Hey guys! Remember how last time I did one of these, I threw a big pile of games your way, because there was just too much stuff out there and I couldn't choose? ...Yeah, well, here we go again. But hey, at least it's themed this time. Over the last few weeks I've played a whole mess of clever, simple, or downright weird RPGs - all leftovers that I didn't get to from the Assemblee Competition, from which I featured Realm of the Mad God, and on which voting just wrapped up this week. Rather than pick one to focus on, I've decided to highlight my favorites in... RPG-PALOOZA. Hold on to your wands, kids!
That was a figure of speech. Please put that away.
A glance at the screenshot above should bring back fond memories for anyone who cut their teeth on the classic Western RPG - the Wizardrys, the Bard's Tales, the Might & Magics. It speaks of taking a party deep into a perilous dungeon, fighting for their lives to gain riches and fame untold. The twist of ro9 is that you aren't controlling a party. You're controlling 9 completely independent rogues... all at the same time.
The Assemblee entry of Justin Smith (crackerblocks on TIGSource), ro9 gives you only the arrow keys and the spacebar [for pausing] to simultaneously control all nine adventurers as they plumb the depths and fight for their lives. It's a fascinating and sometimes infuriating mechanic, as pressing forward to attack with one character necessitates moving each other character forward, even when you really, really don't want to. Keeping your rogues from going down a ladder to a dungeon level they can't handle yet is maybe the game's biggest challenge, but there's a lot of satisfaction to be had in leveling these characters up and watching them trounce their enemies.
A word to the wise - the most surprisingly difficult enemy I encountered? Giraffe.
ro9 is a tiny Windows download that you can find right here.
This submission by "Ivan" to Assemblee takes us a little bit less far back in time, and harkens much more to the straightforward action RPG rush of Diablo than to the more careful tactics of Wizardry. It also took home the honor of winning the Assemblee contest, so bravo to Ivan on that! I think you'll agree that his victory was well earned, after giving this a spin.
Bitworld really is a full package - taking control of a Knight, Wizard or Archer, you'll hack & slash (or magic-bolt, or arrow-pierce) your way through a range of foes on your way to the bottom of an abandoned dwarven fortress. The action is tight, the music is catchy, the classes play very differently from each other, and the graphics are adorable - seriously, you need to download this one just to see the procedural walk animation. It's awesome.
I didn't survive terribly long with any of the character classes, sadly, but I recommend trying the wizard to get the most versatile experience - while the knight can only swing his sword or block with his shield and the archer can only fire arrows, the wizard has both an ice bolt to freeze enemies with and a magic missile for destructive power. I found the strategy of retreating to fire off ice bolts and then advancing my attack really engaging, and the game also employs a perspective-flipping mechanic to keep you on your toes. I wish the lighting hadn't been quite so dim, only because I would've been able to admire the simple aesthetic more, but really, this one is a must-try.
Bitworld is a 12MB download for Windows or OSX - go get it here.
With all of the kind words I had for Bitworld, Dungeons of Fayte (which was the 2nd place prize winner in Assemblee) is actually my favorite game out of this roundup. In some ways, it's the most traditional RPG out of all of these games, but in others, it's different from most everything else I've played.
The game's author (against whom I will not hold the moniker "pulsemeat" - we all make bad choices sometimes) describes Dungeons of Fayte as "a mash-up between Zelda: Four Swords and Princess Maker", and as bizarre as that sounds, it's quite accurate and a joy to play. Supporting co-op for up to 4 players, which sadly I didn't get to try, Fayte plays out on a strict timeline, giving you four months to prepare your hero(s) for the coming of the evil Bone Lord, at which time you must defeat him or die trying.
Each month, you'll get to choose four week-long actions for your hero to pursue - beat up thugs for the local constable, maybe, or work as a farmhand - which will raise their stats and earn precious coin. You'll then get a chance to tackle one of the game's dungeons, earning you further treasure and letting you try out your class skills (classes may be swapped out each month, for a fee). Build your avatar up enough over the four months, and you may win the climactic battle at the end. I didn't, but you might. Combat plays out differently depending on which of the 12 classes you're playing as, but generally works on a dodge-and-counter mechanic, and there's a wide variety of enemies and scenery to enjoy. Also, one of the training regimens? Drinking in a tavern. How awesome is that?
