PC Gaming News Message Board older than one year ago

Walter is not a stop motion point and click game about a bag of water exploring the world. The trailer suggests that’s what it’s going to be before actually demonstrating that it’s a gorgeous platformer with fluid physics, state changes and a delightful sense of wonder. Fair enough then, although I’d probably play the stop motion version as well. Unfortunately, I’ll have to wait until the terrifying future time that is 2013, at which point all of Earth’s water will have been turned into brown fizzjuice by Coca Cola, which will then sell it to the highest bidder at horrific blood-auctions. Poor Walter’s going to look like a terribly inappropriate work of mockery. See for yourself below.

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The terror of Frictional's first Amnesia game never involved the almost comical squeals of a pig wielding what sounds like an axe. In Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, that's all gonna change. See - er, hear - for yourself in the latest teaser, above.

South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will enact a ban on commercial trading of in-game items starting next month, the Korea Times reports. Like the online gaming curfew, this move is aimed at reclaiming students' time for non-game-related activities. The ban specifically targets the use of bots that allow automatic collection of items, which the ministry estimates as the source of 60 percent of items on the virtual market.

The ban also prevents arcades from handing out gift certificates for in-game items, as that has resulted in the certificates being traded for cash.

A different restriction on virtual goods was recently enacted in South Korea's neighbor, Japan: the Consumer Affairs Agency banned the "compu gacha" scheme, in which players buy randomly selected virtual items, with bonuses for the completion of sets.

1C and Best Way reveal an intriguing new RPG. Check out first screens and video.

Why, hello there! Diablo here. What? No. No, Diablo 3. Diablo 2 was my father. Those miserable fleshlings at Rock Paper Shotgun have asked me to cast my expert eye over you scumbags’ failed attempts at murdering me IN MY OWN ****ING HOUSE on the grounds that I might rather enjoy witnessing hours upon hours of Hardcore adventuring going straight down the crapper. In exchange for a chance to plug my favourite book, I of course agreed…

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Adam first spotted The Real Texas last year, but – to be perfectly honest – I hadn’t heard of it until very, very recently. Conveniently, however, it’s now officially buyable, playable, and possibly edible, so take that, Past Adam. Current Adam is way cooler than you anyway. At any rate, this is exciting news! For those in need of a refresher, The Real Texas looks like the silliest thing, stuffing Zelda-esque dungeon-crawling, Ultima-style progression, and heaping ten-gallon-hat-loads of whimsy into a vision of Texas that’s described as “a Kafka-esque parody stuck halfway between modern-day America and olden-days, RPG England.” Given that I grew up in Texas and learned all my childhood life lessons from RPGs set in olden-days RPG England, uh, sold. Sold forever.

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The replacement of today’s Flare Path with this tale of turn-based D-Day derring-do means one of two things. Either Interpol has finally worked out the identity of Red Shrike (highly unlikely) or Yours Grudgingly has been persuaded to brave rain, family, and unfamiliar chip-shops, and Go On Holiday. Assuming I’m currently sunning myself on some storm-lashed British beach, normal FP service will resume next week. In the meantime why not sit back and feign interest while I regale you with another wargame-generated battle ballad.

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Lead designer Emmanuel Lusinchi has revealed that the game may abandon its subscription fee.

The first footage for Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs all but confirms that the machine in question is not a belly-tickling porcine laughter factory, so there’s my hopes of a My Little Piglet friendship simulator dashed to bits against a dank wall. From Dear Esther developers The Chinese Room and Frictional, the game looks much more like The Dark Descent than I’d expected, wavering vision, cowering and hideous unseen hunters all being present and horribly incorrect. There are also outdoor areas though, which immediately gives me hope for greater variety in locations and maybe even a stronger adventure element. Could be very special.

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Rezzed already has a lineup of playable treats from major publishers but the show wouldn’t have that particular RPS flavour without a generous helping of indie titles. That’s where the Leftfield Collection comes in. The first games confirmed are devious 2D heist simulator Gunpoint, which contains defenestration and projectile trousers, then there’s devious platform puzzler Gateways, which John adored, and the gorgeous duo Trash TV and QRTH-PHYL, which I’ve admired myself. Add explodey adventure McPixel and multiplayer BaraBariBall and there’s something for everyone, and yet still more to come.

Tickets are £12 for one day, £20 for both. Brighton Centre, Brighton on the 6th and 7th of July. Join us. There’s a trailer for BaraBariBall below since we haven’t featured it before and it looks superb, like Super Smash Bros from a superior reality.

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Vizio looks to compete in the computer space with high end parts and gorgeous design.

