Back in August, I was fortunate enough to get a chance to talk with Nick Herman, Co-Director of The Wolf Among Us (Telltale Games). I honestly didn’t need to know anything about this game to figure out if I was going to get it. I made up my mind when they announced it. Telltale has such an intelligent and beautiful way of telling stories, that they have no limits. If you don’t know much about the comic book title Fables do not fear…The Wolf Among Us is set ten years before the comic ‘begins’. However, you diehards will appreciate the tip of hat to some of your favorite places and characters. I came away impressed playing through the demo with the utmost confidence that Telltale has another hit on its hands.

Why did you decide to do The Wolf Among Us?

We picked this up at the same time we picked up The Walking Dead. So, we’ve been actually working on this game since we we’re working on The Walking Dead. Our first primary focus was just getting the art to look as beautiful as the comic. This is a prequel, so we had an era to play with so we could push it sort of darker, different colors. I think a lot of the fun with that too is we have these vibrant colors with this really dark story and these really messed up characters. We love the comic book. It just full of amazing stories and interesting perspectives on characters you thought you knew.

The art style is kind of like The Walking Dead, but with a better color palate. What kind of style would you call this?

I think we just have an amazing art team and amazing source material. Like I said, the first thing we did was let’s get this looking like the comic and push it from there. If you even look at the shadows, we have got some awesome tech. It draws it like it would in the comic. Like the shadows invert the detail maps and flip the colors. Everything looks awesome.

And you worked on The Walking Dead game too, right?

I was a director on episode four and Lead Cinematic Artist on episode two.

What would you say is the biggest difference between these two games, as far as gameplay?

With the action scenes, we decided to push choice a little bit more. It’s really about telling your own story. It seems so funny but people really read into that stuff. With this game I think we tried to just give the player more micro interactions. We learned on The Walking Dead that everyone reads into everything in different ways so we allow you to explore that.

A lot of the things we are playing with too is time in this game. Even in the demo, there’s some really light interaction with Mr. Toad…you can choose to just go up the stairs at a certain point. You have to make decisions in this game like ‘Do I want to investigate the scene? Or do I want to move on, I think I know everything…I’m just going to barrel through it’. But, a lot of the times there are ramifications for choosing one thing over the other.

How drastic does that shape the story though?

It’s all sorts of degrees of branching. In the demo, it’s more like relationship stuff but later on in the game for sure there’s some stuff where you basically have to choose between the case or a relationship. You are going to screw someone over, and you can only be at one place at any given moment.

More branching than The Walking Dead?

We are still telling the same stories, but it’s really down to what you want to focus on. Do you care about the investigation or are you more of a people person? I think with Bigby too his issue is that he used to be the bad guy and now he’s sort of in charge of protecting everyone. Are you going to do whatever it takes to make sure everything is cool or are you going to try and be political about things and manage it that way?

Is this title episodic in nature as well?

Yep, five episodes.

How long is each episode to play through?

We like to have the episodes playable like after dinner, before you go to bed. Like two, two hours-ish. Depending on how thorough you are.

Kind of like a movie.

And that’s the idea, when we come out episodically its sort of like you are waiting for the next episode. I really like to encourage people to play as they come out. A lot of people wait until the end but I love the in between, when you go to work or whatever and be like ‘Dude, I played last night. What the hell?’ and you can have a conversation with people.

Do you have a forum where people can talk, discuss theories and what not?

Oh yeah. The thing with our development style too is we read that and we are working on the next episode while everyone is playing the first one. So, we are always taking it into consideration. It’s sort of how get things really fine-tuned. We know if Bigby and Snows relationship isn’t hitting for people, we got to make sure it hits the next episode to make up for that. 

From the press release:

The season premiere episode of The Wolf Among Us, titled ‘Faith,’ will arrive for download worldwide this Friday October 11th on Xbox Games Store for just $4.99 US. A Season Pass option is available for the first time on Xbox Games Store for Telltale’s new series enabling consumers to purchase the rest of the five episode series (Episodes 2-5) at a discount for $14.99 versus the $4.99/episode price. Episodes 2-5 will also be available for individual purchase as they release on Xbox 360.

