Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor has revealed his desire to work on a sequel to Total Annihilation. Speaking to VG247, Taylor said he'd love to revisit the RTS series, but admitted he was unsure if people wanted a direct sequel to a game nearly two decades old. Given that plenty of developers have secured millions on Kickstarter using exactly that tactic, I'd suggest that they probably do. Especially when it involves giant mechs.

"I would love to yes, but the problem is you can’t just make a sequel to a game that’s 17 or 16 years old," Taylor said. "You have to update and evolve it to fit into the current situation in the market. But it’s a really complex question to answer because, do people want something that’s been evolved, or do they want to just go back in time and imagine that it’s 1998, and we’re beginning work on Total Annihilation 2? Do they want that game?

"What do they want in terms of mechanics, do they want a boxed product experience? But yes, it would be wonderful to do something with it."

Taylor also talked about returning to GPG's once planned strategy Kicks and Castles, a game he describes as "basically Total Annihilation with Supreme Commander in the Medieval era." (So, wooden mechs?) Taylor explained that, at the time it was being developed, GPG was struggling to find an eager publisher. "The publishing industry was going through a very tough time, and it kind of still is in some ways, so to make an investment on a game like Kings and Castles was highly risky. We saw a lot of that, and that’s frankly what made business hard for many people, and many businesses closed too."

"We’re happy to see the stability of PC gaming come back through several world-leading companies like Wargaming, and we hope it’ll just continue to get better and better."

Gas Powered, under new owners Wargaming.net, are currently working on an unnamed "free-to-play triple-A MMO".

If you're the sort that spends hours at the counter in Subway, paralysed by choice, be prepared to face a decision even more agonising than 'Which bread would you like?' or 'What sauce would you like with that?' - I'm talking actual life and death stuff. This week, the tough decisions reside in the excellent No-One Has to Die, in which quite a lot of people have to die. Click through for tense turn-based puzzling, lighthearted adventuring, charming real-time strategy, and a spot of space-invadey social commentary. Enjoy!

No-One Has to Die by Stuart Madafiglio Play it online here.

Killing everyone results in a restart, so you have to save at least a few lives.

With a name like that, obviously quite a lot of people are going to die – and, unfortunately, you're the one who has to choose who gets it. Ensconced in the security room of an office building owned by a particularly shady company, you have to contain a rapidly spreading fire by opening water valves, locking doors and so on, across a series of turn-based scenarios. Figuring out how to progress is difficult enough, without factoring in the tricky moral decisions presented to you in every stage. Do you sacrifice an innocent to save the life of the guy who started the fire in the first place, a man who's literally asking to be killed? It's not as easy a choice as you might think.

The (excellent) story branches based on your decisions, and you can return to each puzzle later to make different choices, and see what's really going on in this compelling mystery. You'll want to do that, because No-One Has To Die takes the visual novel and the turn-based puzzle game and fuses them into something brilliantly tense. (Via IndieGames)

Treasure of the Abandoned City by Alec Stamos and Todd Luke Play it online here.

To be fair, I don't think I've ever met a robot who wasn't a sarcastic metal jerk.

Treasure of the Abandoned City is a definite improvement over the previous Renegade Sector title (Venusian Vengeance), featuring a more tactile combat system and a more interesting world, but I get the feeling it's one more iteration away from being a great game. Even so, this is a worthwhile action-shooter-adventure type thing, putting you in the role of The Captain “in his continuing quest for Laserbeard's Treasures”, which to be honest sound like something best avoided. Along the way, you'll punch or shoot your fair share of golems, chat with a sarcastic robot, and eat the trippy local plants, which induce hallucinations. There's a lot of game here for no money, though you can Pay What You Want to get an ad-free version, which comes with a bunch of extra stuff. Neato. (Via IndieGames)

Future Development Company by Nigoro Play it online here.

Future Development Company. The name doesn't exactly give much away.

A real-time strategy game from La Mulana remakers Nigoro, but where your only enemy is bankruptcy. Oh and aliens. In each stage you're tasked with fulfilling a certain condition, such as launching a Buddha tower or constructing a giant robot, and you do this by building factories and labs and infrastructure and energy plants, while keeping an eye out for pesky alien spaceships, which periodically arrive to smash up your hard-earned stuff. Future Development Company is complex, cute, and just a bit too involved for me on a Friday afternoon, but if you have time and patience to spare, you could do a lot worse than to spend it here. (Via Free Indie Games)

Tax Evaders by Gan Gollan, Molleindustria Play it online here.

Yeah, sorry kids - it looks like you're heading back to school.

