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All Serious Sam titles 75% off on Steam this weekend
No, seriously, every Serious Sam HD game is seriously 75 percent off all this weekend on Steam -- meaning Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter for $3.74, The Second Encounter for $4.99, and the recently released Gold Edition for $10 (which includes both remakes and the originals). This deal is unfortunately exclusive to PC Steam gamers, as the titles have yet to receive the Mac treatment. And that's seriously a shame, isn't it?
This Wednesday: XBLA gets Serious (Sam)
Considering there's really nothing serious about it -- some of the enemies have bombs for heads -- we're not sure how Serious Sam wound up with its name. It could be comic irony, or perhaps merely for its delightful sibilance. Honestly, we may never know. What we do know is that Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter is this week's XBLA release, as promised last month. Sporting newly fancified graphics, online co-op and some serious action (oh that's it!), the game will be available for 1200 ($15).
Snap Judgment: Serious Sam HD
In Serious Sam, you use an increasingly powerful and ridiculous set of weaponry to blast an increasingly horrifying array of demons back to the dimension they came from. To put it another way, Serious Sam is what your grandmother imagines every video game to be. Serious Sam: The First Encounter has just been brought into the modern era by Majesco and Devolver Digital with Serious Sam HD, on Steam today with a $20 price tag. I stepped into the beefy hero's signature T-shirt for a couple of hours to see how well the experience had held up over the years. %Gallery-66818%
Serious Sam HD keeps it classy with new infomercial
A classic "As Seen on TV" infomercial seems more than fitting for the self-parodying, Croatian-developed FPS, Serious Sam -- now "more definition-ier than ever." As with any infomercial, you must be wary of all the numbers and testimonials used. For example, we highly doubt the game runs at "6005 polygons per krundle." We're fairly certain this game doesn't even feature krundles ... unless Croteam has added some truly surprising new content to the upcoming HD remix. %Gallery-66818% [Thanks, iHavePants]
No joking about this Serious Sam HD footage
There's some hot footage of Serious Sam HD available on GamesTrailers (embedded past the break for your convenience) right now and, well, if you've played through Serious Sam before (or ever watched a Lord of the Rings trailer), this is going to be old hat to you. Still, despite the footage's lack of completely new things to look at, it's still a good primer for folks who have no idea what all of the fuss is about (hint: it's the crazy, non-stop funs). %Gallery-66818%
Get your one-liner in Serious Sam HD by using Twitter
(click to Sam-size) Here's the thing -- we already told you pretty much everything you need to know in the headline up top. Sure, we could expand on it a bit and tell you that the company producing Serious Sam HD, Devolver Digital, will be accepting entries via its Twitter account from July 15 to July 30. We could remind you that the producers are Gamecock and Gathering of Developers veterans Mike Wilson and Harry Miller -- known for storming Ken Levine and spawning Hail to the Chimp. We could even let you know that the only way to find out if your one-liner is going to be voiced by Serious Sam voice actor John J. Dick is to follow the aforementioned Devolver Twitter account or the game's publisher's account, Majesco, in "early August." But why would we do all that?... Dammit!%Gallery-66818%
Croteam seriously remaking Serious Sam for XBLA [update: It's coming to PC too]
The Xbox 360 is, of course, a great system for new first-person-shooters, but with XBLA re-releases of games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, it's also becoming the system of choice for classic FPS games. Now Croteam is working on an XBLA version of Serious Sam, called, unsurprisingly, Serious Sam HD. Publisher Majesco told Eurogamer that the remake, which will "re-imagine The First Encounter," will be available on XBLA late this summer for 1,200 Microsoft Points. The new version will include four-player online co-op. Though we look forward to blowing up stuff with abandon, we are a bit concerned that this news could mean that the "next Serious Sam FPS game" to which Croteam's CEO referred is actually the first one again. Update: cdv Software Entertainment AG has confirmed to VideoGamer that the game will also be appearing on PC. %Gallery-66818%
Gamecock's Insecticide and Mushroom Men
I never thought I'd write about cock on this blog, but it's unavoidable now that a new company has formed called Gamecock. The company was founded by the former CEO and former president of the defunct Gathering of Developers. They aim to bring risk taking, creative indie titles to all platforms. Two of their first games are headed to not just next-gen systems, but also an unnamed handheld. It seems like the PSP is the most likely candidate. The first game is Mushroom Men, which follows three-inch-high Mushroom Men as they battle in a war against different spore factions. Use common household items to fashion weapons and tools to help turn the tide of war. The second game is Insecticide which has a Tim Burton/Psychonauts look to its character designs and is an action/adventure game set in a world that is decaying and full of bugs ... sexy bugs. You can visit Gamecock's site to see more on all their games. [Via IGN]
Gamecock: former 'G.O.D.' heads launch indie-friendly publisher
Former Gathering of Developers executives Mike Wilson and Harry Miller are buck-buck-bucking the trend of safe bets (major licenses and sequels), founding an "independent, artist-driven" game publishing company dubbed Gamecock Media Group. "At least they're not infringing on my trademark: Gamepecker," approved Joystiq's Chris Grant. The Gamecock brand is symbolic of Wilson and Miller's "keep it fun" attitude, explained a rep from the 'cock pen,' adding that "Gamecock will just be a little name on the back [of the box]." This is an effort to spotlight independent developers and offer these studios the necessary freedom and financial incentives to contribute original content to the industry. "[Things] are getting stale. We aim to change that," vowed Wilson. Gamecock has announced the following five titles, which it plans to publish during the next few years, spanning PC, consoles, and handhelds: Fury (Auran) - PvP MMO game for PC; scheduled for release during 2007 holiday season Insecticide (Crackpot Entertainment) - film noir action-adventure game set in a decaying world run by bugs; available for the 2007 holiday season on handheld (TBA) and PC Mushroom Men (Red Fly Studios) - set in an incredibly detailed, stylized world where mushrooms have taken on human-like features and are now embroiled in a civil war; slated for a spring 2008 release on a "next-gen" console and handheld (both TBA) Hail to the Chimp (Wideload Games) - impossible-to-classify party game based on politics in the animal kingdom; scheduled for release in spring 2008 for "next-gen" consoles (TBA) Hero (Firefly Studios) - a brutal, but comical romp through the "real" world of medieval dungeons; coming to a "next-gen" console (TBA) and PC in spring 2009 %Gallery-1590%