The series will also launch worldwide on PC this Friday October 11th, available via the Telltale Online Store, Steam, and other online digital distribution outlets as a Season Pass that includes entitlement to all five episodes as they release. The Wolf Among Us can be pre-ordered now for a 10% discount up until the time the game launches this Friday. 

The Wolf Among Us will also premiere on PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3 in North America on Tuesday October 15th. The PlayStation 3 version of the game series will be available for consumers to purchase as individual episodes for $4.99 USD or as a Season Pass for $19.99 which will include episodes 1-5 as they are released.  A release date for the title on PlayStation Network in Europe (SCEE) will be announced as soon as it is confirmed by our 1st party partners.

SPOILER ALERT! There I said it, this contains spoilers. It’s also incredibly beautiful and makes me wonder how they’re tying the stories together. Since there is “always a man, and always a lighthouse.” They are now implying that Booker DeWitts lost daughter is an orphan being used as a little sister maybe?  This will be out soon I can imagine, post your theories below!

An email from CD Projekt Red this morning announced that Dark Horse Comics and the previously mentioned game studio are teaming up. They didn’t say what yet, but we can only assume it will be a comic series tied to “The Witcher”. I’m already pretty excited for The Witcher 3, but this teaser has me screaming for more. More information will be released at New York Comic Con, stay tuned and we’ll get you the info!

Triscut shows off his latest addiction: Final Fantasy XIV. Triscut focuses on the Battlefield Beta, and the gaming news for the week.

Naughty Dog has been tweeting various pieces of the development process from the game today. In conjunction with a potential announcement involving DLC tomorrow, they released this alternate ending to the game on Youtube.  It’s good, like crazy good, I almost wish the game had ended this way instead of how it did. If you haven’t played, or don’t want to ruin the end you may want to avoid this video. If you want your day brightened in the best possible way, then hit play below. Via The Playstation Blog

Warner Bros. announced today that Arkham Orgins will have a season pass available for purchase. Those buying the product will receive 5 DLC packs for $19.99. Purchasers will receive the following packs as they release:

• Gotham by Gaslight Batman Skin and Brightest Day Batman
• New Millenniums Skins Pack
• Infinite Earths Skins Pack
• Arkham Origins: Initiation, play as Bruce Wayne before he became Batman, help him face his final test to prove himself worthy to his greatest teacher, Kirigi.
• An all new story campaign.

For the price you’re paying it’s a good amount of content, provided you’re ready to go all in on Arkham Origins. Infinite Earth skins are by far my favorite addition, and the yet-to-be announced story campaign will add a lot of value. Most companies would charge you $19.99 just for the expansion campaign so it is a great deal.  What do you think internet, are you in?

Remember the glory days when vampires were ugly, night-stalking terrors that wanted nothing more than to tear the throat out of a virgin? Well, we might be seeing a bit of a throwback to those days of horrific yore thanks to Square Enix. Square Enix is teaming up with Psyonix to create a new installment in the Legacy of Kain series, which promises to put vampires and humans back at odds with each other.

Named after the bleak and oppressive kingdom in which the Legacy of Kain games take place, Nosgoth is going to be of the free-to-play online multiplayer variety, and will be released on PC. Gameplay consists of a team of vampires squaring off against a team of humans, and, you know, trying to murder each other. Any fan of the game knows that when it came to humans vs. vampires in Kain’s ‘hood, humans never stood much of a chance. This is where Psyonix has made things interesting. Where the vampires look to capitalize on brute strength, the humans are ranged specialists. So far, each side consists of three different classes. Vampire players will be privy to a stealthy, assassin-like Reaver, a huge close-combat Tyrant and a bat-winged Sentinel. Human players will have access to the Scout, a ranger/sniper; the Alchemist, who uses volatile chemicals to blow stuff up; and the Hunter, who looks like more of a ranged shock trooper.

Part of my undying love for this series came from the desolate and grim setting of Nosgoth—a world in which humans live like rodents and vampires are left to pursue their own twisted excesses. It would definitely be an interesting twist to take control of humans in a series that has been dedicated to putting players behind the cold eyes of a bloodsucker.

Registration for the closed beta is happening now, and be sure to check out the announcement video below.

