The thing that I posted about last week, with the free copy of Empire Earth Gold and the 50% off most everything in the Good Old Games back catalogue, is happening right now. So if you somehow have any money left after having been repeatedly mugged by indie bundles, here’s where to go. Off you go. Why yes, I am watching as you walk. That’s a nice wiggle you’ve got there, lad.

I remember Empire Earth quite fondly. I think I scored it 80-something percent in one of my earliest PC gamer reviews. Wonder how it holds up today? The game, not the review. The review is almost certainly terrible.

The pay-what-you-want indie bundles are out there. They can’t be bargained with. They can’t be reasoned with. They don’t feel pity for your bank account, or remorse, or fear that gaming sites will stop posting about them. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until you can’t read any more news.

So, Indie Royale 4, the Xmas Bundle: The Blackwell Trilogy: Remastered (now with brand new voice acting, which is a pretty good reason to be interested in this bundle), Eets, Dino D-Day, The Oil Blue.

You know how all this works by now. I am so very tired.

The sudden apparent closure of GSC GameWorld and death of Stalker 2 is, for me, the saddest gaming news of this year, and a whole lot of other years to boot. Jim eloquently summed up why over the weekend. The waters of explanation remain deeply muddied however, so all we can do is hope that some glimmer of life emerges from the ruins. We got a small hint of that earlier, with the GSC Twitter account suddenly offering “We will do our best to continue. However, at this moment, nothing is certain.” > (more…)

It was announced in the recently expired month of November and now, on what should be the day before release, Dungeons of Dredmor’s first expansion has been trailerised. As well as containing graphic closeups of the most formidable eyebrows in gaming, the video provides details on the contents of Realm of the Diggle Gods. New enemies, areas and equipment are present, as one would expect, but did you expect a Werediggle skill line? I didn’t because my imagination is clearly limited and limp. How about eye lasers and the ability to create a character who is a “Vampiric Pirate Hunter-Vegan that dabbles in Demonology”? Oh, and belts! Sounds good. Watch below.

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I really don’t think I’m exaggerating. In the same way that Narbacular Drop made you sit back and go, “Woah!”, so too does Void. It’s certainly not the first time manipulating time bubbles in the world has been done, but it’s certainly the best I’ve ever seen it, and it’s the first time it’s just felt right.

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It’s no secret that Richard ‘King English’ Garriott is working on a spiritual sequel to Ultima, having left the series’ rights locked in an EA basement somewhere. It’s no secret because he’s said so, repeatedly. But what’s more surprising is that he apparently isn’t resigned to never getting them back – and he’s even talking about working with EA again. The lion and the lamb! Cats sleeping with dogs! THE END TIMES.

More specifically, he told Eurogamer that “We’ve had discussions at very high levels with Electronic Arts about access to the property [and]…a possible marketing and distribution relationships and things of this nature.”

Which is rather promising, presuming he’s not just making wild public declarations in the hope of changing minds. More below. (more…)

I simply must go(but baby it’s cold outside)the answer is no(but baby it’s cold outside)your welcome has been(how lucky that you dropped in)so nice and warm(look out the window at that meteorite storm)

Shelter with me inside the ramshackle construct behind door number twelve.

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I’ve been playing games on computers for the vast bulk of my life. From BBC Micro to Spectrum to 486 to assorted Athlons to the quad-cored radiator I used today, I’ve rarely been far from a keyboard. I have seen much, I have played much, I have learned much. But learning so often comes from failure. There have been many, many failures: these are but a few. (more…)

Fortnite’s reveal trailer suggested that the game could be borrowing ideas from Minecraft, Fort Zombie and Team Fortress 2, along with many other things. Now that details are beginning to emerge, Epic have admitted that Mojang’s block ‘em up was indeed an inspiration. Lead designer Lee ‘Unscratch’ Perry took time to broadcast the following messages through his personal Tweet-o-Tron: “Minecraft lets you build ANYTHING, we are focusing on constructing ‘buildings’ specifically”. A later tweet contained this: “Minecraft was an inspiration for sure”. With that out in the open, the obvious thing to do was to ensure Notch backed our demand that the game come to PC. A few more details about the game await below.

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Edit: The video is below now.

Perhaps not the most catchy of names, Nexuiz has just been announced as receiving a publishing deal from THQ Partners and Machinima. And thus into the public gaze it heads. IllFonic’s CryEngine 3 game is an FPS “reimagining” of the game’s previous incarnation when released by Alien Trap in 2005. Then it was intended to be a GPL shooter, free to play, and free software, available on PC, Mac and Linux. Original designer, Forest Hale, has moved over to IllFonic for the project, currently suggested to cost $10 on release, which we can probably assume won’t be equally as Free with Crytek’s code underneath. And it’s a properly mind-bending concept.

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