the vanishing of ethan carter
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This art dealer wants to hang an indie game on your wall
Dutch art dealership and gallery Cook & Becker has been selling fine art prints from video games for a few years now. Thanks to partnerships with companies like Capcom, Naughty Dog, DICE and BioWare, it's offered artwork from critically acclaimed titles like The Last of Us, Mass Effect, Okami, and Mirror's Edge. Now, it's wooing indie developers into its ranks with a new initiative called the Cook & Becker Indie Program. The first fruits from the effort came last month with the release of artwork from Ronimo Games' Awesomenauts, and it's signed deals with both Vlambeer and The Astronauts -- Ridiculous Fishing and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter prints are coming soon.
Best of the Rest: Richard's picks of 2014
ATTENTION: The year 2014 has concluded its temporal self-destruct sequence. If you are among the escapees, please join us in salvaging and preserving the best games from the irradiated chrono-debris. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter The best thing about The Vanishing of Ethan Carter might be that it tells its story in a way that only a video game can. Other games aspire to emulate other forms of media, to be more like movies or books. Ethan Carter, on the other hand, embraces the interactivity of the medium in a wonderful way, with an awareness of a video game's ability to let you live through a moment, rather than just witnessing it. At first, Ethan Carter feels like a typical paranormal mystery, and its investigation mechanics are cleverly implemented, asking you to put the events of the past in the correct order to reveal the truth behind a series of murders. The mystery elements turn out to be just a small part of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, though, and you soon find yourself pulled into some of the greatest moments of pure fantasy that I've ever seen in a video game. I won't say another word, for fear of spoiling anything. If you appreciate a good mystery, and you believe in the transportational power of games, do yourself a favor and pick it up.
Best of the Rest: Anthony's picks of 2014
ATTENTION: The year 2014 has concluded its temporal self-destruct sequence. If you are among the escapees, please join us in salvaging and preserving the best games from the irradiated chrono-debris. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Unlike a surprising number of vocal individuals on the Internet, I happened to like Final Fantasy XIII. Its world of cruel, mercurial gods and long, fashionable coats worked for me despite some miserable pacing and some truly unlikable characters. (Why would anyone try to save Serah or help Snow? They're insufferable.) I didn't love it, though. I honestly thought that I'd finally grown out of Final Fantasy's style of drama. And then came Lightning Returns, the best game to come out of Square's internal Japanese studios since 2006. Everything about Lightning Returns clicked for me. The weird costume design was leveraged to make a speedy, delectable battle system that rarely emphasizes level grinding over skill and strategy. Manipulating the passage of time while sticking to the game's ceaselessly diminishing clock before the world literally ends never feels cumbersome or stressful as in other time management games, it only adds to the driven feeling that fuels the story. And what a story. Lightning Returns trades mewling melodrama for a tale about a post-death world. When everyone lives forever, when nothing changes, what matters? The wooden Lightning of past games instead becomes a powerful point-of-view character for the player, an anchor for our questions about this fantasy world works and what's at stake. Square hasn't made a game this powerful or weird in years, and part of me wishes this was the only Final Fantasy XIII in existence.
Gaming for the X-Files Fan's Soul: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Sometimes you have an itch that simply can't be scratched. Characters you loved disappear into the recesses of fanfic and Netflix binge watching, long gone plot threads from dead TV shows, comics, and novels dangling in your memory. What you really want isn't necessarily more of the old stuff. Would new episodes of The X-Files really be awesome? Seeing Mulder and Scully with iPhones, instantly looking up info on demigod worshipping cults via their Twitter feed just seems wrong. What you really want is just something new to scratch the itch, something that captures the tone, texture and feel of that lost fiction love. If you're an old X-Files freak, The Astronauts' The Vanishing of Ethan Carter will soothe your mind and body.
