Look, don’t ask me how, but I’ve found the script for today’s Xbox reveal. It’s fine if you don’t believe me, all I ask is that you keep an open mind and a firm grip on your corpora cavernosum because by the time we’re done here they’re going to be smeared across your face and chest, such is the ballistic explosivity of the news eggs I’m about to lay. Some of what was rumoured was true, lots of what was rumoured wasn’t, but all of it is exciting as heckins, with ramifications that will undoubtedly transform PC gaming forever. Oh god oh god, here it is.
While PC gaming has never been healthier, PC ownership is in a weird place right now. Shipments to retailers declined at their fastest rate ever in the first three months of this year. And according to market research types DisplayBank, one in ten laptops shipped during the same period had touchscreens.
Every family has a relation with a memory problem - one of the favourite tales in my own is that of the great-aunt or gruncle who attended to the fire with a full bladder and found themselves shovelling coal into the toilet bowl, ho ho - but only in the PCGamesN family of N games are they rewound to a earlier version as a consequence. That’s what’s happened to Dota 2 this morning after its new patch introduced a memory issue for players running the game on 32-bit Windows.
DICE have taken to the rooftops to tell all and sundry that Battlefield 4 will be the subject of a “big announcement” in the very near future. In probably not unrelated news, Microsoft unveil their new plastic PC before the eyes of the world later today.
If you’re both one who braves the unpredictable waves of Macintosh gaming and the proud owner of an early Oculus Rift headset - which, now I write it, doesn’t sound like an entirely unfeasible match - then this one’s for you. It’s started.
Papa John’s are offering eSports fans 50% off if they order using the promo code “PIZZAGG”, and major eSports organizations like Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid, Onemoregame.tv, and ROOT Gaming are all participating in the chain’s eSports initiative. It’s clearly a significant moment for eSports, since Papa John’s is a massive pizza chain and exactly the kind of mainstream brand that many eSports stakeholders want to attract. Over on TeamLiquid, a statement from EG, Liquid, and ROOT suggests, “If you feel like eating a pizza (or two or three or ten) this week, please consider using Papa John’s and help us show them what we can do!”
The reaction from other members of the eSports community, however, has not been quite as universally enthusiastic. What’s interesting is that the objections aren’t about “selling out” or the highly debatable quality of Papa John’s pizza, but about values. It’s a debate that may have ramifications for how eSports culture differs from that of traditional mass-entertainment.
Deus Ex Machina was something of a gaming experiment when it came out in 1984. A ZX Spectrum game, it also shipped with a tape heavy rock soundtrack that you played on a stereo to get the full experience. That full experience also contained narration by Christopher Lee and the voice work of Ian Dury. Mel Croucher and his development studio Automata Source are reimagining the game and looking for funds on Kickstarter. Work has already been underway for a couple of years, and you can see the utterly bizarre results in their video.
Mech-lovin’ developer Adhesive Games has published a new trailer showing off their new map Front Line. As ever, it’s a jaw-droppingly stunning design, with beautiful skies and detailed metal sheeting. A symmetrical map design, Adhesive promises a multitude of opportunities to surprise other players.
Sam Fisher seems to be getting younger in every installment of the Splinter Cell games. Once a gruff dad-like agent, he was looking like he could easily be his daughter’s school pal by Conviction (provided he took extra care shaving). He’s looking more limber than ever in Blacklist, and thanks to his new, non-Michael Ironside voice actor, he even sounds it. How else do you convey such youth though? Banter, of course. All the kids are at it these days. It’s the perfect excuse to get some co-op action in there, and the latest trailer is full of it.
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The year was 1997. 3D Realms released Shadow Warrior, a game they claimed was a parody of bad kung-fu films, whilst everyone else blasted it for being a bag of racial stereotypes. The year is now 2013, and the teaser trailer for the reboot of Shadow Warrior has hit the net. How far has this oriental shooter come? It’s hard to judge yet, but the evidence lies waiting for you in the video.
A quick Bat-recap: Batman Arkham Origins is the prequel to Arkhamses Asylum and City, but no origin story - rather, say developers WB Montreal, it’s about the beginnings of the caped crusader’s relationship with certain key friends and foes.
Developers who, you ask? Good question. Warner Brothers Montreal are a new outfit set up to relinquish control of the series from Rocksteady. But while they don’t have that Kentish Town developers’ credibility, they do have their modified Unreal engine, as well as the lead designer of Prototype.
Okay, I think they’re ready for us now. Are you ready?
This weekend’s Robotic Boogaloo was a bit special - a Valve-backed update conceived, organised and designed in its entirety by the most creative elements of the TF2 community. For the average player, however, starved of meaningful updates for months, it prompted a few questions. Most pertinently: “This is all just hats. WHY IS IT ALL HATS?”
The original Nuketown was one of Black Ops’ best-loved maps, but its fans haven’t been particularly well-served by Treyarch since. Its Black Ops 2 successor, Nuketown 2025, was first available only as a pre-order bonus - and for a short while afterwards, not at all. Thankfully, some enterprising souls in Illinois have built a version of the map which should prove a little tougher to remove from rotation.
Obsidian have spent a decade developing defiantly single player RPGs. Sometimes they’ve let you bring a friend along, sure, but only on the condition that they put their bunny-hopping and /dancing antics behind them to focus on the plot-at-hand. All the more surprising, then, to learn that they’re “involved” in the successor to Allods Online.
German eSports mammoths Mousesports secured their place in the final of Valve’s annual Dota tournament in a 3-1 victory over dd.Dota last night. They’ll have a shot at The International 3’s prize pool, now the largest ever for a single event.
WoW’s latest update isn’t so much well-rounded as rotund, bulging with new, tangible additions to the game. If PvP is your poison, you’ll be pleased to hear that 5.3 heralds the arrival of a new Battleground in Deepwind Gorge, as well as a new arena in The Tiger’s Peak. If not, you’ve four new scenarios to choose from, all available at the new Heroic difficulty - though you’ll need a pre-made group to weather those particularly vicious storms.
Oh my friends, I’ve just had a terrible fright. There I was, sat diligently at my desk, when I spotted a long-missing box on my games shelf - that of the original Call of Duty. No sooner had I noted the ectoplasm betwixt its pages than that deathly spook plunged straight into my chest, leaving me wracked with the existential cold Hollywood tells us to feel when a ghost goes through us.
All in all, a rubbish way to start the day. But I did get six images from the development of Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Ghosts for my trouble. Wanna see?
This edition of The Weekly Playlist is a special issue, rather than bring you a smorgasboard of gaming stories, Rob and Jeremy argue the case for which of them is playing Dishonored "right". Should Dunwall be delivered from its corrupt overlords by way of the knife or the sleeping dart? Is Rob's violence playing into the hands of those being disposed of? Or, is Jeremy's nonlethality simply an exercise in moral self-deception?
Our Spotlight units plug content our journalists have made, that our advertisers want to promote. Sometimes the promotion is paid for, but the content they go to is always independent with no client oversight or approval.
Back in February Valve let go as many as 25 of their staff, notably hardware engineer Jeri Ellsworth and Linux programmer Rick Johnson. The pair were developing a pair of augmented reality glasses, a project quite unlike Google Glass and the Oculus Rift.
Since leaving the company they’ve taken the technology with them and plan on releasing it independently, with Valve's blessing.
