Metal Gear and Silent Hill are not series known for the
clarity and simplicity of their narrative. More for paranoia,
uncertainty and impenetrable fog. So no surprise then that
after MGS creator Kojima became attached to a Silent Hill
project (called Silent Hills), it's all ended it in mystery and
confusion.
Is Kojima in trouble? Will he ever make games again? What
about the sausage tweets ? Won't somebody think of the
sausage tweets!
It certainly seems that Koj is no longer on the team for
Metal Gear, and Silent Hills is no more. The sequel, which
was to be a collaboration with Guillermo Del Toro and
Walking Dead star Norman Reedus, has been pulled. Even
more disappointingly, the Playable Teaser (PT) has
disappeared from the PlayStation Store.
PT was a nice bit of PR for Silent Hills, as well as a lovely
game in its own right - though perhaps "lovely" isn't the
word. On completing the horror game, which led players
through a loop of increasingly terrifying corridors, players
were rewarded with a confirmation of Silent Hills'
development. Not any more! Anyone who already owns it
can keep it, but that's little consolation. Bad times.
In chirpier news, Playtonic Studios, comprised mostly of ex-
Rare developers, has just revealed its first game: Yooka-
Laylee. Originally titled "Project Ukelele" - see what they did
there? - the game has been hailed by almost everyone as a
spiritual successor to Rare's retro masterpiece, Banjo-
Kazooie. Adorable, brightly-coloured worlds? Cartoony
graphics? Two main characters, one of them sitting on the
other? Not sure I can see the resemblance, to be honest.
Yooka is a chameleon, and Laylee is a purple bat, but
people don't seem too sure on their genders yet, with
Playtonic themselves saying "guess."
Speaking of which, Minecraft has added a rather exciting, if
overdue, feature this week: default female characters. On
the Mojang website, Owen Hill noted that "jolly old Steve
doesn't really represent the diversity of our playerbase."
Dang right, Owen! I've played a fair bit of Minecraft, and I
don't own any blue shirts. The new skins, known collectively
as "Alex," feature "thinner arms, redder hair, and a ponytail"
as well as other variants with dark skin, different hair or
even a Scottish costume. Not so sure about that one.
The change comes after 12-year-old girl and badass
Madeline Messer wrote an article about the inexcusable lack
of default female characters in games, from mobile to
console. Many games make female characters a
purchasable extra, and others offer you dudes and nothing
more. So it's about time, Minecraft.
One alpha male who isn't fading in the face of this onslaught
of diversity is Watch Dogs' Aiden Pearce, The "gruff,"
"iconic" protagonist is making his way back into our lives,
now that the existence of Watch Dogs 2 has apparently been
leaked by a Ubisoft employee on his LinkedIn page. It's not
a huge surprise that Ubi is making a sequel to its interesting
yet flawed game, especially as the developer is only making
about 20 games already, which is about 1000 fewer than
normal.
Lastly, something to inject a bit of humour into your
Saturday. Some people think that GTA has become a bit po-
faced and lost the anarchic wit that once made it great. One
enterprising modder has fixed that for GTA V on PC by
letting you ragdoll at any point - including cutscenes.
HILARITY ENSUES.
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