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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

X-COM: The Re-Imagining

The reports of an X-COM remake have finally been confirmed by 2K Games, with a bit of a twist. XCOM, a “re-imagining” of the classic MicroProse series, is an FPS under development not at Irrational Games – as the unrelenting rumour went – but at 2K Marin, the studio behind BioShock 2. XCOM is the re-imagining of the classic tale of humanity’s struggle against an unknown enemy that puts players directly into the shoes of an FBI agent tasked with identifying and eliminating the growing threa
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Multiple Middles in Alpha Protocol

We haven’t said much about Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming RPG-Shooter Alpha Protocol here at the Slowdown, tweeting updates on the game instead. I think what has kept us from being too enthusiastic is the confusing nature of the media coming out of Sega; an interesting weapons showcase is followed by a lame cinematic trailer, and so on. But what keeps me interested is the potential of the team behind the game. As I related recently, I’m a huge fan of Planescape: Torment, a 90’s RPG created by
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Quote of the Day: Portal 2

[Chell’s suit] is not supposed to look like a sexy Marvel superhero suit. It’s supposed to look like it was designed without any thought of making her look attractive. We don’t want to make her be unattractive, but we want to balance that out. Chell is a test subject, so she should look like one. –Matt Charlesworth, concept artist, Valve </img> </img> </img> </img> </img> Source
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Sam, Max & The Devil Makes Three

Sam & Max, season three, “The Devil’s Playhouse.” First episode, “The Penal Zone,” April 15th. </img> </img> </img> </img> </img> Source
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Body of Work: Human Revolution Trailer

Like the original Deus Ex 3 teaser trailer, the latest Deus Ex: Human Revolution teaser chooses to toy with the concepts – humanism, transhumanism, mechanistic anatomy, corporeality – that fascinated the scientists and artists of the Renaissance: In the new trailer, the subliminal glimpses from before have now been rendered visible and brought to the fore: Not only is the scene of Rembrandt van Rijn’s “Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp†replicated fully in the dream/nightmare sequence, t
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Monkey Island 2: Special Edition

Below, LucasArts’ all-new Monkey Island 2: Special Edition key art, side by side with my Mac box cover for LeChuck’s Revenge: When I linked these to a friend, he instantaneously called the new art “’special.’†Yeah… yeah: Even the poor little monkey responsible for numbering the sequel got a visual keelh… uh, overhaul. If nothing else, contrasting the original with this all-new interpretation goes a long way in illustrating the amazing talents of the man behind the original cover, S
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20th Anniversary NeoGeo Museum

SNK Playmore have put up a dedicated, if Engrish-ridden 20th anniversary website for their console, the “NeoGeo Museum,†ten years after the last NeoGeo console was shipped: Looking back 20 years ago to 1990, a video game company by the name of SNK teamed up with ALPHA DENSHI (ADK) to develop a video game console. That console was made for arcades, yet at the same time was completely compatible for home use. It was called the “NEOGEO,” meaning “new land,” and owns a significant chapter i
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From New Reno to New Vegas

Thanks to Bethesda’s ingenious assessment of the gaming market in first pushing out the Oblivion-style Fallout 3 to an established player base (fans of the original are known to be a bit on the grumpy and sour side, for good reason too, and therefore harder to market to), it’s not at all difficult to get a strong double act vibe from the very latest screenshots of Obsidian’s Fallout: New Vegas. Taking on some geographical and narrative cues from the unreleased Van Buren project, the game se
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Next for Nexuiz

When it comes to deathmatch-oriented open source FPS games based on the multitudinous engine offspring of Quake (1-2-III), a plethora of choice exists: Warsow, Alien Arena, World of Padman and Trepidation to name but a few. Out of these, the highly-enhanced, DarkPlaces–based Nexuiz has always been a favourite of mine. This particular open source, GPL-licensed shooter was first released in 2005 and has since seen a vast amount of updates and improvements, including the addition of particle ef
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Revolutionary Title, Devolutionary PR

Square Enix Ltd recently grabbed the trademark name “Deus Ex: Human Revolution†(008862153) for decidedly game-y purposes; should the forthcoming Deus Ex 3 be subtitled as such remains unconfirmed, though, but at the time of writing, that’s as close as it gets. The company has also started an underground advertising campaign for the game – one that might not reflect as well on the game’s profile as they might have hoped, for reasons that are rather out of the company’s hands: While Valv
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Portal 2 Official

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike and Half-Life) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Portal 2 for shipment this coming holiday season. Portal 2 is the sequel to 2007’s Portal, which won 70 industry achievement awards Even if the game is now official, the Portal 2 ARG, nevertheless, is hardly over: In the press release above, the underlined letters form the word “drattmannh0nee”, which in turn can be used to lo
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It’s Not Too Late / To Spank It

First, Tim Schafer and Brütal Legend. Then, Ron Gilbert and DeathSpank. According to EA Partners, DeathSpank will be published via Xbox Live and PSN: EA Partners … and leading independent developer Hothead Games announced today an exclusive publishing agreement that will bring DeathSpank to Xbox LIVE® Arcade and PlayStation®Network in 2010. Does “exclusive†mean what I think it means? In that case, I suggest a solution: Spank you, Ron! Spank you very much. In the meant
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In Deep Shadows

Remember Boiling Point: Road to Hell? The ambitious, sprawling “high-maintenance†2005 PC FPS title that in many ways beat Far Cry 2 to the punch and was, erm, sternly chastised for being released in unfinished state, but ultimately got patched up with several then-massive patches and in the process became a minor cult hit among the PC shooter crowd. Despite the proven updates, the game nevertheless became a bit of a poster boy for bad launches. But did you know a sequel for the game exists
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Eyeing E.Y.E.

E.Y.E. is a dystopian cyberpunk/sci-fi/fantasy “50% FPS, 50% RPG, 100% immersion†game from French bedroom developers Streum On Studios, who have, much like Natural Selection, Red Orchestra, Killing Floor and Nuclear Dawn, decided to undertake the long hard road from modification to full retail game on the Source engine. Halt. Enter The Metastreumonic Anarchist Conspiracy Movement website. Confused yet? I know I am. The only thing that’s absolutely clear is that E.Y.E., by all means,
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The Not-So Silver Lining

Lost at the Sea Fan games based on more or less commercially viable licenses have always faced the unenviable task of navigating the stormy, abbreviated seas of C&D and DMCA all the while keeping a low enough profile to avoid the aforementioned corporate shallows, at the same time maintaining a public enough face to attract necessary fan interest. Some projects, like Indiana Jones & The Fountain of Youth and AGDInteractive’s remakes have surprisingly managed to stay afloat; others,
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Robots In This, Guys

Like a certain caped crusader up until very recently, the Transformers IP hasn’t had much luck in the gaming space, with generally mediocre attempts over the years despite the no-brainer concept. That could change, though, if the new game from High Moon Studios delivers on its potential. Transformers: War For Cybertron was announced at the end of last year with a teaser trailer, showing pre-rendered carnage taking place on Cybertron. Details were scant at the time; Game Informer had the exclus
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