DID YOU KNOW: one of the first-ever posts on this here website was about Massive Entertainment's alt-Cold War real-time strategy game World in Conflict, and for years we even had a screenshot of one of its very impressive explosions on our About/mission statement page. It was a game we liked so much that we even ran photographs of TV's famous Kieron Gillen wearing a delightful promotional WiC hat. As such, it's been a minor tragedy that WiC was removed from Steam a while back (though it is on GOG).
Its excellent tanks and incompetent captains are not entirely lost to us, however - Ubisoft are giving it away for free until Monday.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
The benchmarking test of World in Conflict long outlived the game itself, which was a fitting monument for one of the most stunning games of its era. World in Conflict still looks incredible, as it gives the most spectacularly destructive Cold War military hardware full reign over battlefields ranging from Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to icy Norwegian fishing villages to America's Pacific Northwest.
]]>Yup, that Massive: the Ground Control and World in Conflict devs have been disarmingly silent of late. But according to reports from the Ubisoft GDC event, they're helping to create the Far Cry 3 multiplayer. "Huh?", you might think, but hold that back for a moment - I have more. According to Vox Game's Brian Crecente
In working on Far Cry 3's "online universe" Ubisoft Massive is adding elements from the indie scene and social games, they say
Go on let it out now. I'll join you.
]]>This is the kind of thing we'd normally leave for LewieP to herd into his weekly Bargain Bucket post, but if we wait to mention it till Sunday, most of the great offers will be gone. So, call this the RPS Bargain Jar or something. Quite a few of you have griped about digital store GamersGate's general design over the past few months, and it seems they too were aware of their fugliness. There's just been a big old redesign to make the site sleeker and noticeably faster - and, if you ask me, just a little bit GoG-esque. Shiny! And, thank Vonnegut, it doesn't demand to install yet another icon into our heaving system trays. To celebrate, they've a week of ultro-discounts - a new price-slashed game each day, plus a particularly splendid one lasting the course of the week. Buy buy buy!
]]>It's a genuine relief that Ubisoft gave Massive Entertainment a new home, they're a development studio I'd hate to see disappear. I've spent the past few days getting back into World In Conflict, and I've enjoyed it enormously - particularly the multiplayer, which is as rapid and engaging as ever. My thoughts are expanded in wordy fashion in this Eurogamer review. I should stress that this is a review of World In Conflict: Complete, rather than just the Soviet Assault add-on, which is tough to recommend to anyone who has played the original campaign. If you haven't played this most beautiful of RTS games, however, now is an excellent time to pick up the full thing. I believe World In Conflict: Complete is out now in shops and on Steam.
I've posted the unlock cheat for opening all the campaign missions in Soviet Assault (and therefore getting straight to the new stuff) beneath the cut.
]]>Obama might be shutting down Guantanamo and opening negotiations with Iran, but he's not addressing the real threat to Western society: those bally Commies. Thank goodness the lost World in Conflict expansion pack, Soviet Assault, has finally been unearthed - the true tale of this Red menace will be told at last.
]]>You know what's funny? Being IP-blocked from accessing your own website. You know what's not funny? Being IP-blocked from accessing your own website. Also, Garfield.
Anyway, I return from 24 hours of infuriating blacklisting to find Kieron's done a splendid job of managing the place while Jim and I have been offline and Walker's been away snuggling with Gabe Newell, so why bother posting? Oh, alright. Here's an enjoyably epic new video for Soviet Assault, the upcoming World in Conflict expansion. I've not played WiC for a while, but this has convinced me to dig it out again. Shamelessly ripping off Gillen's video-autopsy shtick, I've stuck some blow-by-blow commentary beneath the cut. Yes, Saturday is RPS is Hungover So Fobs You Off With Trailers day.
]]>Rock, Paper, Shotgun officially loves World In Conflict. Announced today is Sierra's WiC map-building compo, and a chance to see your map in an official release.
The competition asks players to create their own multiplayer maps for WiC using the map making tool, then to submit them to the competition, with a chance to win $1000, an Nvidia 8800GT, and your map in their game.
It would be extremely excellent to see your home-made map go on sale to the world - there's no denying it. But the press release's claims that the prize's effect are perhaps a little bold. They will:
]]>We've only mentioned the forthcoming World In Conflict: Soviet Assault in passing, but as I noticed a new trailer appearing, I went back and discovered further recent details. Soviet Assault's advances primarily come for the forthcoming console release, but they're funneling these changes back into the PC version. The new multiplayer elements will cost you exactly no money, available to anyone who bought the original and includes elements like the voice-activation for a-nuking. The new soviet campaign will be available as an purchasable download, apparently at a price beneath an expansion pack. So, disappointing to comment-threaders, not an expandalone. Because they do like the opportunity of saying "Expandalone". Hell, don't we all?
The new fancy rendered trailer with macho Russian music and some impressive spangly grabs are beneath the cut.
]]>The World In Conflict expansion, Soviet Assault, (possibly standalone, that's not quite clear) is also the first outing of the game on the consoles. In this video Massive's Martin Walfisz (who we recently interviewed) talks up the game, without actually revealing anything about the new features. These are reportedly voice-commands to summon reinforcements, and a new Soviet-faction single-player campaign. Anyway, there's some great footage of the game in action, and if anyone hasn't played it yet, the demo is here.
