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Lords of the Fallen dev addresses complaints about slow-moving characters
Lords of the Fallen, the Dark Souls-ian role-playing game from Deck 13 and City Interactive, has had trouble communicating what it's all about to potential players ahead of its release on October 28. Looking to better explain his game, Tomasz Gop of City Interactive released a video detailing the different ways Lords of the Fallen can be played. Following a number of YouTube videos and live streams of the game, Gop moved to address criticisms that characters move too slowly. "The first thing I wanted to talk about it movement speed," said Gop. "We don't believe the game is too slow or too fast for anybody because you can adjust quite easily the way that you move." He goes on to explain how weapon and armor choice significantly change the speed with which your chosen character can dodge and block attacks. Gop also reiterates that the game will take approximately 50 hours to complete, and that as with nearly all role-playing games characters change dramatically over that time. Joystiq's own time with Lords of the Fallen during preview sessions at E3 demonstrated how difficult it is to get a sense of the full range of character options with just a short time with the game. [Images: City Interactive]
Pre-order Lords of the Fallen for bonus weapons, story DLC
Square Enix announced a "Day One Edition" for Lords of the Fallen, the third-person action RPG developed by Deck 13 Interactive and CI Games. The limited edition version grants pre-order buyers exclusive story DLC as well as extra weapons and the game's official soundtrack. Those pre-ordering the game through GameStop will receive a free upgrade to the Day One Edition while supplies last. While there's no clear indication that the special edition of the game is limited to GameStop customers, the game's official pre-order page sure makes it seem that way at the moment. The Lords of the Fallen limited edition includes the Monk's Decipher DLC and Demonic Weapons Pack. The latter features three items: The Margyr daggers, a Thehk hammer and the Ihir sword. The game was first shown off at Gamescom 2013 this past August and is scheduled to arrive on October 28 for PS4, Xbox One and PC courtesy of Bandai Namco. It can't seem to escape comparisons to From Software's Dark Souls series; at least that was a main takeaway from our time with the game at E3. [Image: Bandai Namco]
Creepy, armed adversaries lurk in Lords of the Fallen
Survival's a good incentive to fight Lord of the Fallen's opposition, but ridding the world of half-decayed, axe-wielding monsters? Yeah, you don't have to beg us to help out with that. Get a glimpse of what you'll slay in City Interactive's upcoming RPG on PS4, Xbox One and PC. [Image: Square-Enix]
Lords of the Fallen trailer gets knocked down, but it gets up again
The new Lords of the Fallen trailer is a bit Groundhog Day, except with Bill Murray as an unwavering knight rather than an arrogant weatherman, and instead of reliving some local festivities, he's stuck in an endless loop of grueling, bloody duels to the death. Yup, we'd so watch that movie. As for CI Games' action-RPG, that's cycling along to Xbox One, PS4 and PC sometime later this year. [Image: CI Games]
Enemy Front assaults Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in June
Alongside the above trailer, developer CI Games has announced that its upcoming World War 2 shooter Enemy Front will reach retail shelves in the US on June 10, with Europe following suit on June 13. [Image: CI Games]
RPG Lords of the Fallen unsheathes new screens
A couple of screens provide a further glimpse of the kinds of fights CI Games (formerly City Interactive) hopes to bring to action-RPG Lords of the Fallen. Based on what we saw of it last year, the drama of its considered, mano a mano combat is worth keeping an eye on. "You can imagine Lords of the Fallen as a game that has all the layers, all the complexity, all the mechanics, all the elements of very advanced tactical combat," Executive Producer Tomasz Gop told Joystiq at last year's Gamescom, "but it's not being mindlessly punishing at the same time." Lords of the Fallen is coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC later this year, but you can check out our Gamescom impressions in the meantime.
Next-gen RPG Lords of the Fallen wants to challenge, not mindlessly punish
The Witcher 3 isn't the only Polish next-gen RPG to keep an eye on. CI Games' Lords of the Fallen, coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC, also looks to mix dark fantasy with sizable challenge, but through its own brand of tactical, thoughtful combat. It's become fashionable for developers to name-drop Dark Souls as emblematic of their own games' similar, tough-as-nails appeal, but this often lacks meaningful merit. Not so in Executive Producer Tomasz Gop's case. His Souls-drop, made when first announcing Lords of the Fallen, was absolutely visible when I saw the game in action. That's not to say it's a replica of the Souls games, something Gop is keen to stress, but I did recognize a familiar mano-a-mano challenge in its third-person RPG combat. I watched the game's hero, a grizzled slab of man called Harkyn, bide his time through slow one-on-one encounters, each one an ordeal. His first fight was against a demonic sub-boss Lord, his red eyes lurking beneath reams of armor, his arm all too happy to slam his huge molten sword into the ground, cracking tiles into streams of flame. Against the backdrop of a monastery's crumbling ruins, Harkyn strafed as he waited patiently for an opening. The Lord shuffled, looking to lunge forward and strike. The only thing missing was the Kirk and Spock battle music.
