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Developer Team 17 has announced Worms Revolution, a new title in the Worms series ... wait, come back! It really is new. Worms Revolution has been "developed from the ground up" using a brand new engine. Team 17 promises "exciting new features and challenges" as well as returning favorites. The press release specifically mentions the Holy Hand Grenade and Super Sheep, and keen-eyed observers will spot the Concrete Donkey and Airstrike weapons in the announcement trailer as well.

Team 17 is keeping quiet on the new features, though there is some more info to be gleaned from the trailer. There appears to be a new water bomb (probably the water balloon seen in the logo). There are also some rather large-looking worms in the video. Could these worms be heavier, perhaps more difficult for cheap bastards crafty tacticians to knock into the drink with the baseball bat?

Worms Revolution is slated for a third quarter release this year on PC and "consoles." If history is anything to go by, a PSN and XBLA release seems likely at the very least.

Eight hundred? Well, sort of. They’re not all working on it all of the time, but as Warren Spector explained to Eurogamer: “You can either build a studio that has 700 people, which I desperately don’t want to do, and didn’t and don’t and won’t, okay? Or you can find partners around the world… So we have people working in Leamington in the UK, in Bulgaria, China, Canada, California, Utah. We have an enormous virtual team.” That’s a bit like how RPS works, too, except with have five people. And some cats. They’re useless.

The Epic Mickey sequel – dubbed “The Power Of Two” because of its co-op shenanigans – will be out on PC in September, and we’ll be scanning the horizon for other details as they emerge. Trailer below.(more…)

Once in a while in this job, you get to speak to a hero. A developer whose work you’ve always more than admired – perhaps even had your life changed by. But today I spoke to Jim Rossignol about his new game, Sir, You Are Being Hunted.

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Perhaps you like hanging out with human people? And you are in travel range of London’s dark heart? Then you should use your legs (and possibly London’s excellent public transport!) to propel yourself to The RPS Social Club. It’s happening here from 6pm. Many friendly RPS readers will be there. They are not like the others.

This article is a day late. But you know what? Don’t care. Simply do not care. A *crag*: I could not give. That’s punk of me, isn’t it? Please say so, because I need validation for my constant efforts. NO WAIT. I don’t.(more…)

Angry Birds originator and eventual ruler of all mankind Rovio is widening its grasp upon the world by opening a new studio in Stockholm, Sweden. Should all go according to plan, the presently unnamed new studio will be staffed by 20 to 30 folks within a year.

This announcement follows Rovio's recent acquisition of Futuremark Games Studio (Unstoppable Gorg, Shattered Horizon), as well as its highly successful launch of Angry Birds Space. "2012 is going to be a big year in gaming for us, and we're constantly on the lookout for great new talent," said Rovio's executive VP of games Petri Järvilehto in a statement to CVG. "We're excited to expand to Stockholm and work in one of Europe's gaming and innovation hotspots."

From what we're able to tell from the pictures on Wikipedia, Stockholm looks like a beautiful place, but we can understand that not everyone interested in working for Rovio will immediately fall for the city's Scandinavian charm. Don't worry though, future Rovio Stockholm employees. You'll learn to love it.

Reverb Publishing is the publishing wing of Reverb Communications, a PR agency for video games that's helped launch titles like Rock Band and Zen Pinball. The latest published title from the company will be called Majestic-12, Reverb has announced. The game is developed by Exis Interactive, and is a 3D side-scroller action title, with some human-on-alien bullet hell action "in the vein of old-school shooters like Contra."

Wikipedia says "Majestic 12" is supposedly the codename for a secret government group meant to fight aliens -- so, historically, you know, the premise all checks out. There's no platform listed for the game yet, but Reverb says it'll be out for "digital download platforms," so you can start guessing Steam, and then go on from there.

Our first chance to see Majestic 12 will be at PAX East early next month -- Reverb will be there showing off the game in booth 808. We'll be sure to stop by.

I have no way of knowing that for sure, not having played it. But I’ve looked at it. I’ve watched a video of it on the internet, and I’ve pasted it below. If you watch it I’ll think you’ll find yourself agreeing that Neutronized‘s Roar Rampage is indeed the best of all games.

