He's crying on the inside… and possibly the outside, I can't tell.

It’s true that there’s been a lot of trouble over at 38 Studios as of late. With missed loan payments, the potential offloading of debt to Rhode Island taxpayers, and even the future of their suspected MMO, Project Copernicus in doubt after the “fizzling” of Star Wars: The Old Republic, their future does indeed look grim. They appear to have staved off bankruptcy for some time longer, but the cost has come at the count of somewhere between 300 and 400 jobs.

It’s never funny when people lose their jobs, and unfortunately everbody at 38 Studios and Big Huge Games now has first hand experience on the matter. This was reported over at Gamasutra after receiving a copy of a company wide e-mail that was sent out this afternoon. The email reads:

“The Company is experiencing an economic downturn. To avoid further losses and possibility of retrenchment, the Company has decided that a companywide lay off is absolutely necessary.

These layoffs are non-voluntary and non-disciplinary.

This is your official notice of lay off, effective today, Thursday, May 24th, 2012.”

While this means that technically neither 38 Studios, nor Big Huge Games have closed their doors and declared bankruptcy as a company, it seems unlikely that the Amalur license will go any further than where it currently stands. According to Rhode Island Governer, Lincoln Chafee, the reasons behind the financial difficulties and ultimately, the layoffs was the failure of Reckoning to live up to sales expectations. Around 3 million copies would have had to sell for the company to recoup its losses, a goal that they didn’t come close to, with most estimates putting their sales figures closer to 10% of the needed numbers.

Did you buy it? Yes? No? We’d be curious to hear about why you decided to either purchase, or decline to in the comments section below.

Source: Gamasutra

Lost scenes out of the movie Drive.

Arma III. Arma III? Arma III Arma III Arma III Arma III, Arma III… Arma III. Arma III, lighting, Arma III.

Ahhh, Arma III.

You might have figured out by now that I’m really excited about Arma III. Is it any wonder either? Its immediate predecessor receives patches to this day, and offers a sandbox military experience that’s paralleled by none. To see Bohemia Interactive’s technical innovations, along with the community communication and support they’re offering (such as allowing community members access to early builds of the game) always fills my heart with pride. I imagine it might wind up draining my wallet of spendable funds, though. Limnos doesn’t look like it’s going to be inexpensive to render in such brilliant glory.

ARMA III is set for release in the fourth quarter of 2012
Links: Arma 3 Official Website

Those roundhouse kicks look good, Wei.

Are you still on the fence for Square Enix and United Front’s joint effort to bring Sleeping Dogs to fruition? You think the stigma of True Crime: Hong Kong still exists? Well, check out this video below and see if it changes your expectations.

I have to say I am impressed that the game is coming out still. I am a sucker for open-ended style action titles like this, and I have to say that United Front and Square Enix are doing a good job of keeping me interested in Sleeping Dogs. Hopefully they are doing the same for all of you, as we inch closer to its August 2012 release date.

When you hear the description “modern military shooter” there are probably a lot of things that come to mind. You probably think of dingy brown-and-grey corridors posing as battlefields, explosive set-pieces which may as well be cutscenes, and teenagers screaming racial slurs into their microphones while you try to play online. While Ghost Recon: Future Soldier obviously leans more towards the Call of Duties and Battlefields than its predecessors, it also manages to distance itself from a lot of the tropes that have cause shooters to stagnate recently. Just as third-person is to first-person, think of Future Soldier as a different perspective on the concept of 21st century gunplay.

While Ubisoft has seeminly beaten Black Ops II to the punch and sent its franchise into the future, the title of the newest Ghost Recon is mostly a misnomer. The game ostensibly takes place in the future, but you’d be hard pressed to find evidence of that in the game world, and most (if not all) of the technology present is extant in some form as of this writing. Perhaps the titular “Future Soldier,” is more of an ideal, signifying a departure from the old, rote firefights that used to characterize warfare, whether real or digital.

Behold! Slightly-less-visibility cloaks.

The game’s campaign follows a four-man team of “ghosts,” or special operatives on the trail of bad guys involved in the manufacturing and distribution of weaponry. Their journey takes them from the jungles of South America, through the shantytowns of Africa, and to the barren tundras of Russia, representing a wide range of scenery and mission types. However, the plot is almost a parody of itself, invoking every cliché you could imagine, whether it be America saving the day or the gaming industry’s strange recent fascination with Russia. There’s even one scene lifted almost directly from Modern Warfare 3, although, to its credit, it is both more visceral and less manipulative here.

