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You better watch out You better not cry Better not pout I’m telling you why(more…)

There is a way, you know. It means signing up on our forums and getting involved in one of the many groups and games that get organised over there. The forum in question is this one, where a number of your fellow RPS readers gather to play the games that require more than one person to play. For instance there’s a large Blood Bowl community, for the sporting deaths of ogres and dark elves alike. Then there’s a meticulously organised unofficial Minecraft server, which is well worth a visit. There’s even a gang playing Arma 2, and some folks getting RPS’d in D&D Online. You might not find quite what you are looking for in the RPS gaming communities, but I am betting you can come close…

If you've made a habit of frequenting the free-to-play worlds of Six Gun Galaxy, Age of Champions or Starship Command, you're probably familiar with their developer, KlickNation. Then again, maybe you aren't -- but you're about to be. The independent social game developer was recently acquired by EA and, as is their custom, given it a regionally appropriate rebranding as part of one of EA's development branches. Behold: BioWare Sacramento.

KlickNation co-founder Mark Otero added in a press release, "Joining with BioWare and EA is an opportunity to realize our vision for bringing high-quality RPG titles to the fast-growing, highly-engaged core gamers looking for deeper experiences on social platforms." You think that's what we're looking for? No way, man. We're just looking for new and exciting ways to ask our real-life friends to help us water virtual eggplants.

The Experimental Gameplay Project is breaking away from its familiar remit of quirky digital protoypes to empty a swimming pool and have five people jumping up and down at the bottom of it, connected to events on a large, projected screen. Or something like that. What? They explain: “We play most games within the confines of a teeny, tiny screen in a quiet, private setting. Not next year though. Next year we’ll ALL be playing games on the floor of an 19th century swimming pool with tons of people watching.” Huh, wuh? There’s more: “Unlike previous competitions… there is a bit of a twist: games will run on 02L > Outside Standing Level’s Unita Zero platform, an audio/visual playground made up of 5 pressure pads hooked up to a projector and audio system.” (Pictured, I guess.) There are cash prizes and chance to be displayed in a gallery in Berlin, too. More details here.

Ambitious and beautiful robot MMO Perpetuum is one year old this week, and to celebrate it has received its biggest expansion so far, Intrusion 2.0, which adds a graphical overhaul, new robots, animation fixes and an improved support system. Most interesting to me, however, are the improvements to the PvP game: “Our latest expansion allows corporations to start building their empire by letting them to fight for and secure outposts on the unprotected Beta islands of Nia. Unlike the mostly random previous system, Intrusion 2.0 permits corporations to gradually increase their influence on an outpost by introducing the concept of stability. Stability governs which outpost services can be privatized, and also decreases the cost of those services for the conqueror.” This brings it a lot closer to another ambitious sci-fi MMO in terms of its scope for players carving out their own little empires, which interests me enormously…

Microsoft Flight Simulator was dead for a while, but it’s due to return with one less word next year. Microsoft Flight is the name for the rebooted grandaddy of stately, faithfully-recreated aeorplanes, presumably because someone in marketing decided ‘Simulator’ didn’t sound suitably lifestyle. Microsoft Game Studios have been quietly documenting MSF’s progress over on their website for a while now, but they’ve just announced plans to open the bomb bay doors to interested beta testers next month. That all happens here.(more…)

(And I just realised after writing this that someone called Kieron already posted about this last year. Raaaargh. Oh well, you should still play it now if you didn’t then. Old doesn’t mean dead. Plus it means I don’t have to take a new screenshot!)

Ooh, this is excellently devious. A Flash platform game from the developer of Snapshot that is… selective about the truth. I don’t want to spoil too much, but its cleverness lies in two key fields: 1) needing to figure out the controls and mechanics for yourself 2) a narrator who demands your attention and trust but doesn’t do much to earn it. And, despite his/her/its mendacity, it’s hard not to like them.(more…)

What are you intending to play this weekend, eh? That copy of Terraria you just bought in the sale? Skyrim again, more, faster, again? Perhaps something else stacked up from a sale? I’m going to be mysteriously messing with some unreleased puzzle game with punctuations of Serious Sam 3, Alec’s adrift on that Terraria/Skyrim angle, and Mr Smith? Well, he’s all over both Sam AND Skyrim. The tart. John, I believe, has invented his own game based on a 2000-year old rulebook he found in an old building in the middle of town. I dunno what it’s all about, but it seems popular!

