If you’re not familiar with DayZ, here’s a brief synopsis of the game. The game is an open-world survival horror video game mod for 2009′s ARMA II, a military simulation game. Though I’ve never heard of ARMA II, it seems that the DayZ mod has been spreading like the wildfire during a post-apocalyptic crisis.
News now from Joystiq informs us that Dean Hall, the project lead, would like to see this mod come to consoles. Its uncertain if it would see a box release, but more likely a downloadable title on the Xbox Live and PlayStation Network marketplaces for a very similar price to that of Mojang’s Minecraft; that would be my guess.
Hall is meeting with console makers at the current Gamescom event that is taking place in Cologne, Germany.
“You’re not going to put it on the consoles if you’re only going to sell 100,000 units or something like that,” he said, in an interview with Joystiq. “DayZ will be driven by its PC development and it will innovative on that. And, once we’re at a point, we’ll take it and do a Mac version, 360 and PS3.”
Bohemia Interactive, the publisher behind DayZ, has had some console experience so its likely that with the rising success of this mod, a console release will be a sure thing. If so, I’ll have to get my hands on it when the opportunity arrises and see what all the hype is about.
For now, check out this gameplay for DayZ, and provide your own opinions and thoughts. For more information, you can also visit http://dayzmod.com/.
Ever want to relive your childhood fears, in mind and body? Well Krillbite Studios’ upcoming horror title, Among the Sleep, may be just what you need.
Among the Sleep puts you in the body of a two-year old child. Accompanied only by his teddy bear, the child roams the home after being put to bed one night, only to discover a true living nightmare.
Set in the first-person perspective, the game focuses on playing with the child’s imagination, which has yet to be fully developed to understand the difference in perceptions between reality and dreamscape. The game hopes to challenge players through the limitations brought on by embodying a young child, including physical, emotional and mental obstacles during your journey.
The game is set for a 2013 release on both the PC and Mac. For more information, you can visit www.krillbite.com.
It looks like May has become the month of delays, in light of recent delays to such titles like Bioshock Infinite and Silent Hill: Book of Memories.
But now, SEGA’s Aliens: Colonial Marines will be joining the list of delayed games, and won’t be seeing a release to consoles until February 12th, 2013.
The game will ship on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC, and a planned Wii U version is still in talks, with a release date being revealed at a later date.
Gearbox Software CEO and President Randy Pitchford commented on the delay on the Gearboxity blog, saying,
Our vision has been to create a video game sequel to the original Alien trilogy. Our vision is for the game to be fully featured with an exciting, suspenseful, thrilling and action packed narrative campaign that can be played alone or cooperatively combined with a robust competitive game where human players can take on the roles of Colonial Marines or Xenomorphs and do battle online. The game must be authentic.
So in the end, players should finally be glad that the game has a confirmed release date, and with the extended time between now and February, that should give the development team enough time to perfect their game and stay true to the Aliens universe.
Although this is not the first delay the game has seen in the last few months, players should be patient and expect great things come February 2013. A new release date trailer was also revealed in light of the delay.
A Swedish game designer’s game concept is capable of bringing “survival horror” back, with his concept video of a game he’s working on called “Sound of Silence”.
A post on Reddit seemingly brought this development to the forefront, as this concept video is now getting widestream attention for its unique premise: playing on player’s personal fears.
Michael Chiniquy, 20, created the video utilizing Unity3D and Adobe After Effects. The idea? To build a game that changes based on player’s personal fears.
In the video, he demonstrates how a player with a fear of darkness and loneliness can react to the situation they are placed in, by being dropped on a lowly, deserted road nearby a dark, abandoned house without reason or explanation.
The next concept Chiniquy hopes to see brought to life is through interchangeable rooms, which would provide the player with their own unique playing experience based on their greatest fears.
Through the concept of interchangeable rooms, a game like this could see a very unique survival horror experience.
According to an article on sticktwiddlers.com relating to this horror game concept, Chiniquy has been flooded with e-mails from programmers hoping to help make his dream a reality. The game would focus more on puzzle-solving, exploration, and the occasional “panic attack”, with less of an impact on gunplay, but not completely shutting out enemy interaction.
With the right development team, and enough heart and dedication, Chiniquy’s concept video could possibly become a reality, as we could see the return of the true survival horror genre that became popular among fans long ago.
If you’d like to know more about Michael Chiniquy, or you’re a developer who would like to assist in making this game a reality, you can visit http://michaelchiniquy.com/, or drop him an e-mail at michaelchiniquy@hotmail.com.
What do you get when you combine the creative stylings of SUDA51, known for his work on No More Heroes, Killer7 and the upcoming Lollipop Chainsaw, with Shinji Mikami, the acclaimed designer behind the Resident Evil franchise? And if that doesn’t completely satisfy your survival horror sweet tooth, then how about a dash of Akira Yamaoka, best known composer of the psychological horror franchise Silent Hill? You get the quirky, psychological action horror videogame, Shadows of the Damned. With a tight group of individuals behind this game’s development, you’re bound to have a stellar title, right?
Well you’re absolutely correct. Shadows of the Damned is developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Electronic Arts. It is indeed a fun and unique game with a whole lot of fresh elements, interesting and memorable characters, as well as a chilling underworld setting that can only be the work of great designers at the helm of this project. But enough sugar-coating it, let’s get down to the game’s story.
