Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The year is 1999 and the crazy chaps at Epic Games have just came up with the concept of mutators, little mods that you can use to tweak game types. But just as they’re about to implement it, a cheap-looking wibbly effect appears in front of Cliffy A (Cliffy B is a clone) and a mysterious figure steals his PC! Mark Rein enters the room, asks what smells all wibbly and allows a distraught A to tell him what he’s crying about. “Is that all? We have backups.” But he kills A for showing weakness. And thus the Unreal Tournament series’ mutators survived. But what of that mysterious time-traveller? I have figured out who it is: step forward Mode7′s Ian Hardingham. J’accuse!
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“What did you do during the great bundle wars of Winter 2011, daddy?”
“I posted about them, sweetheart. I posted about them all. I… I’ve seen so much. I’ll always carry that with me.”

We already know about pay-what-you-want charity bundle LittleBigBunch, but until 2pm today we weren’t able to so much as look at its website. Now we can, for it lives and is live. It’s a grand old package of PC games – Frozen Synapse, Explodemon, Serious Sam Double D, Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee and New Star Soccer 5. A pleasantly varied package, I’d say.
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Today I feel like the Sisyphus of games blogging. “You believe you have completed your trial of posting about a pay what you want indie games bundle, mortal? You fool. For now you must immediately post about another one! Ahahahahahaha. Yes, there are worse circles of hell to be in, but I trust you’ll agree this one is slightly annoying.”

Oh well, c’est la news-vie, non? LittleBigBunch – due next week – ups the charity factor, as it’s orchestrated by sterling industry philanthropists GamesAid. And it’s got some pretty cracking contents. Frozen Synapse! Explodemon! Serious Sam Double D! Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee! New Star Soccer 5!
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Hopefully this is happier indie price-experimentation news than the below… What began as really little more than pay what you want for one game – that being Frozen Synapse – has been slowly expanding to be some games, as appears to be Humble Bundle trends. You’ll be very glad to hear that the very, very good Space Chem is the latest addition, joining Trauma which was bundled in earlier this week. And yes, this works retroactively for people who already bought the FZ bundle. So, whatever you have given or are prepared to give, you’ll end up with FZ, SpaceChem and Trauma – and if you beat the average price you also get a package of Frozenbyte games to boot.

All the games are available in PC, cultist PC and hippy PC flavours, by the way.

If you don’t know what Space Chem is, then boo. BOOOOOO. And also read this.

The ‘Humble Bundle’ tag by this point surely guarantees that any indie games blessed with it have the money hose turned on ‘em. Latest is Mode 7 Games’ most excellent tactical strategy affair Frozen Synapse, which has just now gone pay what you want under the trusty Humble banner – but only for the duration of the next 14 days. If you don’t have FZ already, then I thumb my teeth in your general direction. And also suggest you swoop right now.

Beat the average price- currently a genuinely humble $4.17 – and you’ll get the earlier Frozenbyte bundle (comprising Trine, Shadowgrounds, Shadowgrounds Survivor, a preorder for Splot and a prototype of Jack Claw) thrown in for free. Frozen Synapse normally costs $25, so this is a splendid deal from a punter’s point of view. Celebratory announcement video below!
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Frozen Synapse now has a demo, which totally demolishes any excuse you might have made to not try this turn-based combat thingum. Other reasons to pay attention to it include this preview essay by Gillen, this AAR by Gillen, and this review by Meer.

Those are our endorsements. We stand by them. Also: Steam will be offering Frozen Synapse at 50% off from Thursday 11th August to Monday 15th August.

There is more to Frozen Synapse than beating fellow games-journalist Mike Gapper, but I figure that’s as good an entrance point as any into its work of turn-based-tactical-manoeuvring. In lieu of a Verdict or a WIT or something, I figured I could try and explain some of the details of the game which make it so appealing to me, by yabbering over some video footage. Without a script. Or a plan. So, I set my newly-registered copy of FRAPS rolling and talked about the game. Go yabber! Go yabber beneath the cut!
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I think the singular of synapse should be synap. What do you think? Ah, Saturday is no kind of day to be worrying about those things. This week’s Spotlight On Biscuit sees PC gaming celebutante Total Biscuit talking us through indie tactics sensation Frozen Synapse. It’s been released, you know! 55 mission single player campaign, comprehensive multiplayer, the whole bit. Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking (and eating) my favourite biscuit of all time. What could it be?
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Mode 7′s turn-based yet lightning-quick combat strategy game Frozen Synapse finally got a proper, big-boy release yesterday. A fair chunk of you will have played it already, as it’s been in a purchasable beta form since the beginning of time or thereabouts, but if you’ve not glanced back at it since the early days, you’re in for a meaty treat. In addition to a host of improvements to the UI and multiplayer, the singleplayer elements have worked out far better, and far more substantial than I’d imagined.
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Kieron and Quintin‘s excitement about Mode 7′s Frozen Synapse has been somewhat infectious, which means it’s safe to say there’s rather a lot of people looking forward to the imminent release of the fast-paced simultaneous turn-based action strategy-em-up. It’s so soon! This Thursday! And it’s found itself a publisher in Matrix Games. There’s some new pictures, one of them moving, below.

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