POW! SOCK!! BLAM!!!

As modern pop-media consumers, we’ve heard about comic books “coming to life” time and time again – but Infinite Rabbit Holes — a project from studio Animal Repair Shop — is claiming to do that like never before with their Arkham Asylum Files series of deluxe mixed-reality game boxes. The first in the series is out now, it’s beefy, and it’s ambitious!

The Arkham Asylum Files: Panic in Gotham City is the first in an announced trilogy of puzzle game boxes that take place in the DC/Batman universe. Despite the fact that there are dozens of games in this world across the video and tabletop gaming spectrum, this is the first to try a deluxe augmented/mixed-reality (AR/MR) experience like this. In a recent trip to the studio, I got some hands-on time with the beautiful product, and it did not fail to make an exciting first impression.

Players will join perennial ne’ers-do-well Harley Quinn – and by extension, of course, The Joker – as they unravel (and cause?) a series of mysteries plaguing the titular metropolis. Players will cooperatively solve puzzles together to experience the story-filled box over a number of lavishly-presented chapters. Those familiar with tabletop experiences like the Exit or Unlock series of games will quickly understand the formula — a series of cooperative puzzles tied together by a common setting to be experienced over a series of play sessions, or even all at once.

The box, as stated before, is BIG and chockablock full of lovingly-detailed components like Arkham Asylum patient files in actual manila envelopes, entire pages of newspapers, and even carboard pieces with which to construct Gotham itself in miniature. This being an AR/MR game, though, most everything is tied together by interacting with a mobile device or tablet. So, not only will players be manipulating loads of physical pieces, they’ll also be using an app to forward the story (smartly-told through a series of colorful animated cutscenes), to scan components for hidden clues, and also to watch the carboard city come to life in front of them. The app can also simulcast to a larger screen, which is a great touch for those who want to share the experience with large groups (easily including even more than the recommended 1-6 players suggested on the box).

Puzzles are varied, flashy, and some excitingly immersive. The overall effect is undeniably striking – and as a shared game-night activity, it’s super-fizzy and inviting. The production quality makes sense, as the Animal Repair Shop team is comprised of members who have worked for Disney, Universal, and Warner Brothers, doing animation and theme park development and design. One can feel the flash and interactivity throughout.

It will be interesting to see how the product line will be received, when all is said and done, though — especially as a series of games. This is not a review of Panic in Gotham City itself, but I did have two big questions — namely, where exactly the product sits in the overall gaming market, and the price point.

At $150, the price is logically worth it, especially considering the very large amount of custom components. For the two or three core audiences it could appeal to, though, I wonder how it will be perceived. The puzzles I got to see were all very well-done, but I’m unsure if core gamers of both the video and tabletop varieties will want to spring for it, given the ultimately lighter nature of being a “puzzle-box” (this was also a concern in the series’ original canceled Kickstarter campaign, and the price was lowered as a result). That leaves families to find it and engage, yet similar puzzle-box experiences are now appearing at Target and the like, while competing at much lower prices – though not in ways that are nearly as flashy, mind you.

All told, The Arkham Asylum Files: Panic in Gotham City looks to boldly establish its own flavor of game-night experience, and we remain cautiously optimistic about its future. Many thanks to ARS for hosting us and showing off their eye-popping product.

HIGH "Let's re-release Deadly Premonition!"

LOW "Let's add a ridiculous story bit that confuses Joe Gamer even more!"

WTF "Let's charge for DLC when the game is almost exactly the same!"

In case you were left with any questions after reading Dan's primary review of Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut, allow me to reiterate one thing and clarify another:

Deadly Premonition is a great game.

Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut is… not quite a great game.

See, Dan is exactly right in his assessment of Hidetaka Suehiro's 2010 gem: it's fantastic.  It's an absolutely unforgettable experience for anyone who's willing to overlook a boatload of technical and production-value shortcomings. Succinctly: he may be one of the most interesting kids at school, but if Deadly Premonition walked into the Big Boy Games' locker room, he'd get himself wedgied.

Here's where Dan and I differ on this new version, though: it really doesn't matter which one you play.

At it's core, The Director's Cut is the same lovably scruffy dog as the original. Same gonzo story (mostly), same great characters, same bursting-with-love heart in its chest. Speaking as a huge fan of the game, what really matters most is that one plays the game at all, even if it is a lesser version.

And yes, somehow, as Dan said, The Director's Cut is a lesser version.

Hilariously, it's the addition that makes it so. The tacked-on framing story is a completely unnecessary bit of fan-service that would be welcomed if it had anything to do with the game's "present" narrative. The choice to place it in the future, so that the main game becomes a bedtime story only serves to deflate the story's tension.

Where Dan and I differ is how much the new version sullies the original's name.

Unlike Dan, I could never escape completely into the world of Greenvale. While I was ultimately blown away by the cumulative experience of guiding amazing characters to an unbelievable conclusion, I did so while constantly aware of the terrible combat, the awkward driving, and the (mostly) stilted acting. I would compare the experience of playing it to watching a film on a loud television that's sitting behind a dusty shop window. It's a gripping tale, but it hardly escapes its physical chains.

