Following the recent Xbox 20/20 online showcase, independent studio Ebb Software is pleased to announce that its forthcoming first person horror adventure.

Highly anticipated by horror fans for its powerful visual style and dense atmosphere, Scorn was presented as part of the forthcoming line up for Xbox Series X with the exclusive reveal of a brand new trailer. The game is planned for release during the Xbox Series X launch period.

Speaking about the studio’s collaboration with Xbox, Scorn Game Director Ljubomir Peklar said: “For us as developers it’s imperative to present Scorn in the best way possible. The distinctive art style is only half the story – the other half is having all the technical parts of the game running smoothly. That’s where our partnership with Microsoft and their next generation Xbox Series X console comes in. Xbox Series X is an extremely capable piece of hardware that will enable us to run Scorn at 4k 60fps with all the graphical bells and whistles. Ease of development and raw processing power are the primary reasons we chose to go exclusively with Xbox Series X. Players on Series X will experience an uncompromising version of Scorn.”

Scorn lures players into a claustrophobic underworld populated with mis-shapen organic forms dripping with unnamed fluids. You will find yourself entirely alone, with only your senses and instincts to guide you through the non-linear nightmare of interconnected spaces. In Scorn, the environment is itself a character, and will do its best to unsettle and unbalance you. Each location has its own puzzles, characters and story to tell, all of which combine to create a cohesive world.

On your journey through the game, new areas, skills, weapons and items will be unveiled as you attempt to comprehend the unfolding reality of Scorn.

Scorn will be exclusive to Xbox Series X at game launch.

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The post Scorn announced as Xbox Series X exclusive appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

A week ago Shane from STG was invited to an exclusive Spiderman PS4 preview evening.

With some hands-on preview sessions with Insomniac Games’ Spiderman exclusive for PlayStation 4, we also had the privilege to meet James Stevenson – the Community Director from Insomniac Games in California while he was on his whirlwind tour talking about the much awaited Spiderman PS4.

From the following morning, STG was invited to PlayStation HQ in Auckland, New Zealand for a sit down and chat with James.

James Stevenson – Community Director at Insomniac Games

Shane: Hey James, thank you for talking with us here at STG, can you please give us a bit of a background on yourself and how you came to be at Insomniac Games.

James: Sure, my name is James Stevenson and I am the Community Director at Insomniac [Games]. I have been there for a little over 12 years now the first game that I worked on was Resistance: Fall of Man and I’ve kinda worked on all things community related, Marketing related and just anything and everything that comes my way. Before that I as a Gaming Journalist and I wrote for a variety of publications, most notably Fandom and Escape, Surge, a Laptop Magazine and I just freelanced, I did that while I was in school and all that jazz, so yeah and then went straight to Insomniac straight after that.

Shane: Okay, yeah I did very much the same [freelancing] before I started STG. So, we have Spiderman PS4 releasing next month and there’s always challenges when creating a game. Using Spiderman, which is a Marvel IP (Intellectual Property), what challenges were there?

James: Using Spiderman, it’s like with great power there’s great responsibility. You get this character that’s beloved around the world, everyone knows him, everyone loves him. He’s one of the most known characters in all media like Mickey Mouse, there’s not many characters on that level. But then you also have all of these fans that expect something really great, really amazing, so there was a lot of pressure right off the bat. And that’s the challenge right there, you have to go ‘oh man’ there’s 50 years of comics right there that you have to draw from and stories and characters and things that you can use for inspiration. You have to consider and contemplate all of that when you’re creating something new. So there’s alot of things to it. Even though you have the character and that resolves a lot of questions you still have to keep in ind that this is our first Spiderman game, so it still feels like a new IP in some ways. You still need to figure out what the mechanics will be and build a new move set. Obviously we know what the character is like and what are his traits so that solves many things and then there’s what’s our version of the character like and playing our game still needs to be a subjective thing  and to reiterate, we had to build new supports, new pipelines and it was also new questions. For us this was the first melee game. This game still has alot of gadgets, there’s lots of options and this game still feels very insomniac to me within how the combat is presented. But it’s still a new thing for us. So we were like, ‘what’s that going to be like?’ because we had been ,making shooters for a long time and now we are making a game where you yourself are the weapon and you give the player alot of different options in any given situation.

