FEED Validator

for Atom and RSS and KML

Congratulations!

This is a valid RSS feed.

Recommendations

This feed is valid, but interoperability with the widest range of feed readers could be improved by implementing the following recommendations.

line 126, column 0: content:encoded should not contain iframe tag (3 occurrences) [help]
```
<iframe width="620" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FoZysLqXRVU ...
```

Source: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/feed/?dualfeed=2

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"
xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
>
<channel>
<title>Rock, Paper, Shotgun - PC Game Reviews, Previews, Subjectivity</title>
<atom:link href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/feed/?dualfeed=2" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
<link>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com</link>
<description></description>
<lastBuildDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2014 13:31:25 +0000</lastBuildDate>
<language>en-US</language>
<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0</generator>
<item>
<title>No Cause For Concern: No Just Cause 3 Microtransactions</title>
<link>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/just-cause-3-microtransactions/</link>
<comments>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/just-cause-3-microtransactions/#comments</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2014 13:00:24 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Graham Smith]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[avalanche studios]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Just Cause 3]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Square Enix]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=249039</guid>
<description><![CDATA[When Just Cause 3 was announced yesterday, Square Enix said that it was a “full price title”, causing speculation that earlier fears about the game containing microtransactions were unfounded. Now developers Avalanche have confirmed it in a post on their own site: “It does not feature in-game micro transactions.” Yep. Confirmation that the speculation about [...]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/jc3.jpg" alt="Only DLC on the list of things people hate, so far." />
When <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/just-cause-3-announcement/">Just Cause 3 was announced yesterday</a>, Square Enix said that it was a “full price title”, causing speculation that earlier fears about the game containing microtransactions were unfounded. Now developers Avalanche have confirmed it <a href="http://avalanchestudios.com/news/just-cause-3-unveiled/">in a post on their own site</a>: “It does not feature in-game micro transactions.”
Yep. Confirmation that the speculation about the earlier speculation being false is true.
Here’s the relevant passage in full:
<blockquote>To be perfectly clear: Just Cause 3 will be available in 2015 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC. It will be distributed as a retail box and digital download. It is not a Free To Play game. It does not feature in-game micro transactions.
Does that mean we’ll release the game and call it quits? Nope. Beyond launch, we are likely to look into DLC packs and items as part of our ambition to support Just Cause 3 and its players for many years to come, but until that time we’re completely focused on making the best Just Cause game we possibly can. Rest assured it will be a huge, fully packed and extremely rewarding experience right out of the gate.</blockquote>
I find it difficult to work out under which circumstances people find microtranscations acceptable given the huge number of successful games – both paid-for and free-to-play – which contain them. In this instance the fear over their use was prompted by <a href="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=925234">some leaked screenshots</a> from an earlier build of the game, one of which featured a “Buy More Now” button. People’s feverish rush for information then led to complaints, and now the above clarification.
I guess in some way the fear was spawned by the thought that a thing people already liked was going to be warped in damaging ways by the needs of capitalism. That’s understandable – I liked Just Cause 2 a lot. It’s such a wildly silly game, though only a fraction of the story missions treated it as such. Most of my time playing it was spent <a href="http://youtu.be/RoyIrXjGBeI">creating my own fun</a> in its beautiful open-world, tinkering with mods which offered <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ez4KQNDii0">infinite</a> or unbreakable tethers and vastly more powerful explosives, or tooling around in <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/01/13/impressions-just-cause-2-multiplayer-mod/">the ambitious multiplayer conversion</a>. I hope Just Cause 3 takes a cue from what the community did with the game, and the announced addition of a wingsuit alongside your re-usable parachute and grapple is a good start.
More details of the will trickle out over the coming days <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/p/justcause3.aspx">as part of an exclusive with Game Informer</a>. 
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/just-cause-3-microtransactions/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>An Exciting Post About AssCreed Unity’s PC Performance</title>
<link>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/assassins-creed-unity-pc-performance/</link>
<comments>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/assassins-creed-unity-pc-performance/#comments</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2014 12:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alec Meer]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[RockPaperShotgun]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Assassins Creed Unity]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Hardware]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Ubisoft]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=249041</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Now that I’ve a) got code and b) got said code to run after a ton of tinkering, I’ve spent a couple of hours with gaming’s latest whipping boy, Assassin’s Creed: Unity. Given yesterday’s web brouhaha about its shonky performance on console, it seems worth sharing my technical experiences with it on PC too. Below [...]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/acub.jpg" rel="lightbox[249041]"><img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/acu.jpg" alt="" /></a>
<a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/assassins-creed-unity-issues-pc/">Now that</a> I’ve a) got code and b) got said code to run after a ton of tinkering, I’ve spent a couple of hours with gaming’s latest whipping boy, <a href="http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-gb/games/assassins-creed-unity.aspx">Assassin’s Creed: Unity</a>. Given yesterday’s web brouhaha about its shonky performance on console, it seems worth sharing my technical experiences with it on PC too.
Below are a bunch of numbers, if you like that sort of thing. TLDR: it’s not disastrous, but something sure ain’t right.
Clearly, this is just how it runs on my PC. Your mileage may very well vary hugely. Particularly, I haven’t been able to try this on an NVIDIA card yet. Here’s what I got, though.
The major observation is that I cannot get this sucker to consistently run faster than just over 40 frames per second, whatever I do. That peak is at lowest graphical quality and lowest resolution (though it will only go down to 1280×720 on my screen), but even then it spends most of the time in the 30s. It just won’t run at 60 fps no matter what I try. There’s no sign of a framerate cap; this is simply a performance issue, so far as I can tell.
What’s odd is that the performances changes relatively little if I pump the resolution up to 1920×1080 (or even 2560×1440) and stick the settings on High or Very high. Generally, it’s stuck around between 30 and 40. (Yes, I do have vysync turned off, the refresh rate set to 60 and the very latest graphics drivers installed).