Anyway. Speak your games!

So I just wanted to remind everyone that this exists. I totally get that some of you guys don’t want to pretend to design rockets and then run your own private space program, and that’s fine. You keep on lining up three zombies until they disappear or whatever it is you are into. For everyone with their head in orbit there’s still Kerbal Space Program, which continues to develop apace, and remains a gem of physics-based experimentation. I’ve posted the trailer for the most recent update below, but I am keenly aware that its sensible breakdown of the new features is not what is most appealing about this game, which is actually the breakdown of, well, everything else. I’ve added in a video for that, too.(more…)

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me… a bitter lesson in what love really means (or doesn’t). What could have made this iron man (cough) feel so low? I’ll send you a private message explaining everything, but don’t tell anyone, right?(more…)

I’m not entirely sure if the things attacking me are zombies or if they are just very angry men. They run, I sidestep, they crash into a wall as they attempt to pursue, their turning circles more akin to a small car than a bipedal life form. What are they? Maybe I’ll never know but when they surround me, the distinctive sound of being clobbered pours from my speakers. Whatever they are, they definitely want to do me harm. There are more distinctive monsters in the dark corridors of indie top-down shooter Teleglitch, but the majority of my time in the four levels of the freely available beta was spent cautiously exploring dark corridors and fending off furious men. Who may have been dead already. Trailer below.

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THQ have announced that Obsidian are making a South Park RPG: “South Park: The Game” is an epic role-playing adventure that will allow the user to befriend Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny and explore the quiet little mountain town like never before.” Parker and Stone are apparently going to be producing the script, performing the dialogue, and generally helping out, with the Californian dev team doing the dev work. Game Informer apparently have the game as their January cover, as teased here, at which point information will be revealed.

In what we can only assume to be a charitable act made in the spirit of the holidays, the Aleph One engine, which powers Marathon 2: Durandal, Marathon Infinity and a fan remake of the original Marathon, is now available to download (alongside the aforementioned games) for free. The distribution of the engine -- assumedly approved by Bungie, who just shared it through the studio's Twitter account -- is made possible thanks to its GNU General Public License.

All three games are available for PC, Mac and Linux -- as well as the iPad, thanks to an open-source project completed this past summer -- so there's really no reason for you not to check them out. Unless, of course, you can only find satisfaction through thoroughly illegal piracy. We can role-play, if that makes it any easier. "No! Don't download all those games for free! That's illegal, you bad, bad buccaneer."

We’ve received a mysterious link from Ludocraft, who are currently making a “HD” version of one of RPS’ favourite mods, the bizarre airship combat game, Air Buccaneers. It’s a link to this image, which is inscribed with words – possibly Finnish? (my understandening of anything outside basic English is deplorable) – which apparently contain some clue to what will be contained in the remake. Ludocraft describe it as “a small bit of info on one quite interesting and unique new “thing” we’ll be adding to the game.”

Meanwhile the Ludocraft team have put up a server of the original mod. They explain: “It can be found in the Unreal Tournament 2004 server browser under name “LudoCraft’s AirBuccaneers 1.6 Server” or via direct IP: 80.75.107.152:7777.” Details for the mod itself are here, and obviously you’ll need UT2004. Anyone for a game tonight? 8pm UK time?

Stop it! I don’t care what it is you’re doing, just stop for a minute and do this instead. Download Hyper Princess Pitch, a game where an angry princess vows to destroy a friendly robotic Santa and all his helpers because she didn’t receive enough gifts as a child. I think she still is a child. I don’t know – the backstory seemed vague and altogether less important than shooting giant toy-bearing sleighs down in flames. Princess Pitch is a feisty so-and-so, running through Santa’s grotto as if it were the set of Smash TV. Accompanied by her cat that appears to have a jetpack for a bottom, she merrily piledrives trains into the ground and blasts hundreds of robotic Daddy Crimbles into bits. Free, festive and fantastic. Trailer below.

