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'A Plague Tale: Innocence' is the latest game being adapted for TV
A French production company is turning it into a series.
'A Plague Tale: Innocence' is getting a PS5 and Xbox Series X/S upgrade
The nightmarish survival horror game is coming to Switch on the same day, July 6th.
Remember Me studio building vampiric WWI RPG
Remember Me and Life is Strange developer Dontnod is working on Vampyr, an action-RPG set just after World War I and starring a doctor who's also a vampire, The Sixth Axis reports. As the doctor, players must grapple with moral quandaries – to heal or to feed on your patients? – and the game's tagline is "Take blood. Save a life," the site reports. Focus Home Interactive is publishing. Dontnod announced the game during a Focus Home event today. There's no release date or confirmed platforms for Vampyr just yet. Dontnod is also working on the episodic, time-bending, emotional journey of Life is Strange, due to debut on January 30 for Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4 and PC. We have a preview of that one here.
Warhammer 40K RTS Battlefleet Gothic: Armada announced
Tindalos Interactive is developing Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, a real-time strategy adaptation of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K tabletop series. Publisher Focus Home Interactive's announcement explains that Armada will focus on the Imperial Navy's Battlefleet Gothic and its attempts to spare the galaxy from awful things, spread courtesy of the Chaos Black Crusade of Abaddon the Despoiler. Players will command fleets comprised of ships from Imperial, Chaos, Eldar and Ork forces. Leaders can also customize the weaponry, defense and support sub-systems of ships within their fleet, altering their performance and battle-specific special abilities. Experience and promotions will also be awarded to ships as they survive bouts of war. Armada isn't Tindalos Interactive's first crack at the RTS genre; the studio shared a glimpse of its futuristic, fight-over-precious-resources RTS Etherium early last year. We're still waiting to see how that turns out though – Etherium is currently scheduled to launch its assault on PC sometime in 2015. [Image: Focus Home Interactive]
Pix the Cat to loop Steam users into its combo fever this month
Pix the Cat, a frantic score-chaser that plays as a blend of Pac-Man and Snake in its central Arcade mode, will weave its way onto Steam later this month, developer Pastagames announced earlier this week. A starting price has yet to be offered, but to lend a sense of what to expect, Pix the Cat is currently a $16.49 cross-buy purchase for PS4 and Vita on the PlayStation Store. Beyond its timed, combo-driven Arcade mode, Pix the Cat offers Nostalgia, Laboratory and Arena gameplay types. Nostalgia is a black-and-white challenge of collecting ducklings, but unlike Arcade mode, a round ends when players run headfirst into walls or trip over their trail of ducklings. Laboratory is a slower burn, shifting its focus from blazing-fast clear times in favor of puzzling challenges. Lastly, Arena is a four-player coliseum-style battle affair, equipping contestants with tricks like missiles and mines to help them blast opponents out of the competition. Pastagames' announcement also notes that Pix the Cat has made its way into "more than a million houses" since it was offered to PlayStation Plus subscribers in October. [Image: Pastagames]
Blood Bowl 2 to break tackles, bones on PC, Xbox One, PS4
Developer Cyanide Studio and publisher Focus Home Interactive have announced plans to revisit the world of Blood Bowl not only on the PC, but also on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Like its 2009 predecessor, Blood Bowl 2 will be a virtual adaptation of a Games Workshop pen and paper game that lampoons American football by replacing players with Warhammer fantasy creatures and the sport's brutal violence with especially brutal violence. Blood Bowl 2 is described as "even more ambitious" than the first game, and boasts a wholly new graphics engine that can be seen in action in a trailer beyond the break. Detailed gameplay information is not yet available, but we do know that Blood Bowl 2 will reach the PC in Spring of 2015 and that Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions are also currently in development. Publisher Focus Home Interactive claims that more information on Blood Bowl 2, including screenshots and additional gameplay footage, will arrive soon. [Image: Focus Home Interactive]
Earn an honest living in Farming Simulator 15 on October 30
Farming Simulator 15, the latest in the million-selling series (yes, really), will start tending the PC's fields at ungodly hours on October 30, developer Focus Home Entertainment has announced. Crops will also be planted on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4, but they won't be ready for harvest until early 2015. Lest you think tending this season's livestock will feel exactly the same as last year, Farming Simulator 15 includes a new graphics and physics engine, a revamped interface and new activities such as logging. There's also support for 15-farmer online play to consider, as well as whatever the series' devoted modding community is bound to cook up. [Image: Focus Home Interactive]
Sherlock Holmes dishes out Crimes and Punishments on September 30
