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HM and I talk Titans
Last week me and Joel Goodwin (a.k.a. Harbour Master of Electron Dance) got together to have a chat about Puppy Games’ upcoming Revenge of the Titans. Harbour Master, being the big softy he is, came away with a different take on the game to me so it’s well worth a read if you weren’t entirely convinced by my glowing first impressions. The discussion can be read here but while you’re in the vicinity you really ought to take a look at some of his other articles as well, especially his recent pieces on two controversial — and hitherto relatively unknown — RPG Maker games by Nicolau Chaud, namely Marvel Brothel (yes, it does exactly what it says on the tin) and Beautiful Escape: Dungeoneer (not for the weak hearted). His Marvel Brothel article, after being plugged by RPS and Destructoid, went on to attract enough traffic to bring down his entire site. But that’s only the beginning of the story…
Email the author of this post at greggb@tap-repeatedly.com
The Mighty w3sp
Things have been awfully quiet around here lately; so quiet in fact that if you listen carefully you can hear the muffled staff beatings being issued by our Overlord Steerpike deep within the bowels of the Tap-Repeatedly silo. It’s only right that I distract you from their disparaging (and hopefully short lived) whimperings with the sweet, sweet sound of music…
What Rhymes with “Man Furismo Jive”?
Whatever it is, it’s currently packaged and sat in boxes at retailers all around the world, waiting for next Wednesday to arrive. More importantly, it’s finally finished! People are even playing it! It’s no longer just vaporware!
Yep, Gran Turismo 5 is almost here. The 5 year wait threatened to reach comedy levels at numerous points in a development cycle that more people doubted the longer it went on, but with less than a week until release that will all soon be forgotten. I expect Metacritic will be littered with reviewers who will be climbing over themselves to remind us of that, before awarding the game an 8 or a 9, but I personally believe that like a fine wine, most gamers will appreciate where the time went once they’ve sampled it. With more than 1,000 cars, 65 course variations and more game modes than you can shake a gear stick at, Gran Turismo 5 should cement itself as the generations defining racing experience.
I honestly couldn’t be more excited right now. As a long term GT fan, the wait has often proved excruciating, but I fully intend on making up for last time from next week onwards. Expect a first impressions piece to follow. In the mean time, anyone interested could do worse than read amar212′s excellent and constantly updated hands on report for GT Planet. Even if just as proof that this thing actually exists.
Email the author of this post at matc@tap-repeatedly.com
Emergent-cy
Bad news trickling in from the vine indicates that Emergent Game Technologies, creators of the popular middleware GameBryo engine, are being forced by their investors to sell the technology along with most or all other assets and IP.
First Impressions: Revenge of the Titans (Beta)
I’ve always been a turtler. All that progress, pushing forward, actually doing stuff — it’s not for me. I’d rather just sit in my hardy shell, pipe and newspaper in hand, and hatch a plan; a plan to build more walls, a plan to build more towers, a plan to make my shell hardier. Yes, I’m a real-time strategy coward.
The Indignant Bat
A while ago a friend crashed on my sofa after a night of drinking and Mount & Blade. I woke up the next morning, puttered into the kitchen, and put the coffee on. Then I glanced up at my blinds, drawn against the morning, and saw a strange shape atop one. It was brown, and looked like… well, not like anything I could quite make out. I just knew it wasn’t supposed to be there.
Here We Go Again: Black Ops Edition
Today, I did something I didn’t think I would end up doing this year. Like millions of other gamers around the world, I went into a shop and bought Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Why is this strange? Well, it isn’t really, but up until today I’d managed to suppress any desire whatsoever to play Activision’s latest blockbuster. Not for any particular reason. Don’t get me wrong, there are countless reasons why any one person would wish to ignore both Activision and the Call of Duty franchise, but my reasons never became anymore complicated than “I can’t be arsed.” I just couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to play it, a feeling which didn’t really improve even when the game was sat – bought and paid for – on my desk at work. For some of the reasons outlined in my first article as a permanent writer at Tap, I have long since abandoned Modern Warfare 2 and never envisaged myself rushing back to the series anytime soon.
So why did I buy it? I don’t really know. I’m a sucker for good advertising, I’ll say that much, and part of me thinks I eventually caved in as some sort of warped obligation as a gamer. A bigger part of me however wants to think I did this simply for Treyarch. Cast aside as the second studio during the Infinity Ward glory years, Treyarch suddenly find themselves with a golden opportunity to step upto the primary developer plate. I also loved World at War probably more than I’ve loved a Call of Duty game since the PC original, and despite a heap of bad press just for being Treyarch, I thought it featured a better single player than either of Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare outings. What little intrigue I have for Black Ops is founded upon these foundations and these foundations alone.
