PC Gaming News Message Board older than one year ago

Yes, yes, Oblivion has long stepped aside and given Skyrim the spotlight, and Prequel – also known as Making A Cat Cry: The Adventure has been around for a while. It’s been brought to my attention that not everyone knows about it though, so here’s why you should check it out.

(more…)

Bazonga! Yes, it's the IGN AU Pubcast - the world's leading podcast on all things gaming... and movies, dolphin love, Michael Winslow... you know the drill by now! This episode, we have a heck of a lot of game talk (a.k.a. the dreaded 'on topic'), a rundown of our recent Black Beta event, some di...

It's been ten years since the last entry in the Spec Ops series, and the world of military shooters has changed significantly in that time. While the series was presumably successful enough to produce several games, the diminishing level of quality and bargain-bin status of each new title meant that...

The famous iCEnhancer mod for Grand Theft Auto 4 has reached its biggest full number yet with the release of 2.0. The above video shows off its beautifying features -- the bugs are from Rockstar's video editor and won't appear in the mod, creator Ice La Glace says -- and a "natural" version of 2.0 is set to drop any day now.

Download iCEnhancer 2.0 from Ice's website by clicking the farthest-right icon (the one that looks like a "download" arrow, surprisingly) and enjoy the shininess of GTA 4 all over again.

UK retailer Game has listed the contents of the Diablo 3 collector's edition, or as Blizzard is billing it, "The Ultimate Diablo 3 Experience." This obviously makes the standard edition a "subultimate" experience, which is almost as cool as the "submarine" experience, which involves buying the collector's edition for the sole purpose of taking bubble baths with the Diablo Skull figurine and the rest of its special contents:

• Diablo 3 PC/Mac Game
• Behind the scenes DVD and Blu-Ray Two Disc Set
• Collectors Edition Soundtrack
• The Art of Diablo 3
• Diablo Skull and 4GB USB Soulstone
• Diablo 3 Aesthetic Artifacts (in-game)
• World of Warcraft pet (in-game)
• Starcraft 2 Battlenet Portraits (in-game)

Buying the Diablo 3 collector's edition can also snag you four free months of World of Warcraft, if you've been a player since Oct. 18, at least. Game lists the Diablo 3 collector's edition at £69.99. No word yet on North American specifics, or if they're any different than the UK's.
[Thanks, Felipe!]

Hello youse,

The first thing you’ll notice is that the column isn’t called Cardboard Children anymore. From here on in, it’ll be called Cardboard Diaries. And after the jump, you’ll understand why.(more…)

Sundays are for waking up early in the freezing cold. It’s for contemplating the winter, and making a cup of something hot. It’s for remembering that there’s an internet full of people in nice hot countries, who are busy laughing in the sunshine. Bastards.

• Why Devs Owe You Nothing, by Marsh Davies. “HL2 isn’t a service. Fans aren’t asked for repeat payment, and they are under no obligation to support Valve in any way. When they complain it has somehow been exhausting to be a fan, it is baffling. It is extremely easy to be a fan; you don’t even need to get out of your chair. And yet, that sense of entitlement remains, fed by flattery from social media, by the ongoing confusion over digital rights, by the increasing collaboration of developers and communities.”

(more…)

In an ancient ritual that dates all the way back to 2009, here’s my weekend deals roundup, with all the best value PC downloads compiled into a convenient list for your consideration. When you’re done reading this, why not pop over to SavyGamer.co.uk and have a scan of the other cheap games available now. You didn’t need that money anyway. Here’s your bucket: (more…)

Fanfiction often has surprising visits from other fictional places, although the fact that I’m here and not writing on that other lovely PC gaming site means it happens in real-life as well. Super Mario Bros Crossover 2.0 is the gaming equivalent of fanfiction, bringing characters from all over the Nintendo universe and having an office party with them in the Mario world.(more…)

The Indie Royale website is back at it with a brand new bundle of games for sale, this time scheduled for Valentine's Day. On this one, paying either the minimum price (currently just above $4) or above will net you five different indie titles: The impressive FPS (and IndieCade finalist) Zeno Clash, the excellent and underrated Hoard, the gorgeous adventure title Lume, and top-down puzzle crawler Soulcaster and its sequel. Plus, buyers also get both Hoard DLC packs, and anyone who pays higher than the minimum will pick up the "Music to Play Games by Too" compilation album.

