Gaming In The Russian Cosmos, Part 2

Written by Jim Rossignol on January 7, 2009 at 9:24 am.

This is the second part of my article discussing gaming in Russia, Ukraine and the other CIS countries. It’s based on a trip I made to KRI, the Russian game developers conference, in 2008. Go here for part one.

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Armmogeddon: The Patent Of Doom

Written by Alec Meer on January 6, 2009 at 10:44 pm.

Here’s a story that hit during our week off - it’s one you probably already know about, but as it’s potentially something that’s very bad news for PC gaming, it’s only fair and right to give you fine folks a convenient place to discuss it. Massively (thanks, Larington) has one of the better summations and explorations of what’s going, as they seem to have clever people with some grasp of law on their staff. RPS, by contrast, has a philosopher, a youth worker, a biologist and a literature graduate. We’re no good at this stuff.

The crux of the story, though, concerns patents 6,219,045 and 7,181,690. In (something like) English, those refer to “scalable virtual world client-server chat system” and “system and method for enabling users to interact in a virtual space”. There’s space for a lot of give and take in those descriptions, but you get the point - two fundaments of pretty much every MMO past, present, and probably future.
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Battlestations Everyone

Written by John Walker on January 6, 2009 at 10:14 pm.

Gracious, it’s been almost a year since we last mentioned Battlestations: Pacific. The sequel to Midway’s WW2-based plane-and-boat flysailing should be with us by spring, once again trying to evoke fond memories of Carrier Command (I’m told - I’ve never played it. I know! I’m unbelievable), this time in a battlefieldsea twice as big as Midway’s acreage.

Along with a new trailer (below, of course), Eidos have today announced a… well, I’ll use their words. A “new community-focused destination site.” I think that might be it for the English language. Pack it up everyone, it’s broken forever now.

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Mod Of The Year Awards 2008

Written by Jim Rossignol on January 6, 2009 at 6:00 pm.

Modding mecca ModDB has announced its Mod Of The Year Awards 2008, and you lot need to get voting, especially since the awards seem to have expanded to include a gamut of beloved indie games, such as Mount & Blade. It’s all fairly easy - find the mod you want to vote for on the ModDB pages and click the rather prominent button.

Wait. What was mod of the year? If you guys have any nominations for the RPS crew to vote for then post their ModDB links in the comments below. Go!

Stealth Fattie: Ten Ton Ninja

Written by Alec Meer on January 6, 2009 at 5:11 pm.

It’s shaping up to be an all-indie day for Stone, Parchment, Blunderbuss, so let’s continue this proud trend. Next up is Ten Ton Ninja, concerning a treasure-hunting wee fella who’s too porky to move on his ownsome, but can heroically shunt and swing himself all over the shop thanks to his magic ninja grappling hook.
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Wot I Think: Crayon Physics Deluxe

Written by Jim Rossignol on January 6, 2009 at 1:27 pm.

The winner of last year’s $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival was Crayon Physics Deluxe. Finally, on January 7th 2009, we are able to buy the finished game. Has that extra year and financial aid helped the hand-drawn physics puzzler maximise its potential? Or did Petri Purho end up eating all the crayons and sitting in the corner? Having played that finished version, here’s Wot I Think.

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We Are Spies, We Will Thrill You: Gravity Bone

Written by Kieron Gillen on January 6, 2009 at 11:37 am.

Poisoned Sponge urged me to play this. I now urge you to do likewise. It’s from Blendogames (aka Brandon Chung), built on the Quake-2 derived KMQuake2 engine and is intellectually a cross between Hitman, No-one Lives Forever and Team Fortress 2, with a big splash of arthouse gibber. It’s also the wittiest game I’ve played since… World of Goo? Yeah, sounds right. And best of all, prominently features music from much-beloved-by-RPS-film Brazil. Get it here and play it - and remember F6 is Q2’s quicksave for the jumpy bits - and a little bit of spoiler-heavy analysis beneath the cut.
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2009, We Demand Of Thee

Written by John Walker on January 5, 2009 at 8:42 pm.

So this is the new year. Do you feel any different? When thinking about what 2009 holds, I want to think slightly beyond the many exciting games we’re looking forward to and get a bit more thematic. On what journey should gaming take us in the following year?

2008, despite containing a ton of great games, felt a bit of a filler year in terms of progress. 2007 felt so huge probably purely thanks to Portal, and the impact that had on our expectations of gaming. But did it have an impact on last year? I’m not sure it did, beyond a few games making references to it (World of Goo Sacred 2 to name the first that springs to mind). Will the last year of the decade see us beginning to define what the twenty-teens will be about?

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CephalopOddbob’s Progress: SYNSO

Written by Kieron Gillen on January 5, 2009 at 7:56 pm.

Many wonder whether there’s a secret to getting your game posted on RPS. There is. Firstly, if you’ve done something we’ve liked, we’d normally link it. Secondly, if your game features an enormous head of a childrens’ TV presenter, that works too. OddBob has done both, creating a semi-sequel (Spiritual Sequel, if you will) to his 2008 pico-Epic War Twat which also features the head of famous revealing-aller Johnny Ball. It’s called SYNSO or “Squid Yes! Not So Octopus!” for long and is a one-life one-screen blaster where you have to score nine points. It is available from the internet. Here. Press tab to call up the menu and amp up the visual effects though. War Twat veterans will be attracted to the “Are You mental?” option, clearly.

This Is The Modern World: Sims 3 Specs Up

Written by Alec Meer on January 5, 2009 at 6:10 pm.

Stretching, yawning, RPS emerges from its brief hibernation, scrabbling through inboxes and RSS feeds in search of nutritious PC gaming info-nuggets. But is there much, if anything, for this small beast to feed upon in these desolate Winter weeks? It sniffs the ground disconsolately. There, a futile-looking Wii-style controller for PC. Here, a flight sim sequel. Satisfying to some, perhaps, but nothing of substance.

Aha! The shivering creature’s tired eyes finally catch a glimpse of something more fatted, juicier. It’s definitely a decent info-nugget - not the tastiest kind, but it will do. RPS takes a bite and finds…

Mmm. Official specs for the Sims 3.Yeah yeah, system spec stories are usually as invigorating as visiting Cumberland Pencil Musuem, but it’s different in The Sims’ case. Read the rest of this entry »

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