Wrestlevania

I liked that the game automatically looped us back into the very first mission but on the next difficulty setting up. Could imagine going for a per-class run through the whole thing with a couple of friends--it's very moorish, once the better weaponry begins to unlock.

Some very nice eye candy in there, particularly the heat scoring from laser fire. Glad the Big Stampy Shooty Things genre is back in full swing, finally.

Crap, I'd completely lost track of when this was coming out. I'll have to wait a while now, as Real Life Stuff needs paying for.

You made me do a snort.

...Steam Engine? I agree, a $1,250 "console" makes no sense at all. Given the base X51 system sounds pretty meagre (in terms of hardware), it's still the better part of $700 even for that. I think the Alienware/X51 connection is a red herring. I also think a tiered subscription plan, based around Valve's own streaming service (a bit like OnLive), does in fact make sense. That would have Valve beating Sony and Microsoft to market with cloud-based gaming. And it would answer the threat OnLive poses to Valve - and every other games platform - at least over the short-term. And as for manufacturers not getting a cut: have you seen the profitability of Android? You (Google/Valve) define* the platform and let someone else worry about assembling and packaging the hardware. It's a proven model to my mind and should generate a lot of sales for manufacturing partners who sign up. Going back to the proposed machine spec; if you discount bleeding edge hardware and instead go for something now considered mid-range, you're still going to get an excellent visual and audio experience without paying a fortune. I paid £300 for some new, then-middleweight internals for my PC about 6 months ago, and I've yet to see it slowdown on anything. * It's probably fairer to say that whatever Valve are planning, it would be more like Microsoft's approach to Windows Phone 7 platform manufacturer licencing, i.e. tightly defined, beefy minimum hardware specifications that manufacturers must adhere to if they want to partner up.

Oh look, Jake - Boston Dynamics made a new one! d2D71CveQwo That's much more likely to catch you now!

I think we're overcomplicating things.

Wrestle's Guide to Successful Marketing Sell lots Retire In all seriousness, this sounds quite exciting and I hope you have a lot of success with it. If I can somehow help, by using my latent ability to press buttons and have websites come out, don't hesitate to ask!

I'M SORRY THERE ISN'T ENOUGH GAME TO GO AROUND. But if next week's likely your last week, then I'll make sure you're on mah team. Better now? Can we all get up off the floor and go for insect-flavoured ice cream now?

Another solid run with StaticKitten and Denial this evening. Hugely enjoying this! I've just broken into tier 3 with my Battle (Heavy) armour and am having an absolute blast with a booming incendiary shotgun and some very fast-firing missiles.

Didn't a hapless chair get destroyed by a Senior Thumb at some point also..? We need complete and accurate documentation of all Thumb wanton destruction.

Whole campaign is co-op from the very beginning. The only difference will be that those who've played for a little longer will have unlocked a couple of extra guns. But that's it. I've tried both, but my reactions seems to be a little bit quicker with the pad. It's very responsive either control method though, so personal preference really.

At least me, probably Denial, and almost certainly StaticKitten. We shall run a couple of games in parallel! Dual-swarming!

An excellenty enjoyable read, Rodi! I seem to recall the Extremo shoes laying part-waste to another Thumb's flat at some point...

I’m most impressed by how much “update” content we’re getting—cheers guys! Very pleased I chipped in already. Anything else is details for me.

Holy Android Jebus! Also happy birthday the death of CFCs.

I've been collecting some favourite tracks for over a year now on my dedicated electronic music blog, which I keep with a couple of friends (...though it's pretty much all me). Check that shiz out.

Many happy returns, Not-Congrats Nick.

New trailer's out, showing more gameplay and how their HUD design is evolving: XFbTYybOHtM Looks like it's really planting itself firmly in the faster, more gladiatorial side of mech games.

You can read the full in-depth Seamless Entertainment interview – some of whom worked on FreeSpace 2 and Tachyon: The Fringe – over on The Verge. Being a huge fan of TIE Fighter and the original FreeSpace, I'm cautiously optimistic about how this might play. It's been designed primarily to work with a gamepad, but it also includes keyboard and mouse aspects to the controls as well (if you want to). Sure, I'm nostalgic for my old Microsoft Sidewinder joystick, but then I'm nostalgic for actually having a decent amount of time to sink into games. () Anyway, there's a decent-looking SOL: Exodus demo on Steam, and the full game's £6.99/$9.99 if you wanted to just pile on in. I'm downloading the demo now...

They've got the budget, why not go the whole hog..?

The new Burial LP is three thick slices of pure amazing. Here's the middle one: p-X4qxr6Z6s Makes me want to start collecting vinyl. Probably makes you want to punch a baby.

Walking Around Doing Nothing is the new Running Around Killing Stuff. I approve!

I was so gutted to miss that, not least because Saltsman's CAPSULE sounds fucking awesome. Also: McCast Also also: Macaques ...aaanyway.

I've almost finished the game, having picked it up for cheap before Christmas. Personally, I love the wildly veering plot line and locations; war factory one minute, crash landing in a forest the next, then onto the zero-gravity innards of a massive power generator - love it. The ridiculous characterisations have been excellent, too. There's a tongue firmly planted in cheek in almost every bit of dialogue, although I do agree that the couple of twists near the end leant too far towards trying to be meaningful for a change. It's like the writers wrapped things up, then thought, "actually this is all about genocide and super powers - we should probably include something 'significant' before the end." Anyway, I've really enjoyed the chunky, tactile mechanics throughout, and the graphical style and flourishes are brilliant. So many times during the game, I've stopped and thought, "this is exactly how I thought games would be in The Future!" back when I was a kid playing 16-bit stuff, which really made me smile. (I didn't find the upgrade system to be particularly irritating either, incidentally, though needing to have your gun fully loaded before you can upgrade it does seem stupid.) The only problem I have with the game is that I'm now stuck (I think) right at the very end, fighting those two (why suddenly two?!) flying dudes. I'm able to whittle them down to half energy no problem, and have fun doing it. But then it flips into a split-second-perfect QTE and I always fuck it up! I just don't have the timing or reactions for this sort of stuff, and it's really frustrating to be so close and yet blocked every time by something so arbitrary. I had no real trouble with the earlier QTEs throughout, but this one seems extra-pedantic.