Rock, Paper, Shotgun

British Inspiration Awards Include Gaming

John Walker — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:47:56 +0000

Isn’t it nice when gaming brings everyone together? And other stuff too, like books, films and fashion. But especially games. A cross-party initiative has seen the leaders of the big three British political parties (growl, SNP fans) gritting their teeth and pretending to agree about how simply excellent Britain is when it comes to creating stuff. And so we have the British Inspiration Awards, which aim to celebrate just how jolly good we are. And we mention it because, rather splendidly, it’s to include videogames. It’s significant, not simply that they weren’t forgotten, but that they genuinely are being recognised alongside their peers when it comes to entertaining ourselves. You can see the full press release below.
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Pride and Falls: Neptune’s Pride Diary Part 7

Kieron Gillen — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:21:56 +0000

It’s over! 17,000 words later and at last we have a victor for this, the most miserable and guilty of all AARs. Will the galaxy enter the rule of Kieron’s glittering red Empire? Or will it be empurpled by the all-powerful, all-duplicitious Graham? Or perhaps blue underdog Jimothy Rossignol will at last spring his winning gambit. Read the grim and salty conclusion to our game of Neptune’s Pride after the jump (or read it over at the PC Gamer blog here here).

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Tiberium Loremaster: C&C4’s Samuel Bass

Jim Rossignol — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:10:43 +0000

Command & Conquer 4 arrives this week to the tutting of sceptics. The new game is different: no base-building, no economy. It’s also the end of the Tiberium saga. What does it all mean? The man responsible for concluding Kane is Samuel Bass, and last night we spoke to him about the end of the Tiberium saga, experimental RTSs, the value of the PC, King’s Bounty, and the dreaded DRM. Read on for international interview interest.
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Southpaw Tales

Alec Meer — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:31:50 +0000

As I believe I whined about last week, I’m suffering a nasty spot of RSI at the moment – nothing to write home about, comes with the territory and all that, but it has meant that once in a while I have to use my mouse with my left-hand while the tendons in the right have a right old moan at me. It was whilst doing this to try and play the mouse-controlled platformer 3114, made in four days for the Experimental Gameplay Project, that I remembered I used to be a left-hand-mouserman anyway. What with my being a left-hander and all, just like King of Americaland Mr Derek O’Balmer, who’s clearly drawing something naughty in the photo above.

In fact, the only reason I use a mouse with my right hand nowadays is (no) thanks to a really hideous bout of RSI back in 2000 or so that briefly rendered my southpaw entirely useless for mousing. How did I cope?
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Bioshock 2: DLC Hullabaloo

Alec Meer — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:53:37 +0000

Fashionably late again… We managed to miss posting about this when the scandal hit last week, in one of those “oh, one of the others will surely cover it. Today I want to write about a happy thing!” confusions that sometimes afflicts the oft-scattered hivemind. It’s a major talking point, however, so you really should talk about it here. Y’know that Bioshock 2 DLC, the one with the new ~~maps and~~ characters and whatnot in? Apparently it was a whopping great 24 kilobyes big. Goodness, aren’t level designers economical these days?

Edit – I’m informed I’m wrong in believing the DLC in question contains maps. The 24k file unlocks character models, masks and achievements/trials to reflect the raised level cap you can pay for. The idea being that the people without the DLC can see the visual stuff that people who have bought the DLC have unlocked, without having to install a patch. I’ll leave it to you to decide if that’s any better.
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Metro 2033 Is Preparing For Departure

John Walker — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:33:13 +0000

Metro 2033 is out at the end of this week. Who knew March was the month for games? Dragon Age: Awakening, this, Just Cause 2… It’s like it’s November or something. So to celebrate its arrival there is of course a launch trailer, which in this case acts as a sort of best-of compilation of clips, finally reaching some in-game footage toward the end. Shooting! Monsters carrying off cars! A man having a look inside a drawer! I’m really not sure how that bit got in there, but it’s clear that the whole thing was built to match the tune, John Murphy’s In The House In A Heartbeat, familiar from 28 Days Later.

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Awakening Wakes Tomorrow (US), TrailerFest

John Walker — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:19:28 +0000

It’s been a while since we took a look at the videos for Dragon Age: Awakening, and all of a sudden it comes out tomorrow. Tomorrow already! In the US. Sorry about the confusion. Friday in the UK. (Secretly I’ve finished it, but I can’t tell you that, nor anything else. So shhhhhh.) So after we met Anders, Velanna, and some creatures that certainly weren’t their children, it’s time to meet a lot more of the gang.

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“All is Gauntlet, Nothing is Gauntlet…”

Jim Rossignol — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:14:01 +0000

Bethesda Softworks send word that newly-signed studio, inXile Entertainment (headed up by Brian Fargo, formerly of Interplay), will be making a videogame called Hunted: The Demon’s Forge. It’s a game of the “third-person co-op action” genre. What kind of genre is that? Well, I’m glad I asked myself that, because Bethsoft say this: “Taking control of either E’lara, a ranged weapon expert, or Caddoc, a master swordsman, you must use a variety of weapons, powerful spells, and cover tactics to battle your way through menacing dungeons, overgrown ruins, and downtrodden towns. Discover secrets and complete co-op-based puzzles whilst exploring the sinister world to discover answers to the game’s deep, dark mysteries.”

So it’s basically an Unreal 3-powered hack ‘n’ slash dungeon-crawler with monsters and stuff. Apparently the game allows players to pull off “gruesome co-op kill moves,” which sounds like a thing that would happen in a videogame. More news on this soon, probably! Wow, that was quick, EG have a preview up: here.

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Pride And Falls: Neptune’s Pride Diary Part 6

RPS — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:09:04 +0000

The battle for galactic domination has been reduced to just a handful of titanic empires. Victory, however, hangs in the balance. Will exhaustion finally exact its toll on the generals of this epic war? If you’re enjoying these reports then EXCITINGLY SLOW SPACE WAR AWAITS YOU in Neptune’s Pride. You can also read a version of this diary over on PC Gamer.
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BFBC2: Thoughts And Demolitions

Phill Cameron — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:27:40 +0000

I was playing Borderlands yesterday, and an enemy dived behind some cover. Naturally, I pull out a missile launcher and squeeze off a rocket. As the smoke clears, something strange happens. The cover is still there, untouched by the explosive death I spat at it. It stands, defiant and unmarked. This is what Battlefield: Bad Company 2 does to you. It ruins everything else.
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Pride And Falls: Neptune’s Pride Diary Part 5

RPS — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:17:50 +0000

Empires have risen, and now they are falling. The fifth part of our battle for Neptune’s Pride sees the final contenders struggling for ultimate victory in a long, drawn-out attrition that would tax their very souls… (PCG’s version of this diary is over here.)
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The Sunday Papers

Kieron Gillen — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:00:46 +0000

Sundays are for being at the Image booth at Seattle’s Emerald City Con talking to anyone who has the misfortune to walk past about splendid comics. Do come and say Hi, if you’re around. Which means that Saturday morning is for compiling a list of fine (mostly) games related reading for your delectation while trying to avoid linking to a pop-song, before heading off for the day. And setting it to post.

Lots of responses to the IGF. James Glover pointed us at Greg Costikyan’s fury at the ceremony itself. It’s certainly one of the one of the more interesting responses.

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