» Computer and Console Games
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Audio Report - Them’s heretical words!
Round two of today’s catch-up episodes, this early February show muses on the future of the Dark Heresy RPG (which became clearer soon after show time), upcoming con season, the WoW CMG, and more. Mike also gives us a primer on Vincent Baker’s latest game, In a Wicked Age, and we’ve all been keeping busy playing things. Again, thanks to everyone who emailed asking when we’d be back - the answer is, now.
Audio Report - Back in the saddle again
The OgreCave Audio Report is getting back up to speed with this, the first of two shows being fired off today. We’ve been talking, you just haven’t been able to hear it. Here’s the proof: our first Audio Report of the new year, recorded back when OGLs and inroads to Starbucks were all the rage. Thanks to everyone who emailed their concern over the extended, unintentional hiatus - my dead paperweight of an old machine caused considerable delays, but we’ll be all caught up fairly soon. Meanwhile, have a listen, tell us what’s on your mind, and welcome back.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Free Ingenious for PCs, today only
Spread the word: until the end of today, a site called Game Giveaway of the Day is - you guessed it - giving away downloads of Reiner Knizia’s Ingenious for PC. This is a widely acclaimed game in its original, non-electronic form, so boardgame fans should strongly consider grabbing a copy while they can.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Remember, kids, stealing genes doesn’t make you cool
Suave-looking straight-up 2D adaptation of Space Hulk for Windows. Free, free, free. I don’t know about network play, though.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Doors opening to more Portal goodness
In case you couldn’t tell from our Portal themed podcast a while back, the OgreCave crew really enjoyed our participation in the Aperture Science experiment. Well, we aren’t the only ones, as during last week’s Game Developers Conference in SF, the show’s Game Developers Choice Awards gave Portal the nod for 2007 Game of the Year (I’m sure the words “This is a triumph. I’m making a note here: huge success.” were uttered). A pair of announcements trickled out of Valve at the conference as well, the main one being the rumor of Portal 2 getting confirmed as “in progress” by this X-Play interview with Valve’s Kimberly Swift. Secondly, Jonathan Coulton’s outstanding and hilarious Portal song “Still Alive” (if you haven’t heard it yet, keep playing, you’ll get there) will be available to download for Rock Band at a date still to be determined. Both announcements are for the good of all of us, except the ones who are dead.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Hidden City hidden up Gen Con’s… website?
For those who didn’t spot my comment, I went back and played Dragon Hoard, the in-browser casual game hosted rather incongruously on a section (which it currently occupies all by its lonesome) of Gen Con’s site labeled “Gen Con Now.” I have no idea how long it’s been there, but seeing as how I found it when I went to look for the press release about the bankruptcy filing, well, I kinda reacted.
Dragon Hoard is fine. It’s a fairly original casual game - it’s all about dragging stuff, which might not be to your taste, but hey. The only problem with this game is where they put it; games like this currently live or die on a flood of people looking for something clicky and mindless to do (and there’s no shame in that whatsoever). Said people are not currently coming to Gen Con’s web site to find it, and won’t be in the near future, no matter how badly Gen Con wants another revenue stream. Now, maybe there are plans to hook Dragon Hoard up to the usual spigots (BigFish, Yahoo Games, whatever), but right this second, the partnership here between Gen Con and DH’s developers Hidden City Games - that is, Peter Adkison’s other company, publishers of Clout Fantasy and US licensors of Bella Sara - seems even more unfortunate in light of Gen Con’s admittedly unforeseeable new resource crunch.
So, okay. Maybe not what I would have done from a business standpoint, but fine. I go on about my business, and get this thing I read about on Penny Arcade, this Spectromancer. From the description and title alone, you know it’s gonna be a bounce off of Magic, but reading the website I’m surprised to learn that Richard Garfield and Magic R&D legend Skaff Elias actually did development work on the game design. I download, I run the installer, and what’s the publisher’s name on the newly created folder? Hidden City Games. Well, that’s… actually pretty cool. And yet, where does the link go if you click through to Spectromancer’s discussion boards? To community.gencon.com.
Maybe I’m the only one this is all news to, and again, nothing’s wrong with Spectromancer as a game - there are some translation issues right now, but the ways in which it simplifies M:tG are actually really elegant and appealing - but does anyone else think it’s a little weird how thoroughly Hidden City seems to be leaning on Gen Con right now? Especially given that Gen Con’s got trouble and Hidden City’s got pony crack?
Monday, February 18, 2008
Hero announces 6th Ed in 09, Champions MMORPG?
Yesterday at DunDraCon, Hero Games‘ home-base convention in many ways, they announced that they’d be doing a revision of the HERO System for next year, in the form of two core books (one for character building, one for everything else) and a Champions book. That isn’t the end of the news for Champions, though: our sources at the Game Developers Conference in SF this week (as in, the for-real game developers, the computery kind that make money? Yeah, those) say that Champions has been licensed to an online game developer that aims to produce a competitor for City of Heroes. We don’t have much in the way of details yet, which is to say it could all be bollocks. Watch this space.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Seriously, what the hell is up with Gen Con LLC
Gen Con LLC files Chapter 11. Okay. That and the Lucas thing, kind of not wonderful together. Kiiiind of crazy. Bankruptcy is by no means a death sentence or a threat to the Indy show, most likely, but the list of crazy isn’t over. Here’s the new Gen Con LLC home page, with entries for the company, the Indy show, and “Gen Con Now.” Click on “Gen Con Now” and… “Dragon Hoard“?? Might be a fine game, but at the moment I’m a little scared to find out.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
World of Warcraft Minis Game, because Blizzard can’t allow a licensed-product gap with Halo
Well, that’s probably not the reason. To me, the interesting bit about this announcement is the attribution of “paint scheme design” to Mike McVey, the painter that Privateer made, um, I guess famous for some definition of the word. The addition of a “name” painter to the marketing is interesting, if only because the paints still don’t look very interesting. But yeah, Upper Deck’s doing it, it comes out in the fall, and, er, nobody has yet taken credit for the actual game design.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
LEGO turns 50, rapidly realizing own hipness
Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the LEGO brick (which I would’ve posted sooner, but I’m still not on my own machine). The famed building-block brand continues to venture into the gaming market (never as quickly as we’d like, as per the long-standing example set by Evil Stevie), and will have a licensed Indiana Jones video game this summer. Looking ahead, this 50th anniversary video has me wondering if a James Bond LEGO game might be a good idea for 2009. Here’s to 50 more years, and a closer working relationship between LEGO and the gamers who love it/them/her.
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