To celebrate achieving a place in our advent calendar, Blizzard has released a demo of their hot young RTS StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty. It contains the first 3 missions of the game’s single-player campaign, plus the chance to slap around the AI in skirmish mode. No online shenanigans, sadly. Get it here. Alright, so I don’t have “evidence” or “a source saying” that this is because of our advent calendar, but I do have my gut impulse, which is a powerful thing and leads me around like a horse on a leash and has yet to be wrong. Anyway, I’ve put a video of Day9 doing his commentary thing after the jump. If you haven’t seen the state of the SC2 match commentary community, take a look. (more…)

Superbly-named indie devs Kraken Empire have sent word that they are very busy working on a space-physics shooter, Kromaia. They claim that by introducing real-physics to a good control system, they are creating something really special for space combat. They say: “Our universe feels completely coherent because every object is physically modelled. As a result the game is really immersive as we were expecting from a game without interface that takes place in an extremely solid and coherent world… Making a black hole is not difficult by itself, but when you plan a battle between different enemies firing hundreds of projectiles and colliding with asteroids while all of them are attracted by the black hole…”

Yeah, we get the idea. PHYSICS! There’s a video of the game in action, below. They’re also looking for some testers. Go check out the blog for more on that. (more…)

Speaking of Codemasters, DiRT 3′s latest videoramic offering is showing off Ken Block talking about “Gymkhana”, which is basically trick-driving an obstacle course in a modified rally car. The video mixes real footage with game footage, so that you can experience the queasy dissonance of virtual light still> not quite looking like the real thing. Speaking of things that are funny looking: Ken Block. (Also they should have called it “dIIIrt”, right?) (more…)

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising was disappointing. It had the big sprawling landscapes that pluck my heart strings, but the missions were dull and the game was basically a bit wonky on release. Not to mention all the other problems with it being useless online. Will Red River be any better? I hope it will at least hit a higher standard for the main game. The Codemasters team are likely to have hit their stride now and made this a better game, and the noises they’re making about mission design influencing level design are positive. It’s also very pretty indeed, as you can see with this latest bit of footage, via Blues, below. Yeah, I will play this one too, just to be sure… (more…)

You might recall that I had a riot with Warsow last year, and I do intend to make it an RPS Game Club game in the new year, assuming I can sort us out a private server. Well, version 0.6 of the Quake-like fast-paced FPS is out now, with new game modes, new power ups, and a bunch of performance and engine updates. It’s free, too. Worth grabbing, if you’re in the mood for something fast. The community is small and pretty hardcore, but it’s an excellent piece of work, and you will have some great games if you persist.

Death or unthinkable evil? That’s apparently the choice that is open to the denizens of the world of Hunted: The Demon’s Forge. Tricky one, eh? Just how bad can unthinkable evil be, really>? Mmm, well, this latest footage gives us a taste of what’s actually afoot in this action-slasher (Gauntlet rides again…) coming up next year, with wizened woods and shattered medieval cities. It’s looking a lot like Tolkien tapping his foot to heavy metal, or something. Go take a look. (more…)

I’ve just realised that Bulletstorm‘s above killer robot wheel might in fact have merely detached from an even bigger killer robot truck. Wouldn’t that be amazing? People Can Fly, feel free to drop me a job offer. I expect at least £5,000 per year plus unlimited access to the coffee machine. Also, I want the job title of Ludographer>. You see, Ludo is ancient Greek for “play”, and “grapher” is ancient Greek for somebody who works with 3D graphics engines. Look, I’m even posting your funny little Happy Holidays video. I quite like it. It reminds me of Serious Sam. (more…)

There are always sequels. Always. But there aren’t many sequels in a year that are as significant as this. What could it be? You already know, don’t you? (more…)

It’s pretty lucky that LewieP exists, you know. He’s rounded up the entire Steam mega-sale in all its glory over here. Yep, that’s a pretty serious sale. The most pressing bargain appears to be Super Meat Boy, which is £3 for just the next five and a bit hours. Hop to it!

I’d probably pick up Armed & Dangerous if you’ve never played it, and I wouldn’t get Perimeter 2, because that was a bit rubbish. Also you can’t go wrong with Hitman: Blood Money for super cheap. That is a genuinely excellent game.

I mean it! It would be a tradgedy if you forgot that Lord of the Rings: War In The North exists, because it looks like it might be alright? Who knows. As we can see in the following trailer, the co-operative action game is certainly looking co-operative and actiony. There’s also a new website, where you can read that players will be able to “bloody their axes on a wide range of deadly enemies and traverse both established and never-before-seen locations,” while enjoying “impactful character progression”. Hooray! I hate limp, soggy character progression, me. (more…)