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Award-winning RPG 'Disco Elysium' is coming to Nintendo Switch
Games developer ZA/UM has already confirmed that its hugely popular detective RPG Disco Elysium is coming to PSA and Xbox One this year — now it’s revealed it’s heading to Switch, too.
CrowdSolve wants to turn amateurs into true detectives
There are libraries full of stories featuring amateur detectives showing police officers how to do their job. Hell, the Serial podcast has shown what one journalist can uncover even when investigating a murder that's more than a decade old. If you've ever thought that you'd fancy joining the ranks of Sarah Koenig, Sherlock Holmes and Jessica Fletcher, then a new project is looking to recruit you.
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.
Murdered: Soul Suspect arriving June 3, three days later in Europe
Square Enix's haunting detective game Murdered: Soul Suspect will launch June 3 in North America, and will arrive in Europe and other PAL regions on June 6. The game will launch simultaneously on five platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Murdered: Soul Suspect was originally planned to launch earlier this year before being pushed past March. Developed by Airtight Games, the studio behind Dark Void and Quantum Conundrum as well as funky Ouya roguelike Soul Fjord, the game places players in the gumshoes of Ronan O'Connor, a detective that sets out to find his own killer. The sort-of-dead O'Connor has the ability to possess others, reading their minds and looking through their eyes without being noticed. [Image: Square Enix]
Pokemon detective game with blue, talking Pikachu due in 2015
The Pokemon Company is working on a 3DS detective game with Pikachu as your partner, due out in 2015. The game was outed on Japanese channel NHK, in a program called The Professionals highlighting Pokemon CEO Tsunekaz Ishihara, as spotted by Serebii. The detective game features a rare Pikachu as the enemy, but the development team "can't see people liking it," the site says. It also stars a blue Pikachu that talks, and Pikachu is being developed with motion capture and facial recognition software. NHK posted an ad for The Professionals on October 22, showing the detective game and a clip of a motion-captured Pikachu that will haunt our quiet nights alone for years to come. Both bits were graciously giffed by TinyCartridge, if this year's haunted houses just aren't doing it for you. Pikablu, anyone?
New Sherlock Holmes game announced, uses Unreal Engine 3
Focus Home Interactive recently announced a new game in the Sherlock Holmes series called Crimes & Punishments. In development by Frogwares, the adventure game will feature eight cases in which players will guide Holmes through "important moral choices instead of simply enforcing justice by the book."Frogwares ditched its previous Sherlock Holmes engine in favor of Unreal Engine 3 for this game, and opted for a more modern-looking Holmes, seen above. Crimes & Punishments will launch on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime in 2013. Yes, even the release date is a mystery. %Gallery-177885%
Fei Lam of WhiteiPhone4Now reveals how Apple found him
Earlier today we told you how Apple's legal team finally caught up with Fei Lam, the teenager from New York who was selling white iPhone 4 conversion kits, and filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against him. Now new information about the whole ordeal has emerged including how exactly Apple found him. In an interview with Fast Company, Lam says that he first found out about the lawsuit when he received an email from Fast Company. Lam also says that, contrary to reports, he did not make US$130,000 for the sales of white iPhone parts. He is apparently meeting with Apple's lawyers within the next month to discuss the lawsuit and any legal repercussions, however Lam will not be represented by a lawyer as he doesn't have the funds to cover one. An earlier report by Fast Company also noted that Apple only tracked Lam down after hiring a private investigator that worked for an anti-counterfeit and trademark protection firm. Looks like when it comes to Apple, you can't remain on the lam forever*. *I'm going to apologize ahead of time for the worst pun ever.