Shane: Insomniac is known for it’s sense of humour. Have you been able to throw a bit of that Insomniac flavour in to the game?

James: Oh for sure! That’s one of the reasons that we picked Spiderman. He’s a humorous character, he has great one liners or corny one liners, depending on who you talk to, he’s a talker, he really likes to talk. He fights, he makes fun of the enemies, he makes jokes to himself, it’s almost like how he copes with the stress of the situation in some ways. And you know. game development is like that in some ways too. I think that the sense of humour was something that we were able to add in to the game and that was one of the things that really helped us – you know, his interactions with pedestrians, his one liners in combat or the script of the game, there was alot of opportunities for us to put our trademark humour in to the game and really enforce the DNA of Spiderman.

Shane: Great. So, without giving any spoilers away, what can PS4 gamers expect with Insomniac Games’ Spiderman?

James: It’s an original, new Spiderman adventure. It’s not based on a comic, it’s not based on a film. It’s not an origin story. This is not a 15 year old Peter Parker you’re playing [as him at] 23 years old, whether you’re a huge fan or just someone who has watched the MCU movies or read a comic here and there, we made it purchasable for everyone. It has a tonne of great references for the fans and you get to play as the masterful Spiderman who has been doing it for 8 years so in that way you’re going to feel as though you are an experienced Peter Parker with amazing acrobatic combat.

Shane: With Spiderman now wrapping up, and I know that there’s always new projects on the go, what’s next for Insomniac – that you can talk about?

James: We’re focused on and working on an update for the game (Spiderman) that will come out on Day One and we’ll have DLC which is coming out relatively soon, which we will start talking about. There’s three story DLC’s installments; The City that Never Sleeps. The first one will star Black Cat. They all have new story missions, new challenges new suits for you to craft and wear – so there’s some good stuff there. Otherwise, we have announced we have a new VR (Virtual Reality) project that we are working on called Stormland but for now those are the only things that are announced. You know, we’re always working on stuff.

Shane: Excellent, sounds very exciting. I have one more Question that, if given the opportunity, I always ask – what was your favourite Toy as a kid?

James: Hmmm…. man, that’s a difficult decision…. If I truly had to pick one it would be my regular Nintendo. That’s the one thing that I played all of the time and set me down this path that put me here today. It was a trans-formative little box and when I got my very own little 13 inch television which didn’t work very well, but it was enough, I’d sit there and play games in my room. I’d be the first one up on a Saturday morning, in my room playing on my Nintendo. So much that I would get blisters on my thumbs. But, outside of video games it’s tough. I’m torn between G.I. Joes and LEGO.

James from Insomniac Games (Left) with Shane from STG (Right).

Shane: I was crazy over G. I. Joes when I was younger.

James: Yeah I was big in to G.I. Joes. I had Snake Eye’s and all types of different vehicles, I had some of my Dad’s 12 inch ones. Muskrat was my first G. I. Joe he had the hat and the machete… I ended up with alot of those. Oh I also had the big stealth Blackbird thing (vehicle). I might still have all of that somewhere, you know, like in a box. But yeah I had a tonne of G. I. Joes and my Dad was in the Military and my Grandfather was in the Airforce, so that was like being able to play Military with those guys but also they were like superhero-ish in their own way, they were all fantastic, with their backstories it wasn’t just straight up infantry or Military, there was a Ninja… just alot of fun. Actually another series that I was super in to was the Woods LEGO series which they discontinued. There was a Men of the Woods, Robin Hood kind of… I loved those. They stopped making them, but I had a tonne of the Castle stuff. But yeah I did alot of G. I. Joe raids on my sisters Barbies.

Shane: Hahaha, awesome stuff. Thanks James for taking the time to chat with STG. Really appreciate it.

Spiderman PS4 from Insomniac Games releases on the 7th of September 2018.

The post Interview w. James Stevenson – Insomniac Community Director appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

New Zealand comedian and feature film actor; Jonathan Brugh is known for What We Do in the Shadows 2014 (feature film) and can currently be seen in 800 Words for the second season.

