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Cursed Mountain dev Deep Silver Vienna shuttered
As confirmed by parent company Koch Media to Develop, Cursed Mountain developer Deep Silver Vienna has apparently been closed. Citing "the overall economic situation" and noting "this decision is not easy for us," the 20-person staff was recently cut and told they would receive pay through the end of March. Develop posits that the studio's other game -- Ride to Hell -- will likely remain unaffected by the shutdown, as UK dev house Eutechnyx is handling development and Koch Media's Munich offices will oversee the game's management. Deep Silver Vienna was formed in the wake of Rockstar Vienna's closing back in 2006, and originally called itself Games That Matter. Ex-Rockstar Vienna heads Hannes Seifert and Niki Laber launched the studio, and it is said that Siefert has moved on to a position at Square Enix Europe as a creative director. As with every case like this, we'd like to wish those affected the best of luck.
Cursed Mountain launch trailer is cursed, mountainous
We've been keeping our eye on Cursed Mountain for some time now. As one of the few survival horror games on the Wii (and one of the few M-rated titles that isn't merely a gore-fest), Cursed Mountain caught our attention early on. To celebrate the game's launch, Deep Silver has released a new trailer, which we've handily embedded into this post. The jury is still out on whether or not the game is actually any good, but we're keeping our fingers crossed.
Bless yourself with a new Cursed Mountain trailer
If Cursed Mountain is trying to scare us, it's totally working. The latest trailer combines many of the things we fear most: older men holding newspapers; the snow-covered Himalayas; and odd boxes that may or may not hold some kind of deep, dark secret are just a few of the things we cower at on a regular basis. And that's only in the first 60 seconds of this two-minute look at the upcoming survival-horror Wii title! Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to go burn our copy of Cliffhanger. You know, just to be sure.[Via CVG]%Gallery-35618%
Cursed Mountain: the winter survival horror game that isn't cancelled!
While everyone's upset about the loss of n-Space's survival horror title Winter, it's fairly comforting to remember that the Wii has another survival horror game about enduring a desolate winter environment on the way, with no discernible signs of trouble so far. In fact, in the space of just two trailers, Cursed Mountain has been upgraded in our estimation from "not bad" to must play. This looks incredibly atmospheric, and just plain technically beautiful!In addition to ghosts, players will apparently have to contend with hallucinations due to the altitude and oxygen deprivation from the harsh Himalayan mountain that serves as the game's backdrop. Which leaves us to wonder whether the creepy dudes in these new screens are real bad guys or not. Either way, yikes.%Gallery-35618%
Cursed Mountain features walking, pointy hats
As you can imagine, two things really stuck with us following our viewing of this latest trailer for Cursed Mountain: how much walking they show the protagonist doing and one enemy with a pointy hat. Sure, there's other good stuff in there, like brief snippets of combat and a variety of locales, but we usually find pleasure in the little things, to tell the truth.So, now that you've seen more of it in motion, what do you all think?%Gallery-35618%
Cursed Mountain devs considering MotionPlus
According to N-Europe, who found this in an NGamer magazine (we'd call something this abstracted a rumor if it weren't already hypothetical), Deep Silver may seek to augment the controls for their unique survival horror game Cursed Mountain with MotionPlus.The article describes the motion-based controls in the "prayer gestures" used in the nonviolent combat in a bit more detail. Apparently, "prayer scrolls" will be used along with motion-controlled ritual simulations to banish ghosts from the earth. In addition, players will use motions to climb walls with an icepick, suggesting more context-sensitive motion controls that would probably benefit from MotionPlus.With any luck, then, our controllers will register with near-perfect accuracy the shaking of our fists as we curse a mountain.%Gallery-35618%
The terrifying mystery of Cursed Mountain screens
We hope it doesn't seem to cynical of us if we say we aren't quite certain these Cursed Mountain screenshots are genuinely captured from the game. For one thing, they are offered on the Cursed Mountain website in a 1280x750 resolution. They also feature graphical effects, like the glow around this ghost, that appear to have been added later. Plus we can tell from some of the pixels.We don't want to disparage Deep Silver for (potential) doctoring of early screenshots, because we'd have to take the same position against every developer, ever. At least what they intend to do with Cursed Mountain -- a survival horror game set in a haunted Tibetan monastery -- is cool and original!%Gallery-35618%[Via Wiiz]
GC 2008: First footage of Cursed Mountain
You'll have to endure some conference attendee's phone call at the beginning of this off-screen Cursed Mountain footage, but it takes place during the seemingly interminable intro anyway. This video contains the first actual images of Deep Silver's horror title, which, at first, only seems scary because the music and the editing tells you it's supposed to be. It's just a foggy mountain, which isn't really that terrifying unless you're there. But then ghosts arrive, and it's generally accepted that ghosts are scary.Judging by the brief glimpse of an onscreen prompt, QTE-style gestures figure into the combat. Either that is what they meant by motion-controlled combat, or those arrows were on the screen as a tutorial, to help players learn the gestures. There's also a pointer visible on screen, which may just be used for investigating or may also be part of the ghostbusting.
Cursed Mountain: Survival horror made just for Wii
click for concept art gallery Developer slash publisher Deep Silver – the cats working on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky – just announced a new survival horror title being built exclusively for the Wii: Cursed Mountain.Citing a healthy dollop of 1980s charm, Himalayan mountains, cursed souls (of villagers, mountaineers, monks, etc.), and waggle-infused gestures, Deep Silver Managing Director Hannes Seifert says, "Cursed Mountain will deliver a unique, terrifying game play experience" when it's released in 2009. Until then, all we've got are a couple pieces of unique concept art and a terrifying logo. Bon appétit.%Gallery-28791%
Cursed Mountain looms over Wii
Deep Silver, co-publisher of the logo-filled Duke Nukem Trilogy, is developing an original survival horror game for Wii called Cursed Mountain. Set in the 1980s, the game follows a climber as he ascends a mountain in a search for his lost brother. Along the way, he finds -- zoinks! Like, ghosts! With its emphasis on ghosts (dead people in limbo) rather than corporeal monsters, Cursed Mountain promises a different kind of violence than the bloody, visceral experience of other survival horror games, according to Deep Silver's Hannes Seifert. "It's violent in the sense of ever present danger and very aggressive environments and enemies. But you can't be violent against ghosts and mountains. So Cursed Mountain is violent, yes, but in a very unorthodox way."How unorthodox? You enter a shadow world, sense enemies with the pointer, and then fight with motions, including a praying gesture.
