The Prototype narrative picks up with James Heller in the lead role of Prototype 2 this week, smashing, slashing, and beating ass galore in New York Zero. Other highlights include the Euro 2012 mode for FIFA 12 and Xbox Live Arcade title Bloodforge.
• Risen 2: Dark Waters (PC)
• Prototype 2 (PS3, 360)
• UEFA Euro 2012 (PS3, 360, PC)
• Shifting World (3DS)
• Bloodforge (XBLA)
The soundtrack to Fez officially released on Friday, at a pay-what-you-like price (with a minimum of $7). Because the entire game is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, some enterprising folks went and opened the sound files in a spectrogram and, voila, they found even more clues. Or they're Easter eggs, or some other kind of secret stuff.
This GameFAQs forum thread is shot through with surprises folks have found, all of it hidden at the end of tracks. Pictures, numbers, Jesus, Harry S Truman (above), all could be nonsequiturs, or they could be clues from the game's creative staff or from soundtrack composer Rich "Disasterpeace" Vreeland. Who knows. One of them looks like QR code, which it is. Sal Cangeloso of geek.com scanned it with his smartphone and found a series of years, from 1955 to 2005. Cangeloso suspects it could be the birth dates of the development team and their children (or parents, I suppose).
I simply have not played enough of the game to hazard a guess at what any of it could mean. But it's pretty neat and, if you have the tools to bring this stuff to the surface, interesting to contemplate. This guy, at GameFAQs, supplies a detailed deconstruction.
If you don't have the necessary applications, worry not, there are two Tumblrs that have pulled out several screenshots of the hidden content. They are listed below.
Stereograms Discovered in the Fez Soundtrack, Part One [Black Coffee Spirit]
Stereograms Discovered in the Fez Soundtrack, Part Two [Black Coffee Spirit]
Fez Soundtrack is Full of Secrets [Geek.com]
The gang in charge of Gotham City Impostors wants you to know another wad of cool content is dropping soon, all for the affordable price of $0.00. It has yet to release, but that video above has, which means the title update is on the way soon.
You'll get a new map, the East End of Gotham, which the local Realtors say is perfect for your "scummy dilapidated urban murdering needs." Nice. A new game mode, "Bounty Hunter" encourages you to pick up coins dropped from fallen friends and foes alike. Finally, English is no longer your character's only language option; Spanish, French, Italian and German will be included.
Earlier this month a marketing survey indicated that Sony was considering (draws breath) "PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale" for its rumored fighting game featuring iconic characters from the publisher's library of titles. That nine syllables is a mouthful of marbles and would make a GameStop sales associate breathe into a paper bag after answering the phone "Thank you for calling GameStop where you can trade in your used Xbox 360 or PS3 games and preorder PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale my name is Chad how may I help you sir or ma'am."
Luke thought it sucked. I do too. Title Fight was either a project name or a work-in-progress but it was much more compact and, sure, maybe the game has to reflect the Sony branding. But what the hell is wrong with PlayStation Title Fight?
But the domain www.playstationallstarsbattleroyale.com has been registered by Sony, reports PlayStation Lifestyle, which also first reported the marketing survey bearing the dreadful title suggestion. I'm crossing my fingers that this is a red herring, or just Sony parking a domain for SEO purposes before some shitbag cybersquatter gets on it. Because I cannot imagine anyone typing out all that just to see the game's official page. But, PSLS says, Sony has not registered anything containing the words "title fight," though it has registered playstationallstars.com, which is a little better, if not as distinctive or evocative of a fighting game.
Guess we'll find out soon enough. A Sony game is set to be revealed this week, but it may be God of War 4/Ascension. It may also be this thing, too.
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Name is Real, Site Owned by Sony [Update] [PlayStation Lifestyle]
I was on the fence about posting this because, I mean, "Black Ops 2 coming out in November?" Stop the presses, that's like "Call of Duty is coming out this year"-type news. But the game does seem to have a clever codename, unless the codename is actually its title.
Rumor has it that the marketing materials we were leaked earlier this week have shown up in various GameStops this weekend, and that at GameStop the game is being referred to, internally, as "Call of Duty: Eclipse."
That carries the whiff of a project codename to me, not necessarily a title. (Or, as commenter the_seamonkey points out, it could be the PlayStation Vita version of the game.) What's really interesting is that, as this guy points out, on Nov. 13, 2012, there will be a total solar eclipse. Passing over much of the South Pacific Ocean, the only populated region in which it will be visible is Cairns, Australia. But still: total solar eclipse. And Nov. 13 happens to be the second Tuesday of November, which is the day on the calendar Call of Duty has released since 2008.
So the big mystery now is, what's this "Eclipse" business. It's important to note this is not a name on any of these posters now being shown to the public. If it's just a codename, then it hints at nothing other than the neat coincidence of an astronomical event on the day everyone expects this game to release. If it is in the title, then what? More space missions? They've already done a moon base map, and a moon base map with zombies at that.
We'll probably just have to wait until next Wednesday, May 2. The date is on these posters and it probably indicates a reveal event for this game.
RUMOR: New Call of Duty Title and It's NOT Named Black Ops 2? **UPDATED** [The Gamerplex]
Continuing today's theme of "Superhuman Efforts that Deserve a Standing Ovation," we now turn our attention to The Legend of Zelda. MaJoRa, a member of the Zelda Fan Game Central community, has rendered all of the overworld from Ocarina of Time in the 2D style of A Link to the Past.
This is a project that proceeded, literally, pixel-by-pixel, over the course of nearly two years. This thread at ZFGC basically documents all of that work, which MaJoRa announced as completed on Friday. He began back in June 2010. (That is the Kokiri Forest above).
"Not to say this project is over by a long shot, I am going to see how far I can take this," MaJoRa writes. "I feel like ending now is too soon, I will find a new way to step this up." He is taking suggestions and constructive criticism about his work, more of which may be seen at the link below.
OOT2D Map Project [Zelda Fan Game Central via Zelda Universe. [h/t reader Bastian Bux]
You know how, on Sunday afternoons, a great adventure flick you've seen a dozen times comes on the TV at random and you spend the next hour watching it? Well, here are three great adventure flicks, courtesy of Reddit user morphinapg. It's the Uncharted series, joined by "the minimum gameplay needed to connect the cinematics without creating any plot holes."
This guy deserves a gold medal citation. It is altogether more than eight hours of footage—interesting to see the increase in story length from Drake's Fortune (113 minutes) to Among Thieves (177 minutes) to Drake's Deception (a whopping 3 hours, 16 minutes. As a movie it's almost a trilogy unto itself.)
Obviously, as you see everything start to finish, this is a comprehensive spoiler alert on all three links.
Please also go to the Reddit post and show morphinapg a whole lot of love.
I edited all 3 Uncharted games into movies [Reddit. h/t reader Marius]
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Some putative game designs—I think, who really knows—from the delightful Tumblr Context-Free Patent Art provide the grist for this weekend's Kotaku 'Shop Contest. I'm especially interested to see how you can make, as one commenter called it, "Hot Tub Whackashark" more awesome than it already looks.
You've got four images here, Hot Tub Whackashark (thanks, DVD Player, for the term), a game featuring a very unhappy holy warrior, a cow begging for you to include it somehow, and a cameo by Michael McDonald, trying to change the channel on his damn TV.
Source Image: "Hot Tub Whackashark"
Source Image: Michael McDonald's TV Remote Doesn't Work
Source Image: The Unhappy Crusader
Source Image: How Now White Cow
You know the rules: The 20 best will get rounded up and published at the end of next Saturday. Meantime, I and the rest of the starred commentariat will approve and promote as many as we can so folks can see them and pass judgment.
This is your no-frills step-by-step procedure to participation in the Kotaku 'Shop Contest.
1. Create your 'Shop.
2. Upload it to a free image hosting service. I suggest imgur. It's stupid simple. No account is necessary.
3. This is very important: You must use the URL of the image itself. In imgur, this is the second URL it gives you after you upload the image. It's under "Direct Link (email & IM)"
4. At the beginning of the comments roll, click "Start a New Thread"
5. To the right of your name, select "Image."
6. Paste the imgur URL in the image URL field. It's the field that says "Image URL."
7. You can add editorial commentary if you want, but then just hit submit and your image will load. If it doesn't, paste the image URL as a comment.
8. This is important: Keep your image size under 1 MB. It will not upload to comments if it is over that size. What's more, we're getting reports that if your 'Shop is more than 1000px tall (vertical), it won't upload. If you're getting the broken-image icon, try resizing to a smaller dimension.
Now, Gentlemen, start your 'shopping!
Mike Haggar's got some competition for the mayor of Metro City, thanks to Angryrider. Good morning and welcome to Weekend Talk Amongst Yourselves.
[Update:] Uh, whoops. That was last week's pic you first saw. Heh heh ... (stares at floor) ...
Feel free to discuss anything on the subject of video games in our comments below. If you've got a good idea and the skills, take a shot at whipping up a #TAYpic. Post your masterpieces in the #TAYpics thread. Don't forget to keep your image in a 16:9 ratio, and add liberal amounts of funny. Get the base image here. The best ones will be featured in future installments of Talk Amongst Yourselves.
Welcome to your Sunday read of the week's best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic.
Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published April 19.—Read more of Nerf NOW!!
Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published April 16.—Read more of Awkward Zombie
Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik published April 16.—Read more of Penny Arcade
Manly Guys Doing Manly Things by Kelly Turnbull published April 16.—Read more of Manly Guys Doing Manly Things
Brawl In The Family by Matthew Taranto published April 19.—Read more of Brawl In The Family
Virtual Shackles by Jeremy Vinar and Mike Fahmie published April 20.—Read more of Virtual Shackles
Another Videogame Webcomic by Phil Chan and Joe Dunn published April 20.—Read more of Another Videogame Webcomic
ActionTrip by Borislav Grabovic and Ure Paul published April 19.—Read more of ActionTrip
Legacy Control by Javis Ray published April 18.—Read more of Legacy Control