800 Words, is filmed in West Auckland, New Zealand and is a series currently airing in Australia and New Zealand about a recently widowed father who leaves his job as a popular 800 word columnist for a top selling Sydney newspaper. On impulse, he buys a house in New Zealand in a remote seaside town, news he then has to break to his two teenage kids, who are still suffering from the loss of their Mum. What ensues is a small family readapting to life within an even smaller community full of, well, colourful locals, Jonny plays one of these locals. 800 Words is a mix of light hearted comedy with serious under tones.

Jonny, as he is known, hails from Auckland, New Zealand and started his acting career with absurdist tragi-comedy duo Sugar&Spice who achieved critical acclaim throughout New Zealand and Australia and won the Chapman Tripp Award for best Comic Performance in 1996 and the Billy T Award in 1998.

Jonny Brugh

Jonny also has a Art and Design degree. In 2003 Jonny performed a series of solo shows called The Rise And Fall Or The Fall And Rise Of Dinky Jon, which involved him catapulting water melons at the stage walls and flying over the audience hanging from a rail dressed as Super Man.

Also known for his comedy theatre work, Jonny has been at it for the past 15 years and still going strong. So, we asked Jonny a couple questions.

StG: Jonny, what made you get into acting in the first place?

Jonny: I used to do sketches with my 2 sisters when i was a kid. I think I always knew I should probably be a comic actor but because no one at my school had the gumption to hold an actual drama class it wasn’t a possibility. Then at 20 I made friends with some way more enterprising guys from another school. Together we hit local comedy events around Auckland. It very quickly became touring Australasia with some adventurous comedy shows.

StG: With comedy being your forte, how do you cope with serious roles?

Jonny: I have no interest in serious roles (serious face). Or i do but i just a stick a laugh track on it and call it comedy. Actually i think i enjoy playing a blurry mix of a straight character with his heart of his sleeve who unconsciously shows his fallibility. Its true that most comedic actors play it straight anyway, perhaps we push a little more of the emotions in a scene. Craft-wise I’m more interested in how a character responds to the crisis a the narrative of stories i tell. I don’t find it hard to play straight, although friends would disagree. In film and TV one tends to play straight compared to theatre. It’s about how a character approaches a situation and how much their expression convays. We have to be likable. I’m also sculpted by a thousand theatre shows where I’m always trying to keep an audience interested. that tends to make an actor larger in their nuances.

StG: Currently you are present in the second season of 800 Words. Can you tell us about your character?

Jonny: I am Monty’s wingman! Everybody describes Monty as a sleazy smarmy real estate agent. But he isn’t! He is a solo Father running two businesses while trying to be a good man to everyone. He is bullied by his brother which in the end brings out the best in Monty. Its interesting that people, even journalists, will assume he is sleazy because of the pride he shows in his fashion sense. But i dare you to find real reason to write him off as smarmy! you cant! because there isn’t one. Judge a man by his actions before his dress sense. I think this issue really touches a nerve in me. its so lazy. But i must admit that Monty is just a fictional character created for the purpose of playing the sleazy real estate agent. He isn’t real. I know i project my own frustrations onto other people, we all do it, Im no different and neither is Monty.

StG: Last question, are there any other actors that inspire you, or have inspired you?

Jonny: No acting isn’t inspiring to me. But if I had to choose I love working with New Zealand comic actors Jackie van Beek and Cohen Hollaway. Cohen and I have a comedy crush! Also Australians Rick Donald (Woody, 800 Words) and Nick Boshier (Soul Mates, Meanwhile On Earth), Aussie has some funny people!

When not filming 800 Words, Jonathan has also been developing his next solo show titled ‘191 years of Bullshit’. On top of that he is writing new works with a range of exciting writers and practitioners.

Be sure to check out What We Do In The Shadows directed by Taika Waititi (Boy 2010, Hunt for the Wilderpeople 2016) and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords, Moana 2016) and catch 800 Words Season Two TV1, Television New Zealand and stay tuned for Mega Time Squad by Tim van Dammen, released this year.

