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'Drug Wars' offers fresh start for Merchants of Brooklyn
If people can clean their hands with a simple name change, then why can't games? Paleo Entertainment recently re-dubbed its bargain-priced shooter, Merchants of Brooklyn, as "Drug Wars." Currently exclusive to Steam, Merchants of Brooklyn suffered an embarrassing release in mid-March when an alpha version was mistakenly sold in place of the final code and apparently failed to recover any credibility. Its Metacritic score of "36" ranks near the bottom of all 2009 games to date. "Drug Wars," on the other hand, ranks decidedly better with a "No Score Yet" rating.The new name wasn't exactly pulled from thin air (well, at least not this time), as "Drug Wars" was adopted from last month's free, beta-release multiplayer update by the same name. Paleo is clearly shifting focus away from the original single-player campaign -- which has since been "reworked" -- and toward the Drug Wars multiplayer mode. Of course, the fresh start also means building a player base from scratch. Currently, we count three -- and a fourth player who "can't find it to play it." Sounds like this is one of those cold kinda wars, eh?Keep that fire burning, Mr. Elite Neanderthal Fighter. Keep that fire burning.
Oops! Unfinished Merchants of Brooklyn hits Steam
The stylized violence of Paleo Entertainment's debut FPS effort, the CryEngine 2-based Merchants of Brooklyn, hit Steam yesterday with plenty of blood, guts -- and bugs. Lots and lots of bugs, like the kind you'd find by cracking open a Brooklyn sewer drain. That's because the version of the game delivered by the service was actually an early alpha build. Ouch.It naturally didn't take long for Steam's forums to boil over with the rage of purchasers who felt they'd just been had by the Merchants. Paleo later fessed up via its forums, saying that, "Unfortunately, the incorrect version went up on Steam. The Alpha version was released initially, this has been corrected." But has it?Giant Bomb reports that, after taking Paleo's advice and letting the "correct" version download, the game was still rife with glitches. We've contacted the publisher, but our request for comment has yet to be returned.[Update: We heard back from Paleo Entertainment's reps, who sent along the following statement on the mix-up: "There was an official statement that confirmed an incorrect, a.k.a. early build, was initially released but was quickly rectified. Paleo apologized for the inconvenience but took swift matters to work with Valve to get the correct version up so there should be no issues. The Paleo team are very proud of their first product, and are committed to sharing more content (features) and correcting any issues that arise."][Via Shacknews]
CES 2009: Hands on Paleo Entertainment's Merchants of Brooklyn
There was one gaming title at CES that wasn't produced by Sony, Capcom, Microsoft or Activision, that was Paleo Entertainment's Merchants of Brooklyn. Here's an excerpt from their presser: "You take the role of an elite neanderthal fighter with a taste for blood. Having had your arm unwillingly detached from your body courtesy of a chainsaw, your new prototype biomechanical arm transforms into different twisted and brutal weaponry to aid you in the slaughter." So, does this sound like Bionic Commando meets The Flintstones?There's not much to see right now, but the level we played was pretty fragtastic and it's rendered in a cell-shaded art style that we don't see enough of. It's running on Crytek's CryEngine 2, and should be out for the PC/Xbox 360/PS3 set later this year. There wasn't enough of the game in the demo to get a feeling for what it'll become, but being able to pick up your enemies body parts and charge them up to toss grenade-style was fun. If a caveman merged with tech is your dream come true, you won't have to wait much longer. In fact, you can check out the trailer after the break!%Gallery-41547%
CES 2009: The Gaming Showcase of Mystery
Imagine, if you will, that all of CES (which includes over 130,000 attendees) has been shrunk down to a scale model roughly the size of a football field. Or better yet, the map room in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Off in the far corner, there's an extremely small, tiny, miniscule hut. Way back behind the big temples and buildings and such. See it? Probably not. Well, there's no headpiece to the Staff of Ra to illuminate it, but that's representative of the "Gaming Showcase" at CES. The real thing is off the beaten path, and none of the people staffing the information booths had heard of it. They kept sending us in endless loops back to the Hilton, where it most definitely is not located. In fact, we saw so much of the Hilton (which is now sadly missing the defunct Star Trek: The Experience) that we memorized the entire layout of the place. Finally, after throwing away all of our maps and tosing caution to the winds, we accidentally stumbled across it in the South Hall. It was full of wholesalers, the ever present Entropia Universe, Boomchairs, third-party peripheral accesory makers, headphone manufacturers, and a very sad dearth of games. In fact, we only saw one game being shown off. It's called Merchants of Brooklyn from Paleo Entertainment, so check back for a writeup on it shortly. Until then, enjoy the Gaming Showcase gallery below, and pray for us to unearth another secret room contaning the Ark of the Covenant of gaming. Or some energy drinks and granola bars.%Gallery-41441%
