Beyond Civilization: Discovering Firaxis
By Adam Smith on July 23rd, 2014 at 9:00 pm.
While visiting Firaxis to play Civilization: Beyond Earth, I spent a couple of hours talking to members of the team and learning how the company works. As the current creators and curators of two of my favourite series of games, Firaxis rank among the most interesting studios in existence, and their history is also a large part of the history of PC strategy gaming. With one eye on the future and the other on the past, here are extended thougts on the utilitarian nature of Civilization, the role of Sid Meier and much much more.
Dramagame Technology: Velvet Sundown
By Adam Smith on July 24th, 2014 at 8:00 am.
As soon as I read the press release, it was inevitable that I would be spending time inside Velvet Sundown‘s ‘roleplaying game’/'social experiment’. It is the first in the ‘brand new genre of Dramagame‘ and I want to be one of the first actors in that genre. Sadly, I’m far too busy to dive in right now but the game is available, for free, on Steam. Set on board a luxury yacht, it’s a roleplaying game in all of the ways that The Crew isn’t. No action sequences, no power-ups, no collectibles – just a group of players attempting to perform the roles they are assigned. Like Spy Party, except up close and personal, and therefore open to all manner of immersion-shattering behaviour.
Conspiracies Galore: Episodic RPG Majestic Nights
By Alice O'Connor on July 24th, 2014 at 9:00 am.
Conspiracy theories are fanfic for reality, aren’t they? That particular sort which knows how stories should really have gone. They pack history with exciting twists and turns, jazzing up origin stories with alien intervention, adding excitement and danger to even aeroplane vapour trails, splashing in sexy murders all over the place, and revealing that beloved characters are actually lizard people.
They are all, of course, entirely true. Majestic Nights knows this too. It’s a period RPG set during the ’80s, with two playable characters tangled up in the deepest, darkest conspiracies. Though I suspect it’ll ‘conveniently’ leave out the lizard people.
Sounds Familiar: Doom 2 In Name Only
By Alice O'Connor on July 24th, 2014 at 10:00 am.
“Imagine a world where Doom II was never released, and the levels never saw the light of day. The only bit of information that ever saw the light of day were the titles of the 32 maps, cryptic as can be. What kind of map would ‘The Crusher’ be, or ‘O of Destruction,’ who knows?”
That beautiful thought from Liz Ryerson (who Cara recently embedded with) sparked Doom 2 In Name Only, a community project where members of the Doomworld forums reimagined Doom II’s campaign based purely on its level names. D2INO was released in June, 666 days after starting. It’s worth waiting for a number like that to roll around when dabbling in Doom (‘cos Satans etc).
GOG Now Supports Linux
By Alice O'Connor on July 24th, 2014 at 1:00 pm.
“The year of the Linux desktop” is a phrase people have tossed around with increasing irony since the nineties, but it was never going to arrive explosively. Linux has slowly grown and spread into homes through friendly distributions like Ubuntu and Mint, installed as easy and safer alternatives to Windows or to freshen up old duffers (my netbook is Minty fresh now). Games have followed.
Steam and Humble Bundles have helped urge devs to make Linux versions, and now GOG are in on it. The virtuous virtual vendor of vintage (and virgin) video games launched Linux support today, starting with 50-odd games new and old. It’s the first official Linux store release for some. And loads of them are on sale too.
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