The Simpsons, Aardman Animations, Twin Peaks, Prison Architect and, quite naturally, Theme Hospital - these are the major inspirations behind Two Point Hospital, an upcoming sim/management game from some of the folk responsible for Bullfrog's Theme glory years. Two Point Hospital, a combination of management and comedy in a fantasy healthcare centre, is due for release - via publishers Sega - later this year, and the first trailer is below. I also had a big chat with lead devs and Bullfrog/Lionhead veterans Gary Carr and Mark Webley about the game over here.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.
Wikipedia tells me I was eight years old when Populous [GOG page] came out and it was my birthday or Christmas present around that time. I'd have been nine at most when I first played it so at least some of the blame for my current predicament must lie at its feet.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
I didn’t have Wipeout as a young ‘un. I had Hi-Octane. As a racing game about weaponised hovercars it was probably not as good and not as popular. But see, when you changed views, to the viewpoint of sitting in your car? You could see the bullet holes as they appeared in your windshield. That was incredible to me in 1995 (or whatever subsequent year it was in which I actually played the game). It blew my little mind.
]]>In 1998, Bullfrog released Populous: The Beginning, a quirky RTS sequel to the legendary Populous series of god games, to middling reviews. It ‘[wa]sn’t really Populous’ (Ron Dulin, GameSpot). It was ‘incredibly entertaining for about two weeks’ (Trent Ward, IGN). EA absorbed Bullfrog in 2001, and shut down the game’s multiplayer server in 2004. And that was that.
So how come there’s still an active group of Populous players keeping the flame alive nearly twenty years later? I got in touch with some of the community’s longest-standing members to find out.
]]>The original Dungeon Keeper [Origin page] is free for a limited time, through Origin. If you download it before the offer expires (EA aren't saying how long it'll last), you can keep it forever, or until your Origin account turns to dust - whichever comes first. First released in 1997, Dungeon Keeper is a strategy game in which you manage an underground lair, protecting your treasures and killing invading adventurers. Alec thinks it's rather good.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Historically, videogames have largely struggled to convey humour with any degree of success, however Bullfrog Productions’ dark sense of humour is part of what made the likes of Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper and Theme Hospital [official site] so enjoyable. On paper, the latter probably doesn’t sound like it should be funny, however its 21 weird and whacky diseases - and how you go about curing them - make sure it’s exactly that.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Oh, the months of fun I had in Theme Park as a sprog! I'd spend hours creating beautiful parks with elaborate rollercoasters, places I'd dream of visiting, then force them collapse into hellscapes as quickly as I could. I didn't have the patience or interest to play 'properly', see, and mostly cheated. So I'm asking you: have you played it properly? What's it actually like? What did it do that modern park 'em ups don't?
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
I’d all but fallen out of PC gaming by the time Dungeon Keeper 2 arrived, but a combination of my student house increasingly preferring electronic entertainment (primarily Tekken) over nightclubs and the news that one of my most beloved games was getting a sequel prompted me to request a graphics card for my birthday. And lo, I got to play DK2 with rudimentary 3D acceleration. I believed it to be beautiful.
]]>Don't panic, I mean the original one, not the forgettable Starbreeze shooter (though it did have a decent multiplayer mode). Given Recent Events it's a good time to look back at glory days Molyneux/Bullfrog, a time when that studio's games were rewriting the rulebook. So, I heartily recommend grabbing Syndicate from Origin today, given it's currently free.
]]>Can we all knock off work early? If we stick together, surely The Man will be powerless to stop us as we march in unison out our offices, taxis, shops, warehouses, workshops, fields, pools, forests, and skies to go play Theme Hospital. Bullfrog's fine comedy hospital management sim is currently free on Origin, see, but I can't go pop the balloonoid noggins of people suffering Bloaty Head or mock people in blue suede shoes with King Complex because ugh I have to write a thing for the Internet about how Theme Hospital is a great game and free on Origin right now. Unbelievable.
]]>For some reason I was sure this was already in the venerable GoG library, but evidently not: Bullfrog's timeless hospital management sim Theme Hospital is now available to be played on your modern machines. I can see how my evening is going to run now: Water those plants! Turn up the radiators! Hire more nurses! Buy more chairs! Oh, no, Earthquake! Fix the Slack Tongue machine! Build more windows! Shoot all the rats! Overprice the Kit Kat drinks machine! 24328 Shift+C! Completed level objectives, Shift-Y, Shift-Y!