Joystiq Streams: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter blind play giveaway
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is weird. Really weird. So weird that it really has to be seen to be believed. While the Joystiq review certainly had fine things to say about it, Richard Mitchell's bold description of its unsettling strangeness has merely piqued our curiosity rather than sated it. Emboldened by resurrected forest mystery Twin Peaks, Vanishing's siren call is now irresistible. We will stream it together, blind and unknowing, ready for what may come. Starting at 4:00PM EST on Joystiq.com/Twitch, we'll be streaming The Vanishing of Ethan Carter as Anthony John Agnello (@ajohnagnello) plays it for the first time. Apparently forest astronauts happen. Awesome. Richard Mitchell (@TheRichardM) will be hanging out in the chat, offering moral support, and giving away Steam codes for Vanishing gratis. Joystiq.com/Twitch at 4:00PM EST, just like we do every Tuesday and Thursday. Chances are we'll be streaming some weirdness on Friday too! What will we be streaming? Follow us on Twitch to find out. [Images: The Astronauts]
Joystiq Weekly: The Cryptarch grows a heart, Alien: Isolation review, N64 turns 18 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. Between the Nintendo 64's birthday and the Pokemon TCG iPad app reminding us that our childhood card games no longer have to be played with expensive, holographic pieces of paper, we're teetering toward a slight meltdown. When did we swap out our trapper keepers for a stack of bills? Why did we have to give up Saturday morning cartoons, again? What do you mean there's more to save up for in life beyond booster packs and video games? Sorry, we'll do our best to get a grip. This week brought more than a halting reminder of time's unstoppable march, though! Bungie tweaked a few loot-related settings in Destiny, we reviewed Alien: Isolation, Skylanders Trap Team and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, and we explored the weirdest stages of the N64's now-adult life. Those stories and more are waiting for you after the break!
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter review: Weird tales
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is unlike any video game I've ever played. It naturally shares elements with other games, of course. It's played from a first-person perspective. It relies on the familiar structures of mystery and horror. And yes, its inhabitants have a proclivity for scattering their diaries, letters and newspaper clippings everywhere. All of these pieces combine to tell a very engaging, supernatural story, but that's not what makes The Vanishing of Ethan Carter special. The difficult part – from the perspective of the person writing this review – is that I don't want to spoil a single second of the stuff that really shines. It's impossible to completely avoid that in the words that follow, but I'll try to summarize by saying this: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter revels in the fact that anything can happen in a video game, and that those happenings are made more meaningful by the interactivity of the medium. It gets a hearty recommendation from me. If you need a little more to go on, and you're willing to expose yourself to one teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy spoiler – I promise it won't ruin anything – then please read on.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter due next month, new gameplay video
The appearing of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is nailed in for September 25 on Windows PC, priced at $20 in North America and £15 in the UK on both Steam and GOG. Meanwhile, the "first to console" PS4 version is due sometime in 2015. The Astronauts was founded by the same people who founded People Can Fly, the studio behind the enthusiastically violent Bulletstorm and Gears of War: Judgment. Yet as a new gameplay video shows, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is about discovering the causes of homicide rather than being one of them. You explore the clues lurking in the world's reddened greenery as you try to piece together the events that led to young Ethan Carter's disappearance following a violent murder. There's also a paranormal element, as you can tap into the memories of the murdered to help reconstruct the chronology of events and unearth the answers hidden in the scenery. Peruse below the break for that new video which features 13 minutes of gameplay with explanatory narration by The Astronauts' Adrian Chmielarz.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter to appear on PS4
For someone who supposedly vanished, Ethan Carter seems to be getting around. Already announced for PC, it was revealed at Sony's Gamescom press conference today that The Vanishing of Ethan Carter will also arrive on PS4. The game promises a spooky, first-person mystery inspired by the likes of H.P. Lovecraft and other, similar fiction from the early 20th century. Don't worry about keeping the lights on though, as developer The Astronauts describes the atmosphere as not one of terror, but rather of "clammy unease." The Vanishing of Ethan Carter will arrive on PC in "a few weeks," while the PS4 release is slated for next year. Watch Ethan Carter's new Gamescom trailer after the break. [Image: The Astronauts]
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter appearing this summer
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, a "weird fiction horror" game from some of the developers behind Bulletstorm and Gears of War: Judgment, will come out of the fog (or wherever it is Mr. Carter vanished to) sometime this summer. Eurogamer reports that the game's creator, Adrian Chmielarz, said to expect the game roughly four months from now. While that would estimate Ethan Carter's disappearing act to take place in September, Chmielarz also said that the game would release more toward the middle of summer. "We are going to have probably the worst possible release date, which is the middle of summer," he told Eurogamer. "It's hot and it's summer - do you really want to play a game about autumn?" Chmielarz said that while the summer 2014 window is for a PC release, Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game are a distinct possibility. He and his team currently lack dev kits for either system, but Chmielarz plans to "bug" Microsoft and Sony once work on Ethan Carter has wrapped. [Image: The Astronauts]
Trio of gifs paint The Vanishing of Ethan Carter as pretty, eerie
Screenshots are so 2009, so instead developer The Astronauts has opted to issue three new glimpses at The Vanishing of Ethan Carter in the Internet's favorite movie format, the gif. Problematically, The Astronauts are duly proud of their work and wanted to make these gifs as grand as possible, resulting in moving images that were approaching 20MB in size. The above gif, and the two below the break, have been reduced in size and quality to prevent our readers' computers from bursting into flames, but if you'd like to see the original versions visit The Astronauts website. That gif above is a demonstration of what The Astronauts call "photogrammetric technology," a process that makes rendering highly detailed scenes both quicker and more efficient. It won't replace artists per se, but will instead augment their work.
