No more needs to be said, really, I’m all preordered up and waiting for release day.  So this gorgeous looking cinematic trailer is just filling in the time:

Just imagine some violas behind him and you get the idea

OK, I know I said I wouldn’t be posting between Christmas and New Year’s, but this little bit of news is just too awesome:

It’s a special kind of game that manages to capture a gamer’s imagination so expertly that over a decade after it’s release players can still hum the musical score by memory.  Ocarina of Time on the N64 was exactly that kind of game, and a team of very clever fans have been working for a long time now on a re-recording of the soundtrack.

The folks involved call themselves the Zelda Reorchestrated project, as just in time to give everyone one last Christmas present, they’ve put the finishing touches on the final tracks that make up the entire soundtrack and released it upon the unsuspecting world.

In essence they’ve resampled the entire game’s score with an orchestra.   It’s taken a team of five around six years and approximately $20,000 worth of samples to complete.  The result will strike nostalgia into even the most casual of Nintendo gamers, it’s just fantastic.

And in the true holiday spirit, they’re not even asking for anything in return, it’s purely a work of respect for the original title.  That said, if you like what they’ve done, there’s nothing stopping you from kicking  in a few spare dollars for the effort.  I’ve heard worse causes to donate to!

Head on over and check it out.  The website is a little shaky at the moment (probably due to the unexpected flood of Zelda fans) but there are also a series of mirrors in case the site is down, which I’ll list here for just such an occassion:

Mirrors One, Two and Three.  It’s also available via RapidShare or Torrent.

He wants to know what your soul looks like

Hello there, gentle viewers. I’m going to dispense with the whole ‘introduction’ thing right now and get down to a bare ass DJ Hero update.

Follow the link here to the ‘cinematic intro’ to the game, featuring the unmistakably soulless eyes of DJ Shadow

Matt has mentioned before how excited I am for this game to be coming out, despite the obvious disappointment from the recent Guitar Hero offerings. It’s a concept that appeals more to me than being a ‘Band Hero‘, complete with a new fangled controller design and well, that’s a new skillset right there.

It’s using Turntablism (check out the movie ‘Scratch‘ to get a good idea of this AH-MAZE-ING skill) to create the songs, as opposed to just break beating in the middle of rock tracks, something I was originally afraid was going to be the main drag of the game. From the tutorials, sneak peaks on the official Site and various previews from E3, it looks like my little hip-hop prayers were answered and it’s going to be some sticky fingered, cross fadin’ fun.

But DJ Shadow as a bad guy? I just don’t buy it. He’s too damn cute.

An interesting little report on Kotaku recently about across-the-board video capture for Xbox games.

While chatting with a developer at the Tokyo Games Show, the roeporter brought up a question about implementing video capture, much like the kind already implemented into Halo 3: ODST.  The developer’s reply?:

We’d love to have video capture in our game, but why work on something that the platform holder is already developing?

The developer in question has been kept anonymous, just in case they really have let a secret slip, but I can’t say how much I’d love it if this were true.  I’ve made several unsuccessful attempts to get a good video capture method for gaming, if only to get original review screenshots, and the best I’ve been able to do was get screenshots from an SD video.  I was delighted with how simple ODST made the whole thing, and if Microsoft could get this set up for every game, I’d almost be willing to forgive them for my first RRoD.

Just the first one, I’m not going nuts here.

Check out the report and Microsoft’s “maybe/maybe not” response over at Kotaku.

Remember kids, splice responsibly!

Getting a little bit depressed with the number of games pushed back to “Q1 2010″?  Well good news everyone, you can cross one ambiguous date off your list, as it was announced today that BioShock 2 has finally confirmed it’s release.

The big day? February 9, 2010.

Here’s a cut from the press release:

Set approximately 10 years after the events of the original BioShock, the halls of Rapture once again echo with sins of the past. Along the Atlantic coastline, a monster has been snatching little girls and bringing them back to the undersea city of Rapture. Players step into the boots of the most iconic denizen of Rapture, the Big Daddy, as they travel through the decrepit and beautiful fallen city, chasing an unseen foe in search of answers and their own survival.

Multiplayer in BioShock 2 will provide a rich prequel experience that expands the origins of the BioShock fiction. Set during the fall of Rapture, players assume the role of a Plasmid test subject for Sinclair Solutions, a premier provider of Plasmids and Tonics in the underwater city of Rapture that was first explored in the original BioShock. Players will need to use all the elements of the BioShock toolset to survive, as the full depth of the BioShock experience is refined and transformed into a unique multiplayer experience that can only be found in Rapture.

BioShock 2 is currently in development at 2K Marin in collaboration with 2K Australia, Digital Extremes and 2K China for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Games for Windows® LIVE. BioShock 2 will be available worldwide on February 9, 2010. This title is not yet rated by the ESRB.

So in other words, Mark Meltzer has about five months to figure out where his daughter disappeared to.

While the big date is still a little ways off, we can only assume that (barring a major accident) there won’t be any further delays in the game’s release.  So now all we’ve got to do is wait out the time, and if you live where I live, hope that Australia isn’t banning it for being too aggressively underwater.

In the meantime, the Cult of Rapture has posted up the first in a series of articles showing off the game’s multiplayer characters.  The first is a welder by the name of Jacob Norris.  Take a look, and start counting the weeks!

"I'm selling these fine leather space jackets"

You’ll have to excuse me while I restrain my wife and one of my friends over this one, they probably couldn’t be more excited … even if Jeff Goldbum was involved.