Because of these constant reminders of the original's shortcomings, The Director's Cut's near-complete refusal to patch up its broken systems is less of an annoyance for me. My enjoyment of the game in spite of these elements during my first play-through remained during my second, as well.

Perhaps the real crime is in the game's label. Had it simply been a PlayStation port (even with the admittedly unneeded new scene) without the misleading "The Director's Cut" slapped onto it, it'd be slightly forgivable. Consider, as well, what a real director's cut might have been.

Creator/Director Hidetaka-san (Swery) has noted that the game was not meant to have combat at all when it was first conceived. To play that game—one without one of its most irritating features—would be an immense treat for fans. During the press trip for this game, however, Swery admitted that this type of major re-jiggering would have cost gobs of time and money that Access Games simply doesn't have. It's just too bad that it wasn't a basic port.

Though the core experience wasn't ruined for me as it was for Dan, I must also admit that it's a further knock to fans of the original that publisher Rising Star Games has released DLC for The Director's Cut since its release. This content is mostly cosmetic in nature, yet it's still ridiculous that these extra bits (that cost extra money) couldn't have been included in the game, considering how little it differs from the Xbox release.

With all this said, what's most important is that this game gets played.

For adventurous gamers who may only own a PS3, it's better for them to get this game than not play it at all. Deadly Premonition is incredibly special—a title which I am happy to claim as one of my all-time favorites. While this release misses the mark in its intentions, it's still the only way for a certain segment of the gaming population to experience its gonzo grandeur.

A parched man emerging from the desert may prefer a glass of water over a cup of hot coffee, but if it's all we got, give him the coffee we must. Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS3. Approximately 25 hours of play were devoted to single-player modes (completed one time).

HIGH "Eat Ray of Destructionnnnnnnnn!!"

LOW Multiplayer doesn't always bring people together.

WTF Did I just sell The One Ring for 3,000 gold?

What's a Van Helsing property without vampires?

That's the central question I had in the first few hours with Neocore Games's new role-player, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing. Turns out you don't fight any throughout the course of the game—not one.

See, in this alternate-history steampunk action game, our hero Abraham Van Helsing's good father (Abraham, Sr.?) not only helped to destroy Dracula, but also set in motion a peace treaty with the vampires of the world, in which they'll keep their nefarious deeds to a minimum. It's an agreement that seems to mimic Neocore's uneasy treaty with their own vampire: Blizzard's Diablo series.

While some might see Van Helsing as a simple me-too action-role-playing game (ARPG) experience, Neocore charges ahead and manages to impress with this solid title. It's stuffed with the requisite ARPG goodness needed to satisfy (baddies, style, loot, and abilities) but also a rough charm, a playful tone, and a few neat twists in a very cost-effective package that beats back any over-comparisons to its progenitor.

Play-wise, Van Helsing hits all the right notes. The steampunk setting is a great place for a title of this type and helps to differentiate it quickly. Though there's plenty of magic, swords, and monsters, the game takes place in more typical, non-fantasy locales around the backwoods of the fictitious European country, Borgova. In other words, it's less dungeons, more labs, streets, and forests.

Combat feels satisfying throughout as well-timed skills tear through group after group of electric werewolves or floating aliens. Eschewing the typical "choose-a-class" structure like most ARPGs, Van Helsing is the player's only character choice—though he can become proficient in melee or ranged skill trees, each with their own magic. Though the special abilities seem fewer in number than the average ARPG selection—and somewhat typical—there are still a few that surprise and delight. My favorite? The Ray of Destruction—a devastating beam of pure energy that quickly turns most foes into pudding.

Another engaging aspect of the game is Van Helsing's ghostly fighting companion, the Lady Katarina.

As a "rescued" (?) ghost who's conscripted to serve, Katarina fills the role of the Diablo follower or the Torchlight pet. She fights alongside the player throughout, constantly quipping with, complaining to, or pining for the gruff Van Helsing. In this way, she also helps to give the game a fair amount of levity. Truly, the game's writing comes to life when Katarina opens her mouth. Where Van Helsing could have been a typically dreary fight-fest, writer Viktor Juhasz made sure that Katarina could bring constant doses of lightness to the proceedings, thereby bettering the whole game.

Her addition is not simply cosmetic, however: Katarina may be used as a melee fighter, a ranged attacker, or simply as defensive buffer in combat. Neocore also had the great idea to make her behavior extremely customizable. She has her own inventory for copious amounts of loot, and she can be customized to pick up only the items the player wishes her to.

One other interesting wrinkle to note is the tower defense gameplay that appears about a third of the way through the campaign.

Once Van Helsing is ensconced in his cleverly (and intentionally?) titled "Secret Lair," there are a couple of missions that see him protecting the entrance from waves of enemies. I felt these missions synced very well with the steampunk aesthetic, as players are tasked with placing various mechanical deathtraps for the invading hordes—things like flamethrowers, monster crushers, or whirling spike pits. These missions were welcome distractions from the core gameplay, and I'm actually shocked that they wasn't expanded upon. Extra traps, or even more maps would have been quite cool.