This game will be staying on my desktop for awhile, because there's a LOT to see here. It's the largest game in this writeup, at 20MB - Windows download here. I recommend running the "DoF (Fuzz Scaling).exe" executable, as the "DoF.exe" one put ugly black boxes around the characters on my machine, but try both and see what works for you.
I know, you're tired, I gave you a lot to look at, you want to go home and give this all some time to digest. I'm sympathetic to that, but stick around for one more. This one's quick, I promise.
Mr. Kitty's having a lousy day. His owner constantly puts him down, he has no friends, and now he's been told that if he doesn't come back with some milk, he's out on the street. Luckily, he's only a loaned blaster and a somewhat-epic adventure away from proving his worth to the world.
If it isn't clear yet, Mr. Kitty's Quest is the least traditional of the RPG's in this list, though its WASD + mouse-to-shoot control scheme does in some ways resemble Realm of the Mad God from a few weeks back. pgil's action adventure sees Mr. Kitty braving the menaces of Dog City and its surroundings in search of coins to pay off his weapons, macguffins to satisfy pointless quest requirements, and, of course, the all important gallon of milk. Light fun is poked at RPG cliches throughout - I got a chuckle out of seeing a note left on an empty house saying "I'm not home, please don't take all my stuff!" (I took all their stuff.)
Sadly an alpha transparency bug in Game Maker made parts of this almost unplayable on my machine, and I didn't finish it, but it's still unique and fun enough to be worth taking a look at - hopefully you won't run into the same problem. This Windows download will only set you back a few MB - go pick it up here.
That's it for now - hope you guys enjoyed. I definitely came out of this feeling that Assemblee was an awesome contest, and some really great games came out of it. I'll be looking forward to finding out what the next wacky idea TIGSource comes up with will be; whatever it is, you'll probably read about it here. See you next time.
I promise this will be our last digital distribution episode.
Okay, no I don’t. I promise it will be our last one for at least a month? …We’ll see how we do on that, I guess.
We’ve spent a lot of time over the past several months extolling the virtues of digital distribution – the frequent sales, the convenience, the portability – and all of those virtues still hold true. It was time, though, to inject a little balance into the equation and start talking about one of the major downsides of digital distribution: you never really own what you buy anymore. Of course, as you’ll hear, maybe you never did to begin with, and it’s just more obvious now. Still, with the recent beta impressions of OnLive hitting the web, it was time to talk about purchasing games vs. purchasing access to games, and the path we feel the future will take. Join us, and see if you agree with our assertions.
Time is also given to Terry Cavanagh’s (if I may say so) brilliant VVVVVV in our indie segment, our retro gaming discussion starts off talking about Tomb Raider and ends up in places I can’t say I’m proud of (really, Warren? You wanted to see this naked?), and we take a look at the UT2004 mod Air Buccaneers, if you’re in an airship kind of mood.
Also, from our list of recently played games, allow me to direct your attention to the D1X-Rebirth mod for Descent, in case you want to lose your lunch in 6 degrees of freedom. Oh, and this. What the Hell, Dwarf Fortress. You blow my mind.
Hosted and Summarized by Eric [Ravenlock]
Participants are Robert [Trebor], Warren [Mayhem], Jeremy [Lord Don], and perpetual special guest J Arcane
Produced by Clayton [Voodoo]
Some of you may recall Ravenlock mentioning the release of a game called VVVVVV by Terry Cavanagh at the end of a free game round-up a couple of issues ago. If you didn’t take his advice and play the demo over at Kongregate, do so now. If the game were free, I’m sure he would have written it up here. He did, however, write a wonderful evaluation of it on his blog, which I invite you to check out now. The reason I mention all this is because this week’s subject, VVVV by Markus Persson, is a sanctioned de-make of VVVVVV (so many V’s!) for the Java4k competition, an interesting site where developers are invited to make the best game possible within a 4 kilobyte limit. I’m not too familiar with the details of game making, but making a good game under such constraints must be a challenge. Music and complex graphics may be sacrificed for the sake of file size, but gameplay certainly is not. VVVV captures the spirit and the aesthetics of VVVVVV, but remains distinct in its relative simplicity.
