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App review: Infinity Blade (iPhone)
Aww, would you look at that, the iPhone's trying to play big boy games! Following in the well received footsteps of Rage HD, today marks the debut of Infinity Blade, the second in what's hopefully a wave of gorgeous-looking iOS games boasting advanced 3D graphics, if not 3D gameplay. Epic Games has put aside the chainsaw-equipped projectile weaponry of its wildly successful Gears of War console series to deliver the first mobile game built around its Unreal Engine 3. You won't be surprised to hear that it's utterly delicious to look at, and the visuals certainly helped transport us to this alien realm of swords, axes, shields, and magical rings -- where body armor is optional, but helmets apparently are not. Jump past the break to see this visual feast in motion and to soak up some more of our impressions. %Gallery-110231%
Infinity Blade review: Greatness cut down to size
I dodge, since even my hefty shield can't save me from a gorgeously rendered mechanical titan and his crushing boot. I curse myself for not wearing my magical healing ring. It was stupid, but I wanted the experience point from leveling up my weaker fire ring. I slash at the titan's hammer, trying to match the angle of his swing so I can successfully parry and hit him with a flurry of blows from my poison-tipped blade. I pull it off and move in for the kill, leaping skyward, the sun glinting off my armor as I bury the sword in the monster's metallic head. This is Infinity Blade. And it's all happening on my iPhone. %Gallery-108468%
iOS stunner Infinity Blade priced, plunging into App Store on Dec. 9
Shadow Complex developer Chair Entertainment is delivering its first stab at games for Apple's iOS, the sharp-looking Infinity Blade, on December 9. The Unreal Engine-powered action-RPG will be a universal app for iPhone 3GS / 3rd-gen iPod Touch forward and iPad, priced at $5.99.
Infinity Blade trailer takes Epic stab at knight fights
Out of the 43 bajillion or so games on the App Store, we can't say we've ever come across one that features as startlingly rendered an environment as the Unreal Engine 3-powered castle in Infinity Blade. Of course, sight seeing is not the reason to load up this Retina Display showcase on your iOS device of the moment -- stabbing the crap out of giant monster bosses is! How predictably Epic is that? GameTrailers has posted the debut trailer for Infinity Blade -- "coming soon" to iPhone 4, iPad and iPod Touch. Check it out after the break.
Project Sword becomes Infinity Blade, coming to iThings this holiday
Project Sword, the technologically impressive game you've been using to show off your new iPhone 4 to friends, family and Charlie Chaplin, is set to become a full game this holiday. Dubbed "Infinity Blade," the Chair-developed "action-RPG sword fighting adventure" will be available for iPhone 4, iPad and iPod Touch. Infinity Blade will feature single-player battles within ye olde castle environments and will gradually grant you experience, improved stats and more powerful items. It will be expanded to support a multiplayer mode (and Game Center) via free updates after launch. According to Epic Games, the Unreal Engine 3-powered demo landed in the hands of over one million people, lured in by the promise of what the company calls "triple-A mobile gaming." How much are people willing to pay for triple-A mobile gaming? Epic has yet to announce a price, but it'll have to be careful not to build a costly moat around its spot on the App Store. %Gallery-106517%
Epic's Mike Capps talks about Epic Citadel and the future of iOS gaming
Gamasutra cornered Epic Games' Mike Capps (he of the very impressive Epic Citadel demo yesterday at the Apple special event), and Capps confirms that what you see running on your iPhone is the real deal -- Unreal Engine 3, with all of the bells and whistles that it has on the major HD consoles. The actual game that Project Sword will become is being designed by Chair (which is the same group that did the popular Shadow Complex game for Xbox 360), and we'll see the full project soon. Capps also confirms that UE 3 needs at least an iPhone 3GS to run, but he says that in terms of hardware, Apple's devices are right where they need to be. High-resolution textures are an issue (you can't install a 15gb game on an 16gb portable device), but the memory and speed are actually there, says Capps. "You've got 16 gigs of flash memory," he says, "which is way better, faster memory than what most people have generally on a home PC. So that stuff works really well." The biggest issue holding handheld gaming back is larger environments, but game developers are getting better and better at designing worlds that render quickly and well to all kinds of platforms. And Capps looks into the future, and sees even more possibilities for Apple and their product lines. "It doesn't take a whole lot of leaps of faith to say, 'Right now, I can display from my iPad to my Apple TV on a big screen TV.' How far away are we from 'that's my game console, and it's displaying wirelessly to my television set?' It's not far away." That's kind of a trippy thought -- that Apple had to finally move away from the Mac to earn a larger foothold in gaming. It's very heartening, as a gamer and an Apple fan, to hear Capps as excited as he is about the possibilities for iOS and the App Store. [via Joystiq[
