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Xbox Games with Gold in Feb: IDARB, Brothers, Sniper Elite V2
Heartstrings-tugger Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is one of three Games with Gold freebies for Xbox Live Gold subscribers next month. On Xbox 360 you can grab the Joystiq Top 10 of 2013 puzzle-platformer for zero centage between February 1-14. Then, after taking a deep breath, you can grab Sniper Elite V2 between February 15-28. As revealed last month, #IDARB's pixelated sportsball madness is also free through February for Gold members. The Xbox One eight-player side-scroller has a regular launch price of $15.
505 Games acquires Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons IP for $500K
Starbreeze announced the sale of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons to 505 Games today in a deal worth $500,000. Starbreeze CEO Andersson Klint said the transaction represented his studio's "final transition to the digital strategy," following its recent efforts to push sales through digital distribution channels. The deal includes full rights to the game and intellectual property (IP). With Brothers, Swedish studio Starbreeze created a new IP that gained strong traction with critics and consumers alike. The story-driven puzzle platformer earned a spot in our top 10 of 2013 and went on to sell more than 800,000 units to date.
Here's that teaser from Brothers dev's new studio, Hazelight
EA revealed this weekend at The Game Awards that it will publish the next game from Josef Fares, the writer and director of Starbreeze Studios' Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Fares founded a new independent studio, Hazelight, which happens to include four other designers that worked on Brothers as well. Per the studio's website, the as-yet-unannounced game's team includes Claes Engdal (Art Director), Emil Claeson (Lead Animator), Anders Olsson (Lead Programmer) and Filip Coulianos (Lead Level Designer), each having served similar roles on Brothers. What's more, Executive VP of EA Studios Patrick Soderlund said the publisher "shared some space at our DICE studio in Stockholm so [Hazelight] could get to work right away" on the game. No platforms or release dates are known about the studio's upcoming game, though you can head past the break to check out Hazelight's teaser from this past weekend's awards ceremony. [Image: Hazelight]
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons director on next project, those controls
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons director Josef Fares is working on a new project, but it isn't with developer Starbreeze. Speaking to Digital Spy during a roundtable interview, Fares said, "I can tell you this: If I tell you the idea now, you'd say, 'I haven't played something like this before.' I can't tell you more. But definitely something that hasn't been done before." Fares was speaking at last night's BAFTA awards in London, where Brothers won the gong for Best Innovation. We also caught up with the Lebanon-born director and asked when he came up with mapping control of one brother to the left analogue stick, and the other brother to the right one - an idea that probably contributed to Brothers winning its award. "It was the first day," Fares told Joystiq. "I had to fight so hard to make this game happen. So the first time I got the chance to make a demo, actually I was sat at my motel room and I came up with the concept and the actual story. I mean everything, how it starts, how it ends, how you control, that was all from day 1. Of course it changed during development, but trying to convince all the studios that this was gonna be awesome... "I'm quite known in Sweden for making movies, so people were like, 'You're a movie maker, you don't know anything about games.' But eventually I convinced them. I've worked on this game two years, it's been a real passion project for me." We're glad he convinced them, too: The PS3, Xbox 360, and PC game scored third place in our Best of 2013 awards, with Mike Suzsek calling its emotional adventure "a true rarity, as it places the gravity of its compact story right in your hands." [Image: Starbreeze Studios]
The Last of Us high-fives at BAFTA awards, indies do well too
The Last of Us only delivered wins on half of its BAFTA Games Award nominations, but since it was nominated ten times, the Naughty Dog game didn't do so bad. The Joystiq Game of 2013 picked up the Best Game award at last night's ceremony in London, along with Best Story, Action & Adventure, Audio Achievement, and Performer - that went to Ashley Johnson for her portrayal of Ellie. Other big-budget games did well with Grand Theft Auto 5 and Tearaway both walking away with three awards, but it was also a good night for indie games. The Gone Home team went home with Debut Game, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons won Game Innovation, and Papers, Please stamped its name on the award for Strategy & Simulation. For the full list of nominees and winners, head over to BAFTA. Also, be sure to check out Steam's one-day-only sale on a selection of the nominated games. [Image: Sony Computer Entertainment]
PSN Europe: Tomb Raider, Brothers, PixelJunk Monsters free for Plus members
PlayStation Plus subscribers in Europe can access a smorgasbord of free content starting this week, including downloadable copies of Tomb Raider, PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate HD, and Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition. PlayStation 3 owners with an active Plus subscription receive Tomb Raider and Starbreeze's Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons for free this week. Brain-training puzzler Smart As... and tower defense game PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate HD arrive as free PlayStation Plus offerings on the PS Vita, while the upgraded PlayStation 4 version of Housemarque's co-op zombie shooter Dead Nation is also available as a free download in its debut week. Other PSN games premiering in Europe this week include Gust's Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky, Wales Interactive's Master Reboot, and Obsidian's South Park: The Stick of Truth. [Image: Sony]
Starbreeze: Payday 2 DLC plans expanded, Brothers 'finally' making money
Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson-Klint announced plans to expand DLC offerings for the developer's multiplayer co-op FPS Payday 2, citing a financial turnaround in a recent earnings report. "To put the past six months in perspective, I would like to highlight that Starbreeze historically, from 1998 to June 2013, accumulated a total loss of SEK 94 million ($14.43 million)," Andersson-Klint explained. "Thanks to our new business model, reorganization and a focus on our own brands, we have - in only two quarters - generated a profit before tax of SEK 104 million ($15.97 million). I would like to think that is what they call a turnaround." Andersson-Klint announced that Starbreeze signed a new agreement with publisher 505 Games, allowing the developer to produce additional Payday 2 content over the next two years. The report states: "The new improved contract, worth 6 million U.S. dollars, gives us the security to, for the next 20 months, focus on developing and refining Payday 2 so that it becomes the best co-operative gaming experience available on the market, with many more add-on packages and other exciting events planned." Andersson-Klint also delivered good news regarding Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, noting that the critically acclaimed adventure game "has finally begun to generate royalty income for the company." Brothers ranked in at #3 in Joystiq's list of last year's best games. The PC version of Payday 2 was updated today with a new batch of free content, adding the Death Wish difficulty, new enemy types, and four new masks. [Image: Starbreeze]
Tomb Raider, Brothers head up Europe's PlayStation Plus lineup in March
Sony has revealed next month's additions to its PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection in Europe, mirroring much of the content set for a free release in North America throughout March. Starting next month, PlayStation Plus subscribers in Europe can pick up a no-cost copy of Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition, an enhanced PlayStation 4 version of Super Stardust developer Housemarque's top-down zombie shooter. PlayStation 3 owners will receive free downloads of Square Enix's Tomb Raider and Starbreeze's Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, which hit the PlayStation Plus program in North America last month. March's PlayStation Vita freebies include the brain training app Smart As... and Q Games' tower defense game Pixeljunk Monsters Ultimate HD. Launch dates for featured games have not been announced. [Image: Square Enix]
Tomb Raider, Walking Dead, Brothers in today's Xbox Ultimate sale
Today's Xbox 360 Ultimate sale includes two entries from Joystiq's Top 10 of 2013 in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and Tomb Raider. Meanwhile, the first episode of Walking Dead Season 2 can be yours for just a single dollar, and that really is an excellent deal - the first season placed #3 in our 2012 list. All of which reminds us that Oh Come On Telltale Where Is Episode 2 We Need To Know What Happens To Clementine Please Oh God Why. Ahem. In addition to the nine games that are on sale today, there's a whole bunch of On Demand and Arcade discounts running through until February 25. Check out the full list here, and head past the break for today's list of on-sale games and their prices.
Joystiq's Four in February is upon us, behold our staff picks
February is a forbidding land, full of winter darkness and noisome Valentine's Day traditions that are only slightly balanced out by a steady trickle of new games. That's why Joystiq's very own Mike Suszek created Four in February, a gaming event to unify the world against the month's doldrums. Here's how it works: Pick four games to finish in February and then try to finish them. That's it. No crazy rules, no limits on what you play. Just choose four games and take them on with gusto. That's the 4iF way. The best part of 4iF is how we all get to share the struggle, though. We want you to go to the 4iF Facebook community page and tell us everything. Show us pics of what games you're playing, tell us why you're playing them, let us know when you're streaming them, and most importantly, proclaim your victories or failures. Meanwhile, over on Joystiq's Facebook page, we'll be running 4iF giveaways every four days throughout the month starting Tuesday, Feb. 4. On Twitter, we'll be tracking the action to those who shout @joystiq using the hashtag #4iF. This is war on our gaming libraries, and this is our solid battle plan. What's the staff playing? Read on.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons free on PS Plus starting tomorrow
Starbreeze's inventive teamwork-based puzzle-platformer, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, heads up this week's PlayStation Plus lineup in North America, and will be available as a free download for members starting tomorrow. Brothers stars a pair of siblings who must work together and solve environmental puzzles as they search for medicine for their sick father. The game boasts a unique control scheme that maps each brother to an analog stick, while the controller's shoulder buttons provide context-sensitive action. Think of it as Ico meets The Adventures of Cookie & Cream. Brothers (also known as Bros: A Tale of Two Dudes) ranked in at #3 in Joystiq's editor-chosen list of 2013's best games. PlayStation Plus members also receive access to a selection of exclusive price drops starting tomorrow, including discounts for Sound Shapes, Rock Band Blitz, and Retro/Grade.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2013: Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Team Joystiq is barging into 2014 with a celebration of last year's best games. Keep reading throughout the week to see our assembly of ingenious indies and triple-A triumphs. At first glance, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons isn't a particularly novel game. It offers an emotional rollercoaster of an adventure without the need for actual dialog. Big deal, right? Journey was a clear favorite last year, Limbo before that, and both had some stylistic similarities. And yet, Brothers is a true rarity, as it places the gravity of its compact story right in your hands. Brothers places you at the feet of a journey in which two boys set out to retrieve a cure for their father's illness from a mystical tree. The game never bothers you with trivial details like names of the characters, the town, or just where the hell you're going the whole while. That information, often window dressing used to bring some sense of reality and purpose to any story, is discarded in favor of the game's stripped-down, puzzle-platformer design: See obstacle, get through it. More specifically, get through it together.
