Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Hot Hot Hex: Elven Legacy

Jim Rossignol — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:58:18 +0000

Ino Co’s latest strategy game (previous was the honestly named Fantasy Wars) is a mighty purdy lookin’ turn-based affair which, as you might have been able to deduce from its name, features elves: “A rogue human has discovered the treasured secrets of the elven race and for the first time in centuries, elves are forced to enter the world of man in order to protect this sacred information.” And that means hot, turn-based action. Ino Co are keen to emphasize that the game not only features dozens of different unit types, but that there’s also a complex MMO-style character editor for the creation of unique fantasy heroes. After the excellence of King’s Bounty this year, we’d be hard pressed to dismiss this. We’ll be able to take a look at it in Q1 of next year. Trailer after the jump.
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Posted by rossignol. | No comments | Donate or subscribe to RPS | Post tags: 1C, Elven Legacy, Ino Co
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Spare A Dollar For G-Man?

Kieron Gillen — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:22:43 +0000

To celebrate Half-life being 10 years old this week, Valve have thrown a special offer. You can get the original half-life for 98 (count ‘em!) cents until November 21st. That’s literally cheap. Also, inexpensive. Also, value for money.

Er… that’s all. How can I enliven this post. Oh, I know: I’ve still never completed Half-life 1. What enormous gaping holes are in your play-histories, readers?Related stories:

Posted by KieronGillen. | 24 comments | Donate or subscribe to RPS | Post tags: Half-Life, Kieron is a bad PC gamer, steam
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GTA IV Gets Cinematic

John Walker — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:44:46 +0000

Rockstar, in preparation for the PC release of GTA IV on 2nd December, have released some sample movies to show off the in-game video editor. And they’ve gone bonkers.

Clearly a dream for the machinima crowd, the in-built tool will let you create your own mini-movies, which will then be shared on the Rockstar Social Club site.

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Posted by botherer. | 9 comments | Donate or subscribe to RPS | Post tags: grand theft auto 4, Machinima, rockstar
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Cha$e: When Videogames Come To Life

John Walker — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:15:00 +0000

The SciFi Channel in the US has started a brand new television programme, billing itself as “world’s first live-action videogame.” Forgetting, oh, so many shows that contradict this (I’ll leave that to you below, but let’s just say Knightmare here to get things started), the result is something so special that all who are able should watch. Please people, be outstanding for the majesty of Cha$e.

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Posted by botherer. | 31 comments | Donate or subscribe to RPS | Post tags: cha$e, scifi channel, television
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IF Comp 2008: Violet

Kieron Gillen — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:42:57 +0000

Yeah, screenshots totally don’t work with Interactive Fiction, do they?

The IF Comp 2008 awards‘ results were announced a couple of days back. It’s… well, I don’t pretend to be anything other than a casual observer of gaming’s one true art-subculture, but seeing their yearly competitions is something which always makes me happy, even if I barely touch any of the actual games. That said, I was following Emily Short’s takes on the entrants, and given her rep, I wasn’t surprised that her three stand out games ended up comprising the top three (Albeit not in her chosen order). Namely: Violet, Nightfall and Everybody Dies. I’ll try and give the two runners up a proper play in the next few days, but here’s my take on the victor. It’s really rather neat.
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Posted by KieronGillen. | 14 comments | Donate or subscribe to RPS | Post tags: free, IF Compo 2008, indie, interactive-fiction, Jeremy Freese, Violet
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Left 4 Dead RPS Review Face-Off

Kieron Gillen — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:45:59 +0000

You’d have thought with RPS’ extensive Left 4 Dead coverage, we’d have written all pallid, unattractive men could stand to hammer about zombies tearing flesh. And normally you’d be right. But you forgot about the most potent power-up. Money. Lots of Money. And if there’s one thing that RPS is good at, it’s selling our God-given-lack-of talent for a few tiny coins to spend on crisps. Hence Alec and I have bent to the will of our evil corporate paymasters and reviewed it for them. Now, who reviewed it for IGN and who reviewed it for Eurogamer? Guess, before clicking…
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Posted by KieronGillen. | 42 comments | Donate or subscribe to RPS | Post tags: eurogamer, IGN, Left-4-Dead, Valve
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PC Gaming Hardware Boom

Jim Rossignol — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:06:09 +0000

Cleverthinks research company Jon Peddie Research have put together a report on the state of the PC hardware market, and it’s looking good. Peddie says: “From Q3 2005 till Q3 2008, 196 million gaming PCs shipped, and 10 million of them were in the Mainstream Enthusiast class—and if we include mainstream desktop and High-end high-end notebook, we could add another 187 million units—now that really is a lot.”