There are no two ways about it: the story is a waste. Fortunately, the campaign itself is saved by some very clever structure, a fair amount of variety, and the simplicity of satisfying gameplay. Put simply, each of the early missions serve as a tutorial for a piece of technology in your expanding arsenal, as the game teaches you to be a better player. First you learn how to use drones to scout the terrain ahead of you, then you practice synchronizing shots with your team to take down whole patrols silently, before you’re given the controls to a BigDog. The build-up is expertly crafted, until you’re finally familiar with the broad range of gadgets that set the game apart from most other shooters on the market. There is even a clever pay-off to the end of this learning curve, but I won’t spoil it here.

Trillions of dollars in military spending and we can't even get a color camera.

If a game can be said to be “technology porn” than Future Soldier is an orgy. However, even when the game loads you down with the GDP of a small nation in weaponry, don’t expect to just go Rambo on anything in your path. Like the Ghost Recons of old, this newest iteration is primarily about stealth, and getting into a protracted firefight means you did something wrong. In fact, there are large swaths of the game which don’t require you to fire a single shot, and quite a few in which alerting the enemy to your presence results in instant failure. While most big budget shooters throw in a token stealth segment, Future Soldier is built around the concept, and plays all the better for it.

One of the downsides of the rise of the set-piece in modern games is that everyone will have the same memories of most titles. Scripted sequences and quick-time events may allow for a cinematic experience, but they don’t lend themselves well to feelings of personal achievement. GR:FS has a few contractually obligated watercooler moments, but it is at its best when it lets you figure out how to deal with a situation. There’s nothing more satisfying than planning and successfully executing a stealthy assault on a large, entrenched enemy force. And thanks to the obscene arsenal provided to you by American taxpayers, you can do so in incredible style.

To those responsible for the recent Metal Gear: Rising trailers, THIS is how you make a live action trailer for a game.

The original Metro 2033 was the best kind of release: a new IP from a relativity small and unknown studio that none the less reflected real drive and effort on the parts of its creators. Not content to simply be just another FPS game lost in the crowd, 2033 managed to blend FPS gameplay with RPG, adventure game, and survival horror elements to ultimately great effect. The game was soaked with atmosphere and character, doing as good a job of capturing the sense of the struggles of day to day life beneath the streets of a post-apocalyptic Moscow as it did scares and action beats. The game’s setup could have easily just lead to a poor man’s Fallout 3, but instead the developers at 4A Games managed to take similar material and still blaze their own trail.

After Metro 2033 (gratifyingly) became something of a modest hit, a followup was all but inevitable and it was not much of a surprise when Metro: Last Light was first announced back in 2012. Since then the game has suffered several delays (it was originally meant to be released this summer before being pushed back to 2013) but hopefully this will simply lead to a game that was ultimately worth the wait. In the meantime, the people at 4A Games and THQ have released a new live action trailer (making them only the latest in a growing line of publishers and developers using original live action footage to help sell upcoming games) to hold fans of the series over. Check out the trailer below:

Even divorced of the context of the Metro series, that was a perfect little mini-movie in its own right that nonetheless also still does an excellent jot of teasing the game that is to come. If Last Light can equal the quality of that trailer, then players have nothing to worry about. Metro: Last Light is currently set for release sometime in Q1 of 2013 for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and PC. Stay tuned to Blistered Thumbs for continuing coverage of the game and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

Source(s): THQ.

There is nothing about this image that does not get me excited. Nothing.

A new Double Fine game is already exciting enough but add in the fact that both Tim Schafer AND Ron Gilbert are teaming up to develop it? How about if I told you The Cave appears, among other things, to a spiritual successor of sorts to one of the all time classics of the adventure game genre, Maniac Mansion? Excited yet? You had better be, but just in case not, check out the official description and first trailer for this breathtaking new game below:

Yes. Yes. YES! *Ahem* Sorry about that. I just got a little carried away by watching a trailer for a title that appears to be everything I have ever wanted in a video game. There is lot going on in that trailer and I cannot wait to see how Gilbert and the folks at Double Fine bring it all together. I think we have something very special on our hands here to say the very least. The wait until this one gets released is going to be sheer torture, aggravated by the fact that currently The Cave only has 2013 as a release date. Still, good things come to those who wait and I for one am more than prepared to wait as long as it takes for this one. The Cave is currently set for release sometime in 2013 on PSN, XBLA, and PC. Stay tuned to Blistered Thumbs for continuing coverage of the game and be sure to share you thoughts and feeling in the comments section below.

Source(s): Double Fine.

Fight the power, man!

The second free DLC for Mass Effect 3 has finally been revealed. The already rumored Rebellion DLC has proven true, six new character classes, three new weapons, and two new multiplayer maps will be added at no additional cost to those who have a multiplayer pass for Mass Effects Galaxy at War mode.

