Datura Official Trailer Released

Forgive me for the lack of Youtube link, but I can only find the official version on Vimeo at the moment and rather than wait for a Youtube version, I'll roll with it and probably strike this out.  Anyways...

So, Datura, 'that floating hand game' has an official trailer (what is this, friggin' trailer week?) now that is quite different from all the teasers we've seen so far and I'm....not quite sure what to think about it.  I'm just going to preface the whole post with that fact because I mean, the entirety of the reason I -liked- Datura from the start was because it seemed so different.  But now that we kind of have a clearer picture, I'm getting a little concerned at just how different the game appears to be, though from the group who made Linger in Shadows being involved probably should have tipped me off a little and a little earlier than now.  The trailer is more or less all over the place both literally and figuratively as one moment we see our floating hand protagonist in the back of an ambulance, and the next they're handcuffed in what I can assume is the back of a police van.  From there, the trailer goes on to take us to to the forest we've seen time and time before, the arctic, a hospital and a battlefield straight out of one of the world wars, perhaps.

Of course, that is apparently the whole point of the game, or at least that's what the GDC Footage taken a little while back would suggest.  In the video, it's explained that the Forest is sort of a 'hub' world from which the player will go to the different 'stages' after finding items of import.  After ripping the face off of a statue, the player finds a pickaxe that, when grabbed, transports them to the arctic area wherein the player has to choose between digging out a literal trophy (that I imagine grants a trophy in the final game) or a human being trapped under the ice.  It seems pretty black and white, and I don't know if the game is going to be static or if things will change based on your decisions, but in the video, choosing the person leads to the ice breaking and the player being submerged in the icy waters.  So it's quite possible that Black and White are not quite what they seem, which I would certainly hope is the case, as well as it being touched up with randomness or, again, developmental impact from choices.

Still, as the game gets nearer and nearer, I start to wonder if it's going to be a game that you can play with both hands, or if the (seemingly cumbersome) single Move Wand control scheme (barring using a dualshock) will be the only way to go.  With it saying you can 'explore', that's precisely what I want to do; I want to be able to use a Nav Controller to walk around like normal instead of looking in a direction and pressing Triangle to advance or whatever wonky sort of movement scheme shown off there.  Beyond that, the game doesn't look quite as tight as I would hope for, having a second or so lag between movement of the Wand and movement on the screen.  I suppose I just feel like I can feel all my excitement draining away for the game because it's not seeming like it's going to be what I expected or, perhaps, what I hoped.  Instead, it might simply be a really artsy game that uses the Move Wand to try and justify the peripheral.

I guess we'll find out soon enough, though, as the game is rumored to release on May 9th in the UK.  Of course this doesn't mean a lot, as SCEE and SCEA aren't quite the best at coordinating things between each other so SCEE stores sometimes see games come out weeks or even months after the SCEA folks have played it, beaten it and moved on.  Similarly, SCEE has had a couple games (not many, just a couple) come out without so much as a word for an SCEA release.  So while the ideal scenario would be that it comes out on May 9th in PAL regions, with May 8th or the following Tuesday being NA's release date (with a demo), I can't say that's going to be the case for sure, nor should Joystiq.  But, eh, they kind of do that a lot and oh well.  We'll just see what happens because there's not that much time between then and now, and I expect to see details relatively soon!

The Next God of War is "God of War: Ascension"

So yesterday, in the wee hours of the Eastern Time Zone morning, God of War:  Ascension was leaked with a mock-up box art and a teaser trailer.  And quite shortly after, it was officially announced by Sony who I'm sure didn't plan on announcing the game at 1 AM PST.  That alone seems pretty much enough to state, coupled with the above trailer but, as we know, I try not to just plop down a trailer and walk off (Not that there's anything wrong with that) because I like to pretend you guys enjoy my breakdowns of them.  And I kind of like to do them since forcing myself to pick away at a trailer lets me pick out pieces I might not see if I just watched it a couple times and was done with it.  It also just makes me feel like I -did- something instead of just found a trailer for a post.  This is a writing blog, after all, so I like to be writing in it.

