Bastion Soundtrack Winners

It’s time to announce the winners of our Bastion Soundtrack contest!

Our discerning judges have picked the 10 most creative entries and the lucky winners below can expect a digital download version of the Bastion OST very shortly. Although all 10 are winners, our favourite entry by far goes to Keenen who decided his own version of Bastion would begin with:

I used to be a Narrator, until I used a played-out meme to begin a story and was fired for professional misconduct.

The other lucky winners are:

Darren H.
Christine W.
Ian V.
Kniferazer
Jasmine P.
Sonadra L.
Basha
Fifi M.
Analogue Steve
Keenen

Check your emails for your download code!

Flash Game Friday: Chatchat Cat Simulator

It’s Friday, so you’ve already looked at cat pictures, watched a few cat videos and probably sent cat pictures and videos to your workmates. Now you’re ready to complete the journey by pretending you’re a cat on the internet with a bunch of other bored people.

This is Chatchat, the cat simulator.

You’ll roam the areas around a house in beautiful 8bit graphics, chasing mice and hanging out with other cats on the server. There does seem to be a basic scoring system and some hidden rooms to find, but that’s not really what Chatchat is about. It’s just about being a cat, man.

Go with it.

Hero Academy – Cartoon iPhone Chess

Having finished with Pocket League Story, I went in search of a new iPhone game to play on the toil… on the train to work. Hero Academy has filled that void by providing a turn-based, multiplayer game that seems simple at first, but contains a surprising amount of strategy and addictive gameplay.

Check out the trailer below, or read on for my hilarious* experiences with the game so far.

*May be less than hilarious

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New Mass Effect 3 Special Forces Trailer

With a whole two weeks until the Mass Effect 3 demo hits on Feb 14, we’re going to need to find any way we can to distract ourselves from the agonising wait.

Thankfully Bioware know their fans, so they have flung a new co-op trailer out into the rabid pack of grasping nerd-hands and retreated into their solid gold castle from whence they came.

Feast upon the delicious goodness via Youtube below, or download the HD version of significantly increased deliciousness from 3FL. It’s the usual deal – 3FL downloads are quota free for iiNet, Westnet and Netspace customers because they’re so good looking.

Renegade X: Black Dawn Available Now

Everyone has a favourite game from back in the day that they want to see re-released using one of today’s game engines.

What if Freelancer was released as an MMO? Why isn’t there a Jedi Knight game on the Wii? Why doesn’t someone re-make Command & Conquer: Renegade using the power of the Unreal Engine 3 and release it as a free download?

If you thought that last one sounded a bit too specific, then that’s because I’m a terrible writer and it was the best way I could think to announce that Renegade X: Black Dawn is now available to download and play as a free, standalone game.

Renegade X began as an Unreal Tournament 3 mod recreating the awesome gameplay from C&C: Renegade and has been in development since 2009. Renegade X sees the Global Defense Initiative and the Brotherhood of Nod going at it with their usual arsenals; stealth tanks, Orca aircraft, Mammoth tanks, commando’s packed with C4 and gatling guns. Check out the trailer below to see the game in action.

You can grab the 3.9GB client install from 3FL entirely quota-free for iiNet, Westnet and Netspace customers.

Head over to the Renegade X website for more info.

Win The Soundtrack From Bastion

In our ongoing quest for awesome free stuff, 3FL has teamed up with Supergiant Games to give you the chance to win a copy of the soundtrack to their massively successful game Bastion.

We have 10 copies of Darren Korb’s epic soundtrack up for grabs and all you have to do is come up with one of the least boring entries we receive – easy!

Check out an impromptu acoustic performance by Darren and vocalist Ashley Barrett below to see what you could be nodding your head to on the train to work. Never heard of Bastion before? Shame on you. Go watch the trailer immediately.

To enter, all you need to do is send an email to contests@3fl.net.au from your iiNet, Westnet or Netspace email address and tell us (in 25 words or less) what the opening line from the narrator would be if you were the hero in Bastion. Please include your preferred name for when we announce the winners (whether that’s Brad or d00mie22 is up to you).

Be as creative as you want to be, because you’ll need to be one of our 10 favourites to score yourself a soundtrack!

Entries close at 12PM WST on Friday 3rd February 2012. Winners will be announced shortly after and notified via email.

Liquid Physics Puzzles in Vessel

I’m calling it now – the next cool little indie physics game with sweet music that’s going to make insane amounts of money is Vessel from developer Strange Loop Games.

Vessel is all about inventor M. Arkwright and his liquid-based Fluro machines. What starts as simple puzzles solved by water machinations soon turns into complex puzzles with lava, slime and all sorts of other liquid physics.

Check out the trailer below or read on for a more in-depth look at the game in the new videos promoting the game’s March 1 release on Steam.

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Mass Effect 3 Demo on Valentines Day

Forever alone this Valentines Day? Bioware’s got your back with the Mass Effect 3 demo hitting Xbox, PS3 and PC on Feb 14.

The demo will include both single-player and co-op multiplayer (which unlocks on Feb 17) levels along with voice recognition using the Xbox Kinect. You’ll be able to shout commands like “Shotgun” to switch to a weapon or “LIARA MOVE YOU’RE IN MY WAY WHICH MAKES ME HATE YOU” to have Liara step aside. I’ve never considered buying a Kinect before, but being able to abuse my NPC characters for being useless could be a game-changer.

For PC players, Bioware have posted the minimum and recommended specs for the demo in a forum post on their website.

Check out the video below to see the Kinect voice commands in action, or download the HD version from 3FL entirely quota-free for iiNet, Westnet and Netspace customers.

Syndicate Co-Op Demo Coming

EA have sent word that a 4 player co-op demo of Syndicate will be hitting Xbox and PS3 later this month, letting everyone try out 1 of the 9 co-op missions available in the full game when it comes out in February.

Well, when it comes out in New Zealand since the game was refused classification in Australia because we still don’t have an R18+ classification. But hey, we get to check the demo out. So I guess that’s something.

Check out the new co-op trailer on Youtube below or download the full HD version from 3FL entirely quota-free for iiNet, Westnet and Netspace customers.

[Update] EA Australia have confirmed that the Syndicate co-op demo will not be available in Australia, only New Zealand. I wasn’t aware they bothered limiting specific Xbox Live/PSN titles to specific regions, other than whether it’s available for EU or NA (Australia and New Zealand both falls under EU). I guess we’ll find out later this month.

Starhawk Open Beta Begins Feb 21

On Feb 21, anyone who wants to jump into Starhawk will get the chance when the open beta starts. You can get in earlier if you’re a PSN Plus subscriber or bought Uncharted 3.

Woohoo, free stuff! Everyone loves free stuff!

Starhawk is the sequel to Warhawk, one of the first multiplayer PS3 shooters, known for its gyro-controlled Warhawk jets and combining solid team-based FPS gameplay with vehicles to really make the player feel like he’s in the middle of an epic battle.

The sequel kicks things up a notch by adding the ability to deploy buildings, defensive turrets and energy shields on the fly in the middle of a game and adding the ability to transform the jets into a rad looking mech while singing Robot Rock (at least that’s what I’ll be doing). It’s the sort of ambitious design for an online shooter that makes me wonder whether it’s going to actually work well outside the controlled environment of the developer’s studio.

However the video below has a lot of resounding endorsements, so it sounds like the new stuff really works. It even includes a few people who don’t have to big the game up just because they write for Playstation Magazine, so it’s probably reliable.

Besides, the game just looks like it would be a lot of fun. Check it out.