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Mark of the Ninja, Dyad star in Canada Day sale on Steam
Steam's current sale honors the Great White North with a slate of discounted games made by our Canadian brothers and sisters in celebration of Canada Day. Featured Canada-powered games include TowerFall Ascension ($10.04), Fez ($4.99), Dyad ($3.75), Rogue Legacy ($7.49), Retro City Rampage ($2.50), and Mark of the Ninja ($4.99). Other sale highlights include Bleed, Starseed Pilgrim, and The Yawhg, among others. The sale ends tomorrow, so you'd best act swiftly if you want a dose of old-fashioned Canadian ingenuity. [Image: Steam]
PS Plus members can trip out on Dyad for free this week
Dyad on PS3 is free to PlayStation Plus members this week, starting today. Dyad is a transcendent game about traversing the cracks between time and space, or something equally mystical that involves maneuvering a particle through kaleidoscopic tunnels. When we played it last year, we called it "magic." The PS Store's Holiday Sale enters week three with special discounts for Plus members, including Far Cry 3 for $18, Guacamelee for $3.75, Limbo for $3.75, God of War Ascension for $10 and Hitman: Blood Money for $4.25. A free trial of Killzone: Shadow Fall's multiplayer modes will hit PS4 from December 28 - 31 for Plus members, with pre-loading available today. Check out the full list of sale items and Plus goodies on the PlayStation Blog.
PSA: Dyad explodes onto PC today
Had enough of the real world and its boring, bland visuals? Enjoy some hyperreality, some surreality, some ... whatever you want to call it, some flashing color blasts in space tubes on your PC, with the release of Dyad.The former PS3 exclusive is out today on Steam and GOG. It's still available for $13.49, a discount of 10 percent, through May 1. We spent some time in developer Shawn McGrath's abstract universe upon its original release, and we liked what we saw. Did we understand it? Maybe. But we liked it.
Dyad coming to Steam, GOG this Wednesday
Psychedelic particle physics collider/shooter Dyad will be available on PC through Steam and GOG this Wednesday, April 24, developer Shawn McGrath has announced on Twitter. As stated in the above announcement video, McGrath is well aware that he missed his original target launch window of March – raising a newborn child takes up a lot of your time, as it turns out.The game will be 10-percent off on both Steam and GOG during the first week of its availability, but folks that pre-order through GOG will save 20 percent.
Dyad makes a break for Steam, targets March launch [Update: Dev video]
Dyad is coming to Steam for PC, Mac and Linux, developer Shawn McGrath confirms to Joystiq. Dyad was spotted on a list of new titles buried deep within the recesses of the Steam database, and it appears the secret is now out."This was a rather interesting thing that happened," McGrath says. "I didn't plan on announcing Dyad on Steam yet, but what can I do now?"McGrath has been talking with Valve since March 2012 about getting Dyad on Steam, but nothing was certain until October. He hopes to have it out in March, "but who knows when it'll actually come out?" McGrath says. He'd like to launch Dyad on PC, Mac and Linux simultaneously, but it's possible the PC version will drop first.The Steam version will be identical to 2012's PS3 iteration, since McGrath says he feels that one is complete. Dyad made a psychedelic splash on PSN last year and we summed up its experience in one phrase and a lot of stars: "Dyad is magic."Update: The video embedded above is McGrath's official announcement, and we guarantee it's the best surprise-Steam-release film featuring a dude with a killer beard you'll see all day.
Dyad, LittleBigPlanet, Rayman, and more are cheap PSN 'Holiday Essentials'
Now's your chance to fix that "not having Dyad" problem you seem to have. The PSN "Holiday Essentials" sale has discounted Shawn McGrath's total sensory overload game to just $10.49, or $7.35 for PlayStation Plus members, through Dec. 24.Other worthwhile stuff on sale this week includes LittleBigPlanet 2 ($13.99, currently free with Plus), LittleBigPlanet PS Vita ($24.99 or $17.49 for Plus), Rayman Origins PS3 ($13.99/$9.80), and Vita ($20.99/$14.70), and Retro/Grade ($6.99, $4.90). More "Holiday Essentials" will be cycled in over the next two weeks.
'A Game About Bouncing' from Dyad dev coming to PlayStation Home
PlayStation Home is getting a new arcade game this Wednesday, and this one has some indie chops. From the minds of Dyad, studio ][ and Shawn McGrath, comes A Game About Bouncing, which McGrath briefly discussed in an interview with Joystiq earlier this year. Originally developed as a prototype sketch at a quick game jam, Bouncing is now featured as a premium arcade cabinet in PlayStation Home.Purchasing the cabinet gives players access to the game along with a full avatar skin, some themed glasses to wear, and even a Shawn McGrath-inspired outfit, complete with cowboy hat and beard.There's also a bevy of other new avatar items available for purchase, and some tweaks and additions to the Avalon Keep area in Home (including a new crystal-collecting minigame you can play with friends). Sony says the update, including that new arcade cabinet, should be out and available on PlayStation Home on this Wednesday, November 7; however, no price was revealed.
