That story about word of a new Metro coming in 2017? Yeah, the publishers have responding with a statement saying that sure, they’re planning another one but nah, don’t expect such a thing next year. Where a site for the original Metro novels once said 2017 would bring a new game following on from Metro 2035, it now talks about “An untitled Metro project” due in “?”. Gosh, what ever could that be? … [visit site to read more]

We’ll be revisiting the subways of post-apocalyptic Moscow next year, it seems, according to a website for the book series first-person shooters Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light are based on. With the English edition of Dmitry Glukhovsky’s trilogy-capping novel Metro 2035 coming in December, the site has added of a timeline of the series with a little note saying yup, another game will follow. … [visit site to read more]

OOGILY BOOGILY BOOGA BOO!

I apologise for shaking you , leaving you with fingernails bitten as you sit in , but it’s important that I prepare you for Hallowe’en shocks. And for this next surprise: Darksiders: Warmastered Edition [official site] has been delayed. The revamped rerelease of Vigil Games’ 2010 Apocalyptic action-adventure was due on October 25th, in time for the day we all know as The Big Spooky, but publishers THQ Nordic have pushed it back by one month. … [visit site to read more]

In 2001, Band of Brothers was still airing on HBO and Canadian developer Relic Entertainment was finishing up development of Impossible Creatures, its freaky animal RTS. Space and sci-fi had been its muse for years, but it found, in the increased cultural interest in World War 2, another setting and the impetus for Company of Heroes.

Relic celebrated the game’s tenth anniversary this month. It remains one of the most acclaimed RTS games of all time, lavished in 2006 with glowing reviews and heaps of awards. I ll mostly remember it as the reason I got chewed out by a lecturer for dozing in class, after a long night of liberating Europe.

We ve talked four of the original developers into taking a trip down a potholed, tank-lined memory lane with us.

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Today, in news I didn’t think I’d be writing: peachy-keen action-RPG Titan Quest [official site] has received a huge update, more than ten years after its release. Everyone who owned Titan Quest on Steam is now upgraded to the Anniversary Edition, where performance is improved, bugs are fixed, balance is tweaked, GameSpy guff is cut, and oh, the Immortal Throne expansion is included free too. Cripes! The game’s now sold on GOG and all. Unlike the terrible creature wearing the skin of Atari, the creature that’s trying on the skin of THQ seems quite friendly so far.

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THQ is dead, long live NordicTHQ. The world’s greatest purveyor of Good 7/10 Action Games sadly succumbed to bankruptcy and closed down in 2013, but most of its assets, studios and franchises were bought up by various other firms. Gearbox got Homeworld, Sega got Relic, Deep Silver got Saints Row and young Swedish publisher Nordic Games got Darksiders, Red Faction, Supreme Commander and a bunch of other stuff left among the ashes. As well as, it transpires, the THQ name. Nordic is now to be known as ‘THQNordic‘. … [visit site to read more]

We don t do scores on RPS, but sometimes we mourn for the inability to deploy a 7/10. The ur-score, the most double-edged of critical swords, the good but not great, the better than it deserves to be, the guilty pleasure, the bungled aspiration, the knows exactly what it is, the straight down the line. One score that can mean so much.

There is one particular type of 7/10 game that heralds joy, not disappointment: the solid, maybe ever so slightly wonky action game with no interest in being anything more than a solid action game.

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Titan Quest is my favourite clickety-clicky hack and slash game. It doesn’t have the intelligent dynamic design of Soldak’s games, the meaty character building of Path of Exile or the polish of Diablo III, but it’s mythological worlds and monsters are beautiful. It’s bright where so many are dark (including the creators’ own follow-up Grim Dawn) and now that I’ve mentioned it I want to play through the whole thing again.

At its best, Vikings: Wolves of Midgard [official site] is like Titan Quest transported from Hellenic lands to the frozen axe-grinding of Norse mythology, but the early build I played fumbles some of the ARPG fundamentals.>

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Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

I suspect> but I don’t know> that Relic’s stompy-squishy-shooty Only War third-person action game Space Marine is one that has aged rather well over the years. I base this on two things: one, occasional enthusiastic chatter on Twitter. Two: a regular, strong urge to revisit it.

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2010’s Apocalyptic (that’s with a capital A) hack ‘n’ slash Darksiders [official site] is being revamped for a prettied-up re-release, like its sequel already has. And like the sequel with its ‘Deathinitive Edition’ subtitle, Darksiders is picking up a dreadful title: the Warmastered Edition. Like ‘remastered’, yeah? But War because the game’s about that surly fella out the Four Horseman? The preponderance of puns is the surest sign of the impending end times, if you ask me. But this surely brings us closer to a Darksiders III?

… [visit site to read more]