As we know, random events segregate ‘non-randomly’, and things bunching together isn’t a trend. But it’s still pretty chilling to see so many lay-offs in the games industry all at once. So we express our sympathies and best wishes to those at Funcom, PopCap, and THQ who’ve found out their jobs are no longer in the last few hours.

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OK, before overly jerked knees and seismic facepalms leave RPS liable for one of the most puzzling injury outbreaks in medical history, know that State of Decay – while arising from the ashes of a zombie MMO project once called Class3 – doesn’t look like a Day Z clone or anything along those lines in the slightest. For better or worse, it appears to be a fairly over-the-top (I saw body slams) undead shoot-’em-up/beat-’em-down – but with an “open, sandbox world” that “dynamically generates content based on your choices and the ever-increasing zombie threat.” To be perfectly honest, I can’t actually find any info on whether or not it even has> a multiplayer component anymore. But, somewhat shockingly, Grand-Theft-Auto-meets-zombies hasn’t really been done before, so there’s potential here.

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Imagine if I were to write a [CENSORED] where you couldn’t understand [CENSORED] that was going [CENSORED] because [CENSORED] bars were everywhere for no apparent [CENSORED]. Wouldn’t that be [CENSORED]? And yet, that’s exactly what the latest trailer of Blacklight [CENSORED] Zombie Studios’ Special Forces: Team X does, probably because [CENSORED]. It’s a weird choice, to say [CENSORED]. Watch the parts of it that are actually visible after the [CENSORED]. Break. Break is what I said there. Gosh, these things are annoying.

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Wuoh, durs a game ob Dur Expendabbles 2 mooovie. Wiv Stallone an Li an Quews an Lungween. Urm gunna punch it in dur face. Ere’s wot i fink:>

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The Olympics! A stirring opening ceremony. Athletes who pushed their bodies to the limit. Golden postboxes gleaming in the British sun. Dancing horses. The Spice Girls. Truly all that is good about sport. But now foot-to-ball has raised its ugly lug again and sport is once more the playground of the crude and the rich, and that is absolutely most definitely not a reference to oil money. Lords of Football is a management game that’s not afraid to look at the ugly side of the glamorous game.>

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The most fevered highs of Kickstarter mania seem to have died down – unless you’re making an Android phone in a box, anyway – but there’s one game project that I’m quite sure could incite the same mania as Doublefine’s adventure and Wasteland 2 did. Chris Avellone, he of Black Obsidian, Black Isle and, of course, the lead brain behind Planescape: Torment, has been making noises for a little while know about his interest in a crowdsourced spiritual sequel. Proving rather adeptly that he is much smarter than I am, Kotaku’s Jason Schreier got in touch with Avellone to ask just what it is he’d do if given the chance. Avellone replied with a long, careful brain-think, chewing over how similar to PST it could/would be, what he’d change, what kind of setting, and how different the methodology of creating it would need to be from a traditionally-funded game. (more…)

Mutant Mudds is available through the eShop on Nintendo’s extra-dimensional DS but on August 30th it’ll also be available on PC, but that doesn’t mean you’ll need to have a third dimension plugged into your screen-socket in order to enjoy the jetpacking and platforming. The game stars (at least this is my interpretation) Commander Keen’s geekier brother, Kenneth Keen, and when the world is invaded by alien blobs, he pops on a jetpack, loads up a ray gun and sets off to save the world. Kill ‘em all, Kenneth! There are points at which Kenneth can switch between the fore and rear of levels, jumping into the background, which is not simply decorative. Along with having a jetpack, that’s his thing. It’s apparently quite a delight and our chums at Eurogamer compared it favourably to Thai street food. PC version has 20 new levels and there’s a trailer below.

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I’m currently pretending to be a robot who turns into a big red lorry, otherwise I would be ALL OVER Thirty Flights of Loving, Blendo Games’ mini-sequel to the incomparable Gravity Bone. Folks who helped start Idle Thumbs’ kicks have already had access to this tale of cuboid, supercool spies for a little while, but it’s now available either direct from the dev or via Steam. Obviously the former is a better way to show your appreciation, but the latter comes up slightly cheaper – £3.59 rather than £4.13. I am sure it will be money well-spent either way. It is of course highly unprofessional to judge games without having played them, but I am SUPREMELY CONFIDENT that this will be excellent. You can tell by the way I’ve randomly and childishly capitalised words in this post. (more…)

For the next few weeks, RPS chum James Carey will investigate games on that other PC platform, Linux. He’s dabbled in Linux before, but is exploring this from the perspective of a veteran PC gamer trying gaming seriously on the platform for the first time.>

With Windows 8 causing PC prophets to forecast doom in the lands of PC gaming, with its philosophy of freedom and rightness, and with Valve getting behind it, Linux, the open operating system, is clearly> the future of PC gaming.* But is it still a total pain in the ass? Turns out it really isn’t… I know! I was surprised. Here’s what happened.

*Maybe. (more…)

Quinns has lost himself in Dota 2 as if it were a Minecraft cave system. Surfacing 90 hours later, we asked him what Dota 2 means. This is what he sent us.> (more…)