System Shock 2 would be considered a classic in even the classiest crowds. Check out Tom's System Shock 2 reinstall for a sense of why it was so important, and why it's still worth playing. GOG will release a downloadable version of the progressive survival horror RPG/FPS on their service tomorrow. There's a big countdown on the front page ticking away the seconds until launch, confirming the SS2 rumours that first appeared on Flesh Eating Zipper a few days ago.

The GOG version has been updated by Night Dive Studios to work smoothly with current set-ups and operating systems. GOG's Guillaume Rambourg told RPS that "In addition to the soundtrack, the GOG.com version of the game will have concept art, maps of the Von Braun, a interview with Ken Levine, the first pitch document, and much more." System Shock 2 has been riding high on the GOG community wishlist for a long while. You can lobby for games you'd like to see on the service on the GOG site.

Lykan is a bit like Sleepy Hollow, only with a werewolf instead of a Headless Horseman, and with a Depp rating of a reassuring 0.0. It's also quite a lot like the disappointing Red Riding Hood film of 2011, which was pretty much a lycanthrope whodunit. You're a werewolf hunter in a very purple Victorian town, and your job is to root out the beast - naturally, by firing a crossbow at it - while trying not to harm any innocent civilians. As time goes on, the monster will begin to pick off the other citizens, leaving telltale corpses all over the cobbled streets.

Impressively, Charlie Carlo's game is inspired by the astounding Westerado, which only came out a few weeks ago. As with that browser-based Western, you can pull out your weapon and kill anyone at any time - but if there's a copper around, prepare to be truncheoned to an early death. The trick, as the 'How to Play' screen makes clear, is to observe the civilians' shadows, which give the werewolf's true nature away. This is a lot harder said than done - and when you do unmask the monster, you still have to take the thing down.

Interestingly, you can also change the game settings so that multiple werewolves appear, they show few or no tells at all, or the town is crammed full/mostly clear of civilians. I really hope Charlie builds on Lykan in future, because there's a nuggest of brilliance at its beating werewolf heart.

Thanks to the increasingly excellent Indie Statik.

I am a little miffed that Mars: War Logs didn't take into account the recent Martian fad. Curiosity is up there right now, boring holes into another planet hunting for water and that creepy little dude who hated Bugs Bunny. If the little robot delved too greedily and too deep, that would be an interesting cultural hook for Spiders' Red-Planet-set RPG.

But it's not to be. Mars: War Logs is about the failed terraforming of the planet. It went so badly that the majority of people have to live in shelter, with the world controlled by resource-hungry corporations and their private armies. It's in one of their POW camps that the game places you.



You're the excellently-named Roy Temperance, a Swiss-army knife of a character. He begins his journey protecting a young boy, Innocence, from an attempted rape in the camp. Innocence is the first of five companions you'll pick up. He'll act as the narrator, a fighting partner, and a moral barometer for your actions - he and the other companions will support you, but only if you treat them and the people in the world with compassion. Kill your enemies and drain their lifeforce (a currency in the game) and the world will take a dim view of you, even if they totally deserved it. There is a dark side of Mars, and it can be yours to control.

Throughout this moral morass are threaded light RPG mechanics. Skill trees allow you to define your character's path, initially giving you power over your stealth and fighting skills - parries, counter-attacks and pushes. Eventually the game takes you down the more interesting route of Technomancy, giving you magic powers via pseudo-science upgrades. It's allied to a fairly clicky combat system that's more Witcher than Dragon Age. You'll be whacking away with metal pipes and putting the hurt on people, rather than pausing and considering the weak-spots.



Speaking of metal pipes, there's also a crafting system that makes use of the loot you'll collect. It can be grabbed from piles of junk or looted from corpses, and put to use to create better weaponry. Handles and powers can be added, changing an item to better resist electric assaults, for example, or to boost the crit chances. Armour can be augmented as well, to protect you from the people and the mutant animals that you'll come up against. My favourite creature that I was shown was a mutated mole, if only because it meant someone made the effort to bring moles to Mars.

