with simple controls, physics that allow for drifty dogfights and lasers that light up the dark void with their scorching fury. YES.
A malodorous creature
By Alec Meer on December 13th, 2011.
Did you know that when he’s not delivering presents or selling Coca-Cola, Father Christmas actually spends his days in cocktail bars enjoying the good life, the old rapscallion? Why, he’s even been known to frequent the racetracks and beaches of Monaco in the company of young starlets. That’s his reward for picking a job where he only has to pull on the costume once a year. But not everyone has it so easy. Let’s take a peek inside door number thirteen.
By John Walker on December 13th, 2011.
Mojang’s first foray into the world of being a publisher is about to happen. As developers OxEye told us back in August, Cobalt, the running, jumping, rolling, shooting, throwing, dancing, hacking, rolling, flying, sliding, climbing, looting, deflecting, racing, piñata-ing, passing, scoring-em-up was always aiming for its first public alpha to appear before the end of the year. And that, according to the EDGEBORG, is going to be this Friday, so long as Mojang can “tie up a few loose ends”. So, it may yet slip, but it’s clearly going to be soon.
By Adam Smith on December 13th, 2011.
Walk to the right and talk to dying women. That’s my hastily written but accurate tutorial for Increpare and Starfruit Games’ collaboration, Pirouette. The animation and backgrounds are rather beautiful and the dialogue is chucklesome in its deliberate formality, with a staged quality that seems to laugh in the face of accusations of pretension. These are people, or ideas of people, who speak like exaggerated versions of the expected types. The end seems to have serious intent, or perhaps pretends to, but I was smiling throughout the 10 or 15 minutes it took to play. Pirouette is free and is also available on iPad, which led to Apple categorising it as a book rather than a game. Perhaps that’s a punchline of sorts.
By Alec Meer on December 13th, 2011.
Rumour 1! Said Remedy’s Aki Järvilehto to a Finnish site on the subject of Alan Wake on PC: “We have received feedback from a lot of PC gamers, and I have to admit that yes, we somehow ignored that. Let’s see if in the near future we could have some positive news to tell you about dating!” (Positive news about dating? You mean she liked me after all?) This seems something of a change of tune.
Rumour 2! Via the same nefarious database-exploring methods as turned up the apparent leak of the latest Humble Bundle contents, we have the below image of the game apparently readying for a Steam release. Rumour! Speculation! Possible Photoshopping! But what the hell – it’d be lovely to have Remedy back, even if Alan reviews were decidedly mixed.
Read the rest of this entry »
