Only a short post, because it is only a short trailer. One of those trailer for a trailer singularly 21st century things, in fact. But it’s a chance to see the new Thief’s engine in action, sort of, and find out a date on which we’ll hopefully see and hear rather a lot more of Nu-Garrett and his light-fingered reinvention. (more…)
“Can I steal from these market stalls?”“Of course, but there are guards…”“Can I lead monsters into the market and if I do will the guards attack them?”“Of course, but…”“Can I kill that chicken? Will the guards mind if I kill that chicken?”I’m playing Original Sin with one of the people who is responsible for making Original Sin and I am trying to cause trouble.>
It’s odd how much I want to indulge in futuristic corporate espionage and to be a bionic business-bastard. If you gave me a game about being the sort of violent attack stooge that A Popular Generic SmartFruit company undoubtedly hires to burn down Samuel Sung’s Telephonic Emporiums, I’d go ‘tsk’ and return to the important task of playing Super House of Dead Ninjas (splendid; words soon). However, if that attack stooge and his bosses live in the future and have metal nostrils, count me in. Net Gain is a strategy game in which the player controls a nefarious company in the near future. The Kickstarter ends in two days, there has been plenty more information released since it launched and the final possible stretch goal sounds fantastic.
I’ll start this by saying that, to date, I’ve not been at all impressed by the PC Gaming Alliance, an organisation which seems to have been charging its members large sums to do God only knows what in near-silence, while PC gaming has busily got on with resurging dramatically all by itself. So I’m not entirely inclined to take their report on the current state of PC gamingland at face value, especially given that Steam famously doesn’t share sales figures, but at the same time it’s always nice to hear a big, positive number. By their and their analysts’ reckoning, PC gaming is now a “$20 billion global market with record revenues of $6.8 billion,” up 8% from last year. (more…)
It’s not actually called Host Harder, but it should have been, right? All I’m saying is Double Fine, if you want to pay me thousands of dollars to spend my days writing lazy comedic subtitles based on the names of 80s action movies, you know where I am. Call me. Any time. Any time at all. Wait, I had to step out for a minute – you didn’t call while I was away, did you? Call again now. I’m right here. Right by the phone. Waiting.
And while I wait, I shall be playing Host Master Deux: Quest For Identity (see what I mean? For God’s sakes, Double Fine), the sequel to the 2009 adventure game-ette about Schafer preparing to host the GDC Award Ceremony. (more…)
Rome II, then. I’ve just seen The Creative Assembly’s Al Bickham playing the recently-entrailered Teutoburg Forest battle on a big screen at GDC in San Francisco. As is so often the case with viewing games from the perspective of rapidly blogged trailers and press releases, I’d previously been unable to see much of what was new or appealing about this new Total War game. I knew it was in there, of course, but these things generally only reveal themselves in the busy mess of play. Now, with an inundation of pixels having gone through my eyes, I am excited.
Tiny men are rushing to their deaths.> (more…)
Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk See Space Hulk
I wonder if Telltale are worrying about Difficult Second Album Syndrome, despite Fables: The Wolf Among Us actually being about their dozenth adventure game series. The rapture their Walking Dead series was met with puts them, if not actually on the A-list then at least on the waiting list for the A-list. By which I mean they’re on the list of developers who I’d say are on the list to be on the list. Maybe I should do a list of all of them., but to be honest I feel a bit too listless to bother.
The Wolf Among Us, then. It’s an episodic adventure game based on the modern-day fairy tales, Big Bad (were)Wolf-starring DC comic series Fables. (more…)
SHOCKING DEVELOPMENTS. Metal Gear Solid 5 is an actual, factual thing, as revealed during Kojima Productions’ GDC panel. But wait, that’s not all. Are you ready to ratchet up the vein-searing voltage? OK, here goes: The Phantom Pain was just a promotional stunt! It was Metal Gear all along>, just like no man, woman, child, infant, or single-celled organism could’ve surmised from painfully obvious evidence. Now, though, you probably ought to flee into your local neighborhood tire factory, because here comes the most electric news of all. In spite of Hideo Kojima’s repeated claims that Metal Gear Solid 5/Ground Zeroes/The Phantom Pain’s demos have been running on PC, Konami still won’t confirm or deny a PC version for some reason.
All this talk of sexism isn’t going away, nor should it. The gaming industry’s sick, and the symptoms are plain as day. Mystifyingly often, however, the immediate reaction to even the faintest hint of that suggestion is “No, nuh-uh! You just want to censor expression! Give me one good reason we actually need to change.”* Well, if you really want to move beyond “Because jeez, it’s basic human decency to treat someone else the way you’d like to be treated,” Dragon Age III lead writer David Gaider’s got a laundry list of practical reasons for you. 14 years at one of the most influential studios out there, after all, will do that to you. Especially when it’s one that’s certainly not innocent of mistakes and missteps of its own. Prior to Gaider’s GDC talk on the very same subject, I caught up with him to discuss why sexism (and any sort of “-ism,” really) is bad for everyone: you, me, the industry, and of course, women or anyone else directly affected.>