Rayman Origins announced for PC

Ubisoft has announced a release date of 30th March for the PC version of Rayman Origins, the platform game previously released in November for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii.  Releases for the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita are yet to be announced.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvhwWXF-LfU]

The game can be pre-ordered now on the UbiShop, for £19.99.

Rayman Origins will have a one time activation for digital download versions, with no DRM for boxed copies (via RockPaperShotgun).

Diablo III Release Rumours

Best Buy have posted a release date of February 1st for Diablo III, with the date listed on the website as well as in a shop display in Rochester, Minnesota.

Although we’d love to see the game out sooner, Blizzard haven’t actually announced a release date beyond “early 2012”, and we’re still waiting for the news from the official Diablo III site itself!

Update: Bashiok, Community Manager at Blizzard, has confirmed that Diablo III does not yet have a release date.

Portal 2 ARG and Defense Grid: The Awakening

Portal 2 was supposed to be released on the 19th April.. however, an earlier release date was suggested over the last week, as a pile of clues have been discovered by fans dedicated enough to go looking for them.

I am not one of those people; while I love the fact they’ve done it, I don’t have the time or knowledge required to root around with codes, convert random numbers to images and access encrypted files.  Seriously.. even if I had the time I wouldn’t even know where to start, nor whether I was even going in the right direction.  Instead, I’m content to keep an eye on the Valve ARG wiki..

The Potato Sack Pack appeared on Steam last week, and I just took it as an opportunity to grab a few more cheap games, but it was another part of this rather clever play by Valve!  The info gathered so far points to Portal 2 being unlocked when an unspecified amount of play-time has been reached on the various games in the pack.

There is also a potato-collecting mechanic involved, with collectible potatoes hidden in the games and elsewhere: one can be collected simply by joining the ‘nelipot’ Steam group.  The ARG Wiki people have discovered that more potatoes increase the rate that the GLaDOS@Home bars fill up.. so really, the aim of this game is now: collect potatoes and play indie games 🙂

I won’t be idling in any games overnight, though.. while it’s mentioned on the Wiki as a way of adding the the cause, I consider it to be too close to cheating when the ‘aim’ is to play.  I have similar reservations about using the login details posted for collection of potatoes as well..  I’m just going to play the games.

I was gifted Defense Grid: The Awakening on Friday: a tower defense game with a twist.. when the invading aliens reach your base that’s not it.. they steal a power core and attempt to leave the base with it.

Killing the alien results in the core being dropped.. it will try to make its way back to base but can be grabbed by another alien en-route.

The Meteor tower is my current favourite.. long-range, great damage when it hits.. though I like the laser too, especially when upgraded. 🙂