psychonauts
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GDC Quest Quiz IV: Erik Wolpaw
We did a terrible thing at last week's Game Developer's Conference. Aside from our usual barrage of photographs and "reporting," a select group of attendees had to endure a particularly inane and utterly pointless line of questioning -- just for laughs. This is what happens when you hunt down several adventure game connoisseurs and challenge them to solve a typically obnoxious adventure game puzzle.The PlayerErik Wolpaw, co-author of the now-defunct Old Man Murray. He's written for games such as Psychonauts and Portal, and once accused the adventure genre of committing suicide.The PuzzleYou're standing in front of a cave. The goal is to get inside the cave, taking care to foil the ferocious robot bear guarding the entrance first.The Inventory (1) perforated parasol (1) rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle (1) sealed manila envelope (1) miniature macaroni Tim Schafer statue The Solution "How is the pulley attached to the rubber chicken? See, this is why I hate adventure games. I think you're expecting a joke answer, and I'm actually trying to figure it out. OK, type 'quit.' That's what I would do. Go to the menu and type 'quit.'"(Catch the rest of our interview with Wolpaw later this week!)
Steam's last-minute Christmas sale: 10-50% off everything
Valve's Steam service is having a last-minute holiday sale from today until January 1, with everything on the online store reportedly 10% to 50% off. While all they have to do is make one game 50% and the rest 10% to make that statement valid, there are some good deals going on. Highlights include: Orange Box - $37.45 (25% off) BioShock - $37.45 (25% off) S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - $22.45 (25% off) id Software Super Pack - $52.45 (25% off) Psychonauts - $9.95 (50% off) There are very few hours until Christmas. On this coast, most stores are closing down. Wouldn't be great if you could find the perfect gift for the ones you love? How about a downloadable copy of Psychonauts (no, we don't shut up about this game) for only $10? And while we're at it, you can afford to purchase Rag Doll Kung Fu ($13.45) and Bookworm Adventures ($17.95).
Schafer: No new Psychonauts on the way
Alright, the internet, you can officially stop dreaming about a sequel to Psychonauts and go back to dreaming about Brutal Legend. After a darkened version of the game's logo with the words "Coming Soon" on it appeared on the Double Fine site and started the rumor train, chief Tim Schafer had to be the one to put the penny on the track. He told Next-Gen, "the truth is we are just putting together a new page about 'The Excellent Game Psychonauts.' We're not announcing any new games or anything. Sorry if we confused anybody! We lightened up the image to hopefully make things clearer."Why do you build us up (build us up), buttercup? ... And why did we just call a man who could squish us between his meaty palms "buttercup"?
Psychonauts 2 in development?
Hot off the heels of Double Fine's announcement of Brütal Legend, we get this tasty little morsel of potential excellence. On Double Fine's projects page, beneath the link for Brütal Legend, we have the teaser image pictured above. No great mystery regarding its contents -- that's clearly Raz, and the logo for the first Psychonauts. Is Tim Schafer trying to not-so-subtly tell us that a sequel is in the works? Or is this some sort of twisted joke? (Schafer does, after all, have a "twisted mind," as many a press release have said). Not much else to speculate here. We'll keep our eyes peeled for any further announcements or information.[Update: Sadly, it seems that the "coming soon" image was merely intended to indicate an eventual info page for the original Psychonauts. Double Fine has recognized the confusion, and quietly un-darkened the image to make it more apparent. So no Psychonauts 2 after all. Color us disappointed.][Via Rock Paper Shotgun]
Tim Schafer's Brutal Legend lands on Game Informer cover
"A Rock 'n Roll roadshow through the twisted mind of Tim Schafer?" That sounds fantastic, though we imagine it comes across like nails on a chalkboard to the publisher hoping to hear terms like "shooter," "sequel," "football," and "based on the hit movie" in the game pitch. Preferably, it'll be all of those.And for all we know, Double Fine's Brütal Legend could contain any of the above. For now, the only information we have is that obtained from the cover of the latest Game Informer magazine (we've confirmed the image is real), graciously snapped and posted by "Iksenpets" on the official Double Fine forums. The image reveals who we assume to be Jack Black's character -- an axe-wielding, axe-wielding roadie named Eddie Riggs. Oh, and when you check between the pages to find out more about Mr. Schafer's latest road trip, be sure to find out how NF HELL 4K2: The Movie: The Game is coming along.[Thanks, Max]
Double Fine returns with Epic Saga: Extreme Fighter
As any video game journalist with a few free minutes will tell you, Psychonauts is a brilliant classic that never got the attention it so richly deserved. Thankfully for all of us tired of game journalists yammering on about his last stroke of brilliance, Tim Schafer and Double Fine studios have returned with a new stroke, a title perfectly poised for mass market success: Epic Saga: Extreme Fighter.We all love dark wizards and gnome kings, right? But what if a gnome king fought a dark wizard? That's the sort of question that ES: EF dares to simultaneously ask and answer. If your puny desktop rig can manage pushing all the pixels, you need to start playing this game today. Oh, didn't we mention? It's free![Thanks to everyone who sent this in.]
