It's a tricky balancing act, making a fan project based on a copyrighted game. On the one hand, you want to tell everyone about it; on the other, telling everyone about it is a good way to attract the attention of some joyless legal department. The cat's well and truly out of the bag for OOT 2D, so I thought I'd link to it while it's still available to download and play. It's a 2D remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, made using a mixture of assets from previous top-down Zeldas, but with new graphics and music included too. There's quite a bit of placeholder and unfinished stuff in this very early demo, but it's a surprisingly faithful recreation of the opening to the N64 classic.

As you can probably imagine, remaking a 3D, polygon-filled game as a 2D, pixel-art-based adventure is one hell of an endeavour, and the team behind it are currently around 10% of the way into the development process, according to the counter on the game's page. The early demo, linked above, is worth a play if you remember the original, and you're particularly prone to bouts of nostalgia—everyone else will be wondering what all the fuss is about.

Here's the opening cutscene, in 2D form. Maybe we'll get an official Zelda on PC someday? (Ta, Eurogamer.)

It's a tricky balancing act, making a fan project based on a copyrighted game. On the one hand, you want to tell everyone about it; on the other, telling everyone about it is a good way to attract the attention of some joyless legal department. The cat's well and truly out of the bag for OOT 2D, so I thought I'd link to it while it's still available to download and play. It's a 2D remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, made using a mixture of assets from previous top-down Zeldas, but with new graphics and music included too. There's quite a bit of placeholder and unfinished stuff in this very early demo, but it's a surprisingly faithful recreation of the opening to the N64 classic.

As you can probably imagine, remaking a 3D, polygon-filled game as a 2D, pixel-art-based adventure is one hell of an endeavour, and the team behind it are currently around 10% of the way into the development process, according to the counter on the game's page. The early demo, linked above, is worth a play if you remember the original, and you're particularly prone to bouts of nostalgia everyone else will be wondering what all the fuss is about.

Here's the opening cutscene, in 2D form. Maybe we'll get an official Zelda on PC someday? (Ta, Eurogamer.)

The name World of Tanks most likely conjures up visions of great, plodding machines blasting away at each other in explosive battles of attrition, and sometimes that's an accurate perception. But the new Tank Rally mode takes the game in an unexpected direction, where speed, not guns, is what really counts. (Okay, yes, the guns count too.)

Players logging into World of Tanks will find a shiny new M24 Chaffee "sport tank" in their garage, which, as a special event unit, will not replace any existing tanks nor take up an existing garage slot. The souped-up light tank, as explained in the preview video, boasts a 1000 horsepower engine giving it a top speed of—brace yourselves—90 km/h.

The race itself is a 3v3 battle on a divided track, and it is in fact a battle: Victory can be earned by either taking the capture point at the finish line, or destroying all the tanks on the opposing side. Gaps in the track divider lets tankers shoot at enemies as they race or switch over to drive on the opposite side, and there are even a few ramps, for those who prefer to make a more dramatic entrance.

Successful racers will earn the Racer 2014 medal and can also score bonus experience, a day of premium access and an extra garage slot. Sadly, the Tank Rally is a time-limited event: It's live now and runs until 4 am PDT on October 13. Get all the details at WorldOfTanks.com.

Dreamfall Chapters is split up into 'books' (don't ask), and the release date of the first book has just been revealed, buried at the end of a fluffy trailer. It's October 21st! AKA Not Very Far Away. Despite not having played either of the previous games—The Longest Journey or its sequel Dreamfall—I find myself longing after this episodic 3D adventure quite a bit. It does look a bit lovely, after all. While I go to install TLJ, stick around for that announcement trailer, in case you thought I was fibbing or anything.

Well there you go. It's not a very exciting video, but it might be a little informative, if you haven't been following the game before now. As with the previous titles, Chapters takes place across the twin realms of Stark and Arcadia, a sci-fi metropolis and a magicky fantasy land, respectively.

Here's a more interesting look at Reborn, the first part of Dreamfall's grand return:

Dreamfall Chapters is split up into 'books' (don't ask), and the release date of the first book has just been revealed, buried at the end of a fluffy trailer. It's October 21st! AKA Not Very Far Away. Despite not having played either of the previous games The Longest Journey or its sequel Dreamfall I find myself longing after this episodic 3D adventure quite a bit. It does look a bit lovely, after all. While I go to install TLJ, stick around for that announcement trailer, in case you thought I was fibbing or anything.