Depths of Peril and Din’s Curse are wonderful games that anyone interested in RPGs would be very wise to spend some time with. For why that is, look here and here. They’re among the few non-ascii games to capture most of the reasons that I adore roguelikes with such a burning passion and they contain worlds of consequence and reaction that should make morality sliders and alternate endings blush with embarrassment. A new game from Soldak is of great interest then, particularly when it sounds a bit like DIN IN SPACE. Drox Operative’s beta is available to prepurchasers now. Thoughts when I’ve played it and more info below.

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Oh, oh! There are too many games. This trailer has reminded that I’ve got to go back to space-exploration and rock-hauling thingum Miner Wars 2081 and see how they’re getting on. If this latest trailer (below) is anything to go by they’ve made spectacular progress since I last looked in, with a lot more action, and plenty more space content. Also I like it when a PR blurb asks a ridiculous question: “Ever wonder what a Russian trade station, a Euro-American survey site, or an Outlaw base would look like in the year of 2081, ten years after the solar apocalypse?”

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The Tex Murphy: Project Fedora Kickstarter is fully funded, and even looks in reach of surpassing its $450,000 goal by a solid $100,000 when the campaign expires on Saturday, June 16. Then the real work begins.

Project Fedora will be shot in Tex Murphy's classic full-motion video, with series creator Chris Jones returning as the man in the hat. Not that it's the same hat.

"Unfortunately, the original fedora has been crushed so many times it makes me look like Jed Clampett about to go to his favorite fishing hole," Jones tells Joystiq. Never fear, keepers of continuity: Project Fedora's trench coat is the same one from the previous Tex Murphy titles. Germophobes, maybe ignore that bit of insider information.

Along with a slightly updated wardrobe, Project Fedora is taking advantage of technological advances in FMV that weren't accessible 20 years ago. "CG is used in action movies more often than not these days and I have no doubt that FMV could be integrated much more effectively - and with less effort - than back in the day," Jones says. "Today, with fewer restrictions and limitations, we can do it even better."

The temptation to write ‘Episode 3 Unexpectedly Launches on June 25′ was strong, particularly after that potato sack business started to chip away at the collective consciousness of the internet. I’m not cruel though. Not that cruel.

Zeboyd, of Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII, have brought forward the release of their continuation of Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3, a retro-style RPG take on the webcomic’s comedy monsterbash. Expect references aplenty, like that Deeper Crow pictured above, and hopefully a much more satisfying experience than in Hothead’s previous episodes. I’ve had a grand old time with Zeboyd’s work in the past and I already prefer the visuals to the 3D bobbleheads of yesteryear’s installments. Buy on Steam in the first week and get free Cthulhu.

Today Riot's put up a lot of new information about the upcoming Legendary Skin for fan-favorite champion, Ezreal.

Gorgeous point and clicker Lilly Looking Through has passed its $18.000 Kickstarter goal with 16 days to go. Slightly confusing that, mainly because I’m becoming accustomed to Kickstarter projects reaching their target with hours to spare. They’re like the wired up explosive with a digital countdown readout of game development, counting down, ever down, but more for dramatic effect than any actual possibility of failure. Maybe that’s a little insensitive actually, considering the amount that do fail and the number of renegade cops whose last day on the job ends messily, hunched over a box, a pair of hastily procured nail clippers in hand. If you haven’t already, try the demo and read about streeeeeetch goals here.

Ah, I was perhaps a bit hasty with my Rezzed story from yesterday, because since then Eurogamer have confirmed that we’re also going to have Paul Wedgwood from Splash Damage doing a keynote presentation (12pm, Saturday 7th July) in which he’ll be talking about how his studio’s independence has ensured its survival.

Not only that but Ubisoft are going to be providing playable Far Cry 3, Shootmania, and Ghost Recon for the show. Add that to the other games, and that’s a veritable slab of unreleased games, as well as all the presentations and so on. We’ve not even revealed the indie games stuff yet, which is another full facet of the show. It’s looking pretty good: Tickets are £12 for one day, £20 for both. Brighton Centre, Brighton on the 6th and 7th of July. Come along, do.

Puzzle platformers are like buses. You have to figure out how to get on the right surfaces, then reach your destination without dying. On another matter, two have come along at once. After yesterday’s lovely Adventures Of Shuggy, today’s new Indie Royale Bundle includes the release of Magical Time Bean’s Escape Goat. Here’s Wot I Think.