First moody shots of investigation game 'The Vanishing of Ethan Carter'
The first four screenshots of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter are in-game, during gameplay moments, developer The Astronauts promises. There are no cut-scenes in the game at all, though the screens look more like oil paintings or concept art, showing a beautiful forest marred by moments of blood and signs of death – precisely the tone Ethan Carter is going for. Ethan Carter is a first-person discovery game starring occult detective Paul Prospero. Paul is a simple, serious man, and he knows that this will be his last case, one way or another, as explained in the game's beautiful mini-comic (which is accompanied by gentle music and sound effects). Ethan, a young boy, disappears after a brutal murder, and Paul must uncover the dark mysteries of the town to find him. The Astronauts, composed of former People Can Fly developers, are focused on immersive storytelling and "clammy unease," creating a psychologically creepy mood more than making people jump from their seats. Ethan Carter is due out this year for PC. "With its mixture of a beautiful world with the haunting and macabre, this story is for adult players," The Astronauts writes. "That said, there is no combat in our game. If our game leaves any scars, you won't be able to see them. Also, we want gamers to experience the story of Paul and Ethan at their own pace, and without the need for sedatives."
The Astronauts and Ethan Carter steer away from 'mammoth-sized' games
The Astronauts are working on an eerie, macabre, non-combat game called The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, and while we're still not sure exactly what it is, one thing is certain – it's not AAA. After founding People Can Fly, working on Bulletstorm and Gears of War, and leaving to start an indie studio, designer Adrian Chmielarz says AAA games have lost their appeal."We're no longer excited by mammoth-sized games," Chmielarz tells Games Industry International. "We're still very interested in high quality, but now and in the future we want to focus on smaller projects."The Vanishing of Ethan Carter will involve death and murder, but won't feature any shooting. It's a game of discovery, similar to Dear Esther, but with more corpses, as Chmielarz describes. Horror is thriving on the indie scene, he says, and he hopes Ethan Carter shows that video games can offer a broader range of experiences. But if no one understands this approach and the game bombs, The Astronauts may need to come back to Earth."If we don't slip, we'll have just enough money for this first project, and then it's sink or float," Chmielarz says. "Kickstarter was tempting, sure, whether we like it or not it's a great marketing tool and gives your project that extra visibility boost. But we think that Kickstarter should only be used by those studios for which there's just no other way without losing their freedom. We're just old-fashioned this way."The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is due out on PC this year.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter will be combat-free, focus on exploration
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is the recently announced (and kind of creepy) new game from creative lead Adrian Chmielarz, formerly of People Can Fly, where he worked on violence-ridden games like Bulletstorm and Gears of War: Judgement. But while those games celebrated a proliferation of firearms, Chmielarz says his new title will be quite the opposite: There won't be any shooting at all.There will be some death, however. "Take Dear Esther, add gameplay, murder and corpses," Chmielarz said to Eurogamer this week. "That's the closest to what The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is." Dear Esther was a first person exploration game more than anything, but Chmielarz added to expect slightly more interactivity in the new title. Players will play as a detective (presumably researching the titular mystery), and will find clues as the game goes on. Chmielarz said that "the focus is not on mind bending puzzles, but on unsettling discoveries."He also said he was considering supporting the Oculus Rift, and other 3D displays and devices. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is set to launch on the PC later this year.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter brings 'weird fiction horror' to PC this year
The founders of People Can Fly – responsible for Bulletstorm and currently Gears of War: Judgment – have flown the coop to begin another studio, The Astronauts, and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is their first game. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a "weird fiction horror" game inspired by macabre 20th century tales, set for a PC launch this year and developed in Unreal Engine 3."What we care about the most is that the players feel like they're really there," game designer Adrian Chmielarz says. "Immersion is our number one priority. It's a game about exploration and discovery. We're not abandoning the gameplay – on the contrary: We're trying to strip it down to the bone and make sure it's always meaningful and truly makes the experience better."Chmielarz, along with co-founders Andrzej Poznanski and Michal Kosieradzki, premiere The Vanishing of Ethan Carter with the above teaser, showing a content old man stoking a fire sparked by a teddy bear in a sweater and an assortment of shoes and clothes. We never heard that particular bedtime story as children.
