Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Today’s the day, then. The day the world finally discovers if EA’s long-gestating, mega-hyped Star Wars MMO is KOTOR 3+, WoW in space, Galaxies without the madness, a Wookiee or a Jawa, a winner or a loser, an Empire Strikes Back or a Phantom Menace, a Sarlaac or a Hutt. (I don’t even know which of those is better). Many John Walkers died to bring us thoughts on the game, which we hope to have next week. I too have a copy I plan to look at as soon as humanly/wookieely possible, though I’ve been too busy breaking my beloved record player today to get started as yet.

So, who’s in, who’s out, who’s Light side, who’s Dark side, who’s loving it, who’s hating it and who’s going to waste everyone’s time by posting ‘meh’ and having it silently deleted a few seconds later? Also, below is an eight-minute ‘launch documentary’, which is a fancy way of saying ‘advert.’ Warning: it seems to auto-play, which I can’t work out how to stop. Sorry.
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On one level, this post exists to inform of a fantastic deal on that thar Steam, however it’s also the first time we’ve mentioned that the games in question have appeared on Steam at all. They are the Geneforge Saga, five RPGs created by Spiderweb Software between 2002 and 2008, although they feel as if they could have been made between 1992 and 1998, with their turn-based combat, isometric graphics and enormous amounts of questing and freedom. The Geneforge world combines traditional fantasy tropes with monster-making, leading to all sorts of choices and ethical dilemmas. Steam is currently offering these five massive RPGs for £8.49. There are also sizable demos over at Spiderweb’s site.

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Could it really be that Relic are at last working on some manner of follow-up to their very well-received and very well-realised World War II RTS Company of Heroes? It could, claims PC Gamer’s print edition, claims Kotaku, claims VG247. I cannot verify this, but on this slowest of slow news days I shall report it nonetheless. There are no details because this is mere rumour, but though PCG are in the habit of eating live babies they aren’t generally in the habit of being scurrilous, so let’s hope they’re on the money here.
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Phew. I was just about to scribble some rot about the release of free challenge maps for Arkham City, which are only downloadable through Games For Windows Live. As I was staring at the error message that greeted my attempt to install them, a tweet landed ‘pon my shoulder and whispered in my ear: “Why all this effort to clobber villains at the Jokers Carnival, and in the Iceberg VIP Lounge and Batcave? Even if you were doing it using the free Batman Incorporated skin it’d just be fisticuffs. Better to take a top-hatted stroll in the snow.”

By jove, what a grand idea that was. You can watch a slightly interactive documentary of my turn around the environs thanks to Winter Walk, which is as pleasant a way to while away a few minutes as you’ll find today. Thanks to Dan Marshall (@danthat).

It’s all sleigh bells ring-a-ding-jingling and jolly little scamps scurrying about the place in search of the true meaning of Christmas in these latest trailers for The Darkness II. Except for all the evisceration, shooting-in-the-face and limb-lopping, which is what you’ll see for every single second that isn’t a series of logos angrier than Mr Angrylad Furyface from Hateville, Nebraskinforabeating. That actually leaves precisely no room for festive fun of the seasonal variety, but plenty for those who celebrate the cathartic kiss of axe and intestine. These are the murderous folk available in the recently revealed co-op mode.

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Marketing! What can’t/won’t it do? One thing it can and will do is promote a videogame on Twitter with the sweet promise of having your face be transplanted onto an in-game character model. Specifically, a character model in Max Payne 3, which might well mean that the winners will be gunned down by Max on one of his righteous rampages. Let’s just hope it’s suave Max rather than fat Max, eh?
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Father Christmas is a very lazy man. He works one day a year, and spends the rest of his time just sitting there, judging children. What a prick. His elves are the real heroes, and are woefully undersung. For instance, they’re zooming around everywhere, adding Christmas cheer wherever they can. Even reaching the obscurity of ACE Team’s Rock Of Ages. Now featuring snowballs. You can see some lovely pics of that below.

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The gorgeous and utterly charming Windosill, whose gentle and sometimes dream-like interactions play out in what is still some of the best Flashcrafting out there, has just been released on iPad. And why, pray tell, would that be of interest to those of us who choose a mechanical pointing device over the dubious pleasures of poking at things with out fingers? Settle down and I shall explain all. In celebration of the game’s move into the touchy realm, it has been made available at a price of your choosing. You can still play the first part of the game for free but for a limited time the full version can be unlocked, to play online or as a download, for anything from a single cent upwards. There’s a short video below.

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Edit: We’re reading below that lots of regions outside the UK are being charged a really very much larger sum. Which sucks. Valve will always insist prices are decided by publishers, so yell at Warner. There’s also confusion over the inclusion of Arkham City and War In The North – to be absolutely clear, the Warner Complete Pack definitely currently includes those games, whether by design or mistake. It also seems that some regions can’t see the deal at all. The solution: move to the UK.

I’m never quite sure whether posting about the Steam sale is doing mindless promotion for the company, or alerting our readers to amazing prices for games. I’m going with the latter in this instance, because bloody hell, this one took me by surprise. Not boasted of on the front page of Steam’s decidedly confusing sales page (not including the names of the games on sale is perhaps an odd choice) is the Warner Complete Pack. Clearly one of many extraordinarily reduced bundles (19 THQ games for £50, 80 Sega games for £70 for instance), the Warner bundle brings 18 games for £40, and one of them is Batman: Arkham City. So that’s basically “buy Arkham City, get every other Warner game on Steam free.” And one of those is Bastion. And another is the brand new Lord Of The Rings: War In The North. And of course yet another is Batman: Arkham Asylum.

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There’s more of Avalanche’s Renegade Ops appearing today. The breezy and fun (sez Brendan) top-down action gets bigger with two paid-for DLC offerings. You’ve got the Reinforcement Pack (called the Vehicle Pack in the US, for some reason), and the Coldstrike Campaign, and they’re cheaper on PC than anywhere else.

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