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It’s here again! The RPS advent calendar will updated daily until Father Christmas’ birthday, on the eve of which we will reveal our Game Of The 2011! Amazing. Of course only the links for days that have happened are actually working, silly.

What kind of game would be appropriate for the first day of Christmas on a gaming site dedicated to PC gaming? Something intelligent. Something with a modicum of resource management? Perhaps! But certainly something with a sense of history. Let’s peek behind the first door on our Amazing™ Advent Calendar and found out what the first of our favourite games of 2011 actually is…(more…)

It seems likely that some of you will not be aware of ’90s classic Marathon, which was one of those obscure-yet-influential games in the history of the shooter. It was one of the things Bungie did before they really made hay with the Halo games. Anyway, fans have continued the series, as well as powered a number of other games, with an open-source engine-creating effort called Aleph One, and that project recently hit a big old milestone, v1.0. This means it’s a good time to download one of the games related to the project if you are looking for some retro FPS adventures. Needless to say there are Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux versions.

While it doesn’t appear to have a personality to match the mad brilliance of Jamestown, recently released Solar Wings is a handsome SHMUPPY thing in its own right. Cheery waves of enemies, colourful bullets fanning across the screen and a co-op mode are all enough to tickle my fancy. Is it my imagination or are we seeing more of these on PC in recent times? It could simply be that I’ve started paying more attention to them, upon realising that I’m capable of lasting for more than five seconds amidst the scrambled madness on the screen. Turns out not every pack of bullets wants to create a tightly patterned hell for me. Available now for £1.99/€2.49, the developers reckon they’ll have a demo to offer soon. Look to the land below for a trailer.

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Good news, everyone! Indie Game: The Movie -- which you may have helped fund at some point or another during the last year and a half -- will finally make its debut in late January 2012. We know, we know; you're worried about how that's going to conflict with your scheduled attendance of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. There's no need to worry, silly goose: That's exactly where it's making its debut. Crazy, right?

The crowdsource-funded film's official blog announced that the movie had earned an official selection in the World Documentary Category of the festival. If you can't make the trip to Utah, don't worry: You can also request a screening of the film in your hometown, or wait until the movie hits DVDs following its initial screening tour. Us? We don't have to see it, Dottie. We lived it.

Skyrim has now patched on PC, after the 360 and PS3 saw their version of 1.2 appear earlier in the week. But is it good news? 1.1 managed to break lots of the patches modders had created to fix so many of the tiresome issues Bethesda had left in the epic game, which didn’t win favour. And then today the news broke that the console patch had had some rather unfortunate side effects. Like all defensive buffs no longer working, and the dragons flying backward. No, really. So below you can see what’s meant to be in 1.2 – including a fix for that daft audio crash, mouse improvements, and at flipping last Esc backs out of menus – and then you can let us know if you’ve seen anything strange since the update.

Oh, and dead bodies will no longer show up to your wedding.

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Magna Mundi sounds like a chewy candy bar from 1980s to my ignorant ears, but no synthetic toffee substitute here: it’s an impending grand strategy game from Paradox, based on the Europa Universalis III engine. ‘Grand’ is not a word bandied about casually, for Mega Munchies boasts no less than 400 playable nations politicking and warring across 300 years. One of them had better be Wales. The game’s due for release early next year, but a closed beta will usher lucky applicants through its Epic Door Of History next month.

But before you can reach lucky applicant status, you must reach applicant status, which you can achieve by popping over here and telling Paradox horrifyingly private details such as when you lost your virginity, your mother’s home telephone number and whether you’ve ever killed an animal. Oh, wait, sorry, I’m thinking of something else. This one just wants name, email and system specs. You also need to sign up for the Paradox forums, mind.

