Archive for October, 2011
Andrew Hume and Richard Clifford, the creators of Space Pirates and Zombies, detail the touch-and-go nature of its development, the inspiration for some of the ships, the pitfalls of making the game the way they made it, and what’s coming down the pike in terms of new content and a sequel. They also offer some tips and a rare bit of insight into the ecology of a space zombie. No joke. Hume explains some stuff that I had no idea was going on in this game. The term “meaty goop” is involved.
If you don’t have Space Pirates and Zombies yet, I haven’t done my job very well (this review and this column didn’t convince you?). So here’s my last shot at redemption. Post in the comments section and I’ll pick two names to receive a Steam code for a free copy at 6pm on Wednesday, October 12.
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In a press release announcing that you can now pre-order The Sims 3: Pets, which includes cats, Electronic Arts writes the following:
Be sure to take care of your cat’s needs or they may scratch and dig their claws into household furniture items. Relieve their destructive nature by taking them to the cat park…
I have had cats most of my life and I have never once heard of a cat park. Although, from a cat’s perspective, I suspect every park is a cat park.
Experience cat parks on October 18th with the release of Sims 3: Pets.
If you work at Blizzard for five years, you get a sword. If you work there for ten years, you get a shield. If you work there for fifteen years, you get a ring. I am not making this up.
No word on how long you have to work there to get pauldrons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ov7Spt8XuY
As a guy who always keeps four Gamecube controllers and a copy of Beach Spikers within easy reach of his Nintendo Wii, I think it’s about time someone made a movie that is not just playing balls.
Hey, Take-Two Interactive, are you guys seeing this TV show in development for ABC?
Ex-Comm is described as a present-day “presidential procedural” and a cross between the paranormal suspense of The X-Files and the political intrigue of The West Wing. It follows a newly-elected President and his top secret “Executive Committee” (a.k.a. Ex-Comm), the government’s covert team of America’s most elite minds who investigate and protect our nation from the strangest occurrences and “conspiracy theory truths” out there.
Take-Two’s Marin studio is developing the game XCOM, which details a government program to shoot aliens from behind cover, and is based on the game X-COM. Hopefully Take-Two will patch in the hyphen before the game comes out. At least the TV show gets that part right.
At a recent press event, Electronic Arts let a bunch of us press guys just sit down at the beginning of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and do whatever we wanted. It was a lot more instructive than the demo at this year’s E3.
If there’s one thing I came away with after playing Kingdoms of Amalur for a few hours, it’s that it doesn’t really compare with Diablo III, Skyrim, or Mass Effect 3. The closest analog I could come up with was Divinity II. You probably didn’t play that, so it might not help.
Read the preview here. I’ll also be on the next episode of Roleplayers’ Realm, Gamepro’s RPG podcast, to talk more indepth about the game.
Someone who likes Rage apparently tweeted something to the effect that the negative reviews of Rage were just reviewers wishing they were playing Skyrim already. Or so I’ve been told, as I don’t really follow Twitter and if I did, I wouldn’t have that guy’s tweets on my twitlist.
And while I do wish Skyrim would hurry up and come out, what I hoped Rage would be is the following:
a game with powerful ideas about how weapons might look in a post-apocalypse, and how to make gunplay distinct, and how to turn corridors into realized worlds, and how lighting can matter, and how to create interesting bad guys out of familiar scraps.
Okay, maybe not all those things. One or two would have been nice. Metro 2033 managed to accomplish all of those things. In fact, I’d argue it does everything Rage failed to do, and it does it without the driving minigame filler.
You can read my full review of Rage here.
This week we welcome to the podcast Jason Townsend, who is arguably too learned, polite, and uninterested in Rage to hang out with Tom Chick and Jason McMaster. But being from Nova Scotia (pictured*), he’s too affable to turn them down.
* Because the Google image search for “Wehrmacht penis envy”, another topic of discussion on this episode, wasn’t nearly as fruitful.
