There was, for a while, a theory that implosion of the high-end MMOs was inevitable but boutique online games would fill the resulant void. The trend towards big MMOs switching to free to play has at least delayed that collapse (and quite possibly extended it indefinitely), and sadly we haven’t really seen as dramatic a rise of smaller, more esoteric and/or indie MMOs as hoped. There are a few for sure – e.g. Wurm, Darkfall, Love, Darkwind – but really the expected explosion of alterna-virtual worlds seems to have centred around Facebook games, digi-playparks for kids and, abstractly, Minecraft multiplayer. So it’s good to see an MMO in the relatively classic sense approached by what appears to be a resolutely indie developer.

The Missing Ink, whose open alpha is expected next month, has an especially charming art style – paper cut-out adventurers tally-hoing through a distorted 3D world – and the added bonus of a personal sandbox construction sub-world for each player. I don’t entirely grasp how all this works in practice, but it looks both lovely and ambitious. (more…)

Update: I’d missed a delay announcement. Gunpoint won’t be home by Christmas.

Games journalist and professional Francois Truffaut imitator Tom Francis is making the bold leap from critic to creator with Gunpoint, a heist game without procedurally generated cities but with projectile trousers and rewired security systems that cause light switches to activate doors which then clobber people in the face. The video below is the first to show the new visuals in action and it’s also an in-depth guide to how the game will play. In the video, Tom also asks whether people would consider parting with cash for the game, to which I respond by drawing your attention to the existence of a mission called Defenestrator.

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I was nosing at Uncharted 3 on the playbox last night (professional curiosity!), marvelling at its graphics and likeable characters but becoming exasperated at its extreme train-track constraints, and its acrobatic adventures had me yearning for another good Indiana Jones game. A character who doesn’t say too much but when he does it’s gold; a character who doesn’t immediately die if he jumps from the wrong place because he’s got a whip to save him; a character who doesn’t say ‘crap’ every two minutes. When did we last get a proper, decent Indiana Jones game? There were, of course, two Lego Indiana Joneses, but I’ll discount those because, while joyful, they’re pastiche in many ways. Sensibly, there wasn’t a specific one for the Doohickey Of The Crystal Thingum, as no-one wants to play a game about four old people shuffling around a CGI temple while Shia LeBeouf trails along doing his best plank of meat impression.

Could FarmVille overlords Zynga resurrect Indy’s gaming legend? They’ve just rebranded – apparently permanently – their Facebook game Adventure World as Indiana Jones Adventure World. Does this mean that if adventure has a name, it’s micropayments? Let’s take a look. (more…)

The drip-drip of information for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6: Patriots begins apace now, even though Tom’s still furiously at work for at least another year before it’s out. As the seemingly forgotten series comes back to life, it’s time for a new home-grown enemy, the True Patriots, who are as far as I can tell the militarised wing of the Tea Party movement. Which, according to this press release, is “capturing the reality of modern-day terrorism”!

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“You’re going to bleed like a dead cat.”

At first, I thought this was just clunky dialogue, some poor writer struggling to come up with yet another cat-based reference for Batman: Arkham City’s thugs to bellow at Catwoman, as a break from the rather more disturbing threats and insults they so frequently offer. Many have commented that the game’s dialogue, especially incidental comments from thugs, is unimpressive. And sometimes troubling too. Puzzling, given how lavish and polished the game is in almost all other respects. Then I sat down and thought about it properly. What if there was something I was missing? What if that line, “you’re going to bleed like a dead cat” was rich in subtext and nuance I was just too ignorant and lazy to pick up on? And what if, in turn, that meant all the apparently wretched incidental dialogue in the game had been misinterpreted? What if we’d made a terrible mistake? There was only one thing I could do – a careful, stage by stage analysis of the sentence in question. Only then could I truly uncover its mysteries. Some might ask why this game, of all games, should be subjected to such painstaking analysis. I have one word that perfectly addresses all such queries: “because>.” (more…)

Beep, bloop, boppity-beep goes the music. Jump, splat, zap go the Tiny Plumbers. Goombas didn’t burst into a shower of garish red pixels when Mario jumped on their bonces but otherwise, a quick look at this odd little indie platformer could have you thinking it’s little more than a tired spoof. There are even different suits to change into, pipes to travel through and princesses to rescue. However, beyond the obvious references, which are not simply aesthetic, there is plenty to discover. Most importantly, it’s not obvious from the trailer that the levels are procedurally generated. And wait ’til the sky police chase the hovering plumber, their sirens/screams drowning out everything and betokening doom.

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I love saying “expandalone”. Say it out loud. Sometimes those cute little terms that spring up can be nauseating, but expandalone is the best. EXPANDALONE! Creative Assembly have announced an EXPANDALONE for Total War: Shogun 2, called Fall Of The Samurai.

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When he first laid eyes on it, grid-based RPG Legend of Grimrock caused John to claw at the screen in a futile attempt to get his hands on it. I’m not sure if he always plays games by plucking them out of his monitor and laying them out on a coffee table but it may be the case. Along with the announcement of a delay until early next year, developers Almost Human send word that the project has reached beta. There’s a new video as well, which manages to excite me by showing inventory management the likes of which it’s all too easy to desire romantic liaisons with. Then there are the puzzles, the pressure plates, the man casually falling into a pit…I AM CLAWING AT THE SCREEN

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All these bloody Karks, coming into our country marrying our jobs… I think they should all go Back To Karkand. I hate myself.

Look, let’s just move on. Just watch the latest BF3 video, showing the Gulf of Oman below.

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In the first part of this in-depth conversation about The Secret World, the talk focused on the game’s fiction and mythology. As the discussion continues, we explore how different the game will be to other MMOs as well as talking about the importance of lore. After covering connections to Indiana Jones and Tintin, the questions turn to other matters as we wonder aloud how long we may have to wait for more Dreamfall. The interview followed a full day hands-on session with the game and those present were: Marten Bruusgaard, lead designer of The Secret World, lead content designer Joel Bylos and the game’s writer/director, Ragnar Tørnquist. We were also joined by Norwegian journalist Knut Gaute Vardenær.>

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