Anyways, before I really get into the trailer, there are a few interesting little tidbits to share before we get into the meat of it all.  The first, and likely most important bit is that Todd Papy, former Design Director for God of War 3, has jumped up into the big leagues, apparently, as he seems to be the Director of God of War:  Ascension.  I mean, he said it and everything.  This does mean, of course, that God of War is still in the hands of Sony Santa Monica, despite the trailer lacking said branding.  If you don't want to check the blog post linked above, the direct quote is, "For those of you who haven’t had a chance to check out what the team at Sony Santa Monica Studios has been working on", which is pretty indicative there.  And more news about the game is incoming, as soon as April 30th where a live-stream event will take place, showing off the game and answering select questions from Twitter that are submitted between now and....tomorrow.

Now, the fun bit.  For the trailer itself, it's quite lovely to look at, using the same sort of art style that 3 used a lot of at least (I don't remember currently if the other games had it as prominently) which was quite neat.  Of course, we don't really get a lot from the visuals and thus must then pay attention to what the trailer is saying to get the idea of the next game.  And the idea, in keeping with the name "Ascension" seems to revolve around the time before Kratos became a servant of Ares to begin with, and was but a regular Spartan Soldier (General?) fighting against the armies of Mortals.  Or, at least, part of the game will likely be that, as the Ares part might happen towards the middle rather than towards the end.  Maybe.  This is all kind of conjecture at this point, but really, it seems to hammer in the point of "Before Ares", which means a Human Kratos without the Blades of Chaos.

This presents a sort of schism in the schools of thought going into the game.  Some people think that, since in this, Kratos would be essentially a 'normal' human (overlooking that even as a Human, he was pretty much King Badass) which might lead to a different kind of gameplay overarching the game.  Really shaking up the formula instead of having it be another foray into the semi-cinematic Action scene.  Others think that it will retain the God of War spirit, but embody that with a different weapon to start, perhaps a normal Xiphos blade, or the classic Spear/Shield combo that we've come to envision as standard fare for Spartans.  Myself, I'm firmly in the latter camp, but I can understand why there is the hope embodied in the first camp, since some people, crazy people, can't allow themselves to get excited for the type of combat that has been prevalent in the God of War series from its inception.  Or, they say they don't want it, but when it comes down to it, they buy it anyway because it's friggin' God of War.

Now, as this has all been purely conjecture more or less, it leaves one wondering just how much of a prequel the game will -actually- be.  Will it contain itself into a single tale that sits before Chains of Olympus?  Or will it have a connection with God of War 3 in a sense that it will eventually place down a hook for the 'eventual' God of War IV that has made the internet rounds so extensively?  With whispers of a Spring 2013 release, as well as the idea that some First Party devs have already gotten their hands on theoretical PS4 dev tools, it could make a lot of sense to throw Ascension down as a piece to keep the God of War brand in peoples minds so that, perhaps in next year's E3, they show off a God of War IV made for the PS4.  With just so many fours, it looks so tantalizing.  Before I get too conspiracy theorist, however, I believe I should stop, since it is a bit off-topic anyways.

The big bullet points here to encapsulate one last time, I suppose, would be:  God of War: Ascension is the next God of War game.  It will be for the PS3, made by Sony Santa Monica with Todd Papy at the director's helm.  Tomorrow at some point, we'll likely have a little more info thanks to the Live Stream event, but for now, we don't have a whole lot to go on.  It -seems- to be a prequel from the teaser trailer, but anything beyond that, even trying to state something as a supposition or 'fact', is purely conjecture.  Personally, I just can't wait to play another God of War game as, unlike the majority of people who see fit to comment on Gaming News Sites, I still have deep deep wells of excitement that I tap in for the franchise exclusively.  So long as the game is as brutal as the last, if not more, I'll be happy!

