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Deals with Gold: D4, Thief, Sonic the Hedgehog catalog sale
Oddball Xbox One adventure game D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die headlines this week's Xbox Live Deals with Gold offerings, giving subscribers the chance to pick it up for 33 percent off its regular price. Be warned: it's weird. Like, really weird. The Xbox One versions of Thief, Murdered: Soul Suspect, and Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments are also on sale this week, while Xbox 360 owners can grab cheap copies of Sonic Generations, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, and other games starring Sega's exalted hedgehog. Listed price drops remain in effect through November 11. [Image: Microsoft]
Play Final Fantasy 13, Murdered on mobile in Japan
Square Enix is launching a service in Japan through the app Dive In that enables games such as Final Fantasy 13 and Murdered: Soul Suspect to run on iOS and Android mobile devices. The streaming service launches on October 9, and it will initially support Final Fantasy 13, Final Fantasy 7 International and Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders. Players are able to purchase playtime plans with prices that vary depending on the game. Final Fantasy 13 starts at three days for 250 yen, and goes to one year for 1,800 yen (prices don't include tax). See the pricing breakdown, translated by Gematsu, below. Final Fantasy 8 and The Last Remnant launch on the service in November, Final Fantasy 13-2 and Murdered: Soul Suspect launch in December, and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 is in 2015. [Image: Square Enix]
PS4 games added to PSN's Summer Sale in Europe
PlayStation 4 owners in Europe have access to a catalog-spanning sale on the PlayStation Network this week that discounts Don't Starve: Console Edition, Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes, Trials Fusion, and other platform standouts. PS4-specific Summer Sale highlights include Murdered: Soul Suspect for £29.99, Wolfenstein: The New Order for £44.99, and Thief for £29.99. A number of digital-exclusive PS4 games also see steep discounts this week, including Transistor for £11.59, TowerFall Ascension for £6.49, and SteamWorld Dig for £3.99. Sale prices are effective through August 20. Additional discounts are available for PlayStation Plus members. [Image: Ubisoft]
Report: Murdered: Soul Suspect developer Airtight Games closes [update]
Developer Airtight Games has reportedly closed its Redmond office with no prior announcement, suggesting that the studio has ceased operations less than a month after launching its latest multiplatform game Murdered: Soul Suspect. GeekWire visited the studio's former office yesterday and found a locked door and a sign advertising a "blow out sale" on the equipment within. GeekWire's attempts to contact company representatives were not answered. Joystiq also received no response during our attempts to follow up. Airtight Games' credits include the Capcom-published action game Dark Void, Ouya roguelike Soul Fjord, and Quantum Conundrum, a first-person puzzler directed by Portal designer Kim Swift. The studio saw a round of layoffs in April, losing 14 employees as part of a "necessary restructuring." Update: Airtight has effectively confirmed the closure through tweets thanking those who "supported us and made the last 10 years possible." [Image: Square Enix]
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.
Watch Dogs connects with UK audience, Murdered: Soul Suspect charts
Watch Dogs broke UK sales records for a new IP last week and, despite an 80 percent drop in sales, kept its spot the top dog status on the UK charts again. Mario Kart 8 grabbed the silver cup as Murdered: Soul Suspect had a surprisingly strong debut, selling only 400 copies less than the kart racer. Minecraft Playstation 3 Edition and Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition will be with us forever.
Joystiq Weekly: GOG's Galaxy, Murdered: Soul Suspect review, Homefront's combat and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. E3 doesn't technically start until June 10, but with all of this week's announcements and E3 trailers, you wouldn't really know it. Forza Horizon 2 will let you drive recklessly later this year, Homefront is due for a return in Homefront: The Revolution, and the thinly-veiled Mortal Kombat X tease is finally over. And that's just the early stuff - we're about to get trampled with news and hands-on demonstrations as the convention itself kicks off next week. Don't worry though, we'll survive by channeling Simba's light-footed evasive maneuvers. Just ... y'know, without the tragic loss immediately preceding our exercise. You don't have to stick around and watch us warm up though - this week's highlights are waiting for you after the break. There are release dates for The Witcher 3 and Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved, reviews for 1,001 Spikes and Tomodachi Life, and an exploration of combat in Homefront: The Revolution. It's all awaiting you neat and orderly-like after the jump!
Metareview: Murdered: Soul Suspect
Murdered: Soul Suspect is proof of the old adage, "you can't keep a good cop down, even when you put roughly half a dozen slugs in his chest, because that dude will turn into a ghost that smokes ghost cigarettes." We ... may have embellished that a little bit. While flawed in execution, our review found the game to be enjoyable nonetheless, with a compelling yarn to pull players along and an interesting fiction built into the town of Salem. There's more eyewitnesses ready to testify about this phantasmal tale, however, so let's see what they have to say.
Murdered: Soul Suspect review: Good cop, dead cop
Murdered: Soul Suspect makes a bold choice right from the start by favoring information over action. It's unusual to play as a street-smart detective and not have to worry about aiming, reloading, or even how to throw a punch, instead focusing your efforts on stepping back and thinking about your environment. Solving the game's many mysteries will require patience, thoroughness, observation, and thought - a mixture that works well in service of Murdered's excellent story, but one that finds itself at odds with the final chapter of the tale. A few understandable – though regretful – design choices, combined with technical snafus all but destroy Murdered's emotional impact as it thunders towards its dramatic conclusion. An entertaining curiosity, Murdered ends up being a ghost of its own potential.
