I, for one, am happy (?) to live in a world where a PC version of the latest in one of gaming’s most wildly successful franchises can be in question while something called The Magical Realms of Tír na nÓg: Escape from Necron 7 – Revenge of Cuchulainn: The Official Game of the Movie – Chapter 2 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa can be absolutely, 100 percent real. Put simply, it means that nothing actually makes sense>, and I’m a fan of a little wild, horrifying unpredictability in my life. So, right then: Barkley 2. Tale of Game’s – they of the world’s most infuriatingly purposeful title typo – are looking to crowdfund their parody RPG sequel, and the final product actually sounds sort of, dare I say it… fascinating.

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It’s entirely possible to do a good many things with cards. You can stack them, scatter them, throw them, boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew, etc. And after humanity realized that Card Stew was a disgusting affront to tastebuds everywhere, people even started playing games with them. Slowly but surely, though, the phrase “card game” took on a rather unsavory stigma – relegated to pitch black basement dungeons and videogames without punching or> explosions. But the mad card and mustache scientists at Blue Manchu have engineered a means by which to hunt> cards, and the end result – Card Hunter, naturally – is quite a different creature from standard cardboard slip trading fare. Basically, if you normally flee at the sight of anything with “card” or “TCG” in its description, this might make a believer out of you yet.

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Couple of questions for you hardware freaks to ponder this week. Is it time to think the unthinkable, to do the undoable and ditch the hallowed keyboard n’ mouse control interface for PC gaming? Oh, and is the desktop PC dead? The former’s something I’ve wondered for a while in relation to PC interfaces in general, but now somebody is actually having a proper stab at bettering ye olde rodent and fiddlestick. The latter bombshell, meanwhile, follows rumours Intel will stop selling desktop CPUs in a little over a year. That sounds bad. Fortunately, the reality isn’t altogether catastrophic.> (more…)

Splash Damage have been quiet for a while, at least on the PC front, but there have been rumblings of a free to play PC shooter for a while now, and it looks like that Dirty Bomb, announced moments ago, may be that game. A teaser trailer shows a London street, semi-meticulously recreated and strewn with fallen combatants. By semi-meticulously I refer to the fact that there is a signpost that says Bromley on it but the Underground sign is a work of fiction. The copyright for the real one is probably owned by Boris Johnson. So, panic and bomb disposal on the streets of London? Watch.

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I know how to make you want to spend money. Imagine if I told you the guy who wrote the rope-swinging for Spider-Man 2 was making a new game using the same mechanic. See! You want to spend money right now! You’ll have to wait, however, as the Kickstarter for Energy Hook has not yet started – that’s December 8th. But in the meantime, you can watch footage of the game in its prototype stage below, and start planning budgets to see how much of your bank can be pledged.

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Over the past couple days, a certain hashtag’s been dominating the gaming industry’s sector of Twitter, and with good reason. #1ReasonWhy has given people a place to voice – often using their personal experiences as a megaphone – reasons why there aren’t more women in the gaming industry. Naturally, it’s sparked all kinds of debate, but as always, the point is clear: sexism in the gaming industry is a serious problem, and we need to clean up our act. Perhaps just as damaging as detractors, though, are those who’ve resigned themselves to inaction. For whatever reason, they’ve simply opted to not do anything – even though they know there’s a problem. And so that brings us to a couple days ago, when I encountered a real life example of this little number: “Seriously, though, I’m a guy. It’s not like I can do anything about it.”>

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Dungeonland developers Critical Studio have take some time out of crafting their rather cute cartoon dungeon-crawling game to tell us about their rather cute cartoon dungeon-crawling game. The premise is that it’s a medieval/fantasy themepark in which you undertake themeparkisations of normal dungeon-crawling activities. Only the themeparkness is a trick, and it’s actually there to allow the Evil Overload to kill of the adventurers! Oh no!> This bit sounds interesting: “three players must work as a team to survive their visit to an adventurers’ theme park, where the horrible monsters on duty will challenge their skills in combat. The fourth player, however, will work against them as the park’s fiendish Dungeon-Master.” And our kid Craig had a look at it over here.

You can even sign up to the beta, if you want. (more…)

We Earthpeople might face abject terror each Christmas when a supernatural fat man dressed in red tries to stuff himself down all our chimneys at once, but spare a thought for the denizens of Tyria, who must face being given things they don’t want or need by a nightmarish airship (pictured). The Guild Wars 2 site explains this impending abomination in their precis for the “Wintersday” event which will take place between December 14th and January 3rd: “This year the city of Lion’s Arch will host the asuran Toymaker Tixx as their special Wintersday guest of honor. Before Tixx arrives in Lion’s Arch in his massive airship toy workshop, he’ll visit every major city in Tyria to deliver Wintersday toys and holiday cheer.”

Brr.

Talisman: Prologue, out now, is Nomad Games’ singleplayer-only adaptation of the long-running multiplayer-only boardgame that can be loosely described as a high-speed, competitive fantasy RPG. You pick a character, you ‘explore’ the board picking up loot, upgrading stats and fighting monsters, and you strive to defeat or delay your opponents as they do similar. Here, there are no opponents. How does >that> work, then? I combine my strength and craft (for a total of 3) to find out. > (more…)

It’s been a long time since we’ve heard from DARK, a spooky action-RPG. Six months, in fact, with pretty much radio silence from its publicity machine. So to reappear with only more screenshots at this point seems a little odd. It’s time for some more footage, guys. Moving> pictures. This doesn’t feel like progress. The last time we saw it was May’s rather impressive teaser, that showed the cel-shaded design, and the FEAR-alike scares. And since then, just the memories. Now, some images:

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