PlayStation 3
Brandon Boyer
Offworld Gallery: Say Hello to Hello Games
Less than a week away from announcing their first game, a little introduction to Hello Games: you may have spotted -- especially if you were on the GDC Austin show floor -- Hello's recent appearance in Edge Magazine, where they talked about their decision to leave gainful employment elsewhere to set up shop for themselves and prepare their debut PC-, 360- and PS3-bound title.
If so, you may also have spotted (though only in print) the accompanying concept sketches by Hello artist Grant Duncan, which was basically all I needed to see to realize that the team was laser-targeting my one true heart (particularly with the cube-head at top) with whatever they had in store.
The dev team at Hello is made up of (from L to R) creative director David Ream (formerly of Kuju, where he helped expand the Geometry Wars universe with Galaxies), managing director Sean Murray (former Criterion tech lead on Burnout 3 and Black), artist Duncan (formerly artist on Sega/Sumo's Virtua Tennis 3 and Sega Superstars Tennis), and programmer Ryan Doyle (also of Kuju, where he was lead programmer on the aforementioned Galaxies), and while none of the art sketches give too much away on the group's debut game, it does give a distinct (and ultra-sweet) flavor of the direction they're heading.
Below the fold then, four pages from Duncan's sketchbook to let you get to know Hello. After you've taken it in, visit Hello's website to read more (see esp.: this post, in which each of the team have been morphed into collectible diorama characters of their respective top games).
Brandon Boyer
TGS: Two more minutes with Ico creator's Last Guardian
For its Tokyo Game Show appearance, Sony's put together a short behind the scenes look with Ico and Shadow of the Colossus creator Fumito Ueda explaining that the fantastical mix of creatures that make up his Last Guardian actually increases the gryphon's realism.
Watching the subsequent new two minute trailer, with every talon stretch and head-scratch, it's very hard to deny.
Brandon Boyer
Video: Lee Petty on the art of Brütal Legend
Double Fine art director Lee Petty takes you on a slightly more consumer-focused -- and very much more condensed -- version of the tour he gave at this year's GDC through the basically jaw-dropping sights and sounds of the world of Brütal Legend.
Brandon Boyer
Block life: From Software shows pixelcrafting adventure 3D Dot Game Heroes in motion
Images of From Software's PS3 exclusive adventure 3D Dot Game Heroes have been floating around for a few weeks now, but I've held off on mentioning it until now -- until we got a better sense of how exactly it'd play, and now's that time.
You'll grasp almost immediately what to expect via the video above: it's essentially precisely the game I called for last December, Tibori's 2-plus-one-D Dotter Dotter pixelcrafts come to life in what looks to be as close to a Zelda tribute (straight down to the rhythms of its theme song) to ever land on a Sony console.
On top of that, the game will feature a full 3D pixel editor for your hero -- Qblock style -- and the massively oversized weaponry you can catch a glimpse of above (which andriasang shows off in better detail, alongside its low-bit vistas), in what could be one of the best next-gen tributes to first-gen gaming.
The game's due for release in November in Japan, and while it hasn't been officially announced for the West just yet, the stilted English intro in the trailer is a good sign that From has its sights set for wider release in the future.
Brandon Boyer
One shot: Iggy Pop, plastic passenger
Sporting a heroin-chic-weathered 'body' decal that likely won't be working its way backward into the company's toy line, French game news site JeuxVideo gets the first look at Iggy Pop's appearance in TT/Harmonix's upcoming Lego Rock Band -- click through for the full plastic performance of The Passenger. [via mbf]
Brandon Boyer
Project Needlemouse: Sega tease new HD, 2D Sonic for 2010
The biggest 09/09/09 10th anniversary news for still-dejected Sega/Dreamcast fans: Sega has told GameSpot that they're preparing a "brand new [hi-def] 2D adventure coming out in 2010" for the franchise's 20th anniversary, currently teased as Project Needlemouse, which they see as a "critical first step that brings Sonic back to his 2D roots," after years spent going -- as the superfans would see -- far, far afield.
