Hey everyone! Our buddy Armand K, Bits ‘n’ Bytes Gaming editor lowly writer and lucky dog, somehow found the time to attend IndieCade – the international festival of independent games, now in its fourth year – down in Culver City. He must have had a lot of caffeine in him, because somehow the dude managed to reach every far-flung corner of the event. Don’t miss his exhaustive, three-part coverage of everything indie over at BnB. …
About a month ago just before the run up to the Eurogamer expo 2011 (which Mat C and myself covered here), Joel Goodwin, a.k.a. Harbour Master of Electron Dance, posted up a discussion the two of us had about our experience with the little miracle that is the Portal 2 co-op campaign entitled Men of Science. Joel without me realising also recorded some of our antics and spliced them together to form a very special …
I almost let the most recent Humble Bundle pass me by. I typically snap up the bundles immediately, but the centerpiece this time is Frozen Synapse, a tactical game, and I’ve never been a big player of tactical games, even of the indie variety. However, I finally took the plunge the day I saw they added Krystian Majewski’s Trauma to the bundle. As an omnivorous reader of many game development blogs, I’d been following the evolution of the …
Over the course of this weekend, it’s almost seemed as though I’ve spent as much time tweaking RAGE as I have actually playing RAGE. If you’ve been following the launch of the PC version, you’ll know that it’s just that sort of game. The beauty of PC gaming however is that as much as these inconveniences can frustrate and annoy, the rewards are often so great for those who invest the time to fix their own experience. …
I’ve spoken to ArenaNet’s lead writer, Bobby Stein before, but after playing Guild Wars 2 at the Eurogamer Expo last month he was kind enough to get in touch to see how I got on. Despite my initial reservations most were unfounded, but there were still just a couple of things I wasn’t entirely happy with. With interview questions in hand, here is how we got on…
The 2011 Interactive Fiction Competition, often referred to as IF Comp, is underway! If you’re totally unfamiliar with the concept, now I can introduce to you another one of my random gaming passions. The IF Comp judges modern-day text games. These are new games, written in a style frequently associated with old games, where one simply reads and types text to interact. The topics of the games range across the board from adventure, to horror, …
Review by Max “Xtal” Boone Ico (Remastered) Developer Team ICO / Bluepoint Games Publisher Sony Computer Entertainment Released September 27, 2011 Available for PS3 Time Played Completed Verdict: 5/5 Gold Star “My greatest fear of overturning one stone too many– disturbing the memories I had from my original experience– was something not to be realized. Within fifteen minutes I had accepted that I was once again in this beautiful space, and that it would not be for worse.”
Review by Zach “Ravious” Best The Binding of Isaac Developer Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl Publisher Edmund McMillen Released September 28, 2011 Available for PC Time Played Too Much Verdict: 5/5 Gold Star “The Binding of Isaac is fully saturated with gameplay. If players can get past the grotesque art style and abrasive story, both of which are pretty much irrelevant to the actual game, they will find dozens of hours of intense, fresh …
Where to begin with a first impressions of Star Wars: The Old Republic? There is a lot riding on it for Bioware, a developer synonymous with in depth RPGs and branching storylines. But combine their experience with the Star Wars licence and an MMOG and that is surely a recipe for success. Right?
I love that someone at Bethesda actually went to the trouble of finding a Nathaniel Hawthorne quote that used the word “rage” – “The fiend in his own shape is less hideous than when he rages in the breast of men.” Maybe I’m an asshole and id Software always intended that quote to drive their latest shooter; if so I apologize, but frankly I don’t think anyone at id is that well-read. In fact I …
And so it came to be. Three simple folk from the north of England descended on London’s Earls Court for the 2011 Eurogamer Expo, bright eyed and with high expectations of the gaming goodness on offer. For Lewis it was time to finally play his beloved Guild Wars 2. For Mat, a long awaited chance to try out the PlayStation Vita. For Gregg, the opportunity to chat to some of the industry’s brightest and most …
Mortals, The Alliance of Awesome rises again! Tap-Repeatedly. Bits ‘n’ Bytes Gaming. Electron Dance. This week, Joel “Harbour Master” Goodwin of Electron Dance wrangles much of the Alliance’s European Contingent outside the Eurogamer Expo. Semi-drunken interviews follow. Clicky the clicky to click another thing in which the podcast lurks. Highlights: thoughts on Guild Wars 2, on Rage, on Zelda: Skyward Sword, on Skyrim, on great-looking indies, and much more. All delivered to you from the …
Lead Guild Wars 2 content designer, Colin Johanson, managed to find a little spare time in his very busy Eurogamer Expo schedule to sit down and chat with me about all things Guild Wars 2. Here is how we got on…
Followers of the official Tap Repeatedly Twitter feed (accept no imitations) may have noticed a brief spat this afternoon regarding a well known mainstream blog perhaps saying more than it should have about the upcoming Batman: Arkham City. To cut a dull story short, it seems the more established gaming press have recently been treated to an extended hands on session with The Dark Knight’s latest outing, and with embargoes clearly lifting at around 3pm …
Review by Matt “Steerpike” Sakey Deus Ex: Human Revolution Developer Eidos Montreal Publisher Square Enix Released August 23, 2011 Available for PC (version reviewed), PS3, 360 Time Played Finished; 20-ish hours Verdict: 4/5 Thumb Up “Human Revolution is a thoughtful shooter, and a great example of that rare but wonderful breed. Other games could learn from this one.“