RPS Omnibus: Feb 3rd-8th

News by Alec Meer Co-founder

Published on Feb. 9, 2008

Goodness, yet another new regular feature. Next we'll be doing horoscopes and crosswords. (Note - we're not going to do horoscopes or crosswords).

Anyway, the purpose of this inaugural RPSnibus is to round up every story posted over the last week, for the benefit of our less regular readers. We do, after all, write ALL THE WORDS IN THE WORLD on a daily basis, so hopefully this is easier than bewildered ferreting through our archives. It's also a handy opportunity to highlight any interesting/entertaining stuff you lot have brought up in the comments threads, and hopefully lure fire'n'forget readers back into the discussions. An RPS post is for life, not just the front page. Is this good idea/bad idea? Let us know'n'all.

Features, Opinions & Interviews

A Word Is Worth A Thousand Pictures - Is narrative more important than graphics? In comments, discussion of what 'narrative' really means in a gaming sense - is a player's own mental attribution of personal purpose and accomplishment to his in-game deeds more affective than even the best-written dialogue and cut-scenes?
Interview: Sins of a Solar Empire - A chat with one of the minds behind what will doubtless be one of our games of the year.
Interview: Al Lowe - the avuncular fellow behind Leisure Suit Larry talks adventure gaming, and his uncensored feelings about the hateful 21st century Larries.
Interview: Insurgency - Andrew Spearin, founder of Moddb's 2007 Mod of the Year winner talks the past, present and future of the militaristic Half-Life 2 total conversion.
The Club: The RPS Opinion

Previews

Spaceforce Captains - strategic base building amongst the stars
Lineage II: Ridiculously Long-Named Latest Update - an inexplicably awful video that will guarantee anyone who watches it will never play the game. In comments, Lineage II players claim the trailer isn't representative of the actual experience.
Empire: Total War - Part of our Games for 2008 preview series
Battlefield Heroes Gossip-herding for DICE's controversial foray into casual gaming. In comments, angry debate as to whether the cartoon style rips off Team Fortress 2.
Faith and a .45, Age of Conan, Conflict: Denied Ops, MTB Target and Marble Blast Online all get the video trailer treatment, and discussion as to whether Faith and .45 is the best name for a game ever (apart from Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, natch)
Guild Wars 2 - Part of our Games for 2008 preview series
F.E.A.R. 2 - part of our Games for 2008 preview series
Zeno Clash - Insane Source-powered 'punk-fantasy' FPS
Legendary: The Box - "A full scale war between man and myth begins", it says here.
Brothers In Arms 3 - part of our Games for 2008 preview series
Spore - Video of Will Wright demonstrating his intelligently designed evolution masterwork to NASA
Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
Rainbox Six: Vegas 2

Free games

Goliath the Soothsayer - Room escape flash game based on the new Mars Volta album
Dangerous High School Girls In Trouble demo - Gillen's having St. Trinian's fantasies again
Shift - Ace dimension-distorting experimental platformer
The Experiment Demo - Mad French adventure game
Spectromancer demo - CCG fare, in the vein of the utterly splendid Armageddon Empires
Penumbra: Black Plague Demo - Ultro-physics'n'horror in this acclaimed adventure sequel
Sumo & Ninja - Mega-experimental indie trinkets
Stormwinds - Steampunk base defence shmup