Epic talks Project Sword, Unreal Engine on iPhone, and Apple TV as a game console
Following yesterday's dramatic announcement of Project Sword for iOS -- and the dramatic release of the free Epic Citadel tech demo -- Gamasutra spoke to Epic's Mike Capps about the games and the platform. Capps said that putting Unreal Engine 3 content on iPhone wasn't as hard as it seemed, thanks to the device's storage space that can come in handy for textures. "You've got 16 gigs of flash memory, which is way better, faster memory than what most people have generally on a home PC," he said. "So that stuff works really well. It's the big environments that get really complicated on the rendering tools for iPhone. But yeah, we've got some tricks for it." Capps has his eyes on the future of the platform, both for Epic's own games and licensees. "We've got a few of our licensees using [the iOS tools for UE3] now, who've been testing it with us. So we'll roll it out to existing licensees and then start opening up. I think [Epic VP] Mark Rein has a big plan for how they're going to roll it out and make sure everybody's using it." Capps also thinks there's potential to turn the new Apple TV into a game console of sorts. "... I can't wait to throw our engineers at it and see if we can get the latency we need to be able to play a game interactively over that wireless link to the Apple TV," he said. "I sure hope so."%Gallery-101015%
GDC: 'Designing Shadow Complex' (or: zig when they zag)
While Metroid director Yoshio Sakamoto may not have played Shadow Complex, the XBLA darling's creators definitely played Metroid. During a panel titled "Designing Shadow Complex," Chair Entertainment Creative Director Donald Mustard encouraged the audience of prospective downloadable game makers to embrace genre limitations. "So, genre is one of your limitations because you aren't just competing against other games that are released in the downloadable space," Mustard said, pacing across the stage. "You really are competing against Gears of War, Mass Effect 2, Uncharted 2. That is the real competition and you need to find a way to differentiate yourself from those kinds of games. And that is an awesome opportunity." For Mustard, that meant moving "orthogonally" from what the "big $60 retail games" are doing. Mustard said, "For us, what that ultimately meant is target an old and abandoned genre. Which to us was kind of this Metroidvania side scroller adventure genre that had been abandoned. No one was making games in this genre. And we said, 'What if we took that genre and fused that with some of the modern sensibilities that had come out; some of the modern ideas of AI and physics and graphics? That would be a really cool combination.'
Joystiq's Top 10 of 2009: Shadow Complex
In many ways, Shadow Complex finds itself in similar standing as Rock Band and Guitar Hero; it's a style of game Konami has left for its competitors to refine and perfect. Taking its cues from the Metroids and Castlevanias of the world, the Xbox Live Arcade-exclusive title was able to stand out in 2009, regardless of its forgettable storyline and poorly constructed characters. As an overall experience, Shadow Complex was the best downloadable experience of 2009 -- and one of the year's overall best, for that matter. Shadow Complex is a prime example of a developer -- in this case, Chair -- designing a game best suited for its platform and skyrocketing past expectations. It proves that 2D exploration and adventure can still have a meaningful impact if approached correctly. Sadly, Konami has decided against bringing new Castlevania experiences of this style to consoles and only now (since 2004's Metroid: Zero Mission) has Nintendo decided to return Samus closer to her roots in the upcoming Metroid: Other M (another game revealed at E3 2009). It's no surprise that Shadow Complex resonated with us (hell, we dedicated quite a bit of time to the game), and while we weren't left mouth-agape at its originality, the entire experience left us craving more. We have yet to satisfy that craving, as no additional content has been delivered for the game since its August 19, 2009 debut. Beyond its excellent blend of shooting and platforming, and its tremendous value (only $15!), Shadow Complex stands out as one of the best experiences we've had all year. It simultaneously resurrected our love of the 2D exploration genre and our inner speedrun freak, and is a testament to the maturity of the download space on consoles within the last few years. We hope the franchise will be with us for the long haul. << Back(8) | Comment | 6. Post Modern Warfare >>
