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Steam weekly: Rochard, Strike Suit Zero, Sleeping Dogs, Unreal deals
This week's round of Steam weekly deals includes Sleeping Dogs for $12.50, Rochard for $2.50, Strike Suit Zero for $10, and the Unreal Deal Pack for $10. The Unreal Deal Pack includes Unreal Gold, Unreal 2: The Awakening, Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor's Choice Edition, Unreal Tournament 3 Black and Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition. Other games on sale for up to 75 percent off this week are Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, Wasteland Angel, Lords of Football, Spectraball: Extended Edition and Steel Storm: Burning Retribution. In software (and Greenlight) titles, game design tool articy: draft SE is $67 during this week's sale. The weekly Steam sale ends on May 27 at 10 a.m. PT.
Steam's weekly deals include cheap Rochard, Jet Set Radio, Arcania and Endless Space
Steam has announced its latest round of weekly deals, with physics-focused platformer Rochard dropping to $2.49, along with Jet Set Radio. Left 4 Dead 2 and Arcania are both available for $4.99, and the Emperor Special Edition of Endless Space (which includes the soundtrack and a number of other in-game goodies) is $17.49.All of these deals last through March 18 at 10am PST, so you've got one week to look under as many couch cushions as possible for the right amount of pocket change. And why stop at your own couch?
Free SSF4 Arcade Edition, Rochard for PS Plus members tomorrow
Tomorrow's PlayStation Network update adds two freebies to the Instant Game Collection for PlayStation Plus members: Rochard and Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. Last week, PS Plus subscribers were treated to a free copy of BioShock 2.Rochard is a puzzle-platformer from Recoil Games, one that our own Ludwig Kietzmann called "a refreshing, perfectly sized game" that does well aping the mechanics of Portal and Half-Life 2. Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, while initially fairly broken at launch, has since been patched to be a more balanced fighting experience.
Humble Indie Bundle 6 ends, earns over $2 million
316,258 individuals signed on for the latest Humble Indie Bundle, which is arguably the best Humble Indie Bundle yet. Humble Indie Bundle 6, which halted sales earlier this evening, managed to earn a total of $2,048,330.42 during the collection's sale.Humble Indie Bundle 6 initially launched with the starting lineup of Rochard, Shatter, S.P.A.Z., Torchlight, Vessel and Dustforce. A week later, the bundle expanded to include Bit.Trip Runner, Wizorb, Jamestown and Gratuitous Space Battles for purchases equal or greater to the average sale price of the set. See? Best bundle yet!
Humble Indie Bundle 6 devs ask you to ask them anything on Reddit
A few of the developers with games in the rather fantastic Humble Indie Bundle 6 are hosting an AMA on Reddit right now.In attendance is Runic Games co-founder Max Schaefer, representing Torchlight (and Torchlight 2, it seems); programmer Matt Bush and composer Terrence Lee of Dustforce's Hitbox Team; Jan Achrenius and Sampsa Lehtonen of Recoil and Rochard; Mario Wynands of Shatter's Sidhe, co-founders of MinMax Games Andrew Hume and Richard with Space Pirates and Zombies; and John Krajewski of Strange Loop Games representing Vessel.Already the developers are discussing the likelihood of their Linux games on Steam, the benefits of being in the Humble Indie Bundle, and answering programming and gameplay questions galore. If you want to know what engines these guys use, how they handle physics or what those space pirates are doing hanging out with zombies in the first place, head on over to Reddit.
Humble Indie Bundle 6 shatters spatial reasoning with torches, vessels, brooms
Humble Indie Bundle part six is live, and it's a good'un. The current bundle includes Rochard, Shatter, S.P.A.Z., Torchlight and Vessel for any price you pick. Paying more than the average (currently around $5) unlocks Dustforce as well. The bundle includes soundtracks for each game, excluding Vessel. Normally priced, all these games would cost $86, Humble Indie Bundle reminds us.As always, purchasers can decide how much of their payment goes to charity, the developers or Humble Indie Bundle itself. Humble Indie Bundle 6 will be live for 14 more days; check it out here.
Rochard boxed edition slingshots to EU shelves this month
European publisher Nordic Games is launching Rochard on a whole new plane – the physical one. A boxed edition of Rochard for PC is set to hit shelves on August 14, including the game, a poster and the soundtrack.CEO of Recoil Games Jan Achrenius says that apart from reaching a new, store-going audience, the boxed edition will be handy for the collectors out there:"Signing this deal with Nordic Games means that we'll be able to bring Rochard to fans of the game and PC Gamers who like to display their games on a shelf."We are delighted to expand the scope of Rochard and build a successful relationship with Nordic Games, their extensive games catalogue speaks for itself."If you haven't already bought Rochard in its digital form, maybe hold out for the real – er, we mean, boxed – version to pack in a few hours of side-scrolling, gravity gameplay. It might just be worth it.
Rochard now available in Mac App Store for just $2.99
As the first Unity-powered game on PlayStation 3, it should have been obvious that Recoil Games' Rochard would eventually find itself on other platforms supported by the famously cross-platform engine. The PC release followed some two months after the PS3 release, dropping just last month, and now this puzzle-platformer is also available on the Mac App Store. The best part: At just $2.99 (a 70% discount!) it's an effortless recommendation. We've asked Recoil if it plans to bring the Mac release to Steam and we'll let you know what we hear back.
