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If you're a stone-cold psychopath whose masochistic gaming tendencies push you away from ... well, normal-people games and into the cold embrace of impossible games, then the unavailability of an English port for Takeshi's Challenge has probably been a sore point for you. We probably shouldn't encourage your self-destruction, but you should know that a few kind souls have translated the bizarre NES title for your localized enjoyment.

The localization comes from ROM modder KingMike (via Tiny Cartridge). Before looking into acquiring the game, though, we'd suggest you also find an English language strategy guide to help you, because this game was made by the Devil.

Pendulo Studios, known for adventure games like the Runaway series and The Next BIG Thing, has shown a few screens from Yesterday, which reveal that troubles aren't so far away. The latest batch highlights the dark atmosphere, as a trio of playable characters unearth mystical and mysterious murders.

Notch, proprietor of Minecraft, has rode a massive wave of success over the last year. As part of the Ludum Dare 22 competition earlier this month, Notch created an even more pixelated version of his indie darling, called Minicraft.

It took him under 48 hours to create on his own, and today via his Twitter account, he's revealed that a sequel is currently in the works. We don't have any information right now, but we imagine we'll be able to play it in four days.

Happy post-Christmas, one and all! How was it? Did Aunt Agnes do that thing with her teeth at the dinner table again? And did you get Ninja Action Man or did mum cop out and get you Office Temp Action Man again?

Us, we’re not here right now. We’re hibernating and pruning our ear hair for another a week or so, preparing for the many word-based adventures of 2012. However, we have one final new missive for you in 2011: more games from the last year that we’ve loved. Yes, it’s true, we have room in our heart for more than 24 games. All of these deserve your affection and/or money as much as all the others we frothed about – we just didn’t froth about them quite as much. Your suggestions for our terrible, unforgivable oversights yet beyond these are, of course, welcome.(more…)

Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, we figure nothing gets people into the holiday spirit like recreating World War II's Easter Front -- and 2x2 Games agrees. Their game, Unity of Command, recreates historical battles from 1942-1943, but more fun, as explained by the team, and developers Tomislav Uzelac and Nenad Jalšovec.


What's your game called and what's it about?

2x2: Unity of Command is a turn-based strategy game about some of the biggest Eastern Front battles in World War II. It's a game that tries to capture the essentials of traditional, hex-based wargaming without being excessively complex.

On the surface, it's your regular strategy fare complete with cute little toy soldiers and tanks. The UI is friendly, the information is clearly presented and the strategic challenge is plain enough: Take your objectives, fast.

As you go deeper, however, you will find there's a substantial historical and simulation component underneath. Hopefully by the time you master the game you'll have learned something new about the grim rules of war and/or the stern lessons of history.

The final game of Chistmas had been chosen. It is the game you should play with your family before you are devoured by Horace The Endless Bear later today. Good luck everyone, we’ll see you at the other end.

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Is it Christmas Eve already? How did that happen. Whatever mysterious machinations of the Gregorian calendar have lead to this series of events, it’s time for all the download outlets to drop their prices in an attempt to get you give them more of your money. Just like Jesus would have wanted. Keep an eye on SavyGamer.co.uk, especially since many retailers have decided I shouldn’t get a day off and that January sales should start on Christmas day. Here’s this week’s extra Christmassy Bargain Bucket: (more…)

It’s here again, again! The RPS advent calendar is almost entirely updated, bringing on Father Christmas’ birthday, and today, in a bit, we will reveal our Game Of The 2011! Amazing.

Here are the rules of the calendar:

1. The games are in no particular order, except number 24, which is our game of the year.

2. That means that number 5 and number 17 are on an equal footing as a game of the Christmas, do you see?

I have no complaints when developers add a couple of snowmen, a Father Christmas costume or a giant rolling snowball to their games at this time of year, but it’s rare for a seasonal update to impress as much as the level added in Polynomial’s latest update. I’ll admit, I’ve only ever played the demo of the “musical space shooter” but you’d have to be a fool to argue that its dancing fractals aren’t a wonderful sight to behold. Are you a fool? I hope not, because then you might not be overjoyed by the abstract made merry in the video below. Perhaps try the demo (Windows, Linux, Mac)? The full game is currently on sale for £1.49 over on Steam.

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Ludocraft send word that what they are calling a “pre-alpha” build of their Air Buccaneers is now available. They explain: ” It is still work in progress, though, and all your feedback is highly valuable for us. There are still graphics, sounds, features and effects missing, but we hope that it quenches your thirst for buccaneering and plundering for now.” Servers are going up and the team request you point your feedback at the forums. I can’t wait to get back into the skies, frankly. Merry Christmas, you crazy sky-pirates!