New L.A. Noire case info and screens keep the trail hot
Stepping into April means we're one month closer to L.A. Noire's May release, but it's not enough. We just can't wait to hit the streets of 1940s Los Angeles as a hard-boiled beat cop, and this update from the official Rockstar blog isn't helping. Not only are there new screens to see, but we get details on two early cases in the game. One's a standard "robbery in progress" call tasking you with delivering a bit of shotgun justice to the local grocer, and the other one's a crime scene investigation, where you've got to hunt for a murder weapon in the dark. Rockstar also says that walking the beat and solving these crimes is "how you pay your dues" as a uniformed officer, so not only are you out to right wrongs, but you're trying to impress the higher-ups and make detective as well. It just sounds like too much fun -- come on April showers, bring us a new Rockstar game already!%Gallery-120245%
L.A. Noire isn't your 'average adventure game'
We don't yet know precisely what to make of Rockstar's upcoming L.A. Noire (not that that's necessarily a bad thing), but after poring over a new Edge piece on the game, we think we may be getting a clearer picture. "With traditional adventure games, everything is based on what the designer wants you to figure out," Jeronimo Barrera, VP of product development at Rockstar, told the publication. "We've kind of gone for a different approach, which is more like real-world detective work." Developer Team Bondi isn't coming right out and putting it this way, but L.A. Noire sounds like a new genre, caught halfway between the open-world action of a Grand Theft Auto and the brainteaser pacing of a classic adventure game. Could we be witnessing the birth of the true "detective" game? Figure that one out.
Disney Guilty Party: A Wii detective game from Wideload
Click to investigate What's Disney doing with Wideload Games, the development studio it acquired last year? It's going to take some detective work to find out. No, really, if you want to play through Disney Guilty Party, the new game from Wideload, you'll have to do some sleuthing. Because it's a detective game, you see. Never mind. Disney Guilty Party is slated for release in the second half of 2010. %Gallery-86428%
MillionHeir breaks out the puns
French site Wiiz has several screenshots of Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir, Big Fish Games' new detective adventure game and leading candidate for most groan-worthy pun-based title of 2008.As we know next to nothing about the game (typically for a Nintendo-published title, little has been revealed, despite its release date of September 8th being really close), these allowed us to indulge in some detective work of our own. Grabbing our deerstalker and magnifying glass, we discovered that the game's shameless punnery extends to the characters (see: Cole Minor, a gem prospector), and that the DS's microphone will come into use. Whether you're for or against implementing the mic in games, it doesn't look as though developers are ready to give up on it yet.Check past the break for more shots.
Nancy Drew finds clues on the Wii
The fact that three PC-to-Wii adventure games were announced in one week is nothing short of crazy, but as adventure game junkies, we won't complain. The more that come along, the more likely at least one will be good and sate our thirst for point-and-click, right? Right? This time Nancy Drew will be sleuthing her way onto the Wii in a port of The White Wolf of Icicle Creek. The same developer that handled the PC version (Her Interactive) will be porting this one, unlike the DS games which were made by Gorilla Systems. While the original didn't blow anyone's socks off their feet, it did get respectable reviews. Let's just hope for some refined point-and-click goodness with the Wiimote, and we should be all set.[Via GoNintendo]
Visual evidence of Success's detective games
When we heard that Success Corp. was creating a series of new detective adventure games, we expected noir-ish, gritty police procedural adventures, like Saburo Jinguuji or something. How wrong we were! Neither of the new games in the series fit that description. Not only that, the two games couldn't be more dissimilar from each other! If they weren't both part of the Deka series and weren't coming out on the same day, there'd be no reason to talk about them at the same time. We learned titles and vague genre descriptions yesterday, but the screens still manage to hold surprises.Otoshi Kenji: Keiji-san, Watashi ga Yarimashita (not sure, but something like Detective: I did it!) is a detective adventure game, but with a vintage anime style (think Lupin the Third-era) Yajuukeiji: Tokyo Doujitahatsu Terror Wo Chinatsuseyo (something like Beast Detective: Stop Mass Terrorism in Tokyo!) is not just an "action game" -- it's a side-scrolling brawler! You stop terrorism by kicking and shooting dudes! Read: Otoshi Kenji: Keiji-San, Watashi ga YarimashitaRead: Yajuukeiji: Tokyo Doujitahatsu Terror Wo Chinatsuseyo
Case solved! Success Corp.'s detective games revealed
Spencer at Siliconera recently donned his deerstalker and set about discovering the real identity of those mysterious detective games from Success Corp. that left us confounded last month. And no, they don't involve Scooby Doo (some would say that's a good thing).Instead, the two have been outed as Yajuukeiji: Tokyo Doujitahatsu Terror Wo Chinatsuseyo and Otoshi Kenji: Keiji-San, Watashi ga Yarimashita, both of which we are immensely looking forward to typing out again. Yajuukeiji: Tokyo Doujitah The former is about terrorism in Tokyo, and apparently focuses on action, while the latter is an adventure title.So there we go: two more detective games to add to this burgeoning genre. And to think they'd have got away with it, if it weren't for those pesky kids! Okay, that's probably quite enough Scooby Doo references for this week. Both of these hit Japan on May 15th, which is when we'll start to bleat for localized versions.
