PC Gaming News Message Board older than one year ago

There isn’t much that honours the strange, dark art of games journalism, and I’m willing to bet that’s primarily because the kernel of excellence and talent is so surrounded by soulless number-giving and rote promotion on one side and ranting, thoughtless poison on the other. In the UK, we do have the Games Media Awards, but while the right prizes admittedly sometimes go to the right people it is essentially about a cult of personality rather than much to do with writing itself. The new (no capital ‘n’ there, please note) Games Journalism Prizes are an attempt at an independent award for the best writing (as opposed to best/most liked writers) of the year and, unlike the GMAs’ additional status as a multiply-sponsored big earner for organisers Intent Media, these are apparently not a profit-making endeavour.(more…)

That I’ll never get to visit another planet (or moon; hell, I’ll take moon) is one of the great sadnesses of my life. Maybe, if I’m very lucky, Richard Branson will buy RPS and give me a free ride in his spaceship one day, but he’s probably too busy picking up women. So, for now, I must settle with exploring a Unity-powered, browser-based, explorable recreation of Mars, courtesy of NASA.(more…)

Trees are pretty much the greatest. They house wonderful woodland creatures, look very pretty gracefully swaying the breeze, and produce oxygen so we can watch them sway in the breeze without dying. Bonsai Defense, then, lets tree huggers like myself take the next logical step: becoming a tree. Life as a giant leafy tribute to nature’s might, however, isn’t as glamorous as you might assume. For instance, did you know that trees are constantly besieged by infectious neon bug creatures that travel via some form of trans-dimensional portal? Me neither, but thanks to Bonsai Defense, I’m now truly enlightened. A few thoughts on this freebie after the break.

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Did you get all the way through the insanely difficult I Wanna Be the Guy? No, you didn't. But you can play the sequel anyway.

Developer Kayin has released the freeware I Wanna Be the Guy: Gaiden, a the first part of an episodic "side story" that adds a bionic arm function, giving you a new dimension of moves you can time poorly and die from, or more optimistically, methods for getting out of the way of some random giant Street Fighter sprite.

More content is expected for the Windows-only Gaiden, and of course more episodes. "How many episodes will there be," Kayin asks rhetorically. "Who cares, I'm playing it by ear."

I Wanna Be The Guy: Gaiden killed me with a fish before I started the first level. It killed me again when I tried to start the first level. It killed me again before I touched solid ground in the first level. It killed me again with a sudden burst of fire when I tried to hop over a barrel in the first level. It killed me again when I tried to walk under a platform in the first level. It killed me again when I finally managed to leap on top of that platform. It killed me again when I tried to leap over a barrel – with the same fish as the time before I started the first level. That goddamn fish. It killed me again when I finally made it past the fish, only to be crushed by a platform mere centimeters away. It killed me again when I tried to leap between the platform and the fish. It killed me again when I made it past that part and a purple army man shot me. Then I gave up forever.

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Every argument I’ve seen defending why there’s no writing category for the IGFs looks damned stupid when you encounter an indie game that shines through its story. It was abundantly obvious that it was a mistake when we first saw To The Moon (just released on GOG), and it’s about to look like a stupid decision all over again when Richard & Alice is released. After a 45 minute preview version, I’m already sold on the writing, and already annoyed that those awards won’t recognise it.

Disclaimer: one of the co-creators, Lewis Denby, is an occasional contributor to RPS.

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Under normal circumstances, I would not be excited about a game called Marvel Heroes. I mean, I love Robert Downey Jr: A Movie About Robert Downey Jr Starring Robert Downey Jr (And The Avengers Sometimes) as much as anyone, but these licenses tend to be about as much fun as being bitten by a writhing mass of regular, non-radioactive spiders. Here, however, there is hope. Marvel Heroes is being headed up by former Diablo leads and, well, it’s basically Diablo – but massively multiplayer and with superpowers and the ability to switch between every hero imaginable instead of devil magic. The latest oh-so-brief trailer, unfortunately, doesn’t really delve into much beyond the POWS, THWACKS, and HULKBIFFS, but it all looks very nice. The break beckons. Heed its call.

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Samsung has taken the wraps off of its Series 7 Gamer laptop, and our compadres at Engadget have weighed in on the unit (which is pretty weighty itself at over 8 pounds). The review concludes that the Core i7 processor and Nvidia GTX 675m graphics card can chew up just about any game you throw at them. As with most gaming laptops, however, you'll probably want to keep it plugged in - the battery won't last much longer than two hours.