Microsoft lists more jobs for Project Natal, 343 Industries; hiring Shadow Complex, Gears of War franchises lead
With Shadow Complex setting very specific week-one sales records on XBLA, Epic and Chair would be kind of nuts to not consider a sequel. One job listing out of a recent crop on Microsoft's employment boards seems to out that likely scenario, implying that Shadow Complex is a bona fide franchise for Microsoft Game Studios and Epic. Said listing specifically calls for a Lead Producer to "lead the publishing side of games made by Epic: Gears of War and Shadow Complex." Additionally, Microsoft appears to be looking for more able bodies to join its growing pool of Project Natal and 343 Industries employees. Existing job listings call for everything from designers to engineers to even a few artists. Sadly, the company isn't looking for MJOLNIR armor models yet, but just in case, Microsoft, you know how to reach us. [Via Develop]
XBLA Summer of Arcade sales grow 200%
Microsoft had a good summer, according to the company's summary of Xbox Live events. 1 vs. 100 reached nearly 3 million gamers during its beta season by Microsoft's estimates, and the Summer of Arcade Xbox Live Arcade promotion enjoyed a reported 200 percent growth in revenue over last year's sales. While Microsoft has already relished in Metroidvania success, a press release claims that Trials HD and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 also performed well in first-week sales; and both titles join Shadow Complex in the top five bestselling week-one XBLA games of all time. Sales were no doubt boosted by a cloudy economy that kept folks indoors and looking for inexpensive entertainment. Microsoft capitalized, too, by raising the average price of its Summer of Arcade titles.During last year's promotion, three of the five Summer of Arcade games were priced at $10, but this year, only two of the five were $10 -- the other three costing $15 apiece. (It's unclear if Microsoft counts Battlefield 1943's sales toward revenue growth; the $15 title was not technically part of Summer of Arcade this year.) Microsoft also saw success in its bold, new free entertainment department. 1 vs. 100 averaged more than half a million users during each of the game show's live sessions. According to Microsoft, the game's near "three-million" downloads within its 13-week availability places 1 vs. 100 within the top ten downloads in Xbox Live history. If we've learned anything on this gloomy fall morning, it's that people like summer gaming and Microsoft has way too many "top" lists cluttering up its offices.
Shadow Complex cheaters will have scores deleted, Gamerscore reset
Chair Entertainment is ready to lay the smack down on Shadow Complex cheaters. Major Nelson sends word that Microsoft will take action this week against those "verified as cheaters," deleting their records from the Shadow Complex leaderboards, as well as resetting their associated accounts' Gamerscore. Worse still, said accounts will be branded on Xbox.com (and dashboard) as belonging to cheaters.For those looking to brush up on what constitutes cheating on Xbox Live, feel free to review Microsoft's policy on "Gamerscore corrections." Of course, if you're a cheater, then you probably already know.
Shadow Complex sets week-one sales record
That's, um, sales of single-player games (multiplayer ones don't count!). And, uh, you know, we're just talking about Xbox Live Arcade titles -- not that clarifying this awfully specific sales record is an attempt to take away from the much-deserved success of Chair's excellent Shadow Complex or the 200,000-plus downloaders (much of the Joystiq staff included) who didn't wait long to cash in 1200. Still, we're not going to label Shadow Complex's sales Achievement® (as Microsoft does) the "New Era of Downloadable Games." It takes far too much effort to produce a decent Metroidvania experience than it does a mediocre dual-stick shooter, after all. We will, however, join in on the not-so-subtle peer pressuring. Seriously, you still haven't purchased Shadow Complex? Shame on you. (So ... just direct deposit that check, cool? Thanks Microsoft!) %Gallery-64709%
Xbox Live Top 10 dominated by Shadow Complex, CoD: World at War
Major Nelson has revealed the latest figures for Xbox Live activity, which once again sees Call of Duty: World at War being the most played Xbox 360 Live title. That's not to say it's all business as usual, as the Lost Planet 2 co-op demo managed to claw its way onto the list, along with a new Xbox Live Arcade pair, Shadow Complex and Trials HD.Both titles made it onto the top two spots on XBLA's most played list, with Chair's Metroid-inspired adventure making its debut in first place. The remainder is comprised of usual suspects Battlefield 1943, Marvel vs Capcom 2 and 'Splosion Man.