Sadly, there are a few unfortunate setbacks that keep the game from ultimate greatness.

At the time of this writing, the game's multiplayer component is very difficult to enjoy. I experienced connection lag and freezing, and it seems to be a complaint that's popping up a lot in the game's forums. Neocore is well aware of these issues. Aside from that, my other complaints are fairly small, but one worth mentioning is the Forge System.

Basically, Van Helsing's Forge System combines unwanted weapons and armor into new, random, and (possibly) more powerful pieces. I spent a few hours on just this feature alone, scoring a few marginally better items. I ended up growing tired of it about halfway through the game, though. After putting so much time into forging, I rarely got results that were substantially better than what I put in, thereby negating the hours invested. The luck factor should be cranked up a notch here.

As an action-role-playing game, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing does not disappoint, especially for anyone starved for more of this particular sub-genre. It may hew closely to some established forms, but it brings some freshness to the table and stands solidly on its own two feet. The best thing to recommend it, however, is its excellent price point. For $15, you can't beat this package. There may not be any vampires to battle, but that just means there's no sucking going on, either. Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Disclaimer: This review was written after a review event at the Neocore Games studio, in which travel and lodging were provided. This game was played on a developer PC. Approximately 22 hours of play were devoted to single-player modes (completed one time), and one hour of play was spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game has not been reviewed by the ESRB, but contains constant violence. Blood is not overly abundant, but there are plenty of instances of monsters exploding into bits. The game contains little objectionable language or sexuality.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: Hearing-impaired gamers needn't worry about their experience, as subtitles are provided for every interaction. No sound-specific cues exist to alert players, either.

Here's our interview with Tommy Refenes of Team Meat!

In this interview, we discuss everything Super Meat Boy, Tommy's appearance in (the excellent) Indie Game: The Movie, his new game, Mew-Genics, and the act of tessellating someone's face.

Please enjoy this honest, insightful chat with a great developer.

HIGH Our hero gets freaky with a toy duck.

LOW Please, please, please make insta-death spikes visible!

WTF Our hero gets freaky with a toy duck?!

To paraphrase a recent statement by Derek Yu, creator of the fantastically frenetic and excellent Spelunky, game designers should see themselves as chefs. They have so many ingredients at their disposal, and they should use them in ways that complement each other, not just pour in ideas willy-nilly. French studio Arkedo's recent Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit couldn't exemplify this statement more. Its pleasingly silly premise and catchy cartoon visuals set the stage for some gloriously wacky, throwback action. With little substance to back it up, though, it ends up a distressingly saccharine sugar rush.

It didn't have to be this way, though. Hell Yeah! has so much going for it—its bright, cartoon-like visuals immediately draw in any gamer who gets off on an old-school, Saturday morning kind of vibe. The tone of the game follows suit: it may take place in Hell, but it's a flashy, silly version of Hell that immediately catches eyes. I will admit that I'm a sucker for visual flights of fancy, but based on its visuals alone, Hell Yeah! was anticipated by yours truly as a probable compact gem with lots of promise.

The game's story couldn't start better, either. What cold-hearted action game fan wouldn't want to help the Prince of Hell get back the paparazzi photos of him masturbating with one of his bath toys? With a vibrant world, a goofy and excellently raunchy premise, and copious WarioWare-style micro-game finishing moves for the game's 100 necessary monster-murders, where does it go wrong? Sadly, in almost every other way.

Hell Yeah!'s main action consists of guiding Ash, the Prince of Hell, on his journey to get back the aforementioned incriminating photos by destroying the 100 unfortunate monsters that stand in his way. Why Arkedo decided to include 100 of these guys is unclear, as once even ten of them are vanquished, the player understands exactly what he's in for.  Enemies either hang out with minimal defenses waiting to be gunned down, or they present a simple block or switch puzzle that somehow does them in.

As players maneuver Ash through essentially linear mazes, the layouts are very basic, and start to feel cut-and-paste from world to world. There is the odd vehicle section to mix up the action, but these also fail to excite.

What does get a reaction? Unfortunately, it's the game's awful prevalence of hard-to-see insta-death spikes. They're a not entirely unwelcome old-school staple, but there should have been another way to implement them in this game. The colorful, bouncy world can make them hard to locate amid the madness. Halfway through the story, I was ready to toss controllers with how many times I was leisurely rolling over them.

So, what about the monsters? Here, too, Arkedo gets us excited, then lets us down. As mentioned before, each of the monsters has a WarioWare-style micro-game finisher that does them in in a "hilarious" way to mix up the killings. Sadly, there are only about a dozen of these finishers between the 100 mini-bosses, so repetition sets in very quickly. What should be the best thing about the game's battles, and something (however tiny) to look forward to, becomes stale far too quickly.