Detecting. It's what we do.
Or rather, it's what we could be doing more of in the future. That's because Success Corp., maker of Touch Detective and Touch Detective 2 1/2, has updated its site with two new detective games for the DS. With both projects currently listed under the name of "Keiji," we're at a loss as to what these could be.Siliconera's Spencer Yip speculates that additional entries in the Touch Detective series are doubtful, but that's fine with us. We'd just appreciate more games in the hardboiled vein of Hotel Dusk: Room 215, or Aksys' forthcoming localization of Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles.
Detective Conan 2 puzzles fail to leave us puzzled
These screenshots from the Detective Conan follow-up (full title: Detective Conan Kieta Hakase to Machigai Sagashi no Tou) transport us back to a less complicated age, when our younger selves would fill idle afternoons with "Spot the Difference" puzzles. Hence, we really like the concept behind this game -- identifying inconsistencies between two images -- but there's just one problem: these puzzles look ridiculously easy.We appreciate that only so much detail can be squeezed into the DS's dainty screens, but hopefully the difficulty will be ramped up further on in the game.Sleuth your way past the break for a further five shots.
Milk does a body horrifying in Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro
Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro ("Private Evil-Eye Nogami Neuro") is about a mystery-eating demon who acts on Earth through a high-school girl who works as a detective (with Neuro behind the scenes doing the real detective work). Marvelous Interactive is bringing the anime and manga property to the DS as an adventure game.A supernatural-themed detective adventure game sounds great to us even if it is a manga license. We're fans of solving murder cases on the DS! But what doesn't sound -- or look -- great to us is this freaky cow thing. Found in what appears to be a journal page about a case, this is a milk container whose cow mascot has come to life and started emerging into three dimensions. We don't know why a tiny, big-headed cow should freak us out so much, especially since cows never do anything, but suffice it to say that we've sacrificed the next couple of nights of sleep for this post.Oh, we forgot to mention: Neuro's assistant Yako, in addition to a case log, keeps a blog about everything she eats. We hope this picture is from the case log.
Detective Conan detects a sequel
Namco has dropped news that it will be bringing Detective Conan 2 to the DS come sometime next year and is based on the popular manga and anime in Japan. But, wait, what about Detective Conan? Why haven't we heard about the first game?Well, it was apparently a loose collection of minigames much like those found in the Brain Age games, which could possibly understand how it flew below our radar. The sequel, however, is going to be a more substantial game, with an honest-to-goodness story and will even have Wi-Fi Connect compatibility for up to four players. According to Siliconera, however, the gameplay is going to be very reminiscent of another Namco title in Quickspot, where the player will have to spot differences between pictures in the top screen and bottom screen of the DS.The title is currently slated for a spring 2008 release in Japan and be sure to keep an eye on DS Fanboy for information as it develops.
Buggy investigations on hold as Insecticide slips to February
Like the splattered, twitching remains of an errant fly on a speeding windshield, Insecticide's January 2008 release date is no more. Earlier today, a new release date for the bug-based detective game landed in our inbox, and we trapped it beneath an upturned beaker before it could buzz away again.Which is a very long way of saying: Insecticide now hits stores on February 12th. Booo. A shame for sure, but then a month is pretty bearable, and the last thing we'd want to see is Crackpot being forced to rush this potential gem of an adventure game.%Gallery-3405%[Via press release]
Friday Video: Slither and sleuth
You've just gotta respect a police/detective game that cracks jokes about donuts, and doubly so when the detectives in question are insects. We hear they like crumbs.Gamecock's Insecticide is one of those games we can't help but get excited over. It looks like the total package -- a little adventure, a little action, and a couple of cleverly-named and designed protagonists. Sure, as with so many DS games, it looks better in motion than in stills, but we're used to that. In fact, we find the look of it in motion so irresistible, we're shining our weekly video spotlight squarely on this new trailer. Go on, discover it for yourself ... and check out the updated screens in our gallery below.%Gallery-3405%
