We’re not dead! And to prove it, I’m posting!
First order of business, congratulations to Bill Stiernberg of Zeboyd Games! He’s getting married this weekend, following which, he will be spending over a week in lovely Japan for his honeymoon. Be sure to wish him well!
I was considering starting the Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 3 development blog this month, but right now, I’m working on internal engine changes – important, but not particularly interesting to talk about – so we’ll hold off on that and start the blog later this year. We’re going to be working on gameplay prototypes in October so maybe I’ll be able to talk about those when the time comes.
In gaming news, I finally picked up a PS3 so expect to start seeing PS3 game reviews here. So far, I have Siren: Blood Curse and Demon’s Souls, both of which are excellent, as well as a few smaller downloadable titles like Wipeout HD.
Some of the games I plan on reviewing on the site soon include the new BloodRayne, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, OMG-Z, Fighting Fantasy, and a few others I’ve forgotten at the moment.
Looking over the upcoming big releases for the rest year, I find the gaming landscape relatively sparse with games I’m excited about. There’s Zelda: Skyward Sword and that’s about it. Not a fan of the Elder Scrolls series and though I like shooters, I can wait until stuff like Gears of War 3 drops into the bargain bins. Uncharted 3 & Dark Souls will probably be great, but there’s no way I’ll have finished their predecessors before they arrive so I might as well wait on them. After seeing my friend play his import copy of Xenoblade, I would have definitely picked that up, but unfortunately, Nintendo decided not to release it here and I don’t want to go to the hassle of modding my console to bypass the region lock. The 3DS remains mostly devoid of games I want (Star Fox is tempting but not for $40 when I already own the original on the Wii) which is a shame because I’d love an excuse to pick one up. On the other hand, I haven’t picked up Deus Ex: HR or Radiant Silvergun yet and now that I have a new PS3, there are plenty of cheap older exclusives that I can pick up for it so I’m not going to be hurting for things to play. Not to mention that I’m sure there will be some good indie and digital download games coming out later this year.
Now next year, that’s a year I can get behind. I’m a big PSP fan so I’m very excited about the PS Vita – my most anticipated game at the moment for any system is Gravity Rush which has an amazing art style, an excellent premise (3D Action/Adventure + Gravity control) and is being made by the original creator of Silent Hill and the Siren series. Other games I’m excited about for next year are Ni No Kuni (a PS3 RPG created by Level-5 and Studio Ghibli!), Diablo 3 (yeah, I don’t think it’s coming out in 2011), the new Bioshock game, the remakes/up-ports of Final Fantasy X & Persona 4 (two of my favorite games of all time), the Persona 4 fighting game, and Final Fantasy XIII-2 (I know, I know, I’m a sap but its got time travel in it! My one weakness!).
Hi, first let me tell you I don’t like Steam, however i registered there and downloaded the client just to play Cthuhlu saves the world. I love it!.
I like to support indie developers but i prefer to buy directly from their sites instead of places like Steam or Impulse. Maybe you should consider sell your games directly on this site.
About the game, fun and addictive, it’s one of those games that keep you playing for hours.
Now back to the game….
Hehe, i rather enjoyed Bayonetta. It was the first game of its type to suck me in, as I could never really get into games like Devil May Cry and what not prior. I don’t really care about sexualized women or over muscled men, its just part of life, so I don’t look for faults, I just enjoy the games. Even if you disagree with Bayonetta as a character, you can’t say that the gameplay wasn’t top notch.
@Chris C:
Bayonetta was the worse game I have ever seen. It was all about breast and poorly implemented gameplay. How they justified making another game in that title I will never know. Still the Sickness that is Bayonetta should not color my opinion of the developers.
Vanquish looks to be a solid game with some real fun packed inside it’s coding. I don’t know about the guys from Zeboyd, but I am certainly going to give Vanquish a try.
Not sure if you will see this or not, but you said you like shooter?
I highly recommend Vanquish, and its like a $20 game new nowadays in gamestop, or used, I am not sure. It is a ton of fun. Its a third person shooter, and while i never really got into those kinds of games before, this one was a huge amount of fun for me personally. If you know the game Bayonetta, the folks who made that made Vanquish.
And bit late i know, but congratulations on the wedding Bill, hope the trip to Japan is / was a blast.
Congrats Bill!
And Cian, don’t know if you’ve heard since your post but the servers are staying open into next year. So you both will get plenty of time time to play it in full form.
…quick question! Just noticed the Khoo in the first town in CSTW…was that Robert Khoo referencing the prank PATV episode!? AND WAS HE ALWAYS THERE?
thanks : D
Do you guys have any future plans for Cthulhu Saves the World? It would be great to see a resolution patch before you really got stuck in with your new project. At the moment it’s kind of iffy to play due to the limited resolutions.
I won’t mention any details, but the changes to make to your wii for xenoblade are trivial. Less than 30 minutes time for my first time ever messing with it. In return you get an rpg that actually netted a perfect score on rpgamer, which to my knowledge is the only one I’ve seen there in the past eight years.
I purchased and have not been let down in the slightest. It’s an amazing game from the get go.
Looking forward to the dev blog!
Changes to software engines may not be that interesting to the casual gamer, but those of us who are programmers would lend an interested ear.
First comment on the site, big fan of CSTW and BoDVII. I’m really excited to see how development of PA: Ep 3 goes! And those are all good games to be excited for!
As for Demon’s Souls. I love that game, I’ve only had it for two weeks and played less than like 6 hours but I love it. It saddens me that they’re shutting the servers down in October, and it’s kinda forcing me to buy Dark Souls earlier than planned. >.>
Also I’m so glad they announced Ni No Kuni for America. Makes me extra glad I bought a PS3 for my birthday. =]