Remember, the way the bundle works is that the price goes up as more people buy the bundle, but it drops when people spend more than the minimum (so giving more actually makes it cheaper for everyone, and supports the game's developers as well). Purchased titles are available on both Steam and Desura, and the bundle is on sale through Valentine's Day.

This is swish. Platform game Backworlds has just released a demo, and I’ll urge you to play it because, yes, it’s been released as a prelude to asking you for money to help the game to be finished (also known as Crowdschafering). But it’s also a pretty, painterly puzzle game with bags of potential. It’s just a few licks of a brush away from greatness.(more…)

Next in our never-ending series talking to (almost) all the finalists at this year’s Independent Games Festival, it’s Derek Yu of the splendid randomly-generated cave exploring game Spelunky, which is up for the Technical Excellence, Excellence in Design and Seamus McNally Grand Prize gongs. Here, Derek chats about his origins, TIGSource, Aquaria, how he abandoned and then rejoined game development, the odds on whether we’ll see a PC version of the XBLA Spelunky remake, and his answer to the most important question of all.(more…)

Looking forward to hacking your way through the armies of Hell? Blizzivision (a subsidiary of Activard) has finally announced Diablo 3′s final, definitely final, absolutely no-kidding final release date… ish. It’s due to land in Q2 this year, unless they decide to rewrite the entire thing and turn it into one of those point and click adventures that are currently taking the world by storm.(more…)

Eek. We might be about to find out if Tim Schafer’s crowd-funding of a game is one-off lightning in a bottle, or a viable alternative for developers to work outside of publishers. Chris Avellone, the lead developer of isometric RPG classic Planescape Torment and current creative director of Obsidian Entertainment, responded to Michael Antonelli’s suggestion on Twitter that “I’d kickstart $500 for an old school isometric RPG. For Planescape 2? $1000” by stating:

Hmmmm. I admit, I’ve got Kickstarter fever now. I feel like a bunch of doors suddenly appeared in game development.

I took his temperature, readers, and he was boiling hot.

(more…)

Double Fine will be able to fund at least two and a half adventure games and/or put an awful lot of money into creating an incredibly extravagant one, as the developer's Kickstarter project has just topped $1 million dollars. After being announced late last evening, the project's page already reflected a number exceeding the goal of $400K within just over eight hours.

With another 33 days to go, and an incredible amount of momentum as is, we're thinking the sky's the limit for the Double Fine folks. And they'll get to that sky in their fleet of private jets, all custom designed to nest within one another like the characters in Stacking, and Tim will be the mothership. It's all so clear now! What have we done?!

Double Fine’s Kickstarter (currently wobbly under the weight of money), the planned month-long fund raise for $400,000, has just crossed one million dollars in the first 24 hours. One. Million. Dollars in a day.

I know it’s crazy, but it kind of makes me a bit teary-eyed.

(more…)

Remember Super Mario Bros. Crossover? We hope you wouldn't be able to forget something like that -- it's the browser game that lets you go through Super Mario Bros. as Ryu Hayabusa, Contra's Bill Rizer, Link, and others.

Developer Jay Pavlina just released version 2, and it's a heartbreakingly beautiful work of retro-gaming. Now there are multiple versions of all the characters, including NES, SNES, and Game Boy styles, and you can cycle randomly through versions of all the levels in those styles.

Best of all? Among those styles are Demon Returns and Super Demon Returns, the Super Mario Bros.-style game from the DS's Retro Game Challenge 2. So you can totally play as the tank from Blaster Master in Super Mario Bros. levels that look like Retro Game Challenge.

