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Firaxis' Haunted Hollow combines monstrous fun with some serious strategy
Hearing that Firaxis Games (the famous studio behind great games like Civilization and XCOM -- which itself is coming to iPad very soon) is making an original game for iOS is very exciting. That game is Haunted Hollow, and I got to see it in action this week at GDC. Lead designers Will Miller and David McDonough have overseen the game's development for about a year. The group hopes to release Haunted Hollow later this spring. The game is surprisingly complicated, and though it definitely follows the Firaxis tradition of very well-crafted and complex strategy games, it also makes you wonder how the typically casual iOS audience will take to it. Miller told me that Haunted Hollow has always had a haunted house vibe to it. He showed off a picture used in the initial pitch, featuring two different haunted houses dangling over the edges of a town in the middle. The game contains online Game Center multiplayer, a pass-and-play mode and a single player vs. AI mode, so the title always pits you as the caretaker of one house against another house-building opponent, with a town of unsuspecting civilians lying in the middle. Each turn tells you which kind of room to build, and provides action points (called "fear points"), with which to perform various actions. Building a room allows you to create monsters, which you can then send with a movement into the town below. You pick up to five monsters to play with per game, and they all are of three types: Scary, "Fighty" or Special. Scary monsters can be used to scare townspeople, and scaring a house wins it to your side, with more fear points coming to you if you can scare a whole block. Fighty monsters can be used to fight and kill other monsters, and Special monsters offer a blend of those, or other different abilities. Ghosts, for example, are very scary but they don't survive long. Werewolves are very fighty, but can't be used to scare very well. Special monsters each have their own abilities: Wendigo can freeze the opponent, and zombies can raise an army to join the battle. As the game progresses, each player claims houses in the town by scaring them with various monsters, and the eventual goal is to claim the whole town for your color. Managing the monsters is fairly deep in terms of strategy, and other mechanics build to further complicate things. The rooms you build onto your house can be doubled up and upgraded, if you build them in the correct layout and order. There are different types of houses to choose from at the beginning of the game, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Scaring people in the town can rile them up into an angry mob, which is a completely neutral unit that can not only kill monsters on either side, but even tear down houses completely, which means not as much territory to conquer. While the graphics on the monsters and houses may be cartoony and colorful, the strategy is definitely not playing around. Miller told me that the game should work for children, but I can't imagine anyone but the very smartest of 7-year-olds really figuring out the mechanics and best strategy. Matches are supposed to last as long as a short game of Civilization Revolution, which means this game will likely be the length (and have the depth) of a fairly serious board game. Still, for strategy junkies like myself, Haunted Hollow sounds terrific. The model may give some gamers pause: The title will be free to play, with only five monsters available for free. Firaxis plans to charge for other monster types, up to 12 different monsters at a rate around US$1.99 per monster. That would make the entire game about $24.99, which isn't a bad price, but which isn't cheap for an iOS title, either. Especially if one of the monsters is unbalanced (not likely with Firaxis at the helm, but still), the model could backfire on them. But Miller did say the team was considering a "pay-once-for-everything" price, so hopefully that will work out right. Outside of the payment model, Haunted Hollow seems like an iOS game that fits perfectly with the great Firaxis tradition and reputation, and a solid entry on the platform for the studio. I'm very excited to dive into its fascinating strategy mechanics when it arrives on the App Store this spring.
Developers drop prices on super popular App Store apps
If you thought yesterday's App Store sales were nice, you haven't seen anything yet. For some reason, a whole bunch of terrific apps are dropping their prices this weekend, and Touch Arcade has put together a nice roundup. TUAW Daily App choices Osmos, Archetype, Civilization Revolution, Secret of Monkey Island (and its sequel) and Hybrid 2 are all on sale for as cheap as 99 cents, as is Telltale's Puzzle Agent, Popcap's Bookworm and Peggle, and a host of other high-profile titles. Pretty crazy -- some of the App Store's most popular titles, including EA's Need for Speed series and Activision's Call of Duty Zombies games, are seeing the biggest drops in their lifetimes. My best guess for the big drops is that the financial year 2010 ends today, and these companies are trying to pad out their mobile app sale numbers before (or while) the quarter turns over. But whatever the reason, we consumers benefit -- if you've been waiting to pick some of these games up, now's your chance. And I think we'll be seeing a lot more of this. Companies, especially companies that have been premiering their apps as high as $9.99, are learning that dropping the price like this moves copies quickly, so as we move into the frenzied holiday season for gaming, we'll probably see more than a few big sales come down the pike. Stay tuned.
