PC Gaming News Message Board older than one year ago

We've had a chance to go hands-on with Resident Evil 6's four campaigns. Our latest thoughts inside.

The Swapper has been in development for a good long while now. We first noticed it in October 2010, and today it’s one of seven games receiving the Indie Fund’s financial support. Today they’ve announced that they’ve had Penumbra’s Tom Jubert writing their game’s story (“leading narrative development”). The 2D puzzle-platformer will apparently discuss such existential questions as whether we have a soul, what is consciousness, and the very nature of our being. Which it’s fair to say is something platformers all too often forget to broach.

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Developer has heard the critiques of the E3 and Dragon's Dogma demos - and it plans to act.

Capcom also announces 'Agent Hunt' online functionality, allowing players to take the role of creatures against their friends.

Former Microsoft corporate vice president of Live and former Electronic Arts COO John Schappert is now the former guy in charge of games at Zynga. Schappert, who holds the position of chief operating officer at Zynga, was stripped of his role overseeing game development, but is still with the company.

"We can confirm that in order to unify our company around a multiplatform approach, we reorganized our teams in July to integrate web and mobile groups," a Zynga spokesperson told the WSJ. "Our players expect their favorite games on every platform and we want to unlock everyone in the company to continue moving quickly against the multi platform opportunity."

Now is not a good time for Zynga between lowered financial forecasts, awkwardly desperate business propositions and, as of this week, an insider trading lawsuit. The company's stock has dropped 70 percent from its initial price of $10 in just the last eight months.

Checking out the Riders of Rohan expansion for Turbine’s fantasy MMO.

EA has confirmed that Star Wars: The Old Republic subscriptions have fallen to their lowest point.

All those Xbox fellows having been frothing uncontrollably about Spelunky XBLA for the last couple of weeks, so starved are they of games that aren’t about manshooting or sports, but we smug gits have had it for years. Even if we don’t get the fancy-pants new graphics because there isn’t a Microsoft to wave mega-bucks at Derek Yu and chums. Well, there is of course a Microsoft on PC, but it’s hard not feel they’d rather eat their own toenails than do anything with PC gaming these days. Anyway! The original (and, for my money, much better-looking) Spelunky has been given a second wind, courtesy of a browser-based HTML 5version created by Tinysubversions, aka Darius Kazemi.(more…)

Before it was a frustrating XBLA game, Spelunky was a frustrating freeware PC game. And now it's a quietly, addictively frustrating browser game. Using a new version of the Game Maker software in which Derek Yu coded the original game, developer Darius Kazemi ported Spelunky into HTML5, allowing us to link to a playable version right here.

The port isn't perfect - current issues include a lack of dark levels, the removal of any (random) level that starts on the right side, and ... no sound. But on the upside, it's Spelunky in your browser, for free.

Game to be free-to-play with additional bonuses for subscribers or people who pay for additional content.

Zynga has been hit with the first of five expected lawsuits alleging a handful of top executives and investors engaged in insider trading - including CEO Marc Pincus and Google. Following Zynga's IPO in December, employees and investors were "locked up," unable to sell their shares until May 28. Technically. A group of top executives and shareholders hired underwriters to manage the sale of their shares, creating a loophole that allowed them to sell their stock at $12.

By May 28, when initial investors were legally allowed to sell their shares, Zynga stock had fallen to $6. Yesterday, it struck $3. Locked up investors had no opportunity to sell their shares at the same price as the top brass, and the insiders that did "cashed out at exactly the right time," Business Insider's Henry Blodget writes.

Moon Rising is the first project from a two-man team of veterans who have been touching screen for a while but have now decided to return to PC and Mac. Imagine that it is 2099 and the moon is being mined for its precious Helium-3. Sam Rockwell is nowhere to be seen so instead of battling boredom and a bit of an identity crisis, you’ll be scrapping over resources as the commander of one of Earth’s superpowers. Personally I don’t think Earth will be capable of supporting a single moderatepower by 2099 but I’m pleased by the optimistic view of a world still strong enough to be at war with itself. Moon combat is turn-based and tactical as shown in the video below. Beta signups are open.

