Daily Archives: June 19, 2017

Xbox One version due next month.

By Jeffrey Matulef Published 19/06/2017

Acclaimed cyberpunk point-and-click adventure Read Only Memories will be coming to Switch in early 2018.

2064: Read Only Memories is set in a world where Duck Game is still relevant in 57 years.

2064: Read Only Memories tells the tale of a journalist tracking down their kidnapped friend Turing, who just so happens to be the world's first sapient machine.

Unlike most oldschool point-and-click adventures, 2064: Read Only Memories will contain multiple solutions to its puzzles and the way you choose to handle problems will reflect how the story progresses.

The game was originally released on PC in 2015 as Read Only Memories, but it since did that Raiders of the Lost Ark thing where its creators renamed its title after the fact. The 2064 bit is now canon, like Indiana Jones' name in his debut feature.

2064: Read Only Memories has since come to PS4, Vita, Mac and Linux. An Xbox One version is also in development, and based on the game's official Twitter name 2064@XboxOne July!, I would wager that it's coming in July.

If that first voice sounds familiar that's because its Clementine in The Walking Dead actor Melissa Hutchinson.

You can play a free demo of Read on Memories on Steam.

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Cyberpunk adventure 2064: Read Only Memories is coming to Switch - Eurogamer.net

Satoshi Yoshioka's art from Sdatcher

Snatcher is a cult classic that should be experienced by both science fiction and Metal Gear fans. Even though it appears to "snatch" many of its influences and throw them together into a science fiction cornucopia, it actually explores the issues of humanity and existence in its own distinctive style.

Snatcher was the brainchild of Hideo Kojima and originally came out in 1988 for the MSX console, a computer format that was popular in Japan and Europe in the 80s. It was ported for the PC Engine (known as the TurboGrafx-16 in America) before reaching American audiences on the Sega CD in 1994, with upgraded graphics and an additional third act. Set in 2047, you play as Gillian Seed, an amnesiac Junker (Japanese Undercover Neuro Kinetic Elimination Ranger) who hunts down Snatchers in the hopes that it will help him to remember his past. The eponymous Snatchers are artificial life forms, or bioroids, designed to blend in with humans. The game takes place in the metropolis of Neo-Kobe, a vibrant melting pot with a whole lot of history and lore. Snatcher uses a text interface similar to the old PC point-and-click adventure games, but it streamlines controls to the point where it's considered one of the earliest precursors of the visual novel.

Former Konami artist Satoshi Yoshioka, who designed many of Snatcher's characters and worked at Konami for nine years on titles like Batman and Robin and Policenauts, told me in an email: "I got a lot of inspiration from classic movies like Blade Runner, The Terminator, and Alien. I made the graphics used in the game with a great deal of respect to [these films]. I was especially interested in the Hollywood SFX [special effects] at that time, and I tried to honour their spirit."

This spirit is felt in many of Snatcher's designs, though their combination creates an atmosphere that has its own unique charm. Players get to know Snatcher's characters through complex dialogue branches with a surprising variety of options. Small comic book panels appear below the main visual window and give personality to each of the characters. The characters also react with appropriate facial expressions that help convey the game's somber themes. Unlike the protagonists in many noirish cyberpunk books and films, Gillian Seed is expressive rather than following the trope of being stoic and subdued. His strong personality goes from melancholy amnesiac to driven investigator and even womanizer (though he gets almost universally rejected). He's a likable character, even with his flaws. He's visually inspired in part by Rick Deckard from Blade Runner, but also the more humorous Lupin the Third from the eponymous animated series.

Yoshioka, who "created all the face graphics for the conversation parts," said that drawing "the expressions of Gillian surprise, delight, and so on were the most challenging to me because of the complexity of the character. Gillian had an interesting mix of humour and seriousness. Kojima wanted to convey Gillian's witty and charming nature, even in some of the more intense moments, so that it would make him seem more 'human' in contrast to the robotic Snatchers." Designing the characters using Konami's custom drawing application, Yoshioka says he was always guided by "Kojima and was mindful of making the graphics as 'cinematic' as possible."

