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Joystiq Weekly: Sonic's scarf, The Banner Saga and heart-monitoring horror
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. Sonic has a history of being a bit too social for his own good, but the roster shown for Sonic Boom's reveal on the 3DS and Wii U? Not bad! We can deal with Amy Rose and the newly tank-like Knuckles, but if Silver the Hedgehog shows up at some point? The deal is off. Aside from a new Sonic cycle, this week brought rough news from Sony, a review of The Banner Saga and an awards show that didn't hurt to watch! We've got that and much more ready for you to devour after the break.
Nevermind: a biofeedback horror game for your mental health
In horror-adventure game Nevermind, your performance is influenced by your emotional state. Nevermind is built on biofeedback technology: You hook up a heart-rate monitor and play, becoming more unhinged by the PC game's subject matter, after which tasks and scenarios immediately ramp up in difficulty. Like other first-person adventure games in the vein of Myst, you must navigate strange environments in Nevermind and solve the puzzles within before you can progress. In one scenario, a kitchen is filling up with milk and you're in danger of drowning unless you figure out how to stop the flood. The faster your actual heart rate, the faster the room fills with delicious-yet-deadly Vitamin D. Calm yourself and the tide will slow, giving you more time to figure out how to proceed. You explore the subconscious mind of severe trauma patients in Flying Mollusk's Nevermind, so naturally the subject matter will be a bit grim. Creator Erin Reynolds, a former Zynga full-timer who ditched the day job in late September to dedicate herself entirely to this, is not only trying to create a horror game that excels in its own right, but wants to provide players with an experience that instills real-life skills for dealing with stressful situations.
NPD says never mind, maybe
Following yesterday's news that the NPD would be scaling back their monthly gift of console hardware and software sales figures, the NPD has come out to answer the hordes of screaming gamers who look to this information every month to be ... well, informed about their hobby and passion. NPD spokesperson David Riley doesn't want us to think it's such a bleak future, however, as he explains it could very well be a decision left up to the console makers.Turns out, up until November 2006, it wasn't policy to share the data. But, due to a torrent of media requests and some internal conversations, the company eventually came to the conclusion that the numbers would be released. So, given that, if the go-ahead is given by the console makers, then this could all be a lot of nothing and NPD will continue to do things as usual.[Via Joystiq]
