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E308: Project Origin trailer
The Xbox Live Marketplace videos keep rolling in. This new trailer for Project Origin showcases a few things, namely: chills, thrills and kills. Alma is back in the non-FEAR named sequel to FEAR. Immediately the game looks amazing, it looks like ol' Monolith found the smoothing button on their graphics engine! Seriously though, prior to watching this trailer we just shrugged at a chance to play Project Origin -- but now that it looks this good we will need to check it out!
Project Origin's FEARsome E3 trailer
A new trailer for Project Origin (a.k.a. "The F.E.A.R. sequel) has surfaced in time for E3 2008. It's got everything you expect: in-game cut scenes, bloodied walls, demons climbing on walls, robot war machines, and a girl on a swing. Your date with destiny is embedded above.
Video: Again, we begin to F.E.A.R. a swinging Alma
Late yesterday, Monolith release a dark and fresh Project Origin trailer especially for E3. And while we're sure the main focus of the trailer is supposed to be the in-game footage, gory visuals and explosive action, we couldn't help but focus on Alma and her creepy as hell swing. Seriously. An evil supernatural being is scary enough, but when that evil entity is a little girl AND she's swinging on a swing under moonlight ... now that's messed up. Check out the new Project Origin E3 trailer after the break as we hope to get our hands on the game sometime during E3 this week and gauge whether or not swing sets play a major role in the storyline.
Scared stiff: Why should we care about Project Origin?
If Silent Hill taught us to be afraid of fog and Fatal Frame was quite clear in its mandate that ghosts are not to be screwed with, Monolith proved with a little acronym called F.E.A.R. that little girls are truly freaky. The much vaunted PC shooter married run-and-gun gameplay with survival horror in a way that, while not being terribly unique, still managed to achieve a synergy wholly uncommon in video games. However, shortly after F.E.A.R. landed on retail shelves in 2005, Monolith parted ways with BFF publisher Vivendi, a move that left all but the game's name in the hands of the developer, forcing the studio to re-brand its IP. And in 2007, Monolith turned to the gamer community, asking for creative types to submit ideas for what the sequel should be called. The result, as it turned out, was Project Origin. But even with a name for its new baby, the question remained, and admittedly still lingers, as to if Monolith can recapture the lightning in a bottle that was F.E.A.R. To this end, we recently cornered designers Craig Hubbard and John Mulkey to ask them both why we should care about their latest offering. %Gallery-26247%
Anti-Aliased: There's other people there too, ya know.
I'll be blunt -- I hate grouping. Nothing pains me more than grouping up with four of the "internet's finest" and going into a dungeon to kill some monsters. 95% of the time, it seems I'm doomed to find 4chan (NSFW) rejects or screaming 10-year-old kids (NSFW). Of course, these are the parties that take an hour and a half to assemble and only last two rooms into the dungeon. Someone inevitably screws up and gets six mobs on them, and then they instantly turn around and blame the priest for "not being able to heal properly". Of course they don't actually say "not being able to heal properly"; it comes out more like "u suck n00b priest".
New Project Origin video compares, gushes blood
While some may look to water and its undulating physics as the standard for current gen eye candy, developer Monolith's yardstick is apparently a tad more crimson. The studio has released a new video for its F.E.A.R. follow-up, Project Origin, showing off the way blood will be handled in the upcoming sequel by comparing the previous game's visceral cherry mist to what can be best described as Project Origin's syrupy goop. On the game's recently launched community website, Monolith FX guru Mark Wood explains some of the work that went into the project's interesting, if messy, take on in-game gore. Writes Wood, the team is working to make the blood "visible from far away, while still feeling meaty and satisfying at closer range," something he concedes was lacking in the original F.E.A.R. The end result looks a bit like blasting strawberry jelly out of a bad guy, which in all honesty should be reason enough to get you to watch the video below.
