Red Dead and Minecraft are ‘good things’, GDC awards claim

WESTERN SHOOTER Red Dead Redemption and blocky sandbox building things game Minecraft are good, according to a Game-playing Developmental Conglomeration.

“Minecraft makes me want to kiss the Internet,” said one Conglomatron. “And Red Dead has horses and you can wear hats in it and everything.”

The just now made-up comments came as Red Dead won four awards at the Game Developers Choice Awards, including Best Game Design and Game of the Year.

Minecraft won five awards overall, three in the Choice Awards and two more in the Indie Games Festival, Including Best Downloadable Game, the Innovation award and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize – worth $20,000.

Nidhogg won the Nuovo Award while Amnesia: The Dark Descent was also said to be “yeah, I like that too”, winning three IGF awards including Excellence in Audio and Technical Excellence.

Well done to all them folk. Well deserved methinks.

(Via GameInformer)

Brendy Caldwell

Format: PC | Genre: MMORPG | Publisher: Trion Worlds | Developer: Trion Worlds | ETA: 04/03/2011

Sinan Kubba contemplates giving up his social life in favour of RIFT.

SO RIFT is now in full flow on the back of a strong beta phase, the reassuring news of a million accounts already registered, and a relatively smooth launch – minus a bit of server queuing here and there.

Last week at a London press event, representatives from developer Trion Worlds gave off an air of confident nervousness ahead of the launch. That may sound oxymoronic but it’s totally understandable.

Trion Worlds may be releasing their first MMO, but their 200 or so employees boast some of the most experienced people in their field, Across various individuals you probably have a collective that has worked on every major MMO since Ultima. So while lying ahead is the daunting task of ensuring the smooth launch of a game in such a competitive, risk-heavy genre, the Trion team is quietly confident.

A new ruler?

So far the confidence appears to be justified. People seem to be enjoying themselves in Rift’s dense world of Telera, some loudly singing the game’s praises in chat. It’s early days yet, of course, and there are many more obstacles to overcome. One of the biggest may be to really demonstrate to outside players what separates Rift from other major MMOs, and in particular World of Warcraft. At a glance the former is very reminiscent of what is the undisputed leader of the pack.

Many of the same memes run through opening areas. Big things like armour, vendors, interface, quests, basic consumables and trade skills all seem like paraphrases of the equivalent in Blizzard’s game. European Community Lead at Trion Worlds, Sebastian Streiffert, explained to me why this design is quite deliberate and how playing the game soon reveals its unique nature.

“Well, if you have played MMOs before, what you’ll see in Rift is very familiar because we’ve taken a lot of the good things about MMOs and applying them, putting them in there, so you have the basic structure. But then, to make it very fresh, you have the class system, the dynamic content, the lush new graphics – I’m sure you’ve seen some of the real cool-looking areas today – but yes, it’s one thing to say we have these unique features, but it’s another thing when you actually try the game, get in there, and realize it’s freaking awesome. The rifts – that’s how I got my learning with the game.”

Sebastian is referring to the rift invasions, which are in many ways the game’s unique selling point. These are randomly spawning tears in the world from which all kinds of monsters invade to try to set up footholds to take up further attacks from. They are often tied in to larger world quests affecting the entire zone you’re in.

War of the Rift

I’ve stumbled into a few on my early travels and, with the opening areas dense with characters, I’ve seen dozens upon dozens of players pile in on monsters to try to frag em up in the allotted time. Certainly based on first impressions, the rifts and subsequent foothold invasions are a whole lot of fun, often on a very large scale, and Trion’s drum-beating description of them as dynamic appears quite fair. When you see a horde of enemies come straight for where you are while you’re quietly trying to hand in a quest, it’s unsettling at first, and underlines the potential impact they can have. Will Cook, lead designer of the rift events, explained some of the process that went into them:

“We have a big old list of things we’d like to do, and even I have a ton of things that would be crazy in any game, let alone an MMO. Half of those ideas though seem to have made it in the game anyway, I mean I never thought they’d get in there. I never thought we’d get [rift] invasions on the road, taking over quest hubs… that sounds like suicide. You never stop a player from leveling and questing. That’s dumb! That is a rule: never put bad guys on the road. What we realised, though was [if we] put bad guys on the road in the right spot, players don’t always have to defeat that challenge, they can just dive off the road. It’s like the Hobbits from The Lord of the Rings when they’re being chased by the Nazgul. It’s an incredible experience. These are crazy ideas that no one thought would work, but we’re actually getting a lot out of them.”