I’ve played it a little, extending to a solitary campaign mission and about 10 minutes of multiplayer, so I won’t be judging the game just yet. No doubt I’ll follow this up with a First Impressions over the coming days. Unless the game leads me to Modern Warfare 2 levels of frustration first, that is.
Email the author of this post at matc@tap-repeatedly.com
Wherefive Elder Scrolls?
This meme has been finding its way around the internet of late: where is the next Elder Scrolls game? Oblivion arrived in March of 2006, about four years after Morrowind, its immediate predecessor. Based on that admittedly limited trend, we should have at least heard an announcement by now, right?
Well, Fallout 3 surely intervened, as did Bethsoft’s parent company ZeniMax buying id Software. That alone means that Bethesda’s long and chummy relationship with Emergent is at an end; The Elder Scrolls V will likely use id’s Tech5 rather than GameBryo. And there are other things to consider.
First Impressions: Fate of the World
Steerpike is many things, my friends: roguishly handsome, devilishly charming, effortlessly-groomed, witty.
One thing he is not is well-disciplined. So though I did stick to my guns and refuse to pre-order Fate of the World on Halloween, it is me you’re dealing with… I bought it a few days later. Now, I still have an issue with this game costing £19.99 for the full version (that’s about $40-$50, depending on the exchange rate). Vic Davis of Cryptic Comet Games doesn’t charge commercial-off-the-shelf prices for his games, which when the day is done are quite similar to Fate of the World, only infinitely more sophisticated.
But Fate of the World is currently £9.99 for the pre-order, which gets you the beta, which is one scenario of five included in the full game. And since I have an iPhone app that can beep-boop me when exchange rates reach a certain predetermined point, I just told it to do so when the British Pound slipped into a valley. Thus I got Fate of the World for $16.
Bitter (And Not So Sweet) Symphony
If there’s a scenario that defines the phrase “Egg on Your Face,” the opening days sales totals for the much celebrated Rock Band 3 are probably it. Having told Eurogamer “It’s possible that sales of other games in the category are down because people are waiting to spend their money on Rock Band 3” in an interview last week, project director Daniel Sussman may be feeling a little red faced this evening.
In case you’re wondering, his game entered the UK all-formats chart at number 26, having sold 7,386 units in total. 5,318 on Xbox 360, 1,555 on PS3 and 295 on Wii. Ouch. That’s the sales equivalent of watching someone run over your dog. Then reverse. Over and over again..
Supremely Unconfident
Two things are happening in the United States tomorrow, both of sufficient gravity that watchers from beyond our borders should be at least somewhat interested.
First, the mid-term election is going to go badly for the Democrats, which is unfortunate because Democrats are awesome.
Second, oral arguments begin in Schwarzenegger vs. the Entertainment Merchants Association at the United States Supreme Court. Up for debate is whether it’s a violation of the First Amendment for a state to enact a law restricting the sale of video games to minors.
UPDATE: a PDF transcript of oral arguments can be read here.
I Never Liked the Place Anyway
Okay, ENOUGH. Do you know how many games I’m currently playing that have me in charge of determining the fate of the world? A lot! I am just one man! Whether bending it to my will a la Civ V or saving it from aliens a la… basically every game ever, the world and its fate is all up in my business. And along comes Red Redemption Games (no word on whether Langdell will encourage Rockstar to sue them) with word that a game about the fate of the world, one that I first read about in Wired ages ago, is now available for pre-order, with full beta access to those who pony up the quid. What’s this game about the fate of the world called? Fate of the World.
Developer is About to Die
Ironic to see this given our recent debates over Fallout: New Vegas, and worthy of discussion: The Escapist’s Editor-in-Chief Russ Pitts has written an open letter to the makers of games, asking them to stop making broken ones. I quote:
How many of you know your history? How many of you know that the videogame industry, often considered “recession proof” once suffered a major crash, in the 1980s during the last great economic recession? How many of you know the reason the industry suffered so badly was because you (or your predecessors) were making bad games?
Brief rant follows.
Now I’m No Longer Alone
Alex Trebek: “65,000.”
Contestant: “What is the approximate number of lines of spoken dialogue in Fallout: New Vegas?”
Trebek: “Correct.”
Words, words, words. You might say there are a lot of them in Obsidian Entertainment’s latest opinion divider. I might agree with you for saying as much. But so far I’m enjoying them, and I hope you can too.
My Ship is so Small and the Sea is so Wide
Mr. Perry: Shut Your Pie Hole
Looks Like Someone's Angling for a Job at Valve
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