I can't tell if the pun came first and the game idea came later, or if it's the other way around, but either way Tax Evaders is a good joke, a nice piece of social commentary, and a fairly entertaining game all wrapped up into one. You're The People – you've probably met those guys before – and you're fighting back against the the corporate capitalist spaceships that have ruined your once vibrant town. As you fight capitalism with what appears to be giant foam fists (why did it take us so long to pinpoint its weakness?), your community is slowly rekindled in Tax Evaders' beautifully drawn backdrop – it's really a rather lovely touch. Eventually you find yourself squaring up against the Government itself, which drops austerity bombs to try and restore the imbalanced economy. Not on our watch! (Via Free Indie Games)

World of Tanks is celebrating its two-year anniversary in North America and Europe, and Wargaming.net are saying tanks for the support (I'm so, so sorry) with a celebration of all things big, metal and shooty. From today through to the 16th April, they're offering a selection of bonuses and discounts for their millions of tank commanders. You don't even have craft a papier-mâché Panzer party hat to join in.

Here's what's on offer:


5x Experience for the First Victory of the Day in Each Vehicle
Medal Hunt: Earn an extra 25,000 credits for every Top Gun Medal awarded
Discount and Profit Bonus on Tier VIII Vehicles and Tier VI SPGs
Discount on Tier VIII Premium vehicles
Profit Bonus on Tier V Vehicles
Discount on Equipment and Crew Training
Discount on Premium Accounts


Additionally, Wargaming have released a code granting a one-day Premium account to every player. Just enter the code "2NDBDAYTANKS" for your brief bonus. The code is valid until the 25th April.

Earlier this week I spoke to Ed Beach, Lead Designer on the Civilization V: Gods & Kings expansion, as well as the upcoming Brave New World expansion. I asked Beach for his thoughts on Civ V designer Jon Shafer's recent self-criticisms regarding Civilization V's one unit per tile system and leader AI quirks. "He was a little harsh on it," said Beach. "And I won't try to guess as to exactly what his frame of mind was, where he's coming from."

"Unit stacking can be a problem in Civ V, and I definitely think we've been acknowledging that for a while," continued Beach. "In Gods & Kings we made a change so that embarked land units could stack with naval units, because there was a lot of congestion out in the seas. So, there were definitely issues, but I'm still a big fan of one unit per tile. I think it improves the combat in so many ways, there's so much more tactical maneuvering and positioning."

Though he didn't address Civ V's notoriously fickle AI leaders, Beach went on to explain how the one unit per tile system has been improved over time.

"I think you just have to make sure, when you're designing a game like this with a one unit per tile system, that you're setting out for one unit per tile where it's helpful for you, like in spreading out the combat units and adding that tactical positioning play to the military side of it, and you're not enforcing one unit per tile rules in places where it's just getting in the player's way.

"So, I'm a big fan of one unit per tile, but I think we didn't quite hit it right with the initial release, in terms of where it was important to enforce it, and where we could just relax the rules a little bit. As long as we keep that in the forefront of our thinking, we'll be fine."



I also pointed out that Civilization is a series which is known to improve over time with expansions, but wondered what informs the decision to tear it all down and start over with a new numbered game.

"You want to set things up where you have a great foundation to build upon, and when you've invested in building that initial framework, you want to leverage that and get as many cool systems in to play off of that base as possible," said Beach.

"There is a point in time where, as you put each of those systems in, you learn a lot about the base game...and you see where things are working, and where things are still holding you back a little bit. You start to get to the point where, those things you can't change about the base game, because they're so fundamental to this particular iteration, are holding you back from what you want to try, then it's time to start looking at a new foundation."

I acknowledged that Beach obviously couldn't hint at plans for Civilization VI, to which he responded, "It is true that there are now 43 civs in the game, and the most any Civ has had up until now was 34. We actually hit 34 with Gods & Kings, and now we're going to be nine beyond it. So, that particular number is getting way up there."

Preview by Philippa Warr

A fire has been raging through Paris for the past four decades. Also, Jesus has just been born.

"The caravan unit is essentially a 'business camel' who brokers trade agreements."
That's the news from the other end of the bank of desks as I settle in to preview Civilization V: Brave New World - an expansion aimed primarily at spicing up the late stages of the game. My own Parisians, however, remain unroasted and un-Jesused because I've spent the last few turns ignoring Napoleon and trying to work out whether it would be prudent to build a windmill.

The windmill situation is clearly too complicated so I build a caravan unit instead. This is mostly because the caravan unit is essentially a "business camel" who goes off to other cities and brokers trade agreements on my behalf. In my head he has a pinstripe suit and a briefcase full of important documents.



The caravan appears as an option as soon as you research animal husbandry and creates trade routes. Looking to other civilisations, the most profitable trade routes are built between cities with few resources in common - business camels appreciate a diverse portfolio. But trade routes can also be established between two of your own cities. If one has a workshop, the trade route can export production giving a boost to cities founded late game which would otherwise be outpaced at every opportunity.