In what can only be attempts to beef up the thin material I've described, main character Ash can indulge in dozens and dozens of pieces of customizable gear in the in-game store that are purely cosmetic. If they're anything like me, most players will be uninterested in decking out their character if they can't get some base enjoyment out of what they're dressing up. Further, there's a bizarre monster resource management game called "The Island" that provides some (negligible) in-game rewards, and could be described as half-baked at best. It's also only accessible through the main menu.  You literally have to quit the game to play it! Why include it in the proceedings at all if it's not even readily accessible?!

In the end, Arkedo has shown up to the party to share with us a huge ball of digital cotton candy; as soon as we get a taste of its ultra-sweetness, it's already evaporating. Fans of the game might counter that there's nothing automatically bad about a trifle of a game, but there's also nothing automatically good about one, either. Rating: 4.0 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Xbox 360. Approximately seven hours of play were devoted to single-player mode.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game contains blood and gore, crude humor, mild suggestive themes, violence, and language. There's plenty of blood and gore to go around in this one, though the cartoon-y visuals invoke "Itchy and Scratchy" more than anything else. The above-mentioned masturbation is only mildly alluded to.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: You should have no issues enjoying the game. There is minimal spoken text, and all is subtitled.  There are also a few specific sound cues that affedt the game, but they're also pretty well telegraphed visually.

How could someone like Handel improve an audacious and divisive masterpiece like his Messiah?  It's hard to believe now, but one of the most well-known pieces of music in the world was once the cause of derision, confusion, and outrage. Filling some with heavenly emotions, roiling others with its references to God (as it wasn't being performed in a church), the piece was penned by a perceived out-of-favor artist, then premiered in the artistic hinterlands of Dublin. And though the reception was warm enough to convince the city of London to host it a year later, Handel was convinced and/or bullied into making repeated changes over the next decade to suit the tastes of his audiences.

Just like Handel, the digital craftsman Hidetaka Suehiro seems equally excited, baffled, and reluctant to continue work on his most successful game yet, Deadly Premonition—a game that, dare I say it, could be a similarly-praised work hundreds of years from now.  The game is being re-released this March as a PlayStation 3-exclusive entitled Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut.  I was lucky enough to be able to sit down with the man and his producer, Tomio Kanazawa, last week to discuss the details. It was an event that was sometimes as intentionally mysterious as the goings-on in the game's fictional hamlet of Greenvale, but thrilling nonetheless.

If you're unfamiliar with the original game, all you need to know is that it just so happened to be GameCritics.com's 2010 Game of the Year.  It is indeed that good, and certainly, in the tastes of this writer, a game that deserves every bit of its praise.  It's an absolutely ridiculous mess of a game that gleefully flies right off of the calcified "gamer's expectations" rails, yet charms, delights, and provokes like nothing else.

So, with all of the "so bad, it's good" talk surrounding the game since its release two years ago, a remake seems like the perfect way to reach out and convince the general gaming population of its greatness—a way to rectify some of the technical hiccups and make it a little more mainstream.  Oddly, this new edition will only be available to PS3 owners, but that seems to be doing double duty for Swery (Suehiro-san's nickname). "When we were producing the original game," he says, "we simply didn't have the time or budget to complete the PS3 version.  Now, we get to bring it to [those players] with an enhanced edition."

So, what exactly is new?  Fans who are returning to Greenvale will immediately see that the game has been given a shiny, new coat of high-definition paint that makes a pretty noticeable difference.  The off-putting low-resolution graphics have been brought up to speed with current graphical expectations. While some of the animation and character models remain rough and belie the small nature of the team working on the game, the visual buff goes a long way in improving the game's look.

The other immediately noticeable addition was shown in last week's preview event, as well—a new framing story (in the guise of a prologue and epilogue) that adds a new character and a few new wrinkles to the plot.  The prologue features an unseen old-timer in a rocking chair who introduces the happenings in Greenvale as a story told to a young girl with a teddy bear.  What was shown of the prologue seemed very short, and it's unclear whether there would be more seen of it when the game ships.  As for the mysterious old man, I asked if he happened to be the game's main character, Francis York Morgan.  I was then instructed to "look at the teddy bear's tie."  Unfortunately, as soon as I turned to look, the prologue had ended.  Swery was non-committal about how much impact the new character would have on the story.

How about the now-infamous combat that was such a turn-off for so many gamers?  I had to ask about it.  For gamers who didn't like it, would it be completely skip-able or turned into simple QTEs?  The short answer is good for any fan of the game: combat will be simplified in every aspect.

"When we were looking at things to improve in the game, we saw that combat was a complaint that came up over and over again, and an aspect of the original game that we never completely satisfied with," said Swery.  "For this new version, we decided that it was important to make sure that every player who is interested can see the end of the story.  Combat has since been made easier on all accounts.  There is less of it, it runs smoother.  Enemies, for example, are easier to kill.  Quick Time Events are now a little less complicated.  The game also now features a ‘universal control scheme.' We took a look at what many action games were using as their button layouts, and we modeled our new control scheme on that, making the combat sections vastly more intuitive," he continued.  Tomio added, "In addition, we also employed a fully customizable control scheme."

"You can assign buttons as you see fit," I asked.

