Kickstart This! The Sad Tale of Knite and the Ghost Lights

Posted on November 27, 2019 by Andrew Rainnie

Long time readers of Kickstart This! may recall Knite and the Ghost Lights by Mobot Studios. The gorgeous side-scroller was one of the first games we featured in this column and one of the first Kickstarter projects that I backed personally.

Even now, I have fond memories of discovering the game on the crowdfunding site way back in October of 2013. It was pitched as a stop-motion RPG built with a strong sense of early Tim Burton. Knite and the Ghost Lights was going to be delivered by July 2014 on the PC and Wii U (Nintendo’s previous console is another thing I have fond memories of).

However, the delivery deadline was missed, and that’s when things started to go wrong for the game, which has been limping along and languishing in development hell ever since. At the time, Lex Plotnikoff, the lead artist and creative force on Knite and the Ghost Lights, found himself unable to return to America. The Russian national was mired in red tape, which threw a proverbial spanner into the works, and brought development on the game grinding to a halt.

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Valve officially unveils Half-Life: Alyx… and a March 2020 release date

Posted on November 21, 2019 by John Scalzo

Rise and shine, Valve, rise and shine.

The operators of Steam have finally returned to large-scale game development… and to the Half-Life franchise. The developer unveiled the first trailer for Half-Life: Alyx earlier today, along with confirmation that we won’t have to wait very long to play the VR-focused title. According to Valve, Half-Life: Alyx will launch in March of 2020, making an already-packed month for new releases even more crowded.

Set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2, Half-Life: Alyx puts players into the literal gloves of Alyx Vance as she searches for something known as “The Vault”:

Valve’s return to the Half-Life universe that started it all was built from the ground up for virtual reality. VR was built to enable the gameplay that sits at the heart of Half-Life.

Immerse yourself in deep environmental interactions, puzzle solving, world exploration, and visceral combat.

Lean to aim around a broken wall and under a Barnacle to make an impossible shot. Rummage through shelves to find a healing syringe and some shotgun shells. Manipulate tools to hack alien interfaces. Toss a bottle through a window to distract an enemy. Rip a Headcrab off your face and throw it out the window.

Half-Life: Alyx will be compatible with all major VR headsets, including the Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality. But all Valve Index owners will receive a copy of the game for free when it’s ready.

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Geoff Keighley has announced the nominees for the 2019 Game Awards

Posted on November 19, 2019 by John Scalzo

We’re getting closer and closer to the end of the year, and that’s means that it’s finally time for the Game Awards. The nominations for the annual awards show were announced earlier today, and Remedy’s Control, Kojima Productions’s Death Stranding, Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds, Capcom’s Resident Evil 2, From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will all be competing for “Game of the Year.”

Host Geoff Keighley isn’t involved in the nominating process, but it still feels strange to realize that he actually appears as a non-player character in Death Stranding. Hideo Kojima’s latest game, and first as an independent developer, ultimately received nine nominations across eight categories (both Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen were nominated for “Best Performance”).

Fans are once again encouraged to vote for their favorite games at the award show’s official website, and fan votes will have a real effect on the outcome, as they’ll count for a 10% share of the voting jury.

The 2019 Game Awards will be held on Thursday, December 12. In addition to all the winners, we can also expect to see a lot of World Premiere Trailers for upcoming games, some of which will be announced in the coming days.

In the meantime, you can find a complete list of all the nominees after the break.

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Valve will unveil Half-Life: Alyx this Thursday

Posted on November 19, 2019 by John Scalzo

Half-Life.

Even saying those words is enough to conjur a variety of emotions in your average. Awe at the first two games in the franchise. Disgust at Valve for their decision to drop the almost-mythical Half-Life 2: Episode 3. And a wistful sense of longing that maybe someday the developer will bring the goateed Gordon Freeman back from the dead.

While that last one is still just wishful thinking, it looks like Valve is finally ready to return to the world of Half-Life:

Meet Half-Life: Alyx… or rather… check back on Thursday at 1:00 PM (Eastern Time) to get your first look at Valve’s “flagship VR game” for the PC.

As of now, we don’t know anything about Valve’s mysterious new project, but it more than likely stars Half-Life 2‘s Alyx Vance and, oh yeah, it’s the first new entry in the Half-Life saga in over ten years.

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Dragon Quest Builders 2 will make its way to the PC on December 10

Posted on November 18, 2019 by John Scalzo

It looks like Dragon Quest Builders 2, Square Enix’s second attempt at melding an RPG-style adventure with Minecraft‘s building and crafting mechanics, will be available to download for the PC (via Steam) on December 10:

Dragon Quest Builders 2, the critically acclaimed block-building RPG from Dragon Quest series creators Yuji Horii, character designer Akira Toriyama and composer Koichi Sugiyama is coming to Steam on December 10th, 2019!

