December 21, 2012

Whatever you do during this Apocalypse...

December 6, 2012

Play over 300 emulated DOS games in your browser (PCGamer)

The team over at RGB Classic Games is giving us our nostalgia fixes in the form of Java-based DOS emulation. They currently host over 300 games from days of yore including Doom, Commander Keen, Earthworm Jim, and many more that didn’t get spotlighted because they were too far down the alphabetically-organized page. And it’s totally free.

It almost seems too good to be true. You might expect the hammer of legal action to be looming just above the dusty library of classics, but the site’s intentions appear noble. As it explains: “The highest ideals of this site are to support the authors by providing links to their web sites and ordering information for the full versions of games that are still sold, and to encourage the authors of classic games to preserve their games for future generations by making them available for sale or as freeware. If you enjoy a shareware game, please consider buying it from the author.

“All of the games on this site are freely distributable because they are shareware, freeware, or because the copyright holder has officially and legally released all rights to the public domain (abandonware).”

Assuming that’s the case, the site shouldn’t see any problems, but if it does offend a copyright holder, we’d expect a simple removal of the game in question to suffice. Cue up some Nirvana and have a look for yourself.

Source: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/12/05/play-over-300-emulated-dos-games-in-your-browser/

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Who knows if it's gonna last, so go play while you can!

December 2, 2012

The Humble THQ Bundle! Pay what you want for seven games

The guys from the Humble Bundle are at it again, but this time with major releases; I've heard rumors that THQ is in dire straits financially, but this seems like a crazy deal.

The games are:
Company of Heroes
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor
Red Faction Armageddon
Metro 2033
Darksiders
Saint's Row The Third (if you beat the average price paid, which right now is $5,65)

It's pay what you want, and you can split up the money as you like between the developer, charity (Child's Play and American Red Cross) and the Humble Bundle People.

More info at http://www.humblebundle.com

Of the games I know only two Metro 2033 and Saint's Row The Third.

I enjoyed Metro 2033, even though it took me a while to get into it. I actually got into it more after reading the book (even though the plot deviates, since the book didn't have that much fighting in it). It does have a minor case of consolitis (regenerating health, checkpoint saving system only, and the controls felt a bit wonky to me) but it's a good FPS if you enjoy the post-apocalyptic setting.

Saint's Row The Third is a great game, if you like GTA-style games. It's much better optimized for PC than SR2 was. The dialogue and cutscenes seemed a bit better in SR2, but other than that I thought SR3 was superior in pretty much everything. Especially the non-story activities are much better; there are only three levels per activity (not six, like in SR2) and the difficulty level is a bit more reasonable; some activities in SR2 became ludicrously hard at higher levels. Keep in mind there is a metric ton of DLC for this game, mostly additional clothes and vehicles, but three of them also have new missions.

As for the rest I don't like hack'n slashes much (which is what Darksiders looks like) and I'm absolutely hopeless at RTS games. I actually own Company of Heroes, it came with my graphics card (which really ages my rig), but I never actually played it. The only RTS I've played is Command & Conquer Red Alert 3, because I enjoyed the wacky characters. But after some point I had to play the missions on easy because I was getting slaughtered.

If anybody has any input on the other games let me know.

August 22, 2012

PC gaming has "around a 93-95% piracy rate" claims Ubisoft CEO (PCGamer)

Source: PCGamer

Tom Senior at 05:34pm August 22 2012

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has been speaking to GamesIndustry International about Ubi’s reasons for embracing the free to play model. He says free to play games are more cost effective to create because typical PC releases are so heavily pirated. He claims that "only about five to seven per cent" of players pay for PC games, "the rest is pirated."

Guillemot doesn’t provide any evidence for this, but insists that the rate of paying customers for a traditional release is equal to that of a free to play game. He says that the free to play model lets Ubisoft "take content which we’ve developed in the past, graphics etc," to make "cheaper games and improve them over time."

