Uncharted Vita Dev Sony Bend Working on New Vita Title

If you liked Uncharted: Golden Abyss on PlayStation Vita, then you’re in luck. It appears that Sony Bend, the first party studio behind the game, is working on a new Vita offering.

Gamasutra has a job listing for a senior staff technical animator at Sony Bend (as Tweeted to us by IGN reader NKilburne), and the job description gives away that Bend is toiling away on a new Vita game.

“Bend Studio[,] the creators of Sony’s flagship Vita title Uncharted[:] Golden Abyss is currently looking for the entertainment industries [sic] top artistic talent to help us create AAA content for Sony’s powerful new hardware,” the listing reads. “We just scratched the surface on what the Vita can do with Uncharted[:] Golden Abyss and expect to push the platform even further with our future projects.”

Sony Bend was originally known as Eidetic, and was founded in 1994. In 2001, Sony purchased the studio outright, renamed it Sony Bend after the Oregon town the small developer is located in, and unleashed them to develop almost exclusively for handhelds from that time forward. Bend is best-known for its Syphon Filter series, though it also created the 2009 PSP shooter Resistance: Retribution before moving on to Golden Abyss.

Bend has been rumored to have been working on a new Syphon Filter game since 2009; the rumor most recently reared its head right before Vita’s western launch. However, the project has yet to materialize. Could this new Vita game be the much-anticipated return of the Syphon Filter franchise? Could it be a new Uncharted game? Or is it something else entirely?

We’ve reached out to Sony for comment and will update when we hear back. In the meantime, why not read our complete history of Sony Bend?

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : ign[dot]com

Sony to Support PS3 Until at Least 2015

Sony's VP of hardware marketing John Koller has revealed the company will continue to support the PS3 until at least 2015 with a range of first-party content. "A lot of great content is coming," Koller suggested, continuing, "And over the next 2-3 years, the PS3 has got an incredible lineup."

In an interview with Gamespot, Koller also said "We're going to continue supporting the PS3 for the next few years. Absolutely. And we're going to continue supporting it not only that long, but as long as there is a development spigot that's running hot. And I can tell you right now, the development spigot for PS3 is very hot. A lot of great games coming."

Quite what these games may be remains a mystery, especially extending so far into the future, but it's interesting to ponder what this means in relation to when the PS4 will be released. It seems pretty likely that there's going to be some overlap between the PS3 and PS4 in terms of support, the question is for just how long?

Let the speculation begin!

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Dollar Dash Turns Friends Into Frienemies

Like any good party game, Dollar Dash plays by the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

You and any combination of three other players – be they bots, local friends or online pals – collect scattered cash from around each of the game’s 31 maps and return it to the getaway car. Whoever collects the most coin wins, so even though you all arrived at this crime scene as brothers in illicit arms, it’s ultimately every man for himself. Simple enough, right?

Yep, and that’s the point. Dollar Dash is meant to be a pick-up-and-play party game, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t without clever nuance. For instance, because loot weighs you down, you’ll need to decide on your strategy. Will you make frequent, speedy trips to the drop-off point? Or will you instead opt to gather more dinero and make a slower stroll back to the getaway car that leaves you more vulnerable to attacks from your frienemies?

And attack they will. When your competitors lay traps or shoot pellets at you, you’ll start spraying change as if you were the punchline of a Daniel Tosh stand-up bit. Change that said competitors are free to then collect for themselves. But power-ups will help you even the odds. Tools like speed shoes can help negate the effects of being flush with stacks of greenbacks, while a shop system allows you to purchase upgrades that affect the gameplay. Weapon upgrades like Nuke+ mean you’ll be immune to your own mega-blasts, and Call of Duty-like perks will let you take more damage, carry more ammo, and move faster. Hats, character faces, taunts, and dances are examples of benign unlockables that spice up the fun a bit.

Four-player mayhem puts the "dash" in Dollar Dash.

