And that's why I always use the back entrance… because the front is all bloodied up glass.

Those of you that follow my twitter feed know that I’ve been poking at the nextfrictionalgame.com website for the past week, screaming loudly like a girl, and running away and hiding in the corner behind something heavy. During the course of the week, I noticed that the image link changed from a google map above China, to Boreray (an island in the outer Hebrides, a la Dear Esther), and finally to Seattle. PC Gamer points out that all of these things indicate that Dear Esther developer, The Chinese Room, may be involved in the development.

The China map and the Boreray map are pretty self explanatory, but PC Gamer also points out that the final Seattle location is a tower which contains a reception room titled, you guessed it, The Chinese Room. Those are some pretty pointed clues, but not the only ones that grace the website. Pressing on the first splash image (and I do mean SPLASH image, look at all that blood…) now brings you to a Commodore 64 styled boot up screen (with a whole 64K of RAM! Hog dog! Now we’re cookin’ with propane!) that plainly puts it: “A machine for pigs coming fall two thousand twelve.”

A small wiki has been concocted, referencing an ARG that appears to have happened over the past couple of days, with plenty of flavor text about pigs, malaria, ebola, and other cheery things you might find in an unusually dark Rainbow Brite fanfic. There’s something strangely contemporary about the content of some of the ARG, including something being fried “TO A USELESS PIECE OF 80′S TECH.” So, a contemporary installment in the Amnesia universe, developed by the Chinese Room? Gadzooks man, my sanity is only so strong…

Sources: NextFrictionalGame.com, PC Gamer, Next Frictional Game ARG Wiki

Johnny Maloney

Having been a gamer since 1986 when his father brought home an IBM PCjr with King's Quest and Crossfire included, it seemed destined that PC gaming and Johnny Maloney's life would run parallel forever. Despite his occasional affairs with movies, books, music and single malt scotch, he's never once left the side of his PC. In fact, on a full moon on a friday the thirteenth, if you sit in his old chairs... chills will run up your spine if you say "you fight like a dairy farmer," and you can sometimes hear ghostly whispers in the night respond "how appropriate, you fight like a cow…" -- Attempting to contact Johnny at Johnny@Blisteredthumbs.net may be successful.

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