By John Walker on December 13th, 2011.
Details of the next Humble Indie Bundle have once more leaked, because Steam’s Content Description Record Viewer Thingamie is so ludicrously easy for people to spy. And it looks like it’s going to be a bit of a corker, as spotted by DIY Gamer. In the pay-what-you-want collection it seems there will be Super Meat Boy, BIT.TRIP.RUNNER, Jamestown, Nightsky and Shank. That’s the first wave, and then there’s even better to get added in.
By Alec Meer on December 13th, 2011.
There’s probably some irony in the latest title from a man whose name appeared in big huge letters on the front of so many game boxes involving the word ‘BigHead’, but I’ll be damned if I can tell what it is.
BigHead BASH is the latest move from American McGee and his Spicy Horse studio, and it’s a forthcoming social network game. I don’t know whether this means Alice: Madness Returns wasn’t the hoped-for success or just that McGee fancies a go at the Facebook goldrush before it dries up, but I do know that it’s a side-scrolling 3D shooter with tons of shooty-jumpy activity.
Read the rest of this entry »
What... Is... Love?
By John Walker on December 13th, 2011.
Having garnered some attention on its mobile release, These Robot Hearts Of Mine has found its way to PC via Newgrounds. A puzzle game combined with a story of young lovers and robots, Alan Hazelden’s game aims to create an emotional tone to a more traditional puzzling idea. Does it work?
By Adam Smith on December 13th, 2011.
Dirt! I’ve always thought it was an odd name for a series of racing games no matter how you choose to muck up its capital letter placement, although I quite like the idea of a snooker game called Chalk. Here is the newly announced Dirt Showdown, a spin-off from the main series that has more of the destruction and less of the speedy driving. It’s the kind of game that the press release informs me will be ‘uncaged’ in May 2012 rather than just released. That should tell you something about how off the hook Showdown is going to be. Cars spin around for your pleasure in the trailer below and I’ve also included some easily digestible details.
By Adam Smith on December 13th, 2011.
Almost everything is procedurally generated these days. When I look in the mirror every morning, the non-Euclidean angles to which my hair terrifyingly conforms are different every time but always unhelpful, being a clear result of sloppy and overambitious coding. Bust-n-Rush’s levels are also variable but they look a lot better than the mess atop my head and they make more sense as well. It works like this: you are a large man running along a series of tunnels/tracks, dodging certain obstacles and smashing through others. If you can jump, sidestep and hold down a ‘rush’ button, you’ll be fine. Try the demo here (or on Mac), or watch a trailer below. Maybe even do both!
By Alec Meer on December 12th, 2011.
Aha! Sensible Sophie Houlden, of Sarah’s Run, BoxGame and The Linear RPG fame, has sensibly done the sensible thing for her new, vector-y maze navigation game Swift*Stitch and sensibly released a free demo. It runs in a browser, and you should absolutely play it – it’s (very) loosely in the vein of Snake, but all controlled with two mouse buttons. One makes your right-angular character immediately move downwards, the other temporarily slows it down so you’ve got time to move downwards before you smash into a wall. And then it builds quick-thinking puzzle-complexity from there thanks to gradual additions to the environment.
It’s very clever, a little bit fiendish, I’m really quite fond of it and you can buy the full thing for $7 if the demo rings your bell. There’s also a video below if you can’t/won’t run the Unity plugin for the demo.
Read the rest of this entry »
By Alec Meer on December 12th, 2011.
The thing that I posted about last week, with the free copy of Empire Earth Gold and the 50% off most everything in the Good Old Games back catalogue, is happening right now. So if you somehow have any money left after having been repeatedly mugged by indie bundles, here’s where to go. Off you go. Why yes, I am watching as you walk. That’s a nice wiggle you’ve got there, lad.
I remember Empire Earth quite fondly. I think I scored it 80-something percent in one of my earliest PC gamer reviews. Wonder how it holds up today? The game, not the review. The review is almost certainly terrible.
By Alec Meer on December 12th, 2011.
The pay-what-you-want indie bundles are out there. They can’t be bargained with. They can’t be reasoned with. They don’t feel pity for your bank account, or remorse, or fear that gaming sites will stop posting about them. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until you can’t read any more news.
So, Indie Royale 4, the Xmas Bundle: The Blackwell Trilogy: Remastered (now with brand new voice acting, which is a pretty good reason to be interested in this bundle), Eets, Dino D-Day, The Oil Blue.
You know how all this works by now. I am so very tired.
By Alec Meer on December 12th, 2011.
The sudden apparent closure of GSC GameWorld and death of Stalker 2 is, for me, the saddest gaming news of this year, and a whole lot of other years to boot. Jim eloquently summed up why over the weekend. The waters of explanation remain deeply muddied however, so all we can do is hope that some glimmer of life emerges from the ruins. We got a small hint of that earlier, with the GSC Twitter account suddenly offering “We will do our best to continue. However, at this moment, nothing is certain.”
Read the rest of this entry »
By Adam Smith on December 12th, 2011.
It was announced in the recently expired month of November and now, on what should be the day before release, Dungeons of Dredmor’s first expansion has been trailerised. As well as containing graphic closeups of the most formidable eyebrows in gaming, the video provides details on the contents of Realm of the Diggle Gods. New enemies, areas and equipment are present, as one would expect, but did you expect a Werediggle skill line? I didn’t because my imagination is clearly limited and limp. How about eye lasers and the ability to create a character who is a “Vampiric Pirate Hunter-Vegan that dabbles in Demonology”? Oh, and belts! Sounds good. Watch below.
By John Walker on December 12th, 2011.
I really don’t think I’m exaggerating. In the same way that Narbacular Drop made you sit back and go, “Woah!”, so too does Void. It’s certainly not the first time manipulating time bubbles in the world has been done, but it’s certainly the best I’ve ever seen it, and it’s the first time it’s just felt right.
