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Even Tim Schafer needs to pitch games to bosses

Tim Schafer is a game development god. He’s part responsible for games like The Secret of Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, Stacking and more! Do you get it? He’s an important guy in the industry, responsible for some of the most loved franchises in the history of ever.

He’s busy making a Kinect game that features the Sesame Street gang; it’s called Once Upon A Monster. The game was announced some time ago, but with its upcoming release, the team at Double Fine feel the need to start marketing their storybook adventure. The game is aimed at kids and older gamers who, you know, still have an inner kid and other stuff like feelings and a heart.

Here’s quite possibly the most amazing marketing video for the game. In it, Schafer pitches the idea for Once Upon A Monster to Cookie Monster, who clearly owns a multi-billion dollar games publishing company. It’s delightful, and if it doesn’t make you crack a smile or chuckle quietly then I’m afraid it’s probably say too late for you to regain any shreds of humanity you may have once had – you cold-hearted bastard.

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jul 13, 2011
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The best thing about Fable: The Journey is its horse

Well, that’s if our favourite, hyperbole spewing developer veteran is to be believed. During  a talk at the annual Gamelab Conference in Spain, Peter Molyneux divulged more information on upcoming, totally-not-on-rails Lionhead project,  Fable: The Journey.

For those of us still pining over the death of Milo and Kate, pine no more because a vast majority of the technology we saw demoed at that fateful E3 presentation two years ago has made its way into the next Fable game. On top of that piece of information, Molyneux highlighted the importance of the horse glimpsed briefly during the 2011 E3 presentation of The Journey.

“This horse is one of the most amazing things we’ve ever created. He’s going to have so much feeling for you. Think about combining the creature from Black and White, the dog from Fable and my hamster from when I was a child. I definitely want to make you cry. I want there to be a lump in your throat. I want you to remember this for the rest of your life. Why would I want to make a game that didn’t do that?”

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Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jul 01, 2011
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Double Fine’s EU release of Trenched is not going well

Trademark laws: they’re a tricksy bunch and every now and then they seriously disrupt the gaming industry. Take Double Fine’s latest XBLA release Trenched for example: it’s still not out on the UK or European versions of Xbox Live.

The reason is because there’s a Portuguese board game called Trench that was designed and trademarked by Rui Alípio Monteiro back in 2007. That trademark is for, obviously, the board game as well as any future videogame version that might be developed.

This means that Double Fine’s latest take on the tower-defence genre will not be seeing a release in certain EU locations unless it changes its name or Monteiro lets them publish it. The latter option is not likely seeing as Monteiro, when questioned by Eurogamer, said he had “nothing else to declare”.

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Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jul 01, 2011
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UPDATE: Limbo heading to the PS3

[UPDATE]: Playdead Studios has confirmed that Limbo will be released on the PlayStation 3 as well as PC via Steam. There’s still no release date but according to the studio’s CEO and co-founder Dino Patti, it’s “coming very soon”. The ports to both new platforms are being handled by Playdead themselves. You can check out NAG Online’s original Limbo review here.

[Original]: Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy! PlayStation 3 gamers, you lot have something amazing to look forward to. If a Korean game rating is to be believed then Playdead’s macabre and surreal puzzle platformer Limbo is heading to your console of choice.

Released nearly a year ago on Xbox Live Arcade, the game sees a little boy die over and over again thanks to the twisted denizens and unwelcoming landscapes of the monochromatic world of Limbo. He’s on a silent quest to rescue his sister from this dark and morbid place, but in order to reach her he must face some of the most psychologically jarring and horrific situations out.

In case you haven’t noticed, I bloody loved this game. It was for me, in a year of releases that included gems like Red Dead Redemption and Mass Effect 2, the gaming highlight of 2010. If you’re a PS3 gamer and you’re into the arty, more meaningful gaming experiences, then it is imperative that you pick this up when it releases. When that is, however, is still unknown.

Source: Destructoid & Joystiq [Update]

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jun 30, 2011
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Anya wants to teach you about Horde 2.0

And she sounds pretty serious, so I’d pay attention unless you want a Lancer bayonet stuck somewhere unpleasant.

This is a three minute briefing video that details all the new bits in Gears of War 3’s Horde mode. For those who don’t know what Horde mode is (and honestly, you really should because it’s the most fun you’ll have on Xbox Live), it’s a co-operative multiplayer mode in which you and a group of buddies have to fend off wave after wave of increasingly tougher enemies.