Ultra High, which I wouldn’t have expected to be smooth on my system anyway, flickers around the late 20s at 1080p. Doesn’t look a huge amount different to Very High anyway, so no great loss. Whatever the settings, the frame rate’s all over the place – huge jumps and drops depending on what I’m looking at or what action’s going on. Clearly that’s the case in any game, but it seems especially and distractingly pronounced here.
I do prefer to play at 60fps rather than 30 where possible, but if I’m honest that’s more about principle than noticing the difference in practice, at least in a game like this. So I can deal with 30fps/1080p well enough. Trouble is it’s an entirely different matter in cutscenes. These feature super-detailed versions of the character models, and slump down to about 17Ffps, which is far too treacly to deal with. Not that I particularly want to watch the cutscenes going on what I’ve seen so far, but I’ll get back to that once it’s review o’clock.
My concern, essentially, is that Unity remains a 30fps game even when everything’s set to rock bottom, and that the frame rate spikes so wildly whatever my settings are. 
<a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/acu2b.jpg" rel="lightbox[249041]"><img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/acu2.jpg" alt="" /></a>
Above: ACU at lowest settings. The image at the top of this post shows ACU at Very High settings. Click through for bigger, uncropped versions.
While my PC isn’t the greatest it’s pretty well-equipped – Core i7 980x, Radeon 290X, 8GB RAM – so I strongly suspect this is down to the game rather than an inadequacy on my part. This would also reflect the major performance issues being reported in console land; apparently the game regularly drops below 30 frames on PS4 and Xbone.
The good news is that, on my system, I can have it sit at a 30fps minimum (bar cutscenes) without too much compromise. I suspect this is more to do with my relatively beefy graphics card than it is the PC version being in better shape than the console versions. 
This, I suppose, makes the PC version the best-running version of the game, provided you have the hardware. And fifty bloody quid. And 42 gigabytes of disk space/bandwidth. And don’t mind not having it on Steam.
Hooray? No, not really.
As for the game itself, clearly it’s too soon to make even the slightest judgement, but what I’ve experienced so far has been very traditional Creed with no surprises other than a little more building interior stuff and a somewhat, but not dramatically, prettier world. Oh, and also lead character Arno has very nice eyes.
I’m not expecting the freshness of Black Flag, but I would like to see more invention in the missions later on – so far it feels excessively familiar.
Anyway, gizza couple of days and I’ll let you know more.
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/assassins-creed-unity-pc-performance/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>25</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>Freeware Garden: One After Another</title>
<link>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/freeware-garden-one-after-another/</link>
<comments>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/freeware-garden-one-after-another/#comments</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2014 11:00:51 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Konstantinos Dimopoulos]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Free PC Games]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Asylum Jam]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Elisha Ramos]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Freeware Garden]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Horror]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[one after another]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=248853</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Looking for an incredibly short, but highly effective and beautiful horror game? Well, that’s lovely and you are in luck as one after another is the game for you. This very first time I played this I was so deeply scared and startled within a minute, I almost skipped the game entirely. Happily, I didn’t and instead realized [...]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/OneAfterAnother_header.jpg" alt="This is as spoiler-free as a screenshot can get." />
Looking for an incredibly short, but highly effective and beautiful horror game? Well, that’s lovely and you are in luck as <a href="http://gamejolt.com/games/other/one-after-another/37098/">one after another</a> is the game for you.
This very first time I played this I was so deeply scared and startled within a minute, I almost skipped the game entirely. Happily, I didn’t and instead realized that this happened due to a) me being incredibly relaxed when playing the thing after midnight and b) a bug that couldn’t have been designed to be this unsettling. Admittedly one after another’s Ju-on feel helped a lot too, as did its abandoned, dark, pixelated and dangerous research facility setting.
This is where you wake up and the game begins; with you having just unshackled yourself and having no idea what’s happening, beside the definite knowledge that you simply must escape. That you must search the dark facility halls for hiding places, answers and above all a way out.
And so you start running. Your first death is probably a few moments away and it’s bound to be spooky, abrupt and very effective. Next time though you’ll be more careful. You’ll start making mental notes of good hiding places, being careful and making sure to avoid beartraps. You’ll start running away every time the music suggests a semi-naked murdery thing is coming your way and learn to evade it.
The horror of being chased through unexplored territory will always be there and running towards the unknown can be extremely tense. I mean, what if you run into a dead end with nowhere to hide? You die, that’s what.
And then you try beating this brilliantly atmospheric game once again, if only to see its smart and rather unexpected ending.
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/freeware-garden-one-after-another/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>Dreamers Of Dreams: A Diary Of Whispered Truths</title>
<link>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/dreamers-of-dreams-a-diary-of-whispered-truths/</link>
<comments>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/dreamers-of-dreams-a-diary-of-whispered-truths/#comments</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2014 10:00:50 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Adam Smith]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[A Diary of Whispered Truths]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[music]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[music visualisation]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Niall Moody]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=248999</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A Diary of Whispered Truths is a tool for creating images like the one above, which would be all very well and groovy, but as you paint, it sings. Well, in my case it coughs out rugged reams of chorduroy, unfashionable and about as smooth as sandpaper bog roll. It can make quite a racket. [...]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/dowt.jpg" alt="" />
<a href="http://niall-moody.itch.io/a-diary-of-whispered-truths">A Diary of Whispered Truths</a> is a tool for creating images like the one above, which would be all very well and groovy, but as you paint, it sings. Well, in my case it coughs out rugged reams of chorduroy, unfashionable and about as smooth as sandpaper bog roll. It can make quite a racket. A Diary is controlled with mouse and keyboard, with the former ‘conducting’ the on-screen activity and the latter providing percussive punctuations. I did not conduct the images and sounds below. My compositions are much more erratic, experimental and ahead of their time.
<iframe width="620" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FoZysLqXRVU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
It’s a brilliant example of this type of toy and when I read that I can input entire texts – literature, my favourite RPS features, a United Utilities bill – and see/hear the results, I was in danger of losing sleep. It’s hypnotic, to me at least. I should probably make it known that during my university years I was obsessed with music visualisation, which sounds like a short-hand wink-wink way to say that I was toasted off my brain on acid.
