If I had any money to my name, instead of the bank account of debt and pockets full of lint that come with a life spent heroically writing about videogames, then I’d probably invest in the Oculus Rift too. That’s what a bunch of Silicon Valley venture capitalists have just done, slipping $75 million into the wallets of Oculus VR. (more…)
God, it’s been a long week. I’ve written an absurd amount of words and I think I’ve run out of the clever. The best I can do is challenge you magnificent readers to guess if this week’s plushie is just a plushie or a cultural reference of some variety. Questionable humor asides, though, I’m looking forward to next week’s deluge of Wildstar-related content on RockPaperShotgun and getting my mittens on Season 2 of The Walking Dead. Being a terrified kid in an apocalyptic world will be lovely. Maybe. In the meantime, enjoy this week’s rather indie selection. Insert closing wisecrack here.>
(P.S: Navigating geographical pricing is still a bit of a nightmare for me. Hola only seems to go so far. If you require me to make any corrections or have any recommendations on how best to deliver the most accurate numbers, do not hesitate to let me know in the comments. Or over smoke signals. Whichever works best for you.)
And then I opened the advent calendar door, and this massive explosion erupted from behind it, sending out fireballs all around. I was quick to dash about, rescuing the innocent children, before single-handedly stopping the fire from spreading to the puppy orphanage… Well, okay, it wasn’t quite like that. Um, let’s try again.
I haven’t returned to the fields of European conquest since the weeks immediately after Europa Universalis IV‘s release, because my Austrian struggles seemed like a personal canonical history I couldn’t repeat or replace. The Conquest of Paradise expansion might lure me back with a new world of promise, however. It’s due for release on January 14th, and a new developer diary video below explains the mechanics you’ll play with if you want to take control of the Native American tribes. (more…)
I have sniped a Terrorist across the full length of A-Long. I’ve hidden behind the squeaky door on Nuke, unmoving, for almost two minutes before scoring an ace with a P90. I’ve won and lost last-minute nailbiters. But until the most recent Dreamhack tournament I’d never staked an AK-47 on a match before and I’d never really got under the surface of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Hit the jump to commit to a competitive game
‘Baby Hazel Stomach Care Game‘ is a free webgame which RPS was emailed about today. It concerns an unspecified parent, who may or may not be a single Mickey Mouse glove, attempting to help the titular Baby Hazel with a stomach complaint. As the father of a seven-month-old daughter, I felt qualified to list 26 factual inaccuracies in this infant-management simulator, ranging from inconsistent depiction of the baby’s motor skills to her psychic capabilities, possible Timelord attributes and the poor professional standards of her parents’ chosen medical practitioner. (more…)
As I observed in my write-up of humans-and-fish-can-never-be-friends simulator FarSky, games rarely wade into the sea past their belly buttons, let alone delve 20,000 leagues under it. To be fair, there are good reasons for this: it’s wet and cold down there; also, 3D cameras go haywire, controls suffer, and drowning isn’t a lot of fun (by most definitions of the word). That’s not stopping We Need To Go Deeper, though. It’s a randomized, FTL-inspired submarine survivor about colossal creepy crawlies that lurk beneath the sea instead of the malevolent forces that go bump in space’s eternal night. Also, it’s co-op. First trailer below.
In an I-don’t-recognise-my-life-anymore moment, Frontier invited me to their offices to be the first person to play Elite: Dangerous. David Braben and his team put me in a room with a joystick that was connected to a PC that was running the first public demonstration of the game. I’ve no idea how something like that happened to me, but I think I got through it without embarrassing myself, even if I did phone my mum to tell her.> (more…)
It’s harsh but fair to say that our coverage of the mod scene is not presently at its most abundant. This is because of our recent enrolment in The International Church of Code Purity. The thought of all those innocent, virgin games being corrupted into something Other by the greasy, hungry hands of third parties makes us sick to our very souls. Down with this sort of thing.
If you remain a heathen and have not joined The International Church of Code Purity, your pagan mind might enjoy browsing ModDB’s player-voted round-up of the top 100 mods of the year. Don’t ever darken our pristine doorstep again, mind. (more…)
Simulatia shook like a flak-jostled Ju 88 on Wednesday afternoon when two long-longed-for sequels turned up within hours of each other. A better organised, less sleep-partial sim correspondent would have dashed-off pithy preliminary assessments of OMSI 2 and Wings Over Flanders Fields in time for his Friday column. Me, I’m still too busy pinching myself, rubbing the Fairey dust from my eyes, and deciding how I feel about two earlier arrivals. (more…)