What’s that Lassie? We have 15 Aion EU beta keys to give away? To the first fifteen people who email us via this link? And they should hurry as it’s first come first served and they expire on the 13th? But we’ll be updating this post when they’ve all gone? And that there’s far too many questions in this blog post? No, we don’t care about some kid trapped down the well. We’re busy downloading the client. GO!

I never thought I’d really enjoy a game devoted to jumping off things, but AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! has managed to persuade me otherwise.

For those of you that haven’t heard of AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!, the main premise is that you base jump from the top of a strangely colourful skyline Read the full story

I recently stumbled accross Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet a game being developed by Canadian film animator Michel Gagne and Joe Olson at Fuelcell. I thought the game looked amazing and decided to pose some questions to Michel and Joe. The results, well you can see them below! Read the full story

The following article is the first part of a series of diaries coming from the world of Champions Online, written in character or course.  There may even be the odd comic in the future.

Read the full story

It was my Day of Defeat, I loaded up Valve’s Source based World War Two shooter and promptly died. A lot. In my defence I am a bit out of practice with playing Day of Defeat as I haven’t played this great game for many, many moons. You can put this down to the fact that when I initially played the game I was plagued by the infamous ‘stuttering’ bug which was a common occurance in Source games a few years ago. Fortunately these issues are in the past which means I have been able to play Day of Defeat in all its glory.

This is a tough game to initially get to grips with, especially for someone like me who is used to Valve’s current multiplayer hit Team Fortress 2. Day of Defeat may not match the realism of games like Red Orchestra or Arma II, but it is a big change from more run and gun games like Unreal Tournament 3 and the aforementioned Team Fortress 2.

There is no place for madmen charging around corners expecting to use your trusty flamethrower to burn the first thing that moves. Rather this is about slowly edging around the corner with your iron sights held in shaking hands to your eyes. You peak around the corner but before you know what hit you you are dead with the retort of the sniper rifle still ringing in your ears. Then a big ‘Nemesis’ logo appears on the scoreboard. Damn that sniper!

Day of Defeat is a serious war game and it feels like one, I found myself playing on a quiet server at one point over these past few days yet despite there being just a handful of players in game the sounds of war could be heard at all times. Whether it is the shouts of ‘Point Secure’ or the rattle of a machine gun in the distance they combine to create an atmosphere unmatched by other games, everything sounds and feels real. It can be the sound of the Kar98k firing or a grenade momentarily dazing you as the scenary flies around, everything works to make you feel that much closer to the action.

It is just a shame that support for this game seems to have died off, there are only a handful of official maps in the game and there are numerous bugs that have emerged since the game was moved onto the Orange Box Engine, fortunately Day of Defeat still plays very well and there is still quite an active community. It is a nice feeling to go back through some of the older Valve games and give them a play again, the newer games have taken the spotlight in recent years but games like Day of Defeat Source are still worth checking out.

Osmos is, as Phill recently told me, a really awesome late night game. This is perhaps one of the most relaxing games I have played for a long time, I must admit it makes for a nice change of pace. It is telling that the developers, Hemisphere Games say “relax…good things come to those who wait.” This sums up Osmos completely, a perfect game to take your time with. You see, you are a mote, I’m not sure what a mote is exactly, but that is beside the point, you control an organism which can only move by ejecting some of its own being which makes you smaller. You are able to absorb other motes which are small or a similar size to yours which creates a delicate balancing act between moving towards a mote you want to absorb and not expending enough of your mass to find yourself being the one absorbed.

Of course not all motes will sit by idly and let you absorb them, some are intelligent and will move away from you to save themselves, something which the Biophobe just did to me. You can find yourself duelling with the sentient motes as you battle each other to absorb the smaller ones which just float idly in the world you occupy. What is great is the use of colour with the motes, you can tell when a mote is ready for you to absorb as it turns blue (Chris is colourblind so the colours are likely to be wrong – Ed) while the motes which have an eery red glow are to be avoided at all costs. It really is a beautiful game, you could sit and watch it for hours lost in the variety of things that can occur, the music as well is perfect. The soundtrack contains soft ambient music which sits well with the relaxed mood of the game, they really do go hand in hand. If you check out the Steam page for the game check out the system requirement for sound, a little touch but one that shows the class of the game and the developers.

You have three different game modes to play around with, Sentient which features things like the Biophobe where you must absorb the other sentient being. Force Ascension seems your mote orbiting what seems to be the sun, you have to become the biggest mote travelling around the star, you are able to change your orbit simply by moving your mote, be warned that if you travel out of the orbit you are likely to have a hard time avoiding falling out of the galaxy and coming across a ‘Lifeform Terminated’ message. The final game mode is Ambient, you just set out to become the largest mote in your zone without any pesky stars or sentient motes interfering in your plans. This is the one you will want to play late at night just to unwind and become the biggest mote in the yard.

As you progress through the multitudinous levels you will notice that they start to break off from their core gameplay style, thus you get levels such as F3A. There are 47 levels to get through and they will take a while, they become quite challenging as you progress, but they never become so tough you won’t be able to complete them. You have a little help in this aspect, if you start a level where you find yourself at an immediate disadvantage you just just hit Alt+Z to restart the level with a randomised starting layout. Another helping hand comes with the time control, you can easily speed up or slow down time in the game to aid your journey. If your orbit around the attractor in the Force levels is taking too long you can just speed up time, likewise if you want to catch a fast moving mote slow time down to catch up with it. It is a great little tool to help you out in the game.

What more can I say about this gem of a game? It was nominated for several IGF awards and won the D2D Vision Award and was named in the Pax 10. Achievements that are truly deserved of such an outstanding game. At only $10 direct from the developers you can’t go wrong. This is a game which shows how strong the indie games scene is on the PC right now. Buy it and enjoy it.

So, as you may have gathered from last month’s review, we at the Reticule rather liked the first episode of the resurrection of gaming’s favourite pirate Guybrush Threepwood. After setting such a high precedent with Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, can Telltale match the high standard for the second episode, Read the full story

Dying over and over and over. That’s what Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis was really about. Dying a lot until you stopped just playing, and started thinking. My experience with its sequel, the upcoming Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Read the full story