Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I’m not sure I should be encouraging this recent habit of indies releasing a single screenshot of their in-development games. When major publishers do that we roll our eyes and shout things like, “THEY’RE ADVERTS FOR YOUR GAMES, YOU IDIOTS – JUST RELEASE DOZENS OF THEM.” Of course, Brian Fargo, and now Stoic are both showing the very first in-game image of a project they recently Kickstarted, likely putting them out before they themselves are ready – there’s a sense of obligation to share things much sooner when you’re funded by a few thousand strangers who want to play the game. And in this first picture of The Banner Saga in action (if you don’t count this one), we can literally see it in action.

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Gotham City Impostors, the other Batman game, has a release date. It’s the 10th January 2012, which sounds like it’s a hundred years in the future, but is in fact in exactly two months.

This is the sort-of-like-TF2-a-bit online shooter from Monolithic, who suddenly remembered they’re at their best when having fun, rather than being all gloomy and serious. Will we be having fun with this? We’ve no idea yet, because we haven’t played it. But there will be opportunities to do so, probably from December when the beta is “expected” to go live. To celebrate there’s a new sreenshot, which is, er, poorly taken. You can see the full size version by clicking on the pic above, and leave your screenshot-taking guides for not leaving the centre of the image mostly empty below.

I’ve noticed a mistake that’s being made by a couple of publishers. EA and Activision both plan to release shooty-man games before Christmas, about some soldiers with some modern weapons having a big fight. One is called Battlefield 3 and the other Modern Warfare 3. But the weird thing is, the two companies keep taking potshots, saying their game isn’t like the other. But, see, they really do look like each other. I wonder if they’ve just not looked at the screenshots of their rivals’ game, or something. In fact, I’ve prepared you a quiz!

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Oh, go on, you’ve earned it. Have another shot of PlanetSide: Next, this time the Reaver. It’s only the third image that’s been seen of the game so far, after the tank from a couple of weeks back, and the Galaxy which I’ve put below. You can see the fullsize version of the Reaver over on PlanetSide Universe, who exclusively got hold of it.

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Gearbox have revealed the first online screenshot of the Borderlands’ not-cel-shaded-but-a-bit-like-that style. Just one shot, the meanies, and peculiarly they’ve stamped a big advert for the forthcoming PC Gamer US June edition all over it. Peculiar because the current ish of PC Gamer UK has the same shot. Meanies because PCG UK has seven more in its pages that aren’t online. But shitting crikey, we’re looking forward to this. There’s an advert-cropped version of the shot if you click on the pic above, and you can see the whole thing at the game’s site.

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If you’ve pre-ordered the Orange Box, you may have noticed that your pre-load info now shows a countdown clock, numbering in but a few hours. The biggest event in PC gaming since the last big event in PC gaming is almost upon us, and the tension is making it hard to move. So, in our unhelpful manner, here’s another exclusive Portal screenshot to make the aching worse.

The countdown does just as good a job of telling you how long there is to wait for our verdicts on both Episode Two and Portal, to appear here at 8:01am UK time (12:01am Pacific time) Wednesday morning.

P.S. An Appeal

This is a Rock, Paper, Shotgun Appeal. With your copy of The Orange Box, and presumably with your download, you will receive a song. Please don’t listen to it before you’ve played Episode Two and Portal. Please. We’re really hoping Valve have thought of this too, but it contains some serious spoilers that will rob you of a wonderful moment.

Wednesday (to be renamed “Orangeboxday”) is approaching with a crazed inevitability, and we’re all out of control. So here’s something to make it worse, whetting your appetite while wetting your pants. Another exclusive screenshot of Episode Two.

Click pic for embiggenment.

Don’t forget that at 8:01am UK time, and 12:01am Pacific time Wednesday, as The Orange Box begins unlocking on your Steam account, Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s verdicts of both Episode Two and Portal go live. You’ll want something to do while Steam awakens and the final blob of downloading completes, so what better than our (completely spoiler-free) detailed opinion on both games.

A quick note – Portal’s ready for pre-loading on your Steam account.

To celebrate, here’s a brand new exclusive screenshot of it. Click for bigness.