As Nathan mentioned this morning, Eldritch is from the hands of David and Kyle Pittman, formerly of BioShock 2 and Borderlands fame. But hey, maybe all they did was make those games crash? We don’t know! So I’ve taken a look at Eldritch to see if their pedigree counts for anything… Oh, it does. It’s really rather good. They probably didn’t make those games crash.>
The attractive island exploration simulator multiplayer military simulator, Arma III, has officially transitioned from its extended beta phase into full release mode. Sort of. Bohemia have dropped the beta tag but they haven’t added a campaign to the game yet – that’ll be released in the near future and patched in. After months of discoveries, which mostly involved Craig crashing helicopters while eyeing up shacks, bees and Altis, it feels like the game has been out for a good while already. The release version includes the full island of Altis, with 12 showcases and 3 faction showcases, 10 challenges and 9 multiplayer scenarios. We’ll have a Wot I Think soon. For now, engage your visual organs and watch the launch trailer.
This is a surprise. I am grinning at the Heroes Of Loot trailer. I don’t emote often, even if I am feeling amused or entertained. It’s a defense mechanism from growing up in Glasgow, where emotions are seen as the weak spot of your Glaswegianosity, and displaying happiness was frowned upon> with knives and punching. I trained myself to not react to things, and now suffer a face that appears palsied and angry, even when nice things are happening. So take it from me and my grinning mush that speedy little dungeon crawler Heroes Of Loot looks lovely, and it also has an excellent trailer. The buy page even has a demo, which is such a rarity nowadays that it also counts as loot. (more…)
According to my phone’s GPS, Google Maps, a quick check of my immigration status (I am currently not being beaten nor threatened), and my own keen observations involving my fridge, I can confirm that I am not in Los Angeles. It means I can’t be part of IndieCade 2013′s glorious festival of games next month. As a treat, for all those not in that part of the world, they’ve released the list of games nominated for the award ceremony. It is lonnnnng and full of games. We might not be there in practice, but our spirits can at least get a few drinks in. A few PC highlights are below. (more…)
It’s going to be very hard for a big ol’ fantasy RPG to get my attention while not being The Witcher 3. From the developer of the wooden War Logs of Mars, Bound By Flame is the tale of a mercenary possessed by a flame demon. You are that mercenary! Or maybe you’re the flame demon. That would be a decent twist actually, explaining away the somewhat arbitrary nature of control over conversations and relationships that tends to be par for the course in games of this sort. The demon thinks it would be amusing to force the poor hero to give one of his travelling companions four hundred turkey dinners, only to fall into despair as the grateful recipient immediately disrobes. Bound by Flame: The Screwtape Letters. Trailer below.
Final Exam is the sort-of follow-up to Obscure, which was a co-operative survival horror game set in a high school that you probably don’t remember. There was even a sequel but I don’t know a great deal about that. The change of name seems sensible because Final Exam looks more like Splatterhouse than Resident Evil, although it does still have a co-operative mode, with up to four players pummelling monsters together, using powers of dubious origin. Why does a dumb jock suddenly have the ability to pound the ground so hard that earthquakes immediately occur? I don’t know. Toxic waste? Sorcery? The eighties? The game looks tolerably diverting in the trailer below, although I started replying to emails before it was over, which isn’t usually a good sign.
Developers are always suggesting the best way to get into the games industry is to ‘make something’. Not anything, though. You can’t assemble a day bed and walk into Bethesda demanding a job making Skyrim expansions. No, they mean you should make a game, or a bit of a game, or something gamey. If you made a game about a day bed, maybe you’d have a chance? That’s what Stephen Orlando did when he made Treasure Adventure Game, a wonderful and free adventure platformer that was all game (but not about a day bed). He’s since been working on Treasure Adventure World, a remix and remake of it that will definitely place him in the games industry if you buy it. There’s a ‘help me fund it’ page here. Trailer is below. (more…)
Ubisoft released another live action trailer for Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag this week, about six months since the first trailer the game received. So I thought it would be an opportune time to take a look at the trails for the game so far.
Rayman: Legends Legumes is the sequel to the unexpectedly brilliant Rayman: Origins Oranges. The latter, starring a character that I had little interest in and whose style of running and jumping didn’t seem particularly suited to the PC, was one of my favourite games of last year. With that in mind, I approached Legumes without any prejudice but instead with a deep-seated cynicism. I am nothing if not my doubts. But is this a rushed and inconsequential sequel or another platforming classic? Here’s wot I think.>
In other months-old news, EARLY ACCESS TO PLANETARY ANNIHILATION COSTS $70. That’s $20 down from the original asking price, but still: yikes. Here’s hoping the beta asteroid surfs into reasonable territory – away from the alpha’s orbital space base in Ludicrous Land. If nothing else, it’ll be bringing some pretty immense new features to bear when it goes live later this month. For instance, interplanetary war, which is kind of what the whole game is about. More details below.