The Earth freezes over in the latest Microsoft Flight Simulator trailer

Our plane-spotters have tracked a fair bit of the taxiing Microsoft Flight Simulator, though I’m still not sure what we’re looking at isn’t a cleverly constructed ARG for the real-world. Microsoft’s impossible-looking return to the Flight Sim series has shown off skies, cities, water, and clouds, but it’s all been vaguely summerish, without a hint of alternative seasons. Don’t fret, winter is coming! Over the holiday, Microsoft showed off their painstakingly recreated Earth blanketed in snow, for those who like their landings with a hint of skidding.

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Robocopy crimefighter MiniLAW: Ministry of Law is out now

It’s been several years since I first played MiniLAW: Ministry of Law, the side scrolling shooter/fighter/screamer based on being a hybrid of Robocop and Judge Dredd. In that time it’s come a long way, adding more structure, story and flavour to its already colourful crime-stomping action.

The full release landed yesterday, and I have Some Thoughts.

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Darksiders, Darksiders II, and Steep are free for a week on the Epic Game Store

It never ends. First there are the Xmas sales, full of gaming turkey for me to fill up on. Then my aunt showed up with Lee Carvallo’s Modern Warfare. And now, post-New Year, the Epic Game Store has just thrust Darksiders Warmastered Edition, Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition, and Steep into my arms. They’re free from now until Jan 9. I hope the sales are still on in the real world, as I’m going to need a new hard-drive.

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F-Stop, the secret mechanic of Valve's unreleased Portal prequel, has finally been revealed

Just after Portal 2 was released, Valve and Geoff Keighley also released The Final Hours of Portal 2, an interactive book about the making of 2011’s best potato-based puzzle game. The most revealing story in the book was about how Valve had spent some time making a game that was Portal’s follow-up in name only. It was set in the past, without Chell or the GlaDOS that we know, and had a new mechanic called “F-Stop”. It was essentially a different game and was never released.

Valve remained coy about what F-Stop was in the hope of eventually using it, but they never did. In an unlikely twist, a developer using the Source Engine for their own game were given permission to show off F-Stop’s secrets. It was based around the “Aperture Camera”, which could copy, paste, and rescale items in the world.

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The thirteenth RPS Christmas cracker

Every year we are put in a cardboard box full of straw and carefully packed away in the treehouse attic, until Graham wakes up on January 3rd and chains us to our desks again. It’s a cosy little break for us, but we don’t want you to feel alone. That’s why we’ve left these special crackers for you, for every day of the break! You can find more articles, or just help us buy a clean box for next year, with the RPS supporter program.

Now, time to enjoy your lovely joke!

Q: What do you get if you play Doom backwards on a massive monitor?

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How Unity Of Command 2 balances game design with military history

This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the difficult journeys they’ve taken to make their games. This time, Unity Of Command II [official site].

The first Unity Of Command was designed for the open steppes of the Eastern Front. There, the major battles were about manoeuvre, with tank units chasing and covering miles of ground for their objectives, and lines of infantry moving to counter and support. The steppes were perfect for UoC’s unique focus on maintaining your army’s supply lines.

So, when designer Tomislav Uzelac began thinking about turning to the Western front for its sequel, he knew he had a problem. The big battles of France and Italy were slow and attritional, crossing mountain ranges and facing enemies dug into forests. “The question was, how do you go from Case Blue, where you cover 1,000 kilometres in Russia over a month and half, to Monte Cassino, where you stay pounding on one position for six months?” he tells me.

The answer lay in pushing and pulling at the frontline between military accuracy and game abstraction, and in exploring tiny design details which you’d never think could lead to making a vast theatre of war this fun to play.

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The twelfth RPS Christmas cracker

Every year we are put in a cardboard box full of straw and carefully packed away in the treehouse attic, until Graham wakes up on January 3rd and chains us to our desks again. It’s a cosy little break for us, but we don’t want you to feel alone. That’s why we’ve left these special crackers for you, for every day of the break! You can find more articles, or just help us buy a clean box for next year, with the RPS supporter program.

Now, time to enjoy your lovely joke!

Q: What do you call the illegitimate children of an absence of matter?

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