Ah, the weekend... A perfect time to catch up on sleep, video games, and gaming news. As the visions and impressions of E3's co-op goodness continued to dance through our heads this past week, there were some interesting news pieces floating around this week that didn't necessarily have a co-op element to them. Fortunately, that's where our Beyond Co-Op feature comes into the picture.
This week, we take a brief look at the teaser for a series that may become the next big horror franchise, the imminent arrival of an RPG sequel based on a much-beloved franchise, a revered gaming icon would like to change his usual development MO, and we learn even more of how, like pimpin', video gamin' ain't easy.
This week's stories are:
- Amnesia: Machine for Pigs Teaser
- PA - On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode 3 Has an Official Launch Date of June 25
- Miyamoto Would Like to Make an FPS (what the- what?!)
- 38 Studios' Financial Woes Continue with a Lawsuit
Amnesia: Machine for Pigs Teaser Trailer
I'll admit it, I bought Frictional Games' Amnesia: The Dark Descent based solely on the positive reviews I heard about it. Those same reviews, however, have kept me from playing it as it's been described as one of the most terrifying survival games to come along in years. Don't get me wrong, I'm ok with being scared, I just like having a friend around. There's something about the shared experience of having the ever-loving everything scared out of you that makes it better. Hopefully I'll be able to find someone to play it with soon as Frictional Games has officially revealed a teaser for the next game Amnesia: Machine for Pigs and it's looking pretty good.
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Penny Arcade - On the Rain-Slick Precipe of Darkness: Episode 3 Hits PCs/XBLIG June 25
The first two PA - RSPD games were fairly well-received RPG titles that saw XBLA and PC releases, but developer Hothead Games decided to focus its resources on the development of the Deathspank titles (games that are beloved for their humor and action RPG elements, but less so with their implementation of co-op). Jerry and Mike figured that was the end of thing for the RSPD games and turned to writing additional stories as prose. Then, indie developer Zeboyd Games, best known for their development of retro-style RPG games like Cthulu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII: The Beginning, stepped up and offered to make the third. After a lot of screenshots, teasers, and news posts from Jerry on the Penny Arcade site, it has recently been announced that the game will be released on PC and XBLIG on June 25. What's more, Zeboyd is also tossing in Cthulu Saves the World with all Steam purchases during the first week of sale.
Source: Penny Arcade
Miyamoto's New Hobby is Apparently Going to the Gun Range?
Shigeru Miyamoto. If you were to ask anyone within the games industry to name the top 5 most influential game designers of all time, Miyamoto would undoubtedly be on that list. From Donkey Kong to Super Mario, the man is well-known and beloved by gamers. He's also a man who's known to come up with ideas for games based on his hobbies, like Pikmin. So when I saw this article from Kotaku that Miyamoto wants to make a FPS game, the only thing I could think was, "he and Reggie must like shooting clay pigeons..." In the article, Miyamoto states his vision of a FPS isn't the usual one of guns and violence, but rather exploring a 3D space with someone else (yeah! Bring the co-op into it, Miyamoto!). Sadly, we may never see such a game from the prolific game designer as apparently he just doesn't have the time to devote to such a project. Perhaps one day...
Source and Image Credit: Kotaku
38 Studios Goes From Frying Pan to Bonfire
It's an extremely cautionary tale to game developers that started last month with news slowly trickling out that 38 Studios, developer of the (in my opinion) fun and very competent action-RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, was in some bad financial straits. Since then, the trickle has turned into a downpour as more and more has been revealed of a company that, from some accounts, had a passionate and talented workforce, but perhaps an upper-level management group that wasn't quite so intelligent or trustworthy. As if to ensure that the nail has well and truly been pounded into the coffin, 38 Studios' co-founder Curt Schilling is being sued by Citizens' Bank for a $2.4 million loan. At this point, I'm just hoping that the employees from both 38 Studios and Big Huge Games are slowly starting be taken care of, and that this rather tragic tale comes to an end soon.
Source: ShackNews