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The Game Archaeologist and the Girdle of Anarchy: The history
"The future in your hands," Funcom promised gamers in the early days of the new decade. As the MMORPG genre slowly took shape and grew in popularity, game studios were still babes in the woods, feeling out this brave and complex new world without a standard handbook to guide them to success. EverQuest focused on large group content and raids, Dark Age of Camelot featured Realm vs. Realm conflict, and RuneScape brought the MMO to the browser. Everyone desperately hoped he had the next big hook that would reel in gamers by the thousands, especially Norwegian developer Funcom, which made headlines in 1999 with its highly acclaimed adventure The Longest Journey. Funcom took one look at the small but expanding MMO market, got together in a group huddle, and said, "You know what guys? This fantasy thing, it's everywhere. Let's do something different. Let's drill for sci-fi gold. And let's throw in robots, cuddly rodents, randomly generated missions and a bitter rivalry between factions. Geronimo!"* (*Quote fabricated by author.) And thus, almost a decade ago, Anarchy Online hit the industry like a sack of broken features. It wasn't the stellar debut Funcom desired, but the game endured and went on to carve itself out a workable plot of land. This month, The Game Archaeologist trades in his rugged leather attire for space armor and a high-powered laser rifle. The year is 29475, and the place is Babylon 5. Er, Rubi-Ka.
Visceral Games prepping DLC for Dante's Inferno
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Dante's Inferno executive producer Jonathan Knight responded curiously to a query about the possibility of upcoming adaptations of the other two installments in the Divine Comedy, Purgatorio and Paradiso. According to the Times, "Knight said his team was focused on the release of Dante's Inferno as well as on additional downloadable content for that game," though he later confessed "I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about that." We think Visceral's missing out on a great chance to kill two birds with one stone -- why not make Purgatorio and Paradiso DLC packs for Inferno? For instance, a few months after the game comes out, release a patch that makes the game's load times last for 49 days. Boom. Purgatorio in the bag. Update: As awesome as that sounds, it's more likely he was talking about the "Dark Forest" prequel DLC that will come bundled with the Limited Edition version of the game on PS3. We're still going to hold out hope, though!
Dante's Inferno special edition printing provides 'unique insight' into game's creation
These are dire times for ye olde book industry. Dire indeed. A special printing of Dante's Inferno -- like, the book -- hopes to capitalize on "the hottest game around." Due January 19 in book stores, this new edition from Del Rey (of the Random House empire) features an introduction by executive producer Jonathan Knight and 16 pages of colorful artwork from "the action adventure blockbuster that's rocking the video-game world." There's a 14th-century epic poem squeezed in there, too. Perhaps best used as a bargaining chip for kids desperate to convince their parents that they should be allowed to play a game based on a literary classic, however "mature" it might be, this damned tie-in is unlikely to ascend to the heavenly gates of the bestsellers list. Still, if Visceral Games' clone adaptation inspires even a single player to check out the original poem, then that would be a beautiful thing. Hell, it would be divine! %Gallery-82898%
Dante's Inferno 'Divine Edition' heading exclusively to PS3
EA has detailed a special edition of Dante's Inferno, titled the "Divine Edition," which is coming exclusively to the PlayStation 3 next February. For the same $60 the Xbox 360 version costs, EA will give you the "special edition," which includes a developer commentary, a Wayne Barlowe "digital art book," the game's soundtrack, and ... wait for it ... a digitized "complete Longfellow translation of Dante Alighieri's Inferno." That's right, folks -- you can read the classic work on the same system that's being used to tear it apart. The demo is currently available on the PlayStation Network and will land on Xbox Live on December 24th. %Gallery-45836%
Reading "The Divine Comedy" ... or playing PSP?
This is certainly one of the most interesting marketing campaigns we've seen in some time. Sony's Italian division has been distributing fake hands that appear to be holding a copy of The Divine Comedy. However, when one flips the fake hands around, one can see instructions on how to play a PSP in class, while looking like a diligent student. We doubt the ploy will work too well ... but it's great to see Sony come up with an ingenious way of promoting PSP play amongst the younger crowd.
