Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Mr Meer was the first to take a look at the new XCOM, thanks to the PC Gamer’s exclusive feature. Since he’s currently off having weekend adventures I thought it might be wise to link to an online sighting: GamesRadar have the full text, and some images.

This isn’t a linear shooter, either. Your base’s phonetappers and police-radio scanners present you with choices as to where to go next and what to do, picked from a large map of the US. Rumours of animal attacks and strange weather patterns in a certain state? Sounds like Blobs are on the rampage. Saddle up, Agent Carter. Grab the wheel of your hulking fedmobile, take two of your best men with you, and go see what’s going on.

Go read.

Cryptic have revealed some details about their free trial for Star Trek Online, which is now available. It allows you to play through the tutorial and an early mission as part of the Federation, and so seems like a decent taster. Any STO veterans want to add more as to whether this is a representative sampler?

Some of the prices I’ve quoted here, as usual, are conversions from one currency to another. What with the political landscape in the UK being like looking at a Kandinsky through a kaleidoscope, who knows how much these prices could change over the course of the weekend. It’s not my fault, I voted for Kang. Keep your browser on SavyGamer.co.uk for video game bargains, as always. Here’s the cream of the crop of this week’s digital discounts.
Read the rest of this entry »

Well? Would you? (Expanded below.)
Read the rest of this entry »

I’m trying to think of a way to link the new puzzle/adventure game from Erin Robinson and Dave Gilbert, Puzzle Bots, to a hung parliament in the UK election… Right, okay, here we go. In this hybrid game you control up to five robots at once, who are all forced to work in coalition with each other in order to complete tasks that would otherwise be impossible on their own. Come on – that’s why they pay me the big bucks*. It’s a game that’s out today.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a good day for the interview to go live, I think. I’ve been following Red Redemption’s global-future strategy game for a while and now – with its release on the horizon and its name settled, I thought it was time to talk to its charismatic founder Gobion Rowlands, Creative Director/Lead Designer Ian Roberts and MD/Producer Klaude Thomas about Fate of The World. We take in everything from the real science behind it to the gloriously apocalyptic actions you can perform to try and save – or destroy – the world.
Read the rest of this entry »

All MMOs are rubbish, blah blah blah. World of Snorecraft, blah blah blah. Well, make your own bloody MMO, then. How? With the complete source code and art assets from fantasy monster-biffing game The Saga of Ryzom. It’s had player content-building for a while, but this is extraordinary. The devs have just made the whole kit and kaboodle open source, free to use and modify for anyone. They’re continuing to run Ryzom as-is meanwhile, which is an interesting one – are the fans loyal enough to keep paying for it, or will they head off and try to create their own servers with this code?

More importantly, will anyone make a fully-fledged new MMO as a result of this uber-generous offer? Even more importantly, which one of you is going to make RPS: The MMO? Four opposing and equally useless factions, Dave Tosser as a dungeon boss, Summon Infinite Bear powers and Kieron as the troll-king – it’s so beautifully suited to it. Details and links to the Ryzom new deal below.

Read the rest of this entry »

It is Team Fortress news so we must post it because it is Team Fortress news, even in the face of our great despair about what the morrow may bring for the UK. Valve’s monopoly on patch-centric gossip remains extraordinary, the presentation alone ensuring gents like us are duty-bound to cover it. This time, it’s a teaser for the long-awaited Engineer update…
Read the rest of this entry »

If indie developers know one thing, it’s how to turn national political warfare into cheap-and-nasty monetization. Mode 7 Games are having 20% off their Frozen Synapse Pre-order (including Beta Access) in their Tactical Voting offer. You can order it here, and need to enter the coupon code WELLHUNG to get the reduction, before 1pm tomorrow. I fear that code’s pandering to my twitter rubbishness. I rambled about Frozen Synapse here, if you don’t remember. In short: Aces! Also, Positech are celebrating the decline of our democratic values with a decline in the prices of their Democracy 2. There’s a massive 50% off today. And now to get drunk and stare at the TV in mounting horror, I suspect.

I feel it’s about time I posted another Kane & Lynch 2 trailer. So that’s just what I’ll do. It’s for the co-op Arcade Mode, in which you’re challenged with blowing stuff up and stealing money! Hooray! It’s co-op in the fragile sense. Betray your team and you’ll be assassinated. But don’t perform well enough and your team could turn on you, recognising you as disposable. You can see more of the strange CCTV perspective shots that appear to be in-game, which is a nice idea.

Read the rest of this entry »