Magna Mundi footagey stuff below, too.(more…)

You might have been laboring under the misapprehension that the Diablo series is only about clicking monsters and watching them die. The truth is it's only mostly about that, as revealed by the newly announced book, Diablo III: Book of Cain.

The book tells the story of Sanctuary - the world of Diablo - from the perspective of none other than series stalwart, Deckard Cain. The book is "designed to look like an in-world artifact from the Diablo universe" and chronicles "the eternal war that rages between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells." Furthermore, the book will contain artwork by "some of the world's most renowned fantasy artists," including Alan Lee, Adrian Smith and the man known as "Brom."

Diablo III: Book of Cain will be released in North America on December 13, with an international release planned for February 7. Think of it as pre-Diablo 3 warm-up for your mouse-clicking finger - assuming that's also your page-turning finger, of course.

The cancellation of Introversion’s Subversion has at least borne some fruit. Our interview with lead programmer Chris Delay explain that a prison breakout level in Subversion, combined with a visit to Alcatraz, gave rise to an idea for a prison management game, Prison Architect. I’ve been playing some of the IGF build of that game – so far from release, but totally playable – and I’ve written up a few impressions below.(more…)

The other day I was arguing that all new game trends trend toward adventure. What I’m saying is, adventure gaming is the natural form of game, to which all games aspire. And so it is that the infinitude of the casual gaming market is all gradually forming itself from a void into a desire to be adventures. They’ve just got to take that one leap of realising that adventures are really hard work. Another step closer for the hidden object genre is Elementary My Dear Majesty!, for which a demo is now available.

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Roving gangs of clever internet-users have tracked down the first Prison Architect video (below) thanks to the clues provided in Introversion’s treasure hunt. The video shows sped up footage of a prison being constructed, with prisoners and guards milling about at high speed. The Introversion-dominated Humble Indie bundle has also been updated so that you get the additional games, now including the excellent Dungeons Of Dredmor, if you beat the average offering for the pay-what-you-wantness, which is currently $3.96.(more…)

You might have been laboring under the misapprehension that the Diablo series is only about clicking monsters and watching them die. The truth is it's only mostly about that, as revealed by the newly announced book, Diablo III: Book of Cain.

The book tells the story of Sanctuary - the world of Diablo - from the perspective of none other than series stalwart, Deckard Cain. The book is "designed to look like an in-world artifact from the Diablo universe" and chronicles "the eternal war that rages between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells." Furthermore, the book will contain artwork by "some of the world's most renowned fantasy artists," including Alan Lee, Adrian Smith and the man known as "Brom."

Diablo III: Book of Cain will be released in North America on December 13, with an international release planned for February 7. Think of it as pre-Diablo 3 warm-up for your mouse-clicking finger - assuming that's also your page-turning finger, of course.

EA registered the domain name "thesims4.com" over a year ago, but we have yet to see any significant details released about the newest Sims title. Indeed, EA has yet to make an official confirmation that the game exists. Either due to the ongoing success of The Sims 3 and its expansions or simply EA caginess, Sims fans have been left with little information on what to expect from any upcoming The Sims 4...

Obviously we’ve known that Ron Gilbert has been working with/at Tim Schafer’s Double Fine for over a year now, but ON WHAT we’d regularly scream at the sky. Then Double Fine revealed they were basically ignoring the PC for all their games, and we crossed them out of our Christmas lists and spank banks, and got on with our lives. Then they threw us all by releasing Costume Quest on PC, raising hopes that further projects will also reach our shores. So it is that I hold hope in my belly that this Gilbert/Schafer project will be adorned by my PC. Because apparently it’s an idea that predates even Maniac Mansion.

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Being the dedicated RPS reader that you are, you’ll remember that Alec posted about the short film Beyond Black Mesa back in January. The mini-epic took place five years after the events of Half-Life, featuring independence fighters in the battle against the Combine invasion. Well, director Brian Curtin is back with an even shorter short, an utterly gorgeous live action version of the opening moments of the original game. It’s below.

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