That would have put me at university in the sixties though, seventies at a pinch, and I’m not that old. When I say I was into music visualisation, I mean I was sitting supping my umpteenth lager and watching waveforms shimmer on my screen in time to This Is Hardcore.
This is my sort of thing, is the point, and if you’re not excited by the idea of seeing the complete poetic works of Thomas Hardy (dare I try the novels) translated into light and sound, you might not think it’s worth three quid. You’d be wrong. I struggle to find a pint of lager for three quid these days.
Seen (and heard) at <a href="http://killscreendaily.com/articles/diary-whispered-truths/">Kill Screen</a>.
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/dreamers-of-dreams-a-diary-of-whispered-truths/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>Resolution Resolutions For Final Fantasy XIII And XIII-2</title>
<link>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/final-fantasy-xiii-2-1080p/</link>
<comments>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/final-fantasy-xiii-2-1080p/#comments</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2014 09:00:46 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alice O'Connor]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Final Fantasy XIII]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Final Fantasy XIII-2]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Square Enix]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=248993</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Final Fantasy XIII was a disappointing PC port, suffering that rare-yet-still-too-common problem of only running at a 1280×720 resolution. Gawd bless modders, as Dark Souls and Deadly Premonition saviour Durante released a tool to stick a knife inside the game’s workings and jiggle it around, opening up higher resolutions, but it’s a shame he was [...]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/ff132.jpg" alt="Fighting!" />
<a href="http://www.finalfantasy13game.com/">Final Fantasy XIII</a> was a disappointing PC port, suffering that rare-yet-still-too-common problem of <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/10/10/final-fantasy-13-pc-720p-fix/">only running at</a> a 1280×720 resolution. Gawd bless modders, as Dark Souls and Deadly Premonition saviour Durante released a tool to stick a knife inside the game’s workings and jiggle it around, opening up higher resolutions, but it’s a shame he was even needed. Square Enix have noted the discontent, and promised that <a href="http://www.finalfantasy13-2game.com/">Final Fantasy XIII-2</a> will support other resolutions when it launches on December 11th. They also plan to patch resolution options into FF13 that month.
XIII-2 <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/games/292140/announcements/detail/120796964063015185">will have</a> options to run in different resolutions (a press release mentions “720p, 1080p, and more”, so it’s not clear how comprehensive this is) at 60fps, and will introduce graphics options (also absent from XIII) so you can keep it there. It looks like Japanese voices are still bundled in by default, rather than split off as optional, which was another complaint about XIII. Can’t win ‘em all.
I’m not usually one to grumble about technical aspects of games, as long as they’re not a complete shambles and don’t stop me from playing, but playing a long, long game in a blurry non-native resolution would be physically painful.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 will cost £12.99 when it launches. It’s £10.99 to pre-order from <a href="https://store.eu.square-enix.com/emea_uk/games/pc-windows-download/Final-Fantasy-XIII.php">Square Enix</a> and £11.69 <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/292140/">on Steam</a> but, more than ever, I’d recommend waiting to see how the game turns out. The final part of the trilogy, Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns, is due in spring 2015.
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/final-fantasy-xiii-2-1080p/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>Ice Ice Baby: Among The Sleep’s Free Prologue DLC</title>
<link>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/among-the-sleep-prologue-dlc/</link>
<comments>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/among-the-sleep-prologue-dlc/#comments</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2014 08:00:40 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alice O'Connor]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[among the sleep]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[DLC]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[in my day we'd call that a patch etc.]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[krillbite studio]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=248883</guid>
<description><![CDATA[You can hardly step foot in the RPS Treehouse nowadays without crushing a rusk or slipping on a vomity bib. Everywhere you look: babies and their detritus. As the least parental and perhaps most monstrous limb of the RPS Hivemind, it’s now my responsibility to handle games about babies, lest a more delicate person burst [...]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/atsprologue.jpg" alt="Too cold, too cold." />
You can hardly step foot in the RPS Treehouse nowadays without crushing a rusk or slipping on a vomity bib. Everywhere you look: babies and their detritus. As the least parental and perhaps most monstrous limb of the RPS Hivemind, it’s now my responsibility to handle games about babies, lest a more delicate person burst into tears. So here I am, explaining that <a href="http://www.krillbite.com/ats/">Among the Sleep</a>, the horror game about <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/05/29/among-the-sleep-review-horror-pc/">how foolish babies are</a>, received a free prologue chapter last week. I’d missed it because the RPS letter pile was stuck together with what I do hope was puréed swede.
The original campaign didn’t end on the sunniest note, and fittingly this chapter’s plunged into a world of ice and snow. Once again, the baby’s off toddling about, wandering nightmarish worlds, solving puzzles, and trying to avoid a terrible being that’s searching for you.
Though the Prologue has <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/332210">its own Steam page</a> with screenshots and stuff, it should automatically download for folks who have Among the Sleep installed.
Ha ha anyway look at this lousy baby, it’s not even wearing a scarf out in that snow! Don’t you know you should have a better idea of regulating your own body temperature by now, baby?
<iframe width="620" height="349" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/y8ZW48s42Wc?rel=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/12/among-the-sleep-prologue-dlc/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>Interview: Robin Arnott On Biofeedback</title>
<link>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/biofeedback-robin-arnott/</link>
<comments>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/biofeedback-robin-arnott/#comments</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Nov 2014 21:00:29 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Philippa Warr]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Featured Articles]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[biofeedback]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[feature]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Robin Arnott]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Supporter]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=246763</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Image by Ken Fager (used under CC license) One of the fascinating things about the Oculus Rift headset is the way it forces players and developers to consider the body in relation to a game. A lot of the talk is about how to represent your avatar’s body. There are questions like whether it’s a [...]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/ekg2.jpg" alt="Beepity beep" />
Image by Ken Fager (used under CC license)
One of the fascinating things about the Oculus Rift headset is the way it forces players and developers to consider the body in relation to a game. A lot of the talk is about how to represent your avatar’s body. There are questions like whether it’s a problem when you look down and see “your” body but in the wrong clothes, and fascinating art projects designed around you being in someone else’s skin. But another avenue of exploration when it comes to incorporating bodies in gaming is biofeedback.