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Eurogamer has news that THQ’s MMO project, Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online, has been refocused as a single-player and multi-player online game. The game had previously been rumoured to be cancelled. THQ boss Brian Ferrell said: “Based on changing market dynamics and the additional investment required to complete the game as an MMO, we believe the right direction for us is to shift the title from an MMO to a premium experience with single and multiplayer gameplay, robust digital content and community features.” Around 120 people across the Relic and Vigil studios have been laid off as a result of the change, which is depressing news. Hopefully we’ll firm up exactly what sort of game we’re left soon. A 40k RPG with online bits? Could be… And that would be okay by me.

The Game: Endeavor Genre: Dwarf Metroidvania Platform: Browser (Flash) The Scoop: Don't be fooled by Endeavor's tiny hero this is a very large and surprisingly epic non-linear 2D platformer. Several sidequests, multiple endings and an outsized soundtrack make Endeavor one of the best freeware Flash games released in the last few years...

Co-operative, open-world sci-fi dinosaur hunting game Orion: Dino Beatdown is strapping into its jetpacks for an April the 20th release date. After watching the trailer below I just hopped onto Google Calendar and made sure I had nothing planned for that day – just some lump thing in my brain needed removal on that day. I soon got rid of that. What smells of burning, btw? Anyway: I also added “Sleepover with the Timothy Olyphant” to my girlfriend’s calendar to make sure I’m not disturbed. I love Trespasser and I take my dinosaur hunting VERY seriously. I am the Bob Peck of RPS.(more…)

2012 will be the year of the gamejam: there’s only a few hours left to pop over to the Indie Buskers website and drop an idea into their requests box. Five developers will be picking five game ideas and live-streaming the creative process for 48 hours. Why? Because they are poor and want to make something from their skills. Doing game busking on the street probably wouldn’t have the same effect as signing ‘No Woman No Cry’ for three hours, but the internet is the perfect place for strangers to watch their code spill across the screen and offer up a few coins in appreciation.(more…)

Browserquest is a game put together by Mozilla (the company behind the popular Firefox browser) and intended to show off WebSockets, a technology that allows constant communication between your browser and a server online. But outside of the tech, it's a nice little streamlined MMORPG. There's no story to speak of, but you can explore a beautiful world, meet NPCs, and kill creatures while upgrading your items.

Browserquest is also impressive because it's as cross-platform as these things get -- even just resizing your browser screen will change the way the HTML 5 game is displayed, so it works great on your big-screen monitor, mobile devices, or anything else you run it on. If you happen to be a coder, the full source is also available on Github, so you can see how it's all done, and even use that code to build your own games.

The graphics and gameplay are charming enough that you'll wish it was filled out more, but Browserquest already works as a template for what browser-based games might be like in the future.

One of the images that will be forever burned into my mind is the expression on the faces of Kieron Gillen and the brave lady who is now his wife when witnessing my first ever attempt to play Guitar Hero. I just didn’t get. I tapped and hammered without logic or rhythym, to the extent that any sane onlooker would have presumed there was something terribly wrong with me. In time, I became at least competent at that short-lived plastic guitar fad, but today’s attempts at mastering free browser game Epic Sax have taken me right back to that humiliating square one.(more…)

EA has announced that it will be offering a major piece of DLC for FIFA 12 in the shape of UEFA EURO 2012. The expansion pack gives you the opportunity to compete for the EURO 2012 title. But players won't be restricted to just the teams that successfully qualified for the tournament - all 53 UEFA member national teams are present, as are the 8 official stadiums that will host the championship in Poland and Ukraine this summer...

I’m not entirely convinced I’d like to deliberately steer my vehicle anywhere called Death Road. Perhaps I’m being old-fashioned and twee, but there’s just something about the name I find offputting. I can’t put my finger on it, it’s just a feeling. That is the rather direct name given to what I’m going to generously call a “WipEout-inspired racer”, coming to PC tomorrow. You can see a trailer of it below, and then say, “No, that’s not WipEout, that’s…”

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There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we tell you about games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: Waveform for PC.