]]>A couple of weeks ago I had a chance to talk to Massive Entertainment founder Martin Walfisz. He's one of the key minds behind Ground Control and World In Conflict, and arguably one of the biggest influences on the modern RTS game. In this interview we discussed how the company was founded, the fate of Ground Control, how his company forged its future direction with the alternate-history World War III of World In Conflict, and how that game was inspired by FPS games such as Call Of Duty. Also present was VP David Polfeldt, who joined Massive in 1995, but in the end he didn't say anything.
Ground Control, as I've discussed elsewhere, was one of the most important games to me as a gamer. The impression I got from this interview was that the minimalist design found in that game was still the most important example of what Walfisz wanted to create, even with the blockbusting World In Conflict under his belt. Would the team return to the series? It'd be a tough call...
]]>The artillery-splattered multiplayer games of World In Conflict that I spent too much of last year playing were quite astonishingly entertaining. The stupendous scale of the fights (NUCLEAR WEAPONS) and the wonderful way the unit-types rock-paper-shotgunned each other kept me absolutely entranced. You should have played this game, especially those of you who don't much like Command & Conquer. Perhaps it's the years of deathmatch training in me, but the lack of base building and pure point-capture tooth-and-nail fighting was utterly convincing, and rather unexpected, even after Ground Control. After years of getting stomped in online games of Total War or Dawn Of War, this, finally, got me back into multiplayer strategy.
In fact it's rather interesting that Massive are gambling that it will even appeal to our net-enabled console chums, with the spectacular-looking strategy find its way onto the PS3 and 360 in the Autumn, where it might just be the strategy our gamepadded chums have been aching for. (Americans, don't you feel sad to have abandoned such a fine word? "Autumn"?)
Anyway, apropos of nothing much at all, other than celebrating our chat with Massive, the folks over at Vivendi are giving us five copies of the game on PC. You can win them with little more than an email. Interested?
]]>Alterna-reality explodeathon World in Conflict was one of our favourite RTSes of last year. Perhaps even our favourite, most especially in multiplayer. What's that? It wasn't yours? Heretic. Purge yourself with a new two-week free trial of the multiplayer client.
]]>Those of you who have already played World In Conflict will be aware that it's the most Christmassy game on the PC. But just to confirm that, here's a holiday video from the Massive team:
]]>With Massive Entertainment's spectacular World In Conflict causing some big ripples in the slow depths of the real time strategy I found myself once again contemplating its sci-fi ancestor, Ground Control. This exquisitely unassuming game first trundled onto my PC in June 2000 and ever since I've been waiting for a worthy successor. Playing it again in 2007 was an interesting experience. I got to see how it has aged well graphically, despite the relative lack of detail and the low-res 3D, while it hasn't aged well in terms of pacing and production. It still has a sense of style, but it certainly lacks the high-end bombast and gameplay timing of the more recent game. Nevertheless, I couldn't help thinking, when reviewing the World In Conflict single player campaign, that Massive had missed a trick or two from their original game.
]]>Yes, we know. You'll all playing a certain game. We understand; we are too. But there's other games you should be keeping your eye on, so tear your vision away from the Heavy cackling as he opens fire and failing to understand when the medic uses the charged up invulnerability thing on you you are invulnerable, so you should act like it rather than sitting in cover. Psch!
]]>You can tell RPS has arrived, because we've started to receive glorious tat from publishers. And, being spendthrift grasshoppers instead of tedious ants, we're clearly going to give it away. What have we to give you? Well, Vivendi have lobbed us two (count 'em!) World in Conflict Cossack hats, which add a suitably soviet ambiance to whatever look you choose to rock. For example, here's our model showing a Rasputin the Mad Games Journalist look, which is almost certain to be terribly popular this season.
]]>I've been working in PC Gamer's office for the last couple of days, and with half an hour free at the end of the day, Tim told me to hammer out a blog post for them based around the game of World in Conflict we played at Lunch. Which Tim won. Frustratingly.
]]>The demo for World In Conflict has arrived, and it includes single player, skirmish, and multiplayer elements. You can download it here, at a beastly 1.2gb.
]]>Like almost everyone I know I've spent too many hours capturing large red or white circles in the World In Conflict Beta. There's something particularly compulsive about trying to hold a small area on your own, while the rest of your team mills about across the battlefield, attacking the enemy without rhyme or reason. I particularly like playing as infantry and fortifying a position as best I can, fending off tank attacks and napalm deluges with my tiny soldiers. Initially I thought that playing as infantry was the very worst option, but now I understand completely that in fact it is helicopters that are actually the least interesting option. If you want to challenge your tactical self, then you need to be support or infantry.
What I think WiC does, aside from create a palpable “battlefield” atmosphere, is allow you to feel like you can influence the battle outside of your direct area of control. Even if you can't get units to an area that's in trouble, the tactical support allows you to call in artillery or airstrikes to help out.
]]>I'm just glad I can finally talk about this without breaking an NDA or eight.
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