Here’s some splendid news. Earlier this week I had a little grumblefest about the state of Spelunky’s PC port, with a lack of resolution options, and very poor windowed mode support. I also had a dig about the unskippable intro animations that were also a pain in the 360 version. Whether it was in response to my moaning, or something they were doing anyway, the really good news is that it’s all fixed! And as a result, Spelunky feels splendidly at home on the PC.

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The Flare Path turns two this week. Here in the UK that means it can legally hunt gruffalo, attend public hangings, and teach John Prine lyrics to mynah birds. To mark the occasion there’ll be no news items or inscrutable intros today. The entire column will consist of quizzes. Napping fitfully beyond the break are five fuzzy-eared Foxers, each with a rather special set of prizes tied to its brush. (more…)

Emperor, forgive me for what I’m about to write. It’s me, Rab Florence. You know I love Space Hulk. You know I have every edition of the game. You know I am pure.

But it’s three in the morning, and I’ve been playing Space Hulk on PC for six hours, and that’s more than enough. It’s been a painful, heartbreaking six hours, and the thought of a seventh is unbearable. Let me tell you why. (more…)

I have an unhealthy obsession with music visualizer games. Symphony and Frequency Domain have sated my rampant beatlust in recent years, but I don’t think anything will ever top my first love: Audiosurf. It’s not the most involved game ever, but that’s part of the charm for me. I can just zone out and dive headfirst into a neon-pulsing mouth of music, let it swallow me whole into a sea of flashing darkness. I like to play it before bed, when my brain’s still too fluttery for sleep. So I’ve been very> eagerly awaiting its sequel, Audiosurf Air, while lamenting the disheartening lack of news surrounding it. But hark, what is that, speeding over the horizon in some kind of wonderful rocket car? Could it be? …No. But also yes! An announcement that we’ll be able to play Audiosurf Air very, very soon.

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Goodness gracious, Grand Theft Auto Online sounds like quite the thing. While Grand Theft Auto IV’s multiplayer presented quite a sizable playground for nos-fueled deathmatch antics, it was just that: a playground, and nothing more. Grand Theft Auto Online’s Los Santos, meanwhile, looks like it’s trying very, very hard to be an actual place> – replete with its own characters, missions, silly side activities (synchronized rainbow parachuting, anyone?), and beefed up progression. Also, Rockstar plans to continually expand what almost certainly constitutes the most crime-ridden city on Fictional Earth long after launch.

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Given that the real place is slowly being swallowed by the Adriatic sea, Rise of Venice seems like a cruel title for a game. Why not just call it “Glug!”? Hold on, it turns out I am comedically mis-reading the title’s intentions: Kalypso’s Renaissance-set power-struggle is a historical strategy game. It’s set back when being a sea merchant was an actual thing that could be a job, and you’ll be engaging the twin tasks of earning money and attempting to gain influence over the City of Masks. The “Rise” is cultural. Swampy trailer beneath. (more…)

Popular culture is slowly dripping into the MOBA genre. It’s remained fairly resistant to the wider world until now (probably because the wider world is a noob and was shouted at until it logged off), and I can only think of DC’s Infinite Crisis as an interloper from elsewhere. Now it’s time for Tolkien’s Middle-earth to form some lanes and take on Dota 2 and LoL: Guardians of Middle-earth, a console-based MOBA from Monolith, is coming to the PC this month. I have a trailer. (more…)

It’s always such a lovely rosy feeling, having your time wasted, isn’t it? That’s what it’s looking like Bethesda’s Pete Hines and Arkane’s Raphael Colantonio may well have done to us in the last couple of weeks, when we were told what now appears to be rubbish about Prey 2′s development. When Nathan asked Hines directly whether Arkane had taken over development from Human Head, he replied with a definite, “No.” Seems he could have said “Yes.” They’re so easily muddled. And the emails go on to suggest that Colantonio considers the gaming sites that report on his games to be “press sneak fucks” when they stumble on the truth.

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Damn you, Democracy 3, and damn you Cliffski. I wouldn’t say I’m quite at the point where I sympathise with the many blood-sucking insects that make up the UK’s political scene, but I worry that I’m starting to think like one of them. When I began playing, I was determined to do the right thing. A couple of hours later, I realised I didn’t know what the right thing was anymore. Two days in, I’d have chopped off my own hand for a few more votes.>

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You can tell a lot about a person by watching what they install on a fresh operating system. It’s the IT Rorschach test. For me it goes Chrome, Steam, drivers, a twitter client, then whatever I need as I go along*. I suspect Blizzard has just added an extra step in that process for a lot of PC owners: they’ve just opened up the beta to a new launcher for all their recent games. Battle.net is now on the desktop. (more…)