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Humble Jumbo Bundle 2 packs Deadlight, Van Helsing and GalCiv 2
A new Humble Bundle is upon us, this time packing a handful of big games. The Humble Jumbo Bundle 2 includes Deadlight, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Complete Pack and Galactic Civilizations 2: Ultimate Edition in the organizations standard "name your price" package. Beating the average price adds a trio of other big games: Terraria, Crusader Kings 2 (plus three expansions) and The King of Fighters XIII Steam Edition. Paying $15 for the set will give players all six titles, along with the Age of Empires Legacy Bundle. The bundle runs for two weeks, supporting the American Red Cross and Child's Play Charity. [Image: Tequila Works]
Deadlight now free for Xbox Live Gold members
As promised, the Tequila Works-developed survival game, Deadlight, is the latest freebie for Xbox Live Gold members. The Xbox 360 game – regularly priced at $15 – will remain free until April 30. In her review of Deadlight, Joystiq's Jess Conditt said the game "shines in its detailed world-building," though its gameplay "fails to live up to the standard" set by the game's "glorious" art direction. The Xbox Live Games with Gold program offers two free titles per month to Live subscribers. Earlier this month users were offered a free copy of Hitman: Absolution. Unlike the program's PlayStation counterpart, players can continue to enjoy any games they have downloaded if their Live subscription lapses. [Image: Tequila Works]
Deadlight, Hitman Absolution join gratis Games With Gold in April
Whether you'd prefer to gingerly hop your way through the decrepit ruins of humanity or dispatch targets with the cold, remorseless professionalism of a trained killer, Microsoft's Games With Gold promotion has something for you. Come April 1, Hitman: Absolution will be available as a free download for all Xbox Live Gold members. Our review awarded Hitman: Absolution 4 of 5 stars, and said that while it has minor flaws, the grim gameplay and glee of assassinating a difficult target overrides any technical issues. Hitman: Absolution will only be available for free until April 16, at which time it will be replaced by Deadlight. This post-apocalyptic platformer, developed by Tequila Works, received 3 of 5 stars in our review. While Jess found certain gameplay elements frustrating, she fell for Deadlight's art design and meticulous world building, and enjoyed the experience overall. As with all Games With Gold offerings, the only requisite for downloading the above games is an active Xbox Live Gold membership. Full details on how to enroll in Xbox Live Gold can be found on the Xbox website. [Image: Square Enix]
XBLA sale: Mark of the Ninja, Trials and more cheap until Apr. 9
Another sale has spread across Xbox Live Arcade, running until April 9. The sale's highlight is 50% off Mark of the Ninja from Klei Entertainment – one of Joystiq's favorite games of 2012 – bringing it down to 600 MS Points ($7.50).Other cheap contenders include Trials Evolution for 800 MS Points ($10) and some discounted Pinball FX 2 tables. There's also Dust: An Elysian Tale and Deadlight for 600 MS Points ($7.50) to consider.On top of this promotion highlighting Microsoft Studios games, there's also the ongoing Xbox Live Arcade Deal of the Week sale. Retro City Rampage has been knocked down to 600 MS Points ($7.50) and Quarrel is 200 MS Points ($2.50). The full list of both sales can be seen through the source links below.
Xbox Live Countdown to 2013 daily deal: Dust, Deadlight and Hybrid
Today's Xbox Live deal, as part of the Xbox Live Countdown to 2013, includes sales on Dust: An Elysian Tail, Deadlight and Hybrid.Both Dust: An Elysian Tail and Deadlight are on sale for 600 Microsoft points, 50 percent off from their original prices. Hybrid can be downloaded for 400 Microsoft points, a 67 percent savings on its original 1200 point price tag. These deals are on for today only, so get downloading! %Gallery-162764%
Deadlight shambles onto Steam on October 25
Deadlight is shuffling onto Steam on October 25, Tequila Works announced. The zombie-stuffed side-scroller originally lurched onto Xbox 360 as part of this year's Summer of Arcade. Tequila Works promised the PC version has improved graphics over its XBLA counterpart, and includes a new "nightmare mode" and the game's complete soundtrack.Jess reviewed Deadlight back in August, giving it three out of five stars. While she was impressed by how Tequila Works built a world of 1980s Seattle overrun by zombies, she felt it was let down by "unresponsive controls and frustrating scenarios that can't decide if they want to be puzzles or action sequences." Tequila Works didn't detail a price for the Steam version, but on XBLA it costs 1200 MSP.
