Apocalypse, Now: Magicka 'Nam Launches
Paradox have today squeaked out their excellently batshit DLC pack Magicka: Vietnam, which relocates wizardry to misguided war. Not that this is exactly approaching the Vietnam conflict with anything other than farce and satire, but it seems to be saturing its co-op monster-splatting with as much 'Nam-themed excess as it can conjure up. POW camps, napalm, hueys, Rambo and raaawk all appear, but mostly it's about making camo-clad goblins die by the dozen. It's enjoying itself first and foremost, and there are precious few commercial games that can be said of. In what's now Magicka tradition, the latest trailer is an exercise in explodey absurdity.
Despite the general air of delectable merriment around this expansion, I must observe that said, 'Goblin-Cong' is a gag that leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth - I'm sure the unpleasant overtones weren't intended but it means that, for all the good-natured tongue-to-cheek interfacing, this doesn't exactly escape the tawdry heritage of games giving the VC characterisation and perspective incredibly short thrift.
Still,the spectacles of mages and machineguns is pretty hard to argue with. $4.99, out now on your preferred downloady-site, and it looks a little bit like this...
Goodness me, what a lot of fire, explosion and exploding little green men. Also, that looks like a bit of a Cannon Fodder reference at that starting title screen to me...
Magicka itself is being 50%-offed to commerate the release, as is a two-pack of the original game and the 'Nam DLC. Details on that await you here.