Latest Articles (Page 1981)

Earlier this week, I saw Brink, a game whose substance no-one had hitherto seemed terribly clear about. Pray allow me to try to correct this...

You can tell this is a Splash Damage game because it’s about two teams of players fighting an eternal, bloody war against each other in objective-based maps. It’s not nominally an Enemy Territory game (as have been SD’s two titles to date, Wolfenstein: ET and Quake Wars), but for all the Kent-based developers’ claims that Brink is something of a new beginning, it’s very much a natural extension of what they’ve done previously.

You can’t tell this is a Splash Damage game because, well, everything.

The most recent version of Need For Speed, precariously titled one consonant away from profanity, "Shift", now boasts a PC demo. There aren't many mirrors up yet, so I'm going to suggest you get it from here. It's 1.13gb, and features racing cars, and the tracks that love them. I'll update that link when a more sensible mirror list can be found. UPDATE: UK mirror here.

You know you've hit a raw nerve when a goverment classification board decides to join a boycott of your game. So when Australia's Classification board refuses a certification for Left 4 Dead 2 because Valve are RIPPING OFF THE KIDS you know you've... actually, no, I've misread this again. They've banned it because it's a violent videogame and Australia has some of the most agreeably loopy censorship in the democratic world. Man!

Yep, Dead Frontier: Outbreak - a texty spin off from Dead Frontier - is live. The main top-down zombie MMO (also reached from that page, is free to play, too. Outbreak is apparently "the first of a 5-part series of zombie survival adventures that will be released over the course of the next 12 months." The text adventure is fun, and the MMO itself is quite lo-fi, and browser-based, but that shouldn't stop you getting a kick of our trying to stay alive in a zombie-infested apocalypse. I mean, that's just a day at the office for most of us, right?

The first not-filmed-by-wobblecam game footage trailer of urban crime no-subscription fee MMO-shooter APB turned up on Gamespot this morning, and I've posted it below. It's got cars crashing and smashing, dudes getting shot, doors getting, er, opened, and a funny joke about dancing in MMOs at the end. Well, it's kind of a joke, I suppose.

Come the hour, come the men. Come the hour to podcast, come the three men (eventually). Quinns, Alec and Kieron gather in a (mostly) hungover state to discuss important things. You can download the file here, subscribe to it by RSS with this, or get it on iTunes from here. Hurrah! Also, you'll find the full list of chat-topics below...

We have no idea how good or bad this is going to be - it's certainly low tech - but it's certainly interesting. Pioneering: Explore The Early American West is a first-person episodic RPG where you explore the far reaches of the martian colonies. Sorry - misread the press release. Apparently, it's the American revolution. You play a settler, who is trying to achieve life-goals, via owning property and marriage. In other words... God knows. The 150Mb demo is available now, and the first episode soon (With episodes offering 2-4 hours of game). And for a taste, here's the trailer...

Here's a bit of sad news. The free MMO Dungeon Runners is to close down this New Year. Here's a bit of personal guilty news. I haven't played it for so long. Which is a shame, because amongst the seventy three trillion free MMOs currently available online, Dungeons Runners was the one taking the piss. The producer and lead programmer of the NC Soft project, Stephen Nichols, wrote a post on the game's site explaining that due to not making enough money the game will cease to be. But it's going to go out having fun.

Polish site Polygamia.pl has leaked the first video of The Witcher 2, and it basically looks shit hot. I've posted it below. The video contains loads of game footage, including new world details, new conversation system, and new combat dynamics, all narrated by the company CEO. Clearly it's a pre-announcement internal video, so best take it all with a pinch of salt. But still...

Profilic, ever-entertaining indie madperson Edmund McMillen's latest free game is live, this time a collaboration with one William Good. Paradoxical puzzler Time Fcuk (c'mon, you know full well how it's supposed to be spelt) will do damage to your mind, but it will also impress it enormously.

It's Talk Like A Pirate Day on Saturday. If memes ad nauseum wind you up, that may be a good day to take a break from the internet. Unless, however, you're really into free and cheap point'n'click adventure games. Oh, you're listening now, aren't you? Me hearty.

So the internet has a new greatest thing. Earth's best human, Trase, has created a Half-Life 2 mod where he replaces nearly all the game's sounds with his own voice. And yes, it's just as good as that sounds. Every weapon, vehicle, explosion, and enemy sound is now the vocal stylings of this lunatic modder. See below. Please, see below.

It's the season, clearly. The foot-to-ball season. Following the latest FIFA demo we have the rival for the world's affections. It's a just-shy of 900Mb Demo of the new PES. It features a slice of the foot-to-ball action which will be available in full-form on October 22nd. It looks a little like the -ah- FOOTage below...

We've been raving about Aaa(Snip-Ed) for the last couple of weeks. We've been charmed by their personal Youtube response to the RPS comments threads. The time has come for the inevitable: The RPS vs Dejobaan interview where Messrs Ichiro Lambe and Rohit Shenoy tells us what's what. Topics including hitting on ladies at Salsa classes, what they'll do when they sell the 76th million copy on Steam and the debristling of pigs. Read. You really have to.

It was something of a surprise to see Io Interactive announce that their next game wasn't going to be another Hitman title, or any other kind of manshoot, but instead a new direction based on cute cartoon ninjas. That game, Mini Ninjas, is came out this week, to a mixed reception. Needless to say, I'm going to tell you Wot I Think...

Only about three more weeks until Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising appears. Unless it slips again. But presuming it doesn't, you can finally find out whether it's better or worse than ARMA 2 on October 9th. In the meantime there's a new video that apparently demonstrates the head-to-head multiplayer mode, showing how you can take control of either a USMC or Chinese PLA troop and then shoot helicopters out of the sky. There's also a new collection of screenshots.