As we played, we found that the rounds dragged on a bit long for our tastes, but otherwise, the cute art style, extra game modes (like Hit ‘n’ Run, in which the goal is solely to beat up your competition), and approachable gameplay should make Dollar Dash a bargain at the $10 price it’s likely to go for.

Ryan McCaffrey is the Executive Editor at IGN Xbox. He used to own a DeLorean, which is weird. Follow him on Twitter, on IGN, catch him on Podcast Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

Source : ign[dot]com

Why Dishonored is my Most Anticipated Game This Year

If you’ve been following Dishonored on IGN, you probably read Charles’ “Death at a Dinner Party” adventures earlier this year, in which he crashed a masked ball and caused total chaos, attracting the whole city’s attention by murdering guests and throwing canisters of explosive whale oil at guards. I sat down with the exact same mission recently, and was a bit concerned that I’d have nothing new to write about. How wrong I was.

Everything was different. For me and Charles, literally not one single thing, apart from the mission itself, was the same. This has instantly made Dishonored my most-anticipated game of this year. This is the first game I’ve played since Dark Souls last year that hasn’t patronised or restricted me for one second, instead just pushing a set of tools and powers into my hands with an avuncular wink and leaving me to do what I want with them. It gives you freedom, it gives you options, and it lets you work things out for yourself.

Here’s the first difference: I made it through the whole scenario without killing anyone. Not even my assassination target. (Well, I did kill a few rats by possessing them for so long that their tiny brains exploded, but that doesn’t count.) Here’s the second: I didn’t find the equipment menu, so I played for more than an hour without the incredibly useful instant-teleport Blink power or any weapons. Here’s the third: because I took a wrong turn on my way to the mansion garden party I was supposed to be infiltrating (my sense of direction is legendarily awful, in games as in real life), I discovered a whole neighbouring area of slum-houses that I wouldn’t otherwise have known existed.

“

I like to play Dishonored like a spy, rather than a superhero

I like to play Dishonored like a spy, rather than a superhero. That’s in line with how I approach most open-world games - I like digging around in people’s diaries for information in Skyrim (and digging around their houses for possessions to liberate. I hacked into and read several thousand mundane emails on the computers of corporation employees in Deus Ex. I like to explore a place and hunt for the tiny details hidden in basements and dusty old books and peeling propaganda posters on the walls. Dishonored’s Dunwall is rich with this detail. If you take your time, avoid attention and keep your eyes open, you can really drink it in.

The premise of this mission – the same one shown at Quakecon and Gamescom – is an assassination during am exclusive masked ball hosted at the Boyle family mansion. Lady Boyle is your target, but the problem is, there are three Lady Boyle’s and all of them are in similar creepy porcelain-doll costumes of different colours (the game randomises the mission each time, too, so you can never be 100% sure which Lady Boyle should be the object of your stabby assassin affections.) There are three options (that I could work out, anyway): find out which is guilty, kill all of them, or kill one at random and hope for the best.

Infiltrating the mansion’s grounds is a mission in itself; the night streets are patrolled by police and Tall Boys, those heavily-armoured striders with the power to vaporise you on sight. You begin the mission on a boat in the nearby canal, and you have to work out how to get in by yourself. It’s gratifying that the game doesn’t give you hints; it doesn’t tell you which way to go, and no button brings up a magic light-trail showing you the best way in. You can swim through the sewers and try to find an inlet to the mansion. Getting up to the rooftops and climbing the fence is a more obvious solution.

I got chased into an alleyway after being spotted in the water by guards and accidentally discovered a slum-house with stairs leading promisingly upwards. Upon entering, I noticed a few prone bodies in the neighbouring room; I did not expect them to suddenly spring to life, run at me and cough black plague-goop into my face whilst blood streamed from their eyes. These people are the Weepers, the diseased poor of Dunwall whom the government has been systematically exterminating. You won’t find them in the opulent mansions where the rich are hiding away – they hide in the slums, evading the Tall Boys.

“

I did not expect them to cough black plague-goop into my face

You’re supposed to feel sorry for these guys, but man, they behave a LOT like zombies, with all the moaning and the stumbling and the blood and the spontaneous attacking – not that you can’t empathise with zombies, but they’re terrifying. I ran away upstairs and climbed out of a window, taking in as much of the decaying building as I could. Soiled mattresses were lying about everywhere, with plague information pamphlets and posters trodden into the floorboards. When I got into the roof, I realised that – fortuitously – I was right opposite the Boyle mansion, and one of the windows was open. Leaping between the windowsills, I climbed into the guardhouse and scouted it out. I’d managed to make my way in without having to scale any walls, swim through any sewers, steal an invitation or kill anyone. And now, after stealing them from a hook on the wall, I had the keys to the whole place.

You’re undercover at the party, where your masked-assassin outfit blends into the other guests’ fancy-dress ensembles. You can walk around more-or-less freely, listening to conversations (apparently one of the absent society ladies likes to get carnal with her male siblings and nephews) and scoping out your potential targets. The first Lady Boyle I meet is rather… over-friendly, leading me willingly away to a secluded assassination-friendly bedroom after a glass of punch on the promise of some drunk party-sex. Feeling massively uncomfortable about either murdering her without proof or jumping into her bed (the game wouldn’t let me, anyway), she eventually got bored with the masked guy hanging awkwardly around in her room and wandered off, at which point I read through her diary and stole some jewellery. The diary contains no allusions to illicit murder-worthy activity, making me think she probably wasn’t my target after all.

The other rooms upstairs are locked, so I head back downstairs to look for a way in. There’s a rat scuttling about in the grand ballroom; after possessing it, I head into the first vent I can find and emerge in a room that controls the giant security forcefield barring the way up the grand stairway. If I could find a hacking module, I could modify it to fry anyone who walks through it, which sounds massively entertaining but not enormously helpful to my goal of causing as little chaos as possible.

It’s after I’ve met all of the Lady Boyles stalking the party in red, black and white costume that a guest in a scarecrow-esque mask approaches me and whispers that he knows who I’m looking for – and that he’s in love with her, and understandably would rather I didn’t stab her to death. He promises to take her away and keep her safe if I deliver her unharmed to the basement. It doesn’t sound… entirely above-board, but at least I wouldn’t have to kill anyone.

Getting into the other Lady Boyles’ bedrooms is easy once I’ve found some more rats in the cellar to possess and scuttled through the mansion’s network of vents. Another diary reveals my true target: it’s the Boyle in black. Now I just have to get her to the basement and send her away with her lover without alerting anyone by striding through the party with an unconscious body draped across my shoulders.

This turns out to be pretty easy. I just walk straight up to the Boyle in question and tell her I’m out to murder her unless she comes to the basement, right now, a request to which she acquiesces with surprisingly little consternation. I knock her out in a quiet spot and sprint the rest of the way down to the basement before the guards stroll past. Once we’re there, the masked guy from earlier is waiting on a barge to take her back out into the canal. “She’ll have a long time to learn to love me back, now,” he says, calmly sailing away to wherever on earth he’s going with the unconscious Lady Boyle prone on his boat. Oh. Well. It looks like I’ve accidentally delivered someone into a life of imprisonment and possible sex-slavery. But at least I didn’t kill anyone.

It’s only when I’m comparing experiences with others later on that it becomes clear how unusual this experience of Dishonored was. Some players were relying on magic to teleport them across rooftops, facilitate an escape from the Tall Boys or possess guards to open doors for them. Others got eaten by fish in the canal. Most were causing violent chaos, turning the party into a colourful disaster, summoning hordes of voracious rats to nibble at the attendees. Not one other person found the slums, or the force-shield hack, or managed to make it through without killing. You could play that same mission five or six times and never do anything the same.

And that is exactly why this is the most interesting game of this year.

Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN's games coverage in the UK, and expects the end of her year to be totally dominated by supernatural assassination (and probably a bit of Wii U). Follow her on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Darksiders II: Death Comes to Wii U

Third party games coming to Wii U at launch face a series of critical tests if they're to be considered viable, particularly considering many of them are being ported to Nintendo's platform weeks if not months after their counterparts. They need to be feature complete, possibly even exceeding what we've seen before. They also need to embrace the dual, touch-screen experiment, attempting to offer a different, potentially better experience than what gamers have seen elsewhere. In many respects Darksiders II for Wii U meets these criteria, but in some ways this port also stands as proof that developers will need some time before they find the proper ways to innovate on Nintendo's unique console.

On the surface, Darksiders II on Wii U is packed with content. There's nothing here that isn't offered in some fashion elsewhere, but it aggregates everything that's been available through a myriad of retail pre-order and community downloads. Effectively there was little way to acquire all of this material save for purchasing several versions of the game - until now.

That means the Angel of Death weaponry (a Best Buy offer) or the Deadly Despair speed boost for your horse (an Amazon offer) will now be available to you on Wii U, free of charge. The Maker's Armor, Shadow of Death Armor, Crucible Mode and a variety of community content will be added as well. Vigil is also building the first wave of downloadable content - Argul's Tomb - into this port, adding another 2-3 hours of content into an already gigantic game. The developer also plans to continue DLC support for the Wii U version down the road.

Visually Darksiders II seems to be on track to meet the bar set by its counterparts. The area of the game we played was still in development, and therefore featured more bugs and frame rate issues than would be typical. Still, on the whole, the Wii U version seemed to match our established expectations - no more, no less. Smaller details, including using the GamePad's set of speakers to isolate some sounds, attempting to create a depth effect, were reasonably effective albeit not overwhelmingly necessary.

So in terms of content and general fidelity, Nintendo fans should rest easy. Darksiders II on Wii U will match up with any other version. The final hurdle that remains, then, is this - does this port, which arrives months after its counterparts, find a way to innovate or create an experience that can't be replicated? Can Nintendo's GamePad change the way we play an action-adventure game full of weapons, loot, vast dungeons and an upgradeable hero? The answer is yes - but it's easy to see how more can be done.

By far the most intriguing element of this Wii U port is what portions of the game are displayed on the GamePad's second screen - and how you can interact with them. By default, the GamePad's screen displays a real-time map that indicates Death's location and movement - no pausing necessary. Objectives can also be called up with a simple touch. For a game that frequently challenges players with twisted labyrinths, this is a huge, huge addition, streamlining an experience that can often start and stop all too often.

Vigil doesn't just stop with an in-game map. By touching an icon on the second screen, players can access inventory and weaponry. In a strange choice, however, players must press a physical button - down on the D-Pad - to access powers and abilities. These commands can be executed on the fly in battle, but all previous button shortcuts (pressing LB and an assigned button, for example) are still applicable. This port of the game doesn't eliminate options, it adds them. Some of the user interface specifics are a little cumbersome (particularly that D-Pad input), but after a bit of time we were used to it.

Not all touch-enabled options are done without pausing. Players will be able to upgrade Death's skills, and access other options through the GamePad, but in-game action will halt so players can focus on more time-intensive operations.

Far less significant, Vigil has also implemented gyroscope-based dodge controls into this Wii U port. They do not replace button commands, and for that we are thankful - attempting to shake a GamePad to evade attacks is probably one of the more clumsy things we've encountered on the new system. Again, it's optional, and here's hoping developers don't think of this new controller as an elaborate Wii remote. It isn't, and shouldn't be treated like one.

By and large what a small, 15-member team in Montreal is doing for the Wii U version of Darksiders II is commendable. Coming a few months after the other iterations of the game, this port not only features every last bit of content available to consumers previously, it also features extremely useful in-game displays that will allow players to seamlessly interact with inventory, skills, abilities and maps, often without pausing anything. These enhancements sounds small, yet they shift the experience in a fairly critical way. Furthermore, the team intends to allow the game to be pulled entirely to the GamePad, though that functionality wasn't available in the build we played.