Silver Lining: Sins and punishment in Deadlight
'Silver Lining' is a column from freelancer Taylor Cocke dedicated to highlighting moments of real potential in less than perfect games. This week he examines Tequila Works' Deadlight. The following may contain story spoilers. Scrawled on the wall in a frenzied font a warning reads "The Inferno Begins Here." Just in case you weren't positive the opening scenes of Deadlight from developer Tequila Works were referencing Dante's Inferno, a nearby collectible journal directly quotes the epic poem: "Through me the way into the suffering city, Through me the way to the eternal pain, Through me the way that runs among the lost." In other words, protagonist Randall Wayne will soon be suffering through his own version of Hell.The scene isn't exactly subtle, and is indicative of a large problem with the rest of the game. Rather than allowing events to play out and ask players to draw their own conclusions about them, Deadlight practically tells you what to feel through a series of notes, diary entries, and flashbacks. Randall's story is a tragic one, to be sure, but it'd be much more powerful if it had been given more room to breathe within the player's own mind.%Gallery-161497%
Deadlight review: Lessons for the zombie apocalypse
Playing a game about zombies is never a waste of time. Any game that features a variation of the undead – the shuffling decomposed, cannibalistic speed demons, the infected – offers a new approach to tackling the zombie apocalypse when it occurs in reality. Each new game demonstrates varied strategies and situations that it's best to be prepared for, just in case you end up next to patient zero at your next family gathering with nothing but a frying pan and a bottle of Aspirin.All zombie survival games can teach us something; they each have a lesson that is best taken to heart, before you take a bite to the brain. Deadlight, a side-scrolling platformer set in an alternate, apocalyptic 1980s, taught me something very important.No matter how hard you try, you will die, and it will be frustrating as hell. Every time.%Gallery-161497%
XBLA Summer of Arcade 2012 detailed, Tony Hawk kickflips it off on July 18
XBLA's Summer of Arcade 2012 begins on July 18 with the HD-ified rebirth of Tony Hawk Pro Skater for 1200 MS Points ($15). The following week, Iron Galaxy's Angry Birds meets Boom Blox Kinect flinger Wreckateer arrives for 800 MS Points ($10), with Deadlight, Hybrid, and Dust: An Elysian Tail launching in the subsequent weeks, all for 1200 MS Points ($15) a pop.Microsoft is offering an incentive (as always) to spur multiple Summer of Arcade purchases, giving those who snag "any three of the above titles" a free 400 MS Points ($5). From the look of things, that won't be too hard a sell.Additionally, Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD is heading to PlayStation Network "a few weeks" after it launches on Xbox Live Arcade, but the rest of the Summer of Arcade games are exclusive to 360 (at least for now).
Summer of Arcade: Deadlight, Wreckateer, Tony Hawk HD, Dust: An Elysian Tale and Hybrid
During pre-show coverage of Microsoft's E3 press conference, Microsoft Studios head Phil Spencer revealed the lineup of this year's Summer of Arcade promotion.The first game he talked about was Hyrbid, 5th Cell's jetpack-driven multiplayer shooter. This was followed by a brief vignette of Deadlight, the Tequila Works side-scroller set in a post-apocalyptic world. Next was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD from Robomodo, followed by Wreckateer for Kinect. Rounding out the list is Dust: An Elysian Tale.There's no word on when Summer of Arcade kicks off – summer, right? – but considering Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD drops in on July 11, at least we have some idea of the Summer of Arcade window.
Deadlight story trailer explains the saving powers of fear
"The only thing we have to fear is to fear yourself." We're pretty sure that's what president Franklin D. Roosevelt said to galvanize the American public when he took office in 1933, in the thick of the Great Depression. Nothing says "We can do it!" quite like "You're a monster!"Thankfully Deadlight, which uses the tagline "Fear yourself" in its latest story trailer, isn't a historical-reenactment title, though it may be a simulator of potential future circumstances. If so, we may have a bit more to fear than metabolic reactions or mere humans.Deadlight is set to launch this summer on XBLA.
Microsoft reveals Xbox 360 lineup for PAX East 2012
We haven't figured out a way to travel into the future yet, and we're just as upset as you are about that. But the closest thing has to be playing games that aren't actually out yet, right? Microsoft is offering PAX East attendees a chance to do just that next weekend.Major Nelson posted the list of activities and upcoming Kinect and XBLA titles that will be playable at Microsoft's booth, including Trials Evolution, MineCraft: Xbox 360 Edition and Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor. We hear one of our editors really liked that last one when he got a chance to play it earlier this month.Also of note is a playable build of Dust: An Elysian Tale, the winner of 2009's "Dream-Build-Play" competition. It's currently slated to launch on Xbox Live Arcade in 2012.
Deadlight first details: The meaning of 1986
1986 marked a legendary era in humanity's astronomical focus. Russia launched the Mir space station, Halley's Comet lit up Earth's February skies, the Antarctic ozone hole came under intense scrutiny, and America's Challenger space shuttle exploded in a fiery cloud 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven of the astronauts on board in clear view of their family, friends and the world.1986 is also the era that Tequila Works' chose for its upcoming horror-puzzle platformer (coming to XBLA this summer), Deadlight. The two aspects could be completely unrelated, of course, if Tequila Works CEO and creative director Raul Rubio hadn't gone out of his way to mention the astronomical significance of the year to Deadlight's larger, seemingly robust story in an interview with Joystiq."The choice of the time frame was not random at all," Rubio said. "If you think about it, 1986 was the year that had a lot of lunar events. And if you put that with movies like First Blood or Day of the Dead, it's a strange mix and you can get a unique visual."Rambo: First Blood and Day of the Dead both came out in the '80s, one as a hyperbolic action film and the other a zombie cult classic, and Deadlight draws on both of these tropes in a unique way, Rubio told us.%Gallery-145241%
Deadlight teases the long road to ... Vancouver
While humanity falls apart after a deadly virus sweeps the planet, one gruff individual in the Pacific Northwest of America tries his best to survive.
Deadlight coming to XBLA, care of Tequila Works
What is Deadlight? That's a good question. And other than telling you it's an Xbox Live Arcade game being published my Microsoft Studios and developed by Tequila Works, we wouldn't be able to do much in the way of answering said question. Well, that's not entirely true. Tequila Works' website also includes a blurb describing the game as an "original cinematic puzzle platformer." It stars a lone man named Randall Wayne who's stumbling around the American West Coast in 1986 after a pandemic has killed off the rest of the population. We've yet to see the game in action, but it sounds to be puzzle rather than combat-focused. The XBLA title is set to arrive sometime this coming summer, and we're certainly hoping to learn a bit more about it before then.
