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Huh. Well, this is a bit embarrassing. I seem to have – and you’re never going to believe this when I tell you; hoo boy, what are the odds? – misplaced Assassin’s Creed IV’s Freedom Cry DLC. I don’t even know how this happened. I’ve retraced my steps and everything. I just cannot find it anywhere. Wait a minute, Ubisoft, why are you sitting conspicuously in that corner over there, glancing back and forth like you’ve got something to hide? OK, spit it out. Go on now. Ahhh, there’s the culprit: a delay.
OK, maybe those aren’t quite> the real figures, but at some point these headlines just become giant neon “LOOK AT ALL THESE IMPRESSIVE NUMBERS” signs. That said, the DayZ alpha is definitely a sprinter, not a shambler, given that it raced to 172,500 copies sold (and counting) in only 24 hours. Maybe this whole zombie fad has a chance of catching on after all, despite the fact that fairies, goblins, and poofy haired troll figurines are massively outpacing them in the pop-culture-sphere-o-scape right now.
This is the latest in a series of articles about the art technology of games, in collaboration with the particularly handsome Dead End Thrills.>
Alice: Madness Returns is a very special action game, a piece of Lewis Carroll fan fiction conceived by an American (named American, naturally) and illustrated largely by the Chinese, a people not known for their absurdism. Unfortunately it’s also a classic victim of checklist game criticism and marketing, not to mention it’s the worst possible thing to reviewers working under deadline: long. Make no mistake, the business of game reviewing is a lot like the business of eating large amounts of Jacob’s Cream Crackers in hot and rowdy East End basements. To put it another way, all games get tiring when you play them past your bedtime.
The sequel to American McGee s Alice isn’t great (8/10), solid (7/10), flawed (6/10) or average (5/10) – it s none of that nonsense. It’s a living art book, an Alice novel with the ratio of words to pictures spun around. Inspired by such wild and offbeat things as Burning Man, Dave McKean, Zdzislaw Beksinski, The NeverEnding Story, The Dark Crystal and the Brothers Quay, more than anything it’s a tribute to the mechanical and the handmade. Dolls, miniatures and puppets crowd the dreams and nightmares of its Wonderland, while its ‘real world’ Victorian London would be right at home in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. (more…)
Stay Awhile And Listen: How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo And Forged A Videogame Empire is David L. Craddock’s ebook unofficial biography of… well, it’s in the title, isn’t it? Consisting of reminisces from Blizzard staff, design insight and a document of how the then-games industry worked, it’s the tale of how plucky start-up Condor Inc became Blizzard North and created the grandaddy of action RPGs.> (more…)
Formerly a PS3 and Vita exclusive, Stick It To The Man is now out on Steam too. A mid-length puzzle platform game about mind reading and psychic sticker application, owing more than a nod to Tim Schafer. So wot do I think? This is wot I think:>
The Smithsonian are inducting two games into the American Art’s Collection, recognising videogames as “crucial to our understanding of the American story.” They’ve even gone so far as to select two interesting> games for the collection: Flower by thatgamecompany and Halo 2600 by Ed Fries. The latter is a de-make of Halo built and released for the Atari 2600 in 2010, though there’s a Flash version also. (more…)
A pinball table is more than balls, flippers and lights, although the uninitiated may see it as an almost literal collection of bells and whistles. I see tables in the corner of bars quite often, usually neglected and often unplugged, and was delighted to see an Addams Family machine one of the great designs of its kind in Larian s studios a couple of weeks ago. It was as quiet as a crypt, missing parts dooming it to a long sleep. That’s often the case and it makes me sad because all of those lights and sounds helped to make me. This is one reason why The Pinball Arcade has consumed many of my evenings.>
Its rabbit characters are not the interesting thing about this game. Overgrowth is interesting because this indie project from a small team has physics-driven kung-fu, destructive and satisfying swordfighting, environment-hopping wall-running, stealth, RPG mechanics, local multiplayer, and a level editor that allows you to construct your own scenarios.
The game has been in paid-alpha since 2008, a time when “paid-alpha” wasn’t really a thing we understood. Now it’s available on Steam Early Access. There’s more detail and videos below. (more…)
There are so many early access alphas emerging from gaming’s underbrush right now – bugs exposed for all to see, freely worming around in the loam – that my pointing it out is even becoming tiresome. So let’s skip all the run-up. Divinity: Original Sin, Larian’s heavenly-looking fantasy role-player, is now available to backers in alpha form. If you didn’t back it, no dice for now. A more open beta might take place at some point down the line, but for the moment the early wallet gets the worm, or 10-15 hour chunk of an extremely promising adventure, as it were. Video and details below.