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Goodplay announced today that Operation Gratitude, a program to benefit U.S. troops, has launched...

It’s self-indulgence time in Modland this week as I use my hastily rigged together platform, which runs on the Soapbox Derby engine, to direct you all to spend your weekends playing one of the greatest games ever made. Jagged Alliance 2 should need no introduction, nor should its most infamous and essential mod, known simply as 1.13, being in the form of a super patch of sorts. But does such a bountiful game require any additions? Can it be made even greater?

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I’m a huge admirer of the gentleman’s sport of crazy golf, or as I prefer to call it, Bedlam Roughage & Greens. Combining that most elegant of pursuits with the antics of Team 17′s Worms, forming some kind of Worms Crazy Golf, seems a sensible plan and a few videos of the (mercifully) 2d title have now appeared online. It all looks very agreeable, although I hope the puzzle-type layout of the levels doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of room for a more chaotic approach. The game is due on Steam on the 19th of this very month of October and there are several videos of golfing worms below.

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Spanish developer Francisco Téllez de Meneses makes me feel like less of a man with his splendiferous appellation but I’ve managed to put those feelings of inadequacy aside while trying out the demo for Unepic, the Metroidvania style indie title he’s been developing for the last two years. Several people seemed to think this would be my kind of thing, emailing me and demanding that I give it a shot. Francisco describes it as “a mixture of platform game, role game and joke”, all of which are things I’m fairly sure I enjoy. The actual exploration aspect is shaping up particularly well, with lots of loot, a smattering of side quests and a big old castle to map out. Demo link below.

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Here’s five minutes of your life you won’t get back. Fortunately, you might rather enjoy them. Or you might be bewildered by them. Or you might be angered by them. I’m at a loss to accurately describe your likely reaction. Oceanspirit Dennis is a one-screen, non-complicated point’n'click adventure made in AGS, which seems to be gleefully ripping the piss out of other point’n'clicks, out of Final Fantasy, out of RPGs in general, and most of all out of itself. It may well have no purpose at all, and I kind of like it for that. I also have a headache, due to particularly sadistic use of sound. Ben Chandler’s happily stupid little creation can be found here. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Via Indiegames

Cliff Harris has sent word that the first footage of his next game, Gratuitous Tank Battles, is now available. You can see it below. Cliff describes this as “a video showing early work-in-progress footage from battles in ‘Gratuitous Tank Battles’, the RTS/Tower Defense/ Sim strategy game.” In it you can see elements of both the attacking and defending games, as well as some of the conditions of battle, such as pesky darkness. For more on this you can have a read of my interview with Cliff, in which he explains the inspiration for the game and his aims for building on Gratuitous Space Battles with a more complex and strategic game.(more…)

Gather round to hear a tale never before told! There was this general, Caesar, and he conquered a huge region that went by the name of Gaul, fighting off potion-swilling men of wildly varying proportions and taking control of awesome military power. With the great name he made for himself, and the awesome military power he controlled, Caesar triumphed in a civil war and became dictator of the most powerful empire in the world. Then (Spoiler Alert) people stabbed him. A lot. Now you can be Caesar but without the puncturing perfidy of his later life. Hegemony Rome: Rise of Caesar is an indie RTS about the conquest of Gaul and Ceasar’s time as a great general. Judging by Longbow Games previous Hegemony titles, it’ll offer a surprising amount of tactical depth. Here’s a trailer with a bit of Placentia in it.

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The Sun, yesterday:

COMPUTER games and Facebook can addle kids’ brains, a top scientist warned yesterday. Baroness Greenfield said they may lead to temporary “dementia”.

It’d be great to think this was just the tabloid rag taking Greenfield’s words out of context, but sadly she has a record of saying unfounded things about the “negative” impact of technology. Not that I deny that kids shouldn’t be going out and playing in the fresh air, Baroness Greenfield, it’s just that they’re probably not going to end up demented (temporarily or otherwise) if they stay in all the time. They’ll just be a bit sad.

Strategy Informer have posted a big old list of information about forthcoming Warhammer 40,000 MMO, Dark Millennium Online. I’m not sure where it’s derived from, since they do not quite a source (presumably everything they know so far from the limited previews and stuff) but presuming it’s genuine and accurate – and we are presuming – it contains a few interesting nuggets, which I’ve highlighted below. I think were aware of 90% of this stuff, but things like class details and so on have not previously been available to my brain.(more…)

Live action roleplay so rarely takes the form of point and click adventures. Yes! A gross oversight! And one taken care of by a German group called machina eX.

This is remarkable stuff. They’re not just mucking around here – it’s a combination of adventure gaming and live theatre, in which players interactive not only with actors, but also all the objects found in the room, in order to solve puzzles. There’s a great deal of footage of this below.

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It's been five years since The Sixth World made its poorly conceived, if occasionally successful, debut on 360 and PC as the competitive, Counter Strike-inspired Shadowrun. In 2012, it appears a return visit to the world of cyber-elves and techno-dwarfs is in order, as Cliffhanger Productions brings the beta of Shadowrun Online to browsers.

