Gamescom News Dump - PS3 Edition

As with the Vita news from Gamescom, there was quite a hefty bit of news for the Playstation 3, and it came in all sorts of delicious flavors.  The best one of them all was the one we don't get a taste off too often:  New IP, as no less than three new IPs for the PS3 were revealed and shown off some.  Two of them are rather tantalizing at the very least, and should prove to be quite the games when they come out with the meantime serving quite well as a time to properly await them.  At least, hopefully the wait won't be too long, as I'm not quite sure we got much beyond announcement trailers for the bulk of them - nothing in terms of release windows or the like, but I wouldn't expect them anytime soon, of course.  Middle of next year at the earliest is my bet, perhaps even part of next years PSN Play thing for the PSN release(s), if they decide to do that again.  Or...something like it but with a different theme and/or name.

The first title is the above-pictured Puppeteer, which seems to be a rather magical platformer that is a little bit LittleBigPlanet and a little bit Dynamite Headdy if I'm not mistaken from the trailer for the game.  At least, it certainly looks like the main character switches out his head for various things that also somewhat serve as a head, but more importantly perform a function.    If I'm reading things correctly, this is all in an effort for the boy who is the main character to not only reclaim his -actual- head (I guess the one he has is a....dummy....head?  Urgh, I'm sorry.) so that he can then try and turn back into a real boy as well.  Oh, yeah, that's kind of an important thing to mention, I should think.  The whole....set up and story bit of it, since it is sort of vital to the game.

It starts with a young boy being kidnapped by "the maleficent Moon Bear King" to be taken to the castle where he is then turned into a puppet.  I am not sure if the boy is -real- before he is brought into the puppet show, or if the boy is a real boy puppet and is then turned into a puppet boy puppet.  When the entire thing is puppets and it's -about- puppets, introducing a non-puppet makes things a little confusing.  As a puppet, his head is devoured by said Moon Bear King and the boy, now headless, discovers a magical pair of scissors that is to be the main tool of the game, I would imagine.  As you might have seen in the trailer, it does sort of serve as a zipline sort of deal at one point, cutting along tapestries as he moves forward in his journey.  It is certainly a thing of magic and whimsy if nothing else, and despite my slightly tepid reaction here, I am definitely looking forward to it.  It has the right amounts of looking fantastic and charming as well as different, and the angle of the stage moving around you is wonderful if not just directly ripped from Dynamite Headdy.

Now, being a 2D Platformer, some might think it's relegated to a PSN Only release, but Puppeteer will be a fully-fledged Disk-based retail release.  This means that I will actually be able to buy this game when it comes out which pleases me because I certainly intend to do just that.  I'm too curious about the art style and the what seems to be the gameplay style to -not- intend to pick it up at this point.  Whether or not that changes as more and more information comes out is yet to be seen, but I highly doubt it.  We need more of these types of neat games, so any support that they get is a good thing, provided it's worthy.  Any new news about the game that comes out will be in the 'near future', so we'll just have to see what pops up; hopefully a little more gameplay footage will come out, or at least something that more easily explains the whole puppet, non-puppet thing.

Next up is Until Dawn, which is a game that I have mentioned before, but when I did mention them, it was impossible to know just what kind of game it was.  Now, most people would think that, upon expecting a game that could have possibly been a Vita game after mentioning handhelds in the information, finding out that it was a Move Title would be a disappointment.  Most people....would not be too far off.  I have made my enjoyment of the Move peripheral (if nothing else but conceptually) fairly known and don't impulsively roll my eyes at everything planned for it.  However, I'm just not quite sure what the experience you're meant to take away from Until Dawn is, and I'm not too sure it will be able to effectively sell itself (especially against the unnecessary splash-back from being a Move game and not a Wii game since apparently the difference is between one being cheap and a bad idea, and the other being on the Wii) whenever it releases.  (Smart money is on October...but we'll see.)