It begins with your grimacing stick-figure cosmonaut standing in a room full of the game’s only adversaries, grisly red spikes. These spikes spell instant death, but fear not, death means nothing more than an instant respawn at the last reached checkpoint, of which there are many. Your task is to rescue 6 fellow cosmonauts scattered around the open world, each holed up at the end of mazelike passages peppered with the aforementioned spikes. Avoiding these spikes is what separates this game from other platformers. Instead of jumping, the ‘jump’ button reorients... gravity I suppose. When you ‘jump,’ you change which direction your character falls, up or down. If there are spikes on the floor in front of you, press the spacebar and fall towards the ceiling, walk along it past those spikes and press space again to fall back towards the floor. This mechanic will force you to overhaul your hardwired gamer instincts of how to play a platformer. It’s a hell of a lot of fun. Add to the mix dissolving platforms; surfaces that switch the direction you fall when you touch them; pits that drop you into themselves forever ala Portal, and you’ve got yourself a regular brainteaser.
I’m not sure if those above descriptions are clear, but they’ll make sense once you start playing. The gameworld is a large map broken up into screens, complete with a minimap that fills itself as you explore. Even though the map is small, each section that houses a lost cosmonaut looks and plays distinctly from the others. Exploring the world and filling in the map is as much fun as actually rescuing these guys, and playing through the game again is just as enjoyable as the first time through. Satisfaction comes from overcoming each diabolical screen with precise timing, memorization and a little luck. And frustration is kept at a minimum; whenever you die, a well placed checkpoint will always respawn you within seconds of the obstacle that killed you.
VVVV is decidedly simpler than its older brother VVVVVV. Finishing it should take no more than twenty minutes. If it leaves you wanting more, though, remember— more can be had. Just pick up the game that inspired it.
VVVV is:
- a simplified version of a relatively simple game.
- a no frills platformer. All gameplay here.
- browser based. You could be playing right now!
Sega and Valve have announced that two of their major PC releases are going to have Steamworks integrated out of the box and will require Steam even in retail copies.
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Both games will utilize the Steamworks platform for achievements, matchmaking, leaderboards, stats, and server-side Cloud data storage, explained Valve. Aliens vs. Predator launches February 16, with Napoleon: Total War coming February 23.
I wish more developers would follow suit, considering that Steam is one of the very few DRM solutions that rewards the customer with added values such as server-side savegames, achievements and friends lists instead of just raping them altogether and hoping nobody will pirate.
With the Settlers 7: Paths To A Kingdom, UbiSoft is trying out a new antipiracy effort. The seventh chapter of the long-running, and popular, PC strategy series will require gamers to be online at all times to play and save the game.
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Since authentication is now handled through your Ubi.com account, you'll always need to connect to your Ubi.com account to authenticate before playing. While it's hard to conceive of PC gamers being stranded without an Internet connection, those situations do come up, particularly when traveling.
We asked about the potential backlash to this authentication platform requiring an Internet connection. "We think most people are going to be fine with it. Most people are always connected to an Internet connection," Wilkinson replied.
On the upside, saves will be stored on the Ubi.com servers, so they will be available to any PC you've installed the game on, and unlimited installations will be allowed.
No plans for offline play (laptop travelers) or contingency plans for server-side data loss and outages were revealed.
Update: The activation limits have been clarified (see below).
SecuROM activations have been removed, and Games for Windows LIVE is the only service you have to activate your game on for online features. The game will connect to SecuROM servers not for authentication of your CD keys/installs, but only to check the release dates in order to avoid leaks. Full statement from 2K is below:
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Over the past two days, I’ve fielded a lot of questions and concerns about the DRM for both the retail and digital versions of BioShock 2. Because of this feedback, we are scaling back BioShock 2’s DRM.
There will be no SecuROM install limits for either the retail or digital editions of BioShock 2, and SecuROM will be used only to verify the game’s executable and check the date [launch date check to prevent copies sold early from being played (requires Internet access to connect to SecuROM servers) - Andy]. Beyond that, we are only using standard Games for Windows Live non-SSA guidelines, which, per Microsoft, comes with 15 activations (after that, you can reset them with a call to Microsoft.)
What does that mean for your gameplay experience? This means that BioShock 2’s new DRM is now similar to many popular games you advised had better DRM through both digital and retail channels. Many of you have used Batman: Arkham Asylum as an example to me, which uses the exact same Games for Windows Live guidelines as us as well as SecuROM on retail discs, and now our SecuROM is less restrictive on Steam.
I know that the variables of PC gaming can be frustrating and confusing, and when you say there is a problem, we listen, and use your suggestions to make things better. Feedback like this does not go unheard, and while this might not be the ideal protection for everyone, we will continue to listen and work with you in the future when formulating our DRM plans.
Original Post:After all the hullabaloo from earlier, a lot of people were turned off from the prospects of choosing the PC version of Irrational's upcoming hotness. And not unnatural, either. On the game's requirements were listed up to three layers of DRM (which is enough to leave a bitter taste even in the most optimistic of people), along with limited activations. Those being Steam, Games for Windows: LIVE and SecuROM.
Amidst the uproar on the Steam forums, 2K Games' community manager took up the spot on the soap box and divulged the following clarifications:
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As many of you are aware, yesterday Steam's pre-purchase program began and the specs for BioShock 2 were posted along with that announcement.
These specs were taken from the retail packaging of BioShock 2. And since bullet points on the back of the box don't always explain the full story, here is a little more detail about what that means.
BioShock 2 is using a standard Games for Windows Live activation system, much like other games you have played in the past. That doesn't mean you always have to be online to play or save the game - you can create an offline profile for the Single Player portion of the game (you just won't earn achievements and you can't play Multiplayer, of course.)
We are using SecuROM only as a disc check method for the retail copy of BioShock 2. That is it's only use.
The Games for Windows Live key you get has 15 activations on it. If you reach 16, contacting Microsoft will get the key reset. (This doesn't limit the number of computers you put the on. It is just 15 activations.) This is a number set by Microsoft. We went with this option because we wanted to go with non-ssa keys, because we felt that was better for you guys all around.
I'm sorry for the confusion, and I hope to clear it up entirely for you soon.
Some parts of the quotes are from various posts by the community manager.
So to sum it up:
You are not required to be online to save a game
The SecuROM disc-check is only present in the boxed copy
15 activations, according to the community manager, though the Steam page lists only 5. This might be clarified soon, hopefully. (Updated: See above)
Online activations for multiple computers is via GFWL, not SecuROM (as it was in the first Bioshock).
While this eases the tension a little bit, it doesn't do anything to clarify the big confusion that's been lingering since the beginning: Why oh WHY are developers opting for the painfully inferior option of Games for Windows LIVE instead of using SteamWorks?
It would have made everyone's lives easier just to have implemented Steam's DRM instead. You can't download off Steam without buying a game legitimately, and it would have saved a helluva lot of back and forth between the marketing guys and the publisher/developers, not to mention saving their public faces.
A hockey rink in a ruined city, down the block from a mutant zoo. A train ride out of a bio-weapons lab overrun by monstrous lichen. A functional missile silo and submarines and bizarre temples that tower over a poisonous landscape dotted by giant mushrooms. I didn’t expect any of this from Harmony when I first booted it up. Your character wakes in a mundane building that houses corridors straight out of any old school FPS, maybe Duke 3D or Marathon or Rise of the Triad. Once outside those halls, though, and a level or two into the game, it's clear that Harmony is more than just familiar corridors. It is a look back into the history of a beloved genre that innovation has rendered unrecognizable from its original form. It's a reconstruction that benefits from the patient love only a hobbyist can give to a work; according to Tigsource, it took creator Thomas van der Velden 8 years to complete the game. I think it was worth it.
Harmony is everything you’d expect from a AAA first person shooter… if it were 1995. There are 11 sprawling levels full of bad guys to kill, secrets to reveal and keys to find (purple, yellow and lime— a departure from the usual primaries). Each level is increasingly more over-the-top than the last, with impressive use of scale, open spaces, and expressive architecture. The enemies are particularly memorable, handcrafted out of clay and well animated. The same can’t be said for the weapons, which, besides the grenade/rocket launcher, are wholly typical—nothing more than functional. And while the music is palatable, I found myself turning it down and listening to podcasts or my own tunes instead.
Everything looks crisp and clean, and a wide variety of aspect ratios and screen resolutions are supported. Harmony is very pretty for what it is. The controls are map-able, mouse look is supported, and if you enable crouching and jumping, you won’t feel restricted in your movement. I don’t think the levels are designed for this freedom, but I prefer it, even if I did accidentally bypass certain areas (I think?) or jump myself over a few ledges-of-no-return.
If you have any place in your heart for the first person shooters of yore, download Harmony immediately. It’s fun, it’s free, and it’s a chance to play a new old shooter. Give it a shot, at least for nostalgia’s sake.
Harmony is:
-a resurrection of the old school fps.
-full of well designed levels.
-pretty hard. I played it on very easy.
Many of us suspected that due to BioShock 2's inclusion of a multiplayer mode, some kind of matchmaking would be needed. It seems 2K has chosen the same route that many other PC devs are starting to use; Games For Windows Live. Unfortunately, it also comes with some troubling DRM and caveats.
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Other Requirements & DRM:
Initial installation requires one-time internet connection; Ability to save game, earn achievements, receive title updates and online play requires log-in to Games for Windows LIVE; software installations required including Microsoft Visual C++2008 Runtime Libraries, Games for Windows LIVE client, Games for Windows LIVE Client Patch, Sony DADC SecuROM, Microsoft DirectX.
Bolding added.
According to Steam, the SecuROM install limit is for 5 machines.
UPDATE: As detailed here, a Steam representative has clarified the DRM restrictions and the activation limits.
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You are not required to be online to save a game
The SecuROM disc-check is only present in the boxed copy
15 activations, according to the community manager, though the Steam page lists only 5. This might be clarified soon, hopefully.
Online activations for multiple computers is via GFWL, not SecuROM (as it was in the first Bioshock).
Tradewest Games SAS confirms the simultaneous release of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC March 19, 2010. voted best fighting game of 2009 by IGN UK with the maximum score of 10/10, the revolution of the kind happens in Europe in an optimized version!
First shot of the Special European edition: all the additional content once paid is now included! Thus, at the outset of the 12 required additional variants, and 12 characters in declination "Unlimited" is available. An exceptional content, also present in the PC version created for the European launch. PC gamers who can also be measured by those on Xbox 360 as BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger is a Games for Windows Live! An undeniable asset weight champion for all categories of fighting games in online mode.
What are they talking about? Cross-platform matches between 360 and PC players.
I'm pretty sure there's something wonky going on with the translation there, but whatever. Here's to hoping it finds its way to Steam or at least (bitterbitter) GFWL Games on Demand. System requirements ahead:
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Operating System: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
Processor: Intel Core2Duo 2.0GHz
RAM: 2 GB Or Higher
Hard Disk: 10GB Of Free Space
Graphics Card: DirectX Compatible 9.0c/Shader 3.0 Series NVIDIA GeForce 8600 Or ATI Radeon 1900 With 512MB VRAM
Sound: DirectSound Compatible, DirectX 9.0c Compatible
Awaiting annoying high-quality-sprite-rip-avatars all over the internet.
I can't pick just one for this week, folks. I can't. There's too much. Last week I mentioned that we might have to do another round-up style installment of Free and Worth Every Penny soon, and this week things hit critical mass. There are so many high quality free titles showing up out there right now, I can barely play them all! Which means I need your help. Let's get to work.
Paolo Pedercini's "Every Day the Same Dream" has been written up everywhere from RockPaperShotgun to GamersWithJobs to Kotaku, and with good reason. Visually and musically distinctive, quick to play, and uniquely contemplative, it feels like a mixture of Jason Rohrer's Passage and Groundhog Day.
I realize that this means some of you will hate it.
But I really enjoyed my time with Every Day. The game presents you with a situation where your desire to break away from the world's constraints are shared by the character you control, and you have to figure out how to do that - or whether it's even possible - together. It's not a feel-good game, but it made me feel good about gaming.
Take a top down dual-stick (or in this case WASD+mouse) shooter. Now make it an 8-bit style RPG. Now make it a cooperative MMO. Now embed it in a webpage. Presto: you've got Realm of the Mad God.
Another product of TIGSource's competitive nature (in this case, their Assemblee Competition), Realm of the Mad God boasts a huge world to explore, hundreds of enemies to fight, items to collect, persistent character leveling, and a chat system (as if to further prove that even in a Flash-based game made for a forum competition, in an MMO, hell is other people). This one is brought to us by Rob & Alex of "Wild Shadow Studios", and you can read more about the game here.
Having been in development for at least a couple years now (I can find blog posts about it going back to 2007), and finally seeing a finished release late last month, GENETOS is the story of the shmup genre, told by Tatsuya Koyama in a shmup of his own. Start out in a distinctly Space Invaders-themed opening level, and make your way through the history of shmups all the way to the bullet hell pictured above, evolving your capabilities as you go.
I'm not a huge fan of shmup games, largely because I'm not terribly good at them, but I recently got addicted to Space Invaders: Infinity Gene on the iPhone, which uses almost exactly the same mechanic. I thought it was terribly clever, and was surprised to learn that Mr. Koyama had the same idea years ago, and executed on it admirably - and for free.
Unlike the last two, which were webgames, GENETOS is a Windows download of about 27MB.
Last one for this week - not because I don't have more, I do, but it's getting late and this is getting long. Besides, I don't want to overwhelm you. I want to let the zombies do that.
A "de-make" of the best zombie apocalypse simulator around, Pixel Force Left 4 Dead takes Bill, Louis, Francis and Zoey and tosses them back to the mid-80's to star in an NES-style version of the game we all know and love. All four of the campaigns are included, playable solo or in 2-player co-op. You'll also find the weapons you're used to, and the special infected you loathe, all modified to fit an 8-bit frame.
Some changes to the formula were obviously necessary - swarms of hundreds of zombies have been removed here in favor of slower, more deliberate gameplay, partly since you can only shoot in four directions, I'm sure (though holding down the fire button switches your movement to strafing, which is nice). But don't let yourself think that fewer zombies means it's going to be easy. None of the zombies go down in one hit anymore, and if they do swarm you, a speedy trip back to the last safe house is in store. Watch your back.
Pixel Force Left 4 Dead is also a Windows download, of about 20MB.
Before I go: Terry Cavanagh, author of Don't Look Back from the very firstFree and Worth Every Pennyinstallment, has released his first commercial title, VVVVVV. You can play the 2-level demo online at Kongregate, or download it and purchase it if you like at the official site. It's pretty goddamn brilliant.
That's it for this week, kids. Get gaming. See you next time.
Are you a creative artistic type? Are you a fan of Team Fortress 2? Then today's your day.
Developer Valve knows that tons of great custom items have been created by their community over the years. Now they want to take the best of those and actually include them in the full game. There's no guarantee that your creation will make it, but they want to see some interesting and original ideas. There's some legal notes you have to browse through to submit, but noting to hairy.