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In an update over on the Kickstarter page for Divekick, it's been revealed that the campaign has been closed, despite reaching its goal of $30,000. This is because Divekick has found itself a publisher, though the identity of that publisher is currently unknown. Because the drive was cancelled, the money pledged won't be collected.

Those who decided to back the Kickstarter campaign won't miss out on their perks, yet those perks are being tweaked a bit. Because t-shirts can't be sent out without some money being sent in first, a special pre-order page will be set up for direct purchase.

Other rewards include suggesting tips to display on loading screens, custom color schemes for character outfits, being included in the background of a stage and even suggesting your own character.

Moon Intern has been appearing on our weekly Kickstarter round-up post, Kickstarter Katchup, for a couple of weeks now. And it looks pretty special. A side-scrolling RPG game, which will generate hundreds of quests for you to play, in order to earn the money to pay your rent. But more interestingly, the game will monitor how you play, and in response will start to adjust how it generates challenges accordingly. If you’re obviously having more fun with the combat, it’ll bed things that way. If you seem to be striking a chord with the puzzles, then things will start to get trickier that way. And if you’re good at both, then the game will get even tougher. There will be dynamic events, from meteor strikes to a shop nearby having a sale. And there’s a heavy emphasis on exploration. There’s now a trailer to prove it.

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According to the official DayZ website, the insanely popular ArmA II…

Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller, designed by Gabriel Knight's Jane Jensen in cooperation with Silver Lining developer Phoenix Online Studios, sought its initial funding via Kickstarter last year. Now, it's acquired a more traditional partner: an actual publisher, in the form of Dungeon Defenders' Reverb Publishing. Reverb doesn't offer a specific date or platform information for the adventure game in its announcement, merely declaring its intent to bring it to "digital download platforms."

Cognition is about a police detective who uses "post-cognition," an ability to touch objects and learn about their pasts, in her search for a serial killer.

I keep forgetting that Miner Wars 2081 exists, usually remembering just after my daily rant to the people on the streets below my apartment. “People liked Descent.” I’ll shout from the window, refastening the sash of my dressing gown as a harsh Mancunian gust threatens to undignify me. “With all this new tech, why isn’t there a freeform game in a similar style but with fully destructible scenery?” Usually people are so gobsmacked by the question they forget to holler back, “Miner Wars 2081 is such a thing.” Jim has already played an alpha version and now there’s a public demo containing the first story mission. There’s a video of that mission below, although it might be best to play it first unless you hate surprises.

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According to a Ukranian blogger, the company has acquired the rights to the extended universe.

Just as experiences of bad customer service travel faster than a speeding Usain bullet, games that are released in a problematic state are spoken of far and wide. It’s all too easy to ignore the positive response to such issues so here’s an acknowledgement that Dreampainters, whose debut release is the horror adventure Anna, are listening to feedback. Although a patch isn’t going to fix all of my criticisms of the game, the first update does address lots of technical issues and shows a commitment to improving the quality of the puzzles as well. Full changelog below.

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Truly impressive mod projects make me want to defy physics. For example, try as I might, I cannot – even with the assistance of a truly formidable thesaurus – recreate the pure magic of an authentic standing ovation in post form. And yet, that’s what the legions of folks who’ve spent five years continuously tidying up each and every inch of Morrowind deserve. Meanwhile, Morrowind Overhaul 2.0 was quite the looker, but I want to frame Overhaul 3.0‘s trailer and hang in it on my wall – something that’s also probably outside the orc-and-elf-free realm of possibility. Even bare walls and pin-drop silence, however, won’t dampen my excitement for really pretty videogame snow. I mean, just look at that stuff. Well, go on now. Do it.

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It’s not that difficult to “enhance” something. Recently, I “enhanced” my cereal experience by pouring milk into it. In the world of PC gaming, however, “enhanced” is a holy and sacred word. The Witcher 1 and 2′s Enhanced Editions, for instance, were the equivalent of sending my cereal bowl sailing into a nearby forest, flying in an Iron Chef, and telling him to make whatever his heart desired – so long as it included over 100 courses. Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, meanwhile, appears to be taking a similar approach. And now, Beamdog’s announced a cherry for the proverbial cereal and ice cream and filet mignon sundae: cross-platform multiplayer.

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When your mech is an extension of your body, it pays to be aware of what's going on around you.

