Rage hidden room contains Wolfenstein 3D easter egg
A hidden corner of Rage’s world has been turned into an 8-bit prison vault. No, it’s not an example of worsening texture problems, it’s a lighthearted reference to the id classic, Wolfenstein 3D. Within the vault lies the Wolf Trophy, which is described as being “of German craftmanship.” Sadly, no 8-bit Nazis appear to stop you from taking it. An impromptu boss fight with Mecha-Hitler would have been pleasantly surreal. Instead we’ll have to settle for the sight of a gleaming 8-bit doorway in a world of post-apocalyptic mega textures. If you’re playing Rage, you’ll find it next to the TV in the Ghost hideout.
Batman: Arkham City trailer shows Robin in action
For now, the Boy Wonder is only available as a pre-order bonus in Batman: Arkham City, though these things often end up being released as post-launch DLC in the long run. He looks … kinda great. The green shorts are out, a dark cowl is in. Have they really done it? Have they managed to make Robin cool?
He’s playable in two challenge maps. The video above mentions that you can grab the deal from Gamestop. That’s for US customers. UK purchasers can get a similar bundle from Game and Gamestation. Arkham City is out in just a couple of weeks, on October 18 in the US, and October 21 in Europe.
CCP CEO apologizes to EVE Online players, admits to losing sight of “simple things”
EVE is a special sort of MMO. Its population doesn’t come to close to matching, say, World of Warcraft’s numbers, but it’s unbelievably tightly knit. Hell, it even has its own player-elected go-between group called the Council of Stellar Management. And those folks were elected for a reason. They’re not just silent yes men. When they’re pissed, they pipe up. Fortunately, it seems that CCP has finally listened.
Duke Nukem Forever DLC finally launching next week
Jeez, took long enough, right? I mean, it’s been, like, two whole months since Duke Nukem Forever’s Parody Pack was announced. Two! You’d think these people could learn to be a bit more timely.
Regardless, Duke’s making his first assuredly offensive leap into the brave new world of DLC on October 11, according to VG247. It’s completely free to First Access Club members, but everyone else will have to pony up a fairly steep $9.99. Four maps and weapons – no matter how sort of timely their knock against Call of Duty may be – don’t exactly cause my piggybank to explode with glee. Or explode at all, for that matter.
Supergiant’s Greg Kasavin explains the process behind Bastion’s narration
No single element of Bastion has received as much attention and praise as the narrator, and justly so. The context-sensitive narrator, voiced by Logan Cunningham, made Bastion a richer and more personalized experience. But as Bastion’s creative director and writer, Greg Kasavin, explained to RPS, the narrator emerged as the solution to a problem: how could Bastion give players a thought-provoking, memorable narrative experience without disrupting the action?
“We wanted to have something that had narrative depth to it, something that stuck with players after they stopped playing,” Kasavin said. “It had to be more than the moment-to-moment play experience, and feel deeper than that. But then we didn’t want to interrupt the player with conventional story-telling – we didn’t want the player to have to stop and pick from a series of list options, or anything like that. That can be very jarring, or it can be done really well, such as in The Witcher 2. We knew we had to do it differently, and the narration allowed it to be key for us, because it kept with the player’s own pace, and never pulled them out of the flow of the game.”
Rage getting kinder with new drivers
New AMD drivers should solves the worst problems that made the game effectively unplayable for PC gamers running AMD’s family of graphics cards. “Playable” is faint praise for a PC release, but it’s a big improvement from where Rage was yesterday. We tested the new drivers and saw a big improvement.
AMD card owners who have had trouble with Rage should get the latest drivers right away. They can install it following these steps.
PC Gamer Digital Episode 2 now available!
Last week we announced the landmark launch of PC Gamer Digital, and today we’re excited to let you know that Episode 2 is now available on Steam – you don’t want to miss it! In the second episode of PC Gamer Digital, you’ll climb into the ethereal world of BioShock Infinite for a self-guided, 360-degree tour of Columbia, go behind the scenes of upcoming free-to-play shooter Tribes: Ascend, discover the cerebral tactics of Frozen Synapse, and much more!
Purchasing PC Gamer Digital Episode 2 also scores you the Killer Exclusive hat in Team Fortress 2. (It’s extremely sexy!)
