The headline is a lie, as they so often are, because there is actually a whole lot of Daud in Dishonored’s first proper chunk of DLC. Following the trials thing, which I didn’t bother with and have therefore dismissed completely, Knife of Dunwall is just what Dr DLC ordered. The player controls Daud, who will have “a unique arsenal of new weapons and powers that enhance Dishonored’s dynamic combat, mobility and stealth systems”. While Dunwall itself may be Dishonored’s finest achievement, and I look forward to seeing new districts in this DLC, I’m increasingly convinced that the fluidity of motion – whether sliding, climbing or striking – has somewhat spoiled other first-person games for me. Here’s a trailer, whaler.

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After, ooh, hours of speculation, Bethesda has revealed the details of the next Dishonored expansion pack. The Knife Of Dunwall takes a parallel peek at the Dishonored storyline. And because Alec masked spoilers in the previous post, I’ll do the same. If you have Dishonored on your Steam wishlist, go there right now and stare wistfully. Everyone else, I’ll be over there. *blinks* (more…)

This shouldn’t really get its own post grumble grumble because it’s just a tease grumble grumble, but if I only give it a couple of lines there’s no harm done. Wait, did I just hear the sound of kitten being killed? WHAT HAVE I DONE?

We’ve been waiting forever* for proper Dishonored DLC – story stuff, meaty stuff, not just challenge map stuff. As previously announced this appears to star… oh, spoilers, of a sort, if you continue. You have been warned. (more…)

Just before Christmas, Nathan wrote a piece asking for a conversation about the role gaming violence plays in our lives. And as so many have when discussing the topic, he featured an image from Dishonored at the top – a man getting stabbed through the neck. For Joe Houston, the former Arkane developer who created that stabbing scene, this was the prompt he needed to give his own perspective on the subject. >

Whenever I’m clicking my way through game industry opinion articles, I tend to get hung up on pieces about video game violence. This is mostly because the image plastered across the top of the post is a screen grab from Dishonored. You know, the one where a member of the city watch gets his jugular opened in a first-person blast of arterial spray. But it’s not the shock of that image that stops me. No, I pause because I’m the guy that wrote the code to make the player do that in the first place.

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There’s no question that Dishonored’s Heart deserves celebration. Fortunately RPS contributor Paul Walker has done that in fine style, digging in to what makes the object so significant to the game, and speaking to co-creative directors Harvey Smith and Raphael Colantonio about how it came to exist, and their feelings about its part in the game.>

Dishonored’s Heart is an object which lives up to its name in many ways. It breathes life into the game’s characters, imbues the city of Dunwall with soul, and helps the player to feel the melancholy tone which permeates all facets of its world. Characterised by the intersection of the mystical and the technological, it distills the very essence of the pseudo-Victorian steampunk landscape in which Dishonored’s tale unfolds. It is presented to the player as a navigation tool — a guide to lead players to the occult items littered throughout the fictional city of Dunwall. But, as co-creative directors Harvey Smith and Raphael Colantonio told me, “It also plays a part related to informing their decisions about when to apply violence or not, making it a really interesting, more subtle part of the power fantasy.” Here we start to get to grips with what it is the makes the Heart so compelling.

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The first DLC for Dishonored is, as we know, the Dunwall City Trials. Rather than expanding the story in any meaningful way, this is much more of a mechanical inclusion, a series of tests to apply skills gained from playing the game in its rather beautiful setting. And there’s a new trailer showing it in action. With the most inappropriate, dreadful music imaginable. Take action! Click below!

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I wonder what sales projections look like for Bethesda. The splendid news today is that Dishonored has outsold the publisher’s expectations. But when they sell games like Skyrim, what must those expectations be like! Talking to Destructoid, the Mouth Of Bethesda, Pete Hines, was disappointingly cagey about saying exactly how many copies had sold (oh could this industry just GROW UP), but did explain that they were so impressive that Bethesda now have a new franchise on their hands.

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The somewhat underwhelming in concept first DLC for Dishonored is, as we already knew, Dunwall City Trials. It’s a challenge map pack rather than an expansion containing more long-game assassinations or world-building. This leaves me a little cold in principle, but perhaps there will be something to be said for using and combining the game’s many combat, stealth and movement systems unfettered and without the focus on meeting a specific objective.

The pack now has a release date, which is December 11, and a price, which is £3.99. And specific details, which are below. I’m nice like that. (more…)

Remember Dishonored? No, you’re thinking of BioShock. Dishonored was the one with the Blinking. Yes! Gosh, those were the days. But soon we can relive them again, as Bethesda have announced a series of add-ons (not expansions, and not DLC – “add-ons”) that will be coming out in coming months. First up in December (December?! That’s hundreds of years away!) is Dunwall City Trials, and it’ll cost you €5, or £4, or whatever it is Americans use for bartering these days.

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Yesterday Jim wrote a superb piece arguing that games are best when everything is going wrong. That the measure of a game’s potential for generating anecdotes, and its depth of connection to the player, is based in the amount of peril it’s able to generate. Citing games like Day Z, FTL and XCOM, Jim’s argument made one small mistake: it was all wrong. Games aren’t best when they’re stressing you out, piling on the pressure, raising your anxiety levels to breaking point! Games are best when they embrace you into their wonderful worlds, telling you great stories, and letting you get away from the incessant worries of real life.

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