Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Remakes are strange creatures. They come in all manner of breeds – from timely and lovable to completely mystifying to completely mystifying until you actually see it and go, “OK, sure. That actually doesn’t look half-bad” (Rise of the Triad). And then others, well, they’re just confusing. Emotionally confusing. I think a brand new Descent Unreal Engine 3 remake from particularly intrepid modder, er, Max fits that bill pretty well. On one hand, Descent seems conspicuously absent from cyberfuture 2012′s nostalgia-obsessed landscape, and this attempt at getting it back in its anti-grav groove looks quite nice. On the other, it does look and feel a bit odd seeing these topsy-turvy battles taking place in locations that my brain is now programmed to associate with tree-trunk-armed soldier men.

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This “Macintosh Personal Computer” thing is never going to catch on, but folks like Valve and now GOG insist on humoring owners of these unnaturally pristine elf machines, so here we are. During its much-ballyhooed news-a-thon, GOG drew back the curtain on a new version of its service tailored to Macs, which brings with it 50 games (eight of which you receive free just for signing up) and some rather tempting deals. Speaking of, there’s this insane 32-game pay-what-you-want Interplay special leading the charge in celebration of GOG’s fourth anniversary. The tearful sort-of-family reunion would not, however, be complete without Geralt’s permafrost tundra of a glare brightening up the room, so CD Projekt Red took the stage to demonstrate its Witcher 2 mod toolset. I’d say “imagine the possibilities,” but imaginations are for people who don’t have extremely impressive time-lapse videos. Check it out after the break.

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Our Gaming Made Me series has always focused on the writer’s personal association with a vital game from their childhood, but this week that emphasis is even stronger. Here, James Murff talks of how Parallax Software’s 1995 sci-fi FPS Descent became one of the keystones in mending his troubled relationship with a father – as well as why the flight-based shooter still has much to teach today’s game designers.
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A quick follow-up to the scurrilous speculation a little while back that Interplay was about to resuscitate most of its major franchises. Actually, they are. “The company will leverage its portfolio of gaming properties by creating sequels to some of its most successful games, including Earthworm Jim, Dark Alliance, Descent, and MDK,” says robot-press-releaseman right here. They’re also setting up a new in-house development studio to get all this done. Exciting!
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