Create your customized character, team-up with your fearless friend Malroth, gather the skills required to become a full-fledged builder, and combat the Children of Hargon, a vile cult that worships destruction! Then, take your builder online and join your friends to collaborate and create something truly magnificent.

Originally released for the PS4 and Switch earlier this year, Dragon Quest Builders 2’s PC launch will include the base game, as well as all the new content from the game’s Season Pass (be on the lookout for more “Recipes, Hairstyles, Clothing, and new areas to explore”).

Players who purchase the game by January 6th will also receive a six-pack of bonus Recipes to further customize their game.

A new trailer for Dragon Quest Builders 2’s PC debut has been embedded above.

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Google adds 10 more games to Stadia’s launch lineup

Posted on November 18, 2019 by John Scalzo

Google’s Stadia game streaming service is launching in… let me check my notes… less than 24 hours, but that hasn’t stopped the search giant from continuing to tweak its launch lineup.

Last week, Google confirmed that 12 titles would be available to purchase on November 19, with an additional 14 set to be released before the end of the year. But earlier today (via Twitter), they moved ten titles from the “Coming Soon” column into the “Available on Launch Day” column.

In addition to games like Destiny 2 and the Stadia-exclusive Gylt, the updated launch lineup now also includes Final Fantasy XV, NBA 2K20, Rage 2, and a few others:

Additional Games Available at Launch for Google Stadia

  • Attack On Titan 2: Final Battle
  • Farming Simulator 19
  • Final Fantasy XV
  • Football Manager 2020
  • Grid
  • Metro Exodus
  • NBA 2K20
  • Rage 2
  • Trials Rising
  • Wolfenstein: Youngblood

As before, Google said that Stadia users will still be able to purchase Darksiders: Genesis, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, and Borderlands 3 sometime before the end of the year.

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New trailers for Gears Tactics and Ori and the Will of Wisps will debut at the 2019 Game Awards

Posted on November 16, 2019 by John Scalzo

This year’s Game Awards will be held on December 12, and as usual, Geoff Keighley and company are busy gathering a mind-bending collection of World Premiere Trailers to debut during the broadcast. Yesterday, they revealed two trailers that fans can expect to see on Twitter… and they both hail from Microsoft.

Though the consolemaker just revealed a ton of new stuff at their X019 event in London, Keighley confirmed that World Premiere Trailers for both Gears Tactics and Ori and the Will of Wisps will make an appearance at the 2019 Game Awards. Both games are currently in development for the PC and Xbox One, and both are expected to be released in 2020.

The nominees for this year’s Game Awards will be announced on Tuesday, November 19, which will probably be followed by a few more trailer announcements over the next month, but we can surely look forward to a few surprises on the big day as well.

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Obsidian’s Grounded is coming in Spring 2020 and it looks like “Honey I Shrunk the Kids: The Game”

Posted on November 15, 2019 by John Scalzo

For those of us of a certain age, the pint-sized dangers of Honey I Shrunk the Kids will always stick with us. In the movie, a small group of kids are forced to fend for themselves against a giant scorpion, a swarm of bees, and a super-powerful lawnmower after they’re accidentally shrunk down to microscopic size by Rick Moranis. There was also a heroic ant named Antie who saved the day years before Paul Rudd joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you’re a Disney Plus subscriber, you should absolutely check it out.

This is all just my way of preparing you for Grounded, a new game from Microsoft and Obsidian that is basically “Honey I Shrunk the Kids: The Game.”

According to Xbox Wire, players will be “shrunken to the size of an ant” and dropped into a suburban background teeming with life. They’ll need to survive by scavenging “everybody objects” that have been lost among the grass, and up to four players will be able to undergo missions together:

In Grounded, players are shrunken to the size of an ant and tasked with surviving in the unique micro-world of a suburban backyard. Players must gather, craft and build bases with everyday objects found within the yard, searching for life-saving resources and living alongside giant, peaceful insects while fighting to survive massive hostile inhabitants.

Grounded provides a mix of environmental and narrative driven story telling. Set in a versatile, handcrafted sandbox structure it allows players to create their own experience from the ground up. Tasks that may seem approachable when human-sized become a challenge in this dangerous backyard landscape. This familiar yet fantastical world can be navigated solo or in four-person co-operative multiplayer, where players work together to complete missions or explore the intricately detailed world.

Grounded will be available to download in Game Preview/Early Access for the Xbox One and PC in Spring 2020.

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