Brainwaves, breathing patterns, heart rate, blood pressure and so on can all be used to affect and to personalise the experience of gaming. Developer Robin Arnott has been using biofeedback in his work since <a href="http://wraughk.com/deepsea/">Deep Sea</a>, a game which monitored player breathing to control the scuba regulator sounds they would hear in-game. His current work is <a href="http://soundselfgame.com/">SoundSelf</a>. It’s a meditative experience which is controlled through microphone input. Ostensibly that’s a voluntary process but it incorporates elements of biofeedback because breathing rate is tied to the user’s vocal input.
“I first seriously learned about biofeedback at a GDC talk from Valve’s in-house brain-scientist,” says Arnott. “They were giving heartbeat data from an EKG [a measurement of electric potential on the skin that correlates to heart beat] to an AI Director to dynamically tailor the game’s difficulty. This was years ago, and in my mind it has since seemed inevitable that gaming controllers would eventually include EKG and galvanic skin resistance detectors. They’re cheap, and they provide a treasure-trove of personalised data to feed into any game.”
If you’ve been keeping an eye on such developments you might know Erin Reynolds’ game <a href="http://www.nevermindgame.com/">Nevermind</a>. It uses similar ideas in that if the game detects increased heart rate via a heart monitor strap the difficulty will increase. The idea with Reynolds’ work is that to progress efficiently you’ll need to find ways to remain calm while playing. 
<img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/nevermind.jpg" alt="Seems like a nice place you've got here" />
With Arnott’s SoundSelf project the input is a microphone which picks up noises and tones made by the player. “I don’t consider those tones themselves to be biofeedback since they’re voluntary,” says Arnott. “The eureka moment came to me when I realised that, by encouraging players to tone through their entire exhalation, I already had implicit access to the player’s inhalation as well! This means I know approximately the rate and rhythm of the player’s breath, which means I know approximately how relaxed and entranced they are.
“In a way, SoundSelf now has a basic artificial-emotional-intelligence. If you’re playful and energised, it can meet you there. If you’re entranced and ‘zenned out’, it can meet you there too.” (I should probably admit that I played SoundSelf at GameCity last year in the middle of a crowded room and became so entranced and zenned out I fell asleep. At least it’s a game where that could be considered a compliment.)
“What’s important for me is that you’re not deliberately controlling the experience with your biorhythms (as you would have in Deep Sea). Instead, your biorhythms betray something about your subjective experience that’s useful for building a more intimate relationship between you and the game. This can be valuable to a traditional gaming experience like Left 4 Dead, but I think it opens up huge new vistas of design when designers instead focus player attention inwards, on the mind itself.”
<img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/soundself-1.jpg" alt="Look, it made me sleepy OKAY" />
Rift is important in these developments because of how it manipulates your senses. Arnott talks in terms of bandwidth – Rift providing high-bandwidth output and biofeedback being capable of providing a type of high-bandwidth input.
<blockquote>“Just like your internet speed, all modes of communication have bandwidth. A high-bandwidth communication uses very little compression, it’s close to a direct signal. A low-bandwidth communication requires a lot of compression. For example, a traditional controller compresses intention into a symbolic mapping of buttons, and then decompresses it into on-screen action.
“The Rift is like a high-bandwidth one-way cable plugging directly into your perception (I’m exaggerating, but only a little). But a game is a two-way street. It’s output but it’s also input. It’s the dance between the input and the output that makes games special, I think. So if you have a high-bandwidth output like the Rift, but a low bandwidth input like a controller, your game is still a low-bandwidth loop. It’s not an easy problem. Biofeedback technology exists now though, and it’s pretty high-bandwidth.”</blockquote>
Arnott admits that one of biofeedback’s limitations as a control system is that it’s hugely inefficient as a vehicle for player intention. That makes sense because to a large degree the processes involved are involuntary. They can be modulated in some ways (stress management techniques affect breathing and heart rate, for example) but that’s very different from being able to trigger definite action in the way that you can by pressing spacebar to jump. 
For that reason, when you’re focused on a set of external challenges or objectives you’d want the control system which lets you translate intention into action reliably and so biofeedback’s role tends to be more along the lines of generating difficulty or creating atmosphere.
Arnott isn’t dismissive of those applications but sees biofeedback’s real strength as being in less goal-oriented environments. “If you look at the most popular experiences on Oculus Share, very few of them are goal-oriented. This is partly because roller-coasters and tech demos are still novel. It’s also partly because a ton of the assumptions about game design that have evolved over the last forty-plus years don’t fly so well in VR [...] Game designs can be more mellow, more subtle, more quiet, and still be riveting and beautiful. It’s in that design space – embracing the calm – that I think biofeedback will make a really huge impact.”
<img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/soundself.jpg" alt="Something kinda ooh" />
At present the majority of games or game-adjacent projects I’ve seen using biofeedback relate to self-help – meditative projects like SoundSelf and apps designed to help sufferers deal with panic attacks. I ask whether that’s a product of how biofeedback is largely limited to medical scenarios at the moment or whether it’s more of a tech availability thing. 
“For electrocardiogram (heartbeat), galvanic skin response (changes in skin’s electrical conductivity in response to emotional reactions), and even electroencephalograms (brainwaves) to have an impact on consumer arts like video games, they’re going to need to be built into consumer controllers. I suspect that’s right around the corner but until that happens these technologies will unfortunately be limited to industries where you have a few consumers/hackers willing to spend a lot of money – like art installations, science, and therapy.”
This year’s Indiecade Night Games party had a strong biofeedback element via a selection of ‘transformative technologies’ formerly presented at Burning Man and curated by inventor Mikey Siegel. They’re not billed as games, but I’m noting them here because as well as being facinating self-contained experiences they demonstrate how you might use the technology to create different types of relationships between players or to influence and personalise. 