"Absolutely. Any way you like."

All this talk about combat got me curious, so I had to ask, "Combat was not originally at all part of the game, then added in later, correct?"

Tomio responded, "That is correct."

"Was there an idea that it might be cut out of this new version, to make the game more like what was originally intended?"

Swery thought a bit at how to answer this question.  "While this game refines things of the old game, we weren't able to rebuild the game completely.  As much as we would like to, this new game had to be a port.  At this point, if we took out the combat, it wouldn't be the same Deadly Premonition that the fans had come to love."

All of this smoothing-out of the combat in service of the story is a welcome refinement of the gameplay.  The difficulty selection has also been removed completely, which I think most will also applaud; the game's combat would probably always be called "frustrating" over "challenging."  And simply put, Deadly Premonition has a fantastic story all the way to the end.  Anything done to coax along the interested is the right idea.

Other gameplay changes include that oh-so-pesky map.  Is it going to be easier to access and read this time around?

"The map is much improved," a satisfied Tomio responded.  He went on to show how it was not only easier to make out landmarks, but how it also includes a mini-map that can be brought up outside of the game's menu with the simple press of a button.  It's going to make traversing the length of Greenvale much easier.

And speaking of length, Tomio and Swery revealed, surprisingly, that one great new addition to Greenvale is that the town is now about TWICE as big as it was in the original (!).

"Wouldn't that detract some players who felt that there was maybe too much driving in the original game," I asked.  Tomio answered that he and the production team at first insisted that the map be made more compact.  Swery then visited some small towns of America's Pacific Northwest as research to see just how close he was the first time around in the town's scale. Ever the perfectionist, he came back and insisted that the size should grow rather than shrink to reflect the spacious nature of these towns, much to the shock of Tomio and co.  Though they remained tight-lipped as to whether there might be some added locations in the map, I don't see the addition as being an issue; from time to time, the act of driving around Greenvale did become a peaceful experience for me.

"What about the side quests," I asked.  "Certain people were frustrated that they were tied to very specific time windows, and had to be approached in a certain order."

Swery wasn't fazed by this: "The side missions will remain the same.  They are meant to be exactly that—side missions. You don't have to do them to complete the game, and they are a bonus addition to the story.  If you find them, that's good.  If not, it doesn't affect the game's final outcome."

"Also," Tomio added, "you can replay any chapter of the game to complete them if there are some that you want to go back and find."

The insistence of Swery to continually stand by such decisions—ones that are potentially frustrating for certain gamers—speaks volumes about his commitment to vision.  On that, I applaud him.  With that, though, it seemed like the nuts-and-bolts of the game's changes had been revealed.  They did announce some eventual DLC featuring "new costumes for York, new residents of Greenvale, as well as usuable items to aid in your investigation," but no further details were given on those.

So is this Swery's ultimate version of the game?  Is there anything else he'd fix?

"I could make changes to this game, forever," he said with a weary grin.  "Unfortunately, we don't have the time or money to do all we'd like to do.  Plus, there are so many other ideas for games in my head that I've got to let go of Deadly Premonition some time, …or maybe not."

"Oooh, does that mean that you're not opposed to carrying on the story of the red seeds in some other form in the future," I asked.

"Absolutely," Swery responded.  "I'd love to continue the story and many other stories I have.  It is a matter of time, now.  I don't know what will come and what won't."

He then went on to describe some things that had to be left out for this new version.  For one, York was going to be able to use perfume when he wasn't able to send his suits to the dry cleaners.  Also, sadly, there were reams of new driving dialogue for York written by Swery that were cut to save both money and time.

Speaking of cuts, I asked Swery about the content cut from the original release here in North America, which he confirmed.  Apparently, there were some scenes that were deemed too graphic to release on this side of the pond.  This actually came as a real shock to me, considering how the game's climatic scene disturbed me more than anything in recent memory.  Is there any chance that some of this lost content would be re-instilled in the PS3 version?

"Sadly, no," Swery says with a laugh. "We wish we could have done that, but Sony was very firm that the content remained as it did with the original version."

That was certainly sad to hear, but it lead me right to my next question.  "Did you expect the game to be such a cult hit here in the States?  Was it equally successful in Japan?"

"It was not very popular at all in Japan," Swery admitted, then trailed off for a bit. "…It was made for a Western audience, and in Japan, they even think it was a Western-made game!"  We all had a laugh at this one.  "As for the popularity here, I am happy with its success.  You want any level of success you get, so we were pleased with its reception, considering its limited release and the time we had to put it all together."

"Well, now that two years have passed since the original release, and you've been working hard on updating the game, do you feel like you're a different director than when you started?  Are there things you'd do differently now if you were just starting Deadly Premonition?"

Swery carefully considers his words here.  "Yes….I would have made fewer concessions to the producers of the original game.  If I could do it again, I would make sure that certain things I wanted done were done in the way that I wanted.  I gave in too much the first time around."  I respect that outlook in this current "me-too" AAA game world.