TUAW's Daily App: Civilization Revolution Lite
Apple has launched a new "Try Before You Buy" section in the App Store, and while it's a poor excuse for an "official" demo system (it's basically just a collection of free apps with full versions to purchase later), there is some good stuff to find in there, like this one. Today we're passing on the casual games for something a little deeper. Civilization Revolution is a somewhat pared-down version of the awesome strategy game, but it's still got the empire building, trading, and various battles that you'll find in the main series. This lite version is great -- all it does is keep you from saving, so if you have the time to run up a full campaign, you can. The app was popular when it first released, so you may already have it, but if you haven't tried it yet, now's the time to give it a look. It'd also be nice on the "Try Before You Buy" section to at least have links to the full apps -- you can usually find those by clicking on the "More iPhone apps by..." section of the App Store, but if Apple is specifically promoting demos, shouldn't they also promote the full apps. Anyway, the full version of Civ Rev is currently $6.99 on the App Store. That's much cheaper than the versions on any other system, so if you try the demo and really enjoy it, feel free to get the full app for the total experience. And if you like Civ Rev, do yourself a favor and head back to the main game -- Civ 4 is an excellent title as well, and the new version looks great, too.
Civilization Revolution demo on PSN this week
There will be a Civilization Revolution demo out this Thursday as part of this week's regularly scheduled PSN update. Since the title has been pushed back to July 8 instead of coming out on its original June 3 release, the folks at Firaxis and 2K Games thought it would be a good idea to give you something to play while waiting the extra month. The demo has two forces, Rome and Egypt. It also comes packed in with a tutorial for those new to the turn-based strategy game.This demo sounds a lot like the one we've played previously, so perhaps you might want to read our hands-on impression to get ready for this Thursday. Also, if you're really interested in Civilization Revolution, then you better watch our video interview with the creator himself, Sid Meier.
PS3 Fanboy video interview: Sid Meier on Civ Revolution
It took us some time to get our footage from the New York Comic Con up onto the interwebs, but now that we have things running smooth as butter you'll be seeing more vids to come. For starters, how about this interview with Sid Meier, the creator of the Civilization series. The man took time out of his busy schedule to give us an interview, answer our questions, and talk about the upcoming Civilization Revolution. We won't say much else, so we'll let Sid take it from here. Enjoy the interview!If you're interested in more of Civilization Revolution, make sure you head on over to the official website.
PS3 Fanboy hands-on: Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution
Also at New York Comic Con this weekend, we headed over to 2K Games booth and tested out Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution. We went straight ahead into a single player game. Out of the 16 civilizations in the game, two were playable on the demo: Romans and Egyptians. We decided to take on the role of the powerful Roman Empire.When we first kicked things off we noticed right away that the streamlined interface was an intuitive system; we easily shot straight into the natural flow of the game. Things go much faster in Civilization Revolution as compared to the traditional PC games as a lot of commands have been simplified. For example, workers are not controlled individually and automatically carry out preset commands. This is good as it cuts out tedious and repetitious actions within turns and lets you focus more on moving military units and defending your empire.%Gallery-16533%
Meet Sid Meier at NY Comic Con this Saturday
Sid Meier is attending New York Comic Con '08 this weekend promoting his upcoming Civilization Revolution game. He'll be at the 2K Games Booth (#1157) on Saturday, April 19, from 1-3PM. He'll be making chit-chat with fans and "providing autographs." There's +2 internets in it for the guy who gets Meier to sign his man-boob. Attendees will also get a chance to try out demos of the console-only Civilization Revolution, which should be very close to done now. Revolution is expected to release on Xbox 360, PS3 and DS on June 3. The Wii version is still hidden by the fog-of-war.
