More Magicka arrives tomorrow and it’s of the vampiric, necromantic variety. “Being bad feels good” it proclaims in the launch trailer below, to which I must reply that I probably killed more people while trying to be a hero in Magicka than I’ll ever kill by actually putting on an evil hat and setting out to cause harm. I think I’ve sucked all the fun out of Magicka’s jugular already and very tasty it was, but there’s nothing weirdly attractive about this DLC, no Lovecraft or ‘Nam, so it’s probably the first one I’ll pass on. I did enjoy the frolicking pinata ponies though. They were very well done.

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Run for higher ground, for the deluge has begun. As you may be aware, the GDC is in full swing now, which means announcements of a ludic nature are flooding my inbox and I only need to adjust the intricate series of valves that is my protective system ever so slightly to let them slip through, one at a time. Or maybe three at a time, as Paradox have announced a trio of games.

The first two are Dungeonland, in which three players control heroes in a twisted theme park while a fourth plays the Dungeon Master attempting to kill them, and RED Frontier, a multiplayer RTS. Let’s start with the new game from Arrowhead, creators of friend-murdering simulation Magicka. Going by the name The Showdown Effect It’s a side-on multiplayer action game. Here’s how it looks.

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Here’s your other piece of Paradox news, via the fine folks of Strategy Informer, and our Jim stuck in the Swedish wastelands without access to a wifi signal: Magicka has sold a shitload. And there’s more to come, with the announcement of a new expansion pack, The Other Side Of The Coin.

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This is probably old news to you, but it’s new news to me and my ancient Egyptian ancestors told me during my hypnotherapy that the entire universe is just a figment of my imagination, therefore I can post it if I please and if you moan it’s only because I’m imagining someone moaning. Cloud gaming tech Gaikai has been offering streaming demos of various games – most notably Dead Space 2 and Mass Effect 2 – here and there for a while now, but I’ve just discovered that, over on Eurogamer, you can jump into browser-based slices of Crysis 2, Magicka, FIFA 12 and the Witcher 2.

Update: omigodomigodomigod. There are more demos on the Gaikai site. Including FARMING SIMULATOR. Yes! Also, try this link if you’re being region-blocked on the other. It might work: hard to say without catching a few jetplanes to the other side of the world. (more…)

Arrowhead tell us that Magicka: The Stars Are Left should be available at online stores later today and to herald the alignment of the code, here is a pleasing video. The familiar robed figures are present but the combination of Lovecraftian and noir stylings makes them all the more entertaining, even if they’re not accidentally blowing one another to wizbits. Before the release of the DLC the game engine received what is described as a “major overhaul”. I haven’t had a chance to test that out yet, though I will be trying out this blasphemous content as soon as I get my claws on it.

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Magicka is free on Steam this weekend. Download, play, if you like it, buy it for the sale price of £1.99. Thought I’d get that out of the way.

I know it’s only been a couple of days since we mentioned the expansion but if you’re rabidly opposed to Magicka and Lovecraft, you’ll just have to skip past the rest of this post. I apologise in advance to your much abused scroll wheels. Your reward for sticking with me is a fifteen minute video that contains two of the developers, right there on your screen>, answering questions about The Stars Are Left. See for yourself.

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Paradox and Arrowhead have put out a trailer for the forthcoming Magicka paid-for expansion, The Stars Are Left, and you can see it below. The trailer comes with a huge list of tech improvements that will be applied in the additional (free) update, including the vital “less falling through the floor”, which is a patch note that could be added to any game and receive a thumbs up from us. The tweaks are mostly visual improvements, however, so killing those Lovecraftian monsters – including giant pink spiders – will be less likely to send you insane. Something like that.

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Arrowhead and Paradox have announced a new expansion for Magicka. It’s called The Stars Are Left, and it’s taking things a bit Lovecraftian. They explain: “Designed for players who love to craft the hundreds of different spells available in Magicka, this new campaign will pit up to four wizards at once against a horror-mystery inspired [...]

The Paradox/Arrowhead partnership continues to produce some of the best promotional material in gaming. The live action trailer for the new PvP expansion for Magicka is a delight, and you can watch it below.

This new PvP expansion is free, but there are also $.99 map packs, as Paradox explain. There’s “Vulcanus Arena, a sci-fi themed map that doubles as a PvP map and a challenge map,” and “the chilling Frozen Lake map as well as a “stop staring at me, you’re freaking me out” Watch Tower map.” All of which adds up to some solid cheap extras to our favourite comedy mage game. Carry on, Paradox/Arrowhead.
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Arrowhead and Paradox are a cheeky bunch. Magicka’s irreverence became infamous in the moment they announced DLC for a fantasy magic game themed around the Vietnam War. Their cheeky approach has continued, after they learned a while back that the Paradox booth at E3 would be immediately next to Bethesda’s megabooth. The result? See below for the full version.

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