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This week’s featured community level made me skeptical at first, thinking I was in for a cheap version of the first stealth game I ever played. But The Thief is not that. It is its own unique experience, and it quickly hooked me. It’s got two elements–in addition to the nifty music that plays throughout–to recommend it. The jumping dynamic is great. Actually, it’s more of a leaping dynamic, for in this level when you press L1 your sackboy executes great leaps from cliff to cliff as he makes his escape from the netherworld. I really grooved on that. The other feature is ladder climbing, which in itself is no big deal but I don’t recall running across it before, and the sound your little sackdude makes as he climbs is reminiscent of the clomp of horse hooves. Put like that it sounds annoying, but for some reason I found it oddly enjoyable.
The best thing about The Thief is that while it is a complete playable level, it is also a work in progress. The level linked above is the first chapter, and the designer (ALADCV) notes that Chapter 2 is 5% done.
Actually, this was a very good week for LBP community levels. Every couple of months Weekly LBP has a week like this, and given that and the fact that there’s been a minor clamoring for more LBP in this column, let’s stick with it.
After the jump, hint hint Continue reading →
I’m sorry, Dark Souls. It’s not working out. You’re too demanding, and too obscure, and too moody. I don’t get you. I don’t have time for you. It’s over.
After the jump, it’s not me, it’s you Continue reading →
There’s nothing quite like an upcoming expansion to dissuade you from digging into a detailed strategy game like Victoria 2, even though it’s been getting steady updates lately. For instance, the January 24 release of the House Divided add-on, which doesn’t just add a more detailed American Civil War. From the first installment of the weekly developer updates:
…the main aim is to make the game better all round. We plan to improve politics, the economy, uncivilised nation’s path to reform and modernisation, warfare, the UI, game speed, and more!
Who wants to play Victoria 2 anymore without all that stuff? But if you wait for the January 24th add-on, you’re only a scant two weeks from the February 7th release of Crusader Kings 2. Oh, Paradox, you never make things easy, do you?
This is not a review of Rage (that will be along shortly and it won’t be pretty).
This is instead a list of absurdities I noted while playing. Some of them are minor. Some of them are flat-out nitpicks. In a better game, I might not have cared about or even noticed them.
After the jump, the times I went “you have got to be kidding me, Rage” Continue reading →
I suppose I’m resigned to the November 1 DLC for Gears of War 3 adding three new maps. I’ve still got plenty to do with the included maps, which I’m enjoying in horde mode and, to a lesser extent, in beast mode. Come November 1st, it might feel entirely reasonable to fork over another $10 to the company that sold three million copies in a week. That’s where we are today: $60 for a game with six maps, but $70 for a game with nine maps. If you don’t like it, be happy with the six maps and spend your $10 on something nice for the wife and kids.
But then I see that the DLC will extend the horde mode’s RPG system by letting you level up your defenses beyond the current limit. It will even add a command center.
A brand new type of fortification that allows you to call in fire support from sniper teams, mortar strikes and even multiple Hammers of Dawn.
Hey, I want that! I also want the new decoy upgrade, and the rockets for my silverback mech, which I think is that robot thing up there on the right. But shouldn’t I have gotten this stuff in the core game? Wasn’t horde mode supposed to be a complete package included with the game? Isn’t this a bit like buying a copy of Brink that stops your character at level 18, and then charges you $10 for levels 19 and 20?
I realize the battle for DLC is over. We’ve lost and publishers have won. It’s a bit late to complain about it, but I can’t help it. If we could hash it out again, I’d rail twice as loudly. Also, the South will rise again, Bush totally stole the 2000 election, and you can pry my laser disc player from my cold dead hands.
Sometimes when you’re playing D&D — so I’ve been told — the dungeonmaster feels sorry for you because you’re doing so poorly. So maybe you kill a kobold and find, hey, it was carrying a Vorpal Blade. I’m pretty sure that’s what just happened to me in Dark Souls.
After the jump, only pity can explain why I found what I found Continue reading →
Delays aren’t that unusual. What is unusual is a delay announced the day before a game’s release date. And when the new release date is as vague as “later this month”, announced on the third day of the month, this is not your garden variety last-minute hitch. Whatever’s going on, you won’t be playing Payday: the Heist this week.