The games industry has entered a tense period of existence, with all the trash talk, petition-signing and next-gen jitters compounding into a nice, industry-wide hemiplegic migraine. We need something to soothe our psyches without boring our minds, a game that straddles the boundaries of "peaceful" and "challenging." That game just might be Waveform.

Waveform offers a polished, pretty glimpse into the life of a light wave as it travels from Pluto to the sun, dodging dark matter and collecting light particles along the way. Players control the sine wave itself, straightening, elongating and bunching it up to guide the piece of light into the path of delicious particles, without crashing into any space trash.

The endearing pomf pomf pomf of consumed light particles satisfies the senses like a far-away fireworks show, and the entire experience is ridiculously calming -- until the Singularity appears.

It's been a while since we heard about Magical Drop V, the new entry in Data East's venerable puzzle series, which contains another Data East puzzle game, Ghostlop, within it. In fact, it's been since E3 of last year. So we contacted publisher Ignition to make sure it was still happening, and if so, when.

An Ignition representative told us that the puzzle game is now due this summer. There is as yet no update on platforms, so until we hear differently it's still PC first, and unspecified consoles after.

Joe Martin decides to explore Fallout 2 from the perspective of a character with no stats in the brain department. And, goodness, has a game ever responded coherently to attributed stupidity?

Fallout 2 is old, so there’s only a handful of flickery cutscenes and none of these ever show you your hand-built character actually doing anything. The intro, for example, where you’re told that you’re the Chosen One and must quest for the Macguffin of the Moment, focuses solely on the the half-blind village elder. Which is a shame, because I imagine how my character, Al, would react to this news would be… interesting.(more…)

Ocean Quigley, creative and art director at EA Maxis, wants individual Sims to matter in 2013's SimCity. He wants them to have a real bearing on the world. He wants them to be less the uncharismatic specks they've been in previous games.

Each Sim has a set plan each day: They wake up and pay their rent -- surprisingly, it's only $1 -- and go to work. After work, if they have money, they spend it throughout the region. Spending money gives Sims more happiness, thus increasing their enjoyment of your city.

Sims have their own bank accounts, and can potentially become homeless if they don't have any funds. If you don't have a place for Sims to earn money, they'll start loitering in parks, decreasing happiness and forcing them to move out of your city.

When we first began covering Auditorium, Pulse, and Fractal creator Cipher Prime, developer Will Stallwood spoke mostly in uncertainties concerning his coming sequel, Auditorium 2: Duet: "We're hoping to," "Only if," "We're going to try" and similar phrases. Today the update on Duet's Kickstarter is full of certainty: "WE DID IT!!!!!!!"

With less than three days left to fund the project, Cipher Prime raised more than $60,000, completing its goal and ensuring work on Duet is a go. More than 55 hours still remain in its campaign, and it is still collecting what we like to call "icing" funding.

"We're going to make Auditorium Duet for you, and it will be awesome, and we truly, truly, truly owe everything to you guys," Cipher Prime wrote in its Kickstarter victory post. "Thank you to all of our long-time fans and people who've only just heard of us (we'll convert you into long-time fans soon enough!)."

The Game: Jable's Adventure Genre: Squid-Wearing Platformer Platform: PC The Scoop: Jable's Adventure is a short and polished indie action platformer from Jason Boyer. The gameplay is solid and fun, but not truly exceptional in any way. It's the game's very cheerful and funny tone that makes the 45-minute adventure worth experiencing. Play it any time you've had a bad day! Download Jable's Adventure Direct from the Developer! Loading.....

One of the most interesting aspects of the new SimCity is the way pollution and the environment will play into the new multiplayer features. The latest installment of the franchise is set to launch sometime in 2013, so there's no playable version yet for me to see the mechanic in action; however, EA Maxis was willing to play out some scenarios during a visit to the Emeryville, CA, offices last week.

Once a new game is started, players can create a region and invite friends to add their own cities. Each city has the potential to share with its neighbors -- the citizens of one city may travel to the other to enjoy casinos or shopping, for example. Keeping Sims within the city happy keeps the economy flowing.