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Sphere is another in an increasing list of impressive student projects created in Unity. Here, a strong central idea is delivered through the medium of a first-person puzzle game with the most flimsy of narrative trappings. What’s clever here, as in so many of these playgrounds of spatial progression, is the mode of transport. Not portals, not cubes, but the titular sphere, a small, bouncing ball which chimes musically as it goes. Recall it with a click of the left mouse and the trail that it followed after being lobbed is marked on the screen; holding down the right button sends the player travelling along that same trail. Trailer below. Play online or download, for Mac or PC, here.

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Maybe the joy isn’t quite infinite and maybe the space isn’t endless in the sense that might be imagined on first exposure to the title, but turn-based space conquest game Endless Space is already the second great entry in my 2012 feast of strategy gaming. If Crusader Kings II was a roasted hog with a side order of roasted hog, washed down with a keg of mead containing roasted hogs as booze-croutons, Endless Space is a vacuum-packed futurepill of a meal: nutritious, filled with flavour, perfectly formed. And it’s only just reached beta.

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Oh my, this is a nice surprise. Son of Nor bills itself as an action-RPG with “challenging puzzles, dynamic sand manipulations, and an innovative magic system,” but honestly, it looks like Avatar: The Last Airbender: The First Good Game. For the uninitiated, that means magical telekinetic-ish elemental powers – including the ability to raise and lower the desert’s sands as you see fit. Also, I feel like – as a child – I would’ve engaged with math on a much more intrinsic level if it’d included such examples as “Fireball + Sandstorm = Fire Tornado.” There’s apparently co-op in there as well, and – though it’s super early in development – it all looks impressively explosive and heavy hitting. At any rate, you + the break = trailer watching. So do that.

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I came, I saw, and I think I conquered Foam. I mean, I did things until – after an hour or so – it ended, anyway. What’d I do, though? Well, I walked to a place, and I walked to another place. Then a door opened in my home, and I’m fairly sure that broke reality. Honestly, though, if most trippy pieces of entertainment are stomach-lurching descents into madness, Foam is more of a gradual down slope – perhaps aided by a harness and a parachute. One moment, I was strolling through a forest, and the next, I was talking to some kind of moon-obsessed mad scientist man. And that, I assure you, is just the beginning. Even the increasingly bizarro adventure’s central mechanic doesn’t really make itself apparent until about 15 or 20 minutes in. So yeah, Foam’s really different. I do have some qualms with it, though.

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Ever wanted to unleash a zombie plague on your Sims? Soon you'll be able to.

Resonance, the forthcoming adventure published by Wadjet Eye next Tuesday, has already won over the heart of adventure hardcase, Richard Cobbett. Now you can see if the quad-charactered sci-fi adventure might appeal to your stoney heart too, via the magics of a demo (direct link). Thoughts and a trailer below.

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If you like Civilization and steampunk, then you have to check out Empires of the Smokey Skies.

The news lookouts from BluesNews lit a beacon signalling that the Civ 5 expansion pack, Gods & Kings, isn’t far away now, with a release date of a startlingly nearby June 19th. Firaxis have sat down to make their developer men talk a bit about what’s going on with the new races in a developer diary, which you can see below. The nine new factions come along with reworked diplomacy mechanics that will now encompass a fresh take on religion and espionage. There are a bunch of faction-specific abilities detailed in there, too, such as Carthage’s Alp-surmounting mountain leaping. Good work, Barca boys.(more…)

An expansion that gives you everything, except what the original was missing.

I also ran around the IndieCade tour at E3 this year, and while our own Jess Conditt took a lot of creepy pleasure in the grim philosophical horror title A Mother's Inferno, my tastes ran a little more simple and colorful: The best game I saw in that section of E3 this year was called Scale.

Scale, developed by Steve Swink (who teaches interactive design in Phoenix, but might be better known as Kyle Pulver's roommate?) is similar to Portal, which is a quality ascribed to a lot of great indie games these days. That's probably not too surprising, given that Portal was also an indie student project, before it got processed through Valve's chaotic engine of creativity. Scale is similar to Portal in that it too has a gun that doesn't kill, bit is instead used to manipulate a colorfully-rendered 3D world.

Portal, it could be said, played around with the functions of space, creating portals to bypass and bend it. Scale, on the other hand, is all about that stuff in between space. Namely: mass.

Of all the things to licence for a MOBA, the classic line-up of Universal Studios’ monsters – Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, Wolfman, er “Gill-man” and so on – makes an odd kind of sense. Antiquated but stylish, and yet it also sort of shows how time in move-world stands still. Anyway, the classic scenery-chewers will be the heroes in Bigpoint’s MOBA Universal Monsters Online, which is currently under development and taking beta sign ups now. Like so much coming from studios like Bigpoint, this won’t even required a download – it’s a pure browser game, and free to play, obviously.