 

The post An Exclusive with Jonny Brugh appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

A week before the release of PlayStation and Guerrilla Games’ newest IP; Horizon Zero Dawn, StG was invited to Auckland, New Zealand’s PlayStation Headquarters for a sit down and chat with the games Senior Producer, Joel Eschler.

As Senior Producer, Joel Eschler has coordinated and supervised various areas of the development of Horizon Zero Dawn.

Originally from Australia, Joel studied Astrophysics at the Australian National University before making the switch to videogame development. He began his career at 2K Australia as a QA Technician, and worked his way up to Producer before making the big leap to Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Now an industry veteran of 9 years, Joel’s prior credits include the Bioshock series, The Bureau: XCOM: Declassified, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Borderlands: The Handsome Collection.

Joel Eschler | Senior Producer of Horizon Zero Dawn

Shane: Hi Joel thanks for speaking with StG this morning. Please tell us a little bit about your background in game development and how you became the Senior Producer of Horizon Zero Dawn.

Joel: I actually started out working in games as a Tester, about 10 years ago. I took a gap year from studying in Canberra. I wanted to get a job, save up some money and start travelling, but I wanted to get a job that wasn’t in a store, I wanted something that was a little bit interesting and I stumbled upon a Game Tester role that happened to be with 2K Games and that’s how I broke into the industry. By getting a summer job.

There I grasped any opportunity that came to me and I never actually went back to University. So I quickly became a Junior Producer and made my way up the ranks there, working on Bioshock 1, 2, Bioshock Infinite, the last Borderlands game, XCOM and a bunch of others.

Then I made the move over to Amsterdam last year after seeing that they were working on Horizon. I had a small interest in Guerrilla (Games) as they were technical wizards, they made the most technically amazing console games for years I thought. But at the time the Killzone series of games was not was going to make me move to another country but when the first trailer for Horizon came out I stood up and took notice and a couple of weeks later they got in contact with me and asked if I wanted to come out for an interview.

I went over and spent a week with the team, played the game (Horizon), everyone’s passion just blew me away so shortly thereafter decided to move over. Packed up the pets, wife came along and now we are living in the Netherlands.

Shane: Horizon Zero Dawn is the first, first party IP for Guerrilla Games since Killzone. What was the inspiration behind main character; Aloy and the mixed beauty and danger world that she hunts in?

Joel: After Killzone 3, and this is something that game dev studios tend to do, they opened it up to everyone (within Guerrilla Games) to pitch ideas. Something to inspire the team for their next project. A whole bunch of pitches came in for a ‘if we are going to work on a new IP, what should it be?’. And it just so happened that J.B. who is the Art Director who is the Studio Art Director for Horizon, who he came up with the idea for not a post apocalyptic world, but a post post apocalyptic world. So it’s already gone through the apocalypse and everything fell to pieces, now it’s all started to grow back and as an artist he wanted to make it beautiful, so it’s an interesting world within the story but I also think he was also inspired by the 80’s cartoons ‘Zoids’ or something like that, he vaguely mentioned it to me.

He is a big nerd, J.B. (Art Director), he is an amazing artist and his pitch was the one that won the most people over. It was technically ambitious, artistically beautiful and already with just those ideas of a post post apocalyptic world, and these robotic creatures people were starting to make up their own ideas of what this world might be, what the backstory could be and everything. Aloy just naturally came out of that. It wasn’t even a conscious decision, it was like Aloy just came to be. And from what I’ve been told at Guerrilla (Games) Aloy and Horizon have gone one to one the entire time. She’s become this inspiring figure for the studio and to have this strong and powerful, resourceful woman as our main character but also the world (that Aloy is within) inspires people (at Guerrilla Games) on a daily basis to technically push themselves further, to continually challenge themselves to come up with these stories and these beautiful vistas and the gameplay aswell. I think it was the perfect storm of a completely new challenge for the studio to create new gameplay, new areas.

Shane: Horizon Zero Dawn has been in development since 2011. Was it always slated for a PlayStation 4 release, as opposed to being a late comer for the PlayStation 3?

Joel: It was definitely always slated for a PS4 release. Being a first party studio Geurilla’s ambitions and Sony’s often go hand in hand. So this is a important pillar for PlayStation and we are really proud. i’m really proud to be a part of Guerrilla to help make people want to buy PlayStations to experience Horizon and having the installed base that PlayStation has at the moment means that so many people will be able to play it, so it’s a win, win situation for both of us.