Community teamwork solves Shadow Complex speed run mystery
For fans of speed runs, Shadow Complex housed a clever secret that allows gamers to skip most of the game and complete it in record time. Surrounding the mystery was knowledge that players are able to obtain the Foam ability within the first 15 minutes of gameplay. Over the last few days (since its August 19 release), gamers across multiple message boards compiled data and quotes, and tried brilliant ideas to crack the code. And they blew it wide open. If a certain number of tasks are completed within a short time frame, gamers are able to bypass an entire section of the game, landing them within a few rooms of the Foam ability.Spoiler Warning! YouTube user Nogarda1 showcases the steps needed to cleverly infiltrate the enemy base after the break.
Spoiler Warning: Shadow Complex secrets and strategies
With Shadow Complex closing out the second Summer of Arcade today, the Joystiq crew has been hard at work compiling a series of videos and images to help would-be explorers unlock the secrets of Chair Entertainment's latest adventure. Of course (as the headline would indicate) this feature is filled to the brim with spoilers and strategies necessary to unlock some of Shadow Complex's many secrets. If you're looking for a Shadow Complex news fix, this isn't the feature for you ... but if you want to know where (and how) to find most of the game's hidden gems, jump in. %Gallery-64709%
Review: Shadow Complex (XBLA)
Let's get this out of the way: You'll need to forgive Shadow Complex its generic trappings. For one of the most hyped elements of the production, author Orson Scott Card's contributions are underwhelming. The hero (everyman Jason Fleming but let's call him ... Nathan Bourne) and the story are both entirely forgettable; however, the real star of the game comes from the other half of this collaboration: the gameplay. Put simply, Shadow Complex is the easiest Xbox Live Arcade recommendation I can make and one of the best games of the year. %Gallery-64709%
Shadow Complex Achievements arrive with a handful of screens, new trailer
Will Shadow Complex be this year's Bionic Commando: Rearmed -- ya know, minus all that direct nostalgia? Between the 2D platforming, arsenal of weapons, huge bosses, and frosted camera lens, it's getting harder and harder for us not to draw the comparison. One thing the new gameplay you see above features that BC:R lacked? Jumping! (Thankfully!) An Achievement for melee kills (find the whole list after the break) helps to assuage our concerns of, well, not having a robot arm -- though anyone with half a brain knows that third-party human being parts beat out melee weapons every time. Hopefully the extra $5 for Shadow Complex over BC:R means those weapons are really sharp when you check them out on August 19. %Gallery-68437%
Shadow Complex script penned by comic book scribe Peter David
Epic Games and Microsoft Game Studios are ramping up for the impending release of Chair Entertainment's Shadow Complex on XBLA, today revealing that the game's script was written by Eisner Award winning author Peter David. David has worked on various comic book titles for numerous imprints, but is probably best known for his run on The Incredible Hulk. He currently writes She-Hulk and X-Factor for Marvel. The script for Shadow Complex is adapted from work by sci-fi author and visionary Orson Scott Card, whose 2006 novel, Empire, is based on the game's universe and an original concept by game designer Donald Mustard. David has written a story that parallels the events of the novel, which itself focuses on a future American civil war. We recently saw the game in action and wrote up our impressions. David, Mustard and Epic's Cliff Bleszinski will be on-hand at next week's San Diego Comic-Con to promote the game, which hits the Xbox Live Marketplace on August 19.
Impressions: Shadow Complex
With just a little more than a month to go before the game hits the Xbox Live Marketplace, today we got a look at more of Chair Entertainment and Epic Games' love letter to Super Metroid, a.k.a Shadow Complex. We'd journeyed through some of the same in-game territory during E3, but this latest glimpse was geared more towards getting into gameplay we didn't really get a good look at then. For starters, we witnessed several nods to the stealth-oriented gameplay of Metal Gear Solid (the game also draws on Kojima's classic series for artistic inspiration). In one area, designer Donald Mustard -- an avid fan of the 2D action-adventure who hopes his game kick-starts a new trend among his fellow developers -- guided his hero past moving floodlights and security cameras which, if not avoided, would have locked down the area requiring players to find an alternate path through. Stealth kills have also made their way into the game and even work on smaller robots, who, like human enemies, are fair game as long as players aren't in their line of sight. %Gallery-64709%
