Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Edit: Harebrained have been in touch to let us know that the shots are not screenshots but rather “concept pieces assembled in Photoshop using real in-game assets and character models in arranged poses”. Still, they’re very stylish concept pieces and that’s a much more specific description than we normally receive for things that purport to be ‘gameplay footage’ trailers.

French website Fondation Draco has written lots of words that I don’t fully understand, but VG24/7 reckon the images at the bottom of the article are shots from Shadowrun Returns, procured from a Game Informer article. There are three screens showing environments and one showing the editing tools. I particularly like the one above, and you click that and the three below to make ‘em bigger. Now, let’s all play Crusader: No Remorse, or Regret, whichever one was better. I can’t remember.

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Mother Nature’s angry wrath spent the weekend attempting to tear many trees and buildings from the surface of England through careful application of furious winds and lashings of rain, which led to me spending the entire weekend indoors, occasionally peering through a trembling pane of glass. It is imperative that this week begins with merriment and what better way to bring cheer than to watch the developers of Shadowrun Returns celebrating their Kickstarter success, clearly exhausted, clearly passionate and perhaps still vaguely bewildered as to what has happened in recent times. It’s a useful reminder that for all the talk about this model of funding, the ‘ifs’, ‘buts’ and ‘far too manys’, it’s still OK to be excited from time to time.

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At this rate, I’m beginning to think the only way to halt Kickstarter’s charging bull stampede of success stories is to start a Kickstarter with the express aim of stopping Kickstarter. Kickstopper, as John calls it. Maybe I’m exaggerating a teensy bit, but Shadowrun‘s not-so-shadowy run right past $400,000 in 28 hours is – as these things typically are – absolutely incredible. As of writing, it now sits at $517,170, which basically guarantees a Mac version, among other things. Jordan Weisman and co are, of course, pleased as punch that’s pleased about passing an insane Kickstarter goal. See Weisman and his Harebrained cohorts say so in a video after the break.
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Excuse me… sorry, coming through… pardon me… hi, sorry, can I just get past… Uughhh, phew. Hello, gosh, sorry about that – just trying to get past all the Kickstarter projects to drink my coffee. Hang on, what’s that sound? Oh no. Oh God no! It’s a Kickstarter AVALANCHE!

Can anyone still hear me? I’m typing through this tiny hole in the piles of Kickstarters, to try to tell you that there’s another one for a sequel to Shadowrun. Wait, no, sorry Jane Jensen, I’m trying to talk about Jordan Weisman’s project. No, Al Lowe, I’m talking to you later tonight. Come on guys, get back in line.

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File under What Could Have Been. Robert Olson was Art Director at FASA, and after Crimson Skies started work on… well, Shadowrun. As fond as I am (i.e. Slightly) of the eventual Shadowrun multiplayer FPS, the game which was cancelled before it. The original plan? “They wanted a new Shadowrun, one that was real in the way Peter Jackson made the “Lord of the Rings” universe real. They wanted an IP that would satisfy the hard core Shadowrun fans but appeal to a new and younger audience,” explains Olson. There’s a few more thoughts on what was presumably called Shadowrun: Awakening – because that’s what the URL says – over at the page, plus shots from an early demo. No ‘elf packs are visible.

Fans of large metal things stepping on smaller things will be disappointed to hear that FASA Studios have shut their doors. Reportedly half of the team are being moved into the rest of Microsoft Studios. The other half move to the pub, nursing pints and considering what they plan to do next. We wish them luck with whatever it is. FASA, even in their modern post-MS buyout form of Studios, rather than their older Interactive, made some pretty neat games.

While best known for the Mechwarrior games, their swansong was the future-trivia-answer Shadowrun (the question being: Which was the first game which allowed the PC to play against XBox 360 owners?” Tricky people will phrase the question “console owners” instead, where the answer will shift to Quake 3 on the Dreamcast and you’ll lose). I reviewed it for Eurogamer on release and gave it 6/10. It’s also one of my favourite multiplayer games of the year so far. There’s no contradiction there. As appealing as it often was, the mark reflects the ridiculous price attached to the game. If you see it cheap, and fancy raising a digital glass to the folk of FASA, you won’t regret it.