Stock up on food and water, bolt your doors and load the shotgun. Or for us Brits, stock up on cricket bats for zombie head thwacking. WE’RE ALL DOOMED.

After death, this parasite is able to restart the heart of its victim for up to two hours

Oh. My. God. (Bah, old April 1st, no fun at all!)

Like triple said, we all assumed tribes was dead but this recent video suggests otherwise. Skiing, check, jetpack, check, disc spinner, check. It all fits. Maybe Garage Games are putting together a multiplayer only Tribes sequel or spiritual successor after Vengeance failed to satisfy the hardcore (though since it was from Irrational the story mode was rather excellent). I really suck at tribes but damn is skiing and jet packing fun. Oh wait, hopes = dashed.

Battlefield 2 meets The JCB Song. Probably funnier if you play BF2 but the humour is spot on. Great stuff (download version here).

Interactive visualisations, image sorting and zooming, games and more. It’s like the Nintendo DS was just the tip of the iceberg. Touch screens are nothing new but it seems the technology has advanced to a point where you can touch multiple spots at once, a surprisingly significant advance. Even more interesting - Apple has a patent on this kind of interaction.

I was interested to note this little detail in a recent joystiq interview with the company operating WoW in China:

According to Blizzard’s and The9’s web sites, the subscription model for WoW in China is different from other parts of the world. Instead of a monthly subscription fee, Chinese gamers purchase WoW Points cards for 30 Yuan ($3.64) that are worth 600 points. Points expire at a rate of 9 per hour of play, so this amounts to 66 hours and 40 minutes of play for each card at an average of .45 Yuan ($.06) per hour.

I’m sure it’s a cultural thing but I’m surprised this hasn’t been tried over here. A recurring monthly fee is quite a barrier to entry with these games. Sure, that time is cheaper than buying a new game, but it’s still an extra monthly fee on top of the boxed copy. I guess the only barrier to trying this payment method over here is that it couldn’t co-exist with the monthly fee.

Try and tell yourself it’s not real. If we see this stuff rendered in real time after about ten years (which seems to be the general rule) I’ll be very happy indeed.

The entire internet has probably commented on Raph’s controversial statement by now, but then that never stopped me. Yes, I’ve read his point in more depth, I still think he’s deeply wrong. Single player games are no more “unnatural and abnormal” than reading a book. Sometimes, in fact often, I simply don’t want other people ruining my gameplaying, and I’m definitely not alone in that. A quick quote from his comments (by Raph):

From a raw audience point of view, I think there’s little question that MMORPGs potentially reach far far more people. They can, after all, offer the CRPG experience, PLUS offer stuff for the other personality types.

No. Not even close. What MMOs lack is focus. The inevitable mundane collection quests and other such grind. The trolls and griefers. OOC players ruining the setting (and even worse the laughable role players). A great single player game can draw you in entirely with its sharp story driven along by multiple characters at every step. You are the hero, not just another cog in the big machine.

MMOs have many strengths, but there is simply no way they’re going to take over from a great single player game due to an equal number of weaknesses. Obviously Raph’s obliged to support online gaming here, but this kind of statement is simply deeply blinkered. There’s a reason Half Life 2 won so many Game of the Year awards instead of WoW.

I’m torn between saying “Game over, Nintendo wins, flawless victory” or “It’s about damn time”. Either way, even though you can only chat in the lobby, it’s a damn cool feature for a handheld.

I still can’t work out quite how this works after three times reading it, but I want a pair. (via Digg)

The word “immersion” gets used a lot in the games industry but it’s still somewhat rare for a studio to really strive to achieve it with their game. Fight Night Round 3 and Call of Cthulhu have ditched the HUD entirely, something we’ll probably see more of now characters are so detailed you can simply see how hurt they are. Thief: Deadly Shadows also let you see your body from first person instead of just your hands. It’s all just a start though, so where next?

How about ditching the entire menu system - drop someone right inside the game world the moment the game loads. Ask them to look up to work out if they want things inverted or not (as just one example of interactive control setup) then let them play the game. Flash the publisher logos by on billboards as they’re sitting in a car instead of wasting time with logo movies. Maybe instead of a HUD in an FPS have the redout on the gun, or ever-shifting magical tatoos on their arm if you’re feeling really experimental. The more there is to remind you you’re playing a game the harder it is to get truly involved.

Any ideas of your own for dragging a player further into the game? Pop them in the comments system, I’d be interested to hear them.

See, this is how it starts. First you install gatling guns, then add AI control, that AI becomes self aware, a resonance cascade scenario kicks off and then some poor schmuck has to fight his way past it all. Besides, just what kind of attack are they expecting here, The Covenant?

No shoddy test video, the real deal this time. Looks glorious.