The post-apocalyptic world of the Fallout franchise has always been rife with humor and innovative imagery. While we all think we know what the aesthetic should resemble, it's up to the actual artists to try to find new ways to spin that aesthetic in novel ways, to keep the look fresh and appealing. Leading the charge is Bethesda's Adam Adamowicz, Concept Artist on Fallout 3.
In his latest Diary, Adam details the sometimes rigorous brainstorming sessions and countless revisions it takes to arrive at a truly immersive look and feel for the game, and presents several concept art sketches for our enjoyment. Included in this overview are the clothing, machines, architecture, robots, and assorted mutants and bad guys that populate the ravaged world of Fallout. If the finished product is anything even remotely like these sketches, we're all in for quite a treat. Enjoy!
Today, they announced that teen celebrity idols Cody Linley (best known for his recurring roll on the TV series Hannah Montana) and Jesse McCartney (musical artist and Emmy nominee) will voice the famous, crime-solving brothers in a forthcoming Hardy Boys game called The Hidden Theft.
Nothing has been said about the gameplay, but we're betting it will be fairly traditional adventure genre stuff. What's that you say? That genre is dead? It's a thing of the past? Well, so were the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew franchises. A comeback is always possible!
[EDIT: We had said The Adventure Company developed Syberia and the Sam & Max episodes. This was an error; The Adventure Company published those games, but did not develop them. Thanks to reader smitty for pointing it out! We apologize for the mistake.]
It's rare that we get to see how a game evolves from its beginnings to its final project. Developer Frictional Games is doing just that with its release of an alpha version of Unbirth, a horror themed first person action-adventure game that served as the first step in releasing the first game in their acclaimed Penumbra series.
The game, which was created by Frictional Games founder Thomas Grip a number of years ago, was never finished but because of popular demand by fans, he decided to release a playable (but still unstable) alpha version of Unbirth which should give Penumbra fans an interesting insight into the series. The web site also has some more info on the history of the game's development along with monster sketches, level screenshots and design docs and more. Anyone interested in game development should check this out.
Based on the characters from the wildly popular online comic Penny Arcade, Episode One features heroes Gabe and Tyco in the deranged 1920s universe of New Arcadia.
On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, which has been rated M for Mature by the ESRB, promises a 10-hour adventure when it releases for $19.99 next Wednesday.
In an interview with Videogamer, Lucasarts producer Cameron Suey blamed the variance of computer hardware for the lack of a PC release of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
"Someone with a $4,000 high-end system would definitely be able to play the Euphoria [the game engine], the DMM and really technical elements of the game. But someone with a low-end PC would have a watered down experience," Suey said when asked why The Force Unleashed would not see a PC release.
Suey went on to assure PC gamers that ignoring the platform that shot Lucasarts development into stardom is not a company mandate. "We're not shutting the door on PC at all. Just for this project it happens to be that we don't have a PC SKU. I really hope that everyone can experience this game on a platform eventually." Unfortunately PC is not included as Suey straightforwardly answered "No," when asked if the anticipated title will ever hit make it to PC fans platform of choice.
1. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff Expansion Pack 2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe 3. The Sims 2 FreeTime Expansion Pack 4. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest 5. World Of Warcraft 6. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 7. Sins Of A Solar Empire 8. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack 9. Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition 10. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2
That makes four years that The Sims 2 and World of Warcraft have been fairly consistently pwning the industry. The only other PC exclusive on the list is Ironclad/Stardock's runaway 4X RTS hit Sins of a Solar Empire. The others -- Call of Duty 4,Assassin's Creed, and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 -- are multi-platform titles. WoW's position is no surprise, given the NPD's research with regards to online game revenues. The Sims 2's domination of the charts, however, speaks to a vast, silent market of gamers to whom hardcore games like Rainbow Six don't appeal.
Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!
No self-respecting freeware gamer can talk about freeware games without mentioning one of the masterpieces. It's a simple and yet absurdly good platformer/shooter, developed by one Japanese man over the course of 5 years. It's quite possibly the best freeware game of all time. I am, of course, talking about Cave Story (Or Doukutsu Monogatari for those who want the Japanese name) by Pixel.
Since it was launched to critical acclaim in 2003, Beyond Good & Evil has been at the center of too many sequel rumors to remember. The brainchild of Rayman creator Michel Ancel, the original BG&E was an unfortunate commercial blunder from Ubisoft who saw success the same year with titles like, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. Nearly five years later, new rumors suggest the sequel could find its way onto a PC and consoles near you.
According to a report on PSLegion, PSM3's 'The Insider' reignited the rumor campfire claiming a BG&E sequel would, "most likely ... see the light of day."
Other PC related rumors mentioned in the article include: a Leisure Suit Larry movie may be in the works, rated PG we're sure and Treyarch has spent two years on Call of Duty 5 instead of the typical nine months. Unless those two years were spent turning into Infinity Ward color us skeptical!
