Archives: Old Posts

Our Daily Beard – 26/02/13

Hola!

Some really good news today on the small-scale gaming front.

First of all, have you heard of the game Asylum?

In Asylum, you set out on a chilling journey through the intricate floors of the Hanwell Mental Institute, which has seen unimaginable atrocities in the past (like all the other mental institutes in every horror game ever, I know, but bear with it). Decay surrounds you; dread awaits you around every corner. As you traverse the endless corridors of the Asylum, a disconcerting feeling of imprisonment creeps up on you (probably because you’re stuck there, but again check it out anyway!).

Asylum is the upcoming psychological horror adventure game inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, set in a massive mental institute that is far past its prime. Over four years in production, it aims to marry cutting edge visuals with thrilling storytelling to give players the ultimate experience of fear.

Rather ambitious key features include:

• Mature and disturbing horror storyline that will haunt players for years to come

• Over 15 hours of terrorizing gameplay

• Around 100 rooms to explore in breathtaking detail

• High definition graphics that remain sharp on the largest monitors

• One of the biggest virtual buildings ever created for a game

• Voice-acting by industry veteran Josh Mandel

 

Okay, so you’re up-to-date now. Behold press release goodness detailing the Kickstarter success of Asylum:

‘The latest in a series of successful Kickstarter adventure game campaigns, already Greenlit psychological horror adventure Asylum achieved its funding goal of $100,666 over the weekend. With this, Senscape intend to bring Asylum to completion and release it before the year’s end.

With only 48 hours to go, Senscape are aiming for a number of exciting stretch goals that combine their own ideas and requests from the community, including versions of Asylum for iPad, OUYA, and Oculus Rift virtual reality support. An overview of the stretch goals is available here:

http://www.senscape.net/files/kickstarter/AsylumStretchGoals.jpg

The final stretch goal of $166,666 is a complete rework of Asylum dubbed Memories, featuring a brand new story that returns players to the haunted asylum in broad daylight, which is intended to be distributed as an expansion in 2014 and will be given for free to every backer who pledged $15 and above.

“Whereas the original game is gritty, dark and oppressive, the additional content will be dreamy, melancholic and beautiful,” says Agustín Cordes, lead designer and founder. “Fans of Scratches will feel right at home with its similar atmosphere of decaying beauty and sadness.”

 

A preview video of the intended Asylum: Memories expansion is available here:

http://youtu.be/3smcx4DORq4

 

Three new Asylum: Memories screenshots are available here:

http://www.senscape.net/files/kickstarter/AsylumMemoriesSnaps.zip

 

How cool is Kickstarter?!

 

Links:

• Kickstarter project: http://lockme.in/Asylum

• Kickstarter video: http://youtu.be/5RXVgv-QZKQ

• Asylum: Memories preview video download: http://www.senscape.net/files/kickstarter/AsylumMemoriesPreview.mp4

• Trailer: http://youtu.be/aXs4Fysxsc4

• Short demo: http://www.senscape.net/asylum-teaser

• Steam Greenlight page: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=95795715

For more information, please visit http://www.facethehorror.com.

 
[sociable]

The Saga of Sweetangel – Part 8

A bit more!

 

Longthorn knew that she’d warn her friends,

And was incensed at Poulter’s suffering,

So he ended her wickedness there.

He sent Turtle out of the shop,

And took out an old friend from his waistcoat,

A sharp razor that cut more than hair.

 

They carried Poulter together,

Trying their best to preserve his weak flame,

For his wound was enough to kill most.

“To Mama Grave,” whispered Poulter,

“The Ubu shaman owes me a favour,”

“Hurry or you’ll be meeting my ghost.”

 

With the help of a carriage ride,

They got to the Ubu Quarter quickly,

And they rushed to old Mama Grave’s door.

“Good mother, my partner is hurt,”

“Please do for him what you can,” said Longthorn,

As he laid Poulter out on the floor.

 

She set to work without question,

With a needle and thread and strange poultice,

Inspecting the gaping bullet hole.

“Bad thing done fell upon this man,”

“Terrorful wrong has visit inside him,”

“Not only gun-lead, also his soul,”

 

Mama Grave wore bones in her hair,

And the skins of beasts from Ubu Ubu,

And her skin was as dark as the night.

“This man should be dead from his wound,”

“The bullet smite badways upon on his heart,”

“Yet he breathe, yet he live, yet he fight.”

 

[sociable]

Our Daily Beard – 24/02/13

Wotcha.

It’s Sunday, the day of rest. Take a load off your feet.

Not that much! Ouch, put a plaster on that.

Right, all better.

You know what’s a good thing?

Web radio. It has become my latest go-to entertainment, so I thought I’d share that and do a little plugging.

There’s a little desktop app I’ve been using called Radio Player. Does what it says on the tin. A lot of established radio stations use it already as a vehicle for their web service, so most web radio stations are compatible with it.

If you’re at all like me you like all your stations in one place, rather than going from one site to another. You can attach feeds to windows media player and other players, but I find them a little clunky. Radio Player is a tiny install that I just sit on the taskbar- click and it opens the last station you listened to. It also displays any visual media that the station provides (okay, largely adverts, but also weather info, buttons for quickly swapping sub-stations and so links).

You can find it at this link, disguised as a sentence.

So what stations keep me entertained of late? Heart is okay for dipping one’s toe as they sometimes let you know what the current song is before you go onto the station. Local radio… well, yeah. BBC Stoke is alright! When you’re sick of chart music, i.e. 90% of the time, there’s the usual rock stations like Kerrang. To be honest, I can’t listen to them for long either, because they lean so heavily towards whiney Americana. For me, my current favourite has to be Absolute Radio.

Absolute has not just a main station but 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and classic rock sub-stations. You can switch with one click, hopping between music every time something comes on that you don’t like. I tend to hover in the 70s, 80s and 90s, while the main station itself is a nice mixture of new and old and not just chart music.

On top of that, they have great presenters like Christian O’Connell and Frank Skinner (on Saturday mornings- reaallly funny!). Check out Annabel Port around 5pm on Geoff Lloyd’s home time show- she’s witty and mean, my favourite combination. They even podcast these shows if you miss them- I’ve had about 40 hours of entertainment from Frank’s back catalogue. If by the grace of the gods you should see this Frank- hello Mr. Radio!

So yeah, check those out, you wretches.

See you tomorrow!

 
[sociable]