(snip)

"It’s a way to get closer to your customers, to make sure you have a revenue. On PC it’s only around five to seven per cent of the players who pay for F2P, but normally on PC it’s only about five to seven per cent who pay anyway, the rest is pirated. It’s around a 93-95 per cent piracy rate, so it ends up at about the same percentage. The revenue we get from the people who play is more long term, so we can continue to bring content."

It would be very interesting to learn where Guillemot has taken the "93-95 per cent" figure from, but a belief in that high a rate of piracy would explain the aggressive DRM strategy that Ubisoft have been pursuing for the past few years. Ubisoft recently announced that they’ll be charging into the free to play market with three new games, Anno Online, Silent Hunter Online and Heroes of Might and Magic Online.

Atricle: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/22/pc-gaming-has-around-a-93-95-per-cent-piracy-rate-claims-ubisoft-ceo/

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As one of the commenters on the PCGamer site said "around 100% of Ubisoft CEOs are fucking morons". This follows from exactly the same data that the Ubisoft CEO cites (none at all).

It is not the first time that Ubisoft has made this sort of claim, and I don't remember ever seeing any shred of evidence for it. Every time the claim was made in defense of Ubisoft's always on-line DRM. Could it be maybe that people stopped buying Ubisoft games, because of that DRM?

I haven't bought an Ubisoft game in ages, and I have very poor impulse control during Steam sales! I don't pirate either, so I haven't played any of their recent titles at all. In this and other cases players who pirate games have much less hassles compared to legitimate buyers, who have to jump through endless hoops, and from what I've heard Ubisoft's UPlay system isn't bug free.

If what the CEO says is true, why is Ubisoft releasing PC Games at all? Ironically (again if what he says is true), if Ubisoft were to release their games completely without DRM their revenue would probably go up, since more people would be willing to buy their games... But they seem to go out of their way to discourage people from wanting to buy their games.

Piracy is only one of PC gaming's problems. A huge one is games being released as lazy console ports; I'm not referring so much to graphics as to terrible performance issues, checkpoint-only saving systems, no mod support, key bindings that can't be remapped (or only partially with a bunch of tasks being assigned a single key), or control responses optimized solely for gamepads and no other input method (driving in Saint's Row 2 on PC is a nightmare). If these things were addressed properly I think it would help sales a lot more than all the DRM in the world.

And if they think they're gonna make it in the free-to-play MMO market with cheap old assets, I doubt they'll get very far. That sector seems pretty unforgiving.

And, although I sometimes sound like a huge Steam fanboy, it took me a long time to warm up to it, and I'm still not comfortable with the control it has over a large portion of my games library. But in the end the sales are good, and it's mostly hassle free, so it's a compromise.

Ok, rant over.

Discuss.

August 17, 2012

(VR Headset) Oculus Rift hands-on video: everything you’ve heard is true (PCGamer)

Source: PCGamer

Owen Hill at 05:05pm August 17 2012

The Oculus Rift is the most exciting peripheral I’ve ever used. This is the virtual reality headset I’ve been dreaming of since I was a little boy; true future tech that will redefine what it means to play games.

I got to demo it running Doom BFG at this year’s Gamescom. Even better, the kind chaps at Oculus let us film the wondrous thing in action, so you get to share in me looking silly but having a truly joyous gaming experience. Click through for the video.

For more on the Oculus Rift, check out the official site or, if you’re feeling even more enthused, sign up for the Kickstarter campaign and get yourself a dev kit. I’m not rich enough to lay down the $335 dollars quite yet but I’ll be buying Palmer Lucky’s product once it’s released, no doubt. Keep checking the site for our exclusive interview, where he reveals which two games he’d most like to play on the Rift.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/17/oculus-rift-hands-on-video-everything-youve-heard-is-true/

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Colour me intrigued...