As for the Beyond Good & Evil 2 rumor, our fingers are crossed. Oh, and for those who haven't played Ubisoft's classic third-person adventure game ... shame on you!
Next-Gen Prince of Persia Producer Ben Mattes knows how to make an introduction. In the first, of a promised many, development diaries for the upcoming action-adventure title, the producer debuted an exclusive concept image of the Prince speed-painted by character artist Patrick. The art, other than being breathtakingly created before our very eyes, reignites our interest in the franchise's new cell-shaded direction.
While we're happy with the trailer, we can't stand the tease! The all-new Prince of Persia title, staring an all-new Prince, is currently in development at Ubisoft's Montreal studio and is expected to hit retail this holiday season.
While another independent programmer plugs away at a full remake of the classic GameBoy title Metroid II, Nintendo fan Von Richter is hard at work at another programmed lover-letter to the Metroid series.
Metroid SR-388, which according to the trailer has been in development for four years, features new moves, weapons and abilities in what is described as "The Ultimate Fangame."
It would be a shame if the thousands of frames of animation in the game were put to a halt by Nintendo's legal department before we got our hands on the PC release, so our hopes go out to Richter. No word on the status of the fan-made title but we can't wait to curl up into a ball again and not have it be related to meeting our deadlines!
The next Price of Persia game will be using Anvil, the same graphics engine that powered Assassin's Creed. Don't jump for joy quiet yet, because it's not going to look anything like AC. Instead, this particular Prince from Persia will be cell-shaded.
Personally, many of us here at the Big D like the cell-shaded look. It was used to incredible effect in Ubisoft's 2003 FPS, XIII. The upcoming superhero MMO from Cryptic Studios, Champions Online, will be using it -- and it looks fantastic. Seed, the MMO that was DOA, used it too, but the majority of people never got to see how incredibly cool cell-shaded graphics can be.
We weren't sure whether this very unique look is what the Prince needed until we saw screen shots on the French game site, Progamers (which were taken from the gaming magazine, Joypad). We're convinced.
Cyan Worlds hit the mother lode with their release of their CD-Rom adventure game Mystback in 1993. The new storage format for PC games was perfect for Myst; its rich art style resonated with gamers at the time and made the original Myst the best selling PC game of all time with over 6 million copies sold (It has since been eclipsed by a number of other games like Half-Life, The Sims and World of Warcraft). Cyan and other developers created several sequels and spin-offs from the game but never achieved the success the original title received.
Now comes word that a group of independent film makers called the Mysteria Film Group are planning to create a Myst movie, with the full approval of Cyan Worlds. Indeed the movie's official web site has a note from Cyan Worlds' co-founder Rand Miller who states that he was so impressed with the film maker's presentation that Cyan decided to give them the green light, He added, " We suddenly realized that making a Myst movie was not about Hollywood and studios and cigars and agents. It was about passion."
To be clear, the Mysteria Film Group is not a massively funded enterprise but a group of enthusiastic folks who have been working on this project off and on for about four years (the game's web site has the trial and tribulations of the group's day to day tasks, including dental work). The movie's storyline is actually based on a series of Myst novels that were first published in the 1990s. Obviously with these kinds of efforts it's hard to say if this will actually come to pass (heck, even major Hollywood game-to-movie properties can get canned) but we admire that this group is pressing on with few resources to make their plans come true.
If you like your point-and-click adventure games with a dose of horror and thrills, then Overclocked: A History Of Violence could be for you. The game from developer House of Tales and publisher Lighthouse Interactive is in stores now but you can also download a demo of the game at Lighthouse's web site.
The demo allows you to take part as the game's main protagonist, psychiastrist David McNamara, as he interviews three patients at the Staten Island Forensic Hospital in New York City. You have to delve into their lives as you discover the horrifing mysteries. The full game will give you a chance to interview two more patients and play as five different characters. If you like classic adventure gameplay with some dark themes, this demo is for you.
Coming later this month from developer Frogwares, developers of the critically hailed Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, comes Dracula Origin. As Professor Van Helsing gamers are tasked with chasing down the infamous vampire grand-daddy through the streets of London, Egypt, Austria, and Transylvania. The level of detail behind Dracula Origin should get adventure fans excited and with The Adventure Company publishing the game we hope it will help our vampire-adventure craving. Dracula Origin hits stores on May 20, 2008.
Want to send Bethesda your white hot questions pertaining to Fallout 3? Then you should no further than this Bethesda blog post over at IGN. Methods of sending your questions include (and are limited to) emailing them to bethblog [at] bethsoft [dot] com and asking in the comments section of the announcement.
We're sure there are plenty of you out there who'd like to scan the brains of Bethesda, we know that we'd love the chance. This is the closest you're ever likely to get, so get your questions in as soon as you can and for the love of Vault 101 don't ask the isometric question.
We're hoping for some good results, as the last time that Bethesda did this we got some really great answers from them.