This also reassured me that the possible "accidental" genius of the game was not simply that.  I pursued this line of thinking: "So, detractors would say that the game is terrible, in that even the very tone of the game seems off.  They might say that the relationships are very poorly conceived.  Those who love it, though, like me, might say that it's very much like a David Lynch film; there is an air of mystery in every conversation.  Was this intentional?"

"Absolutely," says Swery.  "We were conscious about adding that mysterious tone to all of the interactions.  David Lynch is one of my favorite filmmakers, so his influence is certainly part of my work."

"Would you say that the game owes a large debt to 'Twin Peaks'," I asked.

"I prefer to think that it is a mixture of many different ideas and themes," he said.

Feeling frisky, I had to posit the following: "Since, we're on Lynch and all that, I have to ask: is Emily based on Naomi Watts, or what?"

He paused, thinking, and said, "I must say that Mulholland Drive is a perfect film."  I agreed with him wholeheartedly.

"So, specifically in the dialogue, were you conscious of the strange tone that was present throughout?  That Lynch-ian tone that walks the line between otherworldly and unbelievable?"

"That is all intentional," he said. "We did many, many takes with our actors for days and days.  My voice director said to me that I was asking so much of them, over so many takes, that it was like I was Stanley Kubrick in my direction."  We laugh again.  "That is also great, because he is another huge influence on me."

All of this is incredibly inspirational to a fan of Deadly Premonition.  To know that is not just an accidental "so bad, it's good" game means the world to me.  Perhaps it's a "so unashamedly bonkers, it's great" game.  Whatever it is, it's certainly hard to quantify.  That the game had so many rough edges is also part of the charm, for sure, but this new PS3 version looks to smooth out some of the most glaring, leaving it a pleasantly-flawed monster of a game.  Here's hoping that it lives up to its promise.

So, yeah, Handel changed his masterpiece.  Faulkner rewrote and edited novels after they were published and on the stands.  Swery goes down a side road to tinker with a gaming "drive-in" classic.  Our favorite things are never perfect—that's part of the appeal, but we know them because they are instantly, irrefutably ours.

My thanks, of course, to Hidetaka Suehiro, Tomio Kanazawa, the staff at Rising Star Games for the meeting.  Additional thanks to @PestiDurden, Dan Weissenberger, @ThiefOfHearts, @Sajon77, and Brad Gallaway for their additional questions.

For two or three years in a row, my hometown newspaper, the Florida Times-Union (in Jacksonville) hosted a call-in haunted house that could be explored from the comfort of your kitchen's (landline) phone. I called in that first year (oh, let's say… in 1994) to discover a cheesily-voiced narrator taking me on a choose-your-own-adventure tour of a "very spooky" house—each action decided by my presses on the phone's keypad. I dived into this silly activity over and over each year, "exploring" the haunted rooms and hallways with only my ears, sometimes escaping after a fright, sometimes facing a very PG-rated expiration at the hands of a random ghoul. Each time I reached a path's conclusion, I would hang up and dial again to face down the next horror. I didn't then think of it as an actual game, but in looking back, it absolutely was—and for those first few days of its release each year, it was a dang addictive one.

Imagine my delight then to get to take a look at a new game that is the spiritual successor to the dial-up haunted house of my youth that I'd all but forgotten; it's Tony Patino's Agents!

Agents is a game by Recursive Frog (Patino) created for last month's Ludum Dare online game jam. The game is very simple on the surface, in that it's an audio-only adventure where players control two nefarious field agents solely via "voice calls" on their mobile phone. The task is to get them in to a guarded complex, then out, while helping them work together to stay alive.

The game's interface is blindingly simple: a list of phone numbers is the only screen you'll ever see. The game from there is completely controlled via voice commands. Players will direct their charges to move to locations via a few different commands. As they move around the complex, the two agents each reach certain barriers in their quest. The agents then have small inventories on which to resort, and they're also able to look around and report back exactly what they see. One step in the wrong direction can lead to their immediate capture.

While short, Agents is a concept that is rife for expansion. With more time in the oven (the Ludum Dare events last but a weekend), some added features, and some fool-proof voice recognition, something like this could become a top-tier interactive experience. As it stands, the game quickly brought back the silly excitement of my old haunted house days, and it's very effective proof that sound-only games (like Deep Sea or Blindside) can not only work, but can also be quite engaging when players have to fill in the details with their brains.

You can check out the Android-only game via Ludum Dare's page here. As a word of warning, the game is not too friendly with the new JellyBean OS on the platform, so be warned if you're using that version. I was able to get the game to work for extended stretches, but it did crash on me a few times.

Here's to more fun experiments from Recursive Frog and all of the jammers over at Ludum Dare. Agents is a welcome sideways peek at new gaming interactivity, and we all like the sound of that.

Vampires are traditionally lithe, powerful, and disquieting entities.

I recently had the opportunity to play a new action game featuring said creatures, and sadly, it only managed to convince me that it was the last of those things.