Fair warning: if you click this link, you'll have no choice but to buy it.
]]>Edit: cos there are various theories flying around below about my perceived intent in posting this, I shall clarify my own feelings. I would really like to see contracts between publishers and developers more commonly include an arrangement whereby key (and ideally, but rather less plausibly, all) creatives on game projects continue to see some post-release royalties, as is the case in some other entertainment and publishing industries. That so many old games are being (apparently profitably) rereleased lately highlights this disparity. That is all.
There's obviously a very good chance you already know this, but just in case: when a developer is bought out by a publisher, it's usually the case that they then don't see any ongoing royalties from the games they make for them, or indeed for any existing intellectual property that was swallowed up as part of the studio acquisition. It's standard practice, knowingly agreed by both parties during the dark deal some studios made to ensure immediate financial viability and larger project budgets. But what it does mean is that a great many of the PC games we regularly celebrate around these parts are no longer bringing in any money for their creators, despite still being on sale. Whenever we excitedly see an old classic appear on Steam or GoG (such as Thief last week), chances are very high that whatever we pay for it goes purely to the publisher and the download service. And while it may well be right that these bodies profit from projects they funded and distribute, it's sad that the men and women who toiled over that game's creation won't see another penny from it.
]]>Check the Earth for giant cracks, while demons ride high above the clouds, their red wings raining down fire, because the original Bullfrog Syndicate is to be available once again, via the magic of Good Old Games.
]]>We were excited about Syndicate as everyone else. Well, we were excited about it when it was codenamed BOB. We were excited about it when it was Higher Functions. And we were still pretty excited about it when it became Syndicate... until we realised how much this game which held so much promise has been gutted. Unless something major happens between now and its release in late Summer, we can't see it being anything other than an unmitigated disaster and an insult against all PC gamers.
]]>(I'll stop it with the iiis now). Yes, a third Syndicate game has been raised as a possibility. Happy! Happy! Happy! That said, the raising was done by one P. Molyneux, the man whose picture appears next to The Big Book Of Hackneyed Phrases & Sayings' entry for "pinch of salt."
]]>Often mis-described as a management title, Bullfrog’s last game before collapsing into a mess of sequels (and eventual death) is much closer to real-time strategy. You build a base, harvest resources and train an army. The same old song. The difference is this is an RTS that fights against you, that actively resists your feeble attempts to control it. It’s like driving a car with three wheels, no suspension and a crazy shouting hobo in the passenger seat. It is entirely unwilling, and it’ll take any opportunity to steer itself onto the pavement and mow down a few dozen pedestrians. That is, of course, the charm of Dungeon Keeper.
]]>Another alumnus of PC Gamer's Long Play series, slightly remixed and expanded
A ninja dressed in gaudy blue has just grabbed hold of the eyesockets of his opponent and torn his head clear of his body, dangling a couple of feet of glistening wet spinal cord behind him. Cue screams from the horrified Tabloids. Gamers laughed at or with it, depending on their temperament. It’s 1993, and Mortal Kombat, in terms of press controversy, is the Grand Theft Auto of its day. But only in those terms. Anyone who actually plays it understands that this game exists purely in the Grand Guignol traition of video nasties, a comedy fountain of gore. It was just slapstick with a very sharp stick.
It wasn’t bad to the bone.
]]>Not too long ago, a selection of Britain's best games writers and I gathered in someone's front room to eat pizza-pie, play a lot of Peggle and come up with an informed if quasi-arbitrary list of the best 100 PC titles of all time. There were several games whose sole voice of nomination in the room was my own nasal insistence, all of which I'll be shouting about on RPS over time.
UFO: Enemy Unknown (the first X-COM game) was one, and reminding folk of it saw it argued into the top ten, pleasingly.
Aliens Versus Predator was another, but no chorus joined me on that. If I'd have known then quite how well-loved it still is, I would have Phillybustered it far higher.
My third, and least supported, cause celebre was... Aha. You'll have to click below to find out, won't you? Well, clearly the tags below reveal exactly what it is, but pretend you're suprised, eh?
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