It's rare to see a game as deep or complex as Darksiders II arrive at a system launch. For those looking for that kind of grand adventure, who haven't touched any of the previous versions, this could be well worth your time. And it's also clear that there is plenty more potential in what a dual-screen console can bring to this genre - even if it's a port.

Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com and the leader of IGN's Nintendo team. He also watches over all things WWE, Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed and much more. Follow him on Twitter, if you dare!

Source : ign[dot]com

Silent House Blu-ray Review

In 1948 Alfred Hitchcock made a film called Rope, an ingenious thriller about two men who host a dinner party shortly after murdering a classmate they deem inferior. The ingenious aspect of the narrative is coupled with an equally ingenious method of cinematography, in that the film is made to look as though it were shot entirely in just one take.

Shoot to 2012, this very same technique is being used once more, but with a slightly fresh twist. In Silent House, we follow Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen), a young girl who ends up trapped inside a house while it is seemingly robbed. But things get more terrifying when it becomes clear to Sarah that the strangers may be omnipotent in nature.

Told entirely from Sarah's perspective, this one-take thriller unfolds right before your eyes in a surprisingly chilling manner. Alas, Silent House, from Open Water directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau (who also scripted), is no Rope. Rather, the film is a messy exploration of someone's madness painted with a thin veil of ghostly horror. As such, the film has very little replay value and is nowhere near as memorable as Alfred Hitchcock's classic.

The biggest problem with the film is in its twist. Without giving too much away, let's just say that the means do not justify the whole. In other words, Silent House is a film built on a lie. This wouldn't be much of a problem if the twist didn't negate the rest of the story that happened before it.

On some level, the twist is fascinating. It adds a layer of subtext that otherwise wouldn't be there in a generic horror film. However, it also makes for an unsatisfying whole that asks far too many questions and leaves the audience with almost no answers.

Cinematography, despite having a video-like appearance, is quite brilliant. The execution of the one-take visuals is expertly done. And the film's haunting foes are often rather creepy. Elizabeth Olsen, who basically controls the entire picture, is absolutely staggering here as well. While her sisters were not the world's greatest actresses, Elizabeth shows more promise than the both of them combined, and then some.

Silent House certainly boasts some interesting ideas, along with a great performance from Olsen, but the film simply has no replay value. It's not a very satisfying experience, and sometimes, because the audiences never privy to all that's going on inside the house, the one-take cinematography does dampen the thrills. However, if you're up for something that ultimately plays things a little more psychological than horrifying, Silent House should prove to be an interesting deviation from the normal genre fare.

The film comes to Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment. It is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, in 1080p/AVC with 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Shot on video, largely in the dark, Silent House does not always boast the finest image. There's quite a bit of motion blur, noise and other minor distortions. The encode is mostly decent, though, other than some minor banding.

Audio is fairly effective though not nearly as immersive as expected. Dialogue is clean, with no distortions or crackles. Surrounds are aggressive on occasion, but more subdued than I would have hoped. Given the one-take nature of the production, I would have expected a mix that relied on audio for thrills, and while Silent House does do that every once in awhile, sound design is a bit more muted and quiet, leaving the audience underwhelmed.

Extras are fairly thin. There's a commentary track from co-directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau. It's an interesting track that explores both the story and the film's elaborate cinematography. It'll really make you wish the film were just a little bit better. The disc also boasts Universal's traditional extras like BD-Live and pocketBlu. The BD also includes a DVD and Digital Copy of the film.

Silent House is a film worth exploring, if only once. It boasts a few decent scares and a great performance from Elizabeth Olsen, but it can't shake the stale story and dull twist that very nearly ruins the entire picture.

Source : ign[dot]com