This is a shout-out to the chaps of ROCK PAPER SKANA, the small but dedicated part of the RPS community that slips into their Warframe ninja-bots and slices through the procedurally generated levels. ‘Sup? With that social pleasantry out the way, I’m here to tell you about Update 10 of Digital Extremes’ popular free-to-play online brawler. Shadows of the Dead introduces two new Warframes for players to purchase, as well as new mission types and other space-ninja accoutrements (more…)

I’m more of a far-off admirer of Battlefield than someone with an active interest in it. I have my binoculars trained on it and I can tell it’s beautiful, it’s big, and it looks like a lot of fun. But I have Arma 3 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (I’ve been casually playing CS:GO with some friends for the past few evenings), and there’s no more room for another shooter where I have to know things about the guns. For those of you who really want to play it, you’ll be able to on October the 1st for free: that’s when the open beta will allow everyone to hop on Conquest mode on the Siege of Shanghai map. (more…)

See that? I just went for it and told you the release date of Football Manager 2014. No teases. No ‘after the jump’ or ‘on the other side of the ha-ha’. I didn’t even encrypt the data and ask you to hack it. No, it’s above. Why did I do that? It’s because I respect your time, that’s why. Actually, I respect ‘the time’, so when Sega announced the very minute that the game was being released, I was in heaven. If only everyone ran to such specific schedules and nothing ever went wrong, I’d be incredibly happy. There is other information below, so head beneath the bulwark to find out about the beta, the demo, and Steam integration. (more…)

“Have you ever been to Córdoba?” It’s not the sort of question an interviewee normally asks me but this isn’t a normal interview. I’d like to say that I spoke to Paul Arendt and Alexis Kennedy of Failbetter games in a corroded wine cellar by gaslight, but that would be a lie. The creators of Fallen London work in Digital Enterprise Greenwich, overlooking the Thames from on high rather than sifting through its waters in search of stories to tell. I’ve had a long and fulfilling relationship with Fallen London, and Sunless Sea looks like a marvellous mixture of Elite, roguelike and top notch storytelling, so I was hoping for a fulfilling conversation.

A couple of hours later, we’d talked about everything from Dark Souls to Dickens, and the world felt like a more fascinating place. These are two of the most interesting minds making games and whether you’ve played Fallen London or not, you would do well to consume their thoughts.>

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I enjoy seeing the Apogee logo pushing its pixels onto the screen at the beginning of every Rise of the Triad trailer. For me, it doesn’t primarily bring back memories of frenzied first-person shooting, although I did enjoy the original ROTT way back when. Apogee are inextricably linked with Wacky Wheels in my mind though, which worries me a little. How much time did I actually spend steering an elephant around an arena-track, his balloon-laden kart spinning and bouncing as I battled for supremacy? Perhaps there will be an updated version next year? If so, I’d appreciate the sort of post-release support ROTT is receiving. A mega-patch has arrived with tweaks and fixes aplenty, as well as five new multiplayer maps. Video below.

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Codemasters send word of the “classics” in the forthcoming racing game, F1 2013, which will allow folks to drive the F1 cars of yesterday. Which, in the case of one such motor, is 1976. They explain: “The 1976 Ferrari 312 T2 is an exclusive free gift to all those that sign up to Codemasters RaceNet and will be drivable in F1 2013′s Time Trial mode.” It’s almost as if it were coinciding with another media racing event type affair. Hmm! (more…)

It is 1991. I am eagerly clicking my way into my copy of Populous II, recently purchased from WHSmith (can you imagine!) and Uncle John is watching over my shoulder. He observes for a while, and then says “just looks like a lot of clicking to me.” It is, I say, but there’s something going on here, a struggle, a strategy>.

It is 2013. I am eagerly clicking my way into my copy of Godus, recently purchased from Steam, and the internet is watching over my shoulder. It observes for a while and then comments “lol, just looks like a lot of clicking to me.” It is, I say, but there’s something going on here. Isn’t there?> This time I am not so sure.

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The Firefall forums recently updated with the news that the PvP aspect of the game is going to be shut down, pending a rethink. Bossman Mark Kern explained that the PvP aspect was attracting just 3% of the playerbase, and therefore action had to be taken, with a focus on the PvE game: “People want more content, fewer bugs, and more polish on these world systems. For these reasons, we have made the tough decision to suspend PvP and take the system offline so that we can rethink it and relaunch it. PvP is an important part of our game, and we want to get it right.”

Have to admit that, well, I played a bunch of Firefall PvE, and never looked to the PvP. Hopefully they can figure out a way to get it sorted.

You might recall that a Dizzy remake completely failed to kick off with a Kickstarter, but in another, quieter corner of crowd-funding Spud’s Quest did get funded. The game – which is now complete and available to purchase – takes its inspiration from the likes of Dizzy, and is a side-scrolling questing platformer like they used to make in the olden times, in the dark times, before the internet.

Trailer below, for you to get dizzy over. (more…)

Deep in the catacombs of the RPS Forbidden Chatroom of Mystery, a robot stirrs and whirrs. “Craizxcg”, says Jim, his voice the sound of rust being scraped off gunmetal, “Canbbbthppt youo pooosststssszz thissxzz?”, then he explodes. Springs and batteries are everywhere. The final act of Jimbot 3000 is to tell me about the Iron Soul launch trailer, an action platform game about jumping robots that mentions MDK as inspirations. I hope it lives up to that lofty goal. What do you think, Ji – oh, that’s right. He exploded. The last act of a loyal and determined robot, who only wanted to further robotkind and in no way enslave humanity and turn us into batteries.

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