Dark from Germany's Realmforge (and publisher Kalypso) is an upcoming stealth-action game featuring the world's most attractive, desirable monsters. Players take on the role of Eric, a handsome and newly-fanged member of his city's bloodsucking tribe. When Eric awakens with two brand-new teeth in his mouth, he's confused, angry, and distressingly thirsty for blood. Soon he meets the beautiful local vampire leader, Rose, in the city's hottest dance club, and it's quickly clear he's gonna have to puncture some necks to figure out how exactly he got himself into all of this.

If the dance club or any part of this premise seems a bit B-movie, the designers can at least be credited for trying something different with their gameplay. Unlike most third-person actions games that rely heavily on firearm-based combat, Dark strides semi-confidently away from those tropes. Main character Eric will combat legions of special operatives on his quest for truth armed only with his fangs, fists, and a smattering of special vampire skills.

This focus on stealth is the game's absolute selling point. Players will have to find their homes in the shadows, lingering to watch enemy motions and patterns, teleporting between cover when necessary. Avoiding sightlines becomes the game's core activity, and the developers have included various special maneuvers to assist the player in their tasks. Drag bodies around corners, move with super-speed, distract or confuse guards with the mind, grab enemies from the shadows and disappear again…

Dark has a commendable list of special abilities in this, its alpha stage. Ultimately, however, its hardline stealth focus does everything to restrict its potential audience to stealth-gaming aficionados only. While other games that invoke the genre—the Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell, and Hitman series, or the recent Dishonored—have given players systems that rely to some degree on the idea, Dark forces players into such tactics exclusively. While there's nothing wrong with such a goal, what gets left behind is a certain player agency during the proceedings.

The demo shown at the preview event left this writer and other attendees feeling restricted in the choices they had for dispatching the glut of unaware enemy troops. This is especially true when all those unawares became hostile. Indeed, the extreme stealth focus simply robs its players of any contingency plan when escaping (minus hightailing it to the shadows). Despite the presence of Eric's vampire powers, my dozens of attempts at besting the game's first two non-tutorial demo levels ended time and again in bungled attempts to awkwardly scoot away from dangerous encounters. While the purist focus on stealth is commendable, most stealth games do give their players satisfying last-resort options such as firearms and the like.

In fact, there are literally no available weapons in the game at all. No guns, no blades, no crazy magic energy bolts… Combat even only exists as quick-kill animations. When I asked the game's rep if there was any narrative justification for Eric's abhorrence of any possible tools of destruction, he answered "no" and simply said that Realmforge doesn't want weapons in the game. They'd rather simply focus the game on stealth, he added.

While I'm all for a singular vision in design, Dark simply left me feeling like the game needs to bring a good deal more to the table before it catches the eye of Joe Gamer. Perhaps some of Rocksteady's Arkham Asylum-type flavors could be thrown into the mix—adventures into the Z-axis, for one, or maybe even a basic combat engine to fall back on when the sneaking fails.

I'll freely admit that I'm no stealth game superfan, but it's difficult to see what the game is aiming for at this time. My great thanks go out to Kalypso and Realmforge for the opportunity to travel and see the game, but at this stage, Dark is missing the litheness and the power of the vampire.

Dark is scheduled for a Q2 release in 2013 on the Xbox 360 and PC.

Hey there!

Here's the full interview with Greg Rice, producer at the great indie studio, Double Fine Productions!  If you're not already aware, Double Fine is the home of gaming legends Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert.  Their past console successes include Psychonauts and Brutal Legend.  Their more recent games include the downloadable wonders Costume Quest, Iron Brigade, Happy Action Theater, and Stacking!

….Oh yeah, and they raised millions on Kickstarter in mere days to fund their upcoming adventure game; and don't you know that Greg had a huge part in this!?

Thanks for watching, and enjoy!

HIGH Mopping up a roomful of baddies with a buddy in short order makes you giddy.

LOW My low level runthrough gave me +5 Gray Hairs.

WTF Me: "Did we just murder the Ninja Turtles?"

Laverne and Shirley. Peanut butter and chocolate. First-person shooter (FPS) and role-playing game (RPG). This is how Gearbox Software is hoping the history books look in a few years—thanks, of course, to the generous gifts of its Borderlands game series. Can it be so?  Might these two ubiquitous gaming flavors really be that sort of dynamic combination? After two significant at-bats for the Texas developer, the answer is a solid… kinda-sorta.

Before we dive in fully, this reviewer must make a full disclosure: I quit the first Borderlands midstream. Yep. It always hurts to make such decisions and declarations, but it's true.

I found the first game in this series to be a dry, overly linear single-player experience and a slightly more engaging, yet mindless multiplayer one. Aside from the game's bold cel-shaded visual style, I felt it was a long exercise in repetitious run-n-gun. This was despite, of course, the game's can't-miss central conceit: throw two seemingly unrelated genres in a digital blender, add some primary colors and loot, and whip ‘til frothy. …And somehow, that was boring. Now, the same conceit has been brought over to the sequel with a bit of streamlining and retooling; and though it's still generally plagued by the same core issues, it thankfully leads to some more entertaining results.