Enemy Front moves up in spring 2014
City Interactive's Enemy Front, now under the direction of Far Cry 3 narrative designer and Warhammer 40K: Space Marine director Raphael van Lierop, is expected to launch in the spring of 2014 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. The game is currently being shown at PAX, with gameplay featuring the game's non-linear combat sandbox. Players can approach the game's WW2 missions through combat or stealth. Enemy Front was first announced back in 2011, under the direction of Stuart Black. Following the established trend, Black left the project in late 2012 over what were reportedly creative differences with publisher City Interactive.
Arcade shooter Alien Rage locks and loads a gameplay trailer
City Interactive's Alien Rage is an unabashed arcade first-person shooter, its space station setting, big bad guns, and armies of aliens evoking memories of playing too much Doom and Quake (as if you could ever play too much Doom or Quake). Alien Rage brings the fury to XBLA, PSN, and PC on September 24.
Sniper dev unveils debut trailer for next-gen RPG Lords of the Fallen
Polish-based developer City Interactive, which recently rose to greater prominence through its Sniper: Ghost Warrior series, revealed the first trailer for its next-gen project, Lords of the Fallen. The Xbox One, PS4, and PC game is spearheaded by former Witcher 2 producer Tomasz Gop, who left CD Projekt in 2011 to join CI. There he's looking to once more craft a deep, dark and challenging RPG. "Challenge is what defines Lords of the Fallen," Gop told Joystiq. "Players who are going to be taking time to cross that gap between doing random things at the beginning because they don't know the tactics, to being a fully-fledged, skillful Lords of the Fallen player at the end, is how we look at fun, entertainment and pleasure from playing Lords of the Fallen." As the trailer hints, there are elements of From Software's Souls games in Lords of the Fallen's combat; fights look to reward tactical players and punish those who go rushing in. However, Gop said the combat draws inspiration from a number of challenging, medieval-themed games, including older, more obscure games like Moonstone, Vagrant Story and Severance: Blade of Darkness. The game's wide array of inspirations includes Borderlands, which Gop drew parallels to when describing the class-based supernatural action skills - "We like to think of them as sort of a smart bomb." Unlike Borderlands, however, classes in Lords of the Fallen are not set in stone. Instead, skills are tied to weapons and gear, making classes a "very relative construct in Lords of the Fallen, the weapon actually representing some sort of profile or allegiance," as Gop put it. The player-definable approach to classes may again resemble the Souls games, but unlike From's RPGs there's a clearly defined character and story in Lords of the Fallen. The grizzly hero in the trailer is Harkyn, a man journeying a world that has seemingly forgotten the terrible 'Fallen God' it once fought against - but will remember soon enough. "We do want to tell the story and brag on the world that we have. We want to show it to the players," Gop said. Lords of the Fallen drops onto Xbox One, PS4 and PC sometime next year.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior dev unleashes Alien Rage upon Sept. 24
City Interactive's Alien Rage brings its little green can of whoopass to XBLA, PSN, and PC on September 24. By the way, this is the game formerly known as Alien Fear - that's quite the emotional progression there, alienlings. The irate downloadable from the Sniper: Ghost Warrior studio promises first-person shooting with old-school stylings, complete with skill-based scores and 10 alien-killin' weapons, all coated in Unreal Engine 3 visuals. As for what got the extraterrestrials so vexed, this cinematic goes some way to explaining it - clue: Humans were involved.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 'Siberian Strike' DLC hits XBLA/PSN/PC next week
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2's first injection of single-player DLC will be chambered into North American and European copies of the game this Wednesday, March 27, when "Siberian Strike" goes live on Xbox Live, PSN and Steam for 800 MS Points/$9.99 respectively, or £8.99/€9.99 for those scouting from the other side of the Atlantic.The DLC pack drops players in a remote Siberia town called Birsovik, and tasks them with completing a mission without help from spotters, meaning that all terrain navigation and target acquisition must be done manually, with maps, which is how cavemen snipers used to do it back in Victorian England.... Okay so, we may not know a whole lot about sniper history.%Gallery-183592%
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 'dismemberment' DLC canceled
Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 is no longer getting free 'dismemberment' DLC. Removing enemy limbs with accurate sniping was originally a feature of the sequel, but developer/publisher City Interactive told us last summer it was removed to avoid the game being banned in Germany, given the country's strict censorship laws. The plan then was to introduce the content via free DLC for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.However, a City Interactive representative tells VideoGamer the Polish studio isn't releasing the DLC. The site notes no reasons were specified, leaving us wondering what's prompted the turnaround and why it's only surfaced now.Ghost Warrior 2 survived a number of big delays (almost completely intact) to shoot onto North American retail shelves last week.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 launch trailer thinks it can control you with terror
It's been a bit of a protracted wait, but Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is definitely nearly here - it even has a launch trailer to prove it. The sequel to the million-selling debut shooter arrives on March 12 when it impacts the craniums of Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
Sony completely revises list of PS4 EU studios, down from 53 to 30 [updates]