Just on the outset, the scope of the world that Guerrilla wanted to build was only going to be possible on PlayStation 4.

Shane: In your view what can gamers expect from the playing experience of Horizon Zero Dawn?

Joel: That’s always an interesting question when you are talking about an open world game. Because one of the differences between Killzone and Horizon for Guerrilla is that the Killzone games are very scripted kinda like Hollywood Blockbuster type, when you know explosions are going to happen, but (Horizon) being an open world game, if you can see it, you can get to it and being an RPG aswell, allowing you to build Aloy to be your character depending on which skills you choose, how you modify your weapons and outfits, all this kind of stuff. It’s going to be a different answer a year from now after we talk to people that have played the game (Horizon) and finished it, to see what their experience was playing it. It’s going to be different from person to person.

But I think that the core experience is just going to be wanting to unravel this mystery and seeing this contrast of lush beautiful jungles, snow capped mountains, we have desert areas, all these different spaces that are contrasted against old ruins of buildings that people may recognise when they are playing the game and some underground… they have been hinted at but we haven’t shown anything in any of the trailers, (in one trailer) you see the camera start to go down and see the opening to something… those areas are spaces that we spent alot of our time on and I’m really excited for people to see what they actually are.

So I think that it is this contrast to see our what our world could become in time from now potentially and this feeling of not being for humans anymore.

We have this fluid game play and these amazing creatures that you will fight against, me, I just walk around the world (in Horizon) and view and want to take screenshots everywhere. So it’s going to be different for everyone. Some people just like to play for the story, the narrative, other people are going to get super in to the combat and max their character and really try and take a stealthy approach – set bombs and traps, so there’s no one answer for that, but for me, especially when I first played the game, it was that contrast of a beautiful world versus destroyed world.

Shane: Lastly, now that Horizon Zero Dawn is about to release next month (March), what is next up for Guerrilla Games – are there any projects in development that you can talk about?

Joel: At the moment we are still super focused on Horizon, and a couple of weeks ago we came in to the office and in the morning, we had only recently submitted the game, so we got this media invite for everyone to come downstairs, in to the cafeteria and there was about a hundred bottles of champagne and glasses everywhere, and this song Gold by Spandau Ballet it just played over the speakers for about three or our hours on repeat.

Now everyone is kinda taking their holidays at the moment, taking their time off. The history is that some people have been working on this game for six years, and it’s been a passion project. People don’t want to take holidays, when they can make the game better. So alot of people are taking hard earned breaks at the moment and some people who are laser focused on their little sections are playing the game, sometimes, for the first time experience that everyone else will see.

But yeah, at the moment we are really focused on Horizon and cant wait, we will have TV’s up all over the Studio on the day of release and Twitch streams of people playing the game and we are just going to enjoy that for the time being.

Shane: Excellent, and yes I believe it will be a well deserved break. Thanks so much for talking with StG today.

Joel: My pleasure and hope that you enjoy the game!

Horizon Zero Dawn is a brand new IP for PlayStation and PlayStation 4. The game releases on the 1st of March, 2017.

The post Interview with Joel Eschler – Senior Producer of Horizon Zero Dawn appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

If there has been any game series to prove an axiom true, it has been Dark Souls, and thus it remains with the latest entry, Dark Souls III. In From Software’s latest creation, knowledge is power. Even the greatest fear, the greatest enemy, can be overcome when you know what’s around the corner. As ever with the Soul series, you yourself level up moreso than the character you’re playing.

I recently had the chance to play roughly two hours of the latest in the Souls franchise. What I played was a near final build of the game as it will be released on April 22nd, 2016, although there may be tweaks and changes in the final product. Needless to say what follows below contains significant spoilers for certain elements of Dark Souls III so if you want to go in blind then best avoid what follows.

Fire, which has been at the core of the previous Dark Souls games’ mysterious and obtuse lore, is now brought front and center. Rather than being undead turning hollow, you are “unkindled,” risen from the grave to destroy the Lords of Cinder. The opening cinematic gives us an idea of who they might be, though only small pieces of the esoteric story were on show.

Otherwise, what I played was immensely familiar to the other games in the Souls series. Fans will be comforted to know that they will feel right at home from the first moments of Dark Souls III. That said, III appears to take elements each game and create a greatest hits album.

From the album before the band was mainstream (Demon’s Souls), Dark Souls III reintroduces the Nexus (technically here the Firelink Shrine), a safe place where you can level up, shop and go to the blacksmith. There are some mysterious objects in this space and much of the area was uninhabited, teasing a future that couldn’t be fulfilled in my short time with the game.

The core gameplay is that taken straight out of the first hit single, Dark Souls I. There are a wide variety of classes returning though I stuck with the old classic knight in shining armour.

There is also some evidence from the group’s second album, which disappointed hardcore fans but is generally underrated. You can warp between bonfires almost right from the start, a feature I found a sensible addition.

Finally, from the lead singer’s other band comes some of the most immediate design choices and changes. Movement is much faster, and together with some returning enemies (such as the incredibly annoying pitchfork peasant) the DNA of Bloodborne is made clear. III is also running on the Bloodborne engine, and there are perhaps one too many visual similarities between the titles, at least in the areas I was able to access.

Which is all to say that if you are familiar with the franchise, you will be immediately comfortable in this game. Together, these changes combined make the standard procedure fresh, and add up to more than the sum of their parts.

Which is not to say that III is a slap-dash potpourri of a game, a bit of everything thrown in the mix and that’s it. III introduces some welcome changes of its own that new and existing players I’m sure will appreciate

Enemies are both more relentless but won’t appear to chase you as far as before, much to my own (perhaps embarrassing) pleasure. There were a small number of sub boss type enemies that I simply ran past in desperate search for the next bonfire.

Magic makes some serious changes in III. Magic uses are now defined by an FP bar, which is filled with its own “Ashen” Estus Flasks. Interestingly, you have a pool of total estus flasks, and can choose between having more available mana or health restoration.

Mana restoration takes on a new importance in III, as even heavily melee characters such as what I usually like to play need to use the FP meter to use the new weapon arts.

Weapons arts are activated by first two-handing your weapon before holding L2 then pressing R2. Each weapon that I saw has its own ability. Warm up times are incredibly long so you must have impeccable timing to use these special abilities. Honestly though, I was able to get by perfectly well without using weapon arts for the entire time that I played, except to experiment with them.

In my time I encountered two major boss enemies. Surprisingly I was able to take down both of them on the first try. Unfortunately it was only after I had played through my time that I discovered I could record my exploits. Sadly they will have to stay hidden from history, but I guarantee that I speak the truth. In comparison to the rather standard bosses of Dark Souls II,  both were more compelling, and set in arenas that felt more connected to the character and their presence. Both were much more aggressive, keeping close to me and giving me less time to dodge roll my way to safety – another element that has been inherited from Bloodborne.

Both demonstrated metastatic changes after they had taken a certain amount of damage, changes which dramatically altered their attack patterns and behaviour. Nevertheless, while I won’t go into any more specific details about who they are, for both tried and true tactics from the previous games worked to defeat them. Perhaps future bosses will be a bit more varied, but overall I was satisfied with these first two challenges.

The equivalent of regaining your humanity in this game seems to be restoring your ember. After each boss fight my character glowed through cracks, as if I were full of lava escaping its bounds.

I have always been a bit of a different Dark Souls player, in that I enjoy the exploration over the boss fights. While I appreciate the bosses, the unfurling of the world map in front of me, and embedding it in my mind has always been what draws me to the games. Dark Souls III manages to return the genius sense of dread, excitement and (over)confidence that both Dark Souls and Bloodborne captured so well.

The primary challenge of Dark Souls III will be to continue and enhance the foundation characteristics of the Souls series while keeping it fresh for veteran and newcomer players alike. Because even though our player characters start at level one, we veteran human players do not. We have the knowledge and the experience built up over four games to counter what From Software have devised.

It is beholden on From Software then to excite us and give us something fresh

The post Dark Souls III Preview Event appeared first on Shane the Gamer.