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Gabriel Knight Creator’s “Gray Matter” to Appear at Leipzig
Posted by Steve Van Neil Categories: Adventure, PC,
Excellent news for fans of point-and-click adventure games: Gray Matter, the newest game series from Jane Jensen, creator of the popular Gabreil Knight PC adventure game series, will see its first installment show up in playable form at the Leipzig Games Convention later this week. Jensen describes Gray Matter as a “paranormal/investigative series…updated to be more unique and cutting-edge, dealing with Matrix-like questions about the nature of reality… the power and potential of the human mind.”
Of special note is Jensen’s decision to design the game in 2D. She explains, “For an adventure game, you want atmosphere. Moving the camera is not only unnecessary, but [also] a real detriment for many people. Studies have shown that women and older people don’t like moving a camera in 3D, and these demographics are an important part of our audience.”
Perhaps the pure adventure game isn’t quite dead. The first chapter of Gray Matter, currently subtitled Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made Of, is scheduled for a first quarter 2008 release, courtesy of publisher dtp.
Read More 
| 1UP
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Console Downloads Feature Space Bounty Hunters and Also Giraffes
Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Adventure, Nintendo, Platformers, Retro, Third Person Shooters, Virtual Console, Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade,
People with virtual currency burning pixelated holes in their alternate reality pockets can check out the Xbox Live Arcade and the Wii Virtual Console this week for some new (or perhaps old) titles. The most exciting offerings this week look to be the Jeff Minter shooter Space Giraffe and the wonderful SNES classic, Super Metroid.
Click to continue reading Console Downloads Feature Space Bounty Hunters and Also Giraffes
Read More | Nintendo Press Release
Ratchet and Clank Future Officially Dated for October 23rd
Posted by Steve Van Neil Categories: Action, Adventure, Platformers, PlayStation 3, Release Dates, Sony,
On the latest episode of its Full Moon Show Podcast, Insomniac Games has disclosed an official North American release date of October 23rd for Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. The game is the fifth installment of the popular action/platform series (okay, so Deadlocked was more of a multiplayer shooter), and first for the PS3. A real next-gen mascot platform game (movie licensed ones don’t count) has been a long time coming, but luckily we have Insomniac around to temporarily rescue us from the glut of dark and mature steroid-addled first person shooters.
Insomniac has promised that a PSN demo will arrive before the final game, but all we have as far as a timeframe is a painfully vague, “Near future.”
Read More | Insomniac Games
Latest Gear Live Videos
Tomb Raider Anniversary Wii Revealed
Posted by Steve Van Neil Categories: Action, Adventure, Nintendo, Wii,
In this promotional trailer for the Wii version of Tomb Raider Anniversary, Producer Morgan Gray demonstrates some of the game’s Wii-specific motion controls. Using their Wiimotes, budding Lara Crofts will be able to “touch the game world for the first time.” Not in that way! No, instead players can use the controller as a pick-axe to remove obstructions or as a brush to clean off artifacts. Wiimote-specific control schemes for the various puzzles and combat sequences are obviously a given. All in all, this brief peek hints at motion control mechanics that are surprisingly well integrated with the core Tomb Raider gameplay. Gamers are understandably wary of some of these quickie PS2/PSP-to-Wii ports, but Tomb Raider Anniversary is one to keep an eye on.
Eidos has not given official word on a release date for the game besides “Coming Soon,” but we’re guessing it will hit in time for the holidays.
Read More | Tomb Raider Anniversary
Console Downloads This Week Featuring Metroid and Hexic 2
Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Adventure, Puzzle, Retro, Virtual Console, Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade,
Following a light week, Microsoft returns this Wednesday to the two game new/old format, dropping Hexic 2 (800 Microsoft Points) and the Sega classic Ecco the Dolphin (400 Microsoft Points). Hexic 2 comes from famed Tetris creator Alexy Patjitnov and follows up the packed-in original XBLA title and adds new modes including same-screen or Live multiplayer; Ecco the Dolphin boasts enhanced graphics and sound plus a “Best Time” leaderboard.
These games join more than 75 others on the service which has been a huge success for Microsoft as detailed in a lecture by Marc Whitten this week at GameFest, where he discussed the company’s plan for attracting the casual gamer to the XBox 360. Whitten stated that they’ve seen a 156% average financial return in the past year on XBLA titles, earning more than $30 million to date. Based on this success they expect revenue on XBox Live Arcade to double in the next fiscal year and predict that by the end of this year they will have reached 45 million downloads of over 100 available titles.
