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One Of The PC’s Toughest Games Just Got A Lot Simpler
Dwarf Fortress is one of the most complex and rewarding games on the PC. Problem is, it’s also ugly as sin and nigh on inaccessible to most gamers. This new game seeks to change this. It’s called Survivors of Ragnarok, and it exists solely to take the core experience of Dwarf Fortress and transplant it…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 18, 2011 -
Make Your Old PC Games Look Brand New
If you’re a PC gamer, and your favourite titles are a few years old, they may be starting to show signs of ageing. What you need to spruce them up, then, is the ENB Series of mods by Boris Vorontsov. Some of you may already be using them in games like Oblivion, Deus Ex and…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 18, 2011 -
There’s Something Cool In The 3DS’ Box (Aside From The 3DS)
Included with every 3DS sold will be six cards. They may look like plain paper cards, but they’re actually “augmented reality” devices, which when detected by the 3DS’ camera come to life on the handheld’s top screen. We’ve shown you what the question block card looks like, but that’s just one card. There are five…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 18, 2011 -
How Custom Firmware Can Put Your PS3 At Risk
What you’re about to read is far from a wide-ranging concern. But it does highlight one legitimate reason Sony has for going after PS3 users installing their own custom firmware on their PlayStation 3 consoles. A report on Ars Technica, showcasing some digging at the edge’s of the PlayStation Network performed by a team of…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 18, 2011 -
Quiet, All Of You…We’re Approaching Jurassic Park’s Debut Trailer
Telltale’s Jurassic Park game has broken cover, with this debut trailer showing that it at least has rain, electric fences and dinosaurs in it! The game will be a bit of a change for Telltale. Normally developers of straight-up adventure games, this one has more action to it, as you’d expect (and hope) from a…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 18, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
Microsoft, Why Did You Lie To Velocity Girl?
You may not remember her, but Velocity Girl was one of the stars of E3 2005. Young, funky and a casual gamer, she was promised the Xbox 360 would be the console of her dreams. Sitting cross-legged on the floor during the big reveal of the Xbox 360, controller in hand as if he was…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 18, 2011 -
Oh Good, A Shoot-Em-Up Where I Can’t Actually Die
I’m generally not very good at shoot-em-ups (Ikaruga somehow excepted). I tend to die, and die often. So playing Who’s That Flying today has been a refreshing change for me! It’s a shooter (or shmup) where you’re invincible, and like superhero games you may have played featuring this hook instead of worrying about your own…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 17, 2011 -
RAGE May Be A Wasteland, But In This New Trailer It’s A Pretty One
This new trailer for id’s upcoming open-world shooter RAGE turned up in advertisements overnight. You really should watch it. I mean, the game looks great, but it’s when you see the “from the creators of Doom & Quake” bit that it hits you: these guys, who made Doom & Quake, haven’t made a new, proper…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 17, 2011 -
This Game Lets You Play With Your Friends, Even When They Don’t Want To
Gunshine is an upcoming RPG that’s being worked on by a bunch of former Remedy (Max Payne) developers. It’s also being funded by the former Crown Prince of Sony Computer Entertainment, Phil Harrison. So let’s have a look at it. Supporting four-player co-op and running in a browser, Gunshine looks like Saturday Morning Syndicate, and…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 17, 2011 -
Screw Consoles, Let’s Play Games On Our Bathroom Mirror
Brushing your teeth, doing your hair, shaving, all BORING. What we need to liven things up is a mirror that doubles as a touch-screen display. Like this one. Designed by Alpay Kasal, it’s inspired by a similar display he’d seen which was intended to be “the bathroom of the future, complete with news and weather…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 17, 2011 -
Oh My God, There Are Bullets Everywhere
Over ten years since it was first released on the Dreamcast, Bangai-O is back, and boy, are you in for some bullets. Due out in the Spring, Bangai-O HD is a shiny update of the original, which was first released on the N64 in Japan before later turning up in Europe and North America on…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 17, 2011 -
It’s Not Even Out, And Already, A 3DS Game Has Been Cancelled
Well, that was fast. Despite the handheld not being released yet, Electronic Arts has already canned one of its first games for the Nintendo 3DS. My Garden was one of the first titles ever shown off for Nintendo’s upcoming handheld, and also one of the first “proper” games for it we ever got our hands…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 17, 2011 -
Mario, You Look Great In A Giant Mechanised Battle Suit
You’ve never seen Mario like this before. Not unless you dreamed he was in a game developed by Epic for the Xbox 360. This amazing re-interpretation of the humble little plumber is by artist Marat Ars. His humble little friend Yoshi has been replaced by a hulking mecha suit, quaint fireballs switched out with what…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 17, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallBalls To The Wall, It’s The Rock N’ Roll Video Game Soundtrack
My favourite video game soundtrack is not a collection of original orchestral pieces, nor tracks by famous artists. It is one performed by a band that, were it not for this game, few of you will have ever heard of. Full Throttle, an adventure title released by Lucasarts in 1995, is rightly regarded as one…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 17, 2011 -
ReviewsI Just Used A $400 Joystick
For the price of a PlayStation 3, Saitek’s new X-65F Flight Control System for the PC had damn well better be the best video game peripheral ever made. The Basics The X-65F is a fully-featured “flight control system”, meaning the pack includes a joystick, throttle control and auxiliary instrument panel. Designed to work with every…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 16, 2011 -
God Of War Swaps “Furious” For “Beautiful”
Can’t afford the big, beautiful God of War III art book? Make do with these free internet pictures of the game, showing the concept art skills of Jung Park. For a game about anger and frowns and snarls and blood, he sure does manage to make everything look if not pretty, then at least beautiful.…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 16, 2011 -
Some Handy, If Obvious Tips On Being A Better PC Gamer
You’ll want to skip to around five minutes into this video, but once you do, you’ll get some tips on how to play games that sound incredibly patronising and basic…until you realise you never actually use them. This is Sean “Day[9]” Plott, a star in the world of StarCraft II who last week devoted one…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 16, 2011 -
The Beautiful Hair And Big Swords Of Some New Final Fantasy Figures
Glimpsed by Stephen T at the Toy Fair in New York over the weekend, Square Enix’s Play Arts line is about to include three more Final Fantasy figures, all of them crowd favourites. Selling for around USD$50, and going on sale in Japan in June, the three figures are all in their Dissidia forms, being…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 16, 2011
Luke Plunkett
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