By Alec Meer on December 19th, 2011.
It’s the season of goodwill. Thus there is no better time to play Terry Cavanagh and Increpare’s Flash game about a family who start off swearing at each other and wind up somewhere far, far darker. Unutterably bleak yet strangely moving with it, Oíche Mhaith is an emotionally brutal but deeply compelling and occasionally perversely funny few minutes.
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By John Walker on December 19th, 2011.
I think from now on I will post the news that Steam is not having a sale. Should I manage to type quickly enough during one of those gaps. But for today, the Steam Holiday Sale has begun, and it’s… baffling.
Of course it means lots of games are going to be at those mega-profits-creating teeny prices (imagine if the industry got to grips with that!), a different selection every day from now until January 1st. But alongside that, there’s The Great Gift Pile page, which will be setting objectives for things to be completed in those games. Oh my.
CD Projekt Vs The Pirates
By John Walker on December 19th, 2011.
You’ll likely remember that last week it was revealed that CD Projekt had hired a firm to send out letters to those they believed had pirated copies of The Witcher 2, demanding large sums of money. It’s a practice that is widely despised, due not only to its propensity for threatening the innocent, but more significantly, because it’s based on threats in the first place. A person receives a letter demanding an excessive amount of money (evidence for this story suggests in the region of €750, corrected from 900+ that was previously reported), or the recipient will be taken to court where they may end up paying a great deal more. These apparently necessary court cases will be dropped if the fee is paid. And that’s why I consider it such a serious issue. Never mind the severity of the act of piracy, this process subverts the legal process, avoids actually providing evidence and proving guilt, and depends upon scaring people into paying money they likely can’t afford. This is something I wanted to discuss with CDP themselves, who I thought had given unsatisfactory responses to other outlets who suddenly picked up on the story after RPS reported TorrentFreak’s week-old article. My discussion is below.
Solitary pursuits
By Adam Smith on December 19th, 2011.
Lots of free games! I haven’t played everything entered into the latest Ludum Dare because I do not have all the time in the world, but I did want to try out some of the other entries after Alec looked at Minicraft. No doubt I’ve missed the one game that everyone will be talking about 24 hours from now, the one that forms the basis for Valve’s next major franchise and blows the minds of everyone who plays it. I probably skipped past it because it was called ‘Alone’, which is the theme this time around and therefore the title of 78% of entries. For those who don’t know, these are games designed around the set theme and created in 48 hours. Here are some of them.
By John Walker on December 19th, 2011.
As the Winter months draw in, and RPS finds it has to light the fire all day long just to thaw our toes, gaming news starts to dry up a little. But fortunately there are three incredibly crap new screenshots of King Arthur II! So what can I possibly have to complain about, eh? You can see them below, along with some actual news about the game.
Starry-eyed
By RPS on December 19th, 2011.
As we gather ’round the open fire, roasting our chestnuts if we sit a little too close, it’s not unusual for conversation to turn to Christmases past. Remember the time when that bike-shaped parcel underneath the tree wasn’t for you at all but actually contained Uncle Marty’s new Zimmer frame and a couple of oversized hubcaps for his Robin Reliant? How we laughed! You enjoyed those new socks in the end though, once the crying had stopped. Ah, memories.
By Alec Meer on December 19th, 2011.
Is Formula 1 still popular, then? I thought it would have gone out of fashion now it’s been followed up with Formula 2 and Formula 3. But then people still play Battlefield 1942 even though Battlefield 3′s out. You hopeless nostalgics!
The sport of driving long, fast cars around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around remains well-liked enough to keep spawning videogames, the most recent of which is Codemaster’s F1 Online. It’s free to play, it’s, uh, online, and it now has a closed beta and the first trailer for you to videowatch.
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By Adam Smith on December 19th, 2011.
Christmas has come early to Terraria, with a patch containing a Daddy Crimble costume, snow, ice, presents, candy canes and gift-wrapped blocks. Most importantly though, gangs of snowmen will attack, armed with knives, snowbombs and Tommy guns. What this means is that you’ll be able to decorate the world with lights and festivity and then die at the hands of Al Snowcone and his meltable mobsters. A cheerful video awaits you.
This is how they roll
By Adam Smith on December 19th, 2011.
Mojang said the Cobalt alpha would be released before Christmas and sure enough, tiny robots invaded the internet this weekend. I really wasn’t sure what to expect so I installed the blighter and had a quick go, all the better to share some brief impressions. There’s no campaign at the moment and no online multiplayer, which isn’t due anytime soon if at all, so since I couldn’t tempt anyone to play I’ve had to make do with the tutorial, the survival map and a few team deathmatch games with bots. Not ideal but at least I know what it is now. There’s a new trailer and thoughts below.
By Alec Meer on December 19th, 2011.
I’m still waiting for per-platform breakdowns that will confirm the PC version of Skyrim is as number oney as the all-formats result is, but this we do know: Skyrim is officially the number one videogame in the Christmas UK chart, outselling every other game over the last seven days. That means eight years of Activision and EA Chrimbo-list dominance comes to end in one fell, dragon-based swoop.
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By Alec Meer on December 19th, 2011.
The latest Ludum Dare gamejam hit over the weekend, which means the internet is now awash with tiny experimental games created in just 48 hours. There are many we should nose curiously at, but a handy starting point is the effort from Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, who finished his game with hours to spare. He’s moved on from active Minecraft development himself, but clearly he hasn’t moved on from the design values of his zeitgeisty building and survival hit.
Minicraft is his LD48 entry: a game about chopping down trees, mining rock and stabbing zombies. YOU MAY BE SOMEWHAT FAMILIAR WITH THESE CONCEPTS. But Minicraft is not Minecraft, despite the clear self-referencing.
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