firma-studios
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Chariot drags the dead to PS4 next week
Chariot, Frima Studio's cooperative platformer, will launch on PS4 next week. The game will arrive on Tuesday, September 30 in North America for $14.99, though European players will have to wait until October 22 to dig into the game. The platformer has two local players (or one solo player) working together to carry a king's coffin to its resting place. However, the king's ghost is particular about where his body winds up, so players must overcome physics-based obstacles to satisfy "His Majesty." The playable characters in question are the princess and her fiancé, who "gather gold and precious gems to decorate the sepulcher" while traversing Chariot's underground environments. The developer opted for local multiplayer only with Chariot, as "direct communication is very important in the game," and that "the tricks you'll need to do with the Chariot requires a lot of precision and we felt that precision might be lost because of the latency online." [Image: Firma Studio]
Lights, Camera, Party! out today on PSN, new trailer in tow
We never expected to use the words "minigame collection" and "David Lynch" in the same sentence, but here we are. The above launch trailer for Lights, Camera, Party!, which hits PSN today, is either a goofy look at a family-friendly collection of Move-based party games, or a surrealist descent into total madness -- we're not entirely sure.Either way, a selection of the game's 50 bizarre, animal-oriented minigames are shown off, as is the fact that only one Move controller is required, regardless of the number of people playing. We're still trying to decipher what the Crow/ICP man and dinosaur are supposed to represent, though. Is it a metaphor for man's inhumanity toward man? It's probably that.
It puts the dog food in the basket or else it gets the hose again: Ubisoft announces Petz World
Several MMOs, such as Free Realms, flirt with the concept of virtual pet ownership and conditioning, but it looks like Ubisoft is ready for a full-fledged commitment to the concept with Petz World. Gamasutra reported that Firma Studio is developing the free-to-play MMO, which will be published by Ubisoft in 2011. Based on the popular Dogz and Catz virtual pet simulators that date all the way back to the stone age of the internet (1995!), Petz has since expanded the franchise to include a wide variety of animals including hamsters, tigers and horses. In these games, players "adopt" a virtual pet of their choice, provide for their needs, and train their behavior through repeated actions. Repeated actions -- that sounds right up an MMO's alley, doesn't it? Ubisoft hopes that Petz World will bring parents and children closer together through the gameplay. The MMO will involve a large variety of collecting, achievements and unlockables as players scour the world for cool pets and conquer special challenges. Ubisoft's Chris Early thinks there's enough to appeal to a wide demographic: "This game is a unique way for children and parents to play games together." This is the latest move by the publisher to expand into the casual MMO landscape, following other titles like Might and Magic: Heroes Kingdoms.
