New Max Payne 3 screens show hair and coats
Rockstar are pushing the Max Payne hype machine into the next gear, firing out some new screen shots to wow us all. These new images really do tell a new story for the third game in the series, giving the impression that it will follow Max from his days as a NYC detective to a change of career and fashion style philosophy in São Paulo. Through the shots we can see Max sporting his beloved leather coat and his full head of hair, progressing onto a more John McClane look, before finally taking up that now-infamous floral shirt. Look after the jump for the full Max Payne 3 catwalk.
The Sunday Video Pwn
The best thing about being a PC gamer is the vast amount of original ideas we get access to. Consoles rarely get to experience the joys of a game that’s truly original. The likes of World of Goo, Machinarium and Minecraft are experiences that really can only be provided by the PC and its low barrier of entry, allowing riskier IP creation. As such, as PC gamers we can play such insanity as Cargo! – a game involving a severe lack of gravity, numerous geographical landmarks and a race of naked midgets. Just take a look at the trailer; it’s as if LSD fumes are being sprayed out of your screen right into your prefrontal cortex. Mental as it appears, it also seems to be packing some fun gameplay, with a Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts style vehicle creation feature. Interested? Grab it from Steam.
Portal 2 Secrets Guide
Valve have a great, mischievous sense of humour. Their games are often full of little secrets, surprises and other easter eggs for players to find. Of course, they’re not always in the most obvious of places. Enter: The PC Gamer Portal 2 Secrets Guide. We’ve scoured Aperture Laboratories in search of all the cool little extras Valve have hidden away, and put them in this handy little guide to help you discover them for yourselves. Look, there are even fancy videos to show you how to get to the trickier ones! Some of these secrets are quite far into the game, and in order to show you where they are, we have had to include a few minor spoilers, so be warned!
Saturday Crapshoot: Leisure Suit Larry 2
Every week, Richard Cobbett rolls the dice to bring you an obscure slice of gaming history, from lost gems to weapons grade atrocities. This week, it’s the black sheep of one of adventure gaming’s most misunderstood franchises, and the weirdest cruise you’ll ever take.
Sequels are funny things. Usually, they’re relatively predictable – taking an idea that worked or struck a chord, ramping it up in the hopes that people will splash out more cash for a second helping, and putting a ’2′ on the end. Sometimes though, they just go crazy. The first Leisure Suit Larry was an adventure about a software salesman trying to lose his virginity. Leisure Suit Larry 2: Looking For Love (In Several Wrong Places) ends with him fighting a supervillain in a volcano lair. Yes, really.
PC Gamer US Podcast #269: Portals Party
Josh, Dan, Evan, Anthony, and Lucas believe they’re recording just another podcast in just another average recording studio. But in reality, Aperture Science is bathing the room in radiation to test out their new Superhero mutation program! Will it work? Will Dan grow a third arm to battle crime as The Arm of the Law? Will Evan finally get the built-in, mind-controlled jetpack he’s always dreamed of, and rightly deserves? At the very least, the radiation seems to have affected some of their judgments (Josh, we’re looking at you and your opinion of Super Meat Boy). Join us as we talk about all the big news swirling around Portal 2, Battlefield 3 pre-order incentives, your listener questions and more!
Editorial: What went wrong with Rift’s River of Souls event, and how to solve it
“Ambition is important,” said Rift’s Executive Producer, Scott Hartsman, in a post on the game’s forum after last week’s live event. “It’s what keeps us improving day to day, week to week, month to month. But, it’s equally important to know when you walked too close to the edge and got cut.”
That’s not what players hoped they would hear after the conclusion of River of Souls—Rift’s first live world event that took place over the past two weeks. What was promoted as a massive, epic war that would make the “vicious invasions you see every day look like a lazy Sunday in the park,” turned out to be something of a disaster that left the devs publicly apologizing and offering free rewards to anyone with an active account. So what went wrong?
How to: Create Your Own Frontier in Star Trek Online
Like most players, I’ve had moments in MMOs when I thought that I could write a better quest than the developers did. “The story was wrong—there should’ve been a fight against dwarves instead of rats at the end of the mission, and the pacing sucked!” Cryptic has responded to Star Trek Online players with a software-based “Oh yeah?” by launching The Foundry, which turned everyone into a mission scripter after it hit live servers earlier this month.