Rumor: GameStop dates Prototype, Splinter Cell V, Sonic Unleashed, Rogue Warrior and more
One of our loyal X3F Army tipsters has outed himself as an employee of GameStop, but to make up for it he sent us a camera phone image of a few release dates. While you should take these dates with a grain of salt some of them are accurate, specifically Ninja Gaiden 2, Soul Calibur IV and Civilization Revolution.Fueling the fire of the Sega's Sonic Unleashed leak is a release date of November 4 for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and PS2. EA's NFL Head Coach 09 is slated for a September 3 release and based on the release of the original in relation to Madden, the time frame seems accurate. A few titles we haven't heard much from are Bethesda Softworks' Rogue Warrior (November 10) and Edios Interactive's Shellshock 2: Blood Trails (September 1), which is being developed by the team at Rebellion.Other dates include Sierra's Prototype from Radical and the Xbox 360 exclusive Splinter Cell: Conviction from Ubisoft which are dated for October 21 and October 2 respectfully.Remember, pre-order focused retailers tend to guess-timate releases on a regular basis to structure their sales goals for the final two quarters of the year. However, some of the names on this list make us really glad we have a rumor category.[Thanks, Travisto]
Civilization Revolution website launched, new info
The official website for the upcoming console game Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution is now up and running. Civ enthusiasts might want to check it out; the site has a lot of new information on all sixteen civilizations, specifically on their rulers and the unique bonuses each civilization will receive. One interesting news bit is that each civilization not only gets one bonus throughout gameplay, but will get a different bonus as the game progresses into a new age. This brings better balance to more ancient civs in the latter stages of the game and vice versa. Another revealed detail about the game is the confirmation of downloadable content such as multi-player maps and scenarios for the PlayStation Network. Also there are unlockable maps, scenarios, and mods to be found offline as well. If you're a big fan of the Civilization series, but too much of a traditionalist to accept having the next game on a console, then you're missing out. Revolution looks likes it's going to be a worthy addition to the series; it's visually on par with Civilization IV and from what we're hearing thus far, it sounds like it's improving on the tried-and-tested formula. If you're interested in seeing more on the game, check out the official website.
Civilization Revolution 'never' coming to PC
2K Games continues to emphasize that the console-centric Civilization Revolution is a totally different branch from the PC's Civilization franchise by telling MTV's Multiplayer that Revolution will "never" come to PC. It's a similar thing to what we were told at E3 last year when we got our first chance to see Revolution.Jason Bergman, a producer for 2K Games, tells MTV that the game was designed from the ground up to be played with a gamepad. Since the game was announced, many PS3 owners have asked if the game will support a mouse and keyboard. Bergman says, "The answer is no ... The game has not been designed for that [controller]." He highlights again that Revolution is not a port, but an entirely new game. We kinda feel bad for the guy, it sounds like he's been repeating the same defense for the title over and over again since last July.
Civilization Revolution grinds to a halt on Wii
At first, it was coming, and then it wasn't, and then it was ... and now, once again, Civilization Revolution is a no-go for Wii owners. An unnamed spokesperson for 2K Games confirmed to IGN that the Wii version has been put on hold indefinitely, and a poster by the name of Jason2K at the 2K forums reports that it's a simple matter of manpower. According to said poster, Firaxis didn't have the resources to work on four different versions of the game at once, and it looks like the Wii title, already set to release several months after the others, drew the short straw.We can only hope to see Firaxis revisit the project in the future, as the Wii (and DS) are spectacular choices for the long-running franchise, considering that their control schemes can closely mimic that of the mouse. The title was set to feature online multiplayer and several features that are being implemented for the new console versions.[Thanks, mian!]
Civilization Revolution has no alibi (it's ugly)
While DS development for Civilization Revolution continues (and progress on the Wii version, uh, un-continues), we can't say it's looking too great based on the initial batch of released screenshots. Check out this janky image on the right; it's almost as if someone tried to mash together Fire Emblem with Age of Empires: Age of Kings, but somehow messed it up.Of course, no one plays Civ for its graphics, and, according to a recent interview with IGN, Firaxis made sure to leave in the strategy title's core mechanics. The DS release will, for the most part, have the same mechanics as the 360 and PS3 versions, except with a mostly 2D presentation. You'll still have 16 civilizations to choose from and a robust online multiplayer experience with two-player head-to-head, four-player free-for-all, and team battle modes. End your turn and head past the break for a couple more screenshots.