So, what's new this time around? Returning Vault Hunters will first be greeted by the game's four new character classes (not counting the DLC classes) that are either brand-new or slight re-imaginings of the last game's core four. While there's unfortunately nothing special to differentiate them all in the game's first couple of hours, their class-specific skill trees (once unlocked) are the most obvious upgrade to the game's systems.

Where before there was a little choice in how a player concocted their particular brand of character, Gearbox did their best to blow it out here. Each character's special action skill comes with upgrade options galore—each one usually altering (at least) two separate character stats with each new level gained.

Further customization has also been optimized by removing a lot of class-specific gun bonuses that the first game relied on. While a few of these gun-specific skills remain, most have been done away with, so players can use any guns they want. All of the choices and the leveling-up of said skills are enticing and certainly the best facet of the RPG elements that the game offers. Does one choose stealth?  Support? These options offer their players a chance to create exactly the sort of character they prefer…

…as long as that character chooses to shoot lots and lots of dudes and not do much else. Yep, that hasn't changed: Borderlands 2 is a shooter, plain and simple. Missions vary slightly, be they story-related or optional; go and shoot the objective or go shoot things on the way to the objective. In fairness, a few glances at the game will steer a player away from expecting otherwise, and that's fine— that's exactly what Gearbox intended.

So, does it make for compelling gaming?! As a multiplayer game, yes; with friends, one could do a lot worse than Borderlands 2. When a good group gets together, guns all pointing the same direction, different skills popping off, elemental weapons burning and shocking foes, heads exploding… the game falls into a cacophonous stutter-step groove. There is a definite high-tension sweet spot in co-op games that shines brightly in tight quarters overrun with baddies.

On the other hand, a single-player journey through Pandora, though occasionally interesting, mostly serves to reveal the game's fundamental issues. See, because of its limited-objective nature, going solo quickly causes murder fatigue to set in. Players who opt for a greater challenge, then, will find that quest obscenely difficult if they're not properly leveled.

Simply, the basic "level" system at work in RPGs remains in-place here, and with that comes a certain frustration. If a player deems to take on an available mission that is "harder" (or leveled above them), the player will be at a huge disadvantage, regardless of the types of enemies they are facing. Enemies will simply soak up a torrential amount of additional bullets and deal buckets of massive damage to the player. This convention, necessary for traditional RPG leveling-up mechanics, essentially turns any "hard" quests into endless games of cat and mouse with overpowered enemies. This saps the game of any looseness and improvisation in firefights. Sadly, this idea sticks players on a rigid questpath, the only real challenge ever being switching to particular weapons to do appropriate elemental damage.

This quandary caused me to quit the first game: choose boredom or choose "Hard" missions and unending death at the hands of creatures I'd taken down many times before. This is not entirely the case with Borderlands 2, as "Hard" or "Impossible" missions are only available if the player powers through the story missions only. Still, though, it greatly affected my playthrough alone. My Commando chose not to do any optional missions, and guess what? My bruiser Commando became the most cowardly sniper you've ever seen in the game's later, high-level story missions. I tortured myself to make a point, I guess: single-player gameplay here will lead you to boredom or lots of frustrating death-walls.

That's not to say that it's all bleak and dreary. In fact, the world of Borderlands 2 is quite appealing on the presentational front. Gearbox has taken all of the "gray and brown" jokes about FPS games from the past decade and gone on to create a vibrant and colorful world. This graphical style is very attractive, and it meshes really well with the brash writing and characters that appear from the get-go. In fact, I applaud them for the copious amounts of humor in the writing—both in dialogue and in certain tongue-in-cheek missions that are silly references to pop culture staples. The tone may not be for everybody—it reels wildly from grating to quite sharp—but it's clear that Gearbox really loves what they do.

Oh, and I can't forget the loot, right? Another staple from the first game is here in full force, as well: lots and lots of dropped loot. Lots. While it's great to find a really special gun after sifting through piles of stuff, it can become frustrating to sit and look through so much inventory. Some items are certainly better than others, but it seems that the average player will spend probably a third of the game just comparing what they've found or deciding which ones to sell. I certainly don't have an elegant solution for this type of complaint (and I know some wouldn't even call that a downside at all), but it can really deflate in-game urgency in a work whose genre relies so heavily on it.

So, yeah; chances are players know exactly what to expect from Borderlands 2. It may be a lot more of the same, but it's prettier, smoother, longer, and filled with more stuff. For those out there who just like to get in and zone out (or are just in the occasional mood to do so), they'll find that Borderlands 2 surely scratches that itch. Or, shoots it bang-bang dead. Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Xbox 360. Approximately ten hours of play was devoted to single-player modes (completed one time) and twelve hours of play in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game contains use of alcohol, intense violence, blood and gore, language, and sexual themes. There's a light tone to the proceedings of this game, but parents should be well-aware that there is lots of adult content here. Some of it is sometimes referenced in a disturbingly offhanded way.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: There are full subtitles for all of the spoken words in the game. Certain enemies announce their presence with vocal cues, so those would unfortunately be missed. Luckily, there's the mini-map!