Rock, Paper, Shotgun

To the skies, brave few, to the skies. Wargaming.net, developers of World of Tanks have just fuelled up the global alpha for World of Warplanes so they’ll presumably be hoping the brave many sign up so that they can test the capacity of the blue yonder and receive plenty of radio chatter feedback. If you fancy yourself a fighter ace, you can sign up here if you are in Europe, here if you are in Russia or here if you happen to be in America. The game will offer a full career mode and covers several eras beginning in the 1930s. Jim spoke with the developers at the end of last year and I shall cheekily direct you toward that conversation if you desire more information.

It’s the future and some megabastard corporations are at war with one another, which is hardly surprising, but as this is Fray they’re not scrapping in first-person agent-shooting as some might have you believe. Their respective boards and committees have decided that the best way to keep the shareholders sweet is to go at each other in the hex-divided streets, plotting their moves and murders before seeing how each turn plays out in real time. Sounds like something I should be playing so now that the alpha is available to preorder customers I shall be doing just that. Paying now ($19.99/€17.99/£14.99) over at Desura gives immediate access to the current build. Here’s a trailer.

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I’ve only played a very early version of Against The Wall, which presents an environment so empty that it’s little more than a proof of concept, but it almost immediately wormed its way inside my head and it’s now near the top of the massive list of things that I’m excited about and will furiously attempt to keep track of. It has a brilliant, somewhat Borgesian premise that it’s hard to imagine in terms of exploration and navigation until you play it.

This world is an infinite vertical surface composed of irregularly-sized white bricks. Entire civilizations and ecosystems cling for survival on the side of The Wall, everyone and everything existing under the constant threat of tumbling into the endless sky.

Doesn’t that sound absolutely fascinating? There’s a short trailer tumbling in the endless space below and you can download the alpha here.

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Much has changed in the world of crafty space sim Blockade Runner since I last took a look so it seems only correct to don my fishbowl and head once more into the void. The game receives a lot of updates, many of which are only truly appreciable from within, and the free version now reflects the latest additions in stripped-back form so if you have the slightest interest in building and crewing a cuboid starship, it is advisable to download the trial immediately. Or perhaps read on to learn more.

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Kenshi’s alpha version launches today, which is excellent news because when I first wrote about it I’m sure lots of people thought, “This open-world, unscripted RPG sounds brilliant but I’d wager it’ll never exist in any playable form, so thanks for getting my hopes up, you swine.” Turns out I’m not a swine. The alpha is far from complete, as explained with detailed honesty here, but payment of $10 will give you immediate access to this and every future version of the game. If you are leery about paying without trying, fear not, there is a free trial from which the paid version unlocks. It’ll be at the main website and on Desura. Trailer buried in the sands below.

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It seems like everywhere I look there are games springing up with procedurally generated worlds and fully destructible environments. That’s partly because I spend most of my waking hours looking at websites for in development, ambitious indie projects, but I’m still surprised by how many of the things there are. There are 3D and 2D choices, there are more complex iterations and this one here is set in space. It’s called Blockade Runner, which is the headline gag I would have used if it had been called literally anything else. Although in pre-release at the moment, it is possible to preorder and play around with the ship designer while waiting for a more functional version next year. Video and more details below.

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I’ve been playing the alpha version of a new shape-popping game called Rotion. When I read that it was a shape-popping game I expected it to be like Pang or Bubble Bobble. It’s actually more like flOw crossed with one of those buzz wire games that used to scare me as a child because I thought I was under threat of severe electrocution. Rotion doesn’t scare me but it does frustrate me a bit, though not always in a bad way. It’s up on Desura, with a demo, and a £3.49 preorder gives access to every build right up until release. There’s a trailer after the jump along with some thoughts.

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We’ve been following the development of Wolfire’s Overgrowth with some interest. And rather crucially, it’s now a playable game. The rabbit-laden strangeness in a remarkable self-made engine is pretty intriguing, and a new collection of videos show that off. Well, two of them do. One of them shows what happens when it goes wrong.

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