PS Plus in January: Don't Starve, BioShock Infinite, Brothers
The January freebies for PlayStation Plus have just been revealed and it's quite the eclectic mix. Next week, PS4 owners will be able to partake in Klei's survival simulator Don't Starve, a game about scrounging for supplies and surviving for just one more night in a hostile environment. On PS3, will offer three separate free downloads in January: BioShock Infinite, DmC: Devil May Cry and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. BioShock Infinite, which takes place in the floating city of Columbia during 1912, is the latest first-person opus from Ken Levine and Irrational Games, while DmC: Devil May Cry is Ninja Theory's reboot of Capcom's devil hunter action series. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, the story of two young brothers on a quest to obtain medicine for their sick father, is from Starbreeze Studios. Finally, rounding out next month's downloads are two PS Vita offerings: Smart As... and Worms: Battle Islands. The former is a brain training game while the latter is another entry in Team17's long-running Worms franchise.
PSA: Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons travels to Steam, PSN today
Starbreeze Studios' touching fantasy adventure Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is now available on PC via Steam and on PSN. The game was originally released as an Xbox 360 Summer of Arcade title on August 7. Joystiq's Editor-in-Chief Ludwig Kietzmann was quite taken with the game, saying in his review that "Brothers exudes a truly earned charm in its warm fairytale world, which is sometimes comical, sometimes gory, and even disconcertingly grim." Brothers concerns two brothers (shocker!) who embark on a quest to find a cure for their ailing father. It's worth nothing that the Steam version of Brothers requires a controller to play. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions do as well, but that's not worth noting.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons traveling to PC on Aug. 28, PSN on Sep. 3
Those looking to begin their journey in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons on PC or PS3 need to wait a little while longer, as the game will launch on August 28 for Steam users and on the PSN on September 3. Brothers launched on the Xbox 360 this week, kicking off Microsoft's annual Summer of Arcade promotion. In Brothers, players use both joysticks to simultaneously control two boys who leave their village in search of a cure for their ailing father. We rather enjoyed our time with the Xbox 360 version of the game, so we eagerly await its arrival on Steam and PSN.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Review: Do Not Separate
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is an essential treasure to play. I promise, the game's sincere quality absolves the terribleness of its title, which is barely a step up from "Characters: A Story of Them." And yet it truly is a story of them, two boys who leave their humble village behind in a quest for a mythical cure. Their father has fallen ill, and with the loss of Mother ever-fresh in mind, the brothers hope to pluck the solution from a far-off magical tree and undo the fragility that has befallen their family. The involvement of Stockholm-based film director Josef Fares is in plain sight, the camera looking down upon the two boys as they crawl under forests and over frigid mountains. Keeping both characters in frame emphasizes the necessity of cooperation between the two, while the top-down view makes their movements easier to comprehend, as if they were twin hockey pucks gliding across the ice. As much as it may seem to be a traditional co-op game, Brothers divides the attention of a single player between two bodies, with tall Big Brother on the left analog stick and golden-haired Little Brother on the right.%Gallery-169592%
Xbox Summer of Arcade 2013 full schedule, pricing revealed
This year's Summer of Arcade event kicks off on Xbox Live August 7 with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, the Starbreeze-developed Xbox Live Arcade game where players must simultaneously control a pair of brothers stuck in the wilderness. Brothers will launch at 1,200 MS Points ($15). James Silva's Charlie Murder, a 2D beat-em-up starring a punk band for 800 MS Points ($10), will launch the following week, on August 14, Major Nelson reports. On August 21, VectorCell will push out its remake of classic adventure game Flashback for 800 MS Points ($10), and rounding out this year's festivities is TMNT: Out of the Shadows on August 28 for 1,200 MS Points ($15).
Xbox One media overflow: Kinect Sports Rivals, Zoo Tycoon and more
Microsoft's Xbox One event was a veritable cornucopia of game reveals and trailers for next-gen releases, but apparently the time allotted wasn't enough to show every single trailer for all of the new games coming to both the Xbox One and Xbox 360. In addition to this trailer for Rare's Kinect Sports Rivals for Xbox One, looks at Starbreeze Studios' new Xbox 360 jam Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Frontier's Xbox One iteration of Zoo Tycoon and Zoë Mode's Powerstar Golf are also available beyond the veil.
Microsoft announces Summer of Arcade lineup, beginning August 7
Microsoft announced this year's Summer of Arcade lineup for the Xbox 360, set to launch in August. Featured Xbox Live Arcade games include Activision's brawler TMNT: Out of the Shadows, an Ubisoft-published remake of Delphine Software's side-scrolling thriller Flashback, 505 Games' character-driven adventure game Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and Ska Studios' punk-themed multiplayer beat-'em-up Charlie Murder. Specific release dates have not been announced. The Summer of Arcade campaign will kick off on August 7.
Go behind the scenes with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
This video for Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons sheds a little light on the creative process that Starbreeze Studios adopted to bring the brothers' adventure to life. The game is slated to launch this Spring on PC, XBLA and PSN.
