Just a few simple security questions
By Alec Meer on May 3rd, 2013.
I Get This Call Every Day is a simple Flash game for Windows and OSX about working in a call centre, based on the real-life experiences of David S. Gallant. It achieves absolutely everything it needs to despite being a simple Flash game. I’ll just need your name, address, previous address, social security number and date of birth, and then you can read all about it.
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Money makes the worlds go round
By Brendan Caldwell on May 3rd, 2013.
One of the most fascinating and enduring things about EVE Online is the depth of its economics. The player-driven economy has got a full decade of history behind it, operating on its own strange breed of anarcho-capitalism. In Free Market economics, there is an idea called the ‘invisible hand’. This is the idea that the marketplace ultimately regulates itself, whether it wants to or not. But in EVE’s case, there are two such invisible hands. One guided by the players and the other hand – one which players barely ever notice – guided by CCP’s in-house economist, Dr Eyjólfur Guðmundsson (or Eyjó for short).
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Not quite ready to say 'SighFy' yet
By Alec Meer on May 2nd, 2013.
Defiance describes itself as an “online open-world shooter”, but it can’t pull the wool over my eyes – I know it’s really an MMO. Look at it, pretending to be something new and different even while thousands of players sprint around chasing experience points and killing infinite, infinitely respawning monsters. You can’t fool me, Defiance! I defy your description of yourself. I DEFY IT.
Defiance also a tie-in to a new sci-fi serial on the Syphilis channel, but as the trailers suggest it’s a sort of grey pantomime I currently have no intention of watching it. Perhaps an hour* with the game, which as far as I can ascertain is designed to be standalone as well as tie-in, would change my mind?
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Sawing And Dropping Them
By John Walker on May 2nd, 2013.
On some levels, so much effort must have gone into Mars: War Logs. Not into the name, clearly – that’s an act of self-sabotage that can only have emerged as the result of some unconscious perspicacity as to the game they’d made. But it’s a big, long RPG, albeit one made of tight near-identical corridors, and they don’t just appear. And that’s just a bit sad.
And why do I want to put only mining lasers on it?
By Brendan Caldwell on May 2nd, 2013.
I went to EVE Fanfest, where I mostly walked around pretending to be a real journalist. A lot of my time was devoted to finding one person: a space captain called Chribba. Talking to various EVE players, I soon discovered that this man was something of a celebrity in New Eden. Not only is he one of the most well-known players, but he is also possibly the most well-liked. Which is a strange thing to be in an MMO for which all the advertising focuses on being a treacherous dog and where most of the in-game celebrities are not famous but infamous. What made Chribba different? Was he really a philanthropist, like everyone kept telling me? Or was he simply a cunning master of interstellar diplomacy? I talked to him to find out.
The Begotten Realms
By John Walker on May 1st, 2013.
I don’t entirely know how to justify why I’m enjoying Neverwinter quite so much. Why I’ve found excuses to play it nearly the entire weekend, stay up late playing it this week, and even get annoyed that they were doing server maintenance at 8am when I tried to sneak in half an hour before starting work. There’s no question that it’s very good – it’s a superbly made MMO, predictable ongoing server teething problems on launch aside (I’ll get to those at the end). It’s enormous, jam-packed with so very much to do, extremely approachable, but elaborately complicated if you want it to be. I suppose its biggest crime is to be traditional in its structure, and it turns out that was exactly what I was looking for.
Stronger than Mensa?
By Adam Smith on May 1st, 2013.
A happy coincidence. I had recently installed Grid, having never played it before and feeling a craving for velocity. I’d gently eased myself into the world of cars wot drift when Codemasters appeared in my inbox, offering a preview code for the sequel. Before playing Grid, I hadn’t spent a great deal of time with any racing game for a couple of years, but the series seems to be pitched at those, like me, who want something more complex than a kart game but less intricate than a sim. Mirror, signal, manoeuvre – and we’re off.
Punched Out
By Nathan Grayson on May 1st, 2013.
Zeno Clash 2 is the sequel I always wished would come to fruition, but never dared hope for. I mean, if you look at the Call of Duties or even Grand Theft Autos of the world, there’s no real intrigue amongst all the announcement glitz and glamour. We already know roughly what we’re in for. But the original Zeno Clash opened this swirling, cream-colored Pandora’s Box of possibility, only to slam it shut – nearly taking our fingertips in the process – after a mere few hours. It was so weird and alien and gleefully unafraid to just do its own thing. But in the modern gaming world, that also often translates to “it’ll sell 12 copies and confuse even typically adventurous gamers and live on only in the hearts of its most fervent disciples.” Not usually the stuff sequels are made of. Against all odds, however, Zeno Clash did quite well for itself, and Zeno Clash 2 was born. But is the first-person brawling oddity all it’s thwacked (and biffed and zotted) up to be? Here’s wot I think.
Learn the Shard way
By Adam Smith on April 30th, 2013.
The shards of Eador’s Broken World drift in space, waiting to be conquered by a commander versed in turn-based combat, RPG levelling, questing and looting, and town management. Fortunately, despite my extreme cowardice and feeble frame, I am just such a commander, and after many hours of play, I’ve finally decided wot I think.
This Mod Will Make You / Jump Jump
By Adam Smith on April 30th, 2013.
Maybe there’s more to Half Life 1 mod Cry of Fear than screaming, gibbering faces and jump scares – the trailers have shooting, conversations and chainsaws – but my nerves, frayed rather than reinforced by years of vacationing in Silent Hill, failed to survive the opening scenes when I played last night. There’s something about the look and feel of the dated engine that unnerves me far more than something draped in bells and whistles ever would, although I’ve just conjured the image of a jester at a rave and that’s as petrifying as it is ridiculous. The Half Life engine has taken on the quality of a museum or funhouse packed with animatronics, and it’s perhaps that aspect that is most troubling. Well, that and the jump scares. Here’s how I got on.
Spangles, etc.
By John Walker on April 30th, 2013.
Do you remember that there were decades previously to this one? Far Cry 3 seems to think it does, with the appearance of an expandalone spoof of the 1980s, Blood Dragon. How does this mini-adventure hold up? Here’s wot I think:
