A big 'ol patch is coming to the System Shock remake next Thursday, headlined by "[reworking] the entire final fight with new mechanics and a unique flow" and adding a female character option for our hacker. Update 1.2 will also tweak and fix and fiddle with heaps of other things. Our System Shock review called it "a breathtakingly beautiful and astonishingly faithful remake that proves the enduring power of Looking Glass design" when it launched last year, though I would say System Shock's final battle is one of the most dated parts, so I'm curious to see the new form.
]]>“Oh yeah, we’ve got the System Shock IP,” said the insurance company. “What do you want to do with it? Do you want to make a sequel?”
It’s a question you could imagine being posed to Ken Levine, or Warren Spector, or several other notable designers who could reasonably lay claim to the legacy of Looking Glass and Irrational’s legendary immersive sims. Instead, it was asked of Stephen Kick - at the time, a recently unemployed videogame artist holidaying in a Guatemalan hostel. Up until that point, Kick had dedicated his life to creative pursuits. He had no business background, and none of the acumen required to understand contracts or negotiate licensing fees. More to the point, he had no more than $5,000 to his name. Hardly the foundation for a follow-up to two of the most acclaimed PC games of all time.
]]>You didn’t hear it from me, but games look different now to how they did in 1994. Mmm. Nonetheless, Nightdive Studio’s System Shock remake stays resolutely faithful to the Looking Glass original even when giving it a modern 3D makeover, with a retro flourish in its intentionally pixellated textures.
As a snappy little After Eight to the main course of Jeremy Peel’s review and OG System Shock oral history (both great, do go read those first), here’s a look at how the 2023 remake’s visuals compare to the trailblazing immsim’s previous iterations. In other words, the 2015 System Shock: Enhanced Edition, also by Nightdive, and the original. Well, System Shock Classic, which is basically the original except it runs on my PC.
]]>For a certain sort of PC gaming fan, System Shock is where it all began. 30 years of immersive sim development started here, as Looking Glass escaped the restraints of the RPG genre and embraced thoughtful first-person action. SHODAN broke free, and the world was never the same. Without System Shock, there would be no Thief or Gloomwood, no Prey or Dead Space. Bioshock was conceived as its sequel. The creative figureheads behind Deus Ex and Dishonored were wrapped up in its creation, and forever changed by contact with Looking Glass and its unique philosophy.
Countless studios have used Citadel Station as a star to steer by, measuring their own work against System Shock’s commitment to simulation, dense atmosphere, and method-ish refusal to break character. This was not so much a game as an alternate reality. As one of our interviewees tells us: “We were trying to build the holodeck.”
Here’s the story of how it was made, as told by the people who made it.
]]>Sometime before SHODAN’s ethical constraints were removed and the rogue AI set about converting the people of Citadel Station into cyborgs, a researcher named Stacy Everson found a smoking gun hidden among the blinking servers of the spaceship’s library. Not an assault rifle or mini-pistol, but a decades-old email chain between her TriOptimum bosses and a psychologist named Jeffrey Hammer. In the early stages of Citadel’s construction, Hammer suggested that each level of the station be designed in such a way as to induce stress and anxiety, so that experts could study their impact on the human psyche during space travel.
“I always knew something was off about this place!”, wrote Stacy to a colleague. “We are just rats in a maze.”
]]>Developer Nightdive Studios were hoping to release their System Shock remake by the end of March, but they’ve had to push the PC release to later this year, now locking in a May 30th release date. The immersive sim will release on consoles at a later date, but PC players can experience the classic this summer, complete with a facelift and a space station full of other changes.
]]>Happy New Year, folks! Crikey, there are a lot of games coming out this year, aren't there? When I first asked the team to put together their most anticipated games for 2023, I was thinking we'd have a reasonably sensible number of things we were all looking forward to, you know, somewhere in the region of the 43 games we highlighted at the start of 2022. Very quickly, though, it became apparent that, actually, there are simply loads of games the RPS Treehouse is personally excited about this year, and cor, it would be rude not to include every last one of them. I'll be upfront: there are a fair number of TBA games on here that probably aren't going to come out in 2023, but as ever, we remain hopeful and optimistic all the same. So let's dive in.
