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Dust: An Elysian Tail swishes to PS4 in 1080p, 60fps
Dust: An Elysian Tail is getting a second shot at console stardom in the near future when Dean Dodrill's anthropomorphic action exploration game jumps to PlayStation 4. Dodrill announced the new port via the PlayStation Blog on Thursday, allowing Fidget, the game's lovably freaky cat-bat character thing, to cover the pertinent details. "Imagine a 2D side-scrolling platformer, with crazy-fast swordplay and screen-clearing MAGIC supplied by yours truly. There are power-ups! Special abilities! Hidden passages! A whole world of STUFF to find!" says Fidget, clearly still enthused about her first project as a freaky cat-bat thing. "Now, if you can, imagine all this awesomeness is hand-drawn like an old animated movie from the 80s and 90s, but with art at crazy high resomolutions! Like, 1080p! People tell me that's pretty darn good! Also, 60fps. I'm guessing that's some sort of speed? Like, the speed of awesome? I don't know much about these things, though. I mean, look at my hands! I'm not plugging anything into expensive TVs with these ham-hocks." Dust was originally released on Xbox 360 in 2012 to critical acclaim, after Dodrill built the game largely on his own starting in 2008. The Metroid-style quest eventually released on Windows, Mac, and Linux as well. [Images: Humble Hearts]
May Games With Gold: Dust: An Elysian Tail, Saints Row The Third
Microsoft's Games With Gold promotion rolls on, bringing two new, free games to Xbox Live Gold subscribers during the month of May. The first game, according to a new blog entry from Xbox figurehead Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, will be Dust: An Elysian Tail, which will be available from May 1 to May 15 for gratis download. Our review knocked Dust: An Elyisan Tail for doing little to innovate as a platform-action game, but said the game "does manage to look and play beautifully throughout." From May 16 to May 31, Xbox Live Gold subscribers will be able to download Saints Row The Third at no cost. Our review of Volition's over-the-top open world action hit awarded the game four and a half stars, and pointed out that Saints Row The Third genuinely feels like a labor of love from its creators, that offers a stunning number of things to do and wacky, entertaining sights to see. Like all Games With Gold offerings, these two games will be available for free download to anyone with a valid Xbox Live Gold subscription and a functional connection to the Xbox Live Marketplace. Once downloaded, they become yours to keep, whether you renew your Xbox Live Gold subscription or not. [Image: Deep Silver/Humble Hearts]
Dust: An Elysian Tail pulls off 1 million sale combo
Action adventure game Dust: An Elysian Tail has chained together 1 million sales, developer Dean Dodrill announced on Twitter yesterday. Dust follows the tail tale of an amnesia-ridden warrior and his fluttering sidekick, Fidget, as they piece together his past and present identity. After clearing a million sales however, we don't think Dust's name is going to be forgotten again any time soon. Dust originally launched on Xbox Live Arcade in August 2012, going on to reach Steam, GOG and participate in a Humble Bundle. It also won Microsoft's $40,000 Dream-Build-Play award in 2009. Just before his sales announcement, Dodrill tweeted that he was thinking of taking on "something small" before diving into his next big game, but whether that's a smaller game or something else entirely remains to be seen. [Image: Humble Hearts]
Dust: An Elysian Tail coming to Steam
Humble Heart's 2012 XBLA debut Dust: An Elysian Tail is headed to Steam and could potentially be available as soon as next month, Polygon reports. The announcement was made by Dust designers Alex Kain and Dean Dodrill during a panel at PAX East, wherein Dodril explained that he isn't going to "do a whole lot different" with the PC port, being satisfied with the current experience.Dodril also teased the possibility of a Dust 2 at some point in the future, with Kain adding that there is "no shortage" of ideas for a sequel.
Xbox Live Countdown to 2013 daily deal: Dust, Deadlight and Hybrid
Today's Xbox Live deal, as part of the Xbox Live Countdown to 2013, includes sales on Dust: An Elysian Tail, Deadlight and Hybrid.Both Dust: An Elysian Tail and Deadlight are on sale for 600 Microsoft points, 50 percent off from their original prices. Hybrid can be downloaded for 400 Microsoft points, a 67 percent savings on its original 1200 point price tag. These deals are on for today only, so get downloading! %Gallery-162764%
PSA: Dust: An Elysian Tail soundtrack is now available
While most of Xbox Live Arcade game Dust: An Elysian Tail is the result of one man's hard graft, Dean Dodrill did outsource its music to the brilliantly named HyperDuck SoundWorks. Today the Northern Irish trio made the soundtrack available for download, with all 37 tracks purchasable for £5 GBP or around $8 (or more if you're so inclined.)While we wouldn't be too far off with an awful 'Elysian easy listening' pun, the soundtrack ranges across a number of unusual genres and instruments. There are also a few songs courtesy of Alex Brandon, who worked on the soundtracks for Unreal Tournament, Alpha Protocol, and Deus Ex among others. You can listen to the songs in full on Hyperduck's Bandcamp site. Meanwhile, if you've not yet checked out our review of a certain "beautiful, quirky" adventure platformer, maybe you should.[Thanks, Alex]
Dust: An Elysian Tail review - A classic formula revisited
Every so often, a game comes along that reminds me why I play games. They aren't always perfect, but they're memorable experiences and that's what really matters. Dust: An Elysian Tail is one of those games. It certainly has its flaws, but when you get past all that you're left with a beautiful, quirky tale of self-discovery that still manages to be engaging and consistently surprising throughout.%Gallery-162764%
Dust: An Elysian Tail launch trailer told
This year's XBLA Summer of Arcade has been a mixed bag (putting it politely), but there are highlights, like this week's Dust: An Elysian Tail. Here's the launch trailer for a game that we'd quickly describe as Tales of Metroidvania.
Dust: An Elysian Tale bounding to XBLA in 2012
Despite the relative silence on Dust: An Elysian Tail since it won 2009's "Dream-Build-Play" competition, one man has been playing it daily for years now. That exclusive audience is the game's developer, Dean Dodrill, who says the game will finally be released at some point in 2012. Nay, he promises it'll be released in 2012. "It's coming out in 2012, promise," Dodrill wrote under his pseudonym "Noogy" on the Neogaf forums. He doesn't give any other details, or even a more specific launch window, but we've reached out for a more definitive date.
