Dear Esther

When simple shooter engines are elevated to the point of a medium for delivering a beautiful, thoughtful narrative, you get a game like Dear Esther. Aside from looking absolutely incredible for using such a dated engine, its already garnered 4 IGF nominations and an 8/10 review from EDGE magazine. One cool thing to note is that the developers made it so that no two playthroughs would be the same, with a randomization feature built in to make every experience unique. This indie gem will be available on Steam on February 14th.

Hey Pokemon Sunday

Us European fans have been enjoying it since Friday, and the Japanese Fans have been enjoying it since September of last year, but now the entire world is united in Pokemon goodness.  Today is the American release of Pokemon Black & White.

I have to say, the games have impressed me.  The Pokemon designs are quite.....lackluster, but the story arc and the graphics more than make up for it.  I feel like a 9 year old kid discovering Pokemon Blue all over again.  This time he works for a living, pay taxes, survived being a teenager and finally has that puppy he wanted.

Wakfu: The Animated Series

Wakfu is an MMO and TV series developed by French Studio Ankama.  If you've ever heard of Dofus, this sequel takes place 1,000 years after the fact.  The game hasn't been released just yet, but seems to have a beautiful art style and addictive turn based gameplay.

The clip above is from season 1 of the TV series of Wakfu, released in 2008.  Why haven't we heard about it till now?!  The animation is insanely well done, mimicking the game style near to perfectly.  The series enjoys a large following in Europe, but is relatively unknown in North America.  An Xbox release of 'Isles of Wakfu' in the near future might remedy that issue.

Bloodline Champions: A New DOTA Style Game

Bloodline Champions, a new arena based game from Stunlock Studios and Funcom, makers of Conan just launched today.  Whats unique about it?  First, it started off as a student based game that took off into a full production.  Second, its a skill based combat system with full accessibility to all levels of players.  No lock ons, skill based dodging, and more.

They promise superior matchmaking and a truly accessible arena based game for everyone.  League of Legends was plagued by really bad matchmaking for the first few months after its launch, so its good to hear they've focused on that aspect.  I really love the art style of the game personally, its nice and different.  No focus on high fantasy, not overly World of Warcraft derived.  It looks truly unique.  Check out the trailer!

BulletStorm : Last Call

An awesome ad for the upcoming shooter called Bullestorm, courtesy of Epic games and EA.  The ad features a massive diorama of toys frozen in time.  This tongue in cheek ad parodies the 'Believe' ad made for Halo 3 years ago.  I'm honestly glad Bulletstorm is coming out, every once in a while its great to have an ass kicking game that doesn't take itself too seriously.  We're looking forward to it.

The Halo 3 'Believe' ad that Bulletstorm is parodying for reference.  

Spongebob, I'll see you in hell.

Try and beat . Go on, try and beat it. In fact, try and get past 100 points. You can't, can you? It's alright, just go insane. Because it can't be done. This official nick game cannot be beat. I present to you the hardest game EVER CREATED

http://spongebob.nick-asia.com/en/games/boat_o_cross.html

Blood Drive(PS3/X360)

Coming out of literally nowhere, this brand new Vehicular Combat/Zombie killing game.  Its been a while since we saw a Twisted Metal/Carmageddon hybrid.  The wierd thing is, this game has had zero marketing behind it!  Its literally coming out tomorrow and we'd like to get the word out about it, as some friends of ours have worked on it.

Its releasing for $50 on 11/2.  And it looks completely badass.  

But hey, don't take our word for it..check out the trailer, this game looks like it might be quite a hidden gem.

Via PS3 Blog