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The Slowdown

A blog by vrap in General

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About this blog

A blog for those who spend more time thinking about gaming than gaming

Entries in this blog

The Crossing: Fingers Crossed?

As we reported back in May 2009, Arkane Studios’ unique-sounding Source engine game The Crossing had unfortunately been put on hold thanks to unforeseen financial complications. In July of the same year, however, we also learned that Arkane had been secretly aiding 2K Marin with the development of BioShock 2. Yesterday, Zenimax Media announced, during the opening segment of QuakeCon 2010, their acquiring of Arkane Studios: This is an exciting moment for Arkane. After 11 years of independent
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What Was Icarus? BioShock Infinite

The over-speculated and hotly anticipated Irrational Games project that was to be revealed today? BioShock Infinite. The announcement of the latest game in the BioShock franchise, slated to launch on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in 2012, seems to belong to the category of ?expect the expected:” As we all turned to the unexpected (Freedom Force, SWAT, X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, Kingdom Hearts or Yar?s Revenge), I don?t think many of us really did see the new BioShock game coming – not one
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What is Icarus?

The past week has seen some irrational behaviour on a strange teaser site, whatisicarus.com. Initially there was nothing to see but a smoky background and a single grey spot, not much of a tease. But sharp visitors noticed that the white spot changed position every day, making a slow but deliberate migration around the page. It was a few days before the overall shape was discerned: a figure 8 or vertically-oriented infinity symbol, and the spots looked instead like holes cut out in the black, re
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Alien Swarm

More often than not, letting go is unfortunately the name of the game in the modding community. Most of us probably did just that in 2007, albeit begrudgingly, after Black Cat Games? blog completely ceased to receive news updates on their forthcoming commercial game, Alien Swarm: Infested. Though their previous project, the original Unreal Tournament 2004 mod version of the game (that you can still try out and play, by the way; its unrelenting difficulty level and gritty gameplay is something
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E3 2010: Microsoft Press Conference

Microsoft had the unenviable task of beginning E3’s series of press conferences, especially since the major trend for many spectators this year seemed to be the hope and the wish to be, simply put, surprised: Here at the Slowdown, we were above all looking forward to non-sequels and all-new IP. Unfortunately, the one major announcement from Microsoft – the seemingly abrupt re-branding of “Project Natal,” a move that G4TV speculate was an extremely recent decision – had been spoiled only day
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E3 2010 Ubisoft Press Conference

What decade is it again – the 1970s? I ask this for what just went on during Ubisoft’s press conference was totally psychedelic, dude, even discounting the fact that the host, Joel McHale of “The Soup,†apparently took his part in the proceedings very, very seriously and quite possibly ingested beforehand a wide assortment of magic mushrooms. In any case, let us just linger on for a moment on these fantastic quotes I pulled from the show – a veritable checklist of games marketing bullshit:
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EEEk!

The Electronic Entertainment Expo has crept upon us once again! On this website, we will be following up, at the very least, on four of the major press conferences: Microsoft and Electronic Arts today, and the Nintendo and Sony on Tuesday. We probably won’t be parroting the more generic announcements – don’t know about you, but my fingers are already worn out from scrolling thru the sudden flood of Kinect news – but anything we think is worth mentioning will certainly find its way on t
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Transformers: War for Cybertron Rolls Out June

It’s been a while since we last had a look at Transformers: War for Cybertron, and since then there has been some good media released that gives us a good look at the gameplay. G4TV has a developer walkthrough narrated by Matt Tieger from High Moon Studios, demonstrating the game with Optimus not-yet-Prime. As the earlier previews suggested, the game really does take a lot from the Gears of War series, and plays like a tight third person shooter. There is more to the basic formula with the addi
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Quote of the Day: Gray Matter

The game employs a new Progress Bar system within each chapter too, revealing how far towards solving a specific problem you are and detailing how many ‘bonus actions’ you’ve managed to solve along the way. Although not necessary to advance the plot, bonus actions allow you to discover more detail about the back-story. (They also reward you with those inexplicably tempting Gamerscore morsels on Xbox 360.) –Kristan Reed, Gray Matter Preview @ Eurogamer (See also: Mata Hari) </img> </i
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Guybrush Is Dead. Long Live Guybrush!

Below, you can find the Guybrush – version five – that actually made Monkey Island 2: Special Edition (you can confirm this for yourself by looking at this screenshot) in addition to an assemblage of comparative shots from the forthcoming remake. Don’t forget to vote for your favourite Guybrush-ne’er-to-be (“Special Edition” is currently in the lead)! </img> </img> </img> </img> </img> Source
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MAGS April: Part III

Dear all, this is the final entry to my coverage of April’s MAGS compo. For more information on the competition and the previously discussed entries, you should take a look at the first and second part of the article. This Sunday instalment takes a look at the remaining three contestants: Hard Space, Snakes of Avalon and Space Pool Alpha. Once more, don’t forget to cast your vote! The compo is still ongoing and lasts until the 17th of May. Hard Space Our first entry today, Hard Space: Conqu
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MAGS April: Part II

This is part II of our coverage of the April MAGS competition hosted at the Adventure Game Studio forums. Voting continues until the 17th of May, so you still have some time to check out the entries. The previous part of the article discussed the first four entries to the competition (AGS Footballer Tech Demo, Alphabeta, Dead Hand and Dead Pixels), and the third portion, on Hard Space, Snakes of Avalon and Space Pool Alpha, will be released shortly afterwards, so stay tuned! Today’s part, then
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MAGS April: Part I