Well there you go. It's not a very exciting video, but it might be a little informative, if you haven't been following the game before now. As with the previous titles, Chapters takes place across the twin realms of Stark and Arcadia, a sci-fi metropolis and a magicky fantasy land, respectively.

Here's a more interesting look at Reborn, the first part of Dreamfall's grand return:

Ice-Pick Lodge's remake of their first game Pathologic is going ahead, which is to say that it's vaulted over its Kickstarter target, with six days to go. This new version of the bonkers, disease-ridden, fascinating survival-adventure game will arrive in 2016, and the next few days will decide whether it'll feature the additional content mentioned in its (fairly restrained) stretch goals.

To celebrate the occasion, Ice-Pick have released a few new images featuring all the weird-masked spider-men, creepy Uncle Festers, and ragged Victorian urchins you could ever want. I've included the most screenshotlike below, along with a teaser trailer we don't seem to have posted before now.

Ice-Pick Lodge's remake of their first game Pathologic is going ahead, which is to say that it's vaulted over its Kickstarter target, with six days to go. This new version of the bonkers, disease-ridden, fascinating survival-adventure game will arrive in 2016, and the next few days will decide whether it'll feature the additional content mentioned in its (fairly restrained) stretch goals.

To celebrate the occasion, Ice-Pick have released a few new images featuring all the weird-masked spider-men, creepy Uncle Festers, and ragged Victorian urchins you could ever want. I've included the most screenshotlike below, along with a teaser trailer we don't seem to have posted before now.

Gearbox swung by last week to show me a bit of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. I spoke with Anthony Burch (writer) and Joel Eschler (producer) about what's new in the game from Borderlands 2. Check back tomorrow some bonus footage of The Pre-Sequel running on the LPC.

Flat Earth Games' Metrocide is a top-down, stealthy, arcade, cyberpunk, assassination game, and great now I have to order another pack of commas. The first trailer made my eyebrows raise almost up to my hairline, and they still haven't returned to their resting position, so thanks a lot, Flat Earth, for that. Now the devs have released a video walkthrough, walking us through a few assassinations in the game's first metropolitan area. Fans of Hitman, Gunpoint, or the birdseye-view of the original Grand Theft Autos are going to want to stick around.

The above video shows a world swimming in detail, but my favourite is Metrocide's randomly generated naming system, drawn from the 2013 US census. Your goal in each area is to leave it, and you do this by accruing cash through assassinations on named targets, marks that can be taken out through a variety of means. Stealthily kill someone—for instance, by shooting them out of sight of cameras and then dumping their body in a pond, as per an example in the above video—and you'll receive a cash bonus. (Cash can be spent on upgrades, like the decoy up there.) I'm a little worried that I'll need a magnifying glass to see what's going on, but aside from that this is a very encouraging video, suggesting a game as open to experimentation as I was hoping.

Metrocide is coming to Steam Early Access in mid-October, for $6.99. The price will go up to $12.99 for the full release, which is expected "late 2014". We interviewed the developers earlier in the year.

Flat Earth Games' Metrocide is a top-down, stealthy, arcade, cyberpunk, assassination game, and great now I have to order another pack of commas. The first trailer made my eyebrows raise almost up to my hairline, and they still haven't returned to their resting position, so thanks a lot, Flat Earth, for that. Now the devs have released a video walkthrough, walking us through a few assassinations in the game's first metropolitan area. Fans of Hitman, Gunpoint, or the birdseye-view of the original Grand Theft Autos are going to want to stick around.



The above video shows a world swimming in detail, but my favourite is Metrocide's randomly generated naming system, drawn from the 2013 US census. Your goal in each area is to leave it, and you do this by accruing cash through assassinations on named targets, marks that can be taken out through a variety of means. Stealthily kill someone for instance, by shooting them out of sight of cameras and then dumping their body in a pond, as per an example in the above video and you'll receive a cash bonus. (Cash can be spent on upgrades, like the decoy up there.) I'm a little worried that I'll need a magnifying glass to see what's going on, but aside from that this is a very encouraging video, suggesting a game as open to experimentation as I was hoping.

Metrocide is coming to Steam Early Access in mid-October, for $6.99. The price will go up to $12.99 for the full release, which is expected "late 2014". We interviewed the developers earlier in the year.