Datura Officially Announced, Exactly What You Remember

Remember all the way back in September when a game, affectionately known as the "Floating Hand Game", was first teased with a video and then two others?  No?  Because it was about six months ago?  Well, no worries, because I have ever-so-conveniently linked both the posts I made about the game so you can catch up on it again.  If you saw them or anything about this at all in the first place, of course.  If not, everything's cool because I'm going to reiterate with a little quick refresher about the game so we're all up to speed on it.  Mostly because I completely forgot about the game myself until I saw the Playstation Blog post while I was not-so-patiently waiting for the Store Update post.  Which took forever to go up, but it's up and I'm downloading my free MotorStorm RC, so all is well.

Datura was first shown off in a fairly artsy trailer that showed a disembodied hand stroking things in a forest while being controlled by a Playstation Move wand.  No really, that's pretty much the first taste of the game that anyone ever got, and only after did it start to make a little more sense.  The whole basis of the game is confusion, really, as it might in fact start you off in a forest that you have no idea how you got into, and then, in classic adventure game style, have you look around, solving puzzles so you can try and figure out just what's going on.  Touch and such things play a key element here and by running your imaginary hand along things you'll find clues and key items (perhaps even keys) that you'll use to further yourself along.  At least, I think that's the idea.

It's definitely something interesting as a concept, and as I've mentioned before, if the game has areas that you can actually move around in (with the use of the Navigation Wand/Dualshock 3) and explore, it'll catch my attention all the more.  We're really beginning to lack games that encourage and/or reward exploration like that, and it's really a shame since something that simple can be infinitely rewarding if you use it right.  Of course, there's a case to be made with the previous generations (specifically 16-bit to early CD Sprites) that they took that theory a little too literally and loosely, rendering you unable to do anything without pixel hunting or going to somewhere to arbitrarily set off an event flag.  Still, we're in the future now; I have faith that we can get back into it and do it right.  Regardless, they're likely going to make a comeback in some fashion thanks to the whole DoubleFine Kickstarter bringing them back into the limelight.

Something I do wonder about, however, is just what all to the game there's going to be aside from moving around, stroking things and being confused.  The two almost the exact same teasers show you driving, but I'm not sure if that's going to be a recurring thing or more just a "This is how you got here" type of thing as it seems, whether you hit the pig or not, you spin-out anyways.  I hope that matters in another way down the road since, while the possibility of things being different is cool, it's much cooler if it actually means something, which is something that Alpha Protocol taught us all in spades.  I think it's going to be hard to play other choice-based games in the future because I'll be micro-analyzing just how much impact they really had, and I'm not sure anyone else is going to take it to the level they tried, at least not for a little while.  Which is really a shame because it really really works.

So really, the only thing we've learned about Datura that we haven't known for a while is that it is actually called Datura and will release sometime this year.  It's going to be a PSN game, not a retail one, and will make extensive use of the Move wand.  With any luck, it'll almost require the Nav Wand or a Dualshock 3 for exploration rather than just being on-rails or gesture-based or something.  But seeing as 'mystery' is something of the core of the game itself, I doubt we'll find out a whole lot more until the game gets closer to release.  Honestly, that's fine by me since there is just entirely too much game around and about and until we hit a dry spot and I have time to catch up, I'm not sure I want to hear about any more -new- games.  ...aside from the ones being announced at the Vita Game Heaven event.  Mostly because now I'm really hoping for a new Phantasy Star game.

More on This Floating Hand Game

I posted about this strange, new game for Playstation Move earlier this month, mentioning that it was a rather neat looking title from Plastic and Sony Santa Monica and that I am utterly and completely fascinated with it, on that one video alone.  Sure, I sort of made it out to be something it likely won't be, but this is something that's so new, so different that it sends my mind into overdrive just trying to process what I'm seeing, let alone what could come from it.  I bring it up now, of course, because there's new news about it, directly from Eurogamer who has a brand new teaser video for it.

