46 posts tagged with videogames and pc.
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Second Sunrise over New Mombasa
February, 2003: Following the smashing, console-defining success of Halo: Combat Evolved, developer Bungie was facing a conundrum. Fan and media interest in the long-anticipated sequel was at an all-time high, thanks to the release of an epic cinematic teaser in September. But despite a veteran team of top-tier designers bursting with new ideas, the game was not in a remotely playable state... and a real-time demo was scheduled for the high-profile E3 expo in May. So they buckled down, pushed their hardware to the limit, and produced EARTHCITY -- an ambitious, semi-scripted playable demo set to a majestic orchestral score that re-introduced the Master Chief and a host of innovative features in less than ten minutes. Played live in a private theater throughout the last day of the expo, the E3 demo was a massive hit with the press and the fans -- despite barely holding together through a series of last-minute hacks and visual trickery. For all its popularity, the demo's jankiness left it unsuitable for public release and languishing in the Bungie archives... until now. Thanks to the dedicated work of the Digsite crew of fan archivists, the original Halo 2 E3 2003 demo has been lovingly restored for re-release on the Master Chief Collection omnibus on Steam, just in time for Halo 2's 20th anniversary. You can download the files here, bask in a crisp HD recording, or watch one of the Digsite modders play through this and other unearthed gems live. [more inside]
baby toss now has a chance to crit
Stardew Valley has received a huge new update on PC to celebrate the 8th anniversary of the game (with Switch and other versions coming soon). 1.6 has been a long time in the making from creator Eric Barone (otherwise known as ConcernedApe). Want to know what's going on? Read the patch notes (contains spoilers!) or browse the wiki. Yes, it's time to fetch that hoe out of the shed and get those hands dirty!
“Dude, it’s beyond cool. It’s ‘we’re out of here cool’ is what it is.”
The birth of id Software by John Romero [The Verge] In 1990, John Romero, John Carmack, and Tom Hall were working at Louisiana software maker Softdisk. There, they had an idea that would change PC games forever.
Waynely Farfield’s GEOMAQUARIUM
"SO, yesterday my sister and I were talking about this particular tone that a bunch of video games had in the early 90s, and something possessed me to make This" [more inside]
“...being accused of being a gamer, solve the problem like a gamer,”
The union-oriented Twitter account Daily Union Elections asked the world in a recent tweet, “Union folks, what is the best grievance/[Unfair Labor Practice] that you’ve ever won?” And the world responded in kind.
““A member was accused of playing video games on his work computer,” union organizing director Erik Strobl said. “I got him cleared by proving conclusively that the employer-provided graphics card couldn’t handle the resource-hungry game his supervisor claimed to have seen.””The worker wasn’t even playing a game, but watching “a game review on his break (which is fine),” Strobl clarified, “but he was accused of installing unauthorized third-party software on a government computer (which he 100% didn’t do and, as I showed, couldn’t have done). Zero abuse of time or state property.” [via: Kotaku]
Metafilter loves a list
BIG GAME ENERGY.