The characters include Mario, Luigi, Link, Samus, Simon Belmont, Mega Man, Bass, Bill Rizer, Ryu, and Sophia the 3rd -- all with alternate looks, and character-appropriate special abilities. Did we mention this runs in your browser, and that therefore you could be playing it right now?

Hard Reset: Extended Edition is the original, singularly focused FPS from last year about shooting donkeys. The full game now comes with an additional four new creature types, a new boss monster, five new levels that sicks up three extra hours of play, and two additional survival mode levels. They’ve also prettied up the engine. But don’t take my word for it, for I am a notorious liar and billionaire. To make sure you’re totally convinced, publishers Kalypso Media have invented Youtube and placed the trailer up on there. Did I make that up as well? The only way to find out is to click and see.(more…)

It seems that Double Fine can attach the moniker of "record holder" to its latest venture. A representative from the crowd-source funding site Kickstarter has confirmed to Joystiq that Double Fine's adventure game fundraiser now holds the company record for raising such a high amount of money in a short amount of time.

"I can confirm that there's not been a project that has raised as much as this one in such a short timeframe," the spokesperson revealed. Kickstarter says it does not keep a running tally finalized projects, but its listing of 'Most Funded' ventures shows a number of concepts that came close to the one million dollar mark, since 2009.

The Kickstarter spokesperson also confirmed that Double Fine's project "now has more backers than any other project on the site." The current total of backers sits at over 17,000.

Double Fine's project -- which took about 8 hours and 11 minutes to fund -- currently sits at over $675,000 ... and there's still 33 days left. No joke!

I love the phrase “single-player co-op”. That’s because I’m a misanthrope, and other people ruin everything. But it’s how Reset describes itself, as spotted by IGM. In fact, it’s a single-player co-op first-person puzzle game, exclusive to PC. That’s the genre I was waiting for! And by crikey, it sounds fascinating.

(more…)

Ludocraft sent light-than-air messages up to Castle Shotgun to inform us that there’s a new trailer for the Air Buccaneers HD alpha. I might be a bit behind on what’s happening in this remake, to be honest, but WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? See below.

In other Air Buccaneers HD news, there’s a devs vs fans game going on tonight! The details are here. Let’s be there to show them who really owns the skies.(more…)

For those of you that skip to the last paragraph of The Sunday Papers for a music recommendation, this whole post is nothing but a route into the aural delights of game music. The music this time isn’t Jim’s brand of 2001′s Monolith’s sneezes, nor is it my mashup nonsense. Nope, it’s the Indie Game Music Bundle 2‘s collection of soundtracks gathered together in another pay what you want bundle. For as little as a dollar, you could get some gorgeous music.

(more…)

I can see a future where city planner is the new footballer. There’s a preponderance of browser-based city building games about, so easy to play, so right there, pretty soon Sky will have channels dedicated to them. Mark my words: in ten years people will be swapping blueprint stickers and the front page of the newspapers will be full of zoning scandals. Innogames‘s Forge Of Empires is one such game, and they’ve decided to let you have a shot of their upcoming strategy game. All you need is the browser you’re reading this on, an e-mail, a name, and the ability to make a password.(more…)

The Cannon Fodder games are inserted deeply within the Fond Memories Gland of many of the RPS team. It was therefore surprise that we learned that a third Cannon Fodder game would be released in Russia. It is with even more surprise that we discover, via Strategy Informer, that an English version has been released on GamersGate. I’ve not had a look at it yet, so I can’t gauge the entertainment value, but we’ll try to amend that soon. (The total lack of fanfare makes me raise an eyebrow, of course.) In the meantime: this.

It took about 8 hours and 11 minutes. Late last night, developer Double Fine revealed a new project, one that would only be created with help from fans. Dubbed 'Double Fine Adventure,' the game would bring the developer back to its rich adventure game heritage, which helped put company icons Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert into the industry's spotlight.