Civilization Revolution not coming to PSP due to "lack of resources"
Firaxis, devlopers of the upcoming Civilization Revolution, has given a statement to Eurogamer to explain why there is going to be no PSP version. Put simply, they simply don't have a big enough team. The entire development staff is currently working on versions for the PS3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS. They have even delayed the Wii version to Autumn 2008, while the other versions are out in the Spring, because of resource shortages.Firaxis seems to be very proud of the fact that the game is being developed in-house. The only way a PSP version would be possible would be if they "farmed it out", which they are seemingly unwilling to do. Barry Caudill, of Firaxis, made sure to defend the handheld, saying that "it's not like we're dissing the platform - I use a PSP. We put Pirates out on it." The official word, then, is that there will be no PSP version. However Caudill's wording certainly leaves room for that to change in the future.
Sid Meier's Civilization never announced for PSP
Contrary to an earlier report, the new Civilization Revolution is not coming out on PSP. The original press release mentioned the game's release on handheld systems -- it appears that 2K Games actually meant handheld system, singular.A recent E3 press release shows the title arriving on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and DS. However, no PSP version was mentioned. When we conatcted a 2K Games representative, they simply said that a PSP version is not announced. Considering how the game's E3 debut will avoid PSP, we believe that the title will never appear on the system. Hopefully, we're wrong.
2K Games' (Bio)shocking E3 2007 lineup
Watch out for the 2K Games lineup for this week's E3 2007; it's mighty massive. Despite the appearance of an already-released title (The Darkness), Irrational's BioShock will more than make way with Big Brother demanding your full attention ... or else. The lineup, and attached release dates: BioShock (Xbox 360; August 21) Civilization Revolution (Xbox 360, PS3, and DS in Spring 2008; Wii in Fall 2008) The Darkness (Xbox 360, PS3) All-Pro Footbal 2K8 (Xbox 360, PS3; July 2007) NHL 2K8 (Xbox 360, PS3, PS2; Fall 2007) Those holding out to see (or have us see, rather) Manhunt 2 need not worry, as this does not include 2K parent publisher Take Two's E3 lineup. %Gallery-3725%%Gallery-4355%
No Civilization Revolution for the Wii
While we reported on DS Fanboy that the franchise was coming, we were a bit skeptical as to its validity on the Wii. Turns out, our apprehension to report the game was coming on the Wii was like some kind of awesome spider sense, because it definitely isn't coming to the system. Why? Who knows, but we can't even begin to fathom a reason as to why it shouldn't.Control scheme? Just about perfect for the game. Graphics? The Civilization series was never all that graphically demanding. Online multiplayer? OK, maybe that's a valid point of concern in bringing the franchise to the Wii, but hardly one that would cause the console to be excluded.[Via Game Stooge]
Video: Civilization Revolution debut trailer
Announced just this morning, the first trailer for Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution has appeared online. The trailer relies solely on cinematics, so don't get your hopes up for any gameplay. Still, we do get a peek at some of the various groups and technologies you'll be controlling. More or less, think of this as a video version of the press release. It is there merely to whet the appetites of strategy-hungry gamers everywhere. Mission accomplished fellas. Now let's see some gameplay.%Gallery-4369%
Sid Meier's Civilization coming to the DS
And we couldn't be happier the rumor from long ago has come true!See, we're huge fans of the Civilization series, so when we caught an eye full of the press release stating that a new game was being designed by Sid for "next-generation consoles and handhelds," we almost let loose a brick from the seat of our pants. We were surprised. "Civilization Revolution is the game I've always wanted to make!" says Sid Meier. He goes on further to hype up Civilization Revolution, stating that they are "excited to take advantage of the power of next generation consoles and the ingenuity of handhelds, to create a great and unique strategy game for newcomers to the series, as well as the millions of fans around the world who enjoy Civilization on the PC." The touch-screen controls are going to be perfect for this game, so let's hope it doesn't have to be too stripped to fit on that DS cartridge.[Via Game Stooge]
Civilization Revolution to revolutionize 360
2K has announced plans to bring a brand new Civilization title to new-gen consoles, including our beloved Xbox 360. Title Civilization Revolution, the game is reportedly the game that Sid Meier has always wanted to make. We're inclined to agree with him, since he's already made it four times. Joking aside, Civilization Revolution looks to bring a console level of "action-packed" goodness to the series, which has traditionally been a relatively slow affair on PCs. The new console iteration promises to streamline the experience, giving console gamers the instant gratification to which they've become accustomed. Civilization Revolution will also include multiplayer with integrated video and voice chat. Of course, the big question on everyone's mind is whether or not the game can appeal to both console gamers and a loyal PC following. We'll find out when the game releases in Spring 2008. [Via Joystiq]