As you can see in the early screen above, Cliffhanger has ditched the first-person perspective for something a bit more tactical for its free-to-play project. You and teams of friends will take on the mega corporations in action that one of the game's producers described as "more in the tradition of Baldur's Gate crossed with Jagged Alliance." (It's worth noting that Cliffhanger is also developing Jagged Alliance Online.)

If your curiosity has been piqued, there's a load of additional info in an online Q&A.

[Thanks, William.]

I suppose this question will largely be interpreted as “what game are you best at?” but I actually have a more specific motivation for asking. While I was probably best at Speedball 2 or Quake III in terms of raw twitchy gaminess, my best developed skill from a game was definitely fleet commanding in Eve Online. It was a skill within the overall mastery of the game. I wasn’t the best pilot, or the best trader, or the best diplomat or best at Eve in any general sense, I was just really good at fleet commanding and running gangs. I’m a little sad that this skill is now languishing after years of work.

Anyway, it made me wonder whether you lot had any specific talents you’d like to share? Perhaps, unlike John, you are a particularly good healer? Or are you a brilliant WoW auction house ninja? Or something else more exotic? The most interesting suggestions will win points in the subgame of RPS that I call “keeping Jim amused while this DLC downloads”.

Go!

It seems reports of the delay of the PC version of Jonah Lomu’s Rugby Challenge were somewhat exaggerated. While it’s true that the retail PC version will come out on the 21st, a week later than the consoles on the 14th, this isn’t the case for the Steam version. That’s to be released alongside the cousins tomorrow. Why the delay? Developers Alternative Software explain to us the reason the boxed version comes later is because,

“We are just having to fly in the new PC retail box version from Australia.”

You can see a trailer for the game below.

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Does anyone remember Soul Brother, the side-scrolling extravaganza about suicidal animals? It wasn’t as horrid as that description makes it sound but Lone Survivor, the next game from Superflat Games, may well be even more horrible than dead kittens. You will play the last human living human in a city filled with shambling skinless slaughter-men, seemingly safe in your derelict apartment but forced to leave in order to scavenge for dead rats to shove down your gullet in a desperate bid for survival as your fevered brain-thoughts splinter under the strain of living among the dead, and you are forced to digest samplings of unknown and potentially mind-shattering drugs to blot out the clotted claret hallways that now make up your waking life, replacing them with unsettling and unwhimsical hallucinations. Take a look.

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Here are three things you should know about Dave Gilbert, creator of the Blackwell games. He’s not in fact related to Ron Gilbert, writer of Monkey Island. He has indeed been informed how much more awesome this game would have been if it was The Blackwell Decepticon instead. Oh, and he’s one of the best writers working in adventure gaming right now.

Thinking about it, that last one is probably the most important. Need proof? The Blackwell Deception is hands-down his best adventure yet, and one of my favourites in a very long time. Even without a special guest appearance by Megatron and Starscream…

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Cliffhangar (also doing Jagged Alliance Online) have announced that they will be work making a Shadowrun game. The fantasy-meet-cyberpunk setting is a splendid one, and Cliffhanger’s effort looks closer to the old RPG than the recent shonky multiplayer take on the game concept. Cliffhangar explain their approach: “it will have a perspective camera in a 3D setting, much like our Jagged Alliance Online game… So, it will be a decent quality, but it won’t be what some call AAA. The reason for that is simple: We are doing a browser based game. This means anyone can access it at any time from their PC… But that also means we need to limit visuals. I hope you agree that gameplay is king, so we think the visuals are decent enough.”

There’s a bit more information over at the announcement, including an explanation of how the game will have two parts – action map and city planning level map. Sounds intriguing.

Dirchie Kart! It’s some kind of cartoon kart-racing game, and there’s a beta going on Dirchie Kart over here. It looks like it’s local split-screen only at the moment, but that’s apparently set to change as the lone dev gets around to working on network stuff. He’s looking for a hand getting it working on PC (having previously appeared on Xbox) and is asking for feedback. Worth a look, anyway.

We won’t be grinding nobz any time soon… THQ’s Warhamer 40k MMO, Dark Millennium Online has been dated for the distant future of March 13, 2013. This official website bore the news, with a bit of text about the “Sargos Sector” which will play host to the action.

Gosh that’s a long run up. Original announcement trailer from June last year is below.(more…)

Last time I wrote about The Bridge, all I’d seen of it was the exquisite little trailer that I felt an immediate compulsion to share. Although I promised to keep my eyes peeled (and I haven’t closed them since), I feared that the actual game might be years away from release, since so little information was available. Thankfully, all of my fears were dispelled when a demo appeared to coincide, more or less, with the game’s appearance at IndieCade. Download it here or read some more brief impressions below.

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If you were brave/lucky enough to attend our Indie Arcade at the Eurogamer Expo then you might have noticed the quietly majestic Stellar Impact, which is a rather accomplished-looking PvP starship combat game. It’s really quite the thing: somewhere between MOBA-style play and classic ship-to-ship naval warfare, with you having out-manoeuvre your opponent, bring a broadside to bear, and so on. What’s more is that it has a sort of infinite demo, whereby you can play the game for free, but can’t level up your stuff without the full version. Neat! I’ve posted the trailer and also Total Biscuit’s blathering about it below. Go take a look!