Arnott describes <a href="http://www.alanmacy.com/Standard_Deviation.html">Reincarnation Lounge Chairs by Alan Macy</a>. It’s a two chair setup where metallic hand pads read your heart rate. The heartbeat gets output through a subwoofer in the chair and a blinking red light. You can either experience your own heartbeat or switch to the other person’s. HeartSync by Mikey Siegel is similar in that it allows you to experience the other person’s pulse but adds a visual glow around the other person which matches their breathing (as detected via a belly strap). Another – Indra’s Net by Peter Tjeerdsma – uses an EEG to relate the colours of LEDs to brainwaves and thus, mental states.
<img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/indras-net.jpg" alt="Feeling blue..." />
But there is a concern when it comes to these personal experiences. When using data produced by your own body, there will also be issues of storage, of protection, of privacy. It’s not directly identifiable information which might lead to credit card fraud or identity theft. Instead it’s an account of your emotional and biological reality which could be used in ways you may be uncomfortable with. It also links to your health so there will be questions of whether developers would have a moral obligation to warn players of any abnormal readings.
“What data protection and privacy issues do you think biofeedback creates?” I ask Arnott towards the end of the interview.
“Good question. I don’t know the answer to that,” says Arnott. “There’s a certain amount of involuntary information you’re giving away to the system and potentially the people behind the system. It’s not mind-reading, but there’s definitely the possibility for game designers and advertisers to get a sense of how aroused or excited certain content makes you feel, for example. 
“I think it’s important for us all to make deliberate decisions about what data we give up. For me, I don’t feel threatened by giving up that kind of data, but that’s just me.”
This post was originally published as part of the <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/supportrps/">RPS Supporter program</a>.
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/biofeedback-robin-arnott/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>Tell Of Tales: Game Of Thrones: Details Of Game</title>
<link>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/house-forrester/</link>
<comments>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/house-forrester/#comments</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Nov 2014 20:00:55 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alec Meer]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[RockPaperShotgun]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[A Game Of Thones]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Game Of Thrones]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Telltale]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=248939</guid>
<description><![CDATA[House… Forrester?!!!!?? Now come on, come on. I mean, no-one expected to be a Stark, but COME ON. You will be a member of House Forrester in Telltale’s upcoming adventure/chat-o-dilemma adaptation of Game of Thrones – specifically the TV version, specifically set just before season 5. HOUSE BLOOMIN’ FORRESTER. Of the RPS staff, Alice is [...]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/got.jpg" alt="" />
House… Forrester?!!!!?? Now come on, come on. I mean, no-one expected to be a Stark, but COME ON.
You will be a member of House Forrester in Telltale’s upcoming adventure/chat-o-dilemma adaptation of Game of Thrones – specifically the TV version, specifically set just before season 5. HOUSE BLOOMIN’ FORRESTER.
Of the RPS staff, Alice is particularly distressed by the revelation that the Walking Dead dev’s take on Game of Thrones will revolve around a lesser house. I’ve shared her concerns below.
<blockquote>Alice: Pip, this game’s about House Glaven’s struggling in the Bantor Hills. Even you don’t care about characters that minor. 
Pip: I CARE. AND IT’S HOUSE GLOVER. 
Alice: Pip I… made them up. I invented all of those things. Proof: GoL fans don’t even read them #hipsters 
Pip: yeah, but you happened to be actually close with one of them. Wasn’t sure if you were “riffing” 
Alice: Oh like Littlejohn’s always doing with Gandalf 
Pip: I don’t even know what that means 
Alice: Book 4, Chapter 7, MOTHERFUCKER 
Pip: If you mean GoT, the chapters don’t have numbers, they have the name of the protagonist they’re focusing on 
Alice: Don’t you know about The 7 Theory? Check back, Pip. Think: where have you seen the number seven? 
Pip: The book of revelation</blockquote>
No, Pip, it’s worse than the end of the world! It’s HOUSE FORRESTER!
OK, they are actually real – Asha Greyjoy mentioned them <a href="http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/House_Forrester">once</a> (that’s Yara to you televisual philistines) – but come on. COME ON.
… Maybe something completely unrelated to the argy-bargy between the Lannisters, Starks and Baratheons is the best way to make it a personal story. That is where Tellatale most excell, after all. 
Here are <a href="http://www.telltalegames.com/blog/86265/your-story-begins-first-details-on-game-of-thrones-a-telltale-games-series">the details</a>. Basically, outsider house, multiple protagonists, visiting key locations at a point when Westeros is in chaos. Honestly, I think the GOT world is None More Telltale, and while I worry that they often pull their punches in terms of both narrative and technical ambition, I’m genuinely interested to see where they go with this. 
Iron From Ice, the first episode of Game Of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series, will be available ‘soon’. Apparently. 
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/house-forrester/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>39</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>Games For Humanity, Part 2</title>
<link>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/gamers-for-nongamers/</link>
<comments>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/gamers-for-nongamers/#comments</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Nov 2014 19:00:36 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alec Meer]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Featured Articles]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[RockPaperShotgun]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[feature]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[games for humanity]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=246857</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Continuing and concluding our round-up of PC games to show people who feel that all games are culturally worthless, or are otherwise entirely uninterested in them. Part One is here, and I do strongly suggest you read it before this one if you missed it. Please allow me to reiterate a few key points before [...]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img width="620" src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/fow.jpg" alt="" />
Continuing and concluding our round-up of PC games to show people who feel that all games are culturally worthless, or are otherwise entirely uninterested in them. Part One is <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/04/games-for-non-gamers/">here</a>, and I do strongly suggest you read it before this one if you missed it.