The big video games of summer 2020 [Polygon] “The summer of 2020 is shaping up to be one of the most unusual seasons for video games. It’s an atypically busy summer, in part thanks to a series of delays that have pushed AAA video games like The Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost of Tsushima to the summer months. Summer 2020 is also when video game fans will get to experience blockbuster movie properties as games: There are no major Marvel Studios movies this summer, but there is a pair of major Marvel games, one starring Iron Man and the other the full team of Avengers. And in the absences of the massively delayed Fast & Furious 9, we have an original Fast & Furious video game from the team behind Project CARS. It’s a summer full of big adventures, including a new Paper Mario game and the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077. (Nintendo Switch owners who don’t dig Paper Mario have plenty of ports to play to this summer: BioShock, Borderlands, and XCOM collections just dropped, as did the massive RPG Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.) And much more.” [more inside]
take pretty photos in a shitty future
Umurangi Generation [Game Trailer] “The pitch for Umurangi Generation is that it's a photography game. Much like Pokemon Snap, you're venturing around, trying to capture the best snapshot possible of your surroundings for cash. But Umurangi Generation isn't on-rails, and it isn't about cheerful monsters and surfing rodents. It's a first-person photography sim set in a "shitty future," where it sometimes feels like you're taking pictures in the ruins of the old world—or the origins of a new one. The city is in a crisis, and that means it's the best time to start exploring the streets and filling up a few rolls of film. [...] Players can either chase the bounties and objectives or, like me, wander aimlessly, trying to line up whatever shot strikes their fancy. Did I often fall off the building trying to get a picture of a seagull? Yes, but we all make sacrifices for the craft.” [via: US Gamer][Free Demo via Steam] [more inside]
50 cute and cozy indie games
Wholesome Games Direct 2020 [YouTube][37:09][Trailers & Showcase] “A digital games showcase called the Wholesome Games Direct aired yesterday, dedicated to cute and colorful games. It put the spotlight on over 50 upcoming indie games that run the gamut from train sims to augmented reality adventures. Games showcased will be playable on a variety of gaming platforms.”
hack. slash. loot. lather. rinse. repeat.
Minecraft Dungeons [YouTube][Launch Trailer] “Minecraft Dungeons, out May 26 on Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and PC (where I’ve been playing it), takes Minecraft’s characters and blocky aesthetic and maps it onto an isometric dungeon crawler where you mash cooldown abilities while running through mob-infested forests, swamps, and volcanic caves. The story sees you save a village from malevolent forces, but really the goal is to kill lots of stuff, get stronger loot, and then kill even more stuff.” [via: Kotaku] [more inside]
Ecco the Dolphin, but you do murders
Maneater [Game Trailer] [13 Minutes of Gameplay] “Maneater is an open-world-action-game with some RPG elements, starring an unnamed shark on a revenge mission. At the start of the game, you play as a big and powerful shark who is captured, then brutally killed and gutted by a shark hunter named Scaly Pete. During the gutting, he literally rips out a baby shark, but that pup bites Pete’s arm off and escapes. For the rest of the game, players take on the role of that baby shark and level up, growing bigger and stronger in the process. The end goal is to kill Scaly Pete and get revenge for what he did to your mother.” [via: Kotaku] [more inside]
Press Ⓐ to bless.
Pope Simulator [YouTube][Game Trailer] “The game begins on Conclave day, when the College of Cardinals elects a new Pope—that's you. You'll begin your reign by choosing a coat of arms, which will apparently impact the course of your papacy, and from there you'll set out to influence the course of the world through the application of "soft power": Organizing pilgrimages, advocating for world peace, moderating conflicts, and otherwise strategically wielding the influence of the Vatican.” [via: PC Gamer]
Of rats and children
A Plague Tale: Innocence [YouTube][Game Trailer] “A Plague Tale: Innocence opens on a scene of idyllic playfulness: a teenage girl, Amicia, walking her dog through an autumnal forest in 12th-century France, bumping apples from tall trees using pebbles hurled from a homemade slingshot. If this is the “innocence” of the game’s title, it plays but a fleeting cameo role in the drama. Before the day is out, Amicia’s dog is dead – ripped apart by a thrashing mass of rabid vermin – along with her former life of privilege as a French noble, ripped apart by soldiers of the inquisition, thugs acting on behalf of an equally corrupt church. Amicia and her younger brother Hugo, a boy who suffers from a blood disease and has spent his days in jaundiced confinement, escape the family estate and begin to pick their way through a countryside turned hostile. This is, then, a story of innocence versus experience, of children versus the ruined world of adults, with all its plagues, both physical and ideological.” [via: The Guardian] [more inside]
