Not at all inspired by John’s visual homage to Day of the Tentacle, I find myself compelled to present this large roster of attractive images from a game I’m rather taken with. UFO: Enemy Unknown, also known as X-COM: UFO Defense, is an exciting new science-fiction tactical action game from British developers Mythos, due for release in October 1994. You’ll need to make sure your IBM-compatible personal computer has been upgraded to 2Mb of RAM and a VGA monitor for this one!

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“You play a character with a giant laser beam and a grapple on a quest for a pair of underpants,” explains the kindly gentleman who tipped us off to the prototype/demo of episodic physics-platformer Tiny & Big: Up That Mountain. Yeah, I’ll bite. And I’m very glad I did. Sure, there are tons of games featuring laser beams – but none of ‘em allow you to slice 100-foot pillars into tiny pieces. (more…)

I seem to be missing where and when this was said, but UK industry site MCV has Sega boss John Clark claiming that the PC market is better than most people seem inclined to report. And Sega should know, because they’re the UK’s second biggest PC publisher thanks to their ownership of Total Warists, The Creative Assembly. “The PC market is third in terms of its year-on-year performance with a decline of 26 per cent, but this doesn’t really reflect the full picture,” said Clark. “The PC digital download business is now a viable sector but somewhat invisible as it’s not yet covered by Chart-Track. The PC market overall is actually performing much better than is currently reported and remains a vital and strong sector to be involved in.”

Interesting.

There are occasions where you can only desperately hope that a game’s name is literal. It’s a bit of a shame that’s not the case for the recently announced Sniper Ghost Warrior, which rather than being about playing a spectral sniper, who presumably uses his invisibility to excellent effect when using poltergeist skills to assassinate targets, is in fact about being an elite sniper carrying out missions in the fictitious South American island, Isla Trueno. In fact, it’s so contrary to my supernatural assumptions that City Interactive’s game is focusing on creating something as realistic as possible.

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[I wrote this article for PC Gamer UK last year. It's the story of my brush with one of gaming's most fearsome map secrets, and a true story, and a love story. Kind of.]>

Strangest game I ever played?

Well, okay.

It started when we met in the underpass at dawn. The memory’s hazy now but I remember it was the underpass, and I remember it was dawn, because it was always dawn in AHL_5am. (more…)

Oh my goodness, there’s a new Hoshi Saga game. And it’s in colour. But let me explain. If you’ve been following carefully you’ll have noticed that every now and then I remember to check the site of Yoshio Ishii, NekoGames, to see if anything new has appeared. Because when something has, it’s always worth a look. And this time: a fourth Hoshi Saga, the blissfully beautiful micro-game collections that ask you to find a star.

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The forums have been all over this. While I’ve yet to play it – it doesn’t have a demo – Distant Worlds seems definitely worth a plug. It’s from Code Force and is a real-time 4X game, basically. Bar all the scope of the genre, its defining feature is how much can be automated beneath you. As in, the empire’s civilians will go about and create their living little empire while you control the high-scale strategy. Reading around threads and AARs – try this ship design one – make me suspect this could be well worth digging into. Footage follows. Anyone played it? (more…)

My friend’s gone on holiday this week and left me in the possession of her prized DS. Which has nothing at all to do with mods (or, indeed, PC gaming), but does mean that I’ve been able to pour every waking second into Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and> still compile a fairly sizeable list of interesting mod news from the past seven days (and a bit beyond). Below the jump is where you’ll find it all. Now, if you’ll excuse me, OBJECTION!> (more…)

Just a quick post about this, I think. Previous MUCH CELEBRATED RPS GAME Mount & Blade’s expandalone was released today. Mount & Blade: Warband’s primary attraction is its focusing on multiplayer, allowing 64 players to bash the flax of out of one another, but there’s much more which is worth of comment. Graphical upgrade is promising, but additions to let you rule a faction and force people to become your vassals is pretty neat. But best is doing what I like to call “the Quinns option”, where you can hitch up with a lady by romancing her with poetry. Sexy poetry! Or you can be a right bastard and do it for political gain. Anyway, launch trailer follows and you can buy from places on the electric internet. Time for a yelp, I think: yay! (more…)

So this> is what Will Wright did next. It seemed highly likely that the mighty-brained chap behind the Sims, Sim City and Spore would be working on some kind of absurdly ambitious game project in the wake of leaving Maxis and EA. And indeed he is – but he’s doing it via television. Remember television? It’s that old thing that’s like a game consisting only of cutscenes.

Anyway, Will Wright + TV = The Creation Project. (more…)