WiU and Nintendo 3DS/2DS are getting this new Sonic title on October 22, 2013. With Kill-tacular-tron’s purchase of a WiiU, I have been more than a little interested in jumping onto the Nintendo band-wagon this year. With killer titles like Wind Waker HD, Wonderful 101, Super Mario Bros U, etc. my temptation has been growing. Of course I could just snag Sonic on 3DS and quench my Zelda thirst by playing the Link to the Past Sequel. Decisions, decisions… This does look like a great blend of 2d and 3d Sonic, the likes of which we haven’t seen in years. What do you think internet?

Deputy UK Prime Minister Nick Clegg criticized violent video games hot on the heels of Rockstar’s incredibly successful Grand Theft Auto 5 launch. After a weeks release, GTA 5 has reportedly amassed one billion in sales worldwide and is the UK’s fastest selling game of all time (taking the crown from Call Of Duty: Black Ops by 250,000 units over the same period by in 2010). That number is only going to get higher as the holiday season approaches.

Glegg explained:

‘Clearly these games can have an incredibly powerful, and I suspect in some cases corrosive effect, on someone’s behavior, someone’s outlook; they get shut off, they don’t talk to other people, they just stay in their living room, their bedroom hunkered down in front of their computer. They occupy a hermetically sealed world of their own and that can have a very detrimental effect.’

I was wondering how long it would take after another GTA hit the shelves before to see some d!ck spout on about video game violence. To be honest, it was much sooner than I anticipated. Fresh off the mainstream medias ad nauseam coverage of yet another tragic mass shooting, this was only a matter of time. They’ve run out of original lies and straw man-tactics, so this is their go-to thing now.

I hate this argument. PERIOD. Games, Movies, Music, Books, they all have relations to our moods. They are meant to evoke emotional states of mind. That is part of what any art form does. That has nothing to do with a persons ability to go out and act upon the thought of stabbing, raping, murdering, theft, etc. It is a psychological issue that stems deep into a persons psyche.

An open-world crime saga bringing in one billion in sales means there are going to be a whole lot of effed up people in the world due to this corrosive effect. I mean how many copies of that game is that? And as far as most of these people are concerned it is 100% of gamers that will be affected..no? Surely the argument has to 100% of people are affected by games otherwise it would mean that there would have to be a secondary factors that would only affect certain gamers and not others and if there is a secondary factor that makes these people act out then maybe it is not games at all.

People really, really, really have a hard time understanding that not every person thinks and acts as they do. Some are violent, some insane, some are sociopaths and so forth. These people may be attracted to activities which complement their proclivities – like video games. They may also shoot up a naval base/school or shopping centre with little to no warning. Most explanations don’t have a single answer and yet we’re pre-disposed to look for one.

Not to mention that credentials, sources for evidence, and actual science would go a long way when making claims like this. Seeing is how none of those were present, this individual falls into the “need a scapegoat” crowd. And it’s evidence-less scapegoating to avoid topics such as mental health concerns in our countries since those are real and real hard issues to deal with.

People can’t handle the simple truth that some people are just broken, so they invent things to blame. Fifteen years ago, it was rap music. Before that, violent movies and television. Before that, heavy metal. It’s an irrational justification for something they don’t want to face.

The thing that concerns me, though, is the repetition of this message, given the influence of mass media and social networking that exists today. In other words, if this falsehood gets repeated often enough, even rational people might start to believe that it’s true. And to a degree, I think some already do.

-Dagobot

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It is finally time for the stream to begin!!  We will be grinding games for 24 hours and asking that you friendly, animal loving folk throw a few dollars our way.  Donations are being accepted during the entire 24 hour period to support Rescue Rovers Adoptions.  The schedule for the stream can be found below the video embed and the donation link.  Thanks for whatever support you can give, even if it’s simply sharing the link.

secondary stream is embedded here!  

The schedule currently is as follows

• 8 pm – 10 pm Street Fighter
• 10 pm- 12 am Starcraft II
• 12 am- 6 am Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD
• 6 am – 12 pm TBA
• 12pm – 2 pm TBA
• 2pm – 5pm Multiplayer Extravaganza!
• 5pm – 8pm TBA