Any excuse to post about The Longest Journey. That's my motto. And this is quite a good one. Good Old Games are putting emphasis on that first G today with the addition of one of time's finest adventures (and the game that's most important to me) to their catalogue. It is of course also available on other download sites, but getting it via GoG means it's DRM free, and it turns out, cheaper (just)! Hooray (just)! If you're in the right country! TLJ is currently £5.99/9.99€/$9.99 on Steam. Via GoG it's $9.99, which translates to £5.45 in the UK, but for our European allies it plummets to 6.11€. If you want to know more about the game, and why it's so damned special, there's a million squillion things to read about it on this site. If you haven't played it yet, I hate you. But I'm prepared to forgive you.

Vrooom, etc. Need For Speed is like some kind of proper racing game again, with Shift recreating the great and the good of motor-racing tracks from around the world. One of the most famous in the UK, Donnington, is trailered below, and the game footage does look pretty extraordinary. That said, we've yet to actually get our hands on a copy of this 13th NFS game, so perhaps anyone who has picked up can make appropriate critical noises in the comments section?

And that's on Steam, obviously. Epic send word that the free weekend is intended to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the release of the original Unreal Tournament demo. Anyway, that means you can download Unreal Tournament 3 Black (which is the 2007 shooter plus add-on packs) and play the game through the weekend for no pennies.

In addition, the original Unreal Tournament will be on sale for $1.99, and both Unreal Tournament 3 Black and the Unreal Deal Pack will be available for 60% off through September 27.

And presumably if you fancy some mod action you can take the opportunity to download Prometheus, The Ball, and The Haunted.

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.

Sorry about the current lack of forum integration. But look, the site loads!

Ooh, it changed. There may be bugs. Yes, we've updated the site. We're going to be doing all kinds of new stuff, including more special VIP treatment for subscribers, more events, more interviews, more reviews, more cleverthinks, and so on. All the things that make RPS fun will be staying the same, but there will be more of it, and it will be prettier. This redesign is about making things tidier, cleaner, less broken, but also about introducing some more things that we couldn't do before, like those site skin adverts you see around the web. Yes, boo hiss adverts. Making sure we don't go bankrupt has become an issue, so we're concentrating on making RPS a bit more of a business and a bit less of a charity, because after two years of working pretty hard on this we can safely say we love writing about PC games, and want to do more of this sort of thing.

More about the redesign, including an important message from our designer, below.

The Maker Of Supermen Returns! Cryptic have had their Champions Online out in the wild for a couple of weeks now. It's time to pull on the Spandex and see Wot I Think...

2K are putting in an impressive fight for the ceaseless sporting sequels crown, fighting the only other contender, EA. But a piss into EA Sports' eye, as their ignoring of the PC continues for a number of their titles. 2K are no such hatemongers, and while we'll have to somehow live without endlessly mediocre NBA Live series, the rival NBA 2K10 will make it to our door. And cor, it looks frighteningly real.

I've been meaning to go back and prod at this determinedly some more for a while, but Brandon Boyer mentioning it in his round-up of Indie Hotness makes me think I should just plug it and then bully Quinns into having a nose when he comes over later. As it's totally his sort of thing. Anyway, you know Farbs? Developer of the brilliant Rom Check Fail? Writer of the best I-quit statement in development history when he left 2K Australia? He's just started betaing his first commercial game, Captain Forever which is basically Asteroids meets Gratuitous Space Battles (inspired by Battleships Forever, natch). You fly around, shooting things. With the things you shoot off, you stick to your ship and turn into an enormoship with hyperguns. Footage and more stuff beneath the cut...

Zuma's Revenge, the sequel to PopCap's original ball-blasting puzzle game, has now been released for $20. You can judge whether it's worth such an outlay of cash by playing the 100mb demo, which can be found over at the official site. The new game features new modes, power-ups and such, but it's very much in line with the original, and perhaps not the finest hour for our favourite puzzle gaming company.

Talking of demos I can't understand, the gorgeous point and click adventure The Whispered World has a demo out. In German. Which I don't speak a word of. Which makes me sad, because it looks fantastic. However, I'm aware that people reading this site can speak German! Especially the ones in Germany. So it's good news for you. And for the rest of us, it's a chance to remember that The Whispered World is coming, and will be translated.

Kieron mentioned this morning that the GearGrinder demo was out. But just knowing that wasn't enough for me. I had to play it too. HAD TO. And I can tell you, on a scale from 1 to Completely Hatstand Insane, GearGrinder scores a Batshit Crazy.

We haven't talked about Jeff Minter's new game in a while. When it was still being called Gridrunner+++, we made it one of our Unknown Pleasures for 2009. It's since been re-named Gridrunner Revolution and is inching closer to its release date. You'll be able to get it from the 25th and review code is starting to distribute. First to actually talk about it is head Retroremakes bob Oddbob who explains why this is looking like a really interesting shooter. More after I've had a bit more time with the code, but until then, here's some footage of the game in action...

We're particularly excited about Runic Games' upcoming dungeon crawler, Torchlight. It's looking incredibly slick and colourful, just the kind of thing that jiggles the lock on our treasure chest. Seeing it in action gives us a little more to be excited about, and thankfully some more in-game footage has appeared. This time it's showing off one of the classes, The Vanquisher, who seems like badass lady-ninja type. There are also giant purple spiders. Go take a look.

Rocksteady's slightly delayed PC version of their rather well-received man-thumper/ledge-grappler goes on sale this week. I've been playing it. I've also written some words detailing how I feel about it. But I'm not just going to give them to you, oh no. If you can solve my cunning riddle, you can work out how to read them. Riddle me this!