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'Un Chien Andalou' inspires a surreal indie game from Russian devs
In 1929, famed artist Salvador Dalí and filmmaker Luis Buñuel awoke from a night of strange dreams, Buñuel recalling the image of a razor blade cloud slicing through the moon as if it were an eyeball, and Dalí describing a human hand covered in ants. They turned these images into a silent, surrealist short film called Un Chien Andalou, which opens on a woman with one eye held open, a cloud cutting across the moon and a blade slicing through the eye of a dead calf. The hand, crawling with ants, also makes an appearance. The film has no plot, but it's rife with emotive and disturbing imagery. Cut to 2014, when Russian game developers Ilya Kononenko and Yuliya Kozhemyako decided the first scene of Un Chien Andalou would make the perfect setting for their entry in a local game jam with the theme "Phobias." Their completed game is now due out on April 3rd, called The Tender Cut.
The Unfinished Swan painting PS4, Vita next week
Giant Sparrow's surreal exploration game The Unfinished Swan will arrive next week on PS4 and Vita, just over two years after it first launched on PS3. The game will launch on Tuesday, October 28 in North America and the following day in Europe for $14.99 (€12.99/£9.99). The Unfinished Swan will also be Cross-Buy enabled, so those that own any version of the game will be able to download it on the other two systems. Our review of the PS3 game noted that The Unfinished Swan's power "lies in its engagement with our imagination, in its ability to remind us of that capacity for whimsy and fantasy." It's the first game from the Santa Monica-based developer, which is currently working on an as-yet-unannounced game that is not a sequel to The Unfinished Swan, but is "not a million miles away either." [Image: Giant Sparrow]
Iris Online opens registration for beta testing
While free-to-play games aren't everyone's cup of tea, it's hard to deny that some imaginative mechanics come out of them that wouldn't thrive anywhere else. Iris Online is a prime example, utilizing a Tarot-based set of mechanics that tie 22 dungeons of the game to the 22 Major Arcana and allow players to change into monsters via a card system. Gala-Net is opening the game up for beta testing registration, with the game's testing set to commence at an unspecified time in the future. Described as a gypsy-themed fantasy game, the aesthetics feature a surfeit of bright colors and surreal imagery, such as the accordion-legged horses seen in the title image. (Those are mounts, for the record.) It also sticks to the Tarot theme in its dungeon mechanics -- the Lovers dungeon, for instance, may only be entered by a male character and a female character, both of whom must survive together. While the details on gameplay are yet to be fully revealed, Iris Online certainly has a unique look to it, and those interested can sign up for beta testing now.
AT&T redirecting 911 calls from Salt Lake City to Seattle, working on a fix (update: fix is in)
Ready for a surreal way to start your day? Salt Lake City's KSL News has a report out this morning detailing the baffling experience of AT&T subscribers trying to access emergency services in the city. Instead of being routed through to their local dispatcher, the urgent calls somehow found their way to Seattle's 911 response center. Brought to the news team's attention by one Tony Sams, this issue was originally thought to originate in his iPhone's GPS system, as he was being identified as being located in the Seattle area, but then his local police also tried dialing their own number only to find themselves chatting it up with their Emerald City colleagues. Until they figure this out, we'd recommend using your landlines -- if you still have one of those antiques -- or just yelling at passersby for help. Hit the source for the full video report and the 10-digit direct number for Salt Lake City general dispatch. Update: AT&T has been very nippy in getting this routing problem sorted out, and proper service has been restored. The company is now investigating the cause of this problemo. [Thanks, Ryan]
First Impressions: Alganon
Today's First Impressions could use a little bit of external reading before you go too deeply into it. So I'm going to start by linking an article that's nearly seven years old but still excellent -- Fantasy Heartbreakers. Now that you've all clicked "Back" in some confusion or just avoided the link in the first place, some explanation. The article is the origin of a term that pen-and-paper RPG fans have come to use to describe a certain type of game referenced in the article. It's referring to the countless game companies who thought they could make a game that was better at being Dungeons and Dragons than, well, Dungeons and Dragons. Many of the games in question weren't bad games -- sometimes even good ones -- but they were built on the fundamental premise that they would be "like D&D but with X." Some of you probably see where this is going, or got it as soon as you saw the term. Because we're all very aware of how predominant World of Warcraft has become in the MMO marketplace, to the point where it's the essential standard that other MMOs are judged against. Alganon, then, could be seen as our genre's first fantasy heartbreaker. Because it's genuinely tough not to play the game and see that there's some really good stuff in here.
