Shinji Mikami’s Return to Survival Horror: The Evil Within
Shinji Mikami’s game designing career can easily be called eclectic, but most hold him responsible for inflicting the interactive nightmare that is Resident Evil upon us. Now, he’s back with his own studio, Tango Gameworks, to scare the living shit out of us again.
Billed as a “supernova of horror,” The Evil Within centers on a Detective Sebastian’s struggle against grotesque monsters (like the multi-armed freaky-deaky above) as the world twists, morphs, and falls apart around him. Those long missed totems of survival horror — limited supplies, deadly traps, heavy puzzle solving, oppressive darkness — are all at play and in full force here.
You’ll be able to do better than just cry at your pursuers, though, as it’s promised the game will be an equal infusion of action and terror. Besides blasting enemies into the ether (when you can find bullets), you can use their lethal traps right back at them. How can you not love that?
The Evil Within is locked in for a 2014 release on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 as well as “next generation consoles.” Looks like survival horror ain’t dead after all…But how could it ever die?
Fallout: The TV Series?
This might amount to no more than the internet readily springing to the nearest conclusion, but when has Bethesda’s trademark filing antics let us down before? This go around, however, we’re not talking about outed DLC. No, it would seem this new filing points to the company’s intention to take over a whole different medium altogether.
Bethesda has recently registered a trademark for “an on-going television program set in a post-nuclear apocalyptic world.” Well, that’s a mighty interestin’ course of action considering Bethesda happens to be the current rights holder and publisher of the Fallout series. I’d venture to say the two notions are related in some inconceivably, far-fetched way…though I’d be damned if I knew how.
Sorry to disappoint those that thought we were on the verge of a Fallout 4 announcement thanks to voice actor Erik Todd Dellums’ tweet last week where he teased that his character Three Dog — Galaxy News Radio’s DJ last heard in Fallout 3 — would be making a return in some fashion. (That’s not to say there hasn’t been rabble about Fallout 4, though. This is the internet, after all.)
Video games on television don’t have a terrific track record — go ask Mortal Kombat: Konquest the sordid truth…if it’s not too drunk to respond, that is — but I’m not one to underestimate some of the creative minds coasting around in the entertainment business. It just takes the combination of the right talent with the right material to create the TV equivalent of cigarettes for your eyeballs. So judgement reserved until if and when this one actually happens.
Revenge Just About Solves Everything in New Dishonored Trailer
I understand a lot of you were hoping that teaser image publisher Bethesda Softworks was dangling in front our faces was somehow linked to Skyrim. Actually, your nose perked up when I said Skyrim. But we’re not talking about Skyrim toda— And you’re walking away. Rude.
We’re talking about Arkane Studios’ steampunk assassination romp that goes by Dishonored. Betrayed by his country, protagonist Corvo attempts to clear his name the only way he knows how: by leaving a trail of bodies a mile long. This concept trailer introduces us to an arsenal of death that immediately reminds me of Bioshock dual wielding of weapons and superhuman powers. I’m not calling Arkane’s game a clone, but admittedly, you can do worse than follow in Bioshock’s footsteps.
Dishonored surely has more tricks up its sleeve, most of which we’ll get to see before the game’s eventual release this year on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
Dishonored (PC/PS3/360)
From Arkane Studios and being published by Bethesda, Dishonored takes you on a first-person stealth driven journey through a world that cobbles elements from the past, present, and future into one steampunk mess.
The Empress, the woman your protagonist Corvo is life-sworn to protect, is dead and the authorities are jabbing a finger your way. Using cunning, espionage, a mixed bag of gadgets, and a wee bit of the supernatural, Corvo can carve himself a path of relentless revenge or leave every single one of Dishonored’s enemies — right down to the bosses — injured but breathing.
Gameplay smacks with the essence of industry peers like Deus Ex (which shouldn’t be surprising given that this game’s lead designer had a hand in that title), but the unique style certainly draws the eye. That uniqueness may just help Dishonored leave a mark when it arrives later this year, especially when like fare such as Bioshock Infinite threaten to hog the limelight.
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