Rock, Paper, Shotgun

You know the scene in the Hobbit where they arrive at Beorn’s house? Rather than the whole mass of ‘em going in at once, they just send a couple in first, and then gradually reveal exactly how many dwarves are going to be scoffing his honeycakes. The idea being, that he’d tell them to sling their hook if they all marched in at once. Since the number of how many smelly, bearded bastards are going to be staying in his gaff creeps up on him, he rolls with it. I’m beginning to suspect Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare PC PR tactic is inspired by that. I’m also beginning to hope that the PC Beorn turns into a bear and eats them. Yes, it’s been confirmed that the PC Multiplayer will be capped at 9v9. Perhaps predictable with the removal of dedicated servers, but yet more dwarves in our house. In brighter news, Zombiecow are trying to ease the wait for the faithful with a 50% discount off their Time, Gentlemen Please until it comes out. Go gets.

Oh – fancy seeing the launch trailer? Here you go:
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Just a quick one to say, one of our favourite games of the year is now up on Steam. Time Gentlemen, Please! can now be bought worldwide at £3, $5 and 4€ via Valve’s pipe. Zombie Cow have smartly bundled it with the first game in the series, Ben There, Dan That!, so you can play through both fantastic adventures super-easily. Read Alec’s review here if you’re still hesitating, and check the list of incredible reviews on their site if you think we’re just madfaces.

The handsome men (man, really) of Zombie Cow have decided that fiftyish Rock, Paper, Shotgun readers should have the chance to purchase a copy of the most splendid Time Gentlemen, Please for half price. It’s not a competition, just a first come, first served sort of deal (our lovely subscribers got first dibs on the first round of discount copies yesterday), so if you’re after one of the best, funniest, and smartest adventure games in many years for the ludicrous price of £1.50 (that’s around $2.50), click here. Once fifty are gone, they’ll revert back to the still incredibly reasonable regular £3 ($5ish) price, and Zombie Cow’s Dan Marshall will have some money to spend on sweets and developing more games for us to play. Or maybe he’ll even extend the deal if demand’s high enough.

The really very splendid Time Gentlemen, Please!, from indie developers Zombie Cow, has already seen Alec pronounce its glories in beautiful form. An genuinely hilarious game (oh, how woefully that word is applied to any game that isn’t actively about the gruesome death of children – here it’s used correctly), it deserves a lot of attention. So does the creator, one half of Zombie Cow, Dan Marshall. We grabbed him by the knees, pathetically hugging him, and begged him to answer just some of our questions. Find out about how the game came about, joking about Hitler, and what adventures game needs to get right.

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This indie Britisher adventure game has been available for a couple of weeks now, for a piddling £2.99/$5. You may have heard of its precessor, the free Ben There, Dan That. But how does it compare to professional point’n'clickery of both yesterday and today? My judgement awaits…
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The Hivemind will doubtless cast its mucus-oozing multi-eye towards this for more detailed discussion soon, but until then do allow me to quickly point out that Time Gentlemen, Please!!!?!!!?!, the sequel to the out-of-the-blue loveliness of Ben There, Dan That!!!?!!!?!, is now available. I’m mostly writing to this to deter yet more people from emailing us about it: most kind, but we do know, honest. It is available for the dementedly tiny price of £3, but if you’ve previously donated to the chaps behind these games, Zombie Cow Studios, you’ll soon be receiving a free copy. Watch that inbox hawk-like, but paradoxically quivering like a caffeinated dormouse. Now that is absurdly kind of them – perhaps the internet really is built upon sunshine and daisies after all.