[UK Facebook giveaway] Win Total War: Shogun 2
Bows! Arrows! Swords! Horses! WASD camera movement! Our Total War: Shogun 2 review.
Total War: Shogun 2 is one hell of a game. A few of us watched Tim warmongering during lunch; the resulting match was a 30 minute massacre. I learned something from that battle. It doesn’t matter how effective flaming arrows prove, we’ll whoop and yelp whenever they’re used.
We awarded Total War: Shogun 2 an Editor’s Choice award because it’s completely damn awesome. To celebrate it’s release we have ten Steam codes to give away. Read on to find out how to enter.
New Minecraft dev video shows pet wolves
Craig just linked this to me, because he is best. A new video from Minecraft programmer Jens “Jeb” Bergensten shows off their in-progress work on pet wolves. They shake water off! They’re so cute!
Operation Flashpoint: Red River screenshots show lovely sunsets and WAR
Codemasters have thrown out 12 exceedingly pretty screens for Operation Flashpoint: Red River. You may have spotted a few of them in our Operation Flashpoint: Red River preview, but a few more have been released as well. The engine seems to be good at two things in particular: huge environments and sunsets. It might be sensible to use the cover of darkness, but it’d be worth launching attacks early to see those blazing evening skies. Also featured: men with guns, running, and shooting.
Monday Night Combat is free this weekend
Monday Night Combat will be free this weekend on Steam. This colourful multiplayer arena combat game crosses third-person battling with tower defence games. Each team’s base deploys two streams of warriors that meet in the middle of the map. You can build turrets, upgrade your troops and jump in yourself to turn the tide of battle. The trailer below explains everything.
Crysis 2 trailers are nano joke
Crysis 2 is out next week, on March 22 in the US, and March 25 in Europe, and Crytek are throwing out a wealth of new footage. Above we see some in-game shenanigans, showing off more of the nanosuit’s abilities. There’s nano-biff mode for harder punching, nano-whoosh for added speed and a “nano-na-na-na-na, you can’t see me” mode for better sneaking and stabbing. There’s also a TV ad for the game, which you’ll find embedded below.
Portal 2 TV ad shows off co-op mode
The new Portal 2 ad may not contain any in-game footage, but it sells the idea of playful, co-op puzzle solving quite nicely. Valve decided not to take the traditional route of hiring an ad agency to make the video for them. Instead, they built it in-house, and playtested it during production in the same way that they would with one of their games.
Space Marine teaser screenshot features “a hidden evil”
Relic have released a new teaser shot for Space Marine. There’s a Space Marine, and a hallway. It’s a pretty big hallway, but what’s this at the end of the hallway? Some sort of hulking shadow. VG247 received the image, and say it’s named “a hidden evil.” It’s not that hidden, it’s standing right there in a shaft of light. Everything we’ve seen of the 40k third person brawler has shown Ultramarines chopping up Orks, but that doesn’t look like an Ork, does it? HMMM, what do you think?
And in other PC gaming news…
It’s been a mysterious Thursday. So mysterious that I was convinced it was Tuesday until about midday when the coffee kicked in. There’s no doubting it, though. Mystery is in the air. Where is Hitman 5? What is Doug Church working on with Valve? Will Fez ever get a release date? So many questions, and so few answers.
Which gives rise to another question, where are all the answers? Some of them might just be lurking below, in our mighty fine list of everything interesting that’s happened in PC gaming today.
Hardcore war: watch me play ArmA 2 with proper tactics
There are tactical gaming communities that engineer ArmA like mad military scientists–they meticulously create custom maps, apply rigid rules of engagement and proper radio protocol to produce precise, elegant war cooperation. Legion of Sparta is one of them. Last week, we wrote about the group’s project to remake Ghost Recon: Island Thunder in ArmA 2. I joined their most recent session–deftly captured and edited by community member Fatal Papercut. Men died. Airplanes blew up. I’m the one with the beard and the high explosives.
World of Tanks is out next month
If, deep down, you’ve always wanted to be a tank, then we’ve got good news. Wargaming.net’s MMO World of Tanks is set for release in the UK and the US next month, on April 12. It’s been in beta testing for nine months now, and it’s already broken the record for the most people logged into one server, with more than 91,000 people playing at the same time.
World of Tanks is primarily about player vs. player scraps, with a heavy emphasis on teamwork, and getting the precise build of your war machine right. The tanks themselves can be heavily customised with hundreds of unlockable upgrades. Everything from armour plating, to barrel size and ammunition type can be altered. For more on the game, check out the official World of Tanks website. There’s a trailer below showing plenty of in-game action. Feel the tank power!
Watch 16 minutes of Star Wars: The Old Republic footage
A new developer diary has appeared on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic site. It shows off the multiplayer conversation and battle mechanics, and features a dude who looks and smells like Yoda, but tastes like… chicken.
Click more to watch.
Fez PAX footage boggles the mind
If you’ve never heard of Fez, welcome to Fez. This wonderful indie platformer has been in development forever, but got a good showing recently at PAX. The video above gives a good overview of the game’s hybrid 2D/3D approach to plaforming, as well as providing a healthy dose of the game’s endearing atmosphere. Fez is being made by two men who call themselves Polytron. They haven’t announced any solid release plans yet, but they say that the game is nearly finished. Here’s hoping they decide to bring it to PC as soon as possible.
PC Gamer UK April Issue – Battlefield 3
We had many ideas for what we’d want from the next step in the Battlefield series. We talked about it on a podcast, then we wrote it all down. This month, we went out to see Battlefield 3, and found our hopes rewarded. The new Battlefield game isn’t just going to be a technical tour de force, it might just raise the benchmark for what we expect from a PC shooter in 2011 and beyond. You’ll find all the details in our massive Battlefield 3 preview, in the latest issue of PC Gamer UK, in stores now.
Dead Island screens have giant zombies and katanas
More Dead Island screens have landed, showing more of the game’s island paradise, ruined by an inconvenient zombie outbreak. Speaking of zombies, there’s a new breed on display. It’s about eight feet tall and wears a straight jacket. Is there an insane asylum on this island as well? Has someone really built an insane asylum next to a five star holiday resort? You’ll find the new shots below, click them to enlarge.
BAFTA Video Game Award winners
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts yesterday held an awards ceremony to reward the best games of the year, and there were quite a few PC winners. Civilization V took the strategy top spot, the best game award went to Mass Effect 2 and F1 2010 took the best sports game award. There were a couple of odd results, too. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit beat the likes of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and StarCraft 2 to take the best multiplayer game prize. You’ll find all of the winners and runners up below.
