Whether or not you like to write, there’s an excellent chance that you love storytelling in one way or another. Dejobaan Games’ excellent Elegy for a Dead World is a game about writing that’s not just for writers and to some “gamers” out there, isn’t really a videogame in the traditional sense. There are no scores tallied, no bad guys to dispatch, and only three relatively small and short themed planets to explore. But it’s neither the journey nor the destination that’s the selling point here.
The game encourages you to sit down, unhook your brain from its box and let your fingers do the talking as you write anything you wish. Yes, there are numerous writing prompts you can use and there’s great fun in pretending to speak in another voice as some of the prompts suggest. But for some players, the experience of free-styling their way through each world and sharing their stories with others will be the big draw… Continue reading →
Atlus’ long running Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series of games has always been a reliably sturdy franchise for fans, surviving a few major artistic and gameplay changes some dislike while providing deep and generally well written plots as well as some interesting characters. The company has been teasing Persona 5 for a little while now as the game is still in development in Japan, and as this latest teaser shows, some of the familiar elements are back. Expect high-school age kids finding out they’ve got hidden powers called Personas, Japan at the brink of some sort of apocalyptic destruction, and dozens of hours of gameplay not counting plenty of side-quests. Demon fusion, teen angst, maybe a bit of romance options and a number of returning good, evil and neutral NPC’s to chat with will no doubt also be par for the course.
This second teaser trailer reveals not much at all other than some of the new cast of characters and their names. Additionally, as this will be the first Persona game for next-gen (or current gen if you’ve already made the switch), it will be interesting to see the differences between the PS3 and PS4 versions of the game. I’d imagine the more powerful PS4 will run the game at a steady frame rate and probably feature ore detailed environments. But outside that fighting game, the series has never been about super flashy visuals or lightning paced action. We’ll keep an ear to ground for more on this one, but let’s just say a chunk of time is being carved out in order to dive deep into this one and play it at length.
Grip Games is at it again with a cool enhanced update to one of its popular titles. Unmechanical Extended Edition is coming in 2015 for PS3,PS4, Xbox One courtesy of Grip and developers Teotl Studios and Talawa Games. Given that the original game was a critical success on multiple mobile platforms and PC, a console version with a bit more content was pretty much a no-brainer. Exclusive to the console versions is a new chapter that allows playing of the puzzle/adventure/platormer hybrid as a new character. Grip has also announced the Vita version of the game has been canceled, at least for the time being. The press release notes this, however:
While it is possible that this version will eventually be released, it definitely won’t be simultaneously with other versions.
Ouch. If speculation must be made, I’d imagine that getting Unreal to play nice on the Vita is probably trickier than expected. That or there are other issues keeping this one from its Vita debut. In any event, if Grip and company manage to work things out and get the game up and running, an update will be posted as soon as any news arrives in the inbox here. In the meantime, here are five screens to check out.
Right now, sometime in January 2015 looks like when we’ll see Unmechanical Extended Edition land safely on home consoles. Stay tuned for more on this one…
As surprising as it is that there’s been a lack of original Japanese RPGs on the Wii U, it’s an equal surprise that Alphadia Genesis manages to be a pretty solid port of a mobile game and for those who only own console, the only true JRPG currently available for the system. Released for iOS and Android earlier this year by Kemco, developer EXE-Create has cooked up a game full of familiar tropes that works hard at delivering the nostalgic goods. For the most part it succeeds, thanks to nice 2D visuals, speedy combat and a fairly lengthy quest. However, veteran JRPG fans will wish the developer had gone the extra mile in a few spots that would have made the game even more impressive… Continue reading →
The fun thing about having such a huge backlog of games to go through is it’s genuinely surprising to finally stumble across stuff in the digital stack that’s worth taking time to fully explore. Granted, this sometimes means later than usual reviews. But hey, at least they get done. Wonderstruck’s fantastic sneak and steal game, The Marvellous Miss Take is one of those excellent indie surprises you can’t gauge solely from ogling screenshots and movies at all. It’s a game that needs to be played even if you’re a stealth game veteran who thinks you’ve seen it all. Quirky visuals, snappy writing and mostly tight gameplay are all here for your enjoyment and the game excels at making you smile as you stylishly sneak back your stolen inheritance… Continue reading →
Black Pants Game Studios‘ formerly mobile-only title About Love, hate and the other ones is now on Steam for $6.99 and I’d say you should buy it for the title alone. I just completed downloading it but haven’t had the chance to play, but that title made me smile because I immediately thought of the great Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter delivering that classic speech:
However, the game has nothing to do with that should have been a classic when it was first released Charles Laughton film, folks. The press release and that video below should give you a better idea of what to expect:
Description
About Love, Hate and the other ones is a puzzle game, in which you influence your surroundings by the force of Hate and the power of Love. They shouldn’t have pushed the button! Life on the hill was just perfect for Love and Hate before that shiny red device appeared. Suddenly, they are trapped in a dark and spooky cave, far away from home. Now it is up to you to control the opposing forces of Love and Hate. They will soon meet a lot of Other Ones, wondering how they might react when Loved, or when Hated. Find a way through caves and ice, castles and factories, all by the might of your puzzling! If you ever return to that hill, life will be sweet again…
The game was developed by Tobias Bilgeri based on a short film series he did during university studies. Positive feedback on the game had him teaming up with indie developer brush&bear (two students at the University of Kassel) for the iPhone version, published by Black Pants on the App Store. A few screenshots for you? Of course!
