Rock, Paper, Shotgun

There’s going to be a Zeno Clash sequel in 2013! Trailer below, showing Father-Mother and Ghat leaping from a huge building, with Golem watching. Then there are huge landscapes, a giant arm sticking out of the ground, and plenty of weird-looking cities. Ace Team explain that it’s going to be a much bigger deal this time: “The world of Zenozoik comes alive like never before, an open world waiting to be explored, rendered with breathtaking splendor. As Ghat, players can fully and freely explore every natural and architectural wonder his world has to offer.” There’s a website with absolutely no more detail over here, but we can hopefully expect more of the game’s melee combat, and plenty of inspiring strangeness.

Hooray for E3 announcements, eh readers?
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Rock of Ages is a game RPS has been terribly excited about for quite some time. Why? Well, because it’s about rolling a giant, apparently sentient and sadistic boulder through art, history and the history of art, with graphics by someone doing a very convincing Terry Gilliam impression. VIDEOGAMES!

Our desperate anticipation for this next game from the Zeno Clash madmen should soon be over – Rock of Ages lands in August. Well, August 31, which is basically September, but the important thing is it’s only ten weeks until I can fire a massive rock out of a cannon at the groin of Michelangelo’s David. Joystiq reckons it should cost between $10 and $15.

Twenty-four games sit behind the windows of our festive pagan Endless Bear calendar, each one a thing that made the year of 2009 brighter and more interesting. But which game comes first? And what will we have to say about it? Follow the excitedly trembling hand of the one true leader of the Autobots to discover…

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The Gamasutra postmortem on previous RPS-fave Zeno Clash caught my eye. They’re almost always a good read, but from a game coming from a very different place than most of the industry (both literally and figuratively), there’s much to learn. Choice details include how it emerged from a previous failed project – the Lithtech-2 based Zenozoik – and how the experience of that made them focus as tightly as they did: “Many years after this failed attempt we gathered around our original concept and re-thought the game in a manner that would focus on few but solid elements, those that we would be able to produce as a small team”. With a team of seven, you have to or risk disaster. Lots more in the full piece.

Direct 2 Drive have announced they’re running and indie games bundle until Sunday. The bundle contains Democracy 2, Cogs, Zeno Clash, The Path, and Defence Grid. All great games. Which rather reveals the problem with the pack: you probably own a couple of these games already.

Nevertheless, for those aberrant consumers among us, the deal is good. £11.50 for Britons, and $17.75 for North Americans. I dunno about Euro types. Anyone got a link?

ACE Team have promised they’ll be releasing the SDK for Zeno Clash since release, and because they’re honest folk, now they have. The Source-based first-person thwacker is one of our favourite games of the year, and you’d have to be Earth’s Wrongest Idiot not to find the game’s world fascinating and beautiful. Now using the magic cogs and accompanying text files, you can create your own levels and mods for the game. That link will guide you toward the SDK itself, as well as all the accompanying documentation. If you make something excellent, make sure to let us know.

ACE Team have just announced the excellent news that they’re already working on a sequel to Zeno Clash, the first-person beat-em-up we poured praise upon last month. Zeno Clash 2, as it’s currently known, will take place after the events of the first game, continuing the adventures of Ghat, this time in a larger world, with mysterious “RPG elements”.

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Inspired by my recent plea for Zeno Clash/Garry’s Mod mash-ups, veteran RPS reader Dartt revisits his own past glory to delightfully strange effect. A bigger version awaits you upon a click. The tragic absence of Tall-Nut aside, most excellent work, sir.

Oddball birdman-punching game Zeno Clash has just received its first downloadable content – the option to use its beautiful, absurd character models in the world-conquering meta-game/toolset Garry’s Mod. Go go crazy, surreal fantasyscapes!
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The word from the rumbling innards of Steam is that a Zeno Clash demo is now available. The demo contains a slice of the single player campaign, and the first level of the challenge mode, so you’ll be able to sample both. Then, should you fancy, you can compare and contrast your impressions with our verdict.

Zeno Clash goes live today on Steam and Direct2Drive, and you’ll have noticed that we were really rather taken with it. The melee combat packs an extraordinary punch, accompanied by jaw-dropping world and character design. We’ve strongly recommended you buy it. But how about one better – we’ve arranged with developers Ace Team to give away ten copies of the game via Steam.

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