In 1999, the co-writer of Alien, the late Dan O’Bannon, told me that once you’ve seen the movie, you should never watch it again. “It simply cannot be as effective,” he said. “We are afraid of the unknown. When it is known, it’s not as scary.”
But O’Bannon might’ve changed his mind if he’d gotten to play Alien Isolation, a very scary first-person stealth action survival horror from Creative Assembly that Sega are bringing to the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.
With The Pinball Arcade, FarSight Studios have brought classic pinball tables from Williams, Bally, and Stern to the PlayStation 4, 3, and Vita, iOS and Android devices, PCs, and the even the Kindle Fire and Ouya. But how exactly do they recreate those classic pinball machines so exactly, and what does the future hold for this series (and does that include bringing this series to the Xbox One)? I spoke to art director Jason Juneau (who’s been at the company for six year, starting as an animator) and Lead Designer Bobby King (another six year vet who’s also the VP of Product Development), to find out.
With combat that requires you to be tactical, strategic, and careful, the upcoming third-person fantasy action game Lords Of The Fallen — which Namco Bandai will release October 28th on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC — might seem like yet another Dark Souls wannabe. But in talking to executive producer Tomasz Gop from CI Games while trying my best to play it, it became clear that Lords Of The Fallen is trying to do something different…but not a lot different.
With a science fiction setting, jetpacks, and a studio called Red 5, no one would fault you for thinking that the free-to-play PC sci-fi shooter MMO Firefall is one funny ’droid short of being a Star Wars game. But in talking to James Macauley, the CEO of Red 5 Studios and production lead for Firefall, it turns out that George Lucas’ space opera isn’t the only big influence on this game.
The Walking Dead adventure game by Telltale is arguably one of the most engaging adventure games of the last few years. But what would’ve made that emotionally gripping game even better is if there had been a metal ball flying around the whole time, knocking into things.
After the success of the really difficult platformer Super Meat Boy, it’s no surprise that other game developers would follow suit. But while the upcoming Fenix Rage — which Green Lava is making for PCs, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 — may be tough, and is made of platforms, in talking to executive producer Ted Lange as I played the game, it seems that this isn’t just Exceptional Fish Girl.
When you consider that people have been making video games for decades, you’d think, at the very least, that everyone would get the fundaments right. But after playing the World War II first-person shooter Enemy Front — which was made by CI Games (Sniper: Ghost Warrior), and published by Bandai Namco on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC — I’ve learned that, sadly, that’s not always the case.
In recent years, playing video games has become a sport for many people. And yet, most of the games being played as sports, and in sports arenas, aren’t actually sports games. But that could change with Epigenesis, a first-person futuristic sports game for PCs that creators Dead Shark Triplepunch call a “non-lethal ballgame of the future.” But with shooting and platforms high above the ground is it really non-lethal? Project/game design lead Michael Levall explains the finer points of this game.
In the realm of video games, there’s been flight simulators, driving simulators, even city planning simulators. And now there’s Goat Simulator from Sweden’s Coffee Stain Studios. With the game recently released on PC, and now being distributed in the U.S. by Deep Silver (y’know, the Saints Row people) — the Mac and Linux versions are available through the game’s website — I spoke to Line Jakobsen — who says “We haven’t really done titles for Goat Simulator, but executive director of goating sounds like a suitable title for me” — about the origins of this species.