At $1,900, it certainly isn't cheap, though this massive 17-incher should stand up to more demanding users. Head over to Engadget for the full review.

Ronimo Games has announced that 2D side-scroller Awesomenauts is headed to PC via Steam “really soon.”

Aztez is a game in which men hit one another with swords, a stab and slash ‘em up made by a man who has thought deeply about fighting games, written down those thoughts, and then created a system of his own. The detail of the mechanics isn’t in overblown special moves but in the length of animations and the timing of button presses. With visuals that invoke the black, white and crimson of Madworld and a turn-based conquest game atop the combat, it’s shaping up to be a very lovely thing indeed. New developer diary below.

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After a hack over the weekend affected Minecraft’s authorization servers, Mojang reports that no personal information was obtained.

Anna caught my eye the first time I saw her. A sun-dappled beauty with a spooky and melancholy soul who would allow me to interact in ways far more interesting than the usual pointing and clicking. With an intricately detailed central location and a plot that apparently changes based on the player’s actions, Anna could bring smarts and sensitivity along with fear and trembling. It’s available on Desura now for £6.99 and I hope to take a look soon. Here’s a trailer for your eyes.

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I had a sweet time making the last Choose Your Own Interview, so this time I collaborated with long time Interactive Fiction heroes Adam Cadre, Emily Short and Andrew Plotkin to make you something special. The following is a heady mix of RPS fanfic, Interactive Fiction love letter, and slight autobiographical tendencies. Your secret content this time comes courtesy of a guest appearance by someone we all know and love. Enjoy, and keep me updated on your own adventures in text. Now let’s get really drunk. There must be a bar around here somewhere?

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A day late, thanks to an angry English Channel attempting to smash everything on board a ferry, including all the children. But still just as shiny. And increasingly ridiculously long. Here are a bunch of PC games looking for funds. And below are some rules:

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Hello youse,

I promised that we would be doing some photo specials. This is the first of those, and I bring you a handful of beautiful games. We are going to look at some nice untouched photographs. I don’t want you just to glance and move on – I want you to take a moment of quiet contemplation with each piece, like you would on a visit to some art gallery with a new sexual partner. Imagine that your latest sexual conquest is beside you as you pretend to be deep in thought. I will talk a little bit about each game too, with particular focus on the visuals.

Let’s look at our first selection of games that GOT THE LOOK.(more…)

Sundays are for being on holiday, and still remembering to compile a list of the writings from the past week of the internet’s Eye-Of-Sauron-like concentration on the activities of games. Will a tiny person finally chuck an evil ring into the volcano of our gaming philosophy? Or will he get accidentally eaten by a giant spider? I just don’t know.

• This is basically essential reading, whatever your level of interest in the game, Quintin Smith on DOTA 2: “I am Luke on the Millenium Falcon, being told to fight the drone blind. And when you succeed at that in Dota 2 – when you retreat down a lane, only to see some huge bastard with an axe burst out from the bushes to land, violently, where you just were – the high is outrageous. Two things: As of today, I’m not just curious about Dota 2 anymore. I’m having an absolutely incredible time. I’d also never have gotten this far if I wasn’t playing with friends.”

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I’ve just got home after spending a lovely week or so partying in Brighton, meeting a bunch of you lot at Rezzed, and then other games industry folk during develop conference. The downside is that I know how a post-conference flu. Which is why it’s taken me this long to bucket up these bargains today. Better late and existent than never at all. For more of the cheap games, you can rely on SavyGamer.co.uk for updates throughout the week. (more…)

Exclusive first look at director Kevin Tancharoen's announcement of which characters to expect when the MK webseries returns.

Wow. I just spent an hour with Seedling, an incredibly overt love letter to SNES-era Zelda games that just sprouted up on Newgrounds, and it’s a pint-sized wonder. To call it a Zelda clone would be unfair, because “clone” immediately brings to mind notions of soulless piggybacking, and that couldn’t be further from the truth here. This brilliant little freebie has its own meticulously crafted world, mythology, soundtrack, sense of humor, and – at least from what I’ve played – emphasis on hands-off exploration that captures the spirit of Nintendo classics just so. And that’s something even Nintendo arguably has trouble doing these days. Go play it, or – if you must – read a few more thoughts of mine after the break.

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This is the first footage of Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms, the upcoming free-to-play browser MMO from Bigpoint. It ... um ... it doesn't look as thrilling as its source material. Nice music, though.