"Brave New World tries to deal with the late game peaceful play problem."
As time passes and you get deeper into the expansion you'll realise that the roving business camel was foreshadowing. Brave New World is actively trying to deal with the late game peaceful play problem - namely that you end up hemmed in on all sides with no will to explore, hitting "Next Turn" and eating biscuits.

"It's been a symptom of all Civ games - the late game just isn't as compelling as the beginning," admits Dennis Shirk, senior producer. Firaxis' solution? To prod you into activity via a mixture of international trade (business camels plus cargo ships), cultural scuffles, and the introduction of a World Congress for equal quantities of diplomacy and dickbaggery sans frontiers.



Culture now comes in two flavours: defensive and offensive. Defensive culture is the stuff of previous Civ iterations and is created by building wonders or landmarks. In Brave New World it serves to counter aggressive culture: tourism.

"Invest in tourism and artwork becomes a weapon. You're Charles Saatchi with a diplomatic passport."
Invest in tourism and artwork becomes a weapon. Your civilisation can now gobble up a great artist and spit out one of their famous real-world creations to be installed in a cultural institutions. Pair your burgeoning art scene with increased interaction with other civilisations and tourism flourishes: you're Charles Saatchi with a diplomatic passport.

The World Congress also appears in the latter part of the game; a cyclical system where two players - the host civilisation and the one with most delegates - make proposals. Nations preferring the diplomatic route to victory (or just partial to a spot of political wrangling) can spend turn after turn lobbying for support, indulging in espionage or trading votes to get their preferred policies approved.



These can be positive mandates for the good of humanity or a chance to indulge spite and retribution. "It's not always going to be a clean and shiny, optimistic future," observes Shirk. Indeed, the expansion's title, "Brave New World", explicitly references Huxley's dystopian novel and the ideological and cultural upheavals of the twentieth century.

"Don't expect Firaxis to stop tinkering with Civ V just yet."
But, whether you choose to play as a cynic or an optimist, Brave New World is hellbent on keeping you actively participating to the final turn. So although the expansion tentatively marks Civ V as complete don't expect the tinkering to stop just yet.

"We've already got updates on our schedule," says Shirk. "You can't know how the ideal arc for a game is going to fall until a million people are playing it - we want to have the best version of the game out there."

Arcen Games, creators of AI War and A Valley Without Wind, have announced their next game, Skyward Collapse. It's a strategy collision, incorporating elements of turn-based 4X, god games and simulation. Rather than a vengeful deity of elemental destruction, you play a hovering peacekeeper, attempting to persuade the inhabitants of the floating island you watch over to stop smacking each other with sticks.

"Set high in the sky atop a floating landmass that you are actively constructing as the game progresses, you oversee two warring factions (Greeks and Norse)," writes Arcen's Chris Park. "Via solo play or co-op, you play as "The Creator," helping both sides of the conflict -- granting each side buildings, resources, and even new citizens."

Which creates an interesting problem: left to their own devices, each village has its own goals, and one of them is destroying everybody else. "Given the resources and appropriate buildings, your villagers will gear up for war without your direct interaction, and will fight it out to the best of their abilities."

Your job upon this floating island of death and war is to balance the conflict in such a way that no side is wiped out. It's not simply a matter of confiscating their weapons - the island is also home to bands of bandits, meaning each village needs some way to defend itself.

Essentially, you're a disembodied UN, desperately trying to stop everyone from bloodily killing each other. You can build embassies and assign diplomats, but doing so will only affect the two villages participating in the peace process - everyone else remains as bloodthirsty as ever.

It's a fascinating concept, and Park goes into much more detail as to how each game will play out on his blog.

Arcen are also working on Exodus of the Machine, a "strategic journey" game set in the universe of AI War: Fleet Command.

"Vicious predators, clashing armies, and political intrigue stand in your way. None can stand before your modern weapons, but where do you use your limited ammunition? Do you resort to diplomacy, or native weapons? Will you fall to disease or run out of food stores? Can you get to the end in time?"

Both games are due out this year, with Skyward Collapse expected to release as a beta before the end of the month.

Dark Souls is meant to be brutal and unforgiving - that's part of the appeal. Still, the PCs Prepare to Die edition might have taken the philosophy a bit too far. The heavy burden of a capped framerate, the blight of forced 720 rendering, the foul stench of Games for Windows Live; all signs that From Software had failed to overcome the demons of PC porting.

Dark Souls II director Yui Tanimura agrees. In an interview with ShackNews he said (through a translator), "A lot of it was not very well done, sort of half-assed." The good news is that, for the sequel, the team have been developing the PC version alongside the consoles.

"Yes, we will definitely put more priority on the PC," Tanimura continued. "Last time, we started working on PC after the console version was complete. This time, because we are considering the PC from the beginning, you can be sure there will be more care put into PC development."

