All Articles: PC
Scorn is a Gigeresque nightmare… and an Xbox Series X exclusive at launch
Microsoft began rolling out some of the third-party support they’ve lined up for the Xbox Series X earlier today, and Ebb Software’s Scorn has certainly slithered its way to the front with haunting imagery reminiscent of H.R. Giger’s designs for the Xenomorph from the Alien franchise.
Featuring statues that cry entrails and a lot of bodily fluids, the new trailer for Scorn is a wild ride into an utterly alien world. But I think it’s best to let the developers themselves fill you in on how they plan to unsettle players with their “nightmare” vision:
Scorn lures players into a claustrophobic underworld populated with misshapen organic forms dripping with unnamed fluids. You will find yourself entirely alone, with only your senses and instincts to guide you through the non-linear nightmare of interconnected spaces. In Scorn, the environment is itself a character, and will do its best to unsettle and unbalance you. Each location has its own puzzles, characters, and story to tell, all of which combine to create a cohesive world. On your journey through the game, new areas, skills, weapons, and items will be unveiled as you attempt to comprehend the unfolding reality of Scorn.
Kowloon Nights, an investment fund for independent developers, is providing support for Scorn, and Community Manager Danika Harrod expanded on Ebb’s influences on the Xbox Wire:
Scorn is a first-person horror adventure game designed around the idea of being thrown into the world. As players explore the dream-like world in a non-linear fashion, they will soon learn that every location has its own story, puzzles, and characters – even the unsettling environment is a character itself. The team has drawn visual inspiration from Swiss painter H.R. Giger and Polish painter Zdzislaw Beksinski. Conceptual inspiration has come from works by unique writers like Franz Kafka and Jorge Luis Borges, horror and sci-fi writers like Thomas Ligotti and J.G. Ballard, and the weird cinema of David Cronenberg and David Lynch.
Scorn will be released for the Xbox Series X during the console’s “launch period” this Fall, and it’s also in the works for the PC through Steam and the Windows Store.
It’s raining Bells as Animal Crossing: New Horizons becomes the best-selling game of March 2020
Multiple states attempted to “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus pandemic throughout the month of March by shutting down non-essential businesses, and The NPD Group’s recent report (via Twitter) about the month’s best-selling games absolutely reflects this strange new world.
Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons, without the benefit of digital sales (the consolemaker doesn’t supply them to NPD), was the best-selling game of March 2020. According to analyst Mat Piscatella (also via Twitter), it’s impressive debut has already set a new sales record for the franchise, and it trails only Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Super Smash Bros. Brawl for best first month sales by a Nintendo-published title.
The game also helped sell a lot of people on the Switch, as Nintendo sold more Switch consoles in March of 2020 than they did when the system launched in March of 2017.
With gamers doing their part and staying home, the entire industry surged ahead alongside Tom Nook, Isabelle, K.K. Slider, and the rest of the Animal Crossing crew. Total game sales were up 34% over March 2019 ($739 million vs $550 million), while total hardware sales rose 63% ($461 million vs $282 million).
And Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn’t the only new release that’s popular with players right now. MLB The Show 20 (#3), Resident Evil 3 (#4), Doom Eternal (#6), and Persona 5 Royal (#7) all debuted in the Top Ten. Looking further down the list, new games such as Nioh 2 (#11), Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (#15), and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered (#20) all snuck into the Top 20.
You can find a complete breakdown of The NPD Group’s list of best-selling games from March 2020 after the break. (more…)
Seinfeld Adventure might become a game if you believe in it
George: Everybody’s doing something, we’ll do nothing.
Jerry: So, we go into NBC, we tell them we’ve got an idea for a show about nothing.
George: Exactly.
Jerry: They say, “What’s your show about?” I say, “Nothing.”
George: There you go.
Jerry: I think you may have something here.
Jacob Janerka and Ivan Dixon probably weren’t sitting around a coffee shop like Jerry and George when they came up with the idea for a point-and-click adventure game based on Seinfeld, but their version of “The Pitch” sounds equally hilarious.
The two developers are looking to do more than build a mere fangame with Seinfeld Adventure, and so they’ve launched SeinfeldGame.com to pitch the idea directly to co-creators Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David:
For a “show about nothing” Seinfeld has a surprisingly rich world. There are so many memorable recurring characters, plot lines and locations as the four protagonists navigate new relationships, jobs and rivals.
The show existed during the time of iconic adventure games such as Monkey Island, Full Throttle, King’s Quest and many more.
Point-and-click adventure games often involve some sort of task or mission that requires a mix of conversational skills, puzzle solving, item collection and use. In Seinfeld, conflict also arises regularly from miscommunication or involves novel items (think episodes like The Pez, The Junior Mint, The Statue, The Calzone, The Fusilli Jerry, The Couch, The Big Salad, etc). All this melds perfectly with the point-and-click formula!
Their “Video Game About Nothing” would give players the chance to control Jerry, George, and Elaine as they live out a brand new episode (“The Email”) that also ropes in Kramer (a “wild card” who “cannot be controlled”), Newman, Kenny Bania, and yet another tale about a young girl’s strange and erotic journey from Milan to Minsk:
Jerry is dating a publicist who accidentally reveals his email address to Kenny Bania through a group email. Now Bania fills Jerry’s inbox with a flurry of spam emails asking for feedback on his new stand-up set. Jerry decides to break up with the publicist over this, but he doesn’t want to deal with the interaction face-to-face. Kramer suggests ending the relationship via email and avoiding it all together. Jerry does this before Elaine reminds him that the publicist was supposed to get them all tickets to the opening night of the new movie “Rochelle, Rochelle 2”. George devises a plan to corrupt Jerry’s girlfriend’s computer before she can read her emails so that they can still collect the tickets. Kramer says he knows who can help. Someone with a sworn vendetta against email. Someone who has devoted their whole life to analogue mail and sees email as a threat to his livelihood. Someone named Newman.
While Jerry’s Mac often sat unused in the corner of his apartment, this certainly sounds like the plot of a long lost episode of Seinfeld. Ideally, Janerka and Dixon would like to include multiple episodes in the game, with each one built around the three-act structure of the show.
But that’s where the rest of us come in. Right now, Seinfeld Adventure is just a website, a short proof-of-concept trailer, and a good idea. While they’ve already rereated Jerry’s apartment and the coffee shop in a wonderfully pixelated style (and perfectly captured the shove accompanying Elaine’s “Get! Out!”), they need the approval of the show’s creators before they can go any further. And they think they might have a better shot if fans share their idea “far and wide.”
I don’t know what’ll happen next, but hopefully it goes better for Janerka and Dixon than it did for Jerry and George.
Grounded will be available in Early Access on July 28
Microsoft and Obsidian are continuing to play up the similarities between the upcoming Grounded and Disney’s Honey I Shrunk the Kids in the game’s latest trailer.
Delving slightly deeper into the mysteries of the game’s shrinking technology, this Story Trailer introduces prospective players to BURG.L, a robot that will help you navigate the treacherous backyard arena:
In Grounded, you wake up in a suburban backyard, shrunk to the size of an ant. You hear the voice of a mysterious robot named BURG.L. He seems to know what’s going on and lets you know that the machine to turn you back to normal size is currently out of order. For now, everything in the backyard is trying to kill you and it’s up to you – and up to three friends, if you’re playing co-operative multiplayer – to survive the perilous landscape.
The short clip also includes several thrilling battles between ants, bees, and spiders, as well as a glimpse at some of the crafting and building options that Grounded will have.
Grounded will be available to download as an Early Access/Game Preview title for the PC and Xbox One on July 28.