Grave Gamer News & Views — scifi

One of the greatest Star Wars games ever put to disc. In this case, the Gamecube’s tiny, easily lost discs.

Star Wars: Rogue Leader

by xxkuronoxx

Entire Mass Effect Trilogy Charting for Next-Gen?

I know I’m late on this one, I beg forgiveness. When airplanes don’t have Wi-Fi, my only two choices are to play Pokemon X or sleep with my neck at a perfect right angle.

Anywho, if a Chilean retailer’s online listing isn’t a cruel, cruel mistake, it would appear Bioware is following the trend Injustice, Tomb Raider, and, soon, The Last of Us have set by porting their choice-driven, ass-kicking, alien Frenching sci-fi magnum opus to next-gen consoles.

For the millionth and sixth time this year, a sharp-eyed NeoGAF user caught this potential caveat while browsing Zmart (Shop smart, shop Zmart…?):

That’s the already collected Mass Effect Trilogy, ayuh. But hold the Turian, that’s PS4 box art! Our NeoGAFite says there was also an Xbox One listing to be had.

Clicking on the listing revealed next to squat – no release date, no pricing, no info. Bioware’s been mum on the subject, too. However, that doesn’t mean they haven’t at least thought about bringing the space opera to new systems.

Bioware Edmonton/Montreal GM, Aaryn Flynn, teased to fans on the internet’s megaphone, Twitter, that a next-gen port of the series has been discussed internally.

I truly hope this is legit. Now that we’re well past Mass Effect 3’s ending debacle and ensuing cry-babying, we can clearly view this trilogy for what it is: a groundbreaking piece of art that organically wove storytelling and setting into one immersive epic. Toss in upped visuals and three games worth of DLC and I’d revisit my Shepard faster than you can say “I’ve got some calibrations to do.”

I’ll keep you posted if this rumor hits orbit.

>Adr1ft: A Deeply Personal Game About Being Stranded in Deep Space

In a way, you could say >Adr1ft is a disaster game borne from a real life disaster – albeit a personal one.

Before last April, you probably didn’t know the name Adam Orth, then a Microsoft Studios creative director. One Tweet later and Orth became a household name and, thanks to one tasteless hashtag – the now immortal #dealwithit – unwittingly assumed the role of the internet’s pincushion; supplying a face to the contemptible “Always-Online” debate.

The effects on Adam’s professional life were devastating, forcing him to resign from his position at Microsoft. More scathing were the repercussions on his personal life, as well, with some vitriol escalating to as high as death threats made against him and his family. Adam receded from the hate wave of the internet, and seemingly from the world too.

Now, Orth is trying to come to terms with his self-inflicted turmoil through creative expression. >Adr1ft is his way of dealing with it.

The game is being developed by Three One Zero, a Southern Cali studio started by Orth and a handful of trusted colleagues. While the team members were forged in the fires of big budget, AAA development, they wish to distance themselves far, far away from the games they used to create – multi-million dollar shooting galleries the likes of Medal of Honor and Call of Duty: Black Ops.

>Adr1ft demonstrates this wish almost immediately. You control an astronaut that awakens to a damaged and deserted space station. Your crew is missing, likely dead. You haven’t the faintest idea what the hell has happened. You’re alone and your oxygen is depleting.

A core gameplay conceit is finding more breathable air. The lower your current tank is, the more labored and panicky your breathing is. Your vision may even begin blur without enough air. Anxiety settles in not just for your character, but the player.

The game is set in the first-person perspective but bares no resemblance to the first-person shooters dominating the market. There’s nothing to kill and nothing is chasing you. Your biggest enemy is the environment. And, for being the bad guy, it’s rather beautiful. Serene even.

The game is equal parts tension and relaxation. Orth likes to describe it as a mixed salad featuring the exploration of Journey, the immersion of Half-Life, and the caught-in-space disaster scenario found in Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity. It’s a gorgeous, ambitious project steeped in intimacy – namely, the alienation Orth has been unable to exorcise from his life since last April.

The game, while massively impressive at this stage, is still in prototyping. Three One Zero is looking for a backer, but given the response to its demo at Vegas’ DICE Summit (bolstered by the use of the Oculus Rift to immerse participants), it shouldn’t be long before a publisher takes the bait. >Adr1ft will probably be seeing a PC release first, but Orth has expressed interest in seeing the game grace next-gen consoles.

Read Polygon’s >Adr1ft interview with Orth hereabouts.

Alien: Isolation Officially Revealed

I’ve been following every space scrap of news on this project for a while now – Alien and its film progeny, Jimmy Cameron’s opus in particular, being my favorite series in the history of the silver screen – but it’s refreshing to have the loading bay doors officially blown off of Alien: Isolation.

Though the game is set in the first-person, don’t expect Isolation to be yet another Hoo-rah-tastic corridor shooter as hollow as the sound of pulse rifle fire. Creative Assembly is seeking to create the Alien game no other developer has tried before: a methodically paced, suffocatingly atmospheric love letter to the bump-in-the-dark horror Ridley Scott famously put to film back in 1979.

Fifteen years after the Nostromo vanished from the star map, Amanda Ripley finds herself aboard the Sevastopol Station, the floating husk of a former trading port. The Company says she may find an answer to her mother’s disappearance there. What she does find is one ruthless, near unstoppable killing machine of an extraterrestrial that will stalk her, find her, and end her unpleasantly unless she uses her wits and what little supplies she can scrounge up to survive. Like mother, like daughter.

As much as I’d love for a team of perfect fans to crack Aliens’ formula and deliver a riveting action game instead of a derivative train wreck, I’m glad we’re not gagging on another space marine shooter. The films are, and always have been, firmly rooted in horror. It’s time video games stopped treating xenomorphs as canon fodder, having you blast apart hordes of them. It’s time to be afraid of them again.

Alien: Isolation, expected for late this year, is releasing for PC, PS3, 360, PS4, and Xbox One.

In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream Watching This Trailer!

Here’s Your First Contact with Alien: Isolation

I think it’s safe to say this project has broken out of the rumor cage and is now free to prey on any one of us stupidly not named Ripley.

In Sega’s latest attempt to make anything but a frozen space turd out of the Alien IP, they’ve tasked Creative Assembly in restoring dignity to this series’ video game presence not seen since AvP2 for the PC. Feel free to brush up on Alien: Isolation right hereabouts, but I’ll give you the quick lowdown:

Ellen Ripley’s own brood, Amanda, is isolated (bah!) aboard a space station –  that’s a bit misleading, though, because she has plenty of company, found in one vicious xenomorph terrorizing her at every vent and dark corridor.

Given the lack of pluralization in the title, the game’s vibe appropriately borrows from the original film’s claustrophobic brand of horror. More than that, these screens showcase slavish dedication to designs period specific (in canon) to Ridley Scott’s vision of the early 22nd Century. That motion tracker looks like it was ripped right out of Captain Dallas’ hands (if you got the reference immediately, we are lifelong friends now).

Oh, baby, I can feel a reveal coming on real soon. I crave a trailer next.