The quirky visual style and initially simple gameplay should appeal to you puzzle fans out there, but I also like the interesting love-hate dynamic. Now, to shut up, post this and try to get in a some game time at some point today. Back in a bit…
As I noted last week before I even got a review code, Dejobaan Games’ Elegy for a Dead World is probably a game that will get non-gamers to play it. After firing up the game last night and taking it for a brief spin, let’s just say that it’s everything I thought and then some. I’ll save the longer words and high praise for the full review, but this may be the surest cure for a case of “writer’s block” you’ll ever see. Just for kicks, here’s a list of the first writing prompts I saw when I chose a world to explore:
The Proud History of a Dead World
Freeform Writing
Grammar Workshop 101
Ozmandias by Percy Shelly
The Destroyer of Worlds
I Thought ___ But You ___
Ten Rhyming Couplets
Bad Poetry You Wrote on the Bus
The Diary of a Young Girl
Other than Freeform Writing, each prompt has a brief description of what’s required. I did a world and at the end, was prompted to edit or share my work. I chose not to share it, but was surprised to see a story from someone else to read waiting for me on a new screen. Nice. The game not only encourages you to write, but to read and rate other works submitted by players. Things are really going to get interesting now. I just hope I have time to read what’s looking like a growing library of short stories, poems and other writing exercises…
Well, okay. A copy of Suikoden II doesn’t cost “millions” these days, but it’s not cheap at all. Some have paid close to $100 for the game disc alone, while mint condition to sealed copies can cost many times more. Of course, Konami hasn’t made a patina coated penny in profits from those sales. But starting tomorrow, all that changes when the game finally arrives on PSN as a PSOne Classic. It won’t cost much (hopefully under $20) and is still one of those deeper than it looks on the surface games that’s been generating desire since it went out of print.
Granted, it seems that it only got a single production run and until this point in time never got a western re-release. Now, (well, tomorrow) it’ll be in the hands of PS Vita and PS3/PS4 owners who can finally play what’s been called one of the greatest JRPGs ever made. Hmmmm… of course, now the BIG question remains will saves from this game also work with the Suikoden III, the PlayStation 2 follow-up that used the previous game’s files to grant players bonus content. Methinks Sony will need to tweak that Content Manager software the PS3, PS4 and Vita use to share that data when the time comes. I still have my physical copy of the third game, but I sold off my SII earlier this year because I needed the money. I bet the farm on Sony and Konami finally making things right and thankfully, that’s seemed to have paid off. Whee.
Game delays aren’t great news at all and CD Projekt RED’s upcoming open-world RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has already be hit with one big delay that pushed the game into 2015 from 2014. Well, that wait has just gotten about twelve weeks longer. CDPR has issued an open letter to its fans explaining the (rather obvious) reasons for the delay: the game is just too damn big and good to be completed at its current pace. Well, that’s what I distilled from this note:
Dear Gamers,
Ever since we started working on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, we knew it would be an ambitious game. We wanted, and still aim, to give you an incredible experience, an epic adventure in a vast, completely open fantasy universe.
The sheer size and complexity of The Witcher, key features of the title, have had a decisive impact on production. Now, nearing the end of our work, we see many details that need to be corrected. When we release the most important game in our studio’s history, we must be absolutely sure that we did everything we could to limit any bugs to a level that will allow you to enjoy the game thoroughly.
With this in mind, we took another look at current workloads and what they mean for the team. Even though everyone is working at full speed, we concluded that we need another 12 weeks, so we are shifting the release date of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to May 19th, 2015.
We owe you an apology. We set the release date too hastily. It’s a hard lesson, one to take to heart for the future. We know what we want to do to make Wild Hunt one of the best RPGs you will ever play. And we continue to work hard to achieve just that. So, we apologize and ask for your trust.
Thank you for the all support you show us on a daily basis. We truly do appreciate it. It has fueled us in our passion since the start and will continue to do so.
The Board of CD PROJEKT SA
Amusingly enough, news came around the time this new trailer dropped online, but it just made me want to wait as long as it takes for the team to get it done:
Now, you could yell at CD Projekt RED to stop playing their own game so much and just get it out, but that would be a mistake. No game ships 100% bug free and this one is especially tricky. That extra three months should be enough for the dev team to tighten things up and make sure the launch goes as smoothly as possible. Remember, in addition to a digital version, the company is also making physical retail discs for two consoles and all of these have to run as smoothly as possible. Whatever issues are keeping CDPR busy are most likely affecting all three versions (or two, if you’re a PC diehard and console hater), but those of us who respect the developer know they’ll make it all work.
So, I’m not watching (or, didn’t watch, to be a good deal more precise) The Game Awards because I’d rather play games that actually deserve praise that aren’t getting it than watch awards shows about the ones that almost automatically do. Anyway, I missed out on some cool reveals such as the VERY wow-worthy Metal Gear Online (which I loved looking at and won’t play because I hate being “social” in games and prefer single player story-driven experiences) and a few other upcoming games coming to the new consoles.
Of course, I’d almost forgotten about the still in development new Legend of Zelda title for the Wii U, but here comes legendary creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Zelda director Eiji Aonuma with a nice-looking demo that makes me glad I’ve owned a Wii U since its launch. That new Zelda is still on track for a 2015 release, a good thing, as it will arrive in a year where every first and third party release on the console is important. I’m liking what I see so far and it seems that the game is going to find a wide appeal among both longtime and new fans. Okay, NOW I’m officially going to bed. I was only up because I’d forgotten to take pictures of the kitchen here it’s still a mess, but some work has been done) and decided to poke around in my inbox to see if anything interesting was in there. Yes, indeed there was…
Platform: PC/Mac/Linux
The game encourages you to sit down, unhook your brain from its box and let your fingers do the talking as you write anything you wish. Yes, there are numerous writing prompts you can use and there’s great fun in pretending to speak in another voice as some of the prompts suggest. But for some players, the experience of free-styling their way through each world and sharing their stories with others will be the big draw… Continue reading 
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 