While there are quite a few steadily recurring, deadline–based game creation compos currently in existence, like Ludum Dare, Java4K and PyWeek, one of the longest-running monthly competitions still ongoing is in fact the low-key Monthly Adventure Game Studio contest, or “MAGS†for short. Chris Jones’ engine has spawned a close-knit community that constantly produces periodic communal activities like the adventure series “Reality on the Norm†and a yearly award ceremony. But why feature
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Versioning Guybrush Threepwood

LucasArts have been curiously posting old concept art revisions on a Facebook page dedicated to the forthcoming Monkey Island 2: Special Edition. Four scrapped versions of your favourite leading man, Guybrush Threepwood, have appeared so far: My question is, which of these discarded Guybrushes would have been your favourite? View PollFor a completely different type of comparison, you can check out our earlier post that juxtaposes old and new cover artwork from the game. </img> </im
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Bulletspeak

Together with EA and Epic Games, the Polish Painkiller developers People Can Fly are certainly doing their darndest to specifically target us connoisseurs with their latest Unreal Engine 3 game, Bulletstorm. How, exactly, you may ask? Glancing over older press releases (frantic, adrenaline fueled, immersive) for Painkiller, the lingo has been amped up several notches: Symphony, carnage, blockbuster, unadulterated, entertainment, arsenal, outrageously, unprecedented, frantic, yell-inducing, inci
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First Details of XCOM Land

The shroud has been lifted from 2K Marin’s new first-person shooter, the re-imagined XCOM. Several magazines hitting the shelves this month contain the first details and screenshots. PC Gamer’s article briefly surfaced online courtesy of Games Radar, but has mysteriously disappeared since. The damage has been done, though, the details are out. You play as FBI agent William Carter, tasked with combating an invasion of alien forces on idyllic 1950’s America. The tranquil and perfect suburbia sett
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Counter-Strike: Source Beta

Valve’s Quintin Doroquez has just released the following crucial information to all those clamouring for the forthcoming revised version of Counter-Strike: Phase 1 of the Counter-Strike: Source beta has opened at cyber cafes that subscribe to the Valve Cyber Café Program. A full listing of those venues can be found here: http://www.steampowered.com/?area=cafe_directory Later this month, the beta will be extended to owners of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and ATIHalf-Life 2 video card bu
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Flight of the Humblebee

You already know the deal. The sale is coming to its end and you now have exactly one day left to purchase (…more copies of…) the “Humble Indie Bundleâ€: Somehow missed the bundle altogether? Contains five full games: Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru, Penumbra: Overture and World of Goo (plus Samorost 2 as a late bonus from Amanita Design) The profits all go to the developers as well as two charities: EFF and Child’s Play. You pay what you want to whom you want. The games are cross-platform and DR
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Jim, Yes Means No

Almost exactly two years ago in 2008, on April the 22nd, the recovering Interplay had just sent out a press release announcing a new Earthworm Jim game to be developed in conjunction with an animated series and a feature film, with original author Douglas TenNapel working as a creative consultant on the game. Conversely, earlier in the same month, Interplay had just “reinitiated its in-house game development studio, and [was] hiring game developers,†and vouched to “leverage its portfolio
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The Goggles, They Do Everything

I’m sure it’s happened to you: you’re playing a game and you come across a weapon, or ability, or game mechanic that you just love, and you wish you could use it all the time. Only you can’t, because the developer has placed restrictions on it in the name of balance. It’s understandable that you can only use the at the end of Half-Life 2, it being the most powerful weapon in the game. Valve know that restricting its usage makes it more fun to unleash on the Combine.Where does the designer’s
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Limbus

Note: This is Day 5 of “The Whispered World Week” at The Slowdown, and wraps up our coverage on the game and its creator for the time being. Big thanks for reading, and let us know what you thought in the comments section! The Whispered World is finally out today in most of Europe. North American fans will have to wait a little longer still, as Viva Media pushes the game out the door next Monday. We hope this week’s coverage of the game has been informative and that you will all be able to enj
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Interview with The Whispered World Designer Marco Hüllen

Note: This is Day 3 of “The Whispered World Week” at The Slowdown. Check back for more tomorrow! Maro Hüllen, with Pet In today’s interview, we talk to the original designer and primary illustrator of The Whispered World, Marco Hüllen (on the right), in the hopes of shedding more light on the curiouser details of the development process of the game – especially, on details that are still left uncertain for non-German audiences. After all, German fans of the adventure game have had the priv
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The Secret History of the Whispered World

Note: This is Day 2 of “The Whispered World Week” at The Slowdown. Check back for more tomorrow! Nothing is permanent in this wicked world – not even our troubles. –Charlie Chaplin Sometimes pictures are worth a thousand words. Other times, a video is worth these thousand words; once in a while, though, there comes a time when neither pictures, videos nor a thousand words can accurately portray a story. One such story, in more than one way, is that of The Whispered World, an apocalyptic f
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The Whispered World Week

Note: This is Day 1 of “The Whispered World Week” at The Slowdown. Check back for more tomorrow! Cover Art This week, after a brief stretch of inactivity, The Slowdown prepares to turn its knobs to full blast with five days solely dedicated to the German-made, apocalyptic fantasy point and click adventure, The Whispered World! I consider this week, from the 19th to the 23rd, just as much a return to my gaming roots – the adventure game genre – as it is a gesture towards the game’s only true
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