Video: This Project Origin is going to be bloody
There's a new Project Origin combat trailer making the rounds today, giving old-school F.E.A.R. fanboys a warm fuzzy knowing that the sequel is staying true to its roots. The trailer (embedded above) is comprised of "pre-beta footage" that is gushy, gory, glum and any other "g" adjectives you can think of (except glamorous). It looks graphically nice, the fear factor is there and it seems ... well, fun. We say, go Lith go![Thanks, Chris]
The Matrix gets new weapons, story missions, enemies
SOE deployed Update 60 on The Matrix Online's servers this week. The update doesn't just fix bugs. It also marks the beginning of Episode 10.2 of the story, introduces some new enemies in Datamine, and adds a reward for players who complete live critical missions.If you're looking to earn the new reward items (a consumable of some sort), said missions are scheduled every Thursday up through the 12th of June; the first of those occurred yesterday, but a recap has been published. The update also introduces a whopping 342 new level 50 weapon variants, some of which will drop during the high level critical missions.We're glad to see that MxO is still ticking despite the announced departure of Paul Chadwick, the esteemed comic book writer who had worked on the story until recently.
Project Origin video blowout
Monolith has dropped not one, not two, not three, but four new Project Origin trailers for gamers everywhere to ogle. The first, embedded above, deals with the Replica Elite Powered Armor. It is, quite simply, a mech capable of laying waste to all in its path. The video make sure to drive this point home, destroying buildings and vaporizing soldiers that stand in its way (or even in the general vicinity of its way). The second video (embedded after the break along with the other two) concerns the return of one of the enemies in the original F.E.A.R., the Assassin. The Assassin is an acrobatic, pseudo-invisible badass with a penchant for killing. Sound fun? Of course it does. The final two videos are fly-throughs that show off Project Origin's spooky environments. Be the first kid on your block to watch them all.
Project Origin: 5 bloody new screens
Earlier today Monolith dropped five bloody screens of their latest shooter F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin. Each of the five screens includes the proper amount of killing and pools of blood that you would expect from a Monolith title. Also included are a peek at brand new environments and the Giant Mechanized Walker from the player perspective. Not pictured is Alma (above) who really should go see an optometrist about that red-eye problem.%Gallery-21920%
Anti-Aliased: What are we doing?
Click. 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 5, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 5, 1, 1, 3, 4, 1. /cheerSitting next to my friend in his room littered with Diet Mountain Dew cans, reports past due, and his girlfriend passed out on the bed, I slowly came to a very scary realization. Some of our best loved MMOs can be boiled down to not just pressing different buttons, but pressing the same button repeatedly. What really drove this home was me and a bunch of his friends were in the other room adjacent to his room, yet he was neglecting to join our roleplaying session and hang out. He'd rather sit in his small, cluttered room and farm a raid he's done at least 20 times, somehow finding enjoyment from pressing the button "1" repeatedly.So... what are we doing? Are we drinking the proverbial Windex because someone said it was a good idea?
Bloodshot scares XBLM, ruins pants worldwide
Well, well, well ... look what the mangy old dog just drug in off the streets. It's a new 736MB Condemned 2: Bloodshot demo that's now available to most Live subscribers via the Xbox Live Marketplace, the same demo we were promised weeks ago. The same demo that broke our hearts numerous times and now, just because it's available today, thinks our heart will be instantly healed. Well, we have news for you Bloodshot. Our heart is still broken. You promised us the world and delivered weeks too late. We may find enough forgiveness in (what's left of our) heart to download you and your demo, probably later today. But don't be angry when a today download promise magically turns into a June download execution. It's called karma.
Bloodshot demo finally arrives tomorrow
Well good golly, that sure took a while. The Condemned 2 demo has been public knowledge for quite some time now, with the first mention appearing in February. We learned in March that the demo was "coming soon." Apparently coming soon meant "in a month," as the demo is finally gracing XBLM tomorrow morning at 2:00am (we're guessing Pacific time, though it's not specified). So, if you haven't sampled of Condemned 2's particular brand of zombo bashing creepiness, you'll finally get the chance to do it for free. It's just in time for the weekend too. We don't know about you, but that's really when we like to be scared to the point of soiling ourselves.[Thanks, Ben]
Zero Punctuation likes half of Condemned 2
So, anyone out there play Indigo Prophecy (known as Fahrenheit in Europe)? You remember how about halfway through everything got really stupid? Remember how all the intriguing elements gave way to a ridiculous plot? If not, you could always pick it up on Xbox Originals and find out. Anyway, if Yahtzee (of Zero Punctuation fame) is to be believed, Condemned 2: Bloodshot suffers from Indigo Prophecy syndrome. In other words, it's a great game ... right up until the halfway point. Find out exactly what went wrong after the break (as usual, this week's Zero Punctuation video is NSFW).