Epic has included things like: trading weapons with team mates, building turrets and barriers, a cash system to pay for placed defences, and wave objectives like having to execute a set amount of enemies for a bonus payout. To hell with the single-player campaign, when this game hits on 20 September, I’m diving right into the multiplayer.

Via: Joystiq

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jun 23, 2011
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Halo: CE Anniversary Edition will support Kinect

It’ll support Kinect, not require it so don’t implode from venomous rage or anything. This news comes from an interview between GameSpot and Microsoft’s Phil Spencer who told the website: “As a first party we believe that Kinect will be important to all genres of games, be it racing games with Forza, combat games like Ryse — even games like Halo Anniversary has Kinect integration.”

And that’s pretty much all he said about it, which means nobody other than those developing the Anniversary Edition of the first Halo game have an idea about how Kinect will be integrated. Hopefully it won’t be for controlling Warthogs or anything because the ordinary controller mapping for that is tricky enough.

Maybe we’ll get to physically flail around and kick at those annoying little squiddy guys that attack you once The Flood gets released? Oh right, The Flood, that’s why I’m not excited about this remake.

Source: Destructoid

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jun 21, 2011
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Fable: The Journey not “on rails”, is a core game

Peter Molyneux introduced the world to the next Fable game during the Microsoft E3 presentation last week. The new game, subtitled The Journey, will feature complete Kinect integration and appeared to be an on rails experience judging by what was shown.

Once the news was disseminated out into the world, that whole “on rails” thing became the main area of focus for many. The demonstration didn’t blow minds as Peter Molyneux always aims to do. He blames the lack of time allocated to him by Microsoft to show off his new game during the presentation.

Molyneux was so convinced that the debut destroyed any chance of the game appealing to people that he rounded up a bunch of journalists at E3 and made them sign a wall agreeing to tell the world that Fable: The Journey is not an on rails spin-off, but a fully fledged, core game with player navigation.

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Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jun 13, 2011
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Head tracking with Forza 4 and Kinect

E3 is next week, but already publishers and developers are teasing us with snippets of information on what to expect at the show. Microsoft is no exception and neither is the team behind upcoming Forza 4, Turn 10 Studios.

Desperate to shoe-horn any feature into the game that will put it “ahead of” the competition (PS3 exclusive Gran Turismo), Turn 10 has added Kinect functionality to Forza 4. That is relatively old news, but they promised head-tracking while racing and until now we have yet to see it in action.

Major Nelson has kicked his pre-E3 hype into overdrive and teamed up with the Forza folks to debut this feature. More is promised at E3 of course. As for the head-tracking itself, it’s quite a neat feature except for the glaringly obvious problem: you move your head to look around and kind of end up looking away from the TV. Solution: buy a bigger TV of course! See, money does solve everything.

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jun 01, 2011
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New Microsoft studio developing a “core” Kinect shooter

Microsoft Game Studios Vancouver is a newish development team that is currently working on a “core AAA shooter experience using Kinect”. This is not the first time Xbox 360 gamers have had the two words “Kinect” and “Shooter” squeezed into a sentence together; a few months ago it was rumoured that a Kinect Gears of War game was on the cards. Whether that still exists is anyone’s guess.

The team at MGS Vancouver is currently working on “an original IP” that utilises Kinect “in new and unique ways”. The team also claims to be focused on “highly experimental gameplay” for Xbox 360 and its motion-sensing peripheral.

News of this work on a Kinect shooter was let slip by the company’s Senior Artist, Shawn Woods who revealed the project via an online CV. It sounds as if things are in the very early stages as the company has job postings for Senior Level Designers and Senior Technical Game Designers.

Anyone want to hazard a guess as to how a shooter would work with Kinect?

Source: Kotaku

Posted by Miklós Szecsei May 03, 2011
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Review: The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile

Sequel to the 2009 game The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai , the latest beat ‘em up from Ska Studios is a frenetic, hyper-violent title loaded with enough emo nuances to make the Care Bears start slitting their furry little wrists. Vampire Smile continues the story of the first game but offers a diverging plotline depending on which character you choose: either The Dishwasher or his stepsister Yuki. There are numerous references to the previous game’s storyline, but even if you haven’t played that one you will pick up the gist of what’s happening as you progress. Suffice it to say, the storyline reeks of anime angst and vengeful rampages, but that makes for some pretty awesome gameplay. Plus there’s a cat with bat wings so that’s got to count for something, right?

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Posted by Miklós Szecsei Apr 26, 2011
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