The Sound Summer of PSN
You're reading Reaction Time, a weekly column that claims to examine recent events, games and trends in the industry, but is really just looking for an excuse to use the word "zeitgeist." It debuts on Fridays in Engadget's digital magazine, Distro. Remember when the summer lull signaled a blissful break from the year's onslaught of new games? July was the perfect pitstop, where you'd catch up on that bloated backlog and shake off that vague, gnawing stress that comes from wanting to play everything and knowing you never will. There used to be a gap, right over here.If things felt lethargic to you in August, you must not have been too keen on the downloadable games finding their way to the PlayStation Store – or the ones getting horribly lost and asking for directions to some nested nightmare in the current Xbox 360 dashboard.Sony's efforts this year have been especially strong, with several standout games forming a loose alliance around music. The PlayStation Network hosted the debut of Dyad, a tumultuous, trippy shooter that puts your brain in a slingshot and fires it straight down a LED-lined tunnel. It's a product of Toronto's indie game scene and designer Shawn McGrath, who says it was relatively easy to gain Sony's stamp of approval.
Dyad demo blows your mind a little today
You'll be able to experience Dyad today at no financial risk – though you're still subject to the usual Dyad-related risks like losing touch with reality and accidental time travel. A demo will launch on PS3 today when the PlayStation Network updates.Dyad fans will enjoy the trailer made for the occasion, in which designer Shawn McGrath demonstrates his own enjoyment of both Dyad and fans.
PSN Tuesday: Dyad
Sure, there are other goodies to explore in PSN's weekly update today, but we'd be remiss if we didn't say: Dyad. Seriously, guys, read our review. We like Dyad a whole lot. Joining Dyad on the PSN side are a pair of Resident Evil games: Umbrella Chronicles and Darkside Chronicles, both available for $14.99 each.PS Plus members get some free PSOne Classics to download this week, while those with some cash to burn can snag full PS3 downloads of Crysis 2 and Record of Agarest War 2. Plenty of games are on sale this week, too, including Fight Night Champion and Marvel vs Capcom 2. For the full list of this week's content, hit up the source link below.
Dyad review: Where is my mind?
Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Put another way, anything that lies beyond an observer's understanding will take on a mysterious, nearly mystical quality.The phrase applies to Dyad for PS3, I think, albeit in a strangely opposite way. To the outside observer, Dyad appears to be little more than a rhythmic, psychedelic mishmash of shapes, colors and sounds, a whirling mass of indecipherable technology. To the player – to the one who comprehends what's happening on the screen – Dyad is magic.Tripping my way through its challenges, there were moments when I ceased to realize exactly what I was doing. I was physically present, dimly aware of my fingers moving, but my brain ... my brain was somewhere else entirely.%Gallery-160529%
Upcoming PS Plus deals: Dyad 20% off, free PSOne sports games
This Tuesday, PlayStation Plus users will get to crack their brains open for less, as Dyad is 20% off for members of the premium service. It'll launch for $11.99 for Plus ($14.99 for everyone else).Next week, Malicious will launch at 20 percent off, and then that will lead right into PSN Play. So ... the only difference between now and PSN Play is that you get some money back and a PS3 theme for buying the games that come out later this month. The Plus discount is the same!You'll be able to get a couple free games tomorrow on PS3 (and on PSP, through your PS3): the PSOne Classic games International Track & Field and Hot Shots Golf 2. These two freebies lead into a 50 percent off sale on unspecified games for Plus members.
Deconstructing the Dyad design with creator Shawn McGrath
Shawn McGrath, creator of PSN-exclusive tunnel shooter Dyad, exits his workplace – a house in the north side of Toronto – and lights up a cigarette. The rental home is lined with out-of-control weeds McGrath steps over to lean against his car, which sports novelty license plates with a leet variation of the word "hacker."That was a high school decision, he admits.Inside the house is a sanctuary for his art, a game McGrath has been working on for years. Dyad, which will be launched tomorrow, was the culmination of a dream McGrath once told himself was dead before reclaiming it with the help of friends; a group deeply rooted in the development of Toronto's burgeoning independent game scene.But McGrath's obsession with game creation began many years before he, as a preteen, would program his first QBasic title. It was an obsession that began with Tetris.%Gallery-150493%
Dyad gets kaleidoscopic on PS3 July 17
You won't have to wait long to find out what Shawn McGrath's PS3-exclusive abstract racing action game Dyad is all about. The PlayStation Blog just revealed that the colorful PSN game will be available July 17.Well, it might take you a while after it comes out to find out what the game is all about. You'll have to descend into the Dyad fugue state of color-matching, ziplining, and lancing inside a psychedelic space tube, and then reflect on your experiences in the space tube. And then practice.
Dyad is a mind-altering substance
Following the completion of my Dyad demo in a darkened hotel room, I was informed by developer Shawn McGrath that I had likely just experienced synaesthesia. He asked if I'd heard the music change when the visuals abruptly changed, which I had. He then told me the music didn't actually change, meaning that I'd heard the visual effects. My senses had become tangled.McGrath said this was an unintentional side effect of the way he designed the last level (which he had skipped ahead to show me). Without spoiling it, I'll say that Dyad's ending is a protracted sequence of total visual hypnosis, interrupted only by my pause halfway through to wipe my eyes. Turns out I hadn't been blinking and my eye became irritated and watery.%Gallery-150493%
PSN's new abstract racing game 'Dyad' grabs our attention
So you've just devoured both PixelJunk Racers games and Art Style: Light Trax. Where do you go now for the next experience in the suddenly-now-a-genre field of abstract racing? Developer ][ Games is working on the next entry in that nascent genre, Dyad, a downloadable game for PS3. Dyad uses a combo-based system to build speed, instead of simply forcing the player to find a racing line. You must "interact with your enemies in unique and varying ways in order to gain speed," and said interaction seems to involve grabbing onto enemies and then slingshotting yourself from them. Maybe we're not 100% clear on the concept, but we're pretty sure watching these glowing shapes speed down a tube of light has thoroughly hypnotized us. Watch the video for yourself after the break.