Brandon Boyer
As you've no doubt seen: Borderlands pulls a Bale
The second meme-lifting promo video in under a week sees Gearbox's post-apoc sandbox shooter Borderlands getting the full Christian-Bale-flip-out treatment as helper bot Claptrap just tries to tell you that the game's wasteland creatures are every bit as procedurally generated and diverse as its '87 bazillion'-ish weapons.
Brandon Boyer
Justice dispensed: Hothead show Ron Gilbert's DeathSpank in motion
You've had enough with the words and the photos already and you want to see DeathSpank -- Hothead's action RPG/adventure from Monkey Island/Maniac Mansion creator Ron Gilbert now officially announced for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 -- in glorious motion, and glorious it is.
And below the fold, a full high-res gallery of the currently released DeathSpank screenshots, for your added enjoyment.
Brandon Boyer
PAX: BioShock 2's multiplayer deathmatch in motion
When BioShock 2's multiplayer segment -- a separate narrative that explores the fall of underwater u-/dys-topia Rapture via test subject trials for plasmid manufacturer Sinclair -- was first announced, I noted that I was glad co-developer Digital Extremes wasn't simply giving us Big Daddy Arena.
Then, watching this first video footage (prepared for the Penny Arcade Expo) of its online deathmatch exploits, right about 1:45 when the hollow whale-moan struck, I went 100% full reverse on that sentiment.
Only one question remains: exactly what manner of soul-stealing devilry is she performing with that camera at 1:26?
Brandon Boyer
Head on: Hudson reviving Bonk's Adventure for Xbox 360/PS3/Wii
Despite Hudson's claims that the character stars in one of its "most widely requested platformers", 'Bonk' still remains (unfortunately) not exactly the most household of franchise names. Although he did make side-quests from his native home on the ill-fated TurboGrafx-16 to the Super NES, GameBoy, and later an import-only (and minorly excellent) revival on GameCube and PS2, he's still played the sixth-or-seventh prehistoric fiddle to Nintendo and Sega's more iconic figures.
But after the Virtual Console re-releases of his earliest adventures, the company's giving him a new push with Brink of Extinction, a new downloadable adventure for WiiWare, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live Arcade due in Spring of 2010.
Sporting a much more cohesive look than the last aforementioned paper-cut and textured revival, the company says the new version will include online co-op play in its story mode, and will see his traditional meat-eaten powerups take him into one of eight different yet-undetailed forms (though I'm guessing the West still isn't quite ready for his effete kiss-blowing transformation from the import version of Bonk 2 [see 1:45 or so of this YouTube]).
Hit the jump for a better look into his new lovingly recreated world.
Brandon Boyer
One shot: Vera Bee's Little BigDebut
Just released (and somewhat overlooked) in the last round of weekly PlayStation Network/Little Big Planet updates: the Vera 'Bee' Brosgol sticker pack, whose can-can/carny/freakshow illos are a very welcome stylistic change of pace from the LittleBigWatch-ed norm. As Media Molecule themselves noted, her Snow-Bo cartoon has been a darkly cute must-watch YouTube staple.
Brandon Boyer
Get campy: Super Stardust devs reveal PS3 zombie shooter Dead Nation
As seemingly everyone trips over themselves to add their voice to the undead mix, Housemarque, the team behind the excellent PS3/PSP dual-stick space shooter Super Stardust HD, bring that same formula down to urban nightmare size with the online/local co-op grindhouse shooter Dead Nation.
The most potentially interesting detail about the PSN downloadable is the one only vaguely hinted at in the video above and on the game's UK PlayStation entry, which notes that the game will be tracking daily zombie kills, and that all the countries in the world will be competing in what appears to be a metagame to "reduce the zombie virus", which we'll hopefully hear much more about soon.
