Cryostasis/Hydrophobia Battle Boils Down

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

In a puerile attempt to whip up a hot cool antagonistic parallel, Slowdown observes the release of Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason draws near: The game, to be released on February 13 in the EU and North America, has been hyped as probably having “…more PhysX effects than any other project coming … before it” 1)http://www.cryostasis-game.com/html/news.php

Hydrophobia-Cryostasis
Hydrophobia-Cryostasis

According to Alec Tractenberg of 1C Publishing, the game’s protagonist – meteorologist Alex Nestarov – will go face to face with “zombie monsters”, “dynamic fractally generated frost” and “hydrodynamics”.  2)http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_cryostasis_videos.html

Hydrophobia, on the other hand, remains elusive: Although the game is still slated for an undefined March ‘09 release, it remains to be seen whether Blade Interactive can actually bring the game out in time; there has been no new footage or news since a short E3 2008 teaser trailer. Now, the question remains – which of the two aqua-tastic titles titillates your taste buds more?

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New Preview of Deus Ex 3

Nabeel Burney Leave a comment

It’s been a while since we’ve heard about Deus Ex 3. The game seems to be covered by a shroud of mysterious information embargo; any article that appears online gets taken down almost immediately. A sharp fan at the official Eidos forums managed to find a gallery of high quality images at Gamestar where the original preview was no longer available for reading.

A new preview of Deus Ex 3 has appeared on Czech gaming site hratelne, and has stayed up. Reliable as ever, the enthusiastic fans  provide a summary (and more detailed translation) of the article for us non-Czechs. While the preview treads familiar ground, it does drop a few new details.

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Cryostasis Vista Tech Demo

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

A tech demo for Cryostasis, an atmospheric shooter set on a nuclear ice-breaker and released by 1C Company, can be found from NVIDIA’s Graphics Plus Power Pack #2 . Though the requirements indicate otherwise, the tech demo only works with Vista, on a Shader Model 4.0 DirectX10 card.

Coolness
Coolness.

Since Valve’s Hardware Survey already revealed how only 21.43% of us are Vista-equipped 1)http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/, it would seem, then, that the company simply wants to illustrate the engine’s raw ability. Fortunately for us philistines, reports from Russia – where Cryostasis is already out! – confirm that the game works even with mid-range graphic cards (including those equipped with SM2.0, 3.0 and 4.0) as well as on good ol’ Windows XP.

The game is slated for a February 2009 release date in the English-speaking world, which also leads us to recall Hydrophobia, which is scheduled for a March 2009 release. Does this mean the top one cause for our most recent watery nightmares will be slugged out in a clash of titans?

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At the Fountain of Youth

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment
WIP Screenshot
WIP Screenshot

If we were to gauge general goodwill and public appreciation with freeware indie game projects, one of the candidates for the top spot would have to be Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Youth. The well-liked and respected team have surprisingly managed to duck the guns of the ruthless LucasArts legal team and managed to release a succesful demo of considerable length some years ago, to illustrate the breadth and quality of their project.

What separates the project from its most immediate fan game peers is the impeccable taste applied to the artwork of the game, combined with the developers’ pursuit to maintain a closeness to their source material (The team hopes to tap the original actor that played Indy, Doug Lee, for a fully voiced demo) all the while offering an all-new scenario and setting.

The FOY Cast
The FOY Cast

Hopefully this is not too bawdy of me to reveal that the team does post exclusive sneak peek material in the game’s forums. One of the more recent posts includes a fantastic example of the various characters that appear in the game. The all-new character art maintains a lively, organic quality that was almost missing from The Fate of Atlantis.

Can you recognize any of the real-life “cast” counterparts?

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