Rock, Paper, Shotgun

By Nathan Grayson on January 8th, 2013 at 9:00 am.

Hey everyone, you’re never going to believe this. The Steam Box? It’s totally real. I know, right? I mean, a series of totally unsubstantiated rumors from Valve alphabeard Gabe Newell was dubious at best, and Big Picture mode spent so much time in development for no reason whatsoever. But somehow – completely unexpectedly – we’re now here, watching Valve and mini-PC maker Xi3 team up to reveal “an integrated system that exceeds the capabilities of leading game consoles, but can fit in the palm of your hand.” Xi3 also compared the device’s physical size to that of a grapefruit, meaning that this is yet another mind-blowing technological advancement I’ll have to worry about accidentally eating.

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By Adam Smith on January 7th, 2013 at 9:00 pm.

Inexplicably finding themselves in conversation with an energy drink manufacturer, Telltale mentioned that they were working on season two of The Walking Dead. We already knew that but what we didn’t know is that the sequel to last year’s most efficient jerker of tears will most likely carry over saves from the ending of the original episodes. That surprises me, considering that the season ended with the zombie virus cured by a broth containing Basset Hound saliva and pixie tears. Wouldn’t it be more sensible to go back to the dark days of the decaying dead and follow a separate group of survivors rather than continuing with the Little House on the Prairie set-up suggested by that ending? Actual spoilers below.

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By Alec Meer on January 7th, 2013 at 8:00 pm.

The trouble with games with long names is that it can become impossible to write non-prosaic headlines. For this reason, I demand that War For The Overworld be removed from the internet this instant, and its creators thrown into a fire.

…Which would be be a very silly thing for me to want, given it’s a remake/sequel of one of the games I most love, Dungeon Keeper. And now it’ll star the sinister tones of Richard Ridings, DK’s cheerfully malevolent narrator.
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By Adam Smith on January 7th, 2013 at 7:00 pm.

Ruins was a superlative, short-form exploration game starring a dog and the chaps behind it have now released the first part of their gorgeous adventure, Kentucky Route Zero. I don’t know how well the humble canine is represented this time around but the game does include a “Civil War era battleship that ran ashore in an underground river hundreds of years ago and is now populated entirely by cats”, so look forward to that. Act I costs $7 but the remaining four acts, to be released throughout the year, can be purchased as a bundle for $25. I plan to try it this week and shall report back. In the meantime, allow your eyes to feast on this trailer.

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By Alec Meer on January 7th, 2013 at 6:00 pm.

If you polled a thousand people about what their dream game would include, the resulting torrent of big ideas, virtual universes, absolute freedom and stuff about space would sound a lot like the “pre-Kickstarter” (Oh my God) pitch video for The Universe Project.

While John’s more upset with it for repeatedly saying “was” instead of “were”, the rest of us are perhaps happy to stare in rapt amazement/horror at the sheer absurdity of what’s promised. All things to all people! All platforms ever! “Imagine what a video game will be like in 1000 years…” as illustrated by crude drawings of stick figures.
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By Alec Meer on January 7th, 2013 at 5:11 pm.

Another year means another independent games festival (the 15th one, in fact), and now we know which games are in contention for gongs, bags of money and internet outrages.

Is your favourite in there? Probably not, because you’re a very naughty person.
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By Adam Smith on January 7th, 2013 at 5:00 pm.

One of the more miserable gaming events of last year was the closure of City of Heroes. The end of an entire world does tend to be a sad affair for those involved and even onlookers might find themselves touched by the extinction of all those lovely data-denizens. While the urban heroes may have fallen for good, Gamerzines have spotted The Phoenix Project, which aims to rise from the City’s smouldering remains. Missing Worlds Media is a “community based game studio”, made up of members of Titan Network’s ‘Save City of Heroes’ forum, among others. Their intention is clear – they want to build a new comic book world packed with heroes and villains, and they want you to be a part of it.

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By John Walker on January 7th, 2013 at 4:00 pm.

Remember Dreadline? It’s the RPG/RTS from an indie studio – Eerie Canal – including former Freedom Force/BioShock developers. It caught our eye last May, simply by its premise: a group of time travelling monsters who visit key moments of history to, well, kill people. You play as the monsters. This is a Good Idea. In the time since we’ve heard very little, but along with the inevitable Kickstarter, there’s now footage of the game in motion, and it really has met the promise of authentically rendering its distinctive, scratchy drawings.

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By Adam Smith on January 7th, 2013 at 3:00 pm.

I have an odd relationship with puzzle games. Actually, it’s quite an ordinary relationship in that I fail to love them if all they offer is a bulging brain, berating and bettering me, but add a fascinating personality and I forget that the whole encounter is based around trickery and one-upmanship. Music of the Spheres is about calculating angles and bouncing projectiles through carefully constructed levels in order to strike moving targets. Except it’s not. That’s how you interact with the game but it’s about Islamic art, and the intersections between mathematics and abstract visual poetry. It also creates haunting music, as the trailer below demonstrates.

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