ingenuity that comes from necessity
One gamer's quest to achieve the lowest graphics settings [YouTube]
“Though he lives in Barcelona now, The LowSpecGamer (as he likes to be called) was born in Venezuela and grew up unable to afford the newest hardware. For him, learning to push games below their minimum settings was the only way to play them. “There’s always this narrative about PC gaming being about trying to get the best out of the game, trying to get the best graphics and so on,” he says. “That’s the main narrative in gaming culture. That didn’t really fit with what I was doing or how I felt and I thought I was the only one.” [...] “I remember one guy commenting, ‘I don’t see the point of this, you can get a good computer for X amount of dollars at your local store and put it together so I don’t see the point of your channel.’ I was about to answer him when one person responded, ‘The world doesn’t end at your doorstep.’””LowSpecGamer is a channel dedicated to budget gaming and low graphics, from pushing entry-level and old hardware to its limits to forcing the lowest graphics on modern games by all means possible. [via: PC Gamer] [more inside]
60, single, and sexy
Later Daters is a dating sim full of sexy seniors [YouTube][Game Trailer] [Theme Lyric Music Video]“Dating sims are usually full of young, hot singles in your area, but a new take on dating sims from Canadian indie studio Bloom Digital Media is taking a different approach. Later Daters, which is due for a release on Steam and Nintendo Switch on April 16, stars a protagonist who has recently joined a retirement home. The retirement community is full of residents, and players can flirt with — and date a lucky candidate — from eight different characters. The story is looking to buck the stereotypes about older people falling in love, but there are still some retirement-friendly activities for players to choose from and meet potential lovers at, including morning yoga and playing cards.” [via: Polygon]
Gaming Roundup for All Your Gaming Needs
Which is the best gaming console for you? How to get into playing video games. How to get started with online multiplayer games when you're bored at home. The best PS4 kids and family games. The best family games you may have missed. Apple Arcade is perfect for families. The best gaming books: novels, retro compendiums and other page-turners. 25 great games you can play on laptops and budget PCs. The 10 best, least expensive ways to play great video games. 8 steps to making your gaming backlog a thing of the past. 9 long video games to lose yourself in. The best NBA players to watch on Twitch. 15 co-op games to play with your partner. Host a virtual game night with these multiplayer apps. The best games for hanging out with your friends online.
“The heart of Doom is very much still there.”
How lost classic Doom 64 was revived for modern platforms [The Verge] “As if there weren’t enough doom in the world right now, this week sees the release of not one but two new Doom games. Doom Eternal [Previously] is the flashy AAA sequel with incredible graphics and accurately modeled viscera, of course, but you shouldn’t sleep on the other: the first rerelease of Doom 64, an underappreciated entry in the series’s history. Doom 64, as the name suggests, was originally designed for the Nintendo 64. It came out in 1997 and, unlike id Software’s previous two Doom titles, it was developed by Midway Games. It was the first Doom game to offer any sort of significant graphical upgrade on the original, had all-new levels, and — depending on your perspective — could easily have been considered a “Doom 3” had id not released its own game with that name in 2004.” [YouTube][Game Trailer] [more inside]
🦉 Masterful Metroidvania
Ori and the Will of the Wisps: A beautiful game gets a smart sequel [Game Trailer][YouTube] “Ori and the Will of the Wisps invites you to dance inside a beautiful world. There is combat, sure, and there are threats, but the dance, and the beauty of your surroundings, are always the focus. Moon Studios’ first game, Ori and the Blind Forest, was notable for the same reason. Here was a striking 2D platformer that staked out the visual middle ground between a Pixar short and an oversaturated photograph of a fantastical forest. Will of the Wisps is even more sumptuous and varied in its aesthetic, filled with delightful details that make so many frames look more like paintings than a video game. Screenshots and trailers don’t do it justice. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a vibrant platformer.” [via: Polygon] [more inside]
💩 Poop your way to victory! 👶🏾
Pooplers [YouTube] [Gameplay Trailer] “Pooplers is a party game. Up to 4 players. As a toddler you have diarrhea. Try to mark your territory over the family house by spreading your poop over a bigger surface of the floor than the other toddlers. Avoid the parent which wants to put you back in your craddle. Chamber pots are safe spots on which the parent will leave you alone. After the timer ends the poopler which covered the biggest part of the floor is declared winner. At the end of the timer the toddler which covered the biggest percentage of the house with his poop is declared winner.” [via: Nintendo Life]
Rip & Tear! To the Depths of Bell!
