The DLC I have been working on this summer was announced a couple weeks ago at GamesCon in Cologne, Germany. This video was played at the Sony press conference on the big screen and features the very first %100 kstyle classic models in a game. I created most of the stuff you see in the video that was used to set dress New Marais including the Skull balloon, burning effigy of bloody mary, flame sculpture, pyre night gate, etc. Check it out!

I’ve been awake for the last 12 hours.

Seriously.

If you have a PS3 and you haven’t played this yet, you’re just silly.

And up-end tables all day in anger, semi-virtually:

So I’ve been addicted to another iPhone game as of late. This time, it’s from the the fellas at Tiger Style (including former Thief designer, Randy Smith).

The description for the game is as follows:

You are a spider. One afternoon, you discover an abandoned mansion. Where is the family who lived here? What happened, and why did they leave? Search for clues as you adventure from room to room on the hunt for your next meal.

The official trailer is included above, but let me give you some of my initial impressions.

The game itself has a pretty illustrated style, and the music isn’t bad either.  The gameplay is the real draw of the game, though (as it should be).  Controlling Mr./Mrs. Spider (you have the option to change the name of the spider from the default “Leggz”,  I’ve named mine Tim) is a breeze, and feels intuitive.  Placing your finger on the right side of the screen moves the spider along to the right of the perimeter of whatever it’s on (placing your finger on the left does the opposite).   Swiping across the screen sends the spider flying in whatever direction you swiped.  Tapping on the spider, then swiping, sends the spider flying with a web-strand trailing behind.  To form a full web, you have to form an enclosed shape from the aforementioned web-strands.

There’s a combo system within the game where you score more points by eating the bugs caught in your webs and moving from web to web without touching the ground.

Supposedly there’s a semi-hidden story in the game revolving around the abandon mansion’s former tenants, but I’ve only seen bits and pieces of that story so far.  I’ve run into hidden love letters in containers above the shower, old boxing trophies, and other kitschy items indicative of what the former tenants were up to before they packed up and “got out of Dodge”, if you will.

I like the game, and maybe you will too (for only $2.99!)

My latest video-game addiction has me lost in a dreamworld of never-ending explosions.  The culprit is none other than the inaugural Summer of Arcade game, ‘Splosion Man!

The premise is quite simple; you’re a man of extraordinary explosion capabilities, and you use said capabilities to traverse through 47 platforming levels (with three bosses!) in single player, with a SEPARATE multiplayer (up to four!) co-op game with another 50 levels.  There is no attack button, there is no jump button, there is no reloading or special button.

Just ‘splodin.

The level design does seem to get recycled a bit in the later areas, but the general feel of the game is just pure manic fun.  There is a lot of emphasis on reaction time as you attempt to ‘splode your way out of danger, whether from oncoming spike walls, rising water levels, mad scientists piloting huge running robots, little flying sentries that shoot lasers at you, and more.

The game itself also has a ton of personality to it.  It’s one of those games you could very easily assume that the developers (Twisted Pixel in this case) had way too much fun making.  It’s got a high level of humor, which is very apparent in the general style of the game, the animations of the main character, and not to mention that WHEN YOU BLOW UP SCIENTISTS THEY TURN INTO T-BONE STEAKS, SAUSAGE LINKS, AND OTHER MEAT PARAPHERNALIA (as opposed to big blood clouds and the like).

I’ve already beat the it (it’s addicting), but this is the type of game that’s perfect for doing speed runs.  There’s online leaderboards for the best time in each level, and within each level, there’s a hidden “cake” that usually takes a pretty observant eye to find.

It’s only 800 Microsoft Points, and unfortunately is only on Xbox Live right now, but rumors have it that it’ll show up on the PC (and hopefully other systems) some time in the future. I highly recommend getting it, if not at least getting the demo to try that out.

(There’s better quality videos on Youtube, but I like the following one as it’s one of my favorite levels)

Fantastic in most literal sense of the word.

It’s coming out early 2010 on Xbox Live Arcade (fingers crossed for Mac/PC/PS3/Wii ports).

The game is an evolution of the 2D to 3D gameplay ideas seen in games like Super Paper Mario and Ectochrome.

Fez will be mindfuckery at its very best.  I can’t wait.

I mean it.

Just skip to about 20 seconds.

ExciteBots video, Doogie-Calibur HQ from Jamie Kelly on Vimeo.

UPDATE: Edited title for truth bombs.  Also, to be fair, I’m actually kinda looking forward to Final Fantasy 13 (haven’t looked forward to a FF game in a while…), and just like Choof, I’m eager to see how Diablo 3 turns out.  Regardless, I’m really looking forward to The Beatles: Rock Band.  Hell, just imagine how much fun this would have been in our college days.

I sure do.

Collegehumor published an article that my very own girlfriend, Genevieve, wrote. Very exciting stuff. Check it out here. It’s called “how to get your girlfriend to play videogames”.