What you're fighting for isn't exactly clear. There's a plot twist that will change the latter half of the game, and the world has plenty of little hubs and dungeons to explore, so there's a chance your game won't be the same as a friends. In fact, in order to see the whole story it might be necessary to have more than one playthrough. It's not an overambitious game in size, though: it's download only, and more sprightly than sprawling. That in itself is unusual for an RPG - it may just make Mars: War Logs one for the books.



Developer: Spiders
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Release: May 2013
Link: www.mars-thegame.com

Even as the red rock of the planet materialised beneath their feet, they understood. Spock turned away and gazed at the horizon. He knew the odds even before joining Starfleet. He'd entered them into a multi-layered risk assessment matrix. He'd estimated the number of transporter trips he'd likely be required to take during his career, and weighed that number against the likelihood of a glitch. Kirk was silent. There was so much to say, but no way to say it. His friend had bathed in the cosmic rays beyond conventional reality, and shrunk in the wash.

Or he's just STANDING FAR AWAY. Either way, I've picked the only moment of the new Star Trek trailer that isn't exploding. That's because this is the game based on JJ Abrams glittering movie reboot of 2009, which has morphed into a third person cover shooter in the hands of developer, Digital Extremes. RPS have spotted a new trailer, which you can find below.

It's out on April 23 in the US and April 26 in Europe, shortly before Benedict Cumberbatch dons a trenchcoat and tears chunks out of future-London in Abrams' Star Trek follow-up, Into Darkness. That's in cinemas on May 17.

Two tanks fighting over a shack in the middle of a strategically useless useless field remain entrenched in spite of stirring news from Wargaming.net HQ today. Not even the announcement of a World of Tanks esports tournament with a prize pool of $2.5m could force either crew to back down from their futile stationary stand-off, which has continued for several days and shows no sign of abating.

"I can't precisely remember how we got here, or exactly what we're fighting for anymore," said the commander of Tank A, "but I'll be damned if we're going to give a tank with the username FeelTheTankPower55 the satisfaction of a clean kill."

The barrel-to-barrel showdown means certain death for the first tank to twitch. Wargaming's VP of global operations Andrei Yarantsau tried to talk the challengers down.

“Running our own eSports league allows us to truly focus on making World of Tanks not only a compelling and challenging eSports discipline, but also one that’s incredibly entertaining for spectators,” he said.

“Now we have a sustainable tool to broaden our global eSports involvement in an unprecedented way: stimulate the growth of the competitive community, organize bigger and better tournaments with larger prize pools than ever, and provide our best pro gamers with completely viable career opportunities.”

"A viable career that doesn't involve putting our lives on the line for an empty house that's of no value to anyone?" said Tank A commander, voice quivering with emotion. "A tank can dream."

FeelTheTankPower55 was contacted for comment, but only offered the following: "lololol"

The pair only have a few weeks to break the deadlock, the tournament is set to begin in "the first quarter of 2013."

Nadeo's frenetic FPS, Shootmania Storm, dreams of being an esport one day. It's a fast-paced competitive multiplayer shooter that channels the spirits of shooters past, so expect lots of speedy, slippery running, remarkable leaping and pulse blasters that evoke the rocket launchers of Quake and Unreal Tournament. There's a detailed, built-in level editor which players can use to create, test and share levels. If that sounds like your bag, good news! The bag is now in open beta. You can download the 1.24GB client for free now from the Shootmania Storm site.

The announcement is punctuated by the release of a new trailer, which shows a man dropping through a tiny sinkhole into an underground battle chamber full of lasers and death. But where did he come from? And why is Shootmania Storm called Shootmania Storm when there's not so much as a drop of rain on show? It's like an enigma wrapped in a bag that is also an enigma. Enjoy a puzzling cocktail of confusion and motion blur in the sparkly Shootmania video below.

Diablo 3's PvP mode is finally here. The team deathmatch mode was dropped a while back, and the free for all "duels" are now "brawls," whatever they're called, you can do them now in the Scorched Chapel zone added by patch 1.07. Blizzard have been tweaking Diablo 3's Might Scales of Class Balance as well. Today the winds of fate favour Monks and Wizards, who can look forward to some chunky damage upgrades across a variety of skills.