Doom and Animal Crossing are here to save the day. [Kotaku] Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons are dropping this week to help everyone take a break. It makes sense though, Isabelle and Doomguy are the best of friends. We can look forward to an evil demon who wields immense power and delights in the suffering of his denizens, as well as playing Doom Eternal. [more inside]
welcome, to the bird museum
The Bird Museum: [itch.io] a place to serenely enjoy over 1000 birds by artists on twitter, every time a different visit, i hope you enjoy, these birds! [Game Trailer] “Last September, Louie Zong (@everydaylouie) put out a Twitter call to action. Using his modest social media clout in possibly the only way one should, he convinced thousands of followers to email him rough pictures of birds for The Bird Museum – an “ever-changing selection of bad, crowdsourced bird art”. Prospective pieces didn’t have to be good – in fact, Zong felt it better they weren’t. Zong promptly found himself buried in an avalanche of chicken sketches, crow doodles, swan sculptures and otherwise. The final gallery is a fascinating clash of skill levels and mediums –” [via: Rock Paper Shotgun]
“Good morning, and welcome to the Black Mesa Transit System.”
Black Mesa [YouTube][Game Trailer] [Digital Foundry Comparison/Review]“Black Mesa was once a humble video game mod — but as of today, it’s a full-fledged remake of Half-Life, newly released out of Steam Early Access. Developer Crowbar Collective finally launched a 1.0 version of Black Mesa, which updates the 1998 first-person shooter with smarter enemies, levels built from scratch, and a level of detail that wasn’t possible two decades ago. Black Mesa has been sort of playable for some time. It launched as a mod for Half-Life 2 in 2012, earning overwhelmingly positive reviews. Then, Valve granted permission to make a standalone commercial game, and an incomplete version appeared on Early Access in 2015. Late last year, Crowbar Collective released the ending — a dramatic reworking of the infamous Xen levels, one of Half-Life’s weakest areas. Now, in 2020, the whole game has been polished into an official non-beta release.” [via: The Verge] [more inside]
“It's the textures above all, and nothing is going to stop them.”
PC Game Install Sizes Are Ballooning And I'm Scared [Kotaku] “Earlier today, I was reading over the PC hardware specifications for the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and, when I reached the hard drive space requirement, did a double-take. 175 GB. For one game. My hard drive currently has less than half that space free for all games. And Modern Warfare is far from alone in its Galactus-like hunger for hard drive space. The PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2, for example, will not stop until it has callously conquered 150 GB of your PC’s storage. This continues an upward trend seen in other recent heavyweight kingpins like the PC versions of Gears of War 4, Gears 5, Halo 5, and Final Fantasy XV, all of which clock in at over 100 GB when you add high-res texture packs (the latter even without improved textures). PC gaming has always been characterized by a little extra pain in the name of optimal pleasure, but this is reaching preposterously bonkers proportions.” [more inside]
PREDICTION: Everything will be ported to the Switch
What to expect from E3 2019 [The Verge] “For fans looking to hear about the future of games, E3 has always been an exciting week. This year, though, there’s a big cloud hanging over the show. Two of the biggest names in the industry aren’t holding their usual press conferences; mega publisher Electronic Arts will instead be live streaming news and announcements over the course of a weekend; and Sony isn’t just forgoing a keynote, it’s skipping E3 altogether. [...] It has left some to ponder — and not for the first time — whether E3 is even relevant any more. Should you still be excited?” [more inside]
SAVE? ● YES ○ NO