Hm, yes. Judging by the press release and the new trailer, we do believe we've cracked the case of the Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments release date! September 30, our dear readers. September 30 is when you'll be able to use your powerful skills of detection and deduction to solve a multitude of cases as the legendary sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. Or fail at solving them - you can do that, too. Crimes and Punishments will launch simultaneously across Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and PC platforms. [Image: Focus Home Interactive]
Space Hulk: Deathwing coming to PS4 in 2015
Streum On Studio revealed that its interstellar first-person shooter Space Hulk: Deathwing will arrive on the PlayStation 4 next year. Based in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, Space Hulk: Deathwing charges players with raiding derelict spaceships and fending off the deadly alien creatures that infest their cramped corridors. Developer Full Control produced a strategy-oriented take on the Space Hulk franchise last year for PC and mobile platforms, though Streum On's adaptation instead focuses on frantically paced combat. A specific release date has not been announced. [Video: Streum On Studio]
Sherlock Holmes and The Case for Trying New Games
Walking the show floor of the LA Convention Center, you see games that take you by surprise. Maybe these games didn't have the budget to promote as vivaciously as another company, or maybe they promised a slow-burn experience – something difficult to demonstrate when press meetings usually last 15 to 30 minutes – or maybe they were simply tucked into a corner, away from the hustle-bustle foot traffic that a crowd of 48,900 people brings. Whatever the reason, these E3 participants get passed on, skimmed over, or ignored in favor of the bigger flashier games with the recognizable names. I realized, on that show floor, if we want new experiences, we have to step outside the comfortable, the mass-marketed. Take a chance once in a while. I will, because Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments convinced me to take one.
Failure is a great option
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments is, in many ways, a typical detective game. You look for clues, you interrogate witnesses, investigate suspects, and ultimately decide whodunnit. One feature separates it from much of the mystery pack, however: You can get things wrong. The game will let you make incorrect deductions, draw wrong conclusions and even send the wrong person to prison. The ability to fail is probably the game's best feature, and it's one I wish more detective games would embrace. It's easy to see why mystery games would be reluctant to let the player completely blow a case. For starters, there isn't much replay value in that type of gameplay, and slogging through a case all over again, hearing the same testimony or performing the same experiments, would lack a certain vivacity. People also process information differently, so what might be a stonkingly obvious connection to one person would be utterly baffling to the next; add differences in cultural references or knowledge into the mix, and the problems inherent in crafting a tightly-constructed detective narrative become obvious. Plus, people just plain don't like feeling dumb, and getting a big fat "WRONG, BUCKO!" after noodling your way through a case would understandably be off-putting for some players. It should be there anyway, though, because otherwise there's no real incentive to put your brain through its paces.
Farming Simulator devs go against the grain
When you think about games with an active modding community, you likely think of heavy-hitters like Skyrim, Counter-Strike and the like. Dig a little deeper and you'll strike the root of something else entirely: Farming Simulator. In an industry of space marines, monsters, aliens and assassins, the Farming Simulator games choose a different course – one drawn and directed not just by them, but their players.
Space Hulk: Deathwing screenshots make ugly look good
Developer StreumOn Studio has released the first screenshots from its upcoming Unreal Engine 4-powered shooter Space Hulk: Deathwing, and they're as delightfully grim as fans of the Warhammer 40K setting would hope. In this corner, we see a group of Space Marines, decked out in the finest armaments the future can imagine in preparation for a journey into the bombed out hull of a gigantic, derelict spacecraft (the titular Space Hulk). In the opposite corner, we see the Genestealers, a ravenous horde of alien beasts that exist purely to tear the aforementioned Space Marines into tiny, quivering bits. Think of this whole scenario as Aliens with even more hyper-masculinity and you've got the general idea. Though StreumOn is willing to share this handful of screenshots, that's all the developer is saying. The studio has yet to determine a release window for Space Hulk: Deathwing, nor has it determined which platforms the first-person shooter will eventually call home. [Image: Focus Home Interactive]
My dear Xbox One, you're also getting Sherlock in September
The clues all point to Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments coming to PS4, PS3, PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One in "early September." A Focus Home Interactive press release announcing the game's release window and new platform was the biggest giveaway, but our sleuthing intuition added up the rest. So, Frogwares' game is afoot, and this time it's drawing from the detective's depictions on TV. As designer Olga Chalovskaya told us last year, the new "Character Portrait" ability is inspired by BBC show Sherlock. The gentleman hero examines suspects with his keen eye and elucidates clues by scanning over particular features such as injuries, fancy clothing, and maybe the odd conspicuous blotch of ketchup. Always suspect the messy eaters. [Image: Focus Home Interactive]
