2K Games has announced that the new release date for BioShock 2 is February 9, 2010. The game was originally slated for a late October/early November launch, but was pushed back to 2010. The release will now be simultaneous worldwide on all three major platforms.
The marketing campaign for BioShock 2 has slowed down somewhat since the announcement of the delay; the last new bit of media released was at the recent PAX ’09 convention, where the first footage of the multiplayer component of the game was unveiled. The multiplayer trailer, embedded after the jump, shows the frantic gameplay promised in the online skirmishes. The community site Cult of Rapture continues the coverage of the multiplayer with art and information on some of the characters that will be selectable.
Spelunky: Snakes, I Hate Snakes!
Spelunky is a roguelike, but not like any roguelike I’ve ever played before. Rather than being a top-down dungeon crawl viewed from overhead, the game is a side-scrolling platformer. Not content with the characteristic ASCII symbol set that comprises most roguelikes’ graphics, it features fully detailed pixel art tiles and sprites.
As the title suggests, you play as a whip-cracking cave explorer, sporting a fedora and leather jacket to complete the image. You have at your disposal some bombs and ropes as well as additional tools found along the way to help you navigate the levels, overcome enemies, and find treasures. Inhabiting the dark caverns are various dangerous creepy-crawlies like snakes and spiders, and friendly NPCs like shopkeepers and damsels in distress.
ScummVM/GOG.com Freebies
We’ve done lots of adventure-related coverage for the past few months, including reviews on Downfall and the Blackwell series. This time around, I would like to bring to your attention some older commercial adventure games that you can access for no price tag at all!
Firstly. Yahtzee’s Chzo Mythos special edition versions are still free. Also available, for no dineros, on the ScummVM website, are Beneath a Steel Sky, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Lure of the Temptress and Drascula: The Vampire Strikes Back. There is some variation from game to game, but most do have downloads available for different language distributions and talkie/floppy versions accordingly.
Resonance Cascade
XII Games’ Vince Twelve has just announced a pledge-based donation drive for his forthcoming indie adventure game, Resonance, which according to Twelve, is a game of “Speculative Near-Future Hard-ish Science Fiction!” The developer has even promised to put this astonishing, genre-bending tag-line on the game’s retail box if certain requirements are met. Here’s the bottom line on the deal, straight from the source:
I’ve set up a Kickstarter project for the game. Kickstarter collects pledges from kind individuals like yourself and, if the project meets it’s fundraising goals by the deadline, delivers your pledges to the creative endeavor that you’ve pledged your support to (in this case, Resonance!) In return, supporters get gifts or rewards for their pledge amounts! If the goal is not met, then no money or gifts change hands.
Twitter-toting tomfoolery aside, players of Resonance will get to control four unique characters, each of whom are searching for the secret vault of a spectacularly murdered particle physicist, and must work together to keep the scientist’s horrifying discovery from reaching the clutches of a dangerous organization looming in the background.
My two plus two cents, a trailer, more images and the various types of pledge after the jump!
Fly, Gabe, Fly!!
Though we’re slightly behind the actual bandwagon, there is no way I can not touch upon a wildly imaginative exchange between a Left 4 Dead modder and Valve, something that has got to be the flat-out funniest occurrence within the Valve community this year.
The seeds were sown last week, when it came to our attention that Valve had flown the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott group leaders over to their headquarters for a tour of the forthcoming game – something only the Valve masterminds, wearing their best pair of silk gloves and armed with a jar of lube, would have been able to think up; To add insult to the injury, the boycotters came out of the experience feeling positive.
Meanwhile, a relatively unknown Left 4 Dead modder, Joe W-A, jokingly sends an e-mail to Gabe Newell, asking:
Why the hell haven’t I been flown to Valve?
I mean, you guys need to preview my campaign.
Gabe, jovial as always, retorts:
We are boycotting your campaign.
Not one to shy away from a verbal fracas, ripostes Joe, “Does that mean I have to fly you here?”, to which Gabe counter-ripostes, “Me and Erik [Wolpaw]”. Only moments later, a blog collecting donations for flying the Valve duo over to Australia, Brisbane appears, and a mere few days’ worth of gathering, the undertaking has already broken the rather amazing 3000 dollar barrier required for the plane tickets. Joe additionally promises the surplus will go to the Penny Arcade charity venture, Child’s Play.
The hilarity of this inconceivable succession of events aside, I’m not sure what it will mean for the overall complexion of interaction between Valve and its fans, but as far as the actual realities of this meeting go, it is either going to be an awkward trainwreck or a fantastic fête of funk: Plans are being made for capturing the occasion on video, too, so we’ll be privy to the plot! Either way, I do commend both parties for their geniality and their willingness to engage, something which Valve has built their reputation on from the very beginning.
Lastly, Rock, Paper, Shotgun make a great point in their latest coverage on the story:
If we were a multi-million dollar company who could afford a billion plane flights, we’d certainly make sure most of the money raised went in that direction and still go on the trip.
I second this notion! Don’t forget to take your sleeping bags, Gabe and Erik!