Rochard packs up its crates, moves to PC on November 15
Rochard will no longer be a PSN exclusive as of November 15, when Recoil Games uses its gravity gun to lift the puzzle-platformer from Sony's platform and deposit it on PC. It will be available through Steam for $9.99. Rochard gives the player control of a gun that can be used to lift and reposition objects, in addition to the ability to alter gravity in the rooms in which you are attempting the aforementioned lifting and/or repositioning.%Gallery-138669%
Rochard review: Puzzles suitable for miners
Rochard understands the peace of mind found in a sealed room. Like Portal, it offers bursts of purity in its puzzle design, and a calming, implicit reassurance that each area has a clean start and solution. It may not exude ambition in every moment, but Rochard's quiet, deliberately delineated approach offers a sublime break from the mental overhead that accompanies the year's bigger games and their sprawling quests. That simplicity -- or focus, rather -- extends to burly protagonist John Rochard, a down-to-earth space miner armed with an anti-gravity lifting tool and a quaint selection of backwater metaphors (you're right to assume that "tighter than a frog's butt" means very tight indeed). While an unexpected discovery on a barren asteroid leads to a vague galactic threat, you get the feeling he's more worried about its effect on his pension. And as a special bonus, he's proof that the voice of Duke Nukem managed to find a good game in 2011 after all. %Gallery-131030%
PSN Tuesday: Rochard, Resident Evil Code Veronica X HD
The PSN-exclusive Rochard brings its particular brand of physics-based puzzles and ol' fashioned space mining to the PlayStation 3, including a 20% PlayStation Plus discount for the next two weeks. If what you're looking for is something that's actually old-fashioned, might we suggest Resident Evil Code Veronica X HD which, despite how fondly you remember the Dreamcast original, doesn't look as good as you remember it. Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)
PSN titles Rochard, Payday and Sideway priced and dated
Sony Online Entertainment has dropped release date details for three of its upcoming PSN titles. Two of them have some elements in common: they're both Scandinavian; and they're downloadable games built by teams recovering from AAA failures. First up is Recoil Games' Rochard, the impressive "action-adventure, side-scrolling puzzle platformer" from Finland, which will be available on September 27 for $9.99. The ex-Remedy devs at Recoil Games were working on the ambitious Earth No More, a 3D Realms-published shooter whose cancellation nearly closed the developer. Next is the promising Payday: The Heist, from Overkill Software in Sweden. The debut project from this team of former GRIN developers, Payday: The Heist is a cooperative, squad-based shooter and will be available on October 4 for $19.99. After GRIN's collapse in 2009, co-founder Bo Andersson formed Overkill Software but stayed intentionally "below the radar," the website says. Lastly, Sideway: New York will be available on October 11 for $9.99. This title built by the developers of Madballs in Babo Invasion is produced by a marketing company looking to turn the property into a cartoon. %Gallery-131029%
Rochard preview: Gravity, don't let me go
Rochard is a game built on miner inconveniences. As spacefaring but down-to-earth excavator John Rochard, you'll learn that off-world facilities are designed to be as complex and diversionary as possible. Even a simple corridor finds an excuse to become a gravitational gauntlet, proving that engineers and game designers are almost the same thing in the future. Of course, we don't actually want Rochard to lead a more convenient life. In a side-scrolling puzzle platformer such as this, there's irresistible schadenfreude in seeing the camera pull back to reveal a room of improbable, nightmarish construction. The fun part is in navigating that space, to untwist it as we bound upwards and upside-down.%Gallery-128156%
See Rochard's gravity gun play with a companion cube
Rochard, an upcoming PSN platformer, first reminded us of Dead Space -- but now, we're thinking "with Portals." This first gameplay trailer shows how Rochard can manipulate gravity, and how boxes are a man's best friend.
Rochard: a gravity-bending platformer for PSN, set in dead space
What would happen if you combined Mario and ... Dead Space's Isaac Clarke? He'd probably look something like John Rochard, star of the upcoming PSN platformer Rochard. Burt Kane, creative director at developer Recoil Games, describes John as "no marine or super soldier, but just a tough, ordinary miner with a mustache, placed in an extraordinary situation." The lead character isn't the only Dead Space-ish aspect of the game: The trouble begins when the miners unearth "an ancient structure hidden deep in an asteroid." Although you won't be fighting Necromorphs in Rochard, you can expect a lot of zero-G moments. Using the "G-Lifter" (is that what Rochard is holding?), players "can lift and maneuver heavy objects around the environment," according to the press release, "and can eventually swing, jump and propel themselves huge distances throughout each level." SOE will publish Rochard, but other details about the game are scant for now -- though we hope to get some hands-on time at GDC this week.%Gallery-117789%
Plants vs. Zombies vs. PS3 this Feb., SOE announces upcoming PSN library
Like the sunrise, the expansion of a PopCap game to another platform is inevitable. Plants vs. Zombies will be available on the PlayStation Network in February thanks to the company's continuing collaboration with Sony Online Entertainment. Like SOE's previous efforts, this appears to be a direct port of the original game. If you're looking for something more "exclusive," SOE has announced an extensive suite of original PSN games as well: Acceleration of Suguri X Edition from Rockin' Android is an anime robot beat 'em up. Slam Bolt Scrappers from Fire Hose Games has you constructing buildings, and brawling bosses to protect them. Akimi Village from NinjaBee has you gathering resources to construct a village. Sideway from Playbrains and Fuel Industries is an adventure set in the "gritty art culture" of NYC. Rochard from Recoil Games is a side-scrolling puzzler set in space. Slam Bolt Scrappers is arriving this March, while Sideway is cleared with a vague "Spring" release window. Unfortunately, not much else has been released about the other titles, but expect more in the future.