Gamerscore Blog needs your Project Origin questions
The attractive and sweet smelling members of Gamerscore Blog will soon be visiting Monolith, developers of the upcoming F.E.A.R. sequel Project Origin. They won't just be sitting down for tea and crumpets either. No, they will be asking Monolith questions. That's where you come in, see, as they are now accepting questions for their jaunt to Monolith's headquarters. All you have to do is head over to Gamerscore Blog and submit a question. There are no guarantees that any particular question will actually be asked, but we imagine the good ones will rise to the top. Our top question: why didn't they pick our submission in the sequel naming contest?In related news, our friends at Gamertag Radio recently sat down to talk with Monolith themselves. Head over to GTR for the interview.
New scans feature Disaster, Super Mario Stadium
Click for larger image We were a bit shocked to receive any kind of update at all about Disaster: Day of Crisis, much less a release date. Monolith's survival adventure is one of those games that disappears for months at a time, then pops up with just a few screens. For some reason, we think of it as perpetually on the brink of cancellation. But Nintendo's serious enough about releasing it to, uh, print a page in a retail pamphlet about it! Interesting factoid: Bears are now natural disasters.Another page (after the break) tinily reveals new screens of Super Mario Stadium: Family Baseball, which was just announced for the U.S. as Super Mario Sluggers. From the title, we know that the new game will be developed by Namco Bandai and will share gameplay aspects (though certainly not controls!) with their Family Stadium games. Miis will also be playable!
Video: Shooting Project Origin's crab people
Nothing says happy Friday like seeing a twisted and freaky bloody monster-thing doing the crab walk all while he tries to eat off your face. Lovely. Embedded after the break you can view the latest "Abomination" trailer for Monolith's F.E.A.R. sequel Project Origin and between the freaky crab person bits, we get to see actual gameplay. And if we ever mocked Project Origin's graphics before, we take back those statements because (visually) it looks dandy fine. Okay, back to watching the bloody crab walk ...
Project Origin: Abomination trailer
There's not much we can say about this new trailer for Project Origin. We're neither impressed nor dissatisfied; we're in a state of indifference and apathy. Perhaps that's really quite a horrible thing -- even worse than having extremely negative comments. At least with negativity, there's some sort of invested emotion into what is being made. What does this mean for this F.E.A.R. sequel? Things are looking rather banal; there's nothing new or exciting. Could be just us, though. Is this how you feel when you watch this trailer?
Win a signed copy of the Condemned 2 guide
Throw this one in the "our-bad" category. The team at Xbox 360 Achievements.org are giving away two copies of the Condemned 2: Bloodshot strategy guide signed by 18 members of the development team at Monolith. Why "our bad" you ask? Entries for the prize are due by 11:59PM PST on March 29. If you're looking to add a guide on how to hit dudes in the face to your collection, this giveaway might be the perfect thing for you! Check out their site for complete entry details.
Project Origin trailer: Alma just wants to play
After watching the latest "Swingset Trailer" for Monolith's upcoming Project Origin, we have absolutely no doubt that the Lith are experts at creating crazy, twisted and totally freaky experiences. Then again, have we ever doubted them? Go ahead, give the latest Project Origin trailer a looksy and try to tell us Alma doesn't send a chill up your spine or that the swingset doesn't freak you out. Yeah, we've been harsh on Project Origin because of its "dated" graphics, but when it comes to building tension and totally messed up story lines ... well, Lith gets our seal of approval.