And in other PC gaming news…
It’s been a Thursday for gazing far into the future, and taking a contemplative look at upcoming releases. We started by meditating upon the deeper meanings hidden within the first two Mass Effect 3 screenshots (awesome space armour is awesome), then unearthed the greater truths secreted away in the latest Witcher 2 dev diary (magic bombs are lol). After that we nodded sagely while combing through the latest nuggets of wisdom contained in the latest Guild Wars 2 video, and saved everyone in our Fate of the World review.
But what of the other grasshoppers of knowledge hopping through the garden of PC gaming today? Fear not, young Padawan, we have bottled them all below, in our daily list of PC gaming news.
Fable 3 is coming to Steam, is available to pre-order now
When Fable 3 hits PC on May 20, it won’t just be confined to Microsoft’s Games for Windows Live service. It will also be available to buy through Steam. The game will be available to buy digitally on both platforms, and will come with different bonuses. Given that Microsoft own Lionhead, the appearance of a game on any service other than Games for Windows Live is an interesting shift.
In a recent interview we spoke with creative director of Microsoft and former head of Lionhead, Peter Molyneux, about his views on Steam and Games for Windows Live. “Steam is such a great service, I use it all the time, they did such a great pioneering job,” he says, adding that “with Steam and Games for Windows Live. There’s a lot of direct to disc, there’s lots of services that mean the PC is really pioneering the way.”
Valve logo origins: who is “the bald guy?”
A post on Reddit has turned up some interesting information about the origin of Valve’s iconic logo images. The most well known picture features a red valve attached to the back of a bald man’s head. The other image shows a man facing the camera, this time with the valve coming out of his eye. A curious Valve fan emailed Gabe Newell asking about the thinking behind the images, and got an email back from Valve staffer, Ray Ueno, who worked on developing the original concept for the pictures.
Valve: Digital games charts are a “step backwards” for the industry
Valve’s director of business development thinks digital games charts are a backwards step for the games industry.
Speaking to MCV, Jason Holtman said “The idea of a chart is old. It came from people trying to aggregate disaggregated information.” He also claimed that charting sales proves “less useful in the digital space.”
Read on for the details.
Battlefield 3 pre-orders unlock Battlefield Play4Free items and weapons
Players that pre-order Battlefield 3 will get free items in Battlefield Play4Free, according to a new post on the Battlefield blog. The bonus unlocks include a bright yellow beret, and more importantly, a Battlefield 3 Edition 870 Combat shotgun, described as being “one of the most effective close-quarter weapons in history.”
The offer applies to those who pre-order the game through the EA store. The powerful shotgun is balanced out by the fluorescent beret, which ought to make it much easier for other players to shoot you in the head.
Battlefield Play4Free is free to download and play now from the Battlefield Play4Free site. Battlefield 3, meanwhile, won’t be out until November. If you can’t wait that long, DICE recently released 12 minutes of in-game footage. You’ll find an image of the unlockable Battlefield Play4Free items below
Fate of the World getting Earth Day expansion
Fate of the World will be getting two new missions to celebrate Earth Day on April 21. The missions will include an introductory mission for new players called “Oil Fix It,” and another mission described as “a unique scenario that allows them to approach Fate of the World a new way.” The game will also be on sale at a discounted price that week as well. Read our Fate of the World review for more info on the game. You can buy Fate of the World now from the Fate of the World site and Steam.
Guild Wars 2′s Charr week video revealed
It’s Charr week over on ArenaNet’s official blog, and the developers are spending it, as is their tradition, by telling us all about the race’s evolution from mortal enemies in the original game to one of the playable races in Guild Wars 2. So far, they’ve discuess how they designed their starting area, wrote their lore, and customized their art style. This morning, they released video that shows off the architecture of their cities and their weapons of war in full motion. Check out the full video, along with some awesome Charr art and exclusive Charr screenshots inside.
Dawn of War 2: Retribution sales boosted by Steam only release
Dawn of War 2 and Chaos Rising used both Steam and Games for Windows Live. After negative reactions from players, THQ and Relic decided to drop Micosoft’s service and release exclusively on Steam. A month after release, the THQ and Relic say that the move has resulted in improved sales, and that Steam features like matchmaking, friends lists, ladders and cloud saving led to an increase in pre-orders and happier players on launch.