Oh, and Valve has also just pushed a new patch for the game out the door. For the full list of changes and fixes click the 'more' button
Additions: Various improvements to Spy disguise and feign death
Disguise weapons copying weapons with special animation requirements (Sword, FaN) now look correct
Spies now play the appropriate death cry on feign death based on the corpse that appears
Feigning death can now play custom death animations like a normal death (head loss, sniper shot, backstab, etc)
Feigning death due to explosive damage now has a chance to gib, like a normal death
Corpses from a feign death now use the correct wearable behavior (hats stay on, or fall off as they should)
The weapons dropped by feign death corpses now have appropriate physics and collision for their type
Combat text for damage done to Spies that feign death will now show the un-modified damage amount
Fixed Spies that feign death while disguised as enemy spies dropping fake ragdolls wearing a mask
Fixed a couple of physics issues on ragdolls created by feign death
Added convars to further customize the "play a hit sound whenever you injure an enemy" option
tf_dingaling_volume". Sets the volume of the hit sound
tf_dingaling_pitchmindmg". Sets the desired pitch of the hit sound when a minor damage hit is done
tf_dingaling_pitchmaxdmg". Sets the desired pitch of the hit sound when a major damage hit is done
tf_dingaling_wav_override". Specifies an optional custom wav hit sound. If unspecified, the default ding sound is used
Added Medic Ubersaw kill taunt
Added backstab death animations for Scout, Spy, Medic, Demo, Engineer, and Pyro. All death animations have a 25% chance to play
Updated various localization strings Changes:
Removed the clamps on the "viewmodel_fov" convar
Added "viewmodel_fov_demo", a convar that controls viewmodel fov during demo playback
Force-a-Nature will now correctly knock back players on the ground
Increased minimum damage required for the Force-a-Nature to cause a knockback from 30 to 40
Changed the Direct Hit to only minicrit enemies that have been launched into the air by an explosion
Increased the rate of the Soldier's Rage generation by 40%
Reduced the duration of the Soldier's Buff Banner effect from 14 seconds to 10
Reduced the explosive damage resistance on the Chargin' Targe to 50% Fixes:
Fixed the Scout's legs twisting out of shape during a double jump
Fixed player models popping up and then down when they duck during a jump
Fixed Sniper rifle not penetrating friendlies
Fixed Bonk! Atomic Punch phase effect
Fixed rockets not being removed if they explode in func_nogrenades zones
Fixed the Sandman being able to bat balls through doors
Fixed the Gunboats absorbing damage from the Soldier's grenade kill taunt
Fixed the naming of non-unique quality unique items (Community Kritzkriegs, etc)
Minor fixes to the crafting UI
Changed the item layout in the crafting panel to better fit the backpack panel
Each 1 of the 4 crafting pages now shows half of 1 of the 2 backpack pages
Fixed the crafting panel next/prev page buttons being hard to use while dragging
Fixed the "equipped" label in the item panels stealing the mouse focus from the item panel itself
Updated Novint Falcon Settings:
Recoil/Reload force added for the Direct Hit rocket launcher
Recoil/Reload force added for the Scottish Resistance sticky bomb launcher
More defined flesh hit force added for the Equalizer pick axe
More defined flesh hit/world hit force added for the Eyelander sword
Added swing forces for Eyelander sword
Added appropriate trumpet forces for Blu Buff Banner
Added appropriate trumpet forces for Red Buff Banner
Shotgun reload for Heavy & Pyro changed to feel more appropriate now
Changed Huntsman pullback force so that it goes in the right direction (was still pulling as if the Huntsman was on the left hand side of the screen, which was default until a later update)
You probably haven't heard of this, but Global Agenda is a PC only game from Hi Rez Studios that is a blend of MMOs and shooters that appears to be the first to actually deliver on the 'blend' part.
Have a look at a couple of trailers and judge for yourself. Take note of the visual style which actually contains colours! Shocking.
Despite being built in the Unreal 3 engine, and despite looking really rather fine, it presents itself as an MMO. It’s a third person view of your character, with a tray of icons along the bottom of the screen, health and energy top left. But try and play it like an MMO and you’re going to end up dying rather a lot. This is fast, it’s proper action, and until you accept both genres melded into one, you’re going to be rubbish at it. Or at least I was. And then it clicked.
The PVE section of the game consists of missions that you can play co-operatively with up to 3 other buddies. The PVP part is where things get interesting:
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Hi Rez reckon it will take about twenty hours before you have a fully skilled character (although with the implants, the scaling continues indefinitely), which then lets you into the second phase of the game, the Campaigns. By forming Agencies with fellow players, you enter technology races against other groups, in a 45 day campaign to build and defend a base from which you launch your assaults. This becomes a game of gaining territory, gaining or stealing resources, and constructing facilities, all the while fought using the action PvP and PvE missions.
The game's coming out in February, with little marketing push, sadly enough.
But hey, at least it's themed this time. Over the last few weeks I've played a whole mess of clever, simple, or downright weird RPGs - all leftovers that I didn't get to from the 
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