More Graves added to Murdered: Soul Suspect
When your name is Jason Graves, you are surely meant to score a game called "Murdered: Soul Suspect." Not that your award-winning resumé is light on big titles - you also created the musical accompaniment to the Tomb Raider reboot (horns), the Dead Space series (sudden violins), and Alpha Protocol (harpsichord?). Square Enix announced its pick for composer a few days in advance of Murdered: Soul Suspect's release on June 3 in North America and June 6 in Europe. Set in the paranormal realm of Salem, the game starts where many end: with your demise. As deceased detective Ronan O'Connor, you track down your killer in a blend of adventure, deduction, stealth and a ghostly disregard for walls. Murdered: Soul Suspect, developed by Airtight Games, will be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Murdered: Soul Suspect's '101' trailer isn't about dalmatians
This trailer for Murdered: Soul Suspect offers a crash course on the story of undead detective Ronan O'Connor. Be warned: The five and a half-minute video touches on minor story elements that some may consider to be spoilery. The game will launch June 3 on PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
This Murdered: Soul Suspect trailer tolls for thee
Bells are easily transformed from joyful noises into creepy harbingers. Their jars are suffocating, and they ring across foggy graveyards, signaling death and sadness. The Bell Killer doesn't look pleasant either. Murdered: Soul Suspect is out on June 3 for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC. [Image: Square Enix]
Murdered: Soul Suspect dev lays off 14 in studio restructuring
Airtight Games, developer of Murdered: Soul Suspect and Quantum Conundrum, suffered layoffs this week. The studio let go of 14 employees, confirmed by IGN as part of a "necessary restructuring" for the developer. Airtight's restructuring was deemed "part of the normal ebb and flow of game production" and that the studio's current projects are still on schedule. The developer announced a June 3 release date for Murdered: Soul Suspect roughly one month ago. Square Enix said the "core team is continuing to work towards shipping in June." One previous employee of Airtight Games, the studio's creative director and Portal Co-Creator Kim Swift, joined Amazon Game Studios yesterday along with Far Cry 2 Lead Designer Clint Hocking. [Image: Airtight Games]
Delve into the eerie haunts and spectral fedoras of Murdered: Soul Suspect
As the undying, fedora-clad gumshoe protagonist of Murdered: Soul Suspect, you just have to get used to eerie graveyards, traumatic jump cuts and the occasional ominous message scrawled in what appears to be human blood. [Image: Square Enix]
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]
Murdered: Soul Suspect confirmed for PS4 too, coming in June
You didn't need to be much of a gumshoe to work this one out: Hot on the heels of being announced for the Xbox One, Murdered: Soul Suspect is also confirmed for the PS4. However, a bit of extra sleuthing - by that we mean watching a video - reveals Airtight's post-mortal mystery has a new release window of June 2014. So, in addition to the two platforms noted above, you'll be able to track it down then on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
Murdered: Soul Suspect hitting Xbox One this year
Airtight Games' detective thriller, Murdered: Soul Suspect, is coming to the Xbox One in addition to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms, Microsoft's Larry Hryb announced today. Murdered: Soul Suspect is adventure game that puts players in the role of a deceased detective who must solve his own murder from the afterlife. Gameplay focuses on crime scene investigation and character possession, and players must carefully leverage their ghostly abilities as they pursue the protagonist's killer. Murdered: Soul Suspect is due to hit retail after March this year. A release date has not been announced. [Video/Image: Airtight Games]
Murdered: Soul Suspect finds a witness to the crime
Not quite dead detective Ronan O'Connor is finding it difficult to solve his own murder, but this new trailer for Murdered: Soul Suspect reveals a break in the case: There was a witness to the crime. Murdered is set for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC sometime after March of next year.
Murdered: Soul Suspect now expected post-March 2014
Post-mortal whodunnit Murdered: Soul Suspect has drifted into a release window beyond March 2014, publisher Square Enix has confirmed. Speaking separately with GameSpot and Game Informer, Square Enix said the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC third-person mystery is set to arrive in 2014. However, after it wasn't included in the company's release list for the fiscal year, the publisher confirmed the game wasn't coming before March. Murdered was previously pinned for an early 2014 arrival. Developed by Dark Void and Quantum Conundrum studio Airtight Games, Murdered places players in the ethereal role of Ronan O'Connor, a detective tasked with unearthing his own killer. O'Connor may be as DOA as Duke Nukem Forever, but he does have a repertoire of ghostly powers, like the ability to possess people so he can see through their eyes and read their minds. As Airtight's E3 walkthrough shows, the people O'Connor possesses don't seem to notice him doing so - maybe that's what it's like in real life, too. Maybe there are hundreds of spirits, watching silently through our eyes as we type these words this very moment ... And now we've creeped ourselves out. Great.
Murdered: Soul Suspect E3 walkthrough combs the crime scene
Eric Stutter, Senior Design Director at Airtight Games, provides a thorough walkthrough of the E3 demo for Murdered: Soul Suspect above. The adventure game revolves around a detective who must solve his own murder – as a ghost. The E3 walkthrough of Murdered: Soul Suspect is lengthy, spanning almost 26 minutes. Highlights include: cops slapping other cops; wearing a dead man's hat; possessing the living to eavesdrop on their conversations; and learning how christening a home can keep ghosts off the premises.