You can initiate brawls by chatting to a new NPC called Nek The Brawler, who you'll find loitering in the nearest Act hub. Stats will be shifted somewhat depending on your character's class to keep things a little more balanced. "Demon Hunters, Witch Doctors, and Wizards receive a 30% damage reduction while "Barbarians and Monks receive an additional 5% damage reduction (in addition to the 30% they inherently receive, for a total of 35%)."

Beyond the fighting pit, Monks and Wizards will do quite a bit more damage. Weapon damage has been "increased from 100% to 313%" for the Monk's "Cyclone Strike," for example. Blizzard have plenty of data on the abilities that players tend to gloss over, so they could be trying to encourage more people to work powers like "dashing strike" and "Lashing Tail Kick" into their builds. Significant buffs to the Monk's "Exploding Palm" ability has maximised his high-five capabilities. "Explosion damage" has been "increased from 30% to 50% of the target’s maximum health" up high. As of the time of writing, Blizzard are yet to publish figures for "down low" or "on the rebound."

Ooh, also, if you're still rocking Inferno, look out for "demonic essences" among your drops. You can take these to the blacksmith and the jeweler to craft a top tier amulet or pieces of a new archon armour set. Browse the full patch notes at your leisure over on Battle.net.

The demo for Omerta: City of Gangsters included two missions. Did that affect its launch sales?

During a presentation at last week's DICE (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) summit, author, professor, and Schell Games founder Jesse Schell shared a rather bold statement for developers: releasing a demo for your game could actually harm sales. The solution? Look, but don't touch.

Using sale data from a few Xbox 360 (yeah, we know) games, Schell pointed out that the most successful games built excitement and interest for their release through trailers and screenshots but passed up the hands-on taste of a demo. "'You mean we spent all this money making a demo and getting it out there, and it cut our sales in half?' Yes, that’s exactly what happened to you,” he said.

According to Schell, keeping a game tantalizingly out of reach turns the old "try before you buy" method into a more profitable "buy to try"—a colder approach, but a logical one for racking up the numbers. The presence of a demo, he continued, risks throwing away a player's interest after he or she actually experiences a sample cut of the game.

I agree that not releasing a demo may make sense for story-driven games, where it's tough to introduce just a slice of the game. But the advent of digital platforms and the ubiquity of beta periods for games has made it easier to try before you buy, and I still think demos represent a valuable way of attracting interest. How much time and money it takes to release a fragment of your game, I'm not sure of.

SimCity's invite-only beta wasn't labeled a demo, but amid continued controversy, the one-hour trial mode also seemed to draw tons of positive attention when EA opened it up last month for the first time. Has playing SimCity's beta, or other recent pre-release builds, deterred you from buying?

The concept of distributing a game for no cost, once the domain of Facebook app-clones and mobile platforms, has quickly become commonplace in PC gaming. We've all seen clear evidence of such a phenomena, from the lessened emphasis on subscription models in MMOs to the availability of quality multiplayer shooters like Tribes: Ascend from a single download. In a blog post, Positech Games head and Gratuitous Tank Battles creator Chris Harris says the psychology of free gaming boils down to letting players set their own sense of worth before asking for money.

"Free to play works because it doesn’t ask you to value the game until you already feel you own it," he writes. "How much would you pay for Farmville to buy it outright? Maybe $5? But play the game for free for a month, build up your farm, invest it, and then hit a plateau in the game where you really need to buy coins to continue, and suddenly your game is worth a lot more than $5. You value the game you already own very highly, and so buying add-ons for it is just common sense. I suspect this is why DLC works so well and sells so well. You have already made a commitment to valuing the game by investing your time. Only a fool could try to rationalize not spending money on it now."

It's almost as if Harris stumbled upon the secret formula of free-to-play games: foster a sense of ownership to encourage microtransactions and DLC. Item-heavy games such as Team Fortress 2 and PlanetSide 2 let you try out a shiny weapon for a short period before taking it away, but that brief usage could boost the likelihood of a wallet getting pulled out simply because you determined your own measure of worth on the item you fleetingly "owned."