Well....two videos.  Kind of.  It's a little hard to explain, so you'll just have to see the videos for yourself here and here.  I assure you, despite what you might think, it is imperative that you watch both if you watch one; it's apparently a very vital clue to the overall idea or theme of the game.  I'll let you do that before continuing...

...

Alright, watched them?  Good.  So you see the slight difference there with the whole pig thing.  Well, the whole mystery of just what to call this game might've already been cracked.  The folks over at iWaggle3D think there's a very strong possibility the game might be called "Datura" and their reasoning is, well....fairly sound, I have to admit.  First off, we have the cryptic clue from Plastic about the two videos, "Comparing them will give you all the answers about our upcoming title," which can be taken two ways:  First the obvious one in that the part with the pig shows deviations that might just be important.  Secondly, and this is the more difficult one, you have to take a look once again at those two videos.  The first one was published by "aautdr", while the second was published by "trdaua" which, well, are basically gibberish words that you could sit down and try and make something out of for hours.

I'll make it easy for you:  iWaggle3D surmises the word of import here is "Datura", specifically Datura Stramonium which is a flower that creates a rather familiar outline.

Yeah?  Yeah?  I'm pretty convinced.  The fact that Datura plants have hallucinogenic properties is yet another fact that lends itself to the game.  Whatever it's going to be called, I cannot wait for more information on it.

Update!:  After checking my post that I linked to here, that embedded the first video of this game, I noticed the title has been changed to "Datura - First Teaser".  I guess this theory is spreading rather quickly.

Why Yes, I Do Want To Caress Things In A Forest

Thanks to Joystiq, I have become interested in something I never even would have considered as a thing to exist, and now I can't help but wait until it comes out, or at least to find out what it's even -about-.  A co-developed project between Sony Santa Monica (yes, -that- SSM, God of War SSM) and Plastic, developers of what was likely everyone's first Trophy Game, Linger in Shadows.  If you'll remember, Linger in Shadows wasn't so much a game as it was an interactive, er, experience, but it was one of the first trophy-enabled games out there and it was rather cheap.  Featuring flying/floating cats, strange masks and all sorts of swirling things, it was a sight to see and still is.

Before I go on, I'll go ahead and embed the video to give you a way to get a look into the project as it is.  At 1:07, as will be pointed out to you by comments and the article itself, you'll see the pink ball of a Move wand in the lower right corner for...some reason.

Between Sony Santa Monica and Plastic, it's hard to tell what this is going to be (given SSM being a game developer and Plastic more a, the word they use is, "Demoscene" group) but I'm hoping for something more than a neat little game where you traverse the woods and caress things.  I could really see this turning into a near-old school adventure-style game, looking for keys and hints and such here and there.  Just think, around the 1:01 point where you see the urn, perhaps reaching inside, fishing for a key or the like.  Or maybe at an earlier point, running the hand along the tree reveals a break-away piece of bark or something.  Doing something with a Move Wand and the Nav Wand would make it really really open and could certainly have this be a really innovative puzzle game.

I don't know what it is about this type of thing, but I just....I get excited over it.  I guess because, if nothing else, this is steps towards innovation, and if you remember when I talked about Motion Gaming, one of the things I liked the most about Motion Gaming being a thing, is that it actually opens the doors for real, new creativity and innovation that isn't, well, a tagline but is in fact the real thing.  Sure, you can argue that controlling an arm for puzzles has been done, but how many times have you seen it done?  Not very.  And it's an actual thing that is more or less new ground because of it.  It could be something really cool that spurns a bunch of other developers into trying something new.  I mean, if Sony Santa Monica is involved with -this-, imagine what else could happen.

Then again, this could end up being something completely different than this tech demo.  But I would suggest by just this being a thing that is out there and that caught at least some attention, some people will catch on to the idea that things like this are possible and are really, really cool.  Hopefully, the general market would agree, as well.  I mean, everyone loves Portal, right?  Proof that a pure puzzle game where you don't actually shoot anything could theoretically survive and succeed.  We just need more examples of it to make sure people understand this.