Connecting cities in this way opens the door to interesting scenarios: one city could be a supplier of coal to other locations, reaping the cash rewards of being a supplier and allowing its neighbors to progress in the game despite limitations. It encourages cooperation, something EA Maxis will support with added bonuses and possible achievements when SimCity launches in 2013.

Remember when Google made a big deal of running Bastion in Chrome? They made the opposite of that fuss with Mini Ninjas, Io Interactives’s cute little NinjSim. I mean, I only noticed when I was poking around the Chrome store for a browser add-on. I clicked it expecting a webbified version of the game, but as far as I can tell it’s not been fiddled with in the slightest. In less than a minute, I was playing the first level of the game, full screen, with no obvious technical issues. Oh, apart from the bizarre payment model.(more…)

City Interactive have announced that they will be publishing a free-to-play shooter called World Of Mercenaries. Which immediately begs the question: if it is a world entirely made of mercenaries, who hires them? Do they hire each other? And why? Tricky stuff for any dev studio to handle, I’m sure. It seems like such questions haven’t hindered development, however, because it’s just one week to the beta registration, something about which Executive Producer Bogdan Oprescu has this to say: “Our closed beta program will be an integral part of the development process for World of Mercenaries, as it is our goal to deliver a game made by, for and with FPS fans. We are shaping the future of competitive FPS, and are fully confident it will be achieved with the enthusiasm and help of our beta testers.” Fine words there from Bogdan.

No release date yet, but we do know that the game is being developed in Unreal with an aim of making the kind of high-end FPS that would make your graphics card proud.

From Soul Brother developer Superflat Games comes a much more somber side-scroller. Lone Survivor is about just that: a guy in a surgical mask who is the only known survivor of some unspecified disease. As he tries to escape from the desolate city, he must sneak past, fight, or otherwise deal with a series of threats that he's not even sure are real!

If isolation-induced hysteria sounds like your idea of a good time, you can try Lone Survivor for free on Kongregate, and then buy it on both PC and Mac for $10.

Rovio, the team responsible for Angry Birds and Angry Birds Space (and parts of this), has acquired Futuremark Games Studio, creator of Unstoppable Gorg and Shattered Horizon, among other titles. Futuremark Games was founded in 2008 and is based in Finland alongside Rovio, which may explain why Rovio chose to acquire this particular smaller studio over your own basement operation in Florida. Maybe.

"They are an incredibly talented and experienced team, and we are thrilled to have them on board," Rovio Entertainment CEO Mikael Hed said. "Rovio's success is founded on the excellence of our team, and Futuremark Games Studio is going to be a superb addition."

That might also be why Rovio chose Futuremark Games, but if it helps just keep telling yourself that this is a classic case of nationalism.

I don’t know whether this side-scrolling superhero vs aliens power fantasy is deliberately referential to Mass Effect 3, but I couldn’t help but read that into its “amount of planet saved” arbitrary giant number, excess of bombast and tongue-in-cheek downer ending. But maybe I’m just Mass Effect seeing Mass Effect everywhere I Mass Effect look these Mass Effect days. It wouldn’t Mass Effect surprise me.

Anyway, Fox Aliens From Space Invade A Planet In Space is free, only lasts a few minutes, and it is a total lark. Made in four days for gamejam mld#33, it is the overpowered tale of an overpowered superhero fighting vulpine soldiers, turrets, spacecraft and giant walkers. It is as silly as it is entertaining, and it makes me go like this:

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Download it from here. Via FreeIndieGam.es

The Game: Frogatto Genre: Oldschool 2D Platformer Platform: PC, Mac, Linux & More The Scoop: Frogatto is a gorgeous 2D platformer that perfectly recaptures the 16-bit era's platforming simplicity and style. The adventure is lengthy, the gameplay polished, and the artwork gorgeous. The...

I remember back in the 1.0 days of internet browsers. When I needed it to do anything, I’d have to install toolbars, plug-ins, all kinds of additions that had nothing to do with slowly downloading images of Agent Scully or e-mailing people I didn’t know about my feelings. Nowadays, I can see Scully in the blink of an eye, I have no emotions, and browsers can play games with barely a hitch. To prove just how far they’ve come, Mozilla has just released BrowserQuest: a cute HTML 5 powered MMORPG.(more…)