The asking price was high -- $400,000 to create a brand new PC-based, "classic point-and-click adventure utilizing modern touch technology -- but gamers were more than willing to help.

Funding for the game still runs for an additional 33 days and support does not seem to be slowing. On the official Kickstarter page, Double Fine notes that "extra money" earned during this process will be "put back into the game" as well as a behind-the-scenes documentary following the creation of the new title, which will only be distributed to those who back the project.

At the time of publishing, the Kickstarter project has 9,464 backers, putting $432,249 towards Double Fine's next adventure. Joystiq has contacted Kickstarter to find out if Double Fine's project is the fastest project to hit such an impressive funding total in the company's history, but have yet to hear back.

A jovial Schafer wrote on Twitter: "Okay, on to the next project! the next thing we need to do is get this Black Sabbath reunion back on track, people."

Well this is quite the thing. While we’re all in the middle of crossing our fingers, legs and internal organs in the hope that Mojang and Double Fine will find a way to fund a sequel to Psychonauts, Schafer’s company have surprised us by announcing they’re seeking funding for another dream project – a new “old school” graphic adventure game from Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert. You know – two guys of the three guys who wrote Monkey Island. The team that led to some of the greatest adventures ever made. Please squee now. And now they’re trying out a Kickstarter to make it happen.

(more…)

I’m mesmerised by this hefty chunk of Peter Jackson-esque machinima, using Skyrim and some mods. There’s thankfully no story: just a set up of 500 Draugr, 200 skeletons, 500 Dwarven Warriors, and a dragon all lined up to beat the undead hell out of each other, for a movie that’ll go down in history as The Great Battle of Skyrim. It’s well-shot, nicely edited, and has lots and lots of kapwow. Video herein.(more…)

Double Fine announced tonight that its new project will be funded via Kickstarter donations. The game is described as "a brand-new, downloadable 'Point-and-Click' graphic adventure game for the modern age." The project is seeking $400,000 total and donations will be accepted until March 13th at 8...

Double Fine has announced that it will finally return to its adventure game roots. Utilizing the crowd-sourcing power of Kickstarter, Double Fine will hope to fund the project. As rewards for funding, the developer will offer bonuses such as "advance access to the game, original art from its development, and a bowling night out with the team."

The project is already listed on Kickstarter, asking a hefty $400,000 for its completion. Double Fine also plans to "create a unique, serialized documentary available only to Backers," developed by the team at 2 Player Productions.

According to the Kickstarter page, the game will be in development by a small team over a six-to-eight month period. The game is described as "a classic point-and-click adventure utilizing modern touch technology."

In related news: though Minecraft creator Markus 'Notch' Peterson had offered to help fund a sequel to the cult-hit game Psychonauts, Double Fine isn't ready to announce the title. "These things take time to figure out -- if they can be figured out -- so please don't expect any Psychonauts 2 announcements any time soon," video game icon Tim Schafer wrote on Twitter.

Schafer promises he and Notch are having a "lovely chat" about the possibility, and jokingly says the indie millionaire is a tough negotiator -- at his insistence that the game be dubbed "PsychoNotch."

We tasked young master Caldwell with exploring the dungeons of Fortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone, the latest translated Japanese indie title from Recettear Anglifiers Carpe Fulgur. He returned with these words.

As the son of a shopkeeper in real life I know for a fact that helping out in the storeroom is not a magical experience. So Recettear, while jovial in spirit and generally compelling, didn’t appeal to me in the same way as it did others. In the storerooms of the non-digital world there are lots of cardboard boxes to tear apart and smelly bins to stand on in an effort to crush rubbish and make space. Once, there was a fist-sized hole torn in the wall by an errant RPG of a completely different nature. It was dreadful and there was rubble in the 10p mix-ups. But that’s Northern Ireland for you, and another story altogether.(more…)