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Cliff Bleszinski quits Epic Games, leaves us with an Unreal feeling
Fall must be the season for sea changes in the game industry. Just weeks after BioWare's founders retired, key Epic Games veteran and Design Director Cliff Bleszinski (known to many as just CliffyB) is hanging up his hat. He simply describes it as taking a "much needed break," which makes sense when you see his development experience: he joined Epic's crew with Dare to Dream Volume One in 1993 and has nurtured virtually every major (and often minor) game franchise at the company since, including the Jazz Jackrabbit platformers, untold numbers of games in the Unreal line and most recently the Gears of War series. Bleszinski hasn't said where he's headed next, although it's hard to imagine him switching professions like the two BioWare doctors -- for many, he's synonymous with certain eras of first- and third-person shooters. Wherever he goes, we wish him the best of success.
New Beck songs get visualized, inspire musical platforming
Beck's latest album won't debut on the shelves of your local brick-and-mortar retailer. Instead, Cities, as its called, will roll out on Sound Shapes for the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita. The platformer's song-inspired stages transform the record's three tunes, Cities, Touch the People and Spiral Staircase, into interactive music videos, with original art and lyrics inserted into the environment. If traipsing through the included soundscapes -- not all of which are Beck-centric -- isn't enough to please, the developers are gifting gamers with the tools needed to build levels of their own. As a cross-play game, the $14.99 price tag nets both the console and portable versions of the downloadable title. Sound Shape won't hit digital shelves until August 7th, but you can catch a sneak peak (and a quick listen) after the break.
Windows XP partially re-created in LittleBigPlanet 2, ups the stakes for gamer ambitiousness (video)
We've seen an CHIP-8 emulator and even a virtual CPU built inside games, but we've yet to encounter a game recreation of Windows. Thanks to a quartet of industrious LittleBigPlanet 2 beta players, though, we can now finally check that off in our copy of 100 Geeky Projects You Must Witness Before Dying. As the video above shows, major Windows functions they've emulated to date include a working start menu and mouse cursor, multiplayer support for a variety of bloatware games, and even the good ole' blue screen of death. That's pretty impressive stuff from an ambitious platforming title that won't officially ship until mid-January. Needless to say, once the full version arrives, we expect to see a working copy of Lion running stat. You heard us folks -- we're setting the bar that high.
TUAW's Daily App: Cookie Rush
Cookie Rush is an interesting title. The goal is to keep some villagers away from a giant rolling cookie, but instead of guiding them directly, you control them by placing jump arrows in their way -- it's kind of like a group Canabalt where you're controlling the environment rather than the character. Things get frantic quickly. As you go along, you have to dodge gaps and try to get your villagers up to rescue vehicles, there are dogs to dodge, and there are bad guys that you don't want jumping up with the rest of your folks. I like Cookie Rush. It's pretty original (given that the main villain is a gigantic rolling cookie, it pretty much has to be), and it's worth a shot if you like arcade-style platformers. It's too bad there's no free version to try, and if you're on the fence, you might want to wait for a lite version to come along. But OpenFeint achievements and leaderboards add some fun functionality for just US$0.99. If the idea of the gameplay appeals, it's worth a look.
PyWeek game challenge results announced, winners include a seahorse
The results of the latest PyWeek game design challenge have been released! Several dozen games were submitted to the latest competition, all with the theme of "the only way is up". Winners were announced in both individual and team entries and games are available to download from the PyWeek website.Winning entry Which way is up?, a puzzle/platformer game by Hectigo, uses levers to rotate the game world as you pick your way through blocks and enemies. The top team game, Barbie Seahorse Adventures, doesn't seem to involve plastic female body parts at all. Instead, it's a great looking 2D platformer where you play a seahorse trying to reach the moon.Also worth checking out is Trip on the Funny Boat, an arcade-style game where you pilot a ship with a cannon over treacherous waters.
TY the Tasmanian Tiger confirmed for Wii
Because somebody out there has to care. In a follow-up interview to one conducted way back in February, Aussie developer Krome Studios confirms that their furry friend from down under will indeed make an appearance on Nintendo's next console. After commenting on the studio's current projects, Konami's Hellboy and The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning, the tricky-to-pronounce Steve Stamatidiadis notes that "the Wii is the perfect platform for a TY game and you can bet your booties that we'll be doing one down the track."Since our considerably valued booties are on the line, we'd also wager that the Wii version of TY the Tasmanian Tiger will involve chucking the wiimote like a boomerang in order to defeat at least one evil robot kangaroo. With a talking animal jumping over platforms and such, the game will no doubt be a veritable explosion of creativity (and other Australian stereotypes). Somebody can't wait.[Thanks saigon!]