I can already hear Horace’s giant claws tearing away at the fabric of reality, preparing for his grisly entry into our “Earth” on tomorrow’s tomorrow of Horacetide Day. Children will press their noses against the frosted panes, watching as he tears through the fragile frames of any too slow to avoid his infinite arrival. Ah, so lovely. But today there’s this:

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It’s Christmas eve’s eve, which is cause for some excitement, surely? What better way to celebrate the imminence of gift-exchange than to accept this freebie from me? More accurately, it’s from Jeremy Jurksztowicz, the chap who made it. Going by the name Mysterious Castle, Jeremy’s game is a graphical blend of roguelike and turn-based tactical combat. There are loads of exciting plans for the future, including random quests and defined lair-like areas, but it’s already a fine piece of work, with a simple and convenient party system and plenty of monsters to biff. Download it for free, right here.

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“Level with Me” is a series of conversations about level design between modder Robert Yang and a level designer of a first person game. At the end of each interview, they collaborate on a Portal 2 level shared across all the sessions – and at the very end of the series, you’ll get to download and play this “roundtable level.” This is Part 7 of 7.

Richard Perrin is currently working on Kairo, a slow-cooked first person puzzle game where you explore monumental ruins of a past civilization – it’s a game without words or dialogue, just spaces. He’s shown the game at Develop, Notgames Fest, and PAX to generally favorable reactions and has one of those alpha pre-order thingies up too.

(There are some moderate spoilers for Kairo, but the final game will be so different / you’ll have forgotten it by the time you play it.)(more…)

I don’t have the foggiest how many game-making tools litter the internet these days so forgive me if it seems bewildering to highlight this one specifically. Oh My Game is a browser-based application aimed at people who can’t program but do want to make videogames, so it focuses on stuff like level design, importing art assets and using something called ‘logic blocks’ to achieve the effects of coding without the coding itself.(more…)

It's the last IGN AU Pubcast of the year - our distinctly Aussie take on the traditional podcast, blending our love of gaming with beer and toilet humour, plus a liberal dose of intelligent debate - and things are going to get loud...

The great thing about the aftermath of Ludum Dare is that there are so many games out in the wild, just waiting to be tracked down. While carting my blunderbuss around the steaming jungle that today’s expedition of Colonel Freekirk’s IndieToy Hunting Party chose to visit, I became aware of a rustling in the mulchy remains of a collapsed banana grove. Nudging a cluster of razor-sharp yet brittle fronds aside with the butt of my gun, I was startled to see Abandoned, a gravity-flipping box-and-button puzzler, feasting on a strange purple fruit. It ran as only an indie game can but I gave chase, bagged it and present its trophied face for your appreciation.

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As the Advent door creaks open, a pungent smell pours out, causing eyes to water for miles around and entire species of flower to wither into extinction. Sorry about that. Something has clearly gone horribly wrong but we’ll just have to try and put it all back together again, step by step, and hope the reaction isn’t one of total disappointment.

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If you’ve used Direct2Drive to get any games, then you might want to pay attention to this. The service is being merged into GameFly, and that means that not everything you bought will necessarily survive the transition. They warn:

1. Download your favorite game purchases from Direct2Drive. We plan to have as many game files as possible available on GameFly. Just to be sure, please download your old game files before the transition. 2. Download all of your non-game files (like Prima Guides). These will not be available on GameFly after the transition.

More details here. Thanks, Lewie!

The guys over at PCG noticed that the US Army’s CryEngine-powered “Dismounted Soldier Training System” has two trailers out. Do military training technologies need trailers? Hard to say, unless they are angling to become the third contender for the military manshoots arms race? These trailers are perhaps a little austere to complete with the big boys boombox bombast, but it’s nice and simulatory, as you can see below, so perhaps they could square off with Arma 3.(more…)

I do like destroying things. Buildings, hope, people’s lives. So I’m immediately drawn to Nitrome’s Rubble Trouble Moscow. You may remember the original Rubble Trouble in Feb last year, and apparently there was another one between then and now. This one is Russian themed, in so much as the characters are wearing hats, and the music is a bit Russian. The actual game is still blowing up buildings using a constantly changing arsenal of strange weapons. Now including tanks, dancing bears and gymnasts. And it’s still good fun, apart from a frustratingly drifty camera, and a game in a box which doesn’t capture your cursor. Which is annoying. But fortunately the rest of the game isn’t, and is infuriatingly morish. Even though I’m currently stuck on a level and getting increasingly frustrated.