Saved, But Not Forgotten: The evolution of saving in video games, from the password to the cloud, and nearly every obscure memory card format in-between. [Tedium] “Earlier this year, a Twitter user named Paul Hubans shared a screenshot from his 87-year-old grandmother’s long-running Animal Crossing session; after four years of daily play, she had logged 3,580 hours—nearly 150 days—of total playtime. Being able to save progress in a game and return to it later has enabled some amazingly deep experiences. It wasn’t always like this, so how did we get here? Let’s find out by taking a look back at the history of saved games.” [more inside]
—for years, Steam has been the only digital games store for many players
Epic Games takes on Steam with its own fairer game store [The Verge] “Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite and the widely used game-making software Unreal Engine, is about to start selling other companies’ games, too. Epic is launching a new online store like Valve’s Steam that will similarly feature third-party games, marking yet another substantial threat to Steam’s dominant position as the lead distributor of PC titles. Epic’s store, which is set to launch soon, will start with a select number of PC and Mac games, and it will open up to more developers next year.” [more inside]
“It’s basically porn, for the PC Master Race,”
Build Your Own PC Inside the PC You Built With PC Building Simulator [Ars Technica] “The "simulator" genre of PC games was already pretty meta, but it has now reached a new level with PC Building Simulator, a game currently available via Steam Early Access. In it, you build desktop PCs (mostly the gaming variety) by opening up the case, installing components, plugging them into the motherboard for power, and more, all in a 3D simulation. (Sorry, no VR.)” [more inside]
“...more games, more sales, more gamers.”
Steam Spy has put together an interesting collection of stats and figures on Steam’s 2017, showing everything from the biggest games to the fate of indie sales. [via: Kotaku] [more inside]
“But time flows like a river . . . and history repeats . . . ”
Oh my god Secret of Mana is being 3D remastered for PS4, PC and Vita by Robert Purchese [Eurogamer] “The best game in the world ever, Secret of Mana [YouTube][ Announcement Trailer], is being 3D remastered for PC (Steam), PS4 and Vita, and will be released 15th February 2018. Why Switch isn't included I don't know, especially given the game's Nintendo heritage, but as Xbox One is excluded as well, it could be a Sony exclusivity deal. Remember, the Secret of Mana series landed on Switch in Japan in June, albeit in a retro re-release anthology which isn't confirmed for the West. The Secret of Mana 3D remake will have a complete new visual style as well as voiced characters (a choice of English or Japanese), some new dialogue scenes, and a newly arranged soundtrack. It looks like a much newer game now, albeit a slightly more cartoony one. There is mention of upgraded gameplay but no details on how it has changed.” [more inside]
Let's imagine our own Intel 486 version of the SNES Classic.
What games would you put on a Classic PC? [PC Gamer] “It's a fun thought exercise, but it also gets tough as you sit down to do it. How do you define where an era of PC gaming begins and ends? Doing it by calendar year is arbitrary. Distinctions between operating systems are murky. Pre-internet? Pre-CD-ROM? Pre-accelerated graphics? Does the jump to VGA represent a new generation? After a lot of discussion, we felt that Intel's 486 processor represented one of the clearest PC gaming tree rings. Looking backward from the 486, you've got the golden age of the adventure genre, as well as the introduction of some of PC gaming's biggest franchises. After the 486, Intel's first Pentium processor kicked off an explosion of 3D games in 1996 (Quake, Tomb Raider), as well as the emergence of internet-connected games (Diablo, StarCraft, Ultima Online). So, our criterion for this 'build' is games that ran on a 486 or earlier architecture, as identified by the original system requirements.”
“Also, there will be a ton of loot!”