Bound by Flame launch trailer takes us through the ire and maims
Bound by Flame is the latest, hottest new thing from Mars: War Logs and Of Orcs and Men developer Spiders, and a launch trailer heralds its arrival on PC and consoles this week. It's a combat-heavy action-RPG that pits players as a mercenary who gets possessed by a demon. The evil spirit bestows the unwitting soldier with special powers, like being able to wield a flaming sword at will - always handy. That's all well and good, but the demon also wants its influence to be total. It's up to players to choose by their actions whether to stay good and heroic, or to succumb to the evil within and let things get decidedly fiery. As for the combat, it's spread across two disciplines that the player can switch between on the fly, namely Warrior and Ranger. The Warrior is all about big, heavy two-handed attacks that deal high damage, while the Ranger is more fleet-footed with dual-wield daggers and stealth abilities. Thanks to the demon, players can supplement both methods of attack with pyromancer abilities, spanning from the burning blade to hurling great big fireballs about. Bound by Flame launches on PS4, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC on Friday, May 9. [Image: Focus Home Interactive]
Blood Bowl 2 resurfaces with new teaser
Orcs and humans battle it out in an in-game teaser for developer Cyanide Studios' Blood Bowl 2, coming to PC from publisher Focus Home Interactive. The brief footage is the first look at the game, which features a "brand new graphic engine," since being announced in June 2013. Blood Bowl, a video game series based on the Games Workshop board game property of the same name, is a comical spoof of American football featuring fantasy characters. Cyanide says the upcoming sequel is "more ambitious" than its previous efforts, adding a new single-player campaign and a multiplayer-based League mode, which gives players managerial control over their team, club and stadium. What are hotdogs in an orc-run stadium made of, do you suppose? Actually, never tell me the answer to that. Cyanide promises more information and footage of Blood Bowl 2 in the coming months. [Image: Cyanide Studios]
Motion-controlled rail shooter Blue Estate coming to Xbox One
HESAW, developer of the on-rails, motion-controlled shooter Blue Estate, is well aware that a Kinect is bundled in every Xbox One owner's purchase. The studio is bringing its adaptation of Viktor Kalvachev's comic book series to the gesture-friendly console, noting in a press release that they'll be using the "unprecedented accuracy and precision of Kinect" to let players rack up kill combos. News of the Xbox One port follows last month's reveal of a PS4 version, which will be controlled with the gyroscopic abilities of the Dualshock 4 instead instead of camera-tracked hand movements. Fans of the comics may be all set, but our own Jess Conditt wrote that the game has a "natural ability to turn sexiness into exploitation, humor into humiliation and my own enjoyment into exasperation." Beyond that, Jess' review found Blue Estate to be structurally troubled, wondering if the audience is to "forgive poor gameplay mechanics because the game is supposed to be crass." [Image: Focus Home Interactive]
Take a swing at this Bound by Flame PS4 gameplay trailer
Creepy-crawly developer Spiders issued a new combat trailer for its demonic hack-and-slash game, Bound by Flame. The trailer shows a variety of weapons being used to pulverize the undead enemies, such as the stealthy use of a crossbow and the pounding swings from a two-handed hammer. Published by Focus Home Interactive, Bound by Flame will launch May 9 on PS4, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. The game was first announced at Gamescom in August 2013 and has players controlling a mercenary possessed by a flame demon with the option of embracing the dark forces or rejecting them, with benefits to either decision. [Image: Spiders]
Warhammer board game Mordheim: City of the Damned coming to PC
The Warhammer universe will continue its reach through time and space with the upcoming PC adaptation of the 1999 board game, Mordheim: City of the Damned. While not set in the current timeline, Mordheim takes place in the Imperial city of ... well, Mordheim, which is part of the Warhammer universe. While the Warhammer universe regularly deals in galactic-scale conflict, Mordheim focuses on a smaller-scale skirmish within the city, where a fallen comet has turned the metropolis into a warzone. The game, developed by Rogue Factor and published by Focus Home Interactive, looks to keep the same tone of a more bite-sized battle. Gameplay will focus on turn-based tactics with a blend of RPG elements and unit customization, according to a press release. Mordheim is expected to let loose the hounds - and wererats - of war late this year. [Image: Focus Home Interactive]
A modern Sherlock Holmes in 'Crimes and Punishments' trailer
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments is taking a modern turn this time around, mixing in the awkward, introspective quirks of Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal and the macho-ness of Robert Downey Jr.'s take. Crimes and Punishments is due out in Q2 2014 for PS4, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
