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Left 4 Dead RPS Review Face-Off

Written by Kieron Gillen on November 19, 2008.

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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Space Wheeze

Written by Alec Meer on August 22, 2008.

Over at Eurogamer today is my review of Gas Powered Games’ new action-RPG Space Siege. The demo really got folks’ backs up, but does the full game better realise Diablo in space? Or in space, can no-one hear you snore? (trad).

It’s like a hobo convincing himself he’s a businessman purely because he found a knackered briefcase in a skip and stole a suit from a charity shop.

Wuh-oh.

I wonder if we’ll see Chris Taylor et al rabidly defending this game, or if they realise it’s a colossal cock-up and will keep quiet. Perhaps they should be outspoken - Dennis Dyack has probably managed to flog a fair few extra copies of his own lacklustre (though significantly more entertaining than this) sci-fi action-RPG, Too Human, by being/pretending to be absolutely batshit crazy on the internet. But ack, what a shame. Please get Demigod right, GPG. (The tinfoil hat part of me, incidentally, wonders if perhaps this was a concious rush-job to raise quick cash for GPG’s move into self-publishing. A intensely paranoid theory, but it would make me feel better about Space Siege).

Talk to Spore’s Executive Producer Today

Written by Alec Meer on August 15, 2008.

A quick pimp for RPS chums Eurogamer, who will very shortly be hosting a live interwebby reader chat with Lucy Bradshaw, one of the main brains behind the soon-oh-so-soon Spore. Bradshaw is “every bit as responsible for that game as [Will Wright]“, according to EA topdog John Riccitiello.

Which is pretty awesome, but not something we’d necessarily post about as it doesn’t involve we four beautiful man-children. Except! EXCEPT! Knowing RPS readers have a more vested interest in Spore than most, EG have kindly said they may prioritise questions posed by anyone with an [RPS] tag before their name. Cos you’re lovely and smart and that.

The chat’s at 5.30 UK time ((6.30pm CET / 9.30am PST), so you’ll need to get a wriggle on. You’ll also need to quickly sign up for a Eurogamer account if you don’t have one (it’s free, don’t worry). Once that’s done, go here. Do us proud, fine gentlefolk.

Edit- happening right now, obv. I would imagine the above link will take you to a transcript of the chat once it’s wound up, too.

QuakeCon: Rage is All The Rage

Written by Alec Meer on July 31, 2008.

We’re not out at this year’s QuakeCon, currently turning downtown Dallas into a frenzy of happy meatheadness, because we all have a pathological terror of large, whooping Texan men. Eurogamer’s Tom Bramwell is a far bolder fellow than we however, so he is out there, and already he’s wheedled some tasty facts on id’s next game, Rage, out of project lead Tim Willits. Who has apparently shaved off his moustache, which by my maths makes id 75% more attractive.
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007: Quantum of Solace / Meer: Shedload of Griping

Written by Alec Meer on July 21, 2008.

Preview wot I wrote about the upcoming Bond game is up over on Eurogamer. It’s not, suffice to say, one of those ‘lalalalalala everything is shiny wooo’ previews:

It might end up feeling like Bond skins taped over a hasty Any-FPS skeleton. While we’ve only seen two levels so far, the bizarre presence in those of exploding fuel tanks (”mousetraps”, according to Treyarch) inside a posh hotel lobby suggests this an action game that very much plays by the rules.

While I’m actually fairly gentle to it, I’ll add the qualifier I did over there - there’s still a few months of work left to go on the game, so it could yet be more Goldfinger than Die Another Day. Oh - beware of the Angry Internet Man in the piece’s comments thread, loudly crying foul at the partially pessimistic tone. Whadda ya think - are not entirely positive previews of upcoming games welcome journo-honesty, or miserabilist, unprofessional presumption?

Flagship: “We ended up rushing Hellgate”

Written by Alec Meer on July 8, 2008.

I recently had a bit of a chinwag with Flagship COO Max Schaefer for Eurogamer. Primarily it’s about free MMO Mythos, a game they sound supremely confident about: “Can we take down the big boys? I think we can take down some of them. And I’d like to put a dent in the others.” He’s also remarkably honest about its similarities to Diablo and WoW, adamant that being so is in their audience’s best interests.

There’s also some interesting light-shining on the Hellgate: London balls-up. Of course he doesn’t actually say it’s a balls-up, but it certainly sounds as though Flagship are no longer pretending all is sweetness and light in Hellgateland: “When you’re starting with a brand new game studio with very limited budget and no existing technologies, that was probably biting off too much.” Read the full interview here. It was a long old chat - there’s another 3000 words on the cutting room floor, which I may lob up here later on.

PC “Far From Declining” Says Blizzard Boss

Written by John Walker on July 2, 2008.

Here’s my impression of the games industry:

“PC games are dead!”

“No they’re not!”

“Yes they are!”

I’m clearly the new Rory Bremner. Add another rallying cry to the “No they’re not!” column, with Blizzard getting all Gabe Newell about the nonsense while talking to Eurogamer.

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Eurogamer: Call of Duty 5

Written by Alec Meer on June 23, 2008.

…as I shall insist on calling it, even though it’s officialy ‘COD: World at War.’ Anyway, here words here, which I wrote for Britain’s Most Influential Games Journalist Tom Bramwell over at Eurogamer after getting eyes-on with COD5 a little while back.

Things said include the likes of this:

“You get the sense all the secrecy is at least partly because World at War is a huge deal for Treyarch. This is its chance to earn its own vaunted reputation. World At War might have ‘Call of Duty’ in the name, but for once it really does feel like Treyarch’s making its own game, not simply carrying someone else’s luggage. That the team’s chuffed to bits about this was plain to see.”

Your task for the day - predict how many people in EG’s comments will say something like “World War 2? Not interested”.

Clear Sky Info Influx

Written by Jim Rossignol on June 16, 2008.

The image above is from this gallery over at Strategy Informer, which is packed with similar lavish glimpses of the forthcoming Stalker prequel. It seems to be showing off some of the new areas, as well as suggesting a level of detail that will cause my graphics card to shudder and slowly die. Elsewhere, our Eurogamer chums have had a long chat with Oleg Yavorsky, the GSC team’s primary spokesman. He says a good deal about the new game, and also talks about the failings of the original game. He blames this in part on the reticence of the US audience in taking to the game, which he sees a fundamental cultural divide.

It seems that to appeal to North America you need really flashy, bright games, and you can see that every eastern European game is very dark. In the end, I guess this just comes down to our culture and history - we’re just different people, and that’s that.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is due out on 29th August.

Eurogamer: TrackMania Nations Forever

Written by John Walker on April 30, 2008.

After yesterday’s Verdict, quickly following is my review of Nations Forever for Eurogamer. It begins like this:

At 1.30am last night, I couldn’t tell you whether I loved or hated TrackMania. What I can tell you is that I was playing it. Or more specifically, playing one track. Again and again. Determined to beat it. Increasingly tired, and as such increasingly unable to make the perfectly timed turns to get that Gold medal that sat between me and sleep.

And then carries on when you click here. (But don’t click here).

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