Let's hear your comments. Do you only drop dollars on free-to-play games after you've built up a sense of attachment to them, or are your buying habits more free-form?

Player-directed love stories are typically accomplished with "romance options." The options are characters, and in the mechanic's simplest form, if you do and say the right things to an eligible character, he, she, or Asari will fall in love, bed, or both. But can love—and more importantly, good storytelling—blossom from dialog options and cutscene trysts?

In this week's Face Off debate, Tyler says love is a bad game, arguing that writer-driven affection is preferable to mechanizing intimacy. Across the debate hall, T.J. cherishes the player-driven relationships that motivated him to save universes. Read more opinions on the next page, and argue your side in the comments. It's what the internet is for!

Tyler: "Alright team, we designed an interesting, complex character, but something’s missing. What’s that you say, every libidinous teenager? Wouldn't it be neat if players could manipulate the character's variables with the goal of fulfilling their carnal fantasies? Yes! Instead of a character, we’ll make a doll that comes to bed and says 'I love you' when you squeeze it."

T.J: OK, I’m going to refrain from derailing this whole thing with an anti-neo-Victorian rant on how our society is irrationally afraid of sex, and make my case this way: relationships are a core part of being human, and just about any story about humans. Adding player romance to a game makes it feel more real and complete as an experience. Thinking about it from a gamist “manipulating variables” perspective is missing the point. And it’s kinda gross.

Tyler: What’s gross is connecting with Liara in Mass Effect, and then getting her in bed by skipping down an obvious, color-coded path. I’m not against portrayals of sex and relationships, especially not with blue monogender aliens, but achieving intimacy shouldn't be about choosing the right dialog options.

I liked bonding with Liara, but when we reached that inevitable moment of passion, our interaction went from engaging character development to an erotic fanfic on Tumblr.

T.J: And you would know what erotic Tumblr fanfic sounds like.

Tyler: I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Fanfics on Angelfire pairing off Mulder and Evangelion. I watched scenes of glitter and Spock near—alright, I'll go ahead and lose this reference like tears in rain.

T.J: Please do.

Tyler: I'm an explorer, what can I say? Anyway, what I was saying is that alluding to romance would have been more effective than making it a binary goal, a hedonistic achievement. The latter cheapens the character and ultimately lets us down.

T.J: Well-done romance in games goes far beyond simple hedonism. To use another example from the same franchise: romancing Tali created one of the most emotionally striking moments in Mass Effect 3, and it had nothing to do with sex. I wanted to help her rebuild her home. I wanted to settle down there with her, and give her the life her people had dreamed of for so long.

Would I have wanted that even if she hadn’t been my character’s romantic partner? Maybe. But the impact would have been far, far less... impactful.

Tyler: I can’t believe you brought that up, you insensitive boor! Don’t you know what happened to me and her? It didn’t have to be like that, Tali...

T.J: I don’t care how things went in the Tyler is Shepard timeline, which is clearly the darkest timeline. And I think you just proved my point.

Tyler: Jerk. Well, you’re right that giving players more motivation than “save the universe because, like, you’re on the front of the box and stuff” is part of what makes Mass Effect great, and building a romantic relationship is an effective way to design that motivation. But is presenting a stable of romantic candidates the best way to go about that? I don’t think so. It makes my “relationship” the result of deliberate calculation, which ruins it for me.

In Half-Life 2, however, I don’t even talk, but the subtle tenderness between Gordon and Alyx is a one way ticket to motivation city.

Gordon doesn't have words, never mind dialog options.

T.J: You have a point with Alyx, but I think in a game like Mass Effect, where so much about the protagonist, as a person, is determined by the player, you should be able to choose who they are romantically interested in. And you need a few, varied options to make that a possibility. There is a place for doing it the Half-Life way, but I feel more personal attachment in games that do it the BioWare way.

Tyler: I’ll respond to that, but first we have to stop dancing around the real problem and just say it: I don't want to reinforce negative gamer stereotypes, but trying to ignore every opportunity to make an immature joke about “reaching the story’s climax” or “doing it BioWare style” is just killing me.

T.J: Based on Dragon Age, I don’t know that I ever want to “do it BioWare style.” But that just further illustrates my point that the sex scene is not the reward.