Shadows of the Damned puts you in control of Mexican demon hunter Gabriel Hotspur, or Gabriel “Fucking” Hotspur as he puts it so many times, whom with the help of a floating-fiery-skeleton-head-on-a-stick-turns-makeshift-gun, motorcycle and regular sidekick Johnson, are on the hunt to take down the Lord of Demons, named Fleming, whom has kidnapped your woman and love interest Paula. Johnson acts as your guide throughout the game as you travel to the Underworld, filled with all its demonic and twisted areas that will leave you cringing as you progress farther and farther into the darkness. The game uses the Unreal Engine 3, so a lot of the controls are already very familiar, and Gabriel moves in a similar fashion to many characters created under the Unreal Engine, which doesn’t leave much to its individuality. The game is played in a third-person over-the-shoulder shooter, and plays out in acts and chapters similar to the newer console Resident Evil titles.
Gabriel “Fucking” Hotspur and his partner-in-crime, Johnson (on left)
Johnson not only acts as your sidekick, but also your arsenal, because without Johnson, you have no means of defense in the Underworld. Johnson can transform into three different guns: namely a pistol which uses bones for ammo (red glow), an assault rifle which uses teeth for ammo (blue glow), and a shotgun/grenade launcher which uses skull ammo (green glow). Each weapon can be upgraded through the collection of blue gems after defeating bosses or larger enemies, and there are also white gems that act as currency to purchase liquor for health, and red gems for leveling up individual traits, including your gun’s reload speed, your light shot, and your health bar to name a few. The “light shot” is a key component in the game, as it allows you to stun enemies and also get you out of situations where you struggle to survive when clouded in darkness, in which you must shoot glowing goat head candles to bring forth the light.
I found a lot of the features in this game to be very unique and quite fitting for the environment in which Gabriel was fighting through. The game consists not only of a lot of psychological horror moments, but a lot of clever and witty humor in character dialogue, as well as weapon names, and certain locales. I definitely felt it borrowed a lot of crude humor from the No More Heroes franchise, a series I didn’t play personally but only viewed from the sidelines as my brother played them both. I really enjoyed how unique each character was, and I definitely felt immersed in this world, at least for the course of the story. The game’s boss fights were also really fun, as well as the unique combat system, weaponry and puzzle challenges.
The game’s antagonist, Fleming
Where the game lacks however is in both its length and difficulty. I played the game on normal, and found this wasn’t exactly the toughest game to beat. There were a few difficult moments, but nothing that made me put the game down for months on end like Dante’s Inferno, Dark Void or even American Chopper has done to me.
On average, I think the game lasted on-and-off about 4 or 5 hours total for me, which doesn’t feel like that long of an experience, but of the experience I gained, I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. I was also very glad that there wasn’t a clusterfuck of weaponry to choose from, but I was surprised at how easy it was to find both healing items and ammunition, as both would respawn in the same locations every few seconds. So during the final battle with Fleming, I stayed perched next to the pistol bullets, and I was set for the rest of the match.
In the end, I recommend this game to fans of the developers behind this game, and the psychological horror game genre. And for those who are looking for a new experience, Shadows of the Damned definitely offers you a unique experience that will more than likely keep you wanting more when you’re finished. Sufficed to say, you will probably not see as colorful and memorable of a team behind this creation anywhere else, unless they decide this game is worthy of a sequel, which it doesn’t need.
In what appears to be a slap in the face to Silent Hill fans, Konami has announced that their PS Vita title, Book of Memories, has been delayed till October 31st.
Here is the message left by the Konami Social Team on Silent Hill’s facebook fan page:
Dear Silent Hill fans,
Due to unfortunate circumstances, the franchise’s debut on the PS Vita, Silent Hill: Book of Memories, has been delayed to October of this year. We deeply apologize for this delay and hope to further update you on the development soon. Thank you for your continued patience.
-The Konami Social Team
Book of Memories was originally scheduled to be released at the end of March, but saw a delay close to its intended release date, breaking the chain of Silent Hill month.
But now, this should give Konami a chance to fix any bugs and add/remove any features, seeing as how Konami struck out with its HD collection, when it turned out it carried a lot of problems.
According to an IGN reader’s tip, South African retailing site BT Games is apparently now accepting early pre-orders for Dead Space 3, rumored as the latest sequel in the Dead Space franchise.
Is this legit?
According to IGN.com, Electronic Arts has “not officially” announced Dead Space 3. Though a sequel to the game would fill up the trilogy that many fans are expecting, we should take any information we hear with a grain of salt.
In the last few months, several pieces of information linking to the game’s existence turned up, including the initial reveal on an Israeli news show, first detailed reports that were provided last fall in connection to the title, as well as a job listing. For more information, visit IGN.com’s original article to find links to these previous rumors.
Issac Clarke, the protagonist of the Dead Space series
With the launch of Silent Hill: Downpour dropping tomorrow, reviews are already coming in for the much anticipated 8th installment of the hit franchise.
Reviews for the most part have been generally positive across the board, except for a review from popular media news site IGN.com.
Here are the official scores for a number of the sites, followed by the score by IGN.
It’s amazing how well IGN has broken away from the pack on this one. But of course, everyone’s opinion is different, and as a journalist, it’s my duty to remain biased on the surface unless I were to review this game personally.
But from the looks of things, I don’t feel this game really deserves a 4.5 out of 10. I mean, I also don’t think its a perfect Silent Hill game as an outsider looking in, but maybe it fits the same standards as its predecessors like Homecoming or Shattered Memories. Downpour seems to be a title that’s playing with the concepts of the Otherworld, which has remained a consistent trait in the franchise. Downpour’s Otherworld levels will contain a lot of water themes, like how Shattered Memories had a consistency with ice.
So click the links above to check out the four reviews. Don’t base your views off these opinions, and upload release of the game, make your own opinions and judgment.
