I don't know how, but someone has given Warren Spector permission to take Mickey Mouse and almost make it scary. I say almost because unfortunately there quite a bit of difference between the concept art:


and the screen shots from the actual game:


Which is a shame because I liked the idea of Mickey having to survive in a Fallout 3 inspired nuclear waste land.

The plot is bizarre to say the least:
"A long time ago, the sorcerer Yen Sid created a pen-and-paper world for his forgotten characters, held in an intricate model on a table, and accesible through a mirror. Mickey who finds himself inside Yen Sid's study, sees the model, and waits until Yen Sid is gone before going back to take another look at it, fiddling with it, Mickey accidentally trips through the mirror, spilling paint thinner and twisting the world. He managed to escape without Yen Sid knowing, returning to his world he went on to live years of success and fame, but his meddling had consequences. The paint and paint thinner have destroyed the world and created an evil being called the "Phantom Blot", who has usurped power from Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Yen Sid's first creation before Mickey, and sent the world into ruin. Years later, Mickey is kidnapped by the Phantom Blot and sent into the world. Oswald, his will lost, twisted by his jealousy of Mickey's rise to fame, has formulated a plan to destroy Mickey. The Mad Doctor works closely with the Blot, creating robotic "Beetleworx", which have the appearance of a Cartoon-style Car with a head protruding from the front bumper, made to intimidate and twist Mickey's vision of his friends. He also creates 'buddies' for Oswald, looking like Donald Duck and Goofy, as Oswald wants Mickey's life and popularity for himself. Mickey must stop the Phantom Blot, gain the trust of Oswald and save the forgotten world."
(Taken from Wikipedia)

For the people that haven't heard of Warren Spector: He is most famous for creating Deux Ex for the PC - A cyber-punk RPG/FPS - that was critically acclaimed for its multipath story.He is now adding some Deux Ex magic to Mickey Mouse which will probably created the strangest mashing of genres ever.

"The core of this game is the idea of choice and consequence, and how that defines both the character and the player,” says Spector. "By putting the mischievous Mickey in an unfamiliar place and asking him to make choices – to help other cartoon characters or choose his own path – the game forces players to deal with the consequences of their actions. Ultimately, players must ask themselves, ‘What kind of hero am I?’ Each player will come up with a different answer."

I have no idea which age range this game is being pitched to because I'm pretty sure that anyone under the age of ten, Mickey's biggest fan base, won't get the subtleties of cause and effect game play.

Anyway I'm pretty sure that if the confusing game doesn't get them, the horrific robot Donald Duck will!

I mean look at that! it's the stuff of nightmares, horrible cheese fueled nightmares.

"I want your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle"

Welcome to the year 2054. The world is now a very different place. The first robotic President has been elected in The United States of America, peanuts are now officially called 'freedom pellets', Fuel prices have rocketed due to mass conflicts in the Bosporus so now only the twenty richest men in the world can afford to drive a car, Joan Rivers, Oprah Winfrey and U2 are all now powered by steam and kill everything in their path, indiscriminately and with precious little regard for human life.

Everything is grey and it always rains. Everyone is very sad but things are about to get much worse.Capitalism has caused profit snowballing and the largest multinational corporations have now become so rich that they are set to change the face of the planet forever. Welcome to The Democratic Republic of Fruit Gums formally known as 'Chad', the first country to have it's name changed to a brand. Rowntrees bought the country in 2052 and are in the process of turning it into the world's largest bill board. Billions of pounds have been spent on digging a giant canal system spelling out such products as 'Fruit Pastilles', 'Jelly Tots' and 'Tooty Frooties' in 10 mile high lettering that can be seen clearly from space. 


Medicines and food are now contraband leading to mass starvation and illness. Millions more are expected to suffer. McDonalds has monopolised 50% of the worlds buildings and turned them in restaurants.However because cows have been put on the endangered species list Mcdonalds have developed a new kind of meat made from stars. Statistically every single person will live next to, above, below or in a McDonalds restaurant.

Pavements are now so greasy that Nike have had to develop a new kind of super high grip shoe to make it possible to walk. Leglislation has also been passed to make this footwear mandatory. The punishment for wearing any other footwear is aids. General Motors Company own the copyright to fruit, Coca Cola have cloned 3000 babies, tattooed them with the Coca Cola logo and sent them on a space ship in an attempt to sell the product in other dimensions to maximise profits. Virgin have bought the core of the earth and boasts the only holiday destination that reaches 25 000 degrees Celsius apart from the Sun with is now owned by the Sun newspaper and used to incinerate pedophiles after a weekly vote on the BBC which is still shit and has no money. 

This will happen.

(Some creative writing from Matt Haydock, our new blogger)

On the back of the Episodes From Liberty City manual (the lastest add-on back for GTA 4)  there is a wonderfully crypic image that has got the Internet in a stir.

It hints at the next location of the new GTA game due to be released in March 2010.

Predictably there has been much speculation. All the Americans are saying that it's somewhere in the USA, while all the British are saying it's somewhere in England.

Now Rock Star started in Scotland and the second GTA game on the PC was set in London. The most recent games have all been set in an America. I think that is could be quite possible that the new one could grace our British shores. Think about the date of release, it's very close to Olympics which is going to be in London. It would be good business to some how tie the two together. GTA 5: Olympic edition. The 100 meter sprint with the Met (Police) chasing after you...maybe not.


However the "Seagull" theater does point to somewhere in the South East of England...Brighton maybe. This would mean a very big game map. Unless the game was going to be set in Brighton, which unforunatly isn't one of the biggest crime hubs in the UK. Unless you count inferior jam with your cream tea a crime.

If it is set in America then the image with trees and the mountains could depict somewhere like Reno and the Rocky Mountains. New England has country side like that too. Anyway I'm sure the speculation with continue.

I hope it is set in the UK. We are definitely due some GTA love.

Lucasarts are finally doing things right. After years in the Star Wars wilderness, they have decided to concentrate on their often exceptional back-catalog.

This has brought us the new Monkey Island games and now some of their older classics that, thankfully, didn't have anything to do with Luke Skywalker or Lego.

Anyway ZAMN (See what I did there?) first reared it's rotting face on the Super Nintendo back in 1993. I think I was about 10, maybe 11 years old and I had just watched Arachnophobia on VHS round Jonathan Wood's house. He had bought an American version of the game that you needed a converter to get to work in his UK system.

Thinking back: I have no idea where he got all these American games from - I seem to remember him owning a lot more. The game was basically a piss-take on the B-Movie horror genre and was great fun to play with a mate. I might hazard a guess that the creators of Left 4 Dead may have even played this game at some point (you never know). You got to choose between 2 rather cool characters and you had to leg it around various themed levels trying to save your neighbors from a quick death; it was that simple. It's one of the first games I remember being REALLY hard. Maybe I was just too young and my hands were too small to work the controller properly. However that didn't seem to stop me being kick-ass at Super Mario Kart - yes Saltdog, far far better then you.

I think the Wii version is a straight conversion so I doubt much has changed. I did hear a rumor that Lucasarts could be working on a brand new installment, which would make sense with all the zombie love going around these days.

Here is some game play footage from the SNES version:



Unfortunately for the Wii, these old games are pretty much all it has going for it. Unless you like Yoga or flapping your arms around like a complete prick. It's a shame because even though Nintendo has been brought back from the brink with this console. I think it maybe secretly dying inside; wishing for games like Left 4 Dead and Bioshock to grace it's waggle stick.

Shed a tear with me for Parent friendly Nintendo. Hopefully it will grow-up in the next great console war. I doubt it though, they are making far too much money.