The quest for playable Dawn Of War III on a laptop

Something I enjoy doing, because my capacity to be tedious is matched only by my willingness to waste time on doomed endeavours, is trying to get games working on below-minimum spec PCs. Specifically, my aged Surface Pro 3 and its lousy integrated Intel graphics. Offline mode confusions aside, Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War 3 [official site] is exactly the kind of game I want to play on train rides, but officially it requires a 2GB dedicated graphics card. Unofficially, not so much. I’ve got it running, and made it look like an early 2000s RTS in the process.
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Could someone remake my favourite 90s games please?

With Full Throttle’s remastering out yesterday, it sets me off to thinking about what games I’d really like to see receive a similar treatment. It’s pretty easy to list off a bunch of other LucasArts adventures, because I would ADORE to see the wonderful The Dig in big pretties, or have Sam & Max in gorgeous clear stereo sound. (Imagine the songs without the hissing!) But that was a decade packed with games I loved that I know I’ll never play again, because I can’t be arsed fighting with DOSBox and ancient controls to play in a small corner of my screen. … [visit site to read more]

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Dirt 4 first footage – the arcade/sim sweet spot returns?

I’ve usually had a lot of time for Codies’ racing games, despite only being a car person to the extent that I can replace the fuse for the cigarette lighter if push comes to shove. They tend to comfortably straddle the line between the cheerful anti-physics of arcade driving games and the stony-faced realism of the sim crowd, which is the sweet spot where I can convince myself that ‘yes, I am incredible race driver man!’

Dirt 4 [official site] sounds as though it’s a game consciously in search of that sweet spot, with Codies having previously talked of fusing Dirt Rally’s “realism” with the rather poppier Dirt 2 and 3’s “fun”. In trailer terms, that means spraying mud, near-misses and possibly inappropriate use of the word “banging” for its soundtrack.
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H1Z1 King Of The Kill’s next update revamps hit detection, shotguns & inventory

The goal for the folk behind H1Z1’s battle royale spin-off King Of The Kill [official site] is a game that is “consistent, competitive, fair, and fun to watch”, but there a few bumps in the road to smooth out first. The next update’s having a crack at two of these: hit detection and the shotgun – the latter being a weapon that can kill in one shot in one situation, but takes two in an ostensibly similar one. Because all should be fair in war and more war, right? The patch is also reinstating skirmish mode to the game.
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Free Loaders: Phantom pain in the Ghost Hospital

Boo! Ha ha ha. I got you, you genuinely believed I was a ghost. You foolish person. I’m not a ghost, just a guy with some free games. But one of those free games has ghosts in it, which I understand give you the willies. Don’t worry about that, most of these ghosts are the Caspery kind. They’re there to make you feel better, after all, they work in a hospital.
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Wot I Don’t Think: Syberia 3

There is a group of people who are going to buy Syberia 3 [official site], and they are going to love Syberia 3, no matter what it’s like. If the released game were just a black screen from which only terrifying abuse were endlessly screamed, they would love it. If playing it caused them to develop sores all over their bodies, grow pustules that bubbled and burned, and wretched sickness and diarrhoea bugs afflict them and all their loved ones, they would refuse to hear a word said against it. If the game came to the homes of their families and stole all their valuables, and then sold those valuables and used the proceeds to take out an advertising campaign in which they stated, “Everyone who loves Syberia 3 is a paedophile”, these people would still love Syberia 3, and send threatening messages to anyone who disagreed.

How do I know this? Because, man, I was there for Syberia 2, man. … [visit site to read more]

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What are we all playing this May Day weekend?

Another long weekend is here! Monday is May Day, so we’ll all be off dancing around maypoles and getting ourselves burned in giant wicker men. I hope I get to go in the arm with the geese; those honky lads love a bit of a banter. Those of us who survive the festivities will return on Tuesday.

Until then, what are you playing this weekend? Here’s what we’re clicking on. … [visit site to read more]

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19 years later, Half-Life is uncensored in Germany

That’s a long time to wait to find out what really happens when you shoot a Barnacle creature. Germany has long been notorious for the strict limitations it placed on videogame content, and the noble Half-Life was a particularly infamous victim of the censor’s stamp. Until now. That means no more robots instead of soldiers, no more barnacles spewing nuts and bolts instead of blood and gore, and no more sad looks from invulnerable scientists if you shoot at them.

Sudden realisation: censored versions of HL are going to become collector’s items now, aren’t they?
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How Crawl found the fun in unfairness

This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the inner workings of their games. This time, Crawl [official site].

Crawl is a game about cooperation, betrayal and murder and accumulating enough eldritch power to kill a god. Made by Australian indie Powerhoof, it’s a couch multiplayer game played with up to three friends, but only one of you can be the hero. Everyone else is playing a monster, but when a monster kills the hero, it takes their place. This loop, of ganging up, competing to strike the final blow and then turning on your friends, captures the essential heart of the best local multiplayer games. It’s that delicious tension of power and powerlessness, of ruthlessness and submission, of laughter and jeering. At the centre of Crawl is a lovely bit of:

THE MECHANIC: Unfairness … [visit site to read more]

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Martian survive ’em up Rokh hitting early access in May

Martian crafty survival sandbox Rokh [official site] is coming to early access (of course) on May 16th. Sure, you’ve crafted and built in survival sandboxes before. Okay, you’ve done it in space too. And sure, you have even done it on Mars. But have you crafted and built in a Martian survival sandbox whose look is overseen by Viktor Antonov, the artist behind the wonderful looks of Half-Life 2 and Dishonored? Ah! Well, you’ll want Rokh for that. Watching a new trailer I don’t get a feel for the intricacies that can make two similar-seeming games be quite different, but I do like its Mars. … [visit site to read more]

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Revisiting and rating Total War: Warhammer and its DLC

Since launching last year, Total War: Warhammer’s [official site] digital facsimile of Games Workshop’s weird fantasy universe has grown considerably. The Old World’s become nice and fat with new factions, campaigns, units and mechanics, and now it’s finished. So this is a pretty good time to jump in, especially if you’ve been holding out for every piece of DLC. But oh no! There’s so much of it! If you get the wrong one, you might never forgive yourself. That’s why you’d best stick with me to find out which ones are crackers and which are stinkers.

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Lethis – Daring Discoverers explores alien worlds in May

The follow-up to charming and decent-enough city-builder Lethis – Path of Progress is not another build ’em up, but rather an interplanetary exploration game. Triskell Interactive this week announced Lethis – Daring Discoverers [official site], which will blast some odd folks from the steampunk world up to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no gungan has gone before. Have a look at the announcement trailer: … [visit site to read more]

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De Blob out now on PC, only 9 years late

Every party-goer knows it’s cool and trendy to arrive late. You wait until everyone is tipsy and bored of each other, then you appear in the doorway, hands full of ice creams, wearing your best pair of gloves. de Blob [official site], the jazzy puzzle-platformer about painting the town red and other colours, has arrived to the PC party a whole 9 years after its original release on the Wii. So, uh, hi de Blob.
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