Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Alphaxion noted that old romantic partners of RPS, UK Resistance has broke the news of a new Sonic the Hedgehog PC game. It’s clearly an entirely legitimate product from Sega, and in a Modern-Warfare-2 piece of relevancy, the eponymous spiked-creature is now homeless, living under a bridge and doing drugs. Nice one Sega. Developed by one chap in four days, it’s simultaneously a revisionist masterpiece which makes us reconsider our relationship with the medium and total crap. More details over at UK:R. Send our love.

We remain quietly hopeful about the upcoming AvP game. If it manages to capture some of the terrifying atmosphere of the original game then we could be in for a treat. The one part of the jigsaw we haven’t yet seen in action was the alien itself, which gets fixed today. Eeech, face-huggers still give me the willies. And I wonder if the speed of the alien that we see here is representative of the game experience.
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The news that spy-RPG Alpha Protocol has been delayed has been around for a while now, but official word of a spring release has just arrived from Sega. “Alpha Protocol, Obsidian Entertainment’s much anticipated RPG, will be moving to a Spring 2010 release date,” says the release. So no firm date, but it’s looking like around March for the game. lan Pritchard, European Managing Director at Sega said: “By pushing Alpha Protocol to Spring 2010, we can ensure that the game will be released in the best commercial release window possible and will also receive the focus this true AAA titles deserves.” And that’s probably for the best, as the game had a bit of a poor showing at E3, and John was pretty cautious about it in our coverage. Still, we’re all hoping for the best on what looks like one of the most interesting RPGs on the horizon. If this delay can give Obsidian the time they need to pull it off then we’ll be happy.

UPDATE: Trailer posted south of here.
Sega send word that they will be releasing a new mini-expansion for Empire: Total War, which should allow you to forge an entertaining alternative history for the US, to be delivered on Steam. It’s a North American campaign that will feature some new native North American playable factions. Sega tell us that a new “Campaign Map expands the Empire: Total War experience, with 5 brand new American Indian factions, new units and technologies.” And that means Shaman and Scout agents to fill out the NPC ranks, and support for multiplayer with these armies. Warpath will cost £5.99/ €6.99 and be out some time in October. There’s also a new patch for the game tomorrow, 1.4, which “fixes some minor issues” and delivers two new historical battles: the Battle of Rossbach and the Battle of Fontenoy.
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Sometimes when my cat is licking herself clean, something I can’t see or hear will distract her. A rustle. An insect. Someone belching 18 miles away. The ghost of Michael Jackson. Y’know, whatever it is that their tiny animal brains mysteriously fixate on without warning. So she’ll stop cleaning herself, close her mouth and stare unblinkingly at whatever it is. Once a while, though, she’ll close the mouth but forget to put her tongue away first. So she sits there with her little pink tongue sticking out, sometimes for ten or fifteen straight minutes, looking charmingly, ludicrously foolish. She doesn’t seem even slightly aware that she’s doing it, or of how ridiculous, how hilarious she looks. And that only makes this absurd image all the more delightful.

And that, right there, is The Typing Of The Dead.

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BRING ME ALIENS VS PREDATOR. BRING IT TO ME NOW.

We’ve seen the Predator at play already – and in fact I sat through a live demo of ol’ crab-face in action just last week. In short – he’s a lot more agile, a lot more outdoorsy and a lot more assassiny than the tank-like role he took in Rebellion’s original Aliens vs Predator. Also, the spinal cord-removal death move is one of the most gruesome things I’ve ever seen a videogame do. Even so, I don’t really give a single facehugger poo about the Predator. Always thought there was something oddly boring about him, at least when he’s not wrestling with Arnie. For me, AvP is about the age-old conflict between the Aliens and the Marines. The latter may be the most vanilla of the three races, but survival horror always suited this IP better than anything else – so Marine is the campaign I know I’ll be playing first. Bidee-bee… Bidee-bee… Bidde-bee…
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Obsidian have released a new very detailed video guiding you through various aspects of Alpha Protocol’s Safe Houses. Showing off how the Safe Houses work, with all their various character, weapon, etc modifications, it explains how important these locations are. There’s your email, which lets you catch up on relationships, find extra work, and keep up with colleagues. There’s access to the black market Clearing House, where you can pick up new equipment. You can also customise and upgrade weapons and armour, and all sorts. It’s all below.

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Wahey – proper footage at last of what looks to be an epic comback for Aliens, Predators and fallen-from-grace Britdevs Rebellion alike. Should we be concerned they’re trying to rescue their reputation by revisiting past glories? Nah, not when it looks as good as this. Only the Predator mode is shown off for now, but there’s nonetheless plenty of opportunity to ogle the sci-fi FPS’ other two species. In motion, it’s perhaps not quite as pretty as screenshots suggest, but that doesn’t stop it from being the FPS I’m currently most excited by, hapless little nerd that I am.
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So we were complaining that upcoming spy-thriller RPG Alpha Protocol hadn’t shown us much of the actual game, particularly the dialogue. Well, that’s changed with this new trailer, which fleshes out the talky stuff a little better, and demonstrates some of the possibilities for being a bastard to the people you deal with. But it also has some neat in-game footage showing off some of the more interesting combat move. The bit where the player cuts from melee back to ranged weapon is most interesting. Anyway, take a look, as I think this is the most revealing trailer so far.
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Okay, most folk have known about this for a little while already, but today’s the day official word and oh-gawd-so-pretty pictures spill into the public domain. It’s Aliens! It’s Predators! It’s by Rebellion, creators of the still-splendid original AvP game! Admittedly, Rebellion have been churning out rubbish for the last couple of years, but I’m quite sure that, with this, they intend to reclaim their crown as one of the most accomplished FPS developers in all the world. Y’know what this is? This is redemption. Information, pictures and frothing follows.
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