On Nintendo’s similar download service, Virtual Console, they’re dropping three new games this week including the original NES classic Metroid (500 Wii Points), plus the Sega dungeon crawler Shining in the Darkness (800 Wii Points) as well as the TurbGrafx-16 game Cratermaze (600 Wii Points). Nintendo is choosing now to push the original Metroid title onto the VC as a means of keeping their Metroid brand fresh in gamers’ minds as they prepare to release the marquee Wii game Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in two weeks. As part of this effort, next week’s VC title is expected to be the SNES sequel, Super Metroid.
Read More | Gamasutra
BioShock Art Book Available Online…for Free!
Posted by Steve Van Neil Categories: Action, Adventure, First Person Shooters, Games for Windows, Microsoft, Take2, Xbox 360,
Coming hot on the heels of a truly tremendous Xbox Live demo, 2K Boston/2K Australia (formerly Irrational Games) has posted a free PDF file which contains sixty-odd pages of concept art from the game to be printed out at your leisure. How cool is that? Word of warning, however: Ken Levine’s forward to the book contains spoilers, so tread carefully.
BioShock is poised to blow minds on Xbox 360 and Windows in just seven days.
Read More | 2K Games
Virtual Console 7/30: Star Soldier, Dynamite Headdy, And Drop Off
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Action, Adventure, Nintendo, Puzzle, Retro, Virtual Console, Wii,
While the Xbox Live Arcade is set to get the classic Marathon, Virtual Console’s additions this week include Star Soldier (vertical shooter; NES, 500 Wii points), Dynamite Headdy (platformer; Genesis, 800 points) and Drop Off (puzzle; TurboGrafx16, 600 points) – all pretty old titles. This is really a hardcore retro week, apparently.
All three are now available. Check after the break for more details.
Click to continue reading Virtual Console 7/30: Star Soldier, Dynamite Headdy, And Drop Off
Escape from Bug Island for Wii Out This Week
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Adventure, Eidos, Special Editions, Wii,
Ah, Escape from Bug Island... everybody’s favorite whipping boy. Somehow, with E3 still fresh in our minds and lots of new downloadable content available on all 3 consoles, we forgot about you! How could we! Well, Bug Island, here’s your moment to shine. Go ahead, tell the crowd about your stunnig gameplay, your creepy, scary story, your amazing showing during playtests. What’s that, little guy? You don’t have any of those? Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring that up. Don’t cry…
But buck up little camper… you’ll show them! You’ll actually be released this week, on July 24th! Don’t worry… I’m sure you’ll have at least a FEW pre-orders, and I’m sure there are a number of insect-obsessed kids out there that would love to be your friend. But really, I gotta be honest, Bug Island, you’re going to have to work hard to get people to notice you… to get people to recognize what a thoroughly decent game you might be. Otherwise, it’s going to be off to the bargain bin with you, and we don’t want that to happen now do we. Go get’em tiger!
Read More | Escape From Bug Island - The Highly Informative Website of the Game
Rockstar Loves Nintendo, Brings Bully and Table Tennis Wii-ward
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Adventure, Take2, Wii,
Well, it seems as if the constant hubbub over Manhunt 2 won’t be keeping Rockstar away from the Wii. Just recently, Rockstar has announced that they will be bringing Bully (formerly PS2 exclusive) and Table Tennis (formerly 360 exclusive) to the Wii. It seems the company has been amping up support for the little white box. Here’s hoping that these won’t be quick-n-dirty money-printing ports from Rockstar - I’ve come to expect quality from these guys.
Bully will be hitting the Wii (and the 360, by the way!) in a new “Scholarship Edition” that features new bonus content, as yet unspecified. Look for it to drop this winter.
Read More | Take2games.com
Morrowind Headlines New List Of Backwards Compatible Xbox Games On Xbox 360
Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Action, Activision, Adventure, CAPCOM, Driving, Eidos, Electronic Arts, Fighting, First Person Shooters, Microsoft, Namco, Puzzle, Role Playing Games, SEGA, Simulation, Sports, Survival Horror, Third Person Shooters, THQ, Ubisoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
It’s about time – finally, Xbox 360 owners who weren’t fortunate enough to play The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind on Xbox or PC can now do so on Xbox 360. The update brings the total number of back compat Xbox games to over 300. And all games are upscaled, so those who have been waiting to play NBA Live 2002 in 720p or 1080i can now do so.
Updated:
- Crash Bandicoot 5: Wrath of Cortex
- Jet Set Radio Future
- Rogue Ops
- Sega GT 2002
Check out the new games after the break.
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