Archive for November, 2011

Reinstall: Crusader: No Remorse

Crusader isn’t about action, or even shooting. It’s not about explosions, about story, or about saving the world from the generic totalitarian government in charge of it. It’s about being That Guy. You know the one. The one the guards have no chance of stopping. The one who just walks through any trap. The one who’s sent in alone to save the world because he and his gun are, if anything, overkill.

Action heroes don’t get much sleeker than the Silencer—an unnamed, mute super-commando who worked for the evil, all-controlling World Economic Consortium until ordered to massacre a group of civilians. Refusing, he officially switched sides and joined up with the rebels instead, lending his gun, skill, and (most importantly) awesome-looking battle armor to their noble cause. Just one glance at him tells you you’re many, many weight classes above most enemies you’ll face.

And in other PC gaming news….

Will Dragon Age 2 have multiplayer? Possibly, but more importantly this post gives us the perfect excuse to make up a series of silly ideas for how it could work.

• Dragon Age: Dragon Warfare – The Gray Wardens invade an unnamed middle eastern country. Things explode.
• Dragonville – A social game about managing the town of Kirkwall, be sure to grow enough hero plants or you’ll be overrun by Darkspawn.
• Dragon Age: Age of Dragons – Be sure to kill ten Darkspawn to level up enough to participate in the Arch Demon raid!
• Dragon4Age – Race from safe zone to safe zone through the Darkspawn infested deep roads. Four player co-op!
• Dragon Age: Infernum - Turn based strategy game in which you scheme against other Darkspawn to rule the deep roads.

 
Check inside for a dragon list of aged PC gaming news.

Total War: Shogun 2 DLC adds decapitation, limb severing, blood, Hattori clan

It’s a well known fact that samurai warriors contained five times as much blood as ordinary humans. This would allow them to gush pints and pints of gore at the slightest nick of a samurai sword, therefore allowing them to die in the most spectacular fashion. The latest Blood Pack Total War DLC will give Shogun 2 a sticky coating of extra historical accuracy with the addition of decapitation, limb severing, blood spatters and a range of gory new sound effects. It’s available now on Steam at the price of 99p / $1.59.

Eve Online Crucible update adds new ships, graphical improvements, UI updates and more

The winter update to Eve Online landed yesterday, adding new vessels, nebulas, UI improvements, balance changes and more. It’s the first major update since the problematic Incarna earlier this year, which prompted a serious change of direction for CCP. CEO Hilmar Pétursson has previously apologised to Eve players for “losing sight of simple things.” Crucible is supposed to represent a return to what Eve Online players love most: SPACESHIPS.

Dragon Age multiplayer mode rumoured, built with Frostbite 2, lets players be dragons

Those “industry insiders,” what don’t they know? One of them has slipped a few details to Kotaku about a possible multiplayer component for Dragon Age, saying that it’s being built in Battlefield 3′s Frostbite 2 engine and already looks stunning. It’s not known whether it’s planned as part of Dragon Age 3, or whether it’ll be a separate standalone release, but apparently it’ll let us play as a dragon.

Dead Island banned in Germany

Dead Island has been well and truly banned in Germany. Developers Techland join everyone else in expressing their lack of surprise at the decision. “This isn’t unexpected,” they told Eurogamer. “Germany has its unique regulations regarding video games and violence and the industry can only comply.”

Turning the blood green won’t help them with this one. Dead Island has been put on “List B” by Germany’s Federal Department of Media Harmful to Young Persons. It’s a list reserved for media that contains extreme torture or Nazi content. It’s probably best not to think about what gets onto “List A.”

Mass Effect 3 will return to the Citadel with cut Mass Effect 2 missions

After the momentous events at the end of Mass Effect, it was surprising that the sequel didn’t spend much time in the Citadel. Speaking to OXM, lead writer Mac Walters has said that the huge station that forms the galactic centre of government will form a bigger part of Mass Effect 3.

“There was a Mass Effect 2 plot that was a kind of callback to the first Mass Effect that was going to be on the Citadel, and we cut it. But now it’s made a resurrection in Mass Effect 3,” says Walters. “That’s the nice thing about trilogies, sometimes you get a second chance.” Hopefully it won’t be a sequel to the Keeper scanning side quest.

Frozen Synapse developer talks business and the F2P dilemma

Frozen Synapse developer Paul Taylor, from Mode 7, wrote a “mini-postmortem” at Games Brief on how business and design considerations influenced the game’s development and marketing. He explains why Mode 7 gambled on a higher price point (for an indie game) and discusses how Frozen Synapse is at once limited by being pay-once, but how it would likely fail as a free-to-play game.

He writes, “Pay-once is the most maligned business model out there right now: I would suggest that even the most hardcore entrenched old-school developers have been won round by the raw data that free-to-play games have generated, so pay-once is in decline.”

However, he also points out that a game like Frozen Synapse does not lend itself to F2P, and that Synapse’s target audience of hardcore gamers is “averse” to F2P models. He also admits that designing for “pay once” let Mode 7 design a game that was “not based around restricting the player’s access to content.”

Prison Architect tease continues with new image

Introversion’s ongoing Prison Architect treasure hunt and ARG continues to confuse the hell out of us. The game’s being teased in a series of grim Polaroids, with the latest very briefly appearing in the Dungeons of Dredmore Humble Indie Bundle reveal trailer.

This one’s numbered four of five, and shows a man – possibly a prison warden – sitting at his desk with a cup of coffee. We received image one of five, showing a gun being held by an arm in a green sleeve. Image two was found by PC Gamer forum user The_B in Introversion’s Subversion city generator, and it shows some canoodling violently ended by a man in a green shirt. Image three was sent to Rock Paper Shotgun, and it shows a man – probably the same man – kneeling in front of a priest (not like that!), possibly begging for forgiveness. The final image, also found by The_B, shows the man sitting on the electric chair.