I’ve been playing the Arma 3 alpha! I know. But before we get to that, let’s see what project lead Joris-Jan van ‘t Land has to say about the state of the project, and the plans for this early release of the madly anticipated sandbox soldier sim. Read on for victory!> (more…)
Having only just stumbled across The Last Door, my brain is now in full-on, code-red “pleasebegoodpleasebegoodpleasebegood” mode. The successfully crowdfunded episodic horror adventure aims to plant a hardy oak of pure dread somewhere between the sleeping soils of Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, setting its tale in late 19th century England. It may not look like much, but that’s actually one of the more intriguing parts of the project: its creators want to focus on crafting imagination-evoking atmosphere over punch-you-in-the-face imagery, so the visuals are being kept deliberately simple. The end result? Sound’s absolutely key, and it’s intoxicatingly lush. There’s a brief playable prologue over on Last Door’s website. I definitely recommend you give it a go.
The ship that sprung a leak has now sailed into harbour, its Jolly Roger flying high. Well, to be honest, it’s sort of sitting just outside the harbour waving from the decks. Ubi have sent a press release announcing that they will be fully announcing Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag on Monday. For now, we have confirmation of the game’s title and a picture of the box-art, which shows a chap standing on the deck of a pirate ship wearing the familiar hooded garb of the assassin, with a cutlass in one hand and a stonking great gun in the other. I’ve heard good things about the naval combat in The Third and this is a far more interesting proposition to me than Assassin’s Creed III: Revolutionary Revelations would have been. More on Monday.
I’m sure FPS-Man isn’t the first game to attempt Namco’s venerable pellet-munching classic in first-person, but I’m still willing to wager that it’s still the first of its kind. In a ghost-dodging twist, this is Pac-Man re-imagined as some kind of bowel-clenchingly atmospheric horror game. And you know what? It kinda works. Honestly, there’s not a whole lot to it (yet), but what’s here is oppressively claustrophobic in all the best ways. An endless hallway of ghastly howls and neon whispers. I do, however, have some borderline sacrilegious news for you: no wakkas.
Divinity: Dragon Commander‘s title used to confuse me. I couldn’t help but wonder: do I command dragons, or am I a dragon who’s also a commander? Turns out, the answer’s a resounding, fire-belching “both!” The strategy spinoff of the semi-traditional fantasy RPG series sees you corralling mad steampunk armies and> strapping into the jetpack (yes, jetpack) of a mighty alpha-reptile. My brain’s typically disparate tactical and dragon lobes are lighting up in a fashion that best resembles one of those cheapo party disco ball things. I am, in other words, quite interested. Have a lizardly look for yourself after the break.
Oh boy, gaming’s favorite brain-dissolving apocalyptic disaster is back! And in the game, naturally. After a sojourn away from Steam due to excessively shady dealings and unforgivably poor quality, The War Z’s been re-listed on Valve’s ubiquitous storefront. So then, the natural question: what’s changed? Well, this probably warrants further investigation (yuck) inside the game, but for now, the answer appears to be “not a whole lot.” You will, however, notice the omission of some flat-out untrue promises from War Z’s last wibbly wobbly go-’round.
An action-RTS inspired by classic heavy metal album covers. Starring Jack Black. And a mad menagerie of metal icons. And a 100-strong soundtrack that pridefully pounded eardrums with everything from Judas Priest to Motorhead to (ew) DragonForce.>
Let’s reflect, for a moment, on how absurdly specific Brutal Legend‘s chunky thematic stew actually was. And then let’s remember that EA, of all publishers, was manning the unlikely super group’s synth – which, in this particular case, was wired exclusively to make “ka-ching” sounds at Double Fine’s behest. Oh, and that was only after Activision flushed Schafer’s metal dream into the nightmarish bowels of development hell, nearly dooming it in the process. By most standards, Brutal Legend simply shouldn’t have happened. Nowadays – a mere three years later – a similar meeting of minds isn’t even conceivable. But Double Fine’s last truly all-or-nothing shout at the triple-A devil was unique for a number of reasons. It was a product of oddball inspiration, once-in-a-lifetime timing, and quite a bit of luck. Also guitars. OK, mostly guitars.>
Now, don’t go jumping to any conclusions just yet. That’s how poor old Richard Kimble ended up having such a hard time of things. All that’s happened is that Squeenix have taken out a trademark in the name of ‘Deus Ex: Human Defiance.’ It could be anything. It could be nothing. It could be a game. It could be a movie. It could be another ropey spin-off comic. It could be a typo. It could be the official Deus Ex pancake mix.
It’s probably a game though, innit? (more…)
War Logs? War Logs?> Anyway, Mars: War Logs an action RPG that looks a bit fancy, frankly, like a mix of Riddick and Batman, or something. It’s not looking quite as slick as either of those, sadly, and that might be because it’s the next game from Spiders, who made the disappointing Of Orcs & Men, and some other games I’ve never played. I think it’s a fair bet that this will play a lot like Of Orcs & Men, which had plenty of scope for being fun if it hadn’t been so linear and grindy. More details are coming soon, apparently, but in the meantime check out the website. (more…)
(I know we call ‘em microtransactions not in-app purchases on PC, but John will almost definitely shout at me if I let the headline run onto two lines).
This doesn’t come as much suprise in light of what EA did to Dead Space 3, but there’s still a certain amount of gastric churn to be felt in response to an EA bossman’s public declaration that microtransactions will be a fixed feature of “all our games” from now on. (more…)