Destiny 2 [YouTube] [Trailer] “Humanity’s last safe city has fallen to an overwhelming invasion force led by Ghaul, the imposing commander of the brutal Red Legion. He has stripped the city’s Guardians of their power, and forced the survivors to flee. You will venture to mysterious, unexplored worlds of our solar system to discover an arsenal of weapons and devastating new combat abilities. To defeat the Red Legion and confront Ghaul, you must reunite humanity’s scattered heroes, stand together, and fight back to reclaim our home.” [more inside]
“A winner is you!”
Steam Passes 14 Million Concurrent Users for First Time Ever [PC Gamer] “Steam has surpassed 14 million concurrent users. The milestone was hit early January 7 and peaked at 14,207,039, according to Steam's stats page. It's now back to the mid-to-high 13 millions. Unsurprisingly, Dota 2 was the game with the highest concurrent player count at the peak today with 951,942 concurrent players. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive followed with 675,195 players, while Grand Theft Auto V rounded out the top three with 116,230. It's worth underlining that concurrent users isn't the same as concurrent players. The 14,207,039 number includes users who have Steam running in the background while they're doing other things or away from the PC altogether. Still, the figure is one measurement of Steam's growth over time.”
“—you only look as good as your horse does.”
The Best Horse in PC Gaming [PC Gamer] “And no one understands the value of a loyal, healthy horse companion better than PC Gamer. They’ve helped us scale vertical cliffsides in Skyrim, disable tanks with their poops in Metal Gear Solid 5, and be less angry than normal when we couldn’t fast travel The Witcher 3. They’re also very pretty and I like the noises they make. But the time for sharing the love is over, as we've decided to declare the best horse in PC gaming through rigorous horse analysis. Tuck that shirt in, champ your bit, and let’s ride.” [more inside]
“I don't want to spend a ton of money on a game that's bad...”
The State of PC Piracy in 2016 [PC Gamer] “Piracy seems like it should be so simple, right? Stealing games is wrong. The end. But piracy is one of the most charged, complex, and divisive debates in gaming. Follow a piracy discussion long enough and it will spiral through issues as complicated as international economic policy, the concept of 'ownership' for digital property, game preservation, and the principle of the PC as an unrestricted technology platform. Piracy in 2016, the age of digital distribution, indie gaming, and Steam’s dominance, is a different animal from the PC piracy of 1990 or 2000 or 2010. Unlicensed software distribution is just as illegal as it was when Don’t Copy That Floppy was a meaningful anti-piracy strategy, but our own understanding of the crime and its motivations haven’t kept pace with technology.” [more inside]
WITH VOLUMETRIC GOD RAYS!!
Skyrim Remastered [The Verge] Nearly five years after it first came out, Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim continues to have a very impressive fan base that keeps the game pretty through HD mods. Now it's Bethesda's turn: at its E3 press conference, the company has announced a remastered version of Skyrim coming to PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. [more inside]
The Future is Now
Virtual Reality, a tech geek dream for decades, was long hobbled by high latency, clunky hardware, and perennially absurd reports on network news.
That all changed in 2011, when Palmer Luckey, then 18, built the first Oculus Rift prototype in his parents' garage with iPhone repair money.
Awed by its powerful sense of presence, developer John Carmack became a fan and demoed it at E3. The ensuing Kickstarter campaign shattered all fundraising goals, and Facebook controversially bought the rights for a whopping $2 billion -- alienating erstwhile partner Valve Software, the iconic creators of Half-Life/Portal/Steam.
A Cambrian explosion of headsets followed: Morpheus, HoloLens, Google Cardboard, Gear VR.
But perhaps most interesting is Valve's own counter-project: a breathtaking "room scale" VR set-up with Tron-like "Chaperone" and tracked motion controls called the HTC Vive.
With this week's commercial launch of Rift and Vive bringing us to the threshold of a new interactive medium, look inside for guides, notes, and killer apps for this, the stunning arrival of consumer VR. [more inside]
Les Guerriers de l’Ombre
But where much slavery media aims for education and humanity, Freedom wants blood. You kidnap slave drivers and set fire to their buildings. Freedom still shocks today, and that it debuted the same year as Super Mario Bros. 2 is almost unfathomable in the traditional framework of game history and culture.
