Though at this point Tap – a multi-national organization – has fewer active American writers than it does those from far-flung realms, we’d nonetheless like to take a moment and wish all our readers a very happy Thanksgiving Thursday. For the majority of the world, it is just a normal day. But it’s the day Americans congregate with relatives they largely despise, consume poorly-prepared turkey with a slurry of bread and spices shoved up its …
Last week Joel Goodwin (a.k.a. Harbour Master of Electron Dance) and I got together to have a chat about Puppy Games’ upcoming Revenge of the Titans. Harbour Master, being the big softy he is, came away with a different take on the game to me so it’s well worth a read if you weren’t entirely convinced by my glowing first impressions. The discussion can be read here but while you’re in the vicinity you really …
Things have been awfully quiet around here lately; so quiet in fact that if you listen carefully you can hear the muffled staff beatings being issued by our Overlord Steerpike deep within the bowels of the Tap-Repeatedly silo. It’s only right that I distract you from their disparaging (and hopefully short lived) whimperings with the sweet, sweet sound of music…
Whatever it is, it’s currently packaged and sat in boxes at retailers all around the world, waiting for next Wednesday to arrive. More importantly, it’s finally finished! People are even playing it! It’s no longer just vaporware! Yep, Gran Turismo 5 is almost here. The 5 year wait threatened to reach comedy levels at numerous points in a development cycle that more people doubted the longer it went on, but with less than a week …
Bad news trickling in from the vine indicates that Emergent Game Technologies, creators of the popular middleware GameBryo engine, are being forced by their investors to sell the technology along with most or all other assets and IP.
I’ve always been a turtler. All that progress, pushing forward, actually doing stuff — it’s not for me. I’d rather just sit in my hardy shell, pipe and newspaper in hand, and hatch a plan; a plan to build more walls, a plan to build more towers, a plan to make my shell hardier. Yes, I’m a real-time strategy coward.
A while ago a friend crashed on my sofa after a night of drinking and Mount & Blade. I woke up the next morning, puttered into the kitchen, and put the coffee on. Then I glanced up at my blinds, drawn against the morning, and saw a strange shape atop one. It was brown, and looked like… well, not like anything I could quite make out. I just knew it wasn’t supposed to be there.
There’s, uh… There’s gonna be a STALKER TV show.
Today, I did something I didn’t think I would end up doing this year. Like millions of other gamers around the world, I went into a shop and bought Call of Duty: Black Ops. Why is this strange? Well, it isn’t really, but up until today I’d managed to suppress any desire whatsoever to play Activision’s latest blockbuster. Not for any particular reason. Don’t get me wrong, there are countless reasons why any one person would wish …
This meme has been finding its way around the internet of late: where is the next Elder Scrolls game? Oblivion arrived in March of 2006, about four years after Morrowind, its immediate predecessor. Based on that admittedly limited trend, we should have at least heard an announcement by now, right? Well, Fallout 3 surely intervened, as did Bethsoft’s parent company ZeniMax buying id Software. That alone means that Bethesda’s long and chummy relationship with Emergent …
Steerpike is many things, my friends: roguishly handsome, devilishly charming, effortlessly-groomed, witty. One thing he is not is well-disciplined. So though I did stick to my guns and refuse to pre-order Fate of the World on Halloween, it is me you’re dealing with… I bought it a few days later. Now, I still have an issue with this game costing £19.99 for the full version (that’s about $40-$50, depending on the exchange rate). Vic Davis …
If there’s a scenario that defines the phrase “Egg on Your Face,” the opening days sales totals for the much celebrated Rock Band 3 are probably it. Having told Eurogamer “It’s possible that sales of other games in the category are down because people are waiting to spend their money on Rock Band 3” in an interview last week, project director Daniel Sussman may be feeling a little red faced this evening. In case you’re …
Two things are happening in the United States tomorrow, both of sufficient gravity that watchers from beyond our borders should be at least somewhat interested. First, the mid-term election is going to go badly for the Democrats, which is unfortunate because Democrats are awesome. Second, oral arguments begin in Schwarzenegger vs. the Entertainment Merchants Association at the United States Supreme Court. Up for debate is whether it’s a violation of the First Amendment for a …