The underlying feel I get from Trion Worlds and from my early time with Rift is that the developer is not that fussed about enticing new players to their game… which makes sense, really. The MMO audience may be continually expanding, but Rift is nothing like the new breed of MMOs such as DC Universe Online and The Old Republic. It shares its lineage with traditional thoroughbreds like Ultima, Everquest, and of course World of Warcraft. In many ways, large and subtle, it’s trying to one-up them – to be a WoW 2.

Continues…

Trailers: Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword, sninkt sninkt clllngr!

THAT’S RIGHT, it’s sound effects day at Reso. What you gonna do about it? Sweet nothing, that’s what.

Shamefully, I have never played Mount & Blade. But it does look awfully fun. Doesn’t it? Here’s some trailery goodness for from Paradox Interactive et al to celebrate the Game Developers Conference, which is taking place miles away in the New World – a distant, scary place of which we know not lots.

With Fire & Sword is due out in the second quarter of 2011 for PC.

Brendy Caldwell

Trailer: Skulls of the Shogun, swords and angry undead

LOOKY HERE, you. I know you might be all agog with Shogun: Total War II if Japanesey war games are what you’re after.

But I’ll tell you what the Creative Assembly don’t have – zombies! I think. It’s hard to tell these days. Here’s a trailer showing off some of the game’s features.

Skulls of the Shogun is developed by Haunted Temple Studios. No news on a release date yet.

Brendy Caldwell

Obvious Jokes Inc goes into administration, final UK charts

SAD TIMES. Last week, when we said we would be with you always and forever, Obvious Jokes Inc did not foresee the great financial meltdown of two-thousand-and-now.

As a result of this unprecedented and unforeseeable crash, we are sad to announce that this will be our last instalment of the UK games charts.

Unless of course, we get a massive government bailout! No? No.

The charts.

Killzone 3 comes flying into first place atop a futuristic floating platform, sticking its tongue out at Bulletstorm, which slides along the ground into second, kicking Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 hard in face down to seventh.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is the war that just keeps on warring at number three.

FIFA 11 is football.

Just Dance 2 is back up at number five? Oh, FUCK OFF AND LEAVE US ALONE FOR THE LOVE OF KRISHNA WHO IS BUYING THIS I DON’T KNOW ANY MORE KINDS OF DANCE.

The top ten:

1. Killzone 3
2. Bulletstorm
3. CODS and BLOPS
4. FIFA 11
5. Just Die 2
6. Dead Space 2
7. Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
8. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
9. Wii Party
10. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

Brendy Caldwell

Format: PC | Genre: Management | Publisher: Paradox | Developer: Colossal Order | Release date: 22/02/2011 | Price: £14.99

Greg Giddens loves this game; he can’t get enough of it. Will CITIES IN MOTION move you?

ITS BEEN a while since I’ve seen such a strong transport management title. The cities breathe as if they were real, the interface and mechanics are intuitive, it promotes replay with its addictive experience and it’s visually gorgeous. Sure, it has a few problems which dampen the experience slightly but against the ageing competition it stands proud and strong.

It does however suffer slightly from niche appeal. Management simulation fans are the mostly likely to be taken in, especially those from the school of city management titles. It’s about balancing the budget and expanding, and keeping the populous content; the usual premise for the genre. Cities in Motion however, concentrates on the transportation system alone and even the biggest management fan may be put off by such focus.

Narrow minded?

With the focus being so narrow it’s understandable to fear a lack of content, or simply not having many options in-game, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. The campaign has you deal with multiple issues throughout each of the four cities – Amsterdam, Helsinki, Berlin and Vienna – across 100 years of history. You will visit each during eras of significant change in their development. It offers interesting and varied challenges, dependent on the technology and economical state of the city at that time in history, and it keeps you engaged as a result.

Additionally, Sandbox mode allows you to play either city – including the tutorial city – starting in any year from 1920 – 2020, with no pre-built transport links but a hefty bank balance to start you off. The scenario mode allows you to play through some more specific challenges in Berlin, although only having the one scenario is disappointing.

