It's 1996 all over again

This looks insane... and awesome, too. A Greek Tex Murphy clone!
I hope it's better than the previous one.


Do you miss those 1990's games with actors in the middle of your 3D-generated world? Then you'll be pleased to know that GOG just released the amazing Realms of the Haunting.

But if you prefer old-school 2D, then go this way. Hey, no problem. I love both styles.

A brief aside

I just want to take a minute to quote this comment from RPS:

Jim Sterling really ought to be stood down from his job at Destructoid – he’s totally hateful and mysoginistic, as a recent public Twitter spat between him and Auntie Pixelante’s partner has proved. I won’t be reading Destructoid until they eject the idiotic, infantile shithead from their payroll.

That's what I think, too. I stopped reading Destructoid altogether because that professional troll annoyed me so much. That's the reason I haven't written any "Jimbecility" posts tracking his insane foulmouthing for months.

Speaking of losing readers by the hundreds, did you know you can keep reading Kotaku without the annoying new layout if you type "UK" or "CA" in front of the url? Just try it:

http://uk.kotaku.com/

http://ca.kotaku.com/

Luckily we don't have to worry about anything like that because we don't have any readers.

PS3 is down! I repeat, PS3 is down!

What the hell is going on? It looks like the PS3 has its own Y2K glitch!

Is there anything more annoying for a gamer than the Xbox 360 3 ROD thing? Well, it looks like if you have an old PS3 and you allow its internal date to advance from February 28th to March 1st, you are screwed too. The date is sent back to the year 2000, you can't play some games and you lose all the trophies you haven't synchronized with Sony's servers. More importantly, you can't access the PlayStation Network. If that's the case, how will I be able to download the fix for the problem when it's available?

This really sucks. Now, I can't use my PS3 until they fix this. I can't believe they didn't plan for something like this in advance. Also, some people think this problem is the consequence of anti-piracy measures out of control. And they may be right. Well, if you are affected by this, you can follow the story with frequent updates in Kotaku. Now I guess I'll have a rest from Assassin's Creed 2 and play some KOTOR on Steam.

But what will happen if Steam goes down too? Depending on a "global network" can be bad on these occasions.

I love what a guy called Mr. Winters said in a forum: "No, seriously... This is unbelievable, a kick in the nuts for Sony. The Xbox design flaw was (is) a more serious issue, that slow death, that invisible cancer... but this meltdown, simultaneous, global, explosive... was spectacular!"

We said it was going to suck

And we were right.


Rebellion, you suck.

UPDATE: 1Up.com, GameRevolution, Gamespy and the no-nonsense guys at GiantBomb agree: this game blows chunks. And all the fans scream "Noooo! You are lying! You are wrong! Aliens vs Predator is awesome!"

Grow up, kids. Listen to the voice of reason.

Dragon Quest VI weirdness

Yesterday, Dragon Quest VI was released on Japan for the Nintendo DS.

But even before that, they started airing these commercials:

For a Spanish guy like me, these videos are even weirder, because the acting is really awkward. (Well, that's what happens when you pull your "actors" from a gym...)

But it gets even weirder. This commercial was filmed on Málaga, which is the home town of our ever-silent third staff member, JR. So maybe he'll see these guys on the streets! How cool would that be?

The Japanese really know how to make awesomely weird video game commercials.

We must get better!

According to the reviews, Painkiller: Resurrection really sucks. And not in the "this kind of game gets old really fast" way like Dreamkiller, but in the "this game isn't even finished!" way.

Today, a major update has been released on Steam. It's good to know that the developers haven't just let the game die already, but is it even fixable? The list of changes is presented in a way that makes clear that the developers know how badly the game sucks:

-New AI System blending the direct approach used now and a sophisticated way-point system. In most areas, Monsters can not only chase you through complex architecture, you`ll also see them taking different ways in order to outrun you, and sometimes even retreat and trying to get into your back. (They basically admit that the enemies are dumb idiots that charge against you following a straight line and then get stuck in any object they find.)
-Better Char models / animations: Our 3D Artist gave another shots at the new monsters and improved some of them. (This sounds like "We are so sorry he didn't know what he was doing, but he'll do better next time, we promise!" Any other company would just fire the guy.)
-In-game MP hosting reactivated (dedicated server not needed anymore) (So they realized NOBODY would set up a dedicated server for this!)
-Competitive MP crash-fixed and tweaked (Dropped weapons look, jumping walls, etc.) (Bug fixes! Great!)
-Co-op for up to 8 (if you like madness, even 16) players (although 2-4 is the best number to try) and with up to 50 monsters at once to fight them as team (Co-op! Yay!)
-New maps and some new surprises in the levels themselves are on their way too. (The game is better now, we promise!)

So here you are. I don't know if I'm going to try the game now, but it's good to know that at least they are trying.