Survival horror

It looks like one of our favorite upcoming indie games is getting closer to reality. Frictional Games, the developers of the creepy Penumbra series of horror-themed adventure titles, are now taking pre-orders for their next game Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The normal price of the game will be $20 but pre-orders can purchase the survival horror game now for just $16. The game's web site even has a "pre-order-o-meter". If they reach 2,000 pre-orders for the game it apparently will allow the dev team to add extra content to the title.

The game itself will be released via digital download in August for PC, Mac and Linux. In the meantime you can check out the first real gameplay trailer (via YouTube) after the jump:

Looks like Electronic Arts has backed away somewhat from a comment made by a spokesperson earlier this week that said they had no plans to release a PC port of Dead Space 2. VG247.com is now reporting a new statement from a EA spokesperson who stated, "A PC SKU is under consