Author Archive

Analogue: A Hate Story review

The danger of blending fiction and interactivity is that both elements could suffer: the fiction gets chopped into pieces and shuffled out of order, while the interactivity becomes the ludic equivalent of page-turning, throwing players the odd puzzle to keep them paying attention, and letting them loose on a decision every few paragraphs to maintain the illusion of agency.

5 underrated player-created missions in City of Heroes

I love games that let players create their own content, and City of Heroes is currently experiencing a renaissance of player-made mission arcs, thanks to the switch to free-to-play rejuvenating the playerbase. Paragon Studios does a great job of highlighting top-quality story arcs that it comes across, but there are a lot of awesome adventures falling through the cracks. Here are my five personal favorites currently slipping under the radar. You can find all of them by visiting any of the Mission Architect headquarters in-game.

Weekend Game Deals – Save on Skyrim, Anno 2070, Kingdoms of Amalur, and more

This week, GameFly comes through with 33% off The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, 50% off Anno 2070, and $10 off Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. In other highlights, The Mount & Blade collection is still super cheap on Steam, GamersGate is offering 50% off Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, and if you act before the end of Friday, you can still get $20 off The Old Republic.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Rakghoul event guide: how to earn your crystals, pets, and title

As we reported yesterday, Star Wars: The Old Republic is currently in the grip of the Rakghoul plague. A new series of daily quests and hidden challenges have cropped up on Tatooine, where a crashed starship has contaminated the local fauna with the virus, which turns living beings into small, bald, angry monsters.

UPDATE: Event will end April 24th at 12am PST. There’s no time to waste, though, so here’s a guide to getting the most out of your time on Tatooine.

MMO update: Allods Online

Allods was one of the first free-to-play MMOs to offer comparable production values to boxed and subscription-based games. When it launched in Europe and North America, its steep leveling curve, strict death penalty and the availability of premium convenience items earned it a reputation as an MMO for the hardcore, and one where some investment of real money would ultimately be necessary.

Since 2010, the game has gradually adapted to be more accessible and less punishing to players who choose not to pay. It’s worth stating that microtransactions are still a major part of the game – equipment-enhancing runes are regarded as an essential factor in endgame success, and the easiest way to get them is through the in-game store. It’s now possible to trade in-game gold for boutique coins, which can be used to buy items from the micropayment store. The system is based on a dynamic enconomy where the exchange rate for gold and boutique coins is established by supply and demand, combating inflation. Each boutiqe coin is equal to one gPotato, meaning that it’s no longer necessary to spend real money to earn premium items.

Mastering the Arena: As subtle as a Tauren in a china shop

Earlier this week, Blizzard opened up World of Warcraft’s Arena Tournament servers for public signups. Every time they open, players can pay $20 for access to a separate server loaded with max-level characters, the best gear/enchants/gems in the game, and unlimited gold to spend—all of which adds up to provide the perfect competitive PvP environment for arena fans. The last time the tournament server was live, Josh grabbed a few of his friends and gave it a shot. We’ll be sharing their thoughts on what they learned and if they thought it was worth the money over the next few days.

Project Cars preview

For Slightly Mad Studios, the Need for Speed name was clearly a mixed blessing. A whole garage full of licensed cars and circuits, plus a guaranteed baseline level of success thanks to the well-known brand, had to be weighed against the fact that racing-gameby- committee didn’t fit with Slightly Mad’s hardline simulation stance.

With Project CARS – a communityfunded game started before Tim Schafer made it fashionable – Slightly Mad are free to create the racing game they and, more importantly, their community want to construct. The current version is a Frankenstein’s monster – one of the regularly released builds that paid up ‘investors’ get to play with – but it reveals a lot about how the team are approaching the racing sim.

Mastering the Arena: Acting is re-acting

Earlier this week, Blizzard opened up World of Warcraft’s Arena Tournament servers for public signups. Every time they open, players can pay $20 for access to a separate server loaded with max-level characters, the best gear/enchants/gems in the game, and unlimited gold to spend—all of which adds up to provide the perfect competitive PvP environment for arena fans. The last time the tournament server was live, Josh grabbed a few of his friends and gave it a shot. We’ll be sharing their thoughts on what they learned and if they thought it was worth the money over the next few days.

Mastering the Arena: Another side of Warriors

Earlier this week, Blizzard opened up World of Warcraft’s Arena Tournament servers for public signups. Every time they open, players can pay $20 for access to a separate server loaded with max-level characters, the best gear/enchants/gems in the game, and unlimited gold to spend—all of which adds up to provide the perfect competitive PvP environment for arena fans. The last time the tournament server was live, Josh grabbed a few of his friends and gave it a shot. We’ll be sharing their thoughts on what they learned and if they thought it was worth the money over the next few days.

Weekend Game Deals – Free Fallout!

Get Fallout for FREE and Amazon trumps other digital retailers with over 400 games on sale, featuring several triple-A titles for as low as $5.

Weekend Game Deals – Orcs and Zorks

Our handy guide to game deals from around the net should keep a little money in your pocket. Cheap highlight include 50% or more off of Age of Empires Online, Shogun 2, Saints Row The Third, a Buy 2 Get 1 Game Free sale, and much more.

Now Playing: The tyranny of Snwuggles in Moshi Monsters

This article was originally published in PC Gamer UK 218.

Snwuggles was becoming more and more difficult to read. As I stumbled into our room after a long day at work, she would greet me with a terse question: “Are you blanking me on purpose?” Dutifully I reach in for a tickle. “If you do that one more time I’m going to get really annoyed.” What do you want, you tiny purple tyrant?

It all began so innocently. A lonely Tuesday night, nothing on TV, just one human being reaching out to a small fluffy monster for company, laughs, maybe more. It was just a free MMO, a kid’s game, a land of candy and smiles and sunshine. What a fool I was. Now I’m an addict, a slave, desperate to please the very monster I created.

Release dates for Inferno and EVE Online’s other major updates in 2012

This afternoon at Fanfest’s hugely anticipated EVE Online keynote, Senior Producer Jon Lander revealed their plan to update EVE Online throughout 2012, complete with release dates for each element.

The plans include the usual two expansions, along with a few new additions to their annual update plans.

Qube review

Part game, part job application, QUBE is a first-person spatial puzzler set in a series of austere, white-panelled test chambers that you navigate and escape by way of handheld sci-fi gadgetry. It’s a lot like Portal. In fact, it’s pretty much a handwaving bid to become the next Narbacular Drop – the student project that proved so delicious its developers were hurriedly slurped up by Valve Corp.