Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness (PC, Mac, Linux, XBox 360) - Out Now

[PapaZeb]

In a bold move with today's industry - Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is being simultaneously released for OSX, Windows (unknown if it will be slanted towards XP or Vista, or set for both OSes), and Linux using the Torque Game Engine - a heavily modified version of the original Tribes 2 engine that can compile on Windows, Linux, and OSX. The game's initial video release from months ago drew a lot of heavy criticism with the follow-up reclaiming praise from previously surly gamers - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYPPxZ_Q03A . As you can see from the screenshots at the bottom (clicky for biggie!), the animation style is rich and lush while sticking to the 2D roots of the game. I'm unsure at this point if the 3D brawling sequences appeal to me - they seem somewhat similar to the recent Lords of the Rings FFX-clones, but time will tell.

Originally Posted by Press Release

Penny Arcade (www.penny-arcade.com) is the most popular online comic in the world, serving 3.5 million readers monthly. Focused mainly on videogame culture and industry commentary, but managing to skewer a host of mainstream topics along the way, illustrator Mike Krahulik and writer Jerry Holkins deliver colorful humor in a thrice weekly cartoon strip and accompanying blog. The strip regularly features the creator’s alter egos, Tycho and Gabe.

Tycho and Gabe have partnered in true collaborative style with independent developer Hothead Games and are bringing the comic to life in the form of the first-ever Penny Arcade video game, a PC/Mac/Linux computer game called Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. Consulting on the game’s design is Ron Gilbert, creator of such adventure game classics as The Secret of Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion. The gameplay is a blend of classic adventure and role-playing (RPG) combat elements set in the 1920’s. Penny Arcade Adventures is initially expected to be released in a downloadable, episodic format with the first episode available later this year.

Key game features:
• Hilarious, over-the-top dialogue written by Jerry Holkins in a style that will be familiar to Penny Arcade fans.
• Progressively unravel the game’s mysteries through classic adventure game play.
• Battle an array of zany enemies with the RPG combat system.
• An interactive Penny Arcade comic: customize the look and dress of your character and explore the unusual world of New Arcadia.
• Gabe, Tycho, Annarchy, The Fruit F*cker 2000 and many favorite Penny Arcade characters, plus new characters designed by Mike Krahulik.
• Set in a steampunk meets pulp horror meets H.P. Lovecraft alternate Penny Arcade universe.

[Rio Ohki]

[poprock]

Hmm. Could this be the first (maybe only) game ever bought for one of my Macs?

[Stem]

I cannot wait for this game.

[Hammer]

It's out today. 1600 points on XBLA or $20 on Greenhouse (for Mac, PC and Linux).

There is a short prequel comic here.

[Zippy]

I've read a couple of reviews which have both said it's pretty shit, 4/10 doesn't fill me with encouragement.

[MarkMono]

I'm not sure we can trust reviewers to be impartial to this game, the Penny Arcade guys have made a career out of shitting on games reviewers.

Looks like lots of fun.

[Hammer]

Originally Posted by Zippy

I've read a couple of reviews which have both said it's pretty shit, 4/10 doesn't fill me with encouragement.

It's only got four reviews on Metacritic just now, with an average of 70/100. On the other hand, Edge can be pretty spot on with their reviews.

I was planning on getting the 360 version, but if I get bored enough later, I might download the Mac version to give me something to do while stuck in the middle of nowhere.

[poprock]

If it’s on Live Arcade, that means there’ll be a free demo to try out. I’ll give that a shot, but I don’t hold out much hope. It doesn’t sound like the kind of thing I’d like even if it was well made, and all the reviews I’ve read so far say that it ain’t even that.

[Hammer]

Just found the PC/Mac?Linux demos: http://www.playgreenhouse.com/game/HOTHG-000001-01/

Downloading now. Download server is clearly getting battered to fuck though - 22kb/s at the moment.

[MarkMono]

It looks like a cross between Monkey Island and Secret of Mana with PA humour thrown into the mix.

As a Sam & Max devotee I'm expecting a lot from this.

[Hammer]

The demo is good if too short. It's very reminiscent of Monkey Island, but with Penny Arcade humour (ie exactly as Mark predicted).

I will most certainly be ponying up for the full game.

[johnnie walker]

Im just downloading the demo just now.

I loved the advertising they are using:

http://www.destructoid.com/penny-arc...ic-86914.phtml