Secret World Legends - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Richard Cobbett)

What do Egyptian pharaohs like to feed their cats? I don't know, but Akhenaten cats prefer Whiskers.

You know those games that you can never really> get into, but you keep dipping back into, time and again? For me, they tend to be MMORPGs, and two in particular – City of Heroes, which I’d often feel the urge to just fire up for a weekend and clobber some stuff, and World of Warcraft, which I always jump into each expansion pack to take my Undead Mage out of storage for one more adventure. The Secret World is also on my list, but from the other direction. It’s a game that ticked every one of my boxes when it first came out, save the one about actually having fun with it. Yet I’ve been back several times, always secretly hoping that at some point it will have morphed into the single-player Vampire: Bloodlines type game its world constantly cries tortured screams to have been.

Well, spoiler: It hasn’t. And yes, I know in my heart that it never will. However, last month… actually, wait, we’re in May. Bah! Fine. Back in March then, Funcom launched what it called ‘The Enhanced Player Experience’. Well, it’s been a quiet week. I thought I’d see if it’s helped things out any.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Emily Gera)

Bad news, to my fellow PC Brethren who’ve had their eyes and hearts clocked to May 7th as the release date for Not A Hero [official website], that side-on shooter from the dudes behind OlliOlli.

You’re going to have to wait exactly seven additional days before you see that baby, which granted isn’t much of a wait. Just think of all the things you can do instead! Paint a room, think about dogs, and so on.

… [visit site to read more]

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Emily Gera)

The sacred tectonics of League of Legends [official website] have shifted – ARAM mode, which for y’all four of you who don’t play is a single-lane battle featuring randomly assigned characters, now includes a new snowball feature that changes the entire rhythm of the thing.

With Patch 5.8, players will be able to use a snowball in ARAM that will mark an enemy when thrown and allow you to teleport to them. League fans might recognise this whole snowball thing from a temporary game mode released last year, but it seems like Riot Games is taking it on board for the long-haul.

… [visit site to read more]

Cosmochoria - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Emily Gera)

A naked guy in a helmet meandering around the vacuum of space. Finally, a video game that relates to my day to day life.

Long-time RPS readers will remember we spoke about Cosmochoria [official website] when it first entered Early Access last year. At that time we were already comparing it to Edmund McMillen’s Aether, which is still right on the money. Both are 2D games, both set on or around small planets, one largely an ode to being naked in space which I reckon McMillen would approve of.

And boy howdy, the game is now live. … [visit site to read more]

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Emily Gera)

BioWare, in their deep and powerful wisdom, have decided that we puny mortals like stuff that’s free. So starting May 5th, a new multiplayer add-on called Dragonslayer is coming to Dragon Age: Inquisition [official website] at exactly no cost to you.

Dragonslayer gets you three new playable characters: an Avvar warrior called Skywatcher, a rock ‘n’ roll bard known as Zither the Virtuoso, and series veteran Isabela, the Raider Queen of the Eastern Seas. Also coming is a new location in the form of a Ferelden castle.

… [visit site to read more]

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Emily Gera)

And lo’ the clouds parted and E3’s suited powers-that-be waved their bejeweled hand and now there’s going to be an entirely new conference of sorts dedicated to PC Gaming. Oh Sweet Mariah Carey, such things have been a long time coming. As a long-time attendee of E3, I can tell you first hand that that’s the place you go when you’re basically just looking for an in-the-trenches view of the most macho of console arms races. Amid such tense and enthusiastic pissing contests, PC gaming has often found itself ignored.

But hardware folks AMD and cheery RPS fanzine PC Gamer have announced they’re hosting a new PC gaming pageant extravaganza during E3 week this year, the PC Gaming Show.

… [visit site to read more]

May 3, 2015
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Graham Smith)

Sundays are for programming computer people to have ambition and fear, that you might later exploit their weaknesses for crime. But first we must gather the week’s best writing about games, as tradition demoands.

  • This was sent my way by Kieron and is excellent: on gaming and the need for communication between gamers with different playstyle. Focused inparticular on wargaming, but relevant to any kind of multiplayer gaming. If you want to play to win, tell your friends first. Warning: some brief discussion of abuse towards its end.
  • … [visit site to read more]

    Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Emily Gera)

    From a two-day event of brutality and tough but somehow sensual tank action has emerged a single victor. Wargaming [official website] has announced the winners of its official Dudes Who Are The Best Ever At Playing World Of Tanks award, better known as the Grand Finals Champions of Wargaming eSports Poland 2015.

    The winner is a group of Russia-born lads called HellRaisers.

    … [visit site to read more]

    Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Philippa Warr)

    Strangethink’s Twitter feed has been an ongoing delight thanks to frequent gifs and snapshots from game development, some featuring dual-wielded neon cats.

    I’m going to share with you some of my favourites. The architecture, and indeed the world, are very close to what you’ll find in the previous Strangethink outing, Secret Habitat, which involved procedurally generated art galleries. I’m not sure whether this is still Days of the Electric Sky or whether this is a new thing called Neon Lodge or featuring a Neon Lodge or [bonus third option]…

    … [visit site to read more]

    Watch_Dogsā„¢ - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Emily Gera)

    In news that surprises exactly no one, a sequel to Watch Dogs [official website] appears to be in the works. This comes according to some poor guy’s LinkedIn page that’s been sniffed out by VideoGamer.com.

    Julien Risse is a senior gameplay designer at Ubisoft, whose past credits include the original Watch Dogs and its DLC Bad Blood, but the stand out oddity is his mention of an unannounced sequel for the series. He’s since deleted it from his credits but it lives on forever in screencap form. Somewhere, with knuckles between teeth, Julien Risse silently screams.

    … [visit site to read more]

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