Sony made wholesale corrections to the list of European/PAL companies confirmed as PS4 developers and publishers, reducing the list of named studios from 53 to 28. Curiouser, not one of the developers and publishers named on the previous list makes an appearance on the new roll call. A spokesperson for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe confirmed to us the first list, sent out last week, was erroneous, and this new one is correct. There are no revisions for any other regions.The new list removes a number of significant names, including Mojang (Minecraft), Rovio (Angry Birds), Frozenbyte, Criterion Games, and City Interactive. In their stead are some new noteworthy studios, such as CD Projekt, who've confirmed The Witcher 3 as a PS4 game. Also included are Bohemia Interactive, Deep Silver, Ninja Theory, IO Interactive, Codemasters, 2K Games, and Sumo Digital. The full list can be found after the break.We've reached out to a number of studios for comment. Mojang's Daniel Kaplan reiterated to us the comments he gave to Gamasutra, saying his studio hasn't decided anything yet, and that the error is "confusion from Sony's side." Gamasutra's article also confirms Super Crate Box developer Vlambeer and Skulls of the Shogun creator 17-Bit, both included in the original list, as not currently working on anything for the PS4.A spokesperson for Monsters (probably) Stole My Princess developer Mediatonic, included in the original list but not in the corrected one, told us he couldn't make any comment on his studio and PS4 development. Meanwhile, Sumo Digital's inclusion adds weight to the rumor the British studio is working on LittleBigPlanet 3, but for the PS4. When approached previously about LBP3, a studio representative told Joystiq, "No comment." Update 1: A spokesperson for 505 Games tells us the Italian company is "definitely" planning to publish games on the PS4. 505 Games was in the original list of European/PAL PS4 developers and publishers, but not the revised list. The spokesperson noted the company's logo appears in the image showcasing PS4 partners, as shown during last week's event, as do many of the names in the revised list. Update 2: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe informs us the list of European PS4 studios has been further revised. Two more studios are now present in the form of Criterion Games and Ghost Games (an EA studio) - both were in the original list of 53. That takes the tally of confirmed European studios up to 30.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 gameplay teaser offers more headshots and heavy breathing
After a couple of misses on release windows, the first official gameplay video for Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 suggests developer City Interactive firmly has the January 15, 2013 release date in its scope.
Stuart Black abandons Enemy Front, City Interactive
Stuart Black, creative director of Codemasters' Bodycount and designer of Criterion's Black, has left his most recent publisher, City Interactive, where he was working on Enemy Front. Black has a history of establishing a shooter franchise at a new studio and then leaving the studio to work on another shooter franchise, a trend we noticed even back in 2010.Black left City Interactive in August, CEO Marek Tyminski says, according to Polish website Miastogier and translated by VG24/7. Black left after his vision for Enemy Front proved to be "different from" City Interactive's. Enemy Front was announced in November 2011 as a World War II first-person-shooter, but since Black's departure it has changed directions."Following the first game shows, press releases, we decided to take into account the media attention and now we have made a number of quite significant changes in the game storyline and assumptions, including the main character," Tyminski says.City Interactive is now working with cinematic director Mark Bristol in the US and on an "extensive" multiplayer mode, handled by a team in Romania.Black's LinkedIn now lists his occupation as "indie developer."
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 hesitates on the shot, delayed into 2013
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is now set to launch on January 15, 2013, pushed back from an already delayed date of October 9 this year.City Interactive hasn't offered a reason for the delay, but the game's official page lists the new date with a confident exclamation point. Perhaps shifting Ghost Warrior 2 from the crowded fall launch window will give potential snipers room to breathe, steady their aim and pull the trigger on buying the game.
Take a deep breath, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 delayed
When you're a sniper – a ghost warrior, if you will – waiting for the perfect moment is key. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 was originally going to take a shot at retail in March, but decided to wait for August instead. Now, it appears the timing still isn't right, as the game will now be released on October 9, Namco has informed Eurogamer.Namco is distributing the game in Europe, but GameStop and Amazon page now list the North American release for October 9 as well. We've contacted publisher City Interactive for confirmation.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 'dismemberment' feature coming as launch DLC
The follow-up to City Interactive's surprise hit Sniper: Ghost Warrior was meant to include the ability to dismember enemies with well-placed sniper shots at launch; however, the developer now says that the feature will be added to the game as post-launch DLC.Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 producer Michael Sroczynski told Joystiq "dismemberment" was removed in retail copies of the game in order to ensure the title would not be banned in Germany. Sroczynski referred to the additional content as "DLC" and not an update; however, he did promise it would launch free for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. The intention is to release the content in all regions – save for Germany – as soon as the game launches later this year.
