Via Shacknews, we’re informed that THQ and Games Workshop have announced an extension of THQ’s license to publish games set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. This initially sounds unsurprising – why futz with a good thing, after all – but it at least suggests that GW is feeling good about what they’ve seen of Space Marine, Dark Millennium, and maybe Dawn of War 3 as well. To be fair, GW seems to feel pretty good about pretty much any licensed project; if someone had sat me down and screened Ultramarines for my approval, I’d have canned the whole thing and eaten the cost.
That’s not to say that there aren’t good GW licensees – I’ve heard the Fantasy Flight RPGs are good, and the Black Library turns out some good stuff – but honestly it doesn’t seem like GW are actually that picky, so good licensed product like DoW seems as much a product of luck as of careful management of the property.
Still, we can hope that there’s more Chaos Rising on the way and less Soulstorm.
We don’t talk about analog gaming too much on the site, but I’m quite fond of Warhammer 40K, particularly its hobby aspect. Last year a group of prominent 40k hobby bloggers got together to paint up and raffle off a beautifully-painted Space Marine army. The $16,000+ they raised in the raffle went to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), a fine international charity. This year they are doing it again, only the raffle includes four armies rather than just one, as well as regular smaller prizes in the time leading up to the main drawing in July.
Please consider following the link in the image above and entering the raffle. Even if you don’t particularly care for 40K it’s a worthy cause and another opportunity, much as we regularly have with Umloud and Child’s Play, to prove that gamers and hobbyists are caring people with a healthy sense of our place in society.
In other words, every dollar you give to charity as a gamer is a big middle finger to Jack Thompson.
This is a description of some time spent playing Dead Space 2, so be forewarned that it’s all spoilers.
When I last left Isaac Clarke, aka Space McClane, he’d been brutally killed by a gymnasium full of feral zombie children. With my nerves sufficiently recovered, it’s now time for a second go at the big School Fight.
This battle is kind of a motherfucker, and I felt a lot better about the trouble I had with it when the game gave me an achievement for finishing it. My mistake the first time around was in trying to precisely and quickly shoot all of the little kids swarming the auditorium stage in some sort of tactical order. For my second go around I try just punching my way out of things, as Isaac’s haymakers can kill multiple little leapy Pack toddlers in one go. This would work OK if it weren’t for the little suicide bomber infants that are crawling around among the toddlers, and Isaac is exploded limb from limb in my second go.
Yes, this is a real thing.
It's sort of like that scene in Trainspotting, except with more detonation and marginally more screaming
There’s no store in the school. This makes sense – who would sell mining equipment to little kids? – but it’s a pain in the ass for someone who realizes that he just hasn’t got enough damned plasma bullets and needs to buy more. The trip all the way back out of the school to the store and back to the auditorium is fantastically quiet, like the rest of the game has been shut down to save up juice for the fight that’s queued up and ready to go.
Third time’s the charm. I telekinesis a nearby stasis bomb lamp thingy into the mob of angry little runners – it would do me more good to shoot it off later in the fight, but I still don’t have the hang of telekinesis in hectic situations like fights, so I use it first. After that it’s a half-blind mix of plasma shots and roundhouse punches. Hardly the graceful, leet way out, but Isaac survives with one health bar left and limps off through the door that opens up once the last enemy dies. How do the doors always know the bad guys are dead?
FyreHaar: I was watching triathlon videos online on Saturday night FyreHaar: or Friday or something FyreHaar: you don’t know how much you need something til you can’t have it Sonic Rob: I think you need a little more breadth in your hobbies FyreHaar: I knit FyreHaar: I sew FyreHaar: I garden FyreHaar: I play video games Sonic Rob: yeah Sonic Rob: but you don’t need those the way you seem to need to run Sonic Rob: they are things you do when you aren’t running FyreHaar: that is true FyreHaar: but what could possibly take its place? Sonic Rob: I spose that depends what you get from it FyreHaar: it’s calming and exciting FyreHaar: it centers me FyreHaar: zones me out FyreHaar: pumps me full of endorphins FyreHaar: relaxes me FyreHaar: gives me time with the dog Sonic Rob: I suggest getting a massage and mainlining heroin while skydiving, then FyreHaar: heh FyreHaar: running is cheaper and easier Sonic Rob: oh, so now you want budget alternatives?