The Techwatch article (currently on the front page of the Peddie site) seems astonished at the rude health of the PC gaming industry compared to the fledgling consoles. In fact it gets a little sarcastic about the HDTV fanfare from console types: “Thankfully HD TVs are sneaking into the living room bringing 720p and, in some cases, 1080i capability. Imagine, 720p almost as good as 1024 x 768—old XGA resolution introduced by IBM in 1988—wow.”

Peddie sums it up: “Fact is the PC Gaming Market is bigger, worth more money, growing faster, and has better technology than the console market. How come no one but us seems to know that?”

Posted by rossignol. | 88 comments | Donate or subscribe to RPS | Post tags: jon peddie research
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Half-Life Turns Ten Today

Alec Meer — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:20:25 +0000

Yep, Valve’s unfortgettable opening salvo officially gets a decade under its belt on this very day. This terrifies me in ways I can’t quite vocalise.

Said terror is not simply because it makes me feel so very aged, but also because it’s been so long and yet still most FPSes seem entirely ignorant of what HL did with setpieces, incidental detail, gaming-specific narrative style, pacing and world-building. The straight line to most of today’s shooters that started with Doom seems to almost bypass Half-Life. Fortunately, there is one huge, positive side-effect which does ensure HL’s legacy is unassailable: modding.
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Posted by ento. | 116 comments | Donate or subscribe to RPS | Post tags: Half-Life, Mods, Valve
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LoTR Online: speak friend and enter your username

Kieron Gillen — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:19:20 +0000

It’s really the silly season. A week after the latest expansion to Azeroth, Lord of the Rings Online’s Mines of Moria has been released (And EQ2 too). We interviewed Jeffrey Steefel about it a couple of months back when I had a play on the closed Beta code. And while I enjoyed it, the season being so packed, I haven’t had a chance to go back and play the open Beta. And now it’s too late. Man! Anyway - here’s the new launch trailer to tease what really can be described as the Ur-dungeon.
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Posted by KieronGillen. | 16 comments | Donate or subscribe to RPS | Post tags: lord of the rings online, mines of moria
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Cooking Mamarrrrrrrggggghhhh!

Kieron Gillen — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:58:44 +0000

Casualgaming.biz noticed that PETA have crafted a piece of Thanksgiving Agitprop. It’s based around the popular DS game Cooking Mama games, and is cunningly entitled Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals. You can play online, download it or go beneath the cut and find the embeddable version - alongside a gallery of our favourite flesh-rending moments and a few thoughts. And a Turkey fact PETA didn’t mention in their game. Man!
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Posted by KieronGillen. | 77 comments | Donate or subscribe to RPS | Post tags: Agitprop, free, Not Cooking Mama, webgame
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Left 4 Dustbowl

Alec Meer — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:56:50 +0000

We had said, amongst ourselves, that we probably had enough Left 4 Dead coverage today already. This one’s just far too epic not to report, though. Via Castle Crecente, it’s Left 4 Dead played happily in Team Fortress 2 maps:

Man! Fast work, modders. There’s safe rooms and everything. It also supports Hl2 maps, apparently - there’s a guide on how to do it yourself here. So, within less than a day, there being only four official L4D campaigns has stopped being a problem. Happy Zombieday!Related stories:

Posted by ento. | 32 comments | Donate or subscribe to RPS | Post tags: Left-4-Dead, mod, team-fortress-2
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Space Giraffe PC Imminent

Jim Rossignol — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:33:47 +0000

A new post on the Llamasoft site has revealed that Space Giraffe for PC is almost ready! Llamasoft’s Giles reports that “minor tweaks” are still to be performed on the expanded and possible somewhat-less-psychedelic PC version of the game, but that it is otherwise complete:

[W]hat you are going to get is Space Giraffe exactly as you seen it on the 360 PLUS an “expansion pack” with 100 NEW levels that “no one else has seen before”, some of them could be a bit more “vanilla” for those that found the SG original graphics maybe a bit “too blasting for their own taste” we wish this time to really manage to pleasure more and less psychedelic users

More on this when we get our hands on the PC version of Minter’s psychedelic synapse-curdler. Thanks Offworld!

Posted by rossignol. | 14 comments | Donate or subscribe to RPS | Post tags: jeff minter, llamasoft, space giraffe
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