What Until Dawn -seems- to be is a campy Horror movie based on jump scares and the like turned video game.  And it acknowledges this, which is refreshing, though it still seems to expect to be able to scare you which is, I'm sure, a challenge many would be willing to take.  In....again, entirely different circumstances that are not playing this game on the PS3 with the Move which is honestly a shame.  The sheer level of negativity that the Move carries across the internet is baffling when you think about it; so much so that I debated talking about the game because of it.  Of course, I realized that I actually do care a little about the project here, and figured that I could go off of that if nothing else.  I was really excited about Datura after all, even though I haven't so much as looked around for the demo of that yet.  Doesn't mean I don't care, though.

So, why should you care about the game?  Well, just think about it this way for a moment; picture this game on the Wii instead if that helps with the knee-jerk reaction (and doesn't inspire another one, of course).  Remember when Silent Hill:  Shattered Memories was being showed off, and the main thing was using the Wiimote as a flashlight and that was legitimately awesome?  That is what this game does.  It likely does not have a story that is anywhere near as dumb as Shattered Memories is purported to be, even though what story it does have will likely be delivered as poorly.  So you have a legitimately cool game mechanic, you have a situation in which it is useful to the mood of the game itself, and if it was on the console that 'started' the motion gaming thing, you can bet that it would be shouted about from the rooftops.  That it's on a different system means nothing, so if this is a thing that appeals to you on any level, just run with that.  You are likely not going to buy a Move for this game, but that doesn't mean you cannot be civil and level-headed about it, now does it?

Last up is 'rain' which is a game that I was completely and utterly wrong about, as was another website that I will certainly not be putting any stock into any time in the future.  And it's totally not because I am very, very bummed that the game is, in fact, not a game by Sucker Punch nor does it even look anywhere near like it was, -nor- does it have any cyberpunk elements in it whatsoever.  Not at all.  However, what 'rain' -does- have is precious enough, because the game has style, much like the above-mentioned Puppeteer.  Unsurprisingly, both games seem to come from some of Sony's Japanese studios if I'm not mistaken, and they both really seem to carry a wonderful amount of charm as well as the ability to completely set the mood that they are going for.  Where Puppeteer is light, cheery, but with an air of mystery and adventure, rain seems to be the antithesis of that - moody and low-key, perhaps even melancholic at times if the story and vibe match up with what the game will end up as.

The story behind rain seems to be that a boy who is invisible in a dark, dreary world where it seems to rain quite often.  The boy, because of this, can only be seen while it's raining, as shown above, because the water helps define his form for the eyes.  Based on what the trailer itself says, the boy is in this world for reasons that aren't immediately known and sees the silhouette of a girl that seems to be invisible.  He is lost and eventually becomes invisible himself, still searching for a way out of this world that is strange and different from the real world.  At least, the real world is inhabited by people and things who are not completely invisible.  It's a very unique concept and does carry the chance of being something truly brilliant and/or beautiful in the way that such games are considered to be.  Games like Ico, where their strength is truly the simplicity and the ability to truly embrace that, those are the games that tend to leave an impact larger than most, and rain seems to have the makings of one of those types of games.

Without hyping it up too much, of course, I'm certain that a lot of people will be looking forward to this one, frantically pawing around the internet for any news that comes of it.  It has been announced as a PSN Exclusive and, being a first-party developed title, will assuredly stay that way, with only a Vita version really being a possibility outside the announced PS3 version, I'd say.  And really, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see this again for months and have it sort of drawn out to eventually be released as one of the 'headliners' for the next PSN Play or equivalent promotion.  Certainly it'd be fantastic and would get a lot of pickups no matter when it comes about, but throwing it into a promotion like that will only sell it that much more.  Regardless, if anything, this is probably -the- game to watch out for, even if you're not really interested in basically anything else that was announced at Gamescom.  Of course, if you weren't, then I don't know what to tell you because Seriously, Tearaway, but the announcements really point to something for everybody I think, so it should be easy enough to pick -something- out.

