Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, the weekend column that takes a gander at the game industry news outside of the strictly co-op realm. This week we consider the Thief release date, the Project Phoenix kickstarter, and the new Witcher 3 trailer.
Thief Releases February 2014 The Witcher 3 Releases Cinematic Trailer Project Phoenix Kickstarter Launched, Funded in First Day Thief Releases February 2014If you've been a serious PC gamer within the last decade, chances are you know about the Thief series. Though the first-person stealth franchise has been long loved, the last Thief game (Thief 3: Deadly Shadows) was released almost an entire decade ago. Though Thief 4 had been rumored for years, it was somewhat a surprise when a reboot to the series, simply entitled Thief was announced earlier this year.
Just this week, a release date was announced for Thief. It will be released on February 25th on PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, and PS4. The release date is a little surprising, and perhaps a little alarming from the mixed feelings some press have had from previewing the game. Let's hope Eidos Montreal isn't rushing the game out the door and Garrett will manage to steal our hearts (and hours of our time) once again. Check out the Gamescom 2013 trailer below.
Source: Eidos Montreal blog
The Witcher 3 Releases Cinematic TrailerThe Witcher series developer CD Projekt Red also released a cinematic trailer this week entitled Killing Monsters. They hope it highlights not only the morally ambiguous world of Rivia, but also the mature mood of the game's story and Geralt's tendency to act by his own moral code. It also shows an area from the game, No Man's Land. The Witcher 3 is certainly my most anticipated game of 2014. It will be coming to PC, PS4, and Xbox One sometime in the next year. Check out Killing Monsters%u200B below.
Source: CD Projekt Red's blog
Project Phoenix Kickstarter Launched, Funded in First DayIf you're a fan of JRPGs, you should probably know about Project Phoenix. It's an ambitious game bringing together some of the greatest names in the genre together from both the East and the West to make an epic JRPG. Did I mention that Nobuo Uematsu (of Final Fantasy fame) is the lead composer for the game?
Project Phoenix will be a squad-based real-time strategy game originally release on PC, Mac, and Linux, but with iOS and Android versions planned as well. The developer is also in talks with Sony about PS4 and Vita versions, and things are looking pretty solid for those platforms as well, but are not yet finalized. The game is planned to currently be single-player only, but co-op and multi-player are strong possibilities if the kickstarter passes certain stretch goals.
In-game concept for Project PhoenixThe Kickstarter page for Project Phoenix went up earlier this week and blasted through the funding goal of $100,000 within several hours. The reason the goal is so low for a project of this size is that because the people working on it are all well-established in their fields, they won't be getting paid initially for their work on the game. Instead, their payment will be percentage-based royalties of the game's sales after release.
It's some pretty exciting stuff for JRPG fans like me, and I'm certainly looking forward to it... in two years time (sad face).
Source: Project Phoenix Kickstarter page