The high quality of the visuals emphasise the cinematic aspect by showcasing graphics that were closer to films than most gamers had seen before on a console. In the combat sequences against the Snatchers, especially one where a fellow Junker named Mika gets captured, the whole battle is framed as an interactive cutscene where you have to kill a villain who uses Mika as a human shield. In another sequence, Gillian's Turbocycle gets sabotaged and spins out of control. The film cuts play out like an action movie, with tense music pounding in the background.

Snatcher's themes of changing technology were present in the development of the game itself. While it'd be easy to say the advanced graphics were due to the increased power of the Sega CD, Yoshioka pointed out that part of what made the development of Snatcher and all its various ports so cohesive is that "Snatcher was developed by a small number of people. In comparison, it might be about half of the average number for a NES game development team at that time. So the developers in different roles could work in close proximity to each other. It enabled us to respond directly and quickly to any developing tasks."

He explained, "Kinoshita (Tomiharu Kinoshita, the original MSX designer) created the original character design. I took part in drawing the characters as a team member of the port for PC Engine CD-ROM (which in turn would be ported with only minor changes to the Sega CD). I could redesign the supporting roles like Chin Shu Oh relatively freely. So I designed them to suit my preference. I heard that in the earlier stage of the development, Kojima had directed the designer to make the game character a bit like Katsuhiro Otomo (the director of Akira)."

This small team had flexibility, but it also meant this small group at Konami had to figure out how development worked when it came to simple things like burning CDs. "When we wrote the data [for Snatcher], we used CD-R writers. It was the first time for us to use the devices. We couldn't inhibit some of the unidentified noises showing up in the game itself. The accident disturbed not only Kojima, but all the other members of the developer team. I was not well acquainted with the CD-R writers. I puzzled over the problem, and suggested not to shake it or to make noises when we used it, hahaha. We finally found that the disturbing noises were due to faulty wiring. Of course, we had amused smiles after we discovered the error was our own fault."

This also brought the team together, a spirit that infuses the game. There's one story Yoshioka shared that perfectly symbolized the unusual development of Snatcher: "I cannot forget that Kojima made strange lyrics for the song in the game, 'Creeping Silence.'" It's a track that effectively creates a creepy atmosphere, but the lyrics don't appear in the game. "He [Kojima] sang it quite often, so the other members remembered the lyrics. 'Spinner, spinner heeey,' and we'd iterate on that. We often sang it all together."

Ouch...

Technology can lead to moments of human bonding, but it's a double-edged sword that can also wreak destruction. The real life Terminator Conundrum a genuine issue debated by the Pentagon about how much autonomy AIs should be granted to kill seems straight out of Snatcher. One of the more shocking moments early in the game is when Gillian comes across the body of Junker Jean-Jack Gibson, whose head has been viciously cut off and lies between his legs. The violence punctuates the threat of the Snatchers and, as Yoshioka points out, "is the first murdered corpse that the players face. So the staff working on the scenes wanted to evoke a dramatic impact and decided to use the most brutal image." Snatcher doesn't shy away from its robotic violence, including a maggot-infested corpse and an animal whose entrails have been ripped out.

The game doesn't delve into Blade Runner's ethical ambivalence when it comes to the existence of Snatchers. They're a threat to be eliminated, not beings on the verge of self-awareness. The terror of that moment highlights the theme of humanity's fear of being replaced by technology as represented by the Snatchers themselves. The irony is that humanity's own self-destructive behaviour created a vacuum for the Snatchers to supplant them in the first place; the game's villain is motivated by his disgust with human behaviour. When I asked Yoshioka about the relationship between technology, art, and humanity, he stated: "In order to know the things of the present, I believe it's essential to know the things of the past. This is also true of arts. We tend to take for granted present technology and the arts. But all of these forms are based on past inventions, innovations, and discoveries."

This theme is also explored more humanely. Metal Gear Mk. II, based on the mechanical nemesis of the original Metal Gear, is Gillian's robot companion. It's been imprinted with a personality programmed by Harry, the engineer for the Junkers. In the game's big twist, you learn that Harry is actually Gillian's son. The reason Gillian and his wife suffered amnesia is that they were part of a secret effort fifty years ago to develop the Snatcher program and replace all the world's leaders. They were put into artificial sleep after the Lucifer-Alpha biological weapon went off. Harry lived on, oblivious to his parents' fate. So the whole game, you're interacting with him, asking about your equipment, and you don't even know who he really is until he dies. That makes your relationship to Metal Gear Mk. II all the more poignant, since he is in essence Harry's creation, your son by mechanical proxy. Metal Gear Mk. II is willing to sacrifice its life to save Gillian, and the implication is that there may come a day when humanity destroys itself and our legacy will only carry on through the technology we birth.

