Multiplayer games are the best type of games, because they’re built around the most interesting components known to humans: humans. Men, women, and an awful lot of children.

Internet strangers aren’t always the friendliest bunch, but they can surprise you in ways that a static system can’t. People form the living, beating hearts of the gaming moments I value the most. Join me, then, as I point at the games that encase those beating hearts best. (more…)

Jazztronauts is a mod about how mods are made. In this clever meta-modification for Garry’s Mod, you (and optionally your pals) go on scavenger hunts through the 15,000+ maps already on the Steam Workshop. You’re hunting for glowing crystals while stealing everything else (from chairs to wall textures) to sell for cash to spend on persistent upgrades, then escaping in a wall-smashing cosmic tram car. Jazztronauts is out now, and you’ll need Garry’s Mod (plus some extras) to play.

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Jazztronauts is a mod about how mods are made. In this clever meta-modification for Garry’s Mod, you (and optionally your pals) go on scavenger hunts through the 15,000+ maps already on the Steam Workshop. You’re hunting for glowing crystals while stealing everything else (from chairs to wall textures) to sell for cash to spend on persistent upgrades, then escaping in a wall-smashing cosmic tram car. Jazztronauts is out now, and you’ll need Garry’s Mod (plus some extras) to play.

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A fascinating new mod for the Source engine sandbox Garry’s Mod will send players ram-raiding through player-created maps swiped off the Steam Workshop to steal everything that isn’t nailed down, stripping them of everything from antlions to light fittings. That’s the big idea of Jazztronauts, which looks both incredibly clever and stupid as hell. On one hand, it’s deconstructing the illusions of level design. On the other, you do smash into levels inside a giant bus, get to see your haul of trash rain down from a gameshow-y prize tube, and will be able to date cats. An excellent combination. Here, come watch this. (more…)

VR almost certainly needs a killer app if it’s to spread beyond monied game-fans. Facebook have probably got something up their sleeves for that there Oculus Rift, but as for the Vive, I do wonder if Garry Newman’s talk of a VR-focused follow-up to his monster-selling Garry’s Mod [official site] could be the mega-toy it needs.

… [visit site to read more]

What are the best Steam Summer Sale deals? Each day for the duration of the sale, we’ll be offering our picks – based on price, what we like, and what we think more people should play. Read on for the five best deals from day 10 of the sale.>

… [visit site to read more]

Say kid, how do you fancy being a YouTube sensation, a real livestream Liberace? “B-but where would I even start?” you ask, eyes wide with hope. A new Humble Weekly Sale offers almost everything you need to become an Internet megastar, minus the hardware and a dreadful persona.

Curated by ‘PewDiePie’ (he has YouTube’s most-subscribed channel, don’t you know?) the bundle packs a few games the exhausting manbaby personality has wailed obscenities over, including Surgeon Simulator 2013, Garry’s Mod, and State of Decay.

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Over the years of the existence of Garry’s Mod, it’s been a fun game to try to admiringly calculate just how rich it’s made creator Garry Newman. Since he’s been especially open with sales figures, and since the game is selling double the number of copies with each passing year, it means that currently he has most of the money that exists. And as the sales continue to increase exponentially, he’ll soon have infinity money, at which point money will be declared Over, and we’ll have to start again with some new system, where finances are based on emotional exchanges or something. So bearing all this in mind, with his disclosure to GI.biz that in one month Rust has already made 40% of GMod’s lifetime profits, be prepared for a worldwide financial collapse. Oh, wait, hang on… 55% now.

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Are you tired of sales? Did Black Friday and Cyborg Monday beat your wallet to a penniless pulp? Well, TOO BAD. Games will continue going on sale from now until the end of time, and somewhere in between, you will cast off your mortal coil poor and probably alone. I apologize. That was too much. Sales just get me super amped up> about mortality, is all. Anyway, the Humble Jumbo Bundle is composed of six games and tons of DLC. Standouts include Natural Selection 2, Sanctum 2, and Orcs Must Die! 2. Details below.

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Last week, Garry Newman tweeted a sales chart that backed up what we already knew: that his game Garry’s Mod is extremely successful and that its sales have not slowed down since its release back in 2006. The extra detail was a little surprising though. July 2013 was the game’s best month ever in terms of copies sold, the number of copies sold doubles each year, and it has sold 3.5 million in total since launch.

Even accounting for Steam sales, those are remarkable numbers. I emailed Garry to ask him how this has happened, and also why, and also how, and what? Fwuh? (more…)