The three classes available add Vorcha soldiers and sentinels into the mix, along with male Quarians and “Phoenix” soldiers, Ex-Cerberus operatives who are skilled at using biotics to dominate their enemies. New powers are being added as well, the Quarian infiltrators will be given a “tactical scan” ability, while Phoenix vanguard’s will receive a new lash attack to smack around some brutes and banshees every so often. The new weapons also include a sniper rifle, shotgun, and assault rife, and two new multiplayer maps, including the ruins of Thessia and the lush jungles of Sur’Kesh.

Just like last time, the maps will be available right after download, while the weapons and characters need to be unlocked in packs to be playable. So far though, that is two free DLCs, with a third confirmed one on the way for Mass Effect 3, not a bad deal so far I have to say. Look for the Rebellion pack on May 29th for Xbox players, and May 30th for PSN and PC players.

Source: Bioware Forums

Frostmourne hungers…

Warning: The Following contains spoilers. You have been warned.

We are all familiar with the phrase “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It is a saying that is designed to warn about the allure of having too much power and influence, eventually losing touch and abusing that power against those who need you the most. A cautionary tale neatly packaged into a proverb, many creative mediums have used this phrase as the impetus for the creation of storylines to tell character piece on a specific individual. Of course, the video game realm is no exception, and perhaps one of the more appropriate telling of this tale come’s from Blizzard’s own Arthas Menethil from the Warcraft franchise.

It should be noted that Blizzard has taken this path several times with three different characters in their universe; I already spoke about Sylvanas Windrunner, and how she was an exception to the rule in that was able to avoid her fate, at least initially, of being forsaken. Sarah Kerrigan, a woman forced against her will like Sylvanas but quickly embraces her new fate. Arthas is quite different from these two however. As we shall see, Arthas voluntarily chooses his fate, despite warnings to the contrary.

Arthas is a Paladin of the Silver Hand, and the crown prince of Lordaeron. He starts the game as promising young man, striving to protect his people from the threats of Orcs and other creatures. Eventually though, Arthas, his mentor Uther the Lightbringer, and his lover Jaina Proudmoore, would fall upon the scourge being spread by Necromancer Kel’Thuzad. Arthas would lead a valiant defense of his people against the undead, Kel’Thuzad using infected grain to transform people into mindless undead in every town he encounters.

After several battles, Arthas and his men make their way to Stratholme, only to discover that he is too late in saving the village, the villages have consumed the infected grain. In a moment of cold pragmatism, Arthas ordered his most loyal men to slay every villager and burn the town. Jaina and Uther leave in protest, while Arthas destroys the village in hopes of eliminating the plague once and for all.

It is this moment where the character shift begins to turn. Arthas until this point was vowing to never abandon his homeland, and to protect it by any means necessary. When faced with a difficult choice, such as the slaying of the village of Stratholme, he would essentially start down a path that he would never recover from, one that would lead him to his eventual corruption.

During Straholme, the archfiend Mal‘Ganis appeared to attempted to claim as many souls in the now burning town as possible. Arthas challenged him to battle, but Mal‘Ganis retreated to the continent of Northrend, a desolate, ice-filled land. After meeting up with his former mentor,the dwarf Muardin Bronzebeard, Arthas would learn of the sword Frostmourne, was sought by Mal’Ganis and the undead. Arthas then vows to find the sword first, and destroy the demon with his own weapon.

It is clear, though, that throughout this process Arthas is being manipulated in some respects. Kel’Thuzad tells him about Mal’Ganis before he is slain, and Mal’Ganis proclaims as he flees from Arthas that he shall see him in Northrend. The search for Frostmourne is also purposeful, as it becomes a catalyst to Arthas’ eventual transformation.

Eventually Arthas will find Frostmourne, slaying the Guardian who swore to protect it from men like him. In a final act of fealty to the sword, Arthas breaks it free from its icy prison, slaying Muardin, the final voice of reason, and abandoning his paladin’s hammer for the cursed blade. After using it to slay Mal’Ganis, his transformation is complete. His soul stolen by the sword, Arthas the princely paladin was no more.

Uh… Zach, are you seeing this?

This week Johnny Maloney, Austin “The Achievement Rebel” Yorski, and Leon Thomas have a very special guest. They take the opportunity to talk to him about Deadly Premonition, filming the inside of genitals, and haunted woolen sweaters.

Click right here to download the MP3.

Molesting statues, spanking pigs, and tennis balls to the face! This is the death defying, drug-induced, dreamy diversion of Datura!

First a highlight from the episode!

Convinced?! Watch the whole WeiRD episode below!

Check us out on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, and YOUTUBE for LIVE TWITCH stream announcements!
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