August 17, 2012

Modders restore missing Fallout: New Vegas content, companion, much much more (PCGamer)

Source: PCGamer

Richard Cobbett at 10:00am August 17 2012

Much like earlier Obsidian game Knights of the Old Republic 2, what we got in Fallout: New Vegas was only part of what was planned, or even implemented only to be dummied out. Modders to the rescue! Investigating the source with forensic care, there are now many fixes available to do everything from turn Freeside back into the single map it was meant to be, to adding back characters that were cut. Better still, you can grab the necessary mods in a set of easy packages – right here!

There are more changes still to be made, but the ones on offer so far include full quests, missing characters, an in-engine version of the introduction, and several packs containing small changes that don’t warrant their own full mods. Check the descriptions for compatibility information though, as a few apparently don’t play well together (a Brahmin companion called Betsy and the new Open Freeside being the most obvious.) Head over here for a preview of what might be coming back later.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/17/modders-restore-missing-fallout-new-vegas-content-companion-much-much-more/

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Since I'm currently playing New Vegas I won't install any of this until after I at least finish my vanilla playthrough, but this certainly seems to add a bit of content. Hopefully by the time I'm done they'll have worked out some of the compatibility issues.

Also recently PCGamer reported that another mod team had done the same for Knights of The Old Republic 2 (http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/25/community-heroes-modders-debug-and-restore-cut-content-in-knights-of-the-old-republic-ii/). But in regards to that game I have one big question: LucasArts, why is KOTOR2 not on Steam???? (while KOTOR is...)

August 16, 2012

Humble Bundle for Android, PC, Mac & Linux 3 - Indie Games and Charity

The new Humble Bundle has been published. This will be available for the next two weeks.

All games work both on the computer (PC, Mac & Linux) and on Android Phones.

It is pay what you want, and the money goes to the developers, the Humble Bundle people and charity (Child's Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation). You can decide how to split your payment.

The games featured are:
Fieldrunners
Bit Trip Beat
SpaceChem
Uplink

If you pay more than the average offer ($6.06 at the moment) you also get:
Spirits

There's a chance that over the course of the offer more games might be added to the pay-more-than-average portion (which you will access to even if you bought the bundle before they were added).

All games are DRM-free and work cross-platform on Android, Windows, Mac and Linux.
Also included are the soundtracks to Uplink and SpaceChem.

You can find all the info here or watch the video above:
http://www.humblebundle.com/

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I know two of the games SpaceChem and Uplink.

SpaceChem is a puzzle game in which you have to program machines to dis- and/or reassemble molecules to create whatever output is needed. I had a great time playing it until it eventually got too hard for me. My solutions tended to be pretty messy and nowhere near as elegant as the ones you see on YouTube. Still a great game though.

Uplink is a hacking game by Introversion (makers of Darwinia and Defcon). I was actually playing it when I got the message that this bundle was released! It's very spartan as far as graphics go, you just see your terminal you get your jobs per email and you break into whichever systems you need to complete them (and then cover up your tracks). With the money you earn you upgrade your system to be able to pull off bigger hacks.

I enjoy Uplink a lot now. The problem I had at the beginning is that I didn't really understand how you are supposed to go about playing the game and so got stuck pretty quickly; the tutorial gives you all the basic information on how to perform simple jobs, but it's pretty superficial and does not prepare you for when things get more serious. Then last week I watched the beginning of a Let's Play of Uplink and finally got to see how the game is supposed to be played. I get on much better now.

Another thing I want to mention is that Uplink has a great soundtrack. Although it's not proper chiptune music it is very similar in style and reminds me of the music I used to hear when playing on my Commodore 64 and Amiga.

If anybody knows the other games let me know.

August 9, 2012

Steam to start hosting non-game software (PC Gamer)

Source: PC Gamer

T.J. Hafer at 07:51pm August 8 2012

First: movies. Now, Valve has announced that it wants to be your supplier for non-game programs. Beginning September 5th, you’ll be able to grab a variety of software ranging “from creativity to productivity” that “take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you.”