Without a marketing or development budget Markus "Notch" Persson toiled away at Minecraft, creating what is undoubtedly one of the best known games of the last decade. Its invaded popular culture, and sold millions of copies without a single advertisement. But this isn't the only reason to vote for Notch...

I’ve not put anywhere near as much time as I’d have liked into Rob ‘Squid in a Box’ Hale’s graceful-but-frantic twin-stick shooter Waves, which has built up quite a following in recent weeks – as well as snagging the coveted RPS ‘best use of the Unreal engine’ award at Indievisibility the other week. I did, however, discover the other day that it runs rather well on my laptop’s integrated Intel graphics thinger, so I expect to spend a fair bit of time with while hiding in the bathroom from my girlfriend’s extended family over Christmas.

It’s just had a healthy free update, adding a sixth mode known as Chase, known variously as ‘the hardest mode yet’ and ‘the speed metal of twin-stick shooters’, so masochistic nutters will be delighted.(more…)

Monaco, which is the indie heist game you will be going crazy for in 2012, has a video out! It shows the online multiplayer in action: you are going to be able to play peer-to-peer co-op with teams of burglars doing their business across the exquisitely-crafted lo-fi levels. Oh, you are going to enjoy this game.(more…)

The Drs Bioware recently lectured at BAFTA in London, talking to the assembled throng about the art of making RPGs, with particular reference to some fairly big games they’ve made recent, the Mass Effects and The Old Republic. They even bravely attempt to answer questions fielded by the BAFTA audience. I’ve posted an except below (via VG247) a more extensive version of the thing can be seen over here on BAFTA Guru. It’s worth a watch.(more…)

Our post about The Ship giving away all the ships for free prompted lovely Wired UK chap (and writer of our Sim City 2000 retrospective) Duncan Geere to mention Velvet Sundown. And thus, there was yet another ship. This is one of a slate of short story-like online roleplaying games from Finnish outfit Stagecraft that throw away the numbers and the NPCs, and focus purely on players inhabiting their characters. Velvet Sundown specifically is set on board a luxury yacht, with each player assuming the role of one of its passengers.

Crime, romance, the trading of poetry and wearing sunglasses indoors: my sense of it from the video below and Duncan’s write-up was of a cross between the ad-hoc storytelling of Sleep is Death and the cheesy melodrama of a late-80s US soap opera starring rich people with too much make-up and over-large shoulderpads.(more…)

Hey you? Yes, you – the one with the face. Would you like to watch a trailer for Hedone? You would! Awesome… I’ve put it down somewhere.

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Bargain King Lewie Procter alerts me to new that the new owners of Half-Life mod-gone-pro The Ship are offering a Christmas present to existing owners of the comedy assassination game. And yes, they do openly admit it’s also “a transparent attempt at some shameless marketing”, which makes it an even easier pill to swallow. Basically, if you’ve bought or decided to buy The Ship at any point between its release in 2006 and the end of the current Steam Winter sale, you’ll be gifted two bonus keys to give to anyone of your choosing. If they then activate it, they too get a free bonus key to giftify to someone else. It’s like a chain letter, but with activation keys for an agreeable multiplayer videogame about silently murdering toffs on a 1920s cruise liner.(more…)

Twenty one. It’s a good number. Three times seven. Less occult than 23, but more interesting than boring old 20. Right next to handsome 22. (They’re getting married.) It is the perfect number, therefore, to introduce our twenty first game of Christmas. Can you guess what it is?

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There’s been another MMO launch today, sort of. The ‘open preview’ of Doctor Who: Worlds In Time can now be played over here. With The Old Republic now available, it would be fun if this was turned into a clash between widely loved sci-fi franchises but that is not to be. The two games are as different as two games can be, unless one were hopscotch and the other were the clash of Empires that was The Great Game of the nineteenth century. Doctor Who: WIT, you see, appears to be in the same mould as Three Rings’ previous title Puzzle Pirates. There’s a Doctor to dish out missions, themed puzzles and a bunch of familiar worlds to investigate. Could be fun. Sign up here, watch trailer below.

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Could it really be that Relic are at last working on some manner of follow-up to their very well-received and very well-realised World War II RTS Company of Heroes? It could, claims PC Gamer’s print edition, claims Kotaku, claims VG247. I cannot verify this, but on this slowest of slow news days I shall report it nonetheless. There are no details because this is mere rumour, though PCG aren’t in the habit of being scurrilous so let’s hope they’re on the money here.(more…)