UPDATE: Sigh, looks like their site broke as I posted this.(more…)

Reto-Moto, the studio that both became IO Interactive and subsequently splintered from it, has announced a new project by the name of Heroes & Generals. Set in World War II, Heroes & Generals mixes real-time FPS gameplay with off-the-field strategy and planning - and all of it is playable directly via web browser.

The FPS side of things allows players to take their customized character into battles across multiple locations, featuring both infantry and vehicles. Meanwhile, "resources and global strategies are managed on a tactical overview map linked to the game's innovative War Server." This tactical map will allow players "to be strategic officers will have the entire map at their disposal and can decide how to manage battlefield assets and where to push the attack."

The game further promises that each battle will affect the overall persistent war, which will allow thousands of players to contribute. No release date has been announced for the ambitious title. Interested players can, however, sign up for the alpha test on the Heroes & Generals website.

It's rare that we separate ourselves from our readers when choosing pieces to post on Joystiq, but with Method of Action's "KernType," we had to make an exception. You see, folks, our love for games is important, but our distinctly less relatable love/obsession with visual design is just as strong, which is why we immediately fell head over heels for KernType.

Oh, we should probably explain what "kerning" is, eh? It's the space between letters in words. Yup, thrilling stuff, we know. But it's important! And in KernType, you're tasked with fixing the kerning of various typefaces (represented by words such as "wave" and "type"), which then compares your own skill with that of proportional computations. Call of Duty deathmatch it is not, but if you're of the very particular niche that is both obsessed with games and the written word, KernType is right up your alley. Also, hey, it's free right here!

Well, sort of. Casual-gaming behemoth Zynga, which is now worth more than all the gold in the universe, has announced that its games will now appear in a portal other than Facebook. The new portal, which will be called “Zynga Direct”, will host the usual line-up of Zynga games, without you having to go to Zuckerberg’s House Of Wonders. That’s rendered a bit pointless by it still using Facebook Connect for the multiplayer sort of multiplayerness, allowing you to play on either Direct or Facebook without troubles. (I am guessing this is an advertising-related move?) Zynga also announced a casual medieival-themed MMO called CastleVille, because that name hadn’t been used yet and well someone had to. But that’s not all, they also announced Zynga Bingo, Dream Zoo, Hidden Chronicles and Mafia Wars II.

“Dream Zoo” is a lot more Lynchean in my imagination than I am betting it will be in reality. Shame. Shame.

Zynga had a lot to show off at their "Zynga Unleashed" press conference this morning, including the company's snazzy new office space in San Francisco's SoMa district. Much more exciting than the new corporate digs were all the new titles the social game maker had on display, however...

As if Zynga's plan to ghettoize Facebook players into various "Villes" wasn't already enormously successful, the social game megapublisher today announced intentions to branch into the burgeoning castle market with upcoming game "CastleVille." CEO Mark Pincus announced the game during a San Francisco-based press event this afternoon (morning for SFers), revealing that it was currently in production at Zynga's Dallas branch.

TechCrunch reports that gameplay centers on building and supporting a castle, with the added twist of defending it occasionally "from beasties." Pincus apparently told attendees that the title had been in production for at least a year. It's currently unknown when the game is launching, but we imagine when it does arrive it'll be launching on both Facebook and Google+. Get your ... uh ... moats ready! Yeah!

At their "Unleashed" press event today, Zynga revealed Castleville, a new social MMO...

Oh no. It’s happened again. I’ve started playing a Tower Defence game. My email inbox and To Do list are not going to be happy, because out goes any sense of doing any work today in favour of upgrading and recharging and next wave and circle placement and what’s this? It’s got an RPG-based levelling up your party metagame? That’s it. I’m done for.

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The chaps from Slightly Mad Studios (Need For Speed Shift, Shift 2) got in touch to let us know about their latest project, which is ambitious and then ambitious again. They’re making a new racing game called “Community Assisted Racing Simulation” or C.A.R.S. for short, and they’re doing it with a full-on crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding portal, World Of Mass Development. Their plan is to prove that the concept of getting the wider gaming community to help out actually developing games is workable by doing it with their next racing game, and they’ll be opening it up to other projects at the same time. Yours, maybe. They’ve even got the man who was Stig on Top Gear, Ben Collins, to help out for some reason.

I spoke to Slight Mad’s Ian Bell about the project in more detail below, and he explains where they idea came from and where he hopes it is going to. You can also check out the site here.(more…)

Here, do you remember Rom Check Fail? It was a little IP-defying mashup that allowed you to goomba-stomp Asteroids as Mario and stab Space Invaders with Link’s sword. Kieron was hugely excited about it at the time. Today I’m excited about Megamash, which takes the concept and rebrands it for the modern flash gaming masses.

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To the Moon, the indie RPG/adventure game from Freebird Games John’s previously talked about with a soundtrack from Laura Shigihara off of Plants vs Zombies has a release date, soundtrack and trailer. Which happens to be quite the thing, if you’ll see below.

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