And lo did the two RPS Hivemind nodes who would always be picked first in any alphabetical order-based selection process gather to discuss Paradox/Ino-Co Plus’ turn-based, Master of Magic-esque strategy game Warlock: Master of the Arcane. Adam and Alec spaketh words at each other. Occasionally, they even listened to each other. To what end? Not a soul doth know. Here are those words.

Alec: WARLOCK: MASTER OF THE ARCANE is a turn-based strategy game about fantasy kingdoms at war that came out a little while back, but is one of those increasingly rare cases where more than one of us have played it. You’ve played tons of it, right?

Adam:Tons. If you could actually measure it as a weight or mass it would be like a spoonful of Mercury, or whichever that planet is. The one that the Flaming Lips sang about.

Alec: I think they sing about all of them, all the time, in quadraphonic sound.(more…)

The original Tiny Barbarian was a splendid little platformer, with secrets to discover and monsters to be barbaric toward. Based on The Frost Giant’s Daughter, an original Conan story, it was lovely and free. StarQuail are working on a semi-sequel, Tiny Barbarian DX, and it looks even more lovely and there’s no indication that it will be any less free. Barbarians riding on top of animonsters immediately reminds me of Golden Axe and the way that arrows are chopped out of the air immediately reminds me of awesome, so I’m now referring to Tiny Barbarian DX as Awesome Axe. Or Golden Awesome, but that sounds like a rubbish wrestler or the most incredible apple ever grown. Video below.

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If you've been waiting to try The Secret World then now's the time. This coming weekend you can slay demons for free.

Oh, cack and ashes, the bastards have only gone and brought a cat to the party. The party is the kind where kids chop at each other with knives while their hulking mothers punch each other in the face. Dad’s in the background with his rifle, drawing a bead on Sanity Claws, the neighbours’ recently purchased feline. Deadly Neighbors 2 is a simple Flash game, teams of three fight to the turn-based death on a small grid, but it’s free and it manages to be cute despite featuring children in Jigsaw masks being eaten by dogs. There are plenty of upgrades and classes to unlock and a neat feature whereby beating all the randomised computer households sees a final scrap against a player’s family, all levelled up having completed the game. If you win, your family becomes someone else’s boss fight.

Will the new Ouya game console have at least one shmup? Oh, yeah. Indiana-based developer Rapture Game Studios plans to put its first game, the horizontal scrolling shooter Gunblitz, on the diminutive Android console in March.

Before that console is finally Kickstarted into existence, Rapture plans to put Gunblitz on regular-sized PCs in September. Rapture has already released a demo of this PC version - anticipating the pseudo-free-to-play model of the Ouya, while also allowing you to, you know, try the game out.

I’ve been festooning RPS Towers with cobwebs and butchers’ leavings ever since the announcement of A Machine For Pigs, hoping the decor wouldn’t be out of place in a 2012 bursting at the fleshy seams with the grim and the gruesome. After Anna I was left with a hankering for some haunted house horrors and Paranormal looked to be just what the psychologist accidentally ordered. Built in the UDK, Matt Dementous’ project is a ‘dynamic haunting simulator’ that plays out like a rather more active version of Paranormal Activity. You wake, you wander, you film, you scream, you…go back to bed. There’s a downloadable beta, although only certain backers of the Kickstarter can play the latest versions.

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Occasionally, certain corners of the internet and media defiantly make their case for pro-graming being included as an Olympic sport. I call those people narrow-minded in the extreme – of course gaming should be part of the greatest sports show on Earth, but restricting it to that tiny, scary niche would be a terrible mistake. There are far more important aspects of gaming that deserve their own Olympic classes. Here are just a few, and I hope you’ll suggest some more.(more…)

Resembling a hybrid of Gish and Katamari Damacy, Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack, is a PS Vita title that is set to infiltrate Steam on August 15th. As I’ve never even touched a PS Vita ,I can only report second hand that handheld holders mostly greeted the sci-fi silliness with a hearty roar of approval. The game is apparently more of a platformer than the Katamari Damacy comparison might suggest, although it is necessary to absorb and grow in order to pass obstacles and checkpoints. The short trailer below also shows a glimpse of the top-down minigame levels, enhanced for PC.

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