Developer Renegade Kid's eShop downloadable action game, Mutant Mudds, will soon be making its way to PCs everywhere. While no specific dates have been given, Renegade Kid promises that it will "soon be available through numerous digital distribution partners." The PC version, known as the "Grannie Edition" will feature 20 brand new levels in addition to the original 40.

We quite liked the 3DS version, notably the 3D mechanic used to switch between different planes. PC players, especially fans of difficult action games, should definitely take note.

This is a weekly column from freelancer Rowan Kaiser, which focuses on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity. If there's any video game on the planet that demands a remake, it's Ultima IV: Quest Of The Avatar. As arguably the most important title in what I still believe is certainly the most historically important series in video game history, it's something that deserves to be played by as many people as possible.

Yet the years have not been kind Ultima IV. Unlike certain other games commonly cited as "needing" remakes, Ultima IV comes from an era before in-game tutorials and before the mouse had achieved market saturation. It is, unfortunately, just out of the range of accessible for many, regardless of its reputation.

So when I first heard about Ultima Forever, I was cautiously optimistic. Perhaps a respectful remake could maintain the core of the story while appealing to a much wider audience. Of course what that "core" is may be different things to different people. For me, the core of Ultima IV is the combination of open-world mechanics, conversational freedom, and its rigid morality system. These aspects of the game work together to make Ultima IV an exploration of the world, its inhabitants, and one's self - which, as the time, also meant an examination of the player's relationship with computer games as a whole. Yes, it really was that special.

Exclusive: The video game Hawken will get a feature film via the director of Act of Valor, as well as a live-action web series.

Honestly, I just wanted to use that title. But if you want to play Minecraft with no mining, less crafting, and more in the way of shooting people in the face with a variety of firearms and explosives, you might want to download Brick-Force and take it for a spin. You can play it in the browser via Unity, or download a client. There’s building, there’s shooting, and of course, a shiny launch trailer. Which you can check out right here…

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GL Invasion could be quite a good test and a bit of early evening fun. I don’t know whether or not I’m terrible at bullet hell shmups or not. I probably am because I’m no Jack of all trades and am therefore terrible at almost everything. I’ve never really been able to compare my skills to the skills of others in this particular genre of killing things while attempting not to die though, so maybe I’m actually brilliant. Play the game for free in your browser and compare your progress to mine. Let’s find out how terrible I am.

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Amazon US already sells just about everything on Earth. Now, it’s shipping to parallel worlds via its new Free To Play aisle, with games including Super MNC, Battlestar Galactica, Run! Escape! – no, wait, sorry, Runescape, and Allods Online. Not only can you grab the games from the site, you can attach your Amazon details to your main account and make purchases from its website. It’s like Steam, only you can also buy Armando Iannucci’s face on a bag!

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Well, unless you incorrectly read it as “Muh-muh-moo asteroids,” in which case it sounds like a mutant cow attempting to pronounce the word “asteroids.” In reality, however, mmoAsteroids is – shock of all shocks – timeless classic Asteroids converted into a massively multiplayer blast-’em-up. In practice, it’s pretty simple at this point, but it’s also pre-Alpha, so that’s to be expected. Even so, it’s a fun little time-waster at this point, with many bits, bobs, bleeps, and bloops – for instance, UFOs and powerups – already in their proper places. Given time, though, it’s apparently set to evolve into something much, much larger.

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Apologies if this turns out to be a slightly slim Flare Path; I’ve got a mountain of chores to get done today. By nightfall I was rather hoping to have a) replaced the faulty safety guard on my Cerberus 720 saw bench, b) secured the wobbly weedkiller shelf in the garage, c) cleaned and oiled my collection of vintage man-traps, d) wormed Satan, my elderly neighbour’s Bullmastiff, and e) (assuming I can borrow a long enough ladder) retrieved my scratch-built 1:72nd RC Graf Zeppelin from the top of the electricity pylon where it’s currently lodged. (more…)

Any Formula One fans who are indignantly huffing and puffing because KERS is now a verb may find themselves accidentally blowing a few porcine houses to the ground when they see the trailer for Codemasters latest use of the F1 license. F1 Race Stars does a little of Fifa Street’s cartoonification of actual sportspersons and then appears to turn the precision machines that vie for chequered glory into karts. I’m all for inventive use of a license and if there’s enough jostling and scrapping for position on ludicrous tracks, I’ll probably have more fun than I ever would with an actual car simulation. Out in November, with a career mode alongside the multiplayer. Trailer in the pits, below.

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The NPD Group has revealed hardware and software charts for June, with Lego Batman 2 leading software sales as 3DS passes five million units sold.