Joystiq E3 impressions: This is Vegas
We'll make a promise to you: not once in this preview will we reference the "Things that occur in Vegas" advertising slogan that seems to pop up every time someone mentions the mecca of mischievousness in the middle of Nevada. Except for that one time. No more.This is Vegas is a game dreamed up by an assistant. Senior Associate Producer Trevor Ellington told us the real story behind the Sin City-based open-world humor game: an executive assistant at Midway came up with the idea of a game that replicated all of the wild fun to be had in Vegas, and thus was born TiV. During the demo we saw here at E3, the game presented four various scenarios: Fight, Party, Game, Drive, but by the time the game is released in 2009, they'll all be melded into what's supposed to be a sandbox of a good time.
Sword of the New World expands with Nocturnal Sonata
IGN has a scoop on the new 'Nocturnal Sonata' expansion to Sword of the New World, an MMO also known as Granado Espada in Asia. Sword of the New World is a free-to-play title brought to North America and Europe by the K2 Network. Massively has looked at this game in the past and found it to be a quirky title; IGN describes its setting as 'the European Baroque period if it was designed by a modern anime artist'. Sword of the New World becomes even more surreal given that its old world setting is juxtaposed with a techno soundtrack. Surreal qualities aside, the game has some interesting features, particularly the use of collectible UPCs, or Unique Player Characters. The concept is somewhat comparable to the Heroes in Guild Wars. You control up to three characters at once who are members of your 'family'; certain NPCs for whom you've successfully completed quests offer themselves up to be added to your family as UPCs and called upon to aid you in your adventures. They provide access to special hybrid classes with unique powers to match. There are over 40 such UPCs, and two more are initially being added in the Nocturnal Sonata expansion: Vincent Rio (who inflicts damage with music) and Baek Ho (martial artist extraordinaire). Yet more UPCs are to follow in the coming months, adding new gameplay possibilities to Sword of the New World. The Nocturnal Sonata expansion will be released on June 25, and closely follows the 'The Land of the Dead' expansion released only three months ago.
The surreal Nintendo artwork of Jimi Benedict
We love unique, video game inspired artwork just as much as the next guy -- our weary-spined copy of "i am 8-bit" can vouch for that. However, we also love our preserved, cherished memories of our NES era heroes. These two feelings conflict when looking at Jimi Benedict's surreal video game art -- our inner Andy Warhol loves Benedict's incredibly unique and lovingly detailed portraits, but the traditionalist in us prefers not to think of Link as a gap-toothed, Sloth-faced dwarf.You can see both full portraits after the jump, but to see the rest of Benedict's art (including what appears to be a mock-up title screen to the lesser known NES game Obama: Take the Power Back), you'll have to go to his website -- a swirling vortex of complete madness and totally rad drawings.[Via DSF]
Midway introduces 'This is Vegas' to Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Exacting revenge for all those times we said, "This is mediocre," publisher Midway has announced "This is Vegas," shortly before kicking us into a mysterious pit acting as little more than a receptacle for cynical gamers and woefully outdated movie references. So what, pray tell, is this ... This is Vegas?According to the press release, it's "an open world, lifestyle action experience, where players will live out their Vegas fantasies by fighting, gambling, driving and partying their way through the most decadent, fast-paced and wildest city in the world." Said gambling, driving and partying will occur in a world devised by Midway's internal studio, Surreal Software. The Suffering and Drakan developer is currently aiming for a Winter 2008 release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.Studio head Alan Patmore says the team is "thrilled" to indulge our "wildest Vegas fantasies," though fails to specify whether that includes the one where we become an inconsiderate, alcoholic grandmother addicted to shaking hands with the one-armed bandit. There will, however, be "partying in the hottest night clubs, racing in underground circuits," playing at the tables, impromptu barroom brawls and (presumably) other exciting, lifestyle action experiences. This is Vegas, baby.%Gallery-15441%
WoW Moviewatch: Wandering Dreamscape
This is one truly impressive piece of machinima. I don't watch a lot of WoW movies, but it's the coolest use of the WoW engine I've seen since Return. The video's author, Snoman, does some pretty amazing things with WoW's terrain and models, sometimes changing the game world so much that I look at a scene and think "What game is that? And where can I get it?" Here's Snoman's description:Wandering Dreamscape showcases 17 model changes. These have been edited together into three separate songs; each with it's own theme and story. I have tried to make it as enjoyable as possible, using some amazing trance tracks and filtering nearly every shot as to make it as surrealistically realistically beautiful as possible."Surrealistically realistically beautiful," eh? As confusing as that is, I'd say it's accomplished pretty well in this video. Head over to Warcraft Movies if you want to download it, which the author entreats you to do.[thanks, BaronSoosdon]Previously on MoviewatchUltimate Escapism 1, 2, and 3, also by Snoman
