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All Articles: Outlast
Outlast, Subsurface Circular, Scribblenauts Showdown, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week
The Nintendo Switch’s eShop got a little scarier this week.
With the launch of Outlast: Bundle of Terror, which contains the original game and its Whistleblower expansion, players can take Red Barrels’s demented romp through an insane asylum on the go for the first time. Also now available for the Switch is Subsurface Circular, a text-based detective game from Mike Bithell (the creator of Thomas Was Alone).
And on Tuesday, Switch owners will be able to download Scribblenauts Showdown, a multiplayer party game spinoff of the long-running franchise.
You can learn more about all of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Switch, Wii U
Tagged Outlast, Scribblenauts Showdown
New Retail Releases: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Dragon Quest Heroes II, More
Spring has sprung, flowers are in bloom, and a huge batch of new releases will be sprouting on the shelves at your local game store this week.
Nintendo Switch owners have the biggest reasons to celebrate this week as Nintendo will bring Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to the console, while Sega will release Puyo Puyo Tetris. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe includes all of the downloadable content from Mario Kart 8’s original release, as well as several new racers, a brand new Battle Mode, and improved graphics. Meanwhile, Puyo Puyo Tetris mashes together the two puzzle game franchises to create a multiplayer title that features nearly a dozen different ways to play.
Also available this week is a pair of terrifying new titles, including Red Barrels’s first-person horror compilation, Outlast Trinity (which contains Outlast, its expansion, and the brand new Outlast II) for the PS4 and Xbox One. Bandai Namco will also release their creepy puzzle platformer, Little Nightmares, for the PS4 and Xbox One.
Elsewhere on store shelves, fans of big swords and big guns will be able to get your fix with the Square Enix/Koei Tecmo collaboration, Dragon Quest Heroes II (PS4), and CI Games’s shooter sequel, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 (PC, PS4, and Xbox One).
Finally this week, the Syberia franchise comes in from the cold with Syberia 3, which will launch for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
You can find a complete list of this week’s new retail releases after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch, Vita, Xbox One
Tagged Dragon Quest Heroes II, Little Nightmares, Mario Kart 8, Outlast, Outlast 2, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, Syberia 3
Outlast II will be released on April 25 alongside a retail collection of both games
Red Barrels announced yesterday that Outlast II will be available to download through digital storefronts on April 25. The developer also revealed that they’re partnering with WB Games on Outlast Trinity, a special retail collection for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One that includes the original Outlast, its Whistleblower expansion, and the sequel.
The original Outlast was absolutely terrifying, and Red Barrels has been working hard to make sure Outlast II is just as scary. But the developer is also taking the survival horror sequel in a new direction with a new protagonist and a new locale:
The sequel to the original critically acclaimed game, Outlast II is a twisted new journey into the depths of the human mind and its dark secrets. Blake Langermann, a cameraman working with his wife Lynn, must take risks and dig deep to uncover the stories no one else will dare touch. As the two follow a trail of clues that started with the seemingly impossible murder of a pregnant woman known only as Jane Doe, the investigation leads them miles into the Arizona desert to a darkness so deep that no one could shed light upon it, and a corruption so profound that going mad may be the only sane thing to do.
“We’ve been lucky to have such an amazing fan base, and none of this would have been possible without their support,” said Philippe Morin, a Co-Founder of Red Barrels. “Ever since we released Outlast in 2013, a physical version has been one of the top requests, so we’re obviously thrilled to finally give people the entire series in one bundle of terror.”
XBL Store Today (Part 2): Outlast
Now this is a surprise. Microsoft had previously performed their Wednesday update to the Xbox Live Games Store this morning, adding EA Sports UFC for the Xbox One and Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack!!! for the Xbox 360. But about an hour ago, they added another Xbox One game: Red Barrels’ Outlast.
The first-person survival horror game was released for the PS4 in February after a successful PC launch last year. But up until the moment the game was added to the XBL Store, no one knew it was in development for the Xbox One. Another interesting question to ask in light of Outlast’s Xbox One launch is, “What does this mean for Microsoft’s famous “parity clause” for ID@Xbox titles?” Before today, the consolemaker wasn’t interested in your game if it was previously released for another console (though, case-by-case exceptions are possible). Either Outlast has qualified for one of those exceptions (Warp Zoned’s Mike Ryan loved it on the PS4) or Microsoft has begun to rethink the whole policy.
