Look at them! Just look at them! Portal 2 will definitely feature co-op, and you’ll apparently play as 2 robots each with their own portal guns. I wonder if this will link to the single player story in any way, or just be a separate component to the main game? Either way, you simply must click below to watch the new teaser trailer.
With the recent release of Alien Swarm, I’ve had a bit of a craving for more free gaming. You’d be surprised how much fun you can have out there without spending a penny. You simply don’t get this in other industries, and not at this calibre – let’s face it, most free stuff out there in the real world is free for a reason: it’s unwanted, out-of-date, or just crap. As for free entertainment, imagine if your local cinema had free showings of some films? I can’t, frankly. Plus, if it’s anything like my local, going to the cinema is becoming an increasingly more expensive way to spend an evening. Why not save your cash and try some of these brilliant (and surprisingly sophisticated) free games.
Portal 2 has been given a release date! February 9th 2011, apparantly. Watch it slip to at least Christmas 2013, once we approach that date, though. But that’s not all! If you’ve seen the videos a month or two ago, you’ll have seen Wheatley, a little spherical robot that accompanies you through some of the levels. He will now be played by Stephen Merchant, which is bloody brilliant. Don’t spoil the game by watching the footage below (is what I told myself before and while watching it).
There’s some exciting yet controversial news for Bioshock fans! There’s an all-new game on the horizon (woo!) but it’s not set underwater, not about Rapture, and well, seems to have next-to-nothing to do with Bioshock 1 or 2…
Right now, if you are an independent game developer, you’ve never had quite so many opportunities for showing off your skills, though you’ll likely be up against some rock solid competition – some of the best games of the last few years haven’t come from the giant mega-corporations, but rather from much smaller companies (and in some cases individual ‘bedroom coders’). Xbox Live Arcade, Steam, Flash gaming portals – there’s so much exposure out there right now, and it has resulted in a surge of innovative new gaming titles. Indie games are definitely in.
Machinarium is awesome – go get it. Click for full-size image.
Every so often, a film comes along that defines a generation – the original Star Wars trilogy amazed audiences back in the 70’s/early 80’s, Peter Jackson brought the Lord of the Rings books to life in ways nobody thought possible at the time, and James Cameron has created the biggest movie in the history of cinema in the form of Avatar. At the time of writing, according to IMDB, the film, which had a budget of around $300 million, has made nearly $3 billion profit making it easily the highest grossing movie of all time (Titanic, also directed by Cameron, is in second place with $1.8 billion). Say what you will of his storytelling, but the man knows how to make a groundbreaking sci-fi action masterpiece. I have now seen it three times – at the IMAX in 3D, at a regular cinema also in 3D, and I went and got the blu-ray last week and have just watched it in the comfort of my living room.
I’ve never played the original Starcraft, so I had no expectations about how good the sequel should be when I installed it and logged in using a free trial key. Barely 3 hours into the 7 hour trial, I decided I had to own this game, so I took a bunch of Xbox games I wasn’t playing anymore to a shop and traded them, which left only £2.50 to pay in cash. Win!
If you were one of the super smart people like us who bought Alan Wake brand new, you should have found a voucher code thingy inside the box for your game, entitling you to a free download of the first episode of downloadable content for the game when it became available. A few long months later, the aforementioned episode ‘The Signal’ was finally released just the other day, and so I delved right in.
If you bought and played Alan Wake when it was released earlier this year, then you may be pleased to hear that the first episode of downloadable content has just been made available on Xbox Live! It gets better though, because if you bought the game brand new you are able to download it absolutely free! (or for 560 Microsoft Points if you went for a pre-owned offering of the game instead).
According to descriptions, this first episode entitled ‘The Signal’ continues the story of Alan Wake’s twisted imagination right where the main game left off, and allows us to delve even deeper into the utterly insane world being created in his own mind.
When I first saw Toy Story back in 1995, I remember being completely amazed. It was groundbreaking, it was hugely entertaining, and best of all it was hilarious. It was easily my favourite kids film, ever! Then came Toy Story 2 in 1999, a fantastic sequel that only made the franchise funnier, cleverer, and nicer to look at. It was probably the best continuation of a great film I had seen, and in the end of it Pixar managed to whet my appetite for yet another film by leaving the ending fairly open for more epic toy-based madness.
This year, over a decade later, Toy Story 3 showed up! Those of us who saw the first two films when they were released are now all grown up and obviously far too mature to go and see another sequel to an old kids film…
Who doesn’t love suicidal rocket-riding goblins? Click for higher-res version. It’s from Relic’s Space Marine.