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American McGee's Grimm twists fairy tales on Steam
American McGee's Grimm is now available on Steam. Developed by Spicy Horse, the game includes 23 half-hour-long episodes based on fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood, The Golden Goose, Cinderella, Pinnochio, Sleeping Beauty and Jack and the Beanstalk. The developer stresses that the contained episodes can be enjoyed in any order, so players that want to see the "darkly twisted" side of Cinderella can start with that. The 23 episodes are available for 99 cents apiece ($25.77 total when purchased individually). Players can buy the first eight-episode season for $3.99, which is listed at $8.00 on Spicy Horse's website. Otherwise, the game's complete pack is available for $9.99. American McGee's Grimm first launched for Windows in July 2008, and arrived on Steam's Greenlight service in July 2013.
American McGee's Grimm darkens Steam's Greenlight
Now that American McGee's Grimm has reached Steam Greenlight, it's seeking community votes in order to rewrite fairy tales into tragedies on Windows and Mac via Steam. Grimm's 23 episodes last a half hour apiece and revolve around twisting iconic fairy tales into bleak, dreary scenarios. Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Jack and the Beanstalk are among Grimm's victims. Players spread gloom by moving Grimm around each world, working to reach an acceptable level of grime within the shortest time possible. The Grimm series originally launched for Windows in July 2008.
American McGee says XBLA, PSN need to evolve
When it comes to digital distribution on consoles, American McGee feels that the model "still has some evolving to do." The game designer -- whose credits include Alice as well as Doom and Quake -- recently told Geek.com that while his ambitious 24-episode experiment Grimm could be ported over to such platforms as Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network, the process needs some work before that would happen."Porting this sort of stuff is straightforward," claimed McGee, who added that "the biggest issue" sits with the platforms' content approval and distribution model. XBLA's certification process has long proved a cumbersome hurdle for developers, with McGee noting,"When a single title might take months to get through review and approval (take Braid, as an example), pushing 24 episodes through would translate to years of approval process."McGee is currently spinning his creative wheels on the recently announced sequel to Alice, a property that's also been mentioned in movie circles for some time. The rights currently sit with producer Scott Faye, who was responsible for 2008's big screen take on Max Payne, a film McGee lambasted, saying, "I wasn't able to sit through the entire thing ... I just couldn't connect to the film version." You, sir, were not alone.[Via 1UP]
GameTap relaunch delayed, new games put on hold
PC gamers awaiting the multitude of changes coming to GameTap have been asked to wait a little longer. The official GameTap blog has announced that the relaunch, set to happen this week, has been put on hold because the "internal migration" is taking longer than expected. No new relaunch date has been set.Not only will gamers have to wait for the relaunch but for new games as well. Scheduled releases for this week have been shelved due to the relaunch delay, including the latest episode of American McGee's Grimm. However, the sandbox action game Just Cause will be available for free-to-play access for an additional week -- it was originally scheduled to be removed from the downsized list on March 26.[Via BigDownload]
GameTap Thursday: Insecticide, Freak Out & McGee's Sleeping Beauty
Another week, another update to GameTap's service. This week three titles have been added as the company preps the service for a major overhaul. This week's offerings continue the Grimm franchise -- with what GameTap old us is the biggest episode in the series -- while introducing new gamers to the world of hard-boiled insect detectives. Yeah, you read that correctly. Insecticide, Part 1 (Windows) - A "hard-boiled film noir action-adventure game" set a bug-ridden future? Sounds like realism to us, kids. Freak Out: Extreme Freeride (Windows) - An extreme skiing simulator that combines two of our favorite things, freaking out and the word extreme. American McGee's Grimm: Sleeping Beauty (Windows) - The continuing episodic adventures of Grimm this time tackling the age-old story of Sleeping Beauty. This one is free to play but only for today! Hop to it! GameTap has added Just Cause (aka GTA in the Caribbean) to the free to play catalog but will only be free until March 26. Check out a full list of the service's downsized free-to-play titles after the break.
GameTap Thursday: Grimm's King Midas, Space Hack
GameTap keeps the Grimm episodes rolling, farting, and stomping along this week with King Midas. As with all Grimm titles, the latest episode is available to non-subscribers for free during the first 24 hours after release. Grimm: King Midas (Windows) - Grimm goes after the man with the golden touch. Not to be confused with the man with the golden gun. That's Bond. Space Hack (Windows) - A sci-fi RPG with "Diablo-inspired gameplay mechanics." No new games on the free titles list this week. Don't worry, there are still 143 "no money required" games available, and the full list can be found after the break.