Freedom: Rebels in the Darkness was a slave rebellion game for the Amiga, Atari ST, and PC by Afro-Caribbean developer Muriel Tramis. Screenshots at MobyGames, many of which are very evocative.
Freedom: Rebels in the Darkness was a slave rebellion game for the Amiga, Atari ST, and PC by Afro-Caribbean developer Muriel Tramis. Screenshots at MobyGames, many of which are very evocative.
The best free games from across the web
For about three years, the A.V. Club ran Sawbuck Gamer, a regular column reviewing the week's most notable free and cheap games across all platforms, from web games to handhelds to console downloadables. It's a treasure trove of content, especially since more literary sister site The Gameological Society took the helm, and it's publicized great desktop projects like the luscious platformer Frogatto (previously), feature-rich Super Mario Bros. X (previously), the evocative faux-web Digital: A Love Story (previously), interactive fiction gem Rover's Day Off, and the hyperkinetic RunMan: Race Around the World (previously). But if you're in the mood for something more immediate, why not start with a list of all the original column's free A-rated online titles? [more inside]
The CRPG Addict
The CRPG Addict is playing every PC role-playing came in chronological order. Currently, he's playing Ultima V. [more inside]
Spoiler alert: they misspell "pwned"
A video has leaked online showing Microsoft's vision for their next generation gaming platform. The video comes from the WGX (Windows Gaming eXperience) team, and as ZDNet reports, the video shows "[the] team’s ambitions for next-generation gaming between Windows, Xbox Live, and mobile platform[s]." [more inside]
I'll trade you three Creepers for a Herobrine card
Minecraft mastermind Markus "Notch" Persson has officially announced his company's next project: a hybrid online board game/trading card system called Scrolls. Spearheaded by Mojang co-founder Jakob Porser (interview) and with backstory penned by Penny Arcade wordsmith Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, the game will consist of turn-based battles between collectible "scrolls," illustrated character cards strategically deployed on an abstract gaming grid. In an interesting inversion of the Minecraft model, the game itself will be free, while updates in the form of additional scroll packs will cost a nominal fee -- a business model gaming analyst Sean Maelstrom decries as "snake oil." Mojang, for their part, is unafraid and even eager to target an untested slice of the gaming market, and is angling to get their playable prototype of Scrolls ready for a possible Alpha release this summer.
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start
Step 1. Make an utterly fantastic game. Step 3. Profit!
2D BOY made around $100,000 in a week. That’s $50,000 each for writing a blog post about a game they finished a year ago. By letting people pay whatever they wanted. 2D Boy stirred up a lot of discussion (previously) about game piracy when they used online scoreboard data to estimate an 82% piracy rate for their fantastic indie game World of Goo (previously).
For World of Goo's first birthday, they decided to try the Radiohead model and let people buy the game for any price they choose. Now they've released extensive data about the results. Short version? "A huge success," even though the most commonly chosen price was only a penny. [more inside]
Wandering lonely as a cloud-gamer.
Beta-registration has already started for Onlive, a revolutionary cloud-gaming service that promises to put an end to costly PC hardware upgrades, videogame piracy and the entire console industy and game retail sectors. There's just one small problem: it can't possibly work.
Hope me!
Having trouble with that new videogame you got for Christmas? Text-only walkthroughs don't do it for you? Then try Stuck Gamer. Video walkthroughs for a pretty good number of games. Including, thanks the Lords of Kobol, Ninja Gaiden.
Relive all your favorites from the demoscene.
Relive all your favorites from the demoscene. This project, headed up by nearly all of the team that maintained the old hornet.org demoscene archive, is committed to bringing those old classic demos ... to a DVD player near you. Now you no longer have to fret because you gave up your Gravis Ultrasound and DOS! Can I get a w00t from ya? I knew I could.
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