BRICK THIS CITY: DEVASTATING NEW DETAILS ABOUT LEGO ROCK BAND

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4.22.2009

Brandon Boyer

3 Replies

Apparently imagining instrument brick destruction was thinking entirely too small: Microsoft’s new entry for the just-announced TT/Harmonix crossover Lego Rock Band implies that the game has its sights set on even more wanton rock wreckage, detailing:

LEGO-themed rock challenges: Play killer riffs to destroy a giant robot, summon a storm, and demolish a skyscraper using the power of rock!

Which really, again, ’nuff said.

Lego Rock Band Xbox 360 home [Microsoft, via GoNintendo]

Kyle Gabler released the entirety of his soundtrack to World of Goo a few months ago, as previously mentioned on Offworld.

Now, Sebastien Wolff has gone one further, having arranged the entirety of the soundtrack for solo piano, and made his scores available for download. They’re available in PDF, Midi, and Sibelius formats, but I’d recommend the PDF if only for the charming art direction of the whole affair.

It’s strictly unofficial, but Sebastien’s produced smart, entertaining arrangements of the already charming soundtrack, and given how much we love World of Goo here at Offworld, how could we not link to this?

World of Goo complete piano sheet music [Sebastien Wolff, via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Sony has taken tomorrow’s Earth Day as cause to announce that Sony Japan’s previously mentioned original PS3 downloadable trash-stacking puzzle game Gomibako to North America as Trash Panic.

As you can see above, the game takes Tetris and channels it through physics-enhanced trash compacting, trying to fit as many kilos in one go as possible, and using heavier objects to smash down breakables as much as possible.

Sony haven’t announced a firm date, simply adding that the game will be released by the end of Spring.

Team up with PSN on Earth Day [Playstation.Blog]

THE LEFT 4 DEAD T-SHIRTS ONLY FRANCIS COULD HATE

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4.21.2009

Brandon Boyer

2 Replies

Though the ‘featured items’ here are this thuggish ‘zombie skull’ hoodie (I’d wear it) and more traditionally illustrated T-shirt, why didn’t anyone tell me there’s also a full range of shirts dedicated to the things Francis hates?

My favorite (at right), the woods-hating shirt, but there’s also van hating, and hating on, well, everything Francis hates on (stairs).

Perfect for wearing to your new Survival Mode marathon sessions, or your next things-Francis-hates dance-off.

The Valve Store [Valve]

SquareEnix’s other game of the Microsoft preview — the wonderfully titled 0 day Attack on Earth — is also another Xbox Live Arcade dual-stick shooter.

This time, though it looks somewhere in between fantastic long-running Sandlot series Earth Defense Force and underdog PlayStation Network favorite The Last Guy, with relentless alien invaders being shot down over Paris, New York, and Tokyo on what would appear to be playfields procured from Google Earth.

0 day Attack on Earth 1st Trailer [YouTube]

Microsoft recently held a press conference in Japan to show the growing local support for its Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade service, and, surprisingly, it was Square Enix who came away with the most interesting developments of the show, and — even more surprisingly — they had nothing to do with Final Fantasy or RPGs in general.

Most notably: a new Live Arcade game project tentatively titled Project: Cube, a multiplayer dual-stick arena shooter that doesn’t give away much by just watching: for the life of me I can’t understand why the laser shots fired sometimes hang limply in the air (on the floor?).

Also, surely I can’t be alone in seeing some heavy similarities between the new game and Sean Cooper’s hit Boxhead Flash game series, down to the name itself?

Project: Cube debut video [YouTube]

I DIG: Q-GAMES TEASES FIRST IMAGES OF NEW PIXELJUNK GAME

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4.21.2009

Brandon Boyer

3 Replies

With the Encore edition of Pixeljunk Eden now officially in the wild, series creator Q-games has begun the slow information reveal of its next game in the franchise — still known simply as PixelJunk 1-4 (the fourth game after Racers, Monsters, and Eden — and above you see the first two images.

It’s not much to go on, other than what would appear to be a group’s journey burrowing into the earth, and — what have we here — over at the series’ home site, the ‘coming soon’ notice hovers over a shovel beginning the dig itself.

The images come as part of a new Facebook campaign to get one million people to buy the game on its launch day, and the more people join its launch-event group, the more images the studio promises to post.

Head over to the event page, or the PixelJunk 1-4 fan page for more information.

PixelJunk home [Q-games]

CONCEPT ALBUM: EVIL BEN FRANKLIN AND THE ART OF HENRY HATSWORTH

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4.21.2009

Brandon Boyer

4 Replies

With its flagrantly outlandish Old Blighty stereotypes mixed with fantastical turn of the century steam-punk block puzzle tropes, EA’s DS puzzler/platformer Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure will likely remain one of the top one of the most creatively directed visions of 2009.

As I’ve mentioned before, most of the kudos there can be attributed to art director Jay Epperson‘s wood-block and paper-cut vision for its puzzling realms from the Livingston-ish explorations through the tribal Mysteria, the floating islands and dirigibles of Skysland to that Puzzle Realm itself, Hatworth manages to capture big wonder on a tiny screen.

Now, in a site first that will launch a continuing series, Epperson has given Offworld permission to reprint the game’s concept art in glorious full-resolution. Think of it like The Big Picture, but for games.

And the series couldn’t have started at a better place: over the following pages, you’ll find all the game’s environments, the first stirrings of the game’s enemies both fragile and fearsome (pork hork!), and — as a special bonus — a look at some of the game’s bosses that never made it into the game, including, as hinted in the title, one Evil Ben Franklin.

Continue on to The Art of Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure.

Jay Epperson portfolio [also, Epperson’s sketch blog, Henry Hatsworth home. Thanks to both Jay and game director Kyle Gray for their help putting the feature together.]

[Developers! Have a game you’d like to see in a future edition of Concept Album? Let me know!]

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH SARIEN’S BROWSER-EMBEDDED CLASSIC SIERRA ADVENTURES

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4.21.2009

Brandon Boyer

3 Replies

Well technically, yes, it is classic Sierra adventures like Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter, Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel and Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards playable from in-browser (including, apparently, the iPhone and Wii, with a bit more fiddling on the part of the creators), but it’s still not quite.

The difference? Sarien’s in-browser versions let you jump from location to location at will, have augmented the text commands with a right click menu, and, most curiously, allow you to see the avatars (your avatar) of other concurrent players, all clicking around just as wildly and blurting out “BANG ON DOOR” and “MAKE CHECK AUTO”.

But it’s a good start, should the rights holders allow it to evolve (and possibly with a play-solo option) — creator Martin Kool is currently at work adding support for Space Quest 2, King’s Quest and The Black Cauldron, and it’s been given at least a very confused hat tip by Leisure Suit creator Al Lowe himself.

Sarien.net: Instant Adventure Gaming [Martin Kool, via Petri Purho]

QUITE INTERESTING: STEPHEN FRY RETURNS FOR PSP LITTLEBIGPLANET

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4.21.2009

Brandon Boyer

3 Replies

It’s much ado about voice acting, but the fact that Stephen Fry has revealed via his twitter that he’s just finished recording new voiceovers for the forthcoming PSP version of Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet is causing much rejoicing around the games blogs, and for good reason — his warmly paternal delighted cooing at every little victory of your first steps into the game set the tone for the childlike innocence that was to follow.

See below for his PS3 game opener.

/stephenfry [twitter]