After the large number of amazing indie games showcased at this year’s E3 Expo, I’d say the latter would be a wise decision. But for now, I give you Outlast…
Outlast ($19.99)
In the remote mountains of Colorado, horrors wait inside Mount Massive Asylum. A long-abandoned home for the mentally ill, recently re-opened by the “research and charity” branch of the transnational Murkoff Corporation, the asylum has been operating in strict secrecy… until now. Acting on a tip from an anonymous source, independent journalist Miles Upshur breaks into the facility, and what he discovers walks a terrifying line between science and religion, nature and something else entirely. Once inside, his only hope of escape lies with the terrible truth at the heart of Mount Massive.
Outlast: The Whistleblower DLC will be available in April
Warning: If you want to play Outlast and you haven’t yet, this DLC description has major spoilers!
Outlast developer Red Barrels has announced via its Facebook page that “The Whistleblower,” the first DLC expansion for the game, will be coming to PC and PlayStation 4 this April.
In “The Whistleblower,” you’ll get to play as Waylon Park, the man who sent the email to Miles Upshur, and many other journalists around the world, at the beginning of Outlast. Park was a software engineer at Murkoff, and “developed a deep-seated distrust of the profit-motivated scientists and doctors leading dangerous and irresponsible experiments on their patients” while he was working at Mount Massive. He was driven to blow the whistle on Mount Massive, and here you can play out those events – though the developer promises that the DLC “will actually stretch past the events of the first game to show the final chapter in Mount Massive Asylum’s story.”
Keep an eye out for “The Whistleblower” this April on the PC and PlayStation 4.
Outlast Review: House on Haunted Thrill
For a few years, I worked at a haunted house during the Halloween season. My job was, as one would expect, to scare the patrons. It was a great gig, and I have some fond memories of really freaking people out. But it wasn’t all about standing in a corner and jumping out at the most opportune time. There’s a real science behind the perfect scare. You need to be meticulous in your planning by first creating a sense of uneasiness, then instilling dread and fear, and finally, delivering the scare.
Horror games follow a similar process. For example, the dog jumping through the window in Resident Evil is one of the most famous video game scares. Things were already very spooky when you first stepped into that mansion. As you continued, fear crept in, as you knew that something was waiting for you around that corner. Then, when that zombified doberman finally crashes through the glass, it really hits you hard. Some of the better survival horror games follow this formula pretty religiously, creating some pretty intense experiences.
Outlast already has a pretty faithful following among the PC crowd. As a console-specific gamer (my PC can barely run The 7th Guest), I’ve only heard a few things about the game on various gaming forums. The sentiment was almost universal – this is one of the scariest games ever made. Now that I finally got a chance to play through the console version, I can say that I definitely agree with those sentiments. (more…)
Outlast, Ace Combat: Infinity beta, Wolf Among Us: Episode 2 added to PS Store
Red Barrels’ creepy horror hit, Outlast, is now available on the PS4. The game is available as a free download for PlayStation Plus subscribers while the rest of us will have to play $19.99. A variety of other games are also included in this week’s PlayStation Store update. They include:
- The second episode of Telltale’s Fables adaptation, The Wolf Among Us: Smoke & Mirrors (PS3).
- Dustforce (PS3 / Vita), a side-scroller from Capcom that asks players to clean up.
- Trapt, a PS2 Classic in the cult favorite Deception series.
- Gex: Enter the Gecko, a platformer favorite original released for the PSone.
PS3 owners will also be able to give the Ace Combat: Infinity beta a try this week. The free download is available across the world… except in publisher Bandai Namco’s home country of Japan.
More information on all of these games and a few others can be found after the break. And a complete list of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Ace Combat: Infinity, Outlast, The Wolf Among Us
Outlast coming to PS4 next month as PS Plus freebie
Outlast, Red Barrels’ creepy asylum-set horror game from last year, will soon make the jump from the PC to the PS4. According to a post on the developer’s Facebook page, Outlast is almost ready to be released and we can stop saying “soon” and start saying “sometime in February” instead:
Outlast will be free in February for all PlayStation Plus users (PS4 only). #OUTLAST #PS4 #PSPLUS
As you can see, after it’s released, the game will also be included as one of the free downloads offered through PlayStation Plus. Regular pricing for players who don’t subscribe to Plus wasn’t announced.