The press release didn’t give any specific names for launch titles, but it was revealed that devs will be able to submit apps for the community’s approval using Steam Greenlight, just as game creators can.

“The 40 million gamers frequenting Steam are interested in more than playing games,” Vavle’s Mark Richardson said. “They have told us they would like to have more of their software on Steam, so this expansion is in response to those customer requests.”

As far as I know, the non-game software market lacks any sort of Steam-like unified distribution platform as of now, so this is a potentially huge development. What kinds of applications would you like to see added?

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/08/steam-to-start-hosting-non-game-software/

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Now this looks interesting. Of course it largely depends on what kind of software they will be offering. But also the ability for developers of "regular" (i.e. non-gaming) software to be able to go through Steam Greenlight to make their product available could be a boon for them.

Of course the non-gaming software market probably works very differently than Steam's gaming product range. I doubt I'll be seeing a 75%-off Steam sale of music production software any time soon. But I can, dream can't I?

August 8, 2012

Black Mesa: Source video appears, then disappears. But there are news.

Source: PCGamer

Tom Senior at 12:39pm August 7 2012

Some leaked footage claiming to belong to the elusive Black Mesa Source mod has appeared over on Valve Time, showing some classic weapons and environments renovated in Valve’s Source engine. The video shows a bit of violence from the ‘On A Rail’ mission. But for the odd detail, like iron sights aiming for the Magnum, it all feels very familiar, albeit a fair bit prettier than the original. Take a look.

The footage follows the official release of some new Black Mesa Source screenshots back in June. The mod’s been in development for many years and hardly anything’s been shown, until now. What do you think?

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/07/black-mesa-source-video-shows-renovated-on-a-rail-action/

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The video has since been taken down, but it has been confirmed by on of the devs that it was actual footage, and that the game seems to be close to complete. You can read his full post here (it's well worth it): http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=32145075&postcount=83

I was too late to see the video. I first became aware of this project shortly after Half-Life 2's release. Since I had played a few HL1 mods I thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if somebody remade HL1 on the Source engine?" And a Google search later I learned that people were trying to do just that. Of course that was some seven years ago. I'm happy to see that the project is still alive and seems to be nearing release.

Actually I'm somewhat surprised that Valve didn't throw some money at these guys to aid the project along and to then make this an official commercial release. I know that I'd be more than willing to pay 10-15€ for a well made remake of HL1 on Source, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Anyway, seems like good news.

July 15, 2012

Deus Ex: Human Revolution film in the works (PCGamer)

Source: PCGamer

Tom Senior at 04:53pm July 10 2012

CBS have acquired the screen rights to Deus Ex: Human Revolution and will be working closely with the developers, Eidos Montreal, to make a film. Welcome to the terrible mental no man’s land that lies somewhere between “hmm, interesting” and “ohnononono.” Let’s take a look at what the folk involved have to say about the thing and then recklessly judge the endeavour.

(snip)

The shadowy conspirator picks up a datapad to find a conveniently relevant Variety article on the front page. It suggests that the plot of the film will be similar to that of the game. Instead of a security guard, Jensen’s character will be a SWAT operative, but he’ll still have augmentations, which he’ll have to use to bring down a corrupt and sinister conspiracy. The conspirator nods. Is he pleased? It’s too damn dark to tell.

With a few taps at a console dossiers appear on the flat screen. One man’s name swims out of the flickering golden UI. Adrian Askarieh, producer of the Deus Ex project, previous projects: Hitman.

The room grows cold.

Another name: Roy Lee. Previous credits: The Ring (US remake), The Grudge (US remake).

(snip)

Read more: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/10/deus-ex-human-revolution-film-in-the-works/

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Could a good movie be made in the Deus Ex universe? Sure. But it would take effort; and I doubt anybody putting the money into this has any interest making an effort...