amnesia the dark descent
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Amnesia 'Justine' DLC now available to all, soundtrack released
The super creepy 'Justine' expansion is now available on all versions of Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Originally released as part of Valve's Potato Sack promotion -- and thus only available via Steam -- 'Justine' takes players through several chambers designed to test their mental fortitude. The catch is that failing a test results in someone's grisly death. The expansion is available via update 1.2, which can be downloaded via the update page on the Frictional Games website. As an added bonus, the update also includes a collection of five short stories written by Amnesia's main writer and illustrated by its concept artist. Finally, Frictional has released the soundtrack to Amnesia. Those who pre-ordered or purchased Amnesia directly from Frictional can download the soundtrack for free. For everyone else, it's available for purchase from the Frictional store. We're not sure why you would want to listen to Amnesia's psyche-rending soundtrack outside of the game -- perhaps some people just like being on edge all the time.
THQ places Amnesia: The Dark Descent in a retail box
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a frightening game. A pants-wettingly frightening game. One of the few nice things about Frictional Games' heretofore downloadable title is that you can at least pretend that it ceases to exist once the computer is turned off. Apparently not satisfied by this state of affairs, THQ's ValuSoft division will be bringing a box-copy version of the game to retail on February 22 for the decidedly not scary price of $20. The box itself isn't very frightening at all, almost to the point of being amusing. We can only assume this is to lull new players into a false sense of security before installing the game.
Amnesia dev now stable following 'tremendous' sales
Once on the verge of its own dark descent, independent studio Frictional Games reports that relatively strong sales of Amnesia: The Dark Descent have made the company "completely financially stable" for the first time in its four-year history. Frictional now has enough capital to finish its next game "without any problems," thanks to Amnesia closing in on 200,000 copies sold and trouncing pre-release "dream estimates" of 100K units. The company's newfound stability represents a complete one-eighty from its situation just four months ago, when Amnesia was released to tepid first-week sales. "Even though we are far from complaining," Frictional wrote at the time, "it feels like we do not have the financial security we would like to have, to truly be able to focus on making the best game possible." Funny how a strong Metacritc score, a series of Steam sales and compelling fan PR (like the popular YouTube clip posted after the break) can turn it all around. "We have been extremely lucky with our media coverage and gotten tons of free PR," Frictional admits, "something that has greatly influenced our sales compared to other titles." While the studio doesn't want to discourage hopeful indie developers, it does consider Amnesia's sales to be atypical in the current digital distribution market on PC. "The market does continue to grow though, and it might not be long before these kinds of numbers are considered perfectly normal." Of course, Frictional is quick to point out that self-publishing can be the key to success in the digital marketplace, suggesting that "we would not be in the state that we are in now" if Amnesia had been launched through a third-party publisher. "This does not mean that publishers are evil," Frictional adds, "just that one should think carefully before signing up for anything. Releasing a game without any financial backing or help with marketing is quite a struggle, but if you pull it off it is well worth the effort!"' Having pulled it off, Frictional is now reconsidering a console release of Amnesia, with the "current idea" to contract a third-party developer to do the port. Meanwhile, with no plans to expand its staff, the studio is forging ahead with its new game. "We aim to use the emotions that Amnesia was able to provoke and to focus them in a different direction, which will hopefully give delightfully disturbing results."
Best of the Rest: James' picks of 2010
Halo: Reach Was it just me or did Reach seem to have the quietest launch of any $200 million seller in history? Franchise fatigue has definitely set in for Halo, but it didn't stop Bungie from delivering its masterpiece. What this game lacks in variation, it makes up for in refinement of one of the all-time great first-person shooters. Reach may be lagging behind Call of Duty -- both Black Ops and Modern Warfare 2 -- in the Xbox Live numbers game, but its campaign is so much more epic. The Covenant are classic video game bad guys, and no one does enemy AI like Bungie. No one.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent review: In the mouth of madness
As children, our parents tell us not to be afraid of the dark. They say this not to provide us with a valuable life lesson, but to keep us quiet, so that they can sleep. What our parents neglect to say is that fear of the dark is, in fact, perfectly reasonable, because there are things in the dark. Things that want to kill and eat us. Granted, you won't find many such creatures in suburbia but, from a purely evolutionary standpoint, a healthy fear of the dark has helped humanity survive. Most of us have forgotten what it's like to tremble in the dark, praying for the obscene, hungry beast to go away before your mind breaks. Amnesia: The Dark Descent is our reminder. %Gallery-106189%