The Best of Big Download: August 11-17
We have had a busy week at the PC centric Big Download site. As we approach two big gaming events (next week's Games Convention and Labor Day weekend's Penny Arcade Expo) we should have even more to write about in the coming days. In the meantime let's look back at the week that was:Exclusive Features Reviews: We review a number of games this week including Space Siege, the latest American McGee's Grimm episode and the first chapter of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. Big Ideas: Our latest look at game themes takes a look at gender roles in games. Freeware Friday: This week our free game is the strategy title Battle for Wesnoth. BigCast: It's our seventh edition of the Big Download podcast. Downloads Unreal Tournament 3 patch: Grab the 1.3 patch for Epic Games' latest shooter title. Strong Bad Episode 1 demo: Check out the free portion of Telltale Games' latest episodic title Romance of the Three Kingdoms Xi demo: Try out a portion of Koei's PC port of their strategy game Star Trek Online trailer: Check out the first gameplay trailer from Cryptic Studios' MMO Empire: Total War trailer: Check out some naval battle action from the upcoming historical RTS game. Aion trailer: Check out this trailer for NCsoft's upcoming MMO News EA to publish new Epic Games/People Can Fly title Team Fortress 2 Heavy update due next week Spore has gone gold Carrier Command: Gaea announced New Sword of the Stars expansion announced Codemasters unveils plans for Overlord II Bionic Commando PC gets extra content after all
GameTap Thursday: Grimm meets The Fisherman and his Wife; Prince of Persia also flips in
Katamari Grimm-acy rolls on this week as American McGee's Grimm tells the tale of The Fisherman and His Wife. Remember each episode is available for free to all for the first 24 hours after release, after which it becomes available to GameTap subscribers only. Grimm: The Fisherman and His Wife (Windows) - Greedy wife is bound to get what she deserves! Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (Windows) - The final chapter in the Sands of Time trilogy brings back some of the first game's charm and cuts out a lot of the second title's emo. There are no new additions to GameTap's free games lineup this week. If you still haven't tried the first episode of Grimm, it's available to play for free and doesn't require a huge time commitment.
A Grimm first trailer
American McGee's Grimm begins its 24-episode adventure on GameTap this Thursday, July 31, with A Boy Learns What Fear Is. The first trailer was recently released from its Disney-esque sugary confines and can be found after the break.From our hands-on experience with Grimm's first couple episodes, it's definitely worth taking the title out for a spin. Each episode only requires about a half hour to go through and, if you know how to keep an appointment, it'll be possible to play each one for free.
The Best of Big Download; June 29-July 5, 2008
This may have been a holiday week but we were extremely busy anyway with tons of original content and features along with some great new downloads. Here's a look at the highlights.Exclusive Features Hands-On Space Siege: We get to play with a late build of the sci-fi action-RPG from Gas Powered Games and Sega Hands-On Bionic Commando: We swing to new heights with this preview of the third person action game revival from GRIN and Capcom Hands-On Civilization IV Colonization: We check out this (sort of) remake of Sid Meier's classic strategy game from Firaxis and 2K Games Hands-On American McGee's Grimm: We play through the first portions of this episodic action game that's coming from Gametap. Preview: Call of Duty World at War: We check out a live demo of the upcoming WWII shooter from Treyarch and Activision. Interview: Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People: We chat with members of Telltale Games to find out more about their upcoming episodic adventure game. Alone in the Dark: We compare the PC version of the Atari survival horror game to its Xbox 360 counterpart in our latest Big Versus article and go more in-depth with the game as well. Guide to TF2 Pyro Achievements Part 6: We have the final part of our series of articles looking at the new achievements for the Pyro class in Team Fortress 2. Big Ideas: Our new weekly column on gaming's major themes takes a look at story in games. Freeware Friday: Our weekly look at free games talks about the scrolling shooter rRootage Big Iron: Our hardware column takes a look at the new 4800 series of Radeon graphics chips from AMD/ATI Mac Monday: Our regular look at Mac gaming takes a look at the Mac exclusive arcade game Neon Tango BigCast: Members of Big Download chat about the week of PC games in our latest podcast.
Joystiq hands-on: American McGee's Grimm
click to enlarge After playing his latest creation, we're beginning to suspect that American McGee – whose previous work includes American McGee's Alice, Quake, and Doom II – has a bit of a fascination with the macabre. Grimm has its basis in some of the darker fairytales on record, and McGee has certainly milked them for every last, inky drop of blackness.As we reported earlier today, American McGee's Grimm is GameTap's first weekly episodic game. We plunged into the twisted depths of the first episode – "A Boy Learns What Fear Is" – to bring you the hands-on impressions you'll find after the break.%Gallery-26724%
American McGee's Grimm: All episodes free for first 24 hours
GameTap is taking a most unusual approach with its first weekly episodic game series. Each episode of American McGee's Grimm – individual "fractured fairytales" from the designer of American McGee's Alice – will debut as a free download and remain free for a 24-hour period. After that, episodes will go into GameTap's archives and be available to download individually for a yet-to-be-determined price.The model is likened to that of the iTunes or Xbox Live video download services. Catching a Grimm episode during the initial download-for-free window will be like watching a new episode of a show on network TV. Once it's "aired," you can download it if you missed it – for a price.The episodes will be supported by minimal up-front advertising and the first one, "A Boy Learns What Fear Is," will debut on July 31. We had the opportunity to play the first three Grimm episodes yesterday and will post our impressions later today.
Screenshots: American McGee's Grimm ... and first trailer!
Fee! Fie! Foe! Fum! GameTap rolled out the first in-game shots of American McGee's Grimm today, along with a trailer (posted after the break), revealing the twisted tales' "vile," and still nameless protagonist, er, rather, 'antagonist.' The images and video suggest some kind of dual-world shenanigans -- from "cheery to eerie" -- but details are vague. Grimm will unfold over 24-weekly episodes, which are currently exclusive to GameTap, beginning in July.%Gallery-9426%
