Rock, Paper, Shotgun

You know how often it goes like this? “Super-Exciting Game IV was due to be released for PC in three months, but publishers Idiotsoft have announced it’s now to be exclusive for Dreamcast and not released in the UK until the new millennium.” So when it doesn’t, I think it’s worth noticing. 2K have announced a release date for Borderlands, 23rd October for Europe, and three days earlier in the US. This year. Despite other games coming out in the run up to Christmas. 2K told Gamespot they aren’t afraid of a little competition.

To find out why to be excited about Borderlands check out our E3 preview.

We’ve finally seen Borderlands running. And how. The new graphical overhaul has received a lot of attention, but so far only been seen in screenshots (and the very brief glimpses in this trailer). It’s good news to report that it looks even more splendid when it’s moving. The concept-art-as-graphics design has completely won us over. But what about the game itself?

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When a bunch of us scruffy journos wrote our Bioshock 2 previews a few weeks back, this is the bulk of what we based it upon: a nine-minute scripted walkthrough, accompanied by an enlightening commentary from Creative Director Jordan Thomas. Included: Big Sister action, the Little Sister adoption mechanic, and horribly messing up splicers’ faces with your drill-arm. Make your own judgements and crazy theories about who or what’s really pulling Rapture’s strings below. And for the love of Roy Orbison don’t drag this thread into yet more tedious mouthing off about how Bioshock 1 disappointed you. Look not to the past but to the future, friends!
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In an internet-shattering world-exclusive, RPS is the very last site on the entire web to report the hot gossip about Bioshock 2. Very soon, a pair of magazines will be spilling the details on the sequel to 2K’s Great FPS With The Terrible Ending – PC Gamer UK’s special 200th issue, and America’s Game Informer. The cover to the latter has been revealed, and it confirms one of the recent rumours about the game: Big Sisters. Or a Big Sister, anyway.

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My writing this post is probably fairly akin to David Beckham talking about Dungeon Keeper 2, but thought I’d aggregate a couple of sporting links kindly folk have sent us lately. There’s been a trend over the last few years to stop porting B-list (and I mean that in the polite sense) games to PC, most especially sports titles. However, we’re seeing something of a porting rennaissance at the moment – for every publisher/developer who claims they’re washing their hands of PC due to the P word, another seems to redouble their efforts to release everything they’ve got on it. Capcom are an impressive example of the latter with stuff like Street Fighter 4, but seems like 2K and THQ are returning to our loving arms too.
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Gosh, all that hoo-hah about Bioshock’s limited number of installations and activation process seems like a long time ago, but I suspect it’s still an open wound for some folk. A vocal portion of Bioshock’s players were angry – “Ken Levine personally kicked my girlfriend to death” angry. Will they be any less angry now 2K’s lightened its infamously ruthless DRM (as promised many moons ago)?

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Woohooheeheehahah. First Beyond Good & Evil 2 and now this. It’s been quite a month for shock returns.

Yes, my favourite Civilization game that isn’t a Civilization game is returning: as a Civilization game. Civ IV: Colonization is to be a standalone expansion for, clearly, Civ IV. Once again, the aim is the turn-based establishment of the New World, and freedom from the money-grabbing motherland, by conquest, trade or diplomacy and… well, pretty much no more details so far. Well, except for one more screenshot, a release date and a typically chipper Sid Meier quote, which are all beneath the cut.

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I had it in my head that this had been properly confirmed ayyyyyyyyyges back, but apparently it’s still stranded in rumourland. Furthermore, it’s a rumour that seemingly had yet to reach everyone’s ears, as evidenced by the internets suddenly talking about Bioshock creators Irrational 2k Boston reportedly working on a new X-COM game as though it’s some sort of ‘news.’ Still, might as well give you fine folks a chance to talk it over here.

2K – the publishery bit – picked up the X-COM rights last year, so it’s pretty much a dead cert to happen at some point, so the mystery remains which dev will make it. That Ken Levine has handed over Bioshock 2 development to a different 2K team further supports educated guesstimation that he’s off working on a super-exciting project like this.
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I had a play with an early version of Civilization Revolution on Xbox 360 the other day, my optimistic thoughts on which can be found here. (Don’t worry, this post is PC-relevant). Inevitably, a few readers quickly expressed dismay that the tech tree had lost several branches, some micromanagement (e.g. city health) had evaporated, and all-told it has a greater sense of rapidity and accessibility than the PC Civ games. I’m sure some of our readers feel the same way. A shame, as the game’s bold intention is to non-patronisingly bring the core 4X values – the values that made us love it in the first place – of Civ to an audience that otherwise would run screaming. So, dismissing what CivRev is trying to achieve outright because you’re saddened it only has one type of religion seems a little short-sighted. This is a companion piece to the PC Civs and not the death of them, but presumably that’s scant consolation if your desire is simply for Civ 4 on a gamepad and HDTV.

Anyway, MTV Multiplayer’s Patrick Klepek thought to ask the question I didn’t – partly because of my 6am-train-dulled wits, but mostly because the answer was abundantly obvious within seconds of playing the game. Will this cartoony, minimal-buttony new take on Sid Meier’s most-milked cashcow come to PC?
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Developed by 2K Marin, a recently-formed internal studio staffed by some of the original BioShock team – but not Ken Levine [Actually, yes, Ken Levine will be involved in some fashion, even if only a figurehead role - Kotaku-fuelled edit].
Released late next year.
That is all.

Is it a surprise? No, it’s not even slightly a surprise. But it is all official now.