Gamecock's Insecticide and Mushroom Men
I never thought I'd write about cock on this blog, but it's unavoidable now that a new company has formed called Gamecock. The company was founded by the former CEO and former president of the defunct Gathering of Developers. They aim to bring risk taking, creative indie titles to all platforms. Two of their first games are headed to not just next-gen systems, but also an unnamed handheld. It seems like the PSP is the most likely candidate. The first game is Mushroom Men, which follows three-inch-high Mushroom Men as they battle in a war against different spore factions. Use common household items to fashion weapons and tools to help turn the tide of war. The second game is Insecticide which has a Tim Burton/Psychonauts look to its character designs and is an action/adventure game set in a world that is decaying and full of bugs ... sexy bugs. You can visit Gamecock's site to see more on all their games. [Via IGN]
A blueprint for game marketing (or: what happened to Psychonauts?)
Game designer Pierre-Alexandre Garneau ("just call me Pag") has written a piece for Gamasutra that is essentially a Magic 8-ball for determining the success, by means of marketing, of a quality title. The piece, entitled "10 Minute Game Sales Potential Test," presents six questions for determining whether a publisher will be able to successfully market a title.It's a fascinating read. The words of wisdom one can reap from the piece, if you believe Garneau's analysis, is that original, complex ideas have a steep curve when it comes to profitability. Spore without Will Wright would likely not garner so much attention and anticipation, and we're inclined to agree. As much as one might despise EA for rather annually "rehashing" Madden titles, the company still manages to sell millions of copies of each iteration -- as a business, they are acting as we'd expect. Also presented in the piece are examples where the test explains the financial success and failure of quality titles (Grand Theft Auto 3 and Psychonauts, respectively). It would be interesting to see how the analysis stacks up to other games both deserving and undeserving of their sales.See Also: Ad Critic
Huzzah! Psychonauts on 360, Soul Calibur, Conker too
We won't be satisfied until every Xbox title is compatible on 360, but today's backwards compatibility update is a major step in that direction. Sure, we knew the patch was coming, but it's a relief that it's here, Pyschonauts now playable -- as are Shenmue II, Indigo Prophecy, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Dead or Alive Ultimate, Buffy, Destroy All Humans, and others. The update's final list of games also features some additional surprises (unrevealed during the premature posting on Xbox.com), most notably Soul Calibur 2 (North America only) and Conker: Live and Reloaded. Still, each of these bc updates is bitter sweet, inevitably lacking games we've been longing for. It's been a year, and still no Panzer Dragoon Orta?
Pre-huzzah: Psychonauts spotted on back-compat list
For a brief moment in time, an updated version of the Xbox 360's backwards compatibility list was exposed for all the internet to see. Though it was yanked in a matter of minutes, one new entry stood out like an atomic mushroom cloud in a serene, children's playground. Not to imply that Psychonauts is capable of melting children or flooding large masses of land with deadly radiation, but its presence was rather devastating to the psyche. In case you weren't aware (and clearly you aren't much of the time), Tim Schafer and his team at Double Fine did extraordinary things with Psychonauts, managing to take the seemingly incompatible platformer and adventure genres and mash them together like two pieces of clay. That's before they twisted the whole mess into a variety of amusing shapes.Oh, there's a whole bunch of other new games too. However, when asked about the exact release date of this December update, Microsoft warned us that the list is not final. "We'll have more news soon -- as I'm sure you're aware with any software development, things can change at any time so we want to make an announcement when we're sure we've got the final, solid list."View the non-final, slightly wobbly list of additions after the break.[Thanks Nick! Thanks to Richard from Xbox 360 Fanboy for remembering to take a screenshot.]
Tim Schafer talks new-gen, suggests XBL MySpace features
Double Fine founder Tim Schafer told Gamasutra that while he's mostly a single-player kind of guy, he has really enjoyed the Xbox Live system that "facilitates ... playing with people you know," he said. Schafer, speaking in general about all the new generation consoles, also suggested that Xbox Live incorporate some of the features found in social networking sites. "You know how funny it is to go on MySpace or Friendster and write testimonials," he said. "I wish you could post those kinds of things about each other."Schafer also expressed glee with his Nintendo Wii, specifically the controller, Twilight Princess and the Mii channel. "As soon as I got it, just sitting there making Miis and sending them to all my friends was incredibly entertaining for about the first four days." That prompted the developer into suggesting XBL incorporate testimonials. We're imagining a Mii-like avatar creation tool for Xbox Live, and how enjoyably devious that would be.Double Fine is responsible for last generation's award-winning, scholarly media darling Psychonauts, which suffered from economic-centric maladies (read: poor sales). Before that, Schafer's work included Grim Fandango and contributions to the Monkey Island series. Double Fine is currently working on an unknown project for an unknown medium.
