Gore blimey
By John Walker on February 9th, 2012.
First-person shooter The Darkness II is out in the US, and tomorrow in the UK, and I’ve played it through to the gruesome end. Past the gruesome beginning, via the gruesome middle. How does all that grue hold up? Well, wipe away the lung and take a seat, and I’ll tell you Wot I Think.
Talk The Line
By Adam Smith on February 8th, 2012.
Drawing inspiration from Joseph Conrad as much as the series that it seeks to reinvent, Spec Ops: The Line is a brutal, plot-driven third person shooter. After playing a few chapters of the game, I sat down with senior designer Shawn Frison to talk about Dubai, war stories, and the tension between horror and entertainment.
The origins of a reimagining
By Alec Meer on February 1st, 2012.
They did it. They really did it. As we unexpectedly discovered last month, Firaxis are remaking/reimagining the original X-COM, the 1993 title that is quite rightly often hailed as the greatest game ever made. Recently, I had a long, fascinating and genuinely reassuring chat with XCOM: Enemy Unknown‘s lead designer and evident fellow X-COM gonk Jake Solomon – in this first of three parts, he talks how, why, when, the response to the controversial XCOM shooter, Cyberdiscs, whether it’s being simplified for console, 2K’s infamous ‘strategy games aren’t contemporary’ comment and missing hyphens.
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Why BioShock: Infinite is for you
By Alec Meer on January 23rd, 2012.
Late last week, Irrational announced 1999 mode for BioShock: Infinite – an attempt to recapture the sense of binding decisions, permanent consequences and hard-as-nails challenge that we perhaps associate with a lost era of gaming. In this first of a two-part interview, I nattered to avuncular Irrational bossman Ken Levine about why they came up with 1999 Mode, what it entails, why it’s a very different prospect to simply a ‘hard’ difficulty setting, why he doesn’t want non-hardcore gamers playing that mode, and whether or not it’s a reaction to disappointment about BioShock from System Shock fans.
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By Craig Pearson on November 9th, 2011.
2K Games have exclusively told me, and everyone else with an internet connection and an interest in game publisher financial details, that they’re delaying XCOM until ‘fiscal 2013′, presumably to avoid clashing with the end of days.
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By Adam Smith on October 3rd, 2011.
What mad form of ultraviolence will I be introduced to next, I often wonder. This time it’s quad wielding in The Darkness 2, making me realise it wasn’t long ago that dual wielding was an exciting prospect thought to be possible only in John Woo films, but then Rise of the Triad came along with its guns akimbo and ludicrous gibs. Judging by this new video, The Darkness 2 won’t disappoint on either the gore or the preposterous death-dealing fronts. With a gun in each hand and murderous tentacles sprouting from his flesh, Jackie Estacado can rip the door off a car and cut a goon’s face off with it while firing two automatic weapons, or ensnare an unruly gangsster, casually lob him into the air, and then fill him with bullets before he hits the floor. If you don’t believe these things are possible, watch and learn.
By Alec Meer on September 26th, 2011.
If you’re one of those oxygen-wasting oiks who feels compelled to snarkily observe upon the relative advanced age of things you see on the internet, a) do be quiet b) team RPS has been busy attending the EG Expo and then The Wedding of Walker so we’re still catching up with all the gameosity that bobbed to the surface of this endless electronic ocean over the last few days. Next is a story trailer for 2K/Digital Extremes’ demonic manshooter/manmangler The Darkness II. Which reminds me, I still need to write a preview about this based on what I saw of it at Gamescom. My notes mostly just say ‘IT’S SO NOISY’ repeatedly, though. Then there are some damp, streaky marks that I can only imagine are tear-stains. Which is odd, given I wrote those notes on a laptop.
By Alec Meer on February 8th, 2011.
The Darkness, aka “that game from the Riddick guys where you could spend half an hour watching TV with your in-game girlfriend.” An action game with a heart of – ahahahah – darkness and a bunch of great ideas and atmosphere, even if it perhaps didn’t attain Modern Classic status. Happening at perhaps the apex of the big publishers’ “nah, fuggedaboutit” dismissal of our sacred boxes, the PC lost out. It doesn’t this time – 2K just announced the Darkness II, and we’re getting it!
Someone who isn’t getting it, however, is original developer Starbreeze.
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By Kieron Gillen on September 19th, 2010.
Just a quickie here. The full Bioshock Infinite gameplay footage video which I saw in August on the game’s unveiling is going live on 21st. However, they gave Gametrailer TV a few short snippets in their latest show. So you can watch that, or just go to the cut-for-youtube snippet Phill found below…
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By Alec Meer on September 3rd, 2010.
UPDATE: CONFIRMED! And due for release next year. Wowsers.
Initial picture proof (Thanks to these chaps.) And here’s more. And more. And more. Honestly: it’s real.
Video stream on the ongoing PAX announcement below, including attendees actually playing it with their actual hands. Pigs flew after all.
ORIGINAL:The hot word on the hot street is that 2K are unveiling something hot at that time, live from the showfloor of the Penny-Arcade Expo. Hotter still, it’s hotly-tipped to be Gearbox’s rumoured finishing-up of Duke Nukem Forever. Is it? Maybe/probably/everyone on the internet’s saying it is, so don’t blame us if it isn’t. Look, Randy’s even wearing a relevant t-shirt today, though maybe he’s just a massive prankster.
Find out for yourself by pointing those beautiful eyes of yours at the live-streaming videobox below at 6pm BST, 1pm EST, 10am PST and 7pm CET (It is DNF. Maybe. Probably. Everyone on the internet’s saying it is anyway, so don’t blame us if it isn’t).
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By Kieron Gillen on August 13th, 2010.
It’s late at night after the unveiling of Bioshock Infinite by the time I sit down with Ken Levine to talk about the city of Columbia. What follows is a discussion which takes in how the themes of the game resonate between 1900 and today, how Irrational think they took the binary Little-sister choice as far as they were interested in already, dances elegantly around the question of whether this shares a universe with Bioshock 1 or not and expresses sadness that people aren’t going to totally get the name until they’ve finished the game…
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