'Rain' and 'Until Dawn' Are Things, I Am Curious

Reading up on the various news sites I frequent of a night to pick out something to write about if I don't already have something, (Which I kind of do, but I still have to prepare in the little free time I find myself with lately) I came across a post on Joystiq that pointed out trademarks from Sony and couldn't help but take a second glance.  It's Sony, after all, and the two trademarks, "Rain" and "Until Dawn" are things that I have not heard of.  Considering there is both the PS3 and the Vita that I am known to enjoy and own, and new things (generally translating into New IPs) are always good, this is good news.  Especially if either project ends up being for the Vita which could use a little more obvious support since all the support it -is- getting is conveniently being ignored.  So smart money is just to keep saying things are going to be on it until people -can't- say "Vita has no gaems" (as they did with the PS3 years ago) without getting called out on it.

The trademarks are very little help, unfortunately, as they don't, in any form or shape, specify whether or not the games are going to be for the likely easier-to-develop-for-at-this-point PS3, or the please-develop-for-this-because-it's-awesome Vita.  Easy money is on PS3 only or both, but I'm really leaning to at least -one- of the games being a Vita game at the core of it.  I'm pretty sure Sony has said the upcoming Gamescom is a place they want to show the Vita off more because of the lackluster showing it ended up getting at E3, but that might just be a fever dream of mine.  Easily could be, rather.  What this games end up being, however, is anyone's guess as there isn't a whole lot beyond the above image for the game known only as 'Rain' at this point.  If....that wasn't obvious.  Except....well there -is- something, but the validity of it is quite in question, given that it is basically conjecture.  Then again, everything here is as well.

The Joystiq post links through to another post that has a Gif showing off a rather cool little scene capped off with a Quick-Time Event featuring very obvious Playstation Button prompts, suggesting it is an early build of 'Rain'.  Watch it a few times to appreciate it, knowing full well that it could very well be an entirely different project, and that it could likely be something that -doesn't- get announced any time soon.  Still, we can hope.  And I do hope that you have studied it at least a little bit, because now I ask:  Does it seem a little familiar?  Not the look or anything like that, of course, since it could be safely disregarded from being early, and it's a low-res gif anyway.  What I want you to focus on is the animations, the movement, does any of that seem familiar to you?  Because I see, possibly through the power of suggestion, something that looks a lot like inFamous 2's engine with some obvious tweaks to it.  This does raise the obvious question of "What -has- Sucker Punch been doing since inFamous 2?"  The answer that we know it, is, basically "Festival of Blood and.....?"  So I am certainly interested now.

As for what the Gif shows, it depicts something deliciously futuristic, which is definitely an area that some consider over-done where others, like me, have barely seen a dip into it and want more, more and more of it.  It's hard to not say it borders on Blade Runner (I mean, just look at it, there are slowly spinning fans in the background) which needs to be in more and more games, and it shows off a pretty involved melee system as well as what I'm using the powers of conjecture to assume is something to do, perhaps, with stealth.  That little drop the guy character does from the arch or mini-tunnel and the stance afterwards is classic stealth positioning with just what little we have to see, which would just add to the deliciousness.  I think, even if this game isn't "Rain" it is definitely a game that I want, that I certainly yearn for, and I cannot wait to see what comes of it if it is not, in fact, 'Rain'.  Despite how it is very obviously raining which is something you would want to do in the trailer for a game named 'Rain'.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing for the game listed as 'Until Dawn' which leads to me doing a whole lot of nothing for it.  A point in its favor is that the European Trademark form lists "hand-held electronic games" in one of the several goods and services sections which would suggest that out of the two, this one would be a Vita game if anything.  But it lists a ton of other stuff as well compared to the same form for 'Rain' which just reminds me that I have no goddamn clue what I'm talking about with all this.  I am basically just extrapolating what I want, because I just saw the Gif, saw the Sucker Punch connection, and just really wanted to write -something- about it all.  Next week is Sony's conference at GamesCom, so there is definitely a good chance for that to be the first time we'll officially hear anything about either of these possible games.  I know what I'll be hoping for, certainly.