Yoshioka has considered the implications of Snatcher and the movies that inspired it: "There have been many SF movies and comics filled with fearful feelings about the progress of AI. I've got lots of inspirations from these kind of works. Of course, I fear watching and reading about them. But I've also loved AI robots since I was a child. In 1970, when I was just three years old, I saw several robots playing instruments in the Japan World Exposition at Osaka. I still clearly remember that scene and my feeling of wonder which still resonates. So I'm on the side of Metal Gear Mk. II-like robots being able to reach out and communicate with us. I'd prefer to believe in the dream of the emergence of robots that will be partners with humanity, instead of the kind of stories that portend destruction in the wake of AI progression."

Will the advancement of AI and biotechnology reach a point in 2047 where humanity can be replaced by something akin to a Snatcher? Or will the progress made possible by new tech save people from themselves in the face of a catastrophic disease or environmental disaster? It's the fact that there are no easy answers that makes Snatcher so compelling, reminding us that the investigation into human nature never ends. Yoshioka told me, "Though I regard myself to be a has-been, I'm trying to create some brand new impressions by remixing my works, which is my past. I hope the younger generation today realise they need to be aware of the classic and premier works and arts if they want to create something new."

Satoshi Yoshioka's interview was translated by Yoshihiro Tanigawa.

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Of all the things I expected out of E3 2017, Atari announcing a new console was last on the list. Heck, it wasn't even on the list, more scratched in chalk on the tip of my shoe. But it is happening -- CEO Fred Chesnais confirmed with VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi the company's plans to get "back [into] the hardware business".

Nice work gz - Friday's ScribbleTaku was Age of Empires. The original one, incidentally. I had the game on my mind after the remaster for AOE 1 was announced during the PC Gaming Showcase. It's been an awful long time since I busted out the CD for that game (since you can't buy it digitally these days). But a new week means a new game. Let's see how you all go.

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Snatcher Is Cyberpunk Noir At Its Best - Kotaku Australia

Announced at E3 by Swedish developer Lionbite Games, Rain of Reflections is a cyberpunk adventure with an morale-based strategic confrontations.

It increasingly seems that cyberpunk is making a strong comeback across media, and joining this campaign is Rain of Reflections, an adventure game with turn-based strategic confrontations and a very heavy emphasis on narrative and choice-and-consequence. The game is also quite the looker, and has an almost-AAA finish despite coming from an independent developer.

The games debut trailer below shows its three protagonists: Wilona, Dwennon and Imra. Wilona is a scientist following in her fathers footsteps and involved in experimentation on human children; Dwennon is a private investigator with a shadowy past, because you cant really have a cyberpunk or noir game without one of those floating around; and finally, Imra is a resistance fighter with an eyepatch. Does that make her a cyberpunk pirate? Well have to reach out to the devs for that burning question.

Rain of Reflections is all about narrative choices, and it emphasises that there is no retrying or undoing to be done. Every choice you make is permanent, and you will have to live with the consequences of your actions. The devs stress that theyre also cutting out all the filler content and repetitive gameplay to focus on whats relevant and engaging without ever wasting the players time.

While there dont seem to be any direct action mechanics in the game, there will be dialogues, exploration, puzzles and the aforementioned strategic confrontations that are based on morale. Heres how the devs describe it:

To make the more action-oriented confrontations a part of the narrative and not mere changes of pace, they are constructed around battle motivation a literal tug of war where we offer lots of ways to outsmart enemies without directly resorting to lethal violence.

This fits with the consequence-driven narrative, as we want the player to reflect on that taking a life any life is a tough choice that has consequences on the story going forward.

Rain of Reflections is being developed in the Unity engine at Stockholm, Sweden by Lionbite Games. This is their first game.

Rain of Reflections is scheduled to release sometime in 2018 for PC. Other platforms will be carefully considered after the initial PC release.

Independent DevelopmentIndie GamesIndiesLionbite GamesRain of Reflections

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Rain of Reflections is a cyberpunk game where every choice is permanent - IND13