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What the New Counter-Strike Is and Isn’t, According to Valve
The next Counter-Strike, the one coming out early next year called Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, won’t be called Counter-Strike 2, because that game would be “something different”, two of Valve’s top people on the new game recently told Kotaku “A lot of Counter-Strike: GO is taking Counter-Strike: Source and Counter-Strike 1.6 and melding it into a…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 12, 2011 -
‘Blizzard Music’ is Your Nostalgia Time-Waster of the Day
Do you love Blizzard games? Any of them? The new Blizzard Music site, launched today, lets you listen to snippets of every song on the official soundtracks for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, StarCraft II, Diablo II and so much more. And then, after listening to the clips, you can click through and buy them on…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 12, 2011 -
If You Have No Willing Friends, This is How the New Ratchet & Clank Will Play
Ideally, you’ll play next month’s PlayStation 3 exclusive Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One with three other people, online or offline. That’s what it was made for. But in case you can’t—in case you refuse—you can solo it. This new trailer shows what that looks like. As you play solo, controlling Ratchet, Clank, Dr. Nefarious…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 12, 2011 -
Flying, Invisibility Removed from Red Dead Redemption
Cowboys won’t be able to turn invisible, fly or otherwise emulate the Fantastic Four, thanks to a new automatic patch just released for Rockstar’s hit Western Red Dead Redemption. Details on the anti-cheating changes and bug fixes at Rockstar’s site
By Stephen Totilo Published September 12, 2011 -
Chasing Aurora Can be Your Origami Bird-Racing Game
Confession: I was faking comprehension of Chasing Aurora when I saw it at the Penny Arcade Expo. I don’t blame Clements Scot, the developer who talked me through the video demonstration you can see here. I blame my own state of mind, frazzled as I was last Friday by some hurricane-related travel upheaval. Flight cancellation…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 6, 2011 -
One of the Main Brains Behind Portal Explains Her New Idea
This is Quantum Conundrum, the first-person puzzle game coming out early next year from a development team led by Kim Swift. She’s someone who has earned my gaming trust, since she was a senior member of the team that made Narbacular Drop and the more famous game it was turned into, Portal Swift no longer…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 2, 2011 -
The War of the Worlds Video Game Keeps Reminding People of Out of this World
I heard at E3 that the new downloadable War of the Worlds game might remind people of the lovely, spooky black-and-white sidescroller Limbo. But when I saw the downloadable game at the Xbox 360 booth at the Penny Arcade Expo, I and two other passersby all made a different comparison: Out of this World This…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 2, 2011 -
The Jamestown Video Game Set on Mars Seems Historically Inaccurate
They grew corn and tobacco in colonial Jamestown on Mars back in the 1600s. Sir Walter Raleigh took up arms, via a spaceship, to fight the Spanish-Martian alliance. I don’t think any of this is true, but this was history as described to me by Tim Ambrogi, one of the developers of the four-player shoot-em-up…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 1, 2011 -
The Splatters is About the Cheerful Suicide of Blobs (But You May Have Known That Already)
Before I saw The Splatters this month at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, our own Brian Crecente saw the game, then called Confetti Carnival, at the DICE convention in Las Vegas back in February. We don’t quite have the situation here as described in the great Jorge Luis Borges story about the man he…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 1, 2011 -
Monaco, the Multiplayer Heist Video Game We Need, Looks Prettier Than Ever
With so few great heist video games out there, the wait for Monaco has seemed especially long. A couple of years in the making and promised by creator Andy Schatz only for some time in 2012, Monaco is at least a consistent presence at shows like this past weekend’s Penny Arcade Expo. That’s where I…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 1, 2011 -
The Paperboy is now a ‘Smut Peddler’ in Retro City Rampage, Coming Soon for People With Memories
Retro City Rampage, the top-down Grand Theft Auto-looking game that pays homage to old-school video games when it’s not having some fun at their expense, is nearly done. At last. RCR‘s lead creator, Brian Provinciano, showed me a new bit of the game this past weekend at the Penny Arcade Expo. He highlighted the in-game…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 1, 2011 -
Five More Things I’ve Learned about Skyrim, About Murder, Encumberance and other Stuff
Fifteen minutes of play time with the fifth Elder Scrolls game isn’t enough. Skyrim is massive. A quarter of an hour in it illuminates the game’s world about as well as stepping just outside of an airport terminal explains a new city. But, if you’ve got the man who oversaw construction of the whole megalopolis…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 1, 2011 -
Tetris Plus Tower Defense Yet Again, But Better This Time.
In game designer Eitan Glinert’s mind peanut butter must be tower defense and jelly must be Tetris, because for the second game in a row, the young creator has smushed the two great gaming styles together. He’s just done it radically different this time, as if switching from making PB&J sandwiches to—I don’t know—PB&J tacos.…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 31, 2011 -
The Joe Danger Sequel Is a Movie Game that’s Not Based on a Movie
Back when I thought my time at the Penny Arcade Expo was going to be shortened due to a hurricane, I rushed to the area of the show where Hello Games was showing Joe Danger: The Movie I’d heard the game was looking great. It was, and I shot this video to prove it. We’re…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 31, 2011 -
Spoiler: This Game Begins at the End and is Played in Reverse. With a Guitar.
Matt Gilgenbach is the kind of forward thinker who makes a video game to propose to his girlfriend, fakes his way onto an MTV reality show (or so he told me), and creates a video game like Retro/Grade that is played entirely in reverse. Gilgenbach’s game has come a long way since I tried it…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 31, 2011 -
A Guide to the Likely Hits and Probable Stinkers of DC Comics’ 52 New Super-Hero Comics
DC Comics, the outfit that puts out Superman, Batman and so many other super-hero comics is re-starting its line today. They’re not exactly calling it a re-boot, but when you cancel almost all of your super-hero comics and start rolling out 52 new series over the course of a month, you might as well call…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 31, 2011 -
I Found a Video Game that Combines Sonic with Super Mario Galaxy (with Guns)
Armillo was one of the games I stopped to see at the Penny Arcade Expo just to be polite. I’d never heard of the studio behind the game, Fuzzy Wuzzy Games. I wasn’t in the mood for a cute, colorful platformer. But…they roped me in. The guy handing out promo postcards for the game did…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 31, 2011 -
An Exclusive Tour of Valve Software, the Place Where Portal, Half-Life, and Team Fortress Come to Life
Valve Software’s Chet Faliszek recently gave me a tour of his company’s Belleveue headquarters, a final act of kindness during a visit in which Chet also let me play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and eat catered tacos. We went for a playfully confrontational mood for our tour, as we passed by hallway displays for Portal 2,…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 31, 2011 -
New Trials Game Seems Like Standard Trials, Until the UFO Part
The sequel to the popular Xbox Live Arcade game Trials HD isn’t just about controlling motorbikes through difficult, side-scrolling stunt courses. That was the last game (and the one before that). The new one, I found out, as I was wrapping up my time at the Penny Arcade Expo, lets you control a flying saucer.…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 30, 2011 -
Closure is a Light and Darkness Game for PlayStation 3 Owners to Brag About
Over the last couple of years, the indie game Closure has generated some buzz for its simple, smart design. This is a game about light and darkness. In the game’s black and white world, what is illuminated has substance, what is in darkness is intangible. You can move the source of light, carrying it away…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 30, 2011
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