Dark Souls II is due to release on PC alongside console versions and, reportedly, the hands-off demo sessions previewing the game have been running on PC hardware, suggesting From Software already have much more faith in their PC champion.

For a while there, things looked grim for Death Inc, the bubonic-plague-themed RTS. Its Kickstarter campaign fell a little short, despite releasing a promising prototype and endorsements from the likes of Peter Molyneux, leaving the fate of the project very uncertain. But the game is officially feeling much better, having now announced a release date of November and a pre-purchase scheme that allows early adopters to snag the alpha build, and subsequent updates, for $10 - half the price of the final game. You can get it right now.

I've been playing around with the alpha build - it's certainly been expanded a good deal since the prototype, with tweaked unit selection, more unit types, and a greater emphasis on strategy.



It's a surprisingly tough game, despite the chirpy aesthetic and simple interface. Your aim on a given level is to infect the region's nobleman with plague, but to do so, you'll need a formidable force of coughing, boil-covered minions. You start off with a handful of infected peasants - useless in small numbers, but a mob of them will overcome soldiers and turn them over to your cause. You'll need soldiers to be able to take on the hulking axe wielding brutes, who will otherwise obliterate your putrescent peasant swarm. Then there are archers - deadly at range, but easily crushed up close. Getting to them isn't always easy as they may be behind barricades, or have the advantage of elevation.

This much was in the prototype, but the alpha also introduces suicide cows - infected bovines who detonate upon contact, spreading the plague to all those nearby. Siege weapons can be commandeered, allowing you to plough inexorably through defences and close the distance between you and a line of pesky archers. Swarms of rats and pigeons can also be summoned.



It's also much clearer now which units you have selected, and they're much easier to keep together or separate into their different types. Micromanagement is still a bit of a fuss, however, while the scissor-paper-stone damage ratios seem a bit arbitrary and difficult to see. When two mobs collide it's pretty unclear how much damage is being dealt until the tussle is over.

Clearly defined DPS details aren't necessary if your goal is knockabout chaos, of course, but Death Inc is just difficult enough to make this lack of detail frustrating in its absence. But that's what alphas are for, of course - we'll be watching carefully as Death Inc's sticky, icky thrills incubate.

It's a little-known fact that CEOs love writing reports. The whole reason that many companies become publicly traded is so their CEOs can spend their time writing endless reports for shareholders. For Stardock boss Brad Wardell, this poses a problem: as the head of a private company, there's no-one to report to. Rather than forlornly wandering the corridors of Stardock HQ, bothering staff with pie charts, he's instead decided to scratch that report itch by drafting a frank and honest address to their customers. In it, he talks about the company's performance over the last year, and hints at what they're planning next.

Wardell claims that 2012 was Stardock's biggest year financially, although points out that it's likely because they released more games than in any other year. He reveals that Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, Ironclad and Stardock's 4X expandalone, enjoyed far more success than either team anticipated. "I suspect there will be more news on this front as we go forward," Wardell teased.

Previewing the company's upcoming plans, Wardell says "I suspect we will have at least, two new game announcements in 2013." He also mentions Soren Johnson's (designer on Civ IV) role at Stardock - saying that he'll be working as a designer on their games over the next few months. "The emphasis on dedicated game design has resulted in greater confidence that new franchises will not have to go through the rocky experience that Elemental: War of Magic went through."

Wardell addresses the sale of Impulse, Stardock's digital distribution platform, to Gamespot, saying, "We suddenly had enough capital to do essentially anything we wanted." Rather than expand the company, Stardock will instead be creating an investment fund, designed to help game developers, found new studios, and enable new software ventures. "Over the next couple of years, some of these new ventures will start to become known. Hopefully, their success will help spawn new opportunities for the next generation software and game developers out there."

The report also included Stardock's 2012 Customer Survey, which provides and interesting statistic on the rapid growth of digital consumption. Of the surveyed customers, 82% said they preferred to buy their software digitally. This is compared to Stardock's 2008 survey response, in which only 42% expressed a digital preference.

For more stats and info, you can read the full report here.

Thanks, Joystiq.

If you've ever dreamed of playing a zombie survival shooter set on Alcatraz (and who hasn't!) then this Black Ops 2 DLC is probably going to appeal to you. 'Mob of the Dead' - which comes bundled with the forthcoming 'Uprising' DLC pack - places you in the shoes of one of four mobsters imprisoned on Alcatraz, and as you'll have guessed, you'll be shooting lots of zombies. Hordes of them. The mobsters boast the professional voice acting skills of four Hollywood talents: Ray Liotta, Chazz Palminteri, Joe Pantoliano and Michael Madsen.

The trailer above is promoting the Xbox 360 version, which is dropping this month, but PC gamers have to wait until June to play this. The 'Uprising' DLC also contains four new multiplayer maps in the form of Vertigo, Magma, Encore and Studio.