Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Until today, I’ve been of the opinion that anyone proclaiming the Mayan apocalypse will strike in 2012 was a half-witted knobhead, but now I too have the incontrovertible proof of impending doom for all humanity.

Windows 8 is odious for many reasons – specifically because it’s an inept mangling-together of three different interfaces, a disturbing attempt to turn the PC into a walled garden and it stealths a shopping channel into the heart of the OS – but hearing that PC game stalwarts Minesweeper, Solitaire and Majong will be re-released and infected with Achievements as part of it drove to me true despair. All hope is lost. The Earth will burn.
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Rumours that Microsoft’s Vancouver studio had been completely shut down were swirling around the internet this morning, but in a statement to Gamespot, the company has specified that the studio will survive despite cuts. One of the projects that will cease, however, is Microsoft Flight, which means Tim Stone’s desire for “jets, smuggling, and air-sea rescues…via DLC” is likely to be forever unfulfilled, at least in this game. The free to play title seemed to have been designed as an expanding world but there will be no growth now. Our thoughts are with those whose jobs are affected, on this and other projects. Statement below.

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Skulls of the Shogun may have tickled your angry bone when 17-Bit announced that the turn-based battler will be a Windows 8 exclusive, but there are some benefits to that decision. Foremost, as the developer told us, it means getting to launch simultaneously on PC and Xbox. And now, another rather nice silver lining has made its way out from behind all the rage clouds: Skulls of the Shogun gets to be the first game with cross-platform multiplayer between PC, Xbox, phone, and tablet. I can’t think of anyone else who’s done that yet, so I suppose that makes this a pretty big deal, huh?

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As if the recent Dark Souls news wasn’t enough, we’ve now got another sobering report putting a nail in the coffin of GFWL’s coffin. See, there was – if only briefly – a thin ray of hope. Well, sort of. Windows 8 is bringing full Xbox Live functionality along for the ride, so you’d think Microsoft might at least retire its creaky PC gaming backend and put its full efforts behind a hopefully (and that’s a long shot) less tiresome interface. No such luck, however. GFWL, says Microsoft, will live on until long after our pitiful species is dethroned by apes, aliens, zombies, and Mayan ghosts – all at once.

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As revealed by The Big K, Molyneux – creator of games like Magic Carpet, Syndicate, Black & White, The Movies, and Fable – is leaving Microsoft-owned Lionhead to join a start-up company. The former Bullfrogger, who was head of Microsoft Studios in Europe, said: “It is with mixed emotions that I made the decision to leave Microsoft and Lionhead Studios, the company that I co-founded in 1997, at the conclusion of development of Fable: The Journey… However, I felt the time was right to pursue a new independent venture.” He will also act as a creative consultant on Fable’s arm-waving variant for the Kinect.

Molyneux joins a new Guildford-based company, 22 Cans, which Molyneux has described as “something really amazing, scary and brave”. This new company was founded by Lionhead’s former chief technical officer Tim Rance, whose credits include Populous, Black & White, and Fable. They probably plan to make games.

The best thing about Microsoft launching a new version of Windows is watching how they’ll awkwardly advertise it. The Windows 7 party videos might just be the most cringe-worthy thing they’ve ever done, and that’s saying something. So I’m a little disappointed with the launch of the free Windows 8 Consumer Preview. The video on the site is a rather awful, embarrassing attempt to ride the Wub Wub wave by layering dubstep over operating system videos. Incongruous, yes, but I doubt I’ll be linking to it when Windows 9 comes out. It’s just unmemorably awful.
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You might remember that our Brendy thought free-to-play strategy Age Of Empires Online was a bit of alright, but he was a bit uncomfortable with the general “having other people in it” sort of feel. Of course that’s not stopped the seventy bajillion people who did sign up, and some of those probably even spent money on it. They’re going to have a new option for spending money this month because there’s a new bolt-on expansion called the “Skirmish Pack” (enthusiastically trailered below) which will, surprisingly, unlock all the races in the game (although not level you up to unlock all content) and allow you to customise all starting conditions for your game, allowing you to taste all the possible options for Empire-building.

I’m going to speculate that this is going to cost about £5, although there doesn’t seem to be a price announced for it yet. Ooh, we should totally run a sweepstake on which RTS will go F2P next!
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With the tile-based facepalming of Windows 8 slowly slouching this way, Microsoft used its CES conference last night to reveal assorted PC-related shenanigans. One of the more interesting – in theory – is a new version of its Kinect motion camera thinger, designed specifically for PC rather than Xbox.
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