Dear Esther

Nabeel Burney 2 Comments

Note: A review of the Dear Esther 2012 remake can be read right here!

You find yourself standing on a pier, jutting out from a silent shore with only a small house in sight, a rocky mountain looming behind in the mist. You appear to be on an island, deadly quiet and devoid of life except for a lone seagull fleeing at the sound of your step. Venturing forth into the house you discover an abandoned shack with only boxes lying about, and on the walls a curious set of chalked symbols. Setting off on the path behind the house you make your way up the mountain in an attempt to make sense of this desolate place.

Dear Esther,
the gulls do not land here anymore. I’ve noticed that this year they seem to shun the place. Maybe it’s the depletion of the fishing stock driving them away. Perhaps it’s me.

Dear Esther is an interactive first-person adventure. Based on the Source engine popularised by Half-Life 2, it is a free mod that requires the game to run. Created by British games researcher Dan Pinchbeck under the development moniker thechineseroom, the mod is described as an interactive narrative that “puts traditional game technologies to new use”. Essentially the player has one action available to them, and that is to move around and explore the island. The narrative arrives in the form of the atmospheric visuals and sound, and short spoken fragments of story that are triggered at various spots on your journey. The narrator reads out extracts from a letter addressed to someone called Esther, and relates his attempts to follow in the footsteps of a man arriving to the island before him. Throughout his monologue he alludes to his experiences as well as those of other characters, all seemingly related in some way. The accounts sometimes appear literal but at other times feel more metaphorical and nebulous in their meaning.

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Natural Selection 2 Teaser

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

Unknown Worlds have recently put up a brand new website for the forthcoming Natural Selection 2. The previously Kotaku-exclusive teaser trailer is also viewable on the site as of today. I’ve included the trailer in YouTube format after the jump, but you can find the teaser in glorious 1280×720 on the website.

For an indie game developed by as few as four people, obviously NS2 is nothing short of a miracle of economy. While we probably won’t be covering the game as much (due to its move from Source onto a proprietary engine), an interesting facet of their current presale methodology hit me.

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Return to Rapture This November

Nabeel Burney 1 Comment

A release date for BioShock 2 has been announced: October 30th for international territories and November 3rd for North America. During Take-Two’s second-quarter results call yesterday the platforms were still not confirmed, however community site Cult of Rapture lists the PC, 360 and PS3.

A plethora of previews of the game have been going up online in the past month, most of which have been listed at the community site. Tom Francis of PC Gamer UK summarises the press demonstration best in his article which originally appeared in the magazine.

However we finally have the chance to see the very same presentation described in the previews for ourselves. One of the first major trailers for the original BioShock was Hunting the Big Daddy, and it was the first time the game was truly represented and demonstrated in terms of its gameplay mechanics and environments. True to tradition, 2K Marin have presented the full demo of BioShock 2, entitled Hunting the Big Sister. The video demonstration includes all the footage made available earlier during the first unveiling of the game, as well as some scenes previously unseen. The various magazine and online previews referred to a scene at the end of the demo where the Big Sister interrupted the player’s endeavours and attacked, and only now do we get to see this first-hand.

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Blackwell Cartoon Shorts

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

Wadjet Eye Games, having fiendishly teased its fans for a good while now, have just published their first cartoon short for the Blackwell game series:

This might be completely uncalled for, but the way poor Rosangela is played for comic relief in the first episode feels slightly off-register. Not to complain about free laughs, obviously, but in my very generic understanding of the series, the depth of the cast goes far beyond what is on display here, and in that sense, Blackwell newcomers might be somewhat confused as to where the ‘true’ register of the game series lies.

While the assemblage of characters in the series does seem to contain some influence of the American sitcom tradition, I’m not so sure that situational comedy, at this point in time, is the best way to deepen the characters, especially since we are – forgive the worn-out turn of phrase – not laughing with Rosangela, but at her.

I’d love to hear what others think of the cartoon short, though (for all I know I might be wrong about this) and obviously for now I’ll have to hold my judgement in anticipation of the subsequent episodes. In any case, I believe the cartoon is a first for indie adventure gaming, and it’s always delightful to see an ‘extended’ universe at work!

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Modern Warfare 2 Full Trailer

Nabeel Burney 1 Comment

Finally, after teasers and teasers of teasers, we have a full trailer for Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2. The 2-minute cinematic montage features a voice-over by Imran Zakhaev, one of the main villains of the first game. A number of different scenes flash by, some of which were previously glimpsed in the earlier snippets like the snowmobile chase and underwater diving. But new scenarios have been revealed such as an urban terrorist assault and a breathtaking escape sequence from a castle. The game looks to be as dramatic and thrillsome as the previous game, and I’m probably going to stop watching video trailers so as to avoid visual spoilers. There are some things you just want to experience, and Infinity Ward proved that with every single high point of the first Modern Warfare.

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