So an intrepid programmer called Stacy Davidson has begun a fan project called Han Solo Adventures. We’re talking all the classic 2D adventure action of a SCUMM adventure game, blended with the antics of everyone’s favourite nerf-herder Han Solo. Here’s a snippet from the game’s FAQ section:

If you enjoyed Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and you are at heart a Star Wars fan, then do I have a treat for you. This game was born out of my frustration that LucasArts seemed to throw everything but the kitchen sink into their adventure game lineup, with the exception of their flagship property: Star Wars. As awesome as Fate of Atlantis was, it always rubbed salt into the wound for me. I felt like, “OK, Indy’s awesome… now where’s Han?!?” For me, that’s what it’s all about, so if I am going to properly bring one of my life dreams into reality, I want it to look and feel as authentic as possible. The idea is, you just suspend disbelief and play the game as if it’s that one, long lost LucasArts adventure title you never got around to playing.

-Stacy, we love you (but of course, “you know”)

Has anyone ever heard of nobler sentiments? I know I haven’t in a long while. Now while I’m actually really excited to see where this project could be leading, you’ve got to be wary with things like this (especially when they begin gaining publicity!). LucasArts as a whole has never looked too favourably on people touching their stuff, even if it’s for free distribution (or maybe even because it’s for free distribution!). I remember back when I used to cover the Half-Life/Quake modding community, there were bundles and bundles of Star Wars mods that used to have cease-and-desist notices served to them.

With any luck, hopefully Uncle George will view this little project favourably, and we can all look forward to giving it a go. Maybe given that Ron Gilbert seems to have given the project some love, Stacy can look forward to a little leniency from the legal departments.

Either way, head on over to the game’s home page and show a little support. There’s even a video showing Han shooting first … this time in SCUMM format!

The logo looks like its outta Doctor Who.

Yep, I know what y’all are thinking. How can one do a review before playing a game?

Easy. I’m going to list all my hopes and dreams, after seeing the trailer (which I just saw).

Okay, from the trailer, this is what I took away:

• You are some sorta dude from the future.
• You’re being instructed in all manner of firearms so you can deal with events and battles that take place in the, wait for it … past.
• The weapons range from American Civil war to WW1, modern combat as well as beating the shit outta Roman centurians with a shotgun. A fucking shotgun, son.
• Sweet.

Okay, so I may seem a little excited, and I’m installing it now. As we speak.

And a quick whip around of Google Images also shows this gem.

Yeah, I’m kinda salivating. Dylan (one o’ my housemates) has talked this game up on the drive into work for a few days now, so I’m quite keen. 50 seconds to copy it onto my machine now.

10 seconds…

Loading the installer.

So, the trailer not only references historical weapons like the Springfield musket, the Gewehr 1898, and some futustic rocket launchers, assault rifles … and something like a gauss cannon … shit.

Almost installed…

And I’ve checked “Yes, I want to play Darkest of Days now.”

Back in a while.

Have a nice trip!

Those of you Monkey Island fans who are eagerly anticipating the release of The Siege of Spinner Cay, wait no more!

True to their promise, Episode 2 of the new Tales of Monkey Island series is now available for download from the Telltale Games site.

What mysterious character holds Guybrush at swordpoint?  Is the Pox of LeChuck still floating around the Carribean?  What are the newly human LeChuck’s intentions?

Be damned if I know, I’m in the capped period of my broadband month, so I’m going to have to leave my computer on overnight to download it.  I suggest everyone else do the same (only much quicker!).

Oh, "Army of Two", I get it

OK, so here’s the thing, for all those who need to catch up on the action: Salem and Rios are two mercenaries, who worked together for the private military. They worked together, thus making them an army of two. Two people.

With me so far?

OK, good. Now at the end of the first Army Of Two, Salem and Rios had uncovered the corruption of the private military that was hiring them, and decided to start their own PMC: Trans-World Operations. Which now makes them … wait for it … the army of TWO.

In related news, it turns out that One Piece is actually the name of the treasure, and can be found on the Grand Line.

More to the point, true to their Twitter’d word, the Army of Two site has confirmed a release date of January 12, 2010, for Army of Two: The 40th Day (or Jan 8th for the EU!). It joins the likes of … well, almost every game we were looking forward to this year, being released the first quarter of next year.

As a little bit of a bonus, people who pre-order the game will be rewarded with that game’s multiplayer “Extraction” mode before all the regular schmucks get it (which will be around a month later, if I understand it correctly). Apparently …

‘Extraction’ mode pits a team of four players against a series of unique enemy waves as they move from point to point in the ruined city.

… or so says almighty Twitter, anyhow. I’m not certain what difference a month makes to anyone’s decision to pre-order, but if you’re probably going to pre-order anyway (like I am), well you might as well get something for it.

Check out the announcement on the Ao2 blog.

They didn't even lose the spirit of the original box art

LucasArts have been in overdrive lately attempting to get an adventure genre revival happening.  It’s a much loved genre that has been sadly missed during it’s long, though some may say necessary, absence.  But now, with the re-release of so many LucasArts classics like Loom and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis on Steam, furthered by the old IPs getting new life from the crew over at Telltale, you could say that adventure is really re-emerging on the gaming market.

No better time then to make everyone nostalgia as hard as they can with the re-release of what most people would agree was the greatest adventure title of all time: The Secret of Monkey Island.

Ron Gilbert’s original masterpiece was truly a milestone in computer entertainment.  A game full of challenge, humour, memorable PC speaker music (now there’s a feat you don’t see often) and just a fantastic experience for gamers everywhere.  I feel a little bit sorry for those people who will be discovering the game for the first time with the release of the Special Edition, simply because they have missed out on discovering this game with the rest of the world.

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