Please allow me to reiterate a few key points before reading on:
<ul>
<li>By and large these are PC games which require little gaming experience. Ones which do have been omitted. There is a great deal of grey area here, inevitably.</li>
<li>This is not a definitive list. Nothing has been maliciously omitted. There are many, many other suitable PC games. Please recommend them in comments below.</li>
<li>These are not necessarily the ‘best’ PC games, and nor are they inherently better than games about action and fantasy. This feature is simply to show the other side of the coin to people who may not have realised there was one.</li>
<li>This article and its comments are intended to be a resource, and not a springboard for arguments about what is and is not a game, or to raise controversies about the games’ creators. Comments will be heavily moderated with this in mind.</li>
</ul>
<a href="http://www.eyezmaze.com/">Grow</a>
(free)
<img width="620" src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/10/aug/growvalley.jpg" alt="" />
The Grow series of games are tiny toyboxes from playful Japanese developer ‘On’. Puzzles, essentially, but their joy is more in seeing the surprising and eleborate animations that result when a button is pushed than in solutions. Nothing more than simple clicking is required; it’s like visiting a wonderful museum of the imagination. Grow games will make you feel better about almost anything.
<a href="http://www.fateoftheworld.net/">Fate Of The World</a>
(Paid)
<img width="620" src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/11/march/fotw/2.jpg" alt="" />
One of relatively few ‘serious’ games which have crossed over to the mainstream, Fate Of The World is a digital card game about enacting global policies in the hope of averting climate disaster. This is hard to achieve even with FoW’s fictionalised global taskorce – the repercussions of fiddling with nations’ economies and diet are potentially disastrous. Meticulously-researched, what makes Fate of the World so terrifyingly effective is that it swiftly reveals how little most of us truly know about what’s currently happening to the planet, the reasons for it and the paucity and complexity of solutions. As a game, it’s straightforward – play a card, essentially – but as a strategy for saving the planet, it requires paying close attention, and being receptive to new scientific knowledge.
<a href="http://amydentata.com/10seconds/">10 Seconds In Hell</a>
(free)
<img width="620" src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/10secs.jpg" alt="" />
Warning: themes of domestic violence.
Take away faces. Take away names. Take away human voices. Leave something absolutely chilling.
10 Seconds In Hell is a browser-based game which lasts less than a minute, but that’s all it needs to convey the horror and seeming hopelessness of an abusive relationship. You’re stuck in a room, and you have ten seconds before your violent partner enters it too. What are your options?
It’s perhaps most effective gone into without much explanation, but if you do please bear in mind that it’s included here to demonstrate that games can deal with difficult subject matters, not as an entertainment product.
<a href="http://www.mightanddelight.com/index.php?page=shelter">Shelter</a>
(paid)
<img width="620" src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/13/aug/shel1.jpg" alt="" />
A game about badgers is very much a game for humanity, it turns out. Shelter is about caring for your young. Shelter is about the raw fears of being a parent, how it feels when you can’t provide food or safety, how it feels when things out of your control go wrong but it’s somehow on you to make them right. Shelter is about badgers, but most of all it’s about caring.
Lest this sound too doomy, it should be stated that Shelter is also a very pretty game which finds an appealing middleground between cute and authentic animal behaviour. The baby badgers’ snuffles and squeaks are almost impossible to resist. The game is also gentle and allows exploration, despite the potential for heartbreak.
<a href="http://www.actualsunlight.com/">Actual Sunlight</a>
(paid)
<img width="620" src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/13/feb/ac3.jpg" alt="" />
Warning: themes of suicide.
A dialogue-heavy game about depression and suicide, so brace yourself for dark subject matter, but it should also be noted that Actual Sunlight is so very unsentimental that it can be difficult to connect with its protagonist. It is, however, a painstaking document of the paralysis, self-loathing and long-term destruction that depression can cause. Simple and traditional gaming objectives – click on items or people to explore an effect – result in crushing flashbacks and partial explanations as to the protagonist’s condition. The conclusion is inexorable. ‘Unflinching’ is probably the appropriate adjective here, and with that in mind, please be warned that Actual Sunlight deliberately does not attempt to offer hope.
<a href="http://www.civilization5.com/">Sid Meier’s Civilization V</a>
(paid)
<img width="620" src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/2012/05/civ.jpg" alt="" />
I’m in two minds about this one. On the one hand, this historical turn-based strategy game is a fine demonstration of breadth and depth, with its thoughtfully potted history of human existence. On the other, despite a simple start – click to found a city, choose what to build and what to research – it’s not long before you’re juggling a couple of dozen balls at once, as your Civilization expands to multiple cities and encounters multiple AI-controlled opponents with their own agendas. Fortunately the turn-based nature of the game means you’re always free to make decisions in your own time: no turn ends until you say it does. To some (abstract) degree, it’s extremely slow-motion and far more elaborate chess. Fascinating, intelligent and compulsive, and a fine, non-threatening way to experiment with more elaborate games, but requires relatively long-term investment.
<a href="http://eriksvedang.com/blueberrygarden/">Blueberry Garden</a>
(paid)
<img width="620" src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/09/june/blueberry.jpg" alt="" />
‘Platformers’ are perhaps the archetypical form of gaming, at least from a relative outsider’s point of view. Think Super Mario, think jumping over obstacles and onto enemies’ heads, think collecting coins and increasing difficulty whenever you enter a new area. Blueberry garden subverts that. It contains the same base elements – jumping and collecting – but presents them within a freeform playground. Wander around, jump around, pick things up, take them to other things, see what happens, and most of all don’t worry about anything going wrong. This is your place. You’ll create your own, wordless objectives as you play. Its unusual Scandinavian art style and skeletal piano soundtrack plays a large part in adding to the sense of wonder and no-pressure experimentation.
<a href="http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/591565">Dsy4ia</a>
(free)
<img width="620" src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/2012/03/dis4yia.jpg" alt="" />
A short story about the before, during and after of hormone replacement therapy, but it evokes the confusion, fear, doubt and societal suspicion because it uses the visual language of games. The faceless enemies who spit attacks. The Tetris shape which won’t seem to fit into anything else. The maze of bureaucracy. The words can be minimal because the screen says just as much.
