Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The Cannon Fodder games are inserted deeply within the Fond Memories Gland of many of the RPS team. It was therefore surprise that we learned that a third Cannon Fodder game would be released in Russia. It is with even more surprise that we discover, via Strategy Informer, that an English version has been released on GamersGate. I’ve not had a look at it yet, so I can’t gauge the entertainment value, but we’ll try to amend that soon. (The total lack of fanfare makes me raise an eyebrow, of course.) In the meantime: this.

Either this was unheralded or I’ve been listening to the wrong heralds, but Carcassonne is now available from Gamersgate in a rather spiffy looking PC conversion. There has already been a version for your personal computing device, but it was only distributed in Germany and has since been discontinued so it can carry a relatively hefty price tag. This downloadable version is £7.95, or £23.97 for a four-pack. It certainly looks the part and several expansions are included: rivers, inns and cathedrals, dealers and builders, and king and scout. Multiplayer works over internet and networks, as well as in hotseat mode, which is proper and good.

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Cripes – how would you like the complete Grand Theft Auto series for under £9? There are two ways to do this. You can get yourself a balaclava and steal them from a shop, but it’s high-risk, and some would argue morally questionable. Or you could hand over that much money to Gamers Gate, where they’re selling GTA 1, GTA 2, GTA III, GTA: Vice City, GTA: San Andreas, GTA IV, and GTA Episodes From Liberty City, for actually 1p less than that balaclava at £8.74. Bear in mind that GTAs 1 and 2 are already free, but that’s still one heck of a lot of automobile crime without the broken glass and prison sentence. (Thanks to Michael Rose for the tweeted tip.)

The digital distribution wars seem to be very much back on of late, with EA taking the fight to Steam with Origin and both Direct2Drive and Impulse finding themselves with new masters. Then there’s the quiet man, Paradox splinter firm GamersGate. It’s opted for a different kind of salvo – a redesign. Is it bringing sexy back to PC game download portals? Am I being ironic when I write the world’s 312,232,653,764th reference to a half-decade-old pop song, or am I just being lazy? I don’t even know anymore. I DON’T EVEN KNOW.
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You might recall that GamersGate have been teasing the release of their FreeGames service, which apparently offers a service of uh free games in exchange for you being explosed to some advertising. I had a chat with GG’s Theodore Bergquist about some of the details, and you can find that chat below.
This way for explanatory chat »

So here’s an interesting thing. GamersGate are soon going to be launching an ad-support free gaming service. Details are sketchy at the moment, but there’s a big old timer counting down on their site, and a registration form for the beta on the same page. The blurb says: “GamersGate, the premier digital distribution service for games, today announced the launch of FreeGames, a free-to-play ad supported platform for PC and Mac games. FreeGames allows users to play and enjoy both PC and Mac titles free of charge after watching a short advertisement at the launch of the game. Gamers will be able to have up to five games available for free on their account at any time with the capability to add additional games.”

Hmm! I’ll drop them a line and find out exactly what they’re up to.

Steam’s not the only place to pick up some gaming bargain’s this sales day, by the way. As the extremely peculiar nature of Black Friday starts to leak out of its host country and start affecting the rest of the world that doesn’t even have Thanksgiving, we’re able to take advantage of the bargains, with none of the serious neck injuries or hurtful comments. And GamersGate has a whole bunch of bargains on at the moment that we’ve not pointed you toward. F’rinstance, Alpha Protocol, £20 on Steam, is 75% off and just £5 over there. Or Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY for £6.79. I can’t be arsed listing them all – what am I, their sales representative? No I am not. But if you’re hunting for bargains and the game you’re after isn’t discounted in Valve’s grey box, you might get lucky. Although I must confess I’m not too impressed with their RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 deal. See below:

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Some people aren’t at all happy about those NPD charts listing the most successful digital distribution services. Those people being, specifically, the bosses of two of the biggest services, which rather oddly didn’t make the top five – it instead being dominated by Valve, EA, Blizzard and Direct2Drive. Impulse and Gamersgate think something is rotten in the state of down-chart….
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Digital distribution’s a funny bugger – it’s growing ever harder to predict and apply patterns to it. One day, a new videogame from Steam et al is more expensive than its boxed-copy counter-part, then a few weeks later it can be selling for next-to-nothing. The Steam Christmas sale is almost unreal in both the amount and extent of its discounts, and it’s going to be having Valve’s competitors howling with despair. Honestly: some of these deals are yer-actual-genuine-proper-mental. Today only: Mirror’s Edge is £3.24, GTA IV is £5. In general over the seasonal shakedown: Braid is £1.74, Medieval II: Total War is £2.50, Ghostbusters is £5, Batman’s £20… And dozens and dozens more. Of course, there are sales on at the other major download services too..

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The Big K has news that the major digital download services are boycotting troubled enormo-shooter Modern Warfare 2 because of the inclusion of Valve’s Steamworks. Apparently Direct2Drive were first out with the news, saying they had “told publishers that they’d stop selling games bundled in such a manner until Valve “decoupled its retail marketplace” from Steam’s other services.”

GamersGate and Impulse will also be boycotting the title for the same reason. The implications of this aren’t clear. Does it play into Valve’s hands and given them an even larger grip on the market? Or is this the bell tolling for Steam’s retail service as a part of Valve’s gaming community?

EDIT: I AM STUPID. This is valid from tomorrow, not until tomorrow.

Quick post before I rush off into the rain-choked guts of England: don’t take this as a thumbs-up for Painkiller, since I don’t think the collective opinion of the Hivemind is overly favourable towards this retro-angled shooter – it’s deeply old school – but GamersGate nevertheless offered up a discount code for the humble RPS reader, should you be interested. It’s for the Painkiller Universe mega-bundle which includes the original Painkiller and the add-ons Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell and Painkiller Overdose. That’s a lot of pain killed.
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