Then there’s the map editor which allows you to build a city of your design with the building aesthetic from any of the four included cities. It’s intuitive and entertaining to create your own city, village or anything in-between but it lacks the scope to pull off your dream metropolis.

In-game, the available options and scope continues to impress. Bus, tram, metro, waterbus and helicopter make up the transport infrastructure, each with their fleets of vehicles. At its simplest levels, it’s just a matter of using these transport links to allow easy movement across the city for the population, but in practice it’s a matter of dealing with multiple factors. For example the cost of the more effective transport against the cheaper ineffective options, or maintaining a fleet of vehicles, adapting stops and lines to accommodate people getting to high concentrations of shops, services and work areas, and even tweaking staff salaries and ticket prices to match expectations and the economic state. There are many elements to monitor and management under the umbrella of transport management and it’s all in order to make a profit and improve the infrastructure.

Features and failures

With the decent quantity of game types, cities, and in-game options, it’s hard to get bored. Helsinki’s colder climate is a very different environment to Vienna for example. Each city has a unique look and feel about them, not hugely so but subtle nuances make a difference if you stick with it long enough to sense it. And for the enthusiast sticking with it, it won’t be a problem. For newcomers though, a few slight issues may put them off.

The populous aren’t the brightest bunch and will ignore empty bus stops that are only a short walk away that travel the same route. They also rely far too heavily on the metro system. The zoom function doesn’t allow you to zoom out as far as you may like, making it difficult to get a good idea of your city’s layout and issues. And whilst the mini maps helps with this, it can get busy and tricky to read when you have multiple lines or any of the information overlays activated which try to aid you in determining the busiest parts of the city. It’s also a shame there’s no undo command and setting up transport links means making payment in stages rather than all at once, which often leaves you halfway through setting one up when you realise you’re out of money.

In the end though, these issues are minor; slight annoyances that are easy to look past if you allow yourself to be taken in but City in Motion’s addictive and entertaining management experience. I love it and If you have the slightest interest in management games, if you can remember the sheer joy of games of yore like Sim City and Theme Park, then this could be the game for you.

9/10

What does this score mean?

Trailer: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, get your dragon

PRETTY THINGS. We’re a fan of exciting pretty things here at Reso. Skyrim is one of those things. Here’s a trailer which seems to show some gameplay between the CG story of a delightful spat between one man and his true love (who is also a dragon).

Skyrim is due out November 11.

Brendy Caldwell

Trailer: Battlefield 3, best squaddies 4eva

NO, YOUR speakers aren’t broken. That’s just a stylish lack of sound. All the cool kids are doing it.

The game is due out in UNSPECIFIED this year for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Brendy Caldwell

Trailer: Dead Space 2: Severed to follow Extraction character

HERE’S A trailer for Dead Space 2: Severed, some upcoming DLC for that game wot came out recently. The one with angry space baddies. Aye, you know.

The story will follow Gabe Weller, of Dead Space Extraction, as he danders around the Sprawl, upgraded plasma rifle in one hand, cold turkey sandwich in the other.

It’ll see the return of the Twitcher, an enemy from the original Dead Space.

It is scheduled for release on March 1 on Xbox and March 2 on PSN. It will cost 560 MS Monopoly Monies or $6.99. In the Queen’s good pounds I believe that is a little under a fiver. No word on a PC release.

Brendy Caldwell

Test Drive Unlimited 2 patched, free DLC offered as sorry

A PATCH fixing a fair amount of bugs in Test Drive Unlimited 2 has been released by Atari. As an extra “thank you” for players’ patience they will also be making the first premium DLC pack free to download.

The Exploration Pack contains new wrecks and two unlockable vehicles – the Lancia Stratos Rallye and 1969 Dodge Charger.

The issues fixed in the patch, according to Atari:

Logging into the game has been improved
Once into the game the online network experience is now much more stable in all areas
Save games no longer corrupt
Existing corrupted save games will be repaired in many cases
Friends lists are now populated
Invites now work correctly
Clubs have been brought back online
Exploits to gain money have been fixed
Casino access has been improved
Players will no longer lose money because of the Casino bug

Brendy Caldwell