<a href="http://www.freebirdgames.com/to_the_moon/">To The Moon</a>
(paid)
<img width="620" src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/11/nov/to3.jpg" alt="" />
An adventure game – which generally means a fixed story progressed by solving leftfield puzzles – concerning the invention of a technology which can plant memories in people’s minds. For instance, giving a man on his deathbed the memory of having visited the moon, in order to grant his dying wish. From this high concept To The Moon spins a beautifully-told but often devastating yarn about loss, old age, mental health, and relationships. The simple, cute art style belies the power here.
<a href="http://unmanned.molleindustria.org/#">Unmanned</a>
(free)
<img width="620" src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/2012/02/unmanned.jpg" alt="" />
The title refers to US military drones, of which you play a remote pilot. Browser game Unmanned grants you access to the thoughts that drift through his brain, and shows the strange mundanity with which he often sees such a destructive and controversial role. His ostensible concerns are his day-to-day to life – shaving, commuting, family, flirting – not what’s happening on the other side of the world as a result of his actions. But it creeps in. Of course it creeps in. Your own role here is primarily to pick dialogue options and make a few essentially moral choices, shaping what sort of character this drone pilot is, gradually deciding if he’s heroic, monstrous, or deeply messed up by what he does for a living. Clearly, there will be consequences.
<a href="http://change.textories.com/">Change</a>
(free)
Continuing the military theme, this is illustrated ‘interactive fiction’ which places you in the role of an American shooter on duty in the Middle East. You only know how to shoot, at least at first. As you choose actions more options open up – for instance hear, warn, calm – and you can apply to this to the various other characters, both to see their effects, and to gradually unravel a fractured narrative about a fractured mind. When you only know how to shoot, terrible things will happen to you. Harrowing and political.
<a href="http://www.weareminority.com/papo-yo/">Papo & Yo</a>
(paid)
<img width="620" src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/13/apr/papo8.jpg" alt="" />
I must confess that I’ve not played this myself, but enough people have recommended it that I’m (cautiously) including it here. A platform (i.e. jumping) game with puzzles about a young boy and his pet rhino-dog, Papo & Yo might sound like the setup for a Saturday morning cartoon, but it swiftly becomes a parable for a father-son relationship and what happens when that turns bad. How does trust and dependency remain when that trust has been violated? Is there a way back? It is also a beautiful game, one of those rare instances of a sizeable budget being granted to a deeply personal project. Just as a proviso: reportedly some of the jumping and puzzling can become frustrating even for seasoned game-players.
<a href="http://www.richardhofmeier.com/cartlife/">Cart Life</a>
(free)
<img width="620" src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/2012/01/cartstory6.jpg" alt="" />
A game about life on the breadline. When games deal with money, usually that entails a race to the top, but Cart Life is purely about survival. You run a food stall, for which you must buy and prepare products with the hope of selling them for a small profit. While this grind does mean there’s no small amount of misery, Cart Life also concerns itself with friendships, and offers appealing people depicted in a halfway house between animation and documentary. This human contact is the virtue to pursue above and beyond the almighty dollar.
<a href="https://minecraft.net/">Minecraft</a> / <a href="http://minecraftedu.com/">MinecraftEdu</a>
(paid)
<img width="620" src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/oct/mccommunity1.jpg" alt="" />
The biggest game in the world is the biggest game in the world for a very good reason. It’s accessible, it’s instantly rewarding, and it’s all about imagination rather than a power-fantasy. Click to mine. Click to build. Build whatever you want. No wonder a generation of kids are obessed with it – it’s infinite Lego, and they can collaborate with their friends too. This by no means makes it a childish game, though if you really are resistant to the simple charms of freeform building for freeform building’s sake then Minecraft won’t be for you. If nothing else, it’s well worth taking a couple of hours to get a first-hand sense of a genuine cultural phenomenon.
Also worth investigating is education-orientated spin-off MinecraftEdu. It’s a modified version of the game designed with teaching in mind. Clearly it works better in a classroom than at home, but digging into it is a great way of understanding how games’ essential interactivity can very much have a higher calling than pure hedonism (which is not to malign pure hedonism, of course).
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/gamers-for-nongamers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>47</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>Grapple Of My Eye: Just Cause 3 Announced</title>
<link>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/just-cause-3-announcement/</link>
<comments>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/just-cause-3-announcement/#comments</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Nov 2014 18:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Adam Smith]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Avalanche]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Just Cause 3]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Just-Cause]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=248953</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Just Cause 2 is a game about gravity and grappling hooks. It’s what happens when Grand Theft Auto and Far Cry hook up, and make Saints Row the godfather to their bastard child. The child is baptised in a font of flame that is kicked out of a helicopter and parachutes onto the burning wing [...]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/jc3.jpg" alt="" />
<a href="http://www.justcause2.com/">Just Cause 2</a> is a game about gravity and grappling hooks. It’s what happens when Grand Theft Auto and Far Cry hook up, and make Saints Row the godfather to their bastard child. The child is baptised in a font of flame that is kicked out of a helicopter and parachutes onto the burning wing of a plane that is tethered to a lorry that is driving off a cliff while somebody stands on its roof adopting a surfer pose while shooting rockets at the moon.
<a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2014/11/11/december-cover-revealed-just-cause-3-29401230.aspx">A sequel has just been announced</a>. I sincerely hope I can fire my grappling hook into the moon and swing it at my enemies like a big ol’ wrecking ball. Details below.
Game Informer have the exclusive but they’re not sharing too much at the moment. They’ve played the game at Avalanche’s HQ though and reckon the parachute and grapple mechanics are “vastly improved”. There’s also a new toy in the form of a wingsuit. If that means I can fire a grapple at somebody while flying above them using my wingsuit and then reel them in for a hug, I might just forgive the apparent lack of moon-swinging mechanics.