SpaceChem joins the Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle
The Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle already received a surprise bonus with point-and-click adventure Trauma, and now indie puzzle game SpaceChem has further sweetened the pot. In case you are not going through enough mental contortions from trying to plot your next move in Frozen Synapse, you can take a break by trying to solve problems with SpaceChem’s molecular machines.
You can buy the bundle here. If you already have it, you will find that SpaceChem has been added to your account. Buyers who pay more than the average also receive Trine, the Shadowgrounds games, the prototype for Jack Claw, and a preorder for Splot. One week remains for this sale, which benefits the Electronic Frontiers Foundation and Child’s Play.
If Sony’s “Michael” ad was about a PC gamer
Sony’s new PlayStation ad – “Michael” – shows live-action versions of game characters sharing stories about the things they’ve done. If you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil more than that – it’s embedded above.
The costumes are impressive, but I can’t help feeling this isn’t how the characters I play in PC games would talk about me – or most PC gamers, for that matter. Saving the world, facing the gods, finding the good in a conflicted hero – we’ll get to it, but we’ve usually got something else we want to try first. I don’t have Sony’s voice-acting budget, so I’ve written the PC gaming version of their ad as a screenplay.
And in other PC gaming news…
A new Starcraft 2 unit you say? What do we think readers? What could it be? There’s speculation in the other post, but it’s all boringly sensible. Here are my ideas:
- An armoured ET?
- A mechanised knight with a shield?
- A marauder wearing a hat?
- Wall-E XTREME!!!?
- A pretty butterfly?
- A protoss with a funny head?
- A zergling hiding behind some rocks?
Check inside for a collection of mysteriously silhouetted PC gaming news.
Todd Howard on chickens reporting crimes in Skyrim
Radiant Story is Skyrim’s unique storytelling feature that acts as a narrator for the player. In practice, it’ll look at the history of your playthrough and cater upcoming quests to your character. It might, for example, add context by switching out a kidnapped character for an NPC you’ve previously met.
Executive Producer at Bethesda, Todd Howard, let Tom into a secret while they discussed the feature a few weeks ago. Radiant Story was creating crime-conscious chickens.
Firefall’s Mark Kern talks MMO evolution and the “Circle of Suck”
I got to talk to Mark Kern a few weeks ago. He’s previously worked on Starcraft, Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3. But Mark also knows his MMOs. He was team leader on World of Warcraft and he’s currently CEO of Red 5 Studios – the team behind MMO FPS Firefall.
Mark reckons massively multiplayer games need to evolve dramatically if they’re to be successful. “We’ve got to break out of the mould.” said the CEO. “If I see another action MMO combat game with exclamation points over quest givers, I’m going to commit seppuku! We’re pouring so much money down a very stale formula. It’s an illusion to say that “Oh, that’s safety. It used to be safety but it’s not anymore.”
Anno 2070 trailer is gorgeous, features WAR
The new Anno 2070 trailer above drew a small crowd in the office. Owen’s the only one who’s seen it in action, and we demanded that he tell us whether the city building sim looks that good in real life. “Yes!” he said. “It even looks just as good under that ocean!” NO IT DOESN’T, we asserted unfairly. “It does!” said Owen. “It does!”
According to the trailer, it doesn’t just sit there looking lovely. It has war, too. We’re growing steadily more interested in Anno 2070, and look forward to sucking up all of Earth’s resources when it’s released in November.
Proun pirated by 40% of players. Pay What You Want model “did pretty badly,” says creator
Proun is a gorgeous indie game that has you racing along a rail through abstract worlds. It was released back in June under a pay what you want model. Back then, Proun’s creator Joost van Dongen promised to release the sales data to let everyone know how the payment system worked for him. Now Gamasutra report on a huge blog post van Dongen has published, revealing the exact sales figures for Proun. His verdict? “Proun is a big success! Pay What You Want is not!”
Team Fortress 2 video montage shows August’s top ten kills
Team Fortress 2 players, get ready to experience a combination of awe, jealousy and then more awe with Community Fortress collection of the top ten TF2 kills from tournaments around the world in August, as highlighted by the Team Fortress 2 blog. Predictably, many of them show sickeningly skilled Demomen juggling enemies with perfectly timed sticky explosions, but there are a few Heavy and Medic kills, and an unbelievable shot from a Soldier at number six, just under two minutes in. Spectacular stuff. Which one’s your favourite?