The PS3 backwards compatibility list
Sony's PlayStation site now features a handy little Javascript program that lets you check on any compatibility issues the PS3 might have with the PlayStation catalogue. Instead of a list, however, you have to type in the games about which you are curious into the search box to find out all the glitches.We understand not making a list of every PSOne and PS2 title that has compatibility issues, but at the same time we are not sure to what extent BC problems are prevalent. We are impressed with how detailed every glitch has been chronicled, so that you know exactly how the game will screw up (major or minor) while being played on the PS3. We decided to run of a few searches ourselves: Psychonauts, unlike its Xbox counterpart, "has no major problems" with the PS3. Huzzah! The Ratchet series works fine. The Jak series is okay, except for a handful of issues with Jak X: Combat Racing. Almost surprisingly, every Madden title works well. Only Madden NFL 2007 has some issues with static IP / DHCP and online gaming. Every SOCOM title has at least one or two issues. The Final Fantasy series is a mixed bag. X, XII, and Tactics work, but Anthology, Chronicles, Origins, VIII, and IX have issues. FF VII has one graphical anomaly during one of the first battles in the game. Final Fantasy XI has problems using the PS3's HDD, but a future software update promises to fix that. Mess around the search box and let us know what else you find. Don't throw out your PS2 until you check your favorite titles first.[Via CVG]
Psychonauts and Valve make steamy, Steam-y love
Last night, reading about RoboBlitz coming to Steam, we knew we weren't alone in wondering where our promised Psychonauts was. The BAFTA award winning (congrats, guys!) critics darling may not have been the belle of the retail ball, but she was always beautiful to us ... and now, Steam subscribers everywhere can take her out dancing for the digitally distributed price of $19.99 starting tonight!If you're hearing the sweet, sweet sound of romance in the air, you may wanna turn down the Barry White and listen up, cause Psychonauts developer Tim Schafer has something he wants to say you ... and only you ... in his low, deep, gravelly baritone:"So for the press release. uh. man, it's tough because every single 'steam' related play on words has already been done," said Schafer. "Double Fine and Valve: With a love this hot, you know there's gotta be STEAM! How about that?"Ooooh! We like that, and we know you do as well, dear reader. Just when you thought we'd already beaten that equine to death, sawed its head off, and tucked it gently into Doug Lombardi's comfy bed, here comes the ever dependable Schafer, pitching in with one. final. sawing. thrust! Phew!That's hawt. The comic Psychonauts art director Scott Campbell made commemorating the tryst is even hawter.
Psychonauts picks up Steam in October
This just in from the astral projection: Double Fine productions' masterpiece Psychonauts will arrive on Steam in early October. That's right: no longer will you have to trudge five miles in the snow to seek out this underrated overlooked gem -- huzzah!The price has yet to be revealed. Psychonauts publisher Majesco has also announced that Bloodrayne 1 & 2 and Advent Rising will be available for Steam starting today. The original Bloodrayne will be $10, while the other two titles are $20 apiece.Tim Schafer et al. are currently working on another project, as-of-yet unannounced, to be published by Sierra.[Thanks, 1up_clock]
Psychonauts still not guaranteed to be Xbox 360-compatible
Despite yesterday's promising development, Psychonauts is still not guaranteed to make Xbox 360's backwards compatibility list. Microsoft's Emulation Ninjas are indeed working on the next batch of BC titles, which includes Psychonauts, but Emulation Ninja Alan Stuart warns: "Even though we are working on Psychonauts, there is no guarantee we will ever be able to make the game backward compatible. We may run into technical limitations that will prevent us from ever shipping the game; we don't know yet."Ominous words from an official Ninja. But hope lives on ...
Psychonauts willing its way to BC List
Peter Moore may think backwards compatibility is for chumps (or does he?), but some of us would like to enjoy our Xbox classics. Psychonauts has been an especially vocal candidate for the back compat list lately. Tim Schafer, creator of Psychonauts, even launched an email campaign to get the game on Microsoft's sacred list. It looks like the petition got someone's attention over in Redmond, because a Microsoft back compat team member was compelled to post this on the IGN forums last week: "Rest assured, we are working on Psychonauts." Good news indeed. Now if they could just do something to make the game sell... [Via Xboxic]
Innovation falls flat in UK charts
Despite a pleasant atmosphere of European expectation at the start of February, we're halfway through and the charts look as mundane as ever. The Guardian Gamesblog's Greg took a look at this week's UK charts--notable absentees include Psychonauts and We ♥ Katamari. Ouch.Greg, and blog commenters, ponder the cause of these games' failures--from crazy cartoony packaging to gamers' inability to actually find the titles in shops. It seems most likely that the European release delay is responsible, though; after receiving rave reviews and building up buzz months ago, these titles are all-but-forgotten now.