Tyler: Anything raunchy, salacious, or simply involving the letter “x” will motivate some, but I’ll give you that developers aren’t required to justify their intentions or gauge player maturity.

My real problem is that interactive storytelling is still clumsy. It’s getting better, and some decisions work, like whether or not to do space violence here, or save a space colony there, but building a relationship with tacky dialog wheel winks and nudges feels crude. I’d rather romantic intentions stay ambiguous or writer-dictated until there’s a game sophisticated enough to make it feel natural. Right now they just feel like dating sims.

T.J: It’s all a matter of perspective. Sure, the tech isn't there yet to simulate the depth and nuance of a real-life romance in a player-directed system, but you could say that about a lot of things: the way the space rifles work, the way the space villagers react to your presence. Games inherently require abstraction. And personally, I’m willing to deal with the level of abstraction we see in game romances right now for what it adds to my personalized narrative. Which, at times, is quite a lot.

Tyler: Nuh uh, games should be just like real life ...would be a terribly dumb rebuttal. Alright, so your point about abstraction is a good one, but I still think author-driven romance is superior. Put one of those little black boxes in front of your TV and play Ico. That was an expression of affection, if not quite the same kind as we've been talking about.

The point is, wooing characters who are programmed to be wooed just makes me feel weird. Unless, of course, I’m using “wooing” to mean "shooting up a floor full of suit-wearing dudes like that scene from 1992 John Woo film Hard Boiled". I’m totally cool with that kind of Wooing.

T.J: The only thing that could make that better is getting the girl at the end.

Follow Tyler and T.J. on Twitter to see day-to-day debates as they happen, and jump to the next page for opinions from the community...




@pcgamer They can hinder when it's forced or poorly written, but the best relationships can really enhance the experience.

— Eric Watson (@RogueWatson) February 13, 2013
@pcgamer They can be too heavy handed, clumsy and unnatural. Though romance is often just that, stories about it shouldn't be.

— Modred189 V (@Modred189) February 12, 2013
@pcgamer They feel forced and are ultimately unnecessary. I'd much prefer a well scripted single romance path that I could chose to follow.

— Garviel Loken (@SeventyTwo_) February 12, 2013
@pcgamer Mass Effect romance is no better or worse than what it wants to be: Captain Kirk and a Green Alien Chick/Ensign going at it.

— Jacob Dieffenbach (@dieffenbachj) February 12, 2013
@pcgamer if done right, they add a nice nuance.ME did it decently, but can be expanded upon without hindering the main story.

— Chris K. (@ChuckLezPC) February 12, 2013
@pcgamer If it feels like part of the story then fine. If it's an afterthought for content/controversy/publicity then it feels gimmicky

— Roman (@romanwlltt) February 12, 2013
@pcgamer brilliant. They make me care for characters. I like Garrus' bromance too

— Alex Filipowski (@AlexFiliUK) February 12, 2013
@pcgamer yes definitely. That's part of the reason why I love the Dragon Age series so much. Romance with certain char. Really brings you in

— Nick Ellsworth (@NE4Guinness) February 12, 2013
@pcgamer If I wanted to play a Japanese dating simulation... well, I don't, so there you go.

— HerpsMcDerps (@LoneCommandline) February 12, 2013
@pcgamer It forces emotional character interaction as you will invariably show favouritism. More emotion = more immersion

— AEON|Dante (@nzaeon) February 12, 2013
@pcgamer Three ME games (well, still a bit left of the third), and I have yet to even find any of the romance options. Art imitating life.

— Frode Hauge (@frodehauge) February 12, 2013
@pcgamer Depends on whether its tactfully done. A Nick Spark's story would murder an otherwise immersive game like ME.

— Andrew (@Drewoid13) February 12, 2013
@pcgamer They can allow for greater immersion and more dynamic stories.They shouldn't be the main focus but they should be in RPG's for sure

— Denholm (@DenholmFraser) February 12, 2013
@pcgamer The problem is that the romance is essentially between two puppets. I'm not sure you can replicate proper romance in games.

— Michael (@AchillesSC2) February 12, 2013