]]>With a March release window already locked in, we won’t need to wait much longer to experience developer Nightdive’s System Shock remake. The 1994 immersive sim is receiving more than just a facelift, though, as Nightdive have released more new clips of the game in action over on their Kickstarter blog. Nightdive’s first blog post of the year gives us fresh looks at the game’s enemy variants, visual updates, and most importantly, its bloody cool dismemberment system.
]]>A release window for Nightdive Studios’ long-in-development remake of sci-fi immersive sim System Shock has popped up on Steam, like a rogue AI on a futuristic space station terminal. Nightdive now appear to be aiming for a March 2023 release for System Shock, according to the game’s recently updated Steam store page. Although there’s nothing more than that, and Nightdive haven’t announced anything themselves, it’s a step forward for the game.
]]>Nightdive's remake of 1994 classic System Shock hasn't had the smoothest development run, first having some money issues in its Kickstarter a while back, then having to reboot itself with twenty-twenty-something release dates chucked out there more as hopeful concepts than assurances.
Having gone hands-on with a short 20-minute-ish demo of the game at this year's Gamescom, I can confirm that the remake is real and seems faithful to the original despite some heavy tinkers in the modernisation station. For nostalgic fans it should make for an exciting revisit to cyberspace, but I'm unsure whether it'll land quite as well for newcomers seeking a showdown with Shodan.
]]>As if they weren't busy enough remaking System Shock, Nightdive Studio have announced plans for a live-action web TV series based on Looking Glass's sci-fi FPS. It'd be headed to Binge, an upcoming gaming-focused streaming platform which also has plans for a Driver series. Yeah yeah, but who's gonna play Shodan?
]]>Crank your gamma up. There’s some new System Shock footage here for you to squint at. The remake of the 1994 classic has taken some twists and turns in its development, even rebooting itself, but it’s now at a place where they’re happy to take you through the Research level of Citadel station. The seven minutes of footage below shows off sneaking, shooting, and some hacking. You need to turn your lights down to see it, though.
]]>There's a new and final demo available now for System Shock, Nightdive's remake of the immersive sim classic. There's also a new trailer, as the game gears up for a planned release this summer.
]]>I would not describe System Shock as easy-going, laid-back, or a game for elevator music. Yet here comes a new trailer out of notE3 suggesting that being pursued by the hordes of a sexy murderous AI might be quite calming. Presumably for players who get well into being called "insect". I see you.
]]>You, there, stop that. You've got new videogames to play. Good Old Games has just launched free demos for Desperados 3 and the System Shock remake, along with a handful of other upcoming games. I've already had a sneaky play of both tactical cowboys and cybernetic spaceship loners, so I can already tell you they're worth your time. Aren't I good.
This is also another chance to check out Carrion, a horror game where you are a horrible mass of sticky tentacles.
]]>There's bad news ahead for Shodan fans - System Shock 3 might be in trouble after numerous members of the development team have parted ways with OtherSide Entertainment. Rumours suggest that the entire development team might have been laid off. At the very least, several senior devs have confirmed they no longer work at the company.
]]>If you read System Shock 2’s patch notes on Steam you might notice something unusual, as I did. In the list of fixes, additions, and technical talk, there's a note thanking "Le Corbeau" for providing the patch. It's an official patch that the game’s publishers pushed onto Steam, but reading the note it looked to me like they didn’t know who was updating their game. Can that really be the case? Spoilers for this article, but the answer is “yes”, and Le Corbeau remains anonymous to this day. Even after two decades, System Shock 2 still holds onto its secrets.
]]>Two servings of System Shock goodness in just one day? Why yes, I will have cyber-seconds. Following up after OtherSide's System Shock 3 trailer, Night Dive have shared twenty minutes of uncut exploration from their upcoming remake of the first game. It's taken a while to get here, via a detour into a since-cancelled redesign, but I can't grumble about the results. If their aim is to update the original System Shock, chunky level geometry, familiar puzzles and all to modern spec, then they're on the right track. Take a wander through Citadel Station's familiar medical deck below.
]]>Troubled publisher Starbreeze won't be associated with the upcoming System Shock 3 anymore, as they've sold the rights to the game back to developers OtherSide Entertainment. The publisher have announced that "Starbreeze fully expects to be reimbursed for costs the company has had in connection with the development of the game". Both companies have had their share of trouble recently, with Starbreeze filing for administration and being investigated for insider trading. OtherSide are busy putting out the fires caused by the disastrous launch of Underworld Ascendant.
]]>Our audience may skew towards us old fogeys who remember the days of DOS memory management. Some of you are still young, or just late to the party. The Ancestor Bundle over on Fanatical costs as much as a cup of coffee - cheap cafeteria stuff, not Starbucks - and gets you a bunch of immersive sims including both System Shock Games, Strife (the 90s one, not the MOBA) and the more recent Spirits of Xanadu. You also get dark point-and-click adventure I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream, N64-era platform explore-o-shooter Shadow Man and recently re-released mech RTS Metal Fatigue.
]]>It's been almost three years since we all braved one last trip into the crumbling Kickstarter mines to drag System Shock back into the daylight. Night Dive's modernised do-over of the proto-immersive sim has clearly suffered a few trials and tribulations during the protracted Remakening process, but I'm struck by how similar the latest video is to the relatively spanky demo build I played back in 2016.
But though the game would seem to have stayed the same, the same cannot be said of the lighting. It's so glowy. And foggy. And delightfully menacing.
]]>It looks like Night Dive's System Shock remake is finally back on track, after a messy engine switch, a cancelled change in art direction and a delay until 2020. Below, we get our first video peek at the 'adventure alpha' version of the immersive sim revival, currently going out to some higher-tier Kickstarter backers. We also get a little peek at the remake's design methodology and a look at some deliciously animated doors in its latest public Kickstarter update.
]]>Nightdive's remake of System Shock has been delayed until 2020, but playing the 1994 original is a more tempting option now. Paving the way for immersive sims like Deus Ex and Dishonored, System Shock is an important part of the genre's history, and after a surprise update yesterday it's a far more playable one.
System Shock: Enhanced Edition is now a sharper looking game, expanded to widescreen and with modernised, configurable controls. Below, a trailer showing off what System Shock looks like, freed of its DOS-era jank. It's also on sale, which is nice.
]]>Update: The creation of ReWired was made possible via the level editor, Deck, created by System Shock scholar Dertseha. They spent years (much of it without access to source code) reverse-engineering the game as part of their InkyBlackness project to create a comprehensive set of tools for the game.
Here's just what the horrifying cyborg doctor ordered to keep System Shock fans busy while we're waiting on the delayed remake and mysterious sequel. The original System Shock launched over 24 years ago, but only now are fans finally equipped with the tools to produce mods for the game, thanks to Nightdive Studios releasing the source code. System Shock: ReWired from old-school modder 3RDplayer is its first fan-made campaign, set aboard a medical ship - the UNN Bismarck - which has fallen under SHODAN's control.
]]>The retronauts at Night Dive Studios have shared a look at the latest version of their crowdfunded System Shock, a game which has gone from a straight remake to an expanded reimagining and back down to remake. They had to scale the game down and lay off some staff after some publisher funding fell through, see. Now, yup, it again looks like System Shock but a bit fancier.
But if you want to have your own crack at updating System Shock, hey, they've now released some of the game's original source code - and more's to come.
]]>Not too long ago, we reported that things were sounding a bit wobbly over on the System Shock remake's Kickstarter page. Plans to divert from a pure remake to redesign the game from the ground up had spiraled out of control, and money was running low.
While some less optimistic folks took this as a death knell for the project and declared it done and dusted at the time, the reality of the situation doesn't seem to be nearly so dramatic. The game is officially back on track using their previous design, but it has come at a cost of time.
]]>When we last reported on the Kickstarter-funded System Shock remake from Night Dive Studios, all sounded relatively well, and the team were gearing up to expand the scope of their plans, from making a straight remake into something more akin to a modern-day reboot for the series.
Unfortunately, greater scope means a greater budget and investments in both time and manpower. After additional publisher support to back up this new vision didn't come through, Night Dive are 'taking a step back' to reassess the project and get it back more in line with their original Kickstarter promises, as detailed in this (public) backer update from Stephen Kick, Night Dive CEO.
]]>Welcome to the freshly relaunched RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show! You might think this is episode 31, but actually it’s episode 1 again. We’re rebooting it, even though we just did that last year. We’ve started by making it more accessible. Instead of three of us chatting about videogames between snippets of jaunty music, there’s just a sad man saying “Sonic the Hedgehog” over and over. We’re confident you’ll like it.
]]>Back in March, we reported that the successfully-crowdfunded System Shock remake was rebooting development with a new central aesthetic. We're starting to see that decision bear fruit, as the latest update for Kickstarter backers features a good chunk of new footage showing off the refreshed visuals, some new concept art, and a peek at some of the improvements they're bringing to combat.
After the jump: A generously-portioned developer vlog video, giving us a broad peek at how development on the game is progressing, adorably presented in official Citadel Station audio-log format.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.
There are lots of things I love about NEO Scavenger [official site]. I love how, despite its lo-fi visuals, it conveys the fickle fortunes and indifferent cruelty of a wilderness better than many technologically superior survival games. I love its ridiculously detailed combat system that lets you rugby-tackle feral dogs. I love the ambient sound effects that convey the misleading serenity of its natural environments; the chirping of birds, the wind in the trees, the soft crunch of grass underfoot. Delightful.
]]>It's Summer Games Done Quick time again! You know what that means. The final seal has been broken, the rivers are turning to blood, and High Dread Azagorath is free to destroy the land. But while people wait, they're doing speed-runs. And in celebration of that, I thought I'd take a dig through the archives for a few particularly impressive and interesting ones that take that whole idea of a fifty hour epic and beat it down so quickly, the hero's hometown doesn't even have time to finish smouldering.
]]>For a few horrible minutes during E3, it looked like Bethesda might seriously claim that The Elder Scrolls and Fallout were part of the same universe. Thankfully, not. Despite this being an era where Sony wants a Ghostbusters universe and Universal thinks demeaning the Universal Monsters by linking them with a top-sekrit monstah hunting group led by Dr Jekyll is anything other than schoolboy fan-fiction, Bethesda's Pete Hines has been quick to go "What? No. No! No..." Phew! Honestly, it's bad enough that Daggerfall has six endings, ranging from the villain becoming a god to orcs being either defeated or victorious, and canonically all of them are true.
But at a time when we're seriously asked to pretend that "Dark Universe" is a thing we should want to see, that unholy union really wasn't impossible...
]]>Am I being a mad old man or does this look quite different to the bluer, brighter, System Shockier demo put out to publicise Night Dive's System Shock Reboot [official site] Kickstarter last Summer?
In this matter at least, I am confident my sanity is unaffected. For as well as an apparent shift in its art direction to something more traditionally sci-fi/horror, SSR has hopped from Unity to the Unreal engine, resulting in a very different-looking game. Better in many way, yes, but perhaps less like the 1994 original. Take a look below, and hear Night Dive's reasoning for the ol'switcheroo.
]]>The Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund a remake of System Shock [official site] ended yesterday and - surprise surprise - the news is good. Shooting for $900,000 (£680,000-ish), Night Dive Studios drew $1,350,700 (about £1.02 million) in pledges from 21,625 backers. Turns out, quite a few people would like to see a remake of Looking Glass Studios' classic sci-fi horror. Who knew! Now begins the wait until December 2017, when Night Dive plan to release the game.
]]>Nightdive's System Shock [official site] remake will be coming to Mac and Linux, with the project having passed the $1.1m mark on Kickstarter and hitting the relevant stretch goal. In announcing the additional platforms, the developers have also taken the opportunity to alter one of their other stretch goals. The $1.4m target had initially read "RPG elements" and Nightdive have acknowledged that "it was vague and misleading". Now, they'll be adding more maps if they reach $1.4m and those RPG elements will be included whatever the final figure. Here's what that means.
]]>"Day 4. I've looked everywhere, but I can't find anything to eat or a clue to get me off the ship. Just... more audiologs! They're everywhere! For some reason I keep listening to every minute of every one thinking there'll be some useful information but... they're just filler! Filler that's driving me to madness!" - South Park: The Stick Of Truth
It's hard to argue. They're kinda dumb. But I'm still fond of this stupid little trope.
]]>GL_TEXTUREMODE GL_NEAREST read my knuckle tattoos. People on the bus gasp when they see my twenty-four fingers curl around the grab rail and I think "Yeah that's right, normies, I bet you are shocked: no texture filtering, not even mipmapping. I bet it's freaking your nut out to discover how real video games should really be played."
So I'm mortified to discover that Nightdive Studios are enabling texture filtering in their System Shock remake [Kickstarter page], after it was so wonderfully disabled in their Kickstarter demo. But hey, they are improving the demo in ways too.
]]>Looking back on System Shock, one part inevitably stands out more than any other. SHODAN. The goddess of Citadel Station. With her words she turned a futuristic maze into a horrific hunter/hunted situation, where survival was about clawing back control and beating the machine at her own game. It’s an impressive achievement… but especially when you consider that really, she was little more than a few well written voice files and a world that let them temporarily seem like something more.
Since the start of gaming though, there’s been technology… and there’s been showmanship. One often gets mistaken for the other. We see advanced AI in characters that simply broadcast what they’re doing. A simple line of dialogue at the right moment can make a game. In Deus Ex for instance, being shouted at for going into the ladies’ wasn’t simply a cute bit of scripting, but its way of saying that it was always watching. And you were never going to know what it was watching out for.
Sometimes, characters just commenting at all can create wonders.
]]>Suddenly, we have an embarrassment of System Shock riches. First System Shock Enhanced, then a Warren Spector-augmented System Shock 3, and now System Shock Reboot, a total remastering of the first game. It's just poor old System Shock 2 that's left in the cold, as EA jealously guard the rights to the sci-horror series' most acclaimed instalment. That's another day's concern, though: right now, let's talk about the free alpha demo released to promote System Shock Reboot's Kickstarter. When they say 'reimagining', just how much similarity and how much change does that actually mean? It's compare and contrast time, chums.
]]>We've talked about it a lot recently, but the reboot of System Shock [official site] is coming — and it's going to need a bit of help through Kickstarter in order to make it. Developers Night Dive Studios are looking for a tidy $900,000 (about £675,000) in order to make their complete remake of System Shock a (hopefully) terrifying reality, and there's even a nifty little demo you can play to help you make up your mind.
]]>Night Dive's remake/reimaging/reboot/rejiggering of the frighteningly important proto-immersive sim System Shock is due for Kickstarter later today, and word is it may include a playable demo. Ahead of that, here's nine minutes of footage from the start of the game that are so impressive that I might have to end my moratorium on the use of the word 'stonking.'
]]>Just when you thought there was one retro-remake that was simply gonna get itself made rather than sing for its supper first, System Shock Remastered [official site] has dropped an upside-down hat on the ground and is fixing passers-by with an anxious smile. NightDive Studio's remastering of SHODAN's first adventure is happening in parallel with OtherSide Entertainment's Warren Spector-assisted System Shock 3, but going on the impressive alpha footage earlier this year is likely to happen first. Presuming the newly-announced Kickstarter works out, anyway.
]]>When Alice last dunked the RPS scifi horror-o-meter into Night Dive Studio's System Shock remake, the readings came back with some early screens of the reinterpreted Citadel Station. The stills were a wonderful combination of old versus new, as developers Night Dive have been consulting with the original System Shock team, including concept artist Robb Waters.
There's now some footage on the loose which looks even lovelier. Pop below to see for yourself.
]]>In the kind of Getting The Band Back Together news that makes me hyperventilate ever so slightly, the news just broke that Warren Spector has joined Otherside Games, the studio working on System Shock 3 and Ultima Underworld spiritual successor Underworld Ascendant.
]]>System Shock 3 [official site] is now properly, formally announced with a press release and everything, and, well, I was two-thirds right. First, the basics: the third part of Looking Glass Studios' hallowed sci-fi FPS-RPG series, whose rights were only recently untangled by Night Dive Studios, is being made by OtherSide Entertainment. That's the Underworld Ascendant lot, who were founded by Looking Glass co-founder Paul Neurath and include a few other LGS folks. And... that's mostly all we know. Oh! And Terri Brosius is returning to voice AI antagonist SHODAN, as you can hear in this clip.
]]>Oh! Well then. I guess System Shock 3 is actually happening. Cool, cool. Seems it'll be coming from a team including folks who worked on the original too: Looking Glass co-founder Paul Neurath's new mob OtherSide Entertainment. You know, them lot currently working on Ultima Underworld sequel Underworld Ascendant. Yep, no biggie. STAY CALM, ALICE. MAINTAIN STEELY EXTERIOR.
Otherside have a teaser page saying "SYSTEM SHOCK 3" all casual like, which seems to have been uncovered earlier than planned given that the timer they did actually announce is still counting down another five days. So yeah, sure, System Shock 3.
]]>That there System Shock remake Night Dive Studios got on the go after untangling and acquiring its rights? It's jolly shiny! Those Polygon folks have a load of screenshots comparing Looking Glass's original 1994 FPS-RPG with this new version and gosh, it's made some interesting decisions. The architecture of Citadel Station is about the same, essentially built of big blocks and steep angles, but the detailing and textures are all hi-res and shiny and everything is glowing and bathed in bloom - a negotiation between modern graphics technology and the original look. Go on, git, go look!
]]>Night Dive are responsible for the recent Enhanced Edition of the original System Shock and in an interview with Fast Company, CEO Stephen Kick explained that his company have "acquired the full rights to the franchise" and have been working with the game's original concept artist as they develop a full remake of the game. Talks about a possible System Shock 3 have also begun, although Night Dive admit they would need outside help to achieve something on that scale.
]]>The original System Shock is now available on GOG. It's no exaggeration to say that Looking Glass' first-person sci-fi horror hybrid is one of the most influential games ever released and the new enhanced edition should lead to a re-evaluation of its precise place in the history and development of the immersive sim. Night Dive Studios are responsible for the re-release:
"With System Shock: Enhanced Edition, we're implementing game-changing improvements, including mouselook, widescreen, and a high resolution display mode," says Stephen Kick, CEO of Night Dive Studios. "The classic game has never been more accessible to a modern audience."
Video and details below.
]]>The contemporary big-budget FPS has a few different strains: blood-n-guts military settings a la Call of Duty, open-world environments like Far Cry, and high-concept dystopias. Outside of open-world most of these styles were first codified in the 1990s, and FPS games then and now share an enormous amount: primarily a core mechanic of shooting many hundreds of enemies in the face over and over again, as well as crossover in areas like structure, goal-chaining, and narrative delivery. FPS games, in other words, have for a long time been constructed on resilient and proven principles. And many of them come from Looking Glass Studios.
]]>Happy birthday, SHODAN! The puckish AI with delusions of godhood turned 20 on Monday (as did System Shock, I guess), and would be flattered by what some are doing to celebrate and glorify her. Firstly, a group of System Shock's creators got together to stream the Looking Glass classic and gas about the dear old gal and their game. If watching isn't enough, (another) project aiming to remake System Shock has appeared, and it's looking pretty good so far.
]]>In this second part of my conversation with Warren Spector, we discuss the good and bad of Disney, Spector’s new role as an Academy director, the benefits and drawbacks of growing up as a gamer, and the parallels between Hollywood in the late forties and the games industry now. Also, why indie development is the place to be.
]]>There are a lot of words being written about the new consoles this week but when I spoke to Warren Spector a few days ago, he was clear about where his future lies: “I think all the interesting stuff is happening on PC now… Assuming I make more games, which I intend to do, PC and Mac are going to be my targets.”
It’s good to hear. We spoke at the Bradford Animation Festival and covered a wide range of topics, from his theories of design and pioneering role in PC gaming to thoughts on the current state of the industry. In this first part of our conversation, there’s insight into how Spector see his own legacy and the work of his former colleagues, and how frustrations with Thief’s difficulty inspired the player empowerment of Deus Ex.
]]>"When the history of my glory is written, your species shall only be a footnote to my magnificence," said a terrifying lady, yesterday, to me. Or SHODAN did or whatever. But her legacy lives on thanks to the kind of innovation Looking Glass studios was interested in. Paul Neurath, the co-founder and creative director of Looking Glass from 'the day it opened to the day it closed' has been interviewed on this super fascinating podcast looking back on his time with the studio. The company was responsible for some of our dearest memories, such as Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief, before it closed its doors (sob!) in 2000.
]]>Curse our limited-length titles! For this post should really be called something like 'Irrational co-founder and now Blue Manchu boss Jon Chey talks more about his splendid-sounding new PC boardgame/ CCG/ MMO mash-up Card Hunter, how to make free-to-play non-horrible, what he thinks the future might be for immersive sims in the vein of System Shock and his thoughts on his former studio's controversial XCOM remake'. Doesn't bloomin' fit though, does it? Oh well. You'll find all that stuff out for yourself simply by reading on: tons of interesting comments in here, and I'm particularly excited by the thought towards the end that a coming wave of mid-budget simulational shooters might be on the cards, and far more likely to take big creative risks than their glossier triple-A peers... (Oh, and if you missed the more Card Hunter-centric first part of this interview, looky here).
]]>Here's some news for you. And not just news. NEWS. Valve Software have just hired a new employee. And not just a new employee. A NEW EMPLOYEE.
Doug Church. Doug 'Thief' Church. Doug 'System Shock' Church. Doug 'Ultima Underworld' Church. Doug 'Deus Ex' Church. Doug 'helped (to varying degrees) design a good dozen of the most beloved PC games of all time' Church.
And now he's at Valve, who have themselves made several more of the most beloved PC games of all time. To don my Hat of Supreme Hyperbole for a moment, Elvis* has joined the Beatles.
]]>This is a big one. No, really. News reached me via Qt3 that Malba Tahan - henceforth known as Saint Malba Tahan - has created a mod for the original System Shock. As well as letting you configure keys and plays with resolution, it adds mouse-look to the game. System Shock is, frankly, one of the most important videogames of all time, and the difficulty in actually learning its pre-mouse-look controls the biggest impediment to people going back and play it now. With Malba's work, that's gone. Go see Jim write here to get an overview of the wonder of Shock and then, assuming you can get hold of a copy, go get the mod here.
]]>Gaming archaeology: now there's an idea. It can only be better than Bonekickers, anyway.
Upon hearing that EA Mythic had received several crateloads full of Origin Systems (the long-dead studio behind the Wing Commander and Ultima games, plus System Shock, and once home to the power duo of Warren Spector and Richard Garriot) archive materials, a group of fans arranged to catalogue the treasure trove. It turned out that EA seems to have hung onto an incredible amount of stuff, making this find perhaps the PC game equivalent of discovering all those fossilised folk in Pompeii. Best of all, there's a good chance all these historical goodies will be released to the public.
]]>Yep, it's a System Shock retrospective over at PC Gamer UK. Remembering the crazy 'ol FPS scene of '94, I say a few things about the game that somehow completely failed to define the spirit of the time:
]]>Okay, in a vague warm-up for Bioshock - and I figure that anything's a better use of my time than sitting on every single Bioshock thread on the internet and pressing "refresh" all day - I download System Shock from Underdogs and get it working on DOSBox, with full sound (P-P-PATHETIC CREATURE OF MEAT AND BONE!) and everything. It'll be easier if I still had XP installed, as I'd be able to turn to System Shock Portable, which will even run from a USB drive.
]]>