I’d missed earlier fears of a free to play sequel, which were spawned by what appeared to be microtransactions in <a href="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=925234">what looked like leaked screenshots</a>. Square Enix have now confirmed that Just Cause 3 will be a “full price title for Windows PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4 scheduled for release in 2015″. Of course, <a href="http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-11-11-assassins-creed-unity-review">full price doesn’t mean there won’t be any microtransactions</a>. If they do exist they might be tucked away in multiplayer, or designed to speed up unlocks, rather than to control the entire pace of the game or lock away content.
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/just-cause-3-announcement/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>54</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>No Assassin’s Creed Unity Review From Us Because…</title>
<link>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/assassins-creed-unity-issues-pc/</link>
<comments>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/assassins-creed-unity-issues-pc/#comments</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Nov 2014 17:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alec Meer]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[RockPaperShotgun]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Assassins Creed Unity]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Ubisoft]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=248875</guid>
<description><![CDATA[…Well, primarily because we didn’t receive code until today. It seems some multi-format sites have had console versions ahead of release, but no dice in PC-land, at least not here. Though folk in the US have been able to buy the game since 12am. Maybe I should have moved to America and pulled an all-nighter [...]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/june/assbro2.jpg" alt="AssBro denied" />
…Well, primarily because we didn’t receive code until today. It seems some multi-format sites have had console versions ahead of release, but no dice in PC-land, at least not here. Though folk in the US have been able to buy the game since 12am. Maybe I should have moved to America and pulled an all-nighter just for this.
Whether this is related to <a href="http://www.vg247.com/2014/11/11/assassins-creed-unity-performance-issues-reported-on-all-platforms/">various reports</a> today that Ubisoft jumpy-stabby sequel has a number of performance issues, particularly with regard to framefrate drops and pop-in, we can’t know. Just wanted to tell you why we won’t be holding forth one way or another for a few days yet, basically.
Edit: game is now running. Technical thoughts tomorrow morning, technically. 
We’re also not in a position to let you know first-hand whether the PC version suffers from said issues, as it crashes on startup on our reviewer’s system. We’re trying to get this resolved (currently all 42GB is downloading for a second time), and hope to have some preliminary word-thinks for you tomorrow.
We’ll also note at this point that Assassin’s Creed Unity’s review embargo was set for 12 hours after the game had launched in the US. Expect to see some reviews crop up soon after 5pm UK time today, but ours won’t be among them. Waaah it’s not fair etc, etc, etc videogames.
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/assassins-creed-unity-issues-pc/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>49</slash:comments>
</item>
<item>
<title>When Did This Get Here? Five Nights At Freddy’s 2</title>
<link>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/five-nights-at-freddys-2-released/</link>
<comments>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/five-nights-at-freddys-2-released/#comments</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Nov 2014 16:00:17 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alice O'Connor]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Free PC Games]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[demo]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Five Nights at Freddys 2]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Scott Cawthon]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=248795</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The last time we looked at Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 on our security camera feeds, the animatronic horror was standing quietly still on Steam Greenlight. And now it’s here. It’s here on Steam, before us, released properly for real, and we didn’t even notice it leave Greenlight. It’s all very convenient for me, writing [...]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/fivenights2vent.jpg" alt="I never thought I'd be so unhappy to see vents in a video game." />
The <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/10/22/animatronic-terrors-five-nights-at-freddys-2/">last time</a> we looked at <a href="http://www.indiedb.com/games/five-nights-at-freddys-2">Five Nights At Freddy’s 2</a> on our security camera feeds, the animatronic horror was standing quietly still on Steam Greenlight. And now it’s here. It’s here on Steam, before us, released properly for real, and we didn’t even notice it leave Greenlight. It’s all very convenient for me, writing this now, as that’s the basic setup of the game: a Chuck E. Cheese’s-ish restaurant’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLOnn685-UU&list=UUe83E1qB7W0jhicA_MwOBiA">frightful animatronic animals</a> come alive at night when not watched, and will try to sneak up and murder you. You can have a crack yourself in <a href="http://www.indiedb.com/games/five-nights-at-freddys-2">the demo</a>.
I knew how mega-turbo-popular the first Five Nights was, but hadn’t played it as I’m not really one for jump scares. After trying the sequel’s demo, my response is a horrified, as the youth say, “#nope”. Unlike many jumpscare ‘em ups, Five Nights is about managing time and other resources while keeping your cool. It’s a stealth game where you’re sat in an office chair.
Time spent flicking through security cameras is time spent not winding up the music box that keeps one particular creature distracted. Time spent winding up the music box is time not spent checking there isn’t something creeping towards you. Flicking your torch light down the corridor takes both time and battery. When the creatures suddenly appear before you, or you hear banging in a nearby air vent, you’ve got to stay calm and still balance keeping watch. They go away eventually, but obsess over them and you’ll miss new ones arriving. Then you’ll be in trouble. You can pop an empty animatronic bear head on to fool them, panting deep breaths, but I’m sure that can cause terrible death too. I played the first night of the demo’s two (and of the full game’s five), and have no desire to see what happens as things escalate on the second. #nope, right kids? Yeah, right!
In terms of new things, the sequel adds new animatronic creatures with new behaviours, changes up the basic routine with new responsibilities and defenses to juggle, and brings it to a new restaurant with a new layout. It’s £5.59 <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/332800/">on Steam</a>.
<iframe width="620" height="349" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/lVPONdZBh6s?rel=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
]]></content:encoded>
<wfw:commentRss>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/11/five-nights-at-freddys-2-released/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
<slash:comments>11</slash:comments>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>

If you would like to create a banner that links to this page (i.e. this validation result), do the following:

Download the "valid RSS" banner.
Upload the image to your own server. (This step is important. Please do not link directly to the image on this server.)
Add this HTML to your page (change the image src attribute if necessary):

<a href="http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A//www.rockpapershotgun.com/feed/%3Fdualfeed%3D2"><img src="valid-rss-rogers.png" alt="[Valid RSS]" title="Validate my RSS feed" /></a>

If you would like to create a text link instead, here is the URL you can use:

http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A//www.rockpapershotgun.com/feed/%3Fdualfeed%3D2

Home · About · News · Docs · Terms