It’s a dark time to be a mulitplayer server. From the day you’re born, you’re living on borrowed time, and that goes double if any sort of sequel has your cushy spot on the rack in its sights. Which brings us to the original Company of Heroes. It’s coming up on its seventh birthday, Company of Heroes 2 is about to drop a fresh blanket of powder on the hot summer months, and a sudden publisher shift threw everything out of whack. It is, in other words, a prime candidate for the big server farm in the sky. But hark, against all odds, there is hope. Relic’s keeping its relics up and running by switching services. So long, apparent Aztec wind deity Quazal. Hello, Steamworks.

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The Flare Path kill house is not like other kill houses. Footwear must be removed at the front door. All offers of tea or coffee politely accepted. No-one is allowed to exit the hall without yelling “C-o-m-i-n-g, ready or not!”. Those that pass the cat without a) stroking him or b) complimenting him on his “wuvly fluffiness” can expect to be taken to one side by an instructor. Obviously, flashbanging the granny annex between 12.15 and 13.00 (Bargain Hunt) and 14.00 and 15.00 (Bergerac) is strictly forbidden, and anyone caught sniggering at the mantelpiece photo of Tim (the one where he’s wearing the knitted swimming trunks) will be instantly evicted. (more…)

I love being alive right now. Admittedly, there are many reasons for that – getting to see humanity clumsily barge its way into a new stage of evolution, being able to have pancakes pretty much whenever I want them, etc – but mostly because I get blindsided by amazing-looking new games on a nigh-daily basis. Banished, like so many others, has crept seemingly out of nowhere, set up a nice little settlement on the crisp loam of YourTubules, and proceeded to look utterly brilliant. In short, it’s a small scale city builder, but that doesn’t really do it justice. Money, you see, has no sway when starvation, disease, and the elements are the ones you’re bargaining with. People are precious, and Banished is a game about cherishing every last one you’ve got.

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Roll up roll up! We have one man for auction! Cofounder of Obsidian Entertainment, lead designer for a thing called Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, lead designer on a thing called Planescape TM: Torment. Anyone? Anyone for a designer man? You sir? You ma’am? You look a likely sort for a single player, story-driven, isometric role-playing game. Come on lady, do you like complex and nuanced morality, deep and reactive choice and consequence, and immersion into a new and strange vision? Sounds sexy doesn’t it sir. LOOK AT HIS CRANIUM. Looooooook at those sexy hands of design-orientated development skills! Well give us $3.5M and you can have him you cheeky buggers. (more…)

On principle, I despise blink-and-you’ll-miss-it brief, nearly information-free teasers. Unfortunately, they’re also almost exclusively the chosen language of triple-A publishers these days – at least until they open the floodgates on enough footage to spoil the entire game a month before it comes out. I would, however, be remiss if I didn’t mention that a) Battlefield 4 very clearly exists and b) year of the boat (the previously discussed year of the bow successor) sails ever onward, major franchises crashing against its monolithic hull like brittle kiddie pool waves. Watch both of the thus-far released (ugh, argh, grr, bleh) teasers after the break and pluck delicious, delicious proof from the pudding.

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I’m in the process of moving to a new house, just had to resuscitate my poor little shoe car from the brink of death, and was recently informed that the meticulously stone-hewn, full-sized medieval castle required of all RPS writers isn’t tax deductible. I cannot, in other words, afford anything>. On that note, do you want to buy some dirt? Or how about this nice clump of air? Oh, look at this slightly used chewing gum. It’s fresh from your mouth as of three seconds ago. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. You’ve done a good thing here today. You won’t regret it! I’ll get my life back on track. You’ll see! [Immediately slinks off to Old Man Newell's back alley Steam Sale emporium to squander it all on indie games.]

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We thought it was dead. We thought smashing it into a thousand pieces, and securing each piece in a foot-deep lead box, and scattering them to the farthest reaches of the universe would be enough. But no, Might & Magic has reformed, and is coming back. Might & Magic X: Legacy, is a thing that is happening.

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We’ve had quite a lot to say about SimCity but I haven’t told you wot I think yet. I posted my initial impressions two weeks ago, feeling like I’d only just scratched the surface. I’ve been scratching away since then, off and on, and now I’m ready to tell you what lies beneath.>

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After a lengthy beta on the Halo 720 Doritos machine, Trials Evolution: Gold Edition is finally about to hit the perfect landing in the rutted mud track of the PC. At some hour on this very day we’ll be able to see what all the fuss is about, but we kind of already knew. Hey, RedLynx. What gives? We embraced you. We made you what you are today, and then you abandoned us. For what? And why are you back? Has the Mountain Dew lake dried? You think you can make me happy with a new trailer? Okay, you can. There’s a new trailer, and some amazing examples of what you can do with the editor, below. (more…)

I wish I could live my life as eclectically as Double Fine develops games. If that were the case, they’d call me Nathan Grayson, bull-fighting harmonica fencer astronaut crocheter cowboy hat pterodactyl extraordinaire. And I’d be like, “Oh you guys” while tightrope tapdancing over the mouth of an active volcano. But alas, that’s not the case, so I must instead live vicariously through Double Fine, brain exploring heavy metal demigod mech walker of Russian dolls on Sesame Street. Such is my lot in life. Oh well. That said, I can’t complain about a lack of variety, and Double Fine’s latest may be the furthest outside its increasingly amorphous box yet. In short, Dropchord‘s a psychedelic rhythm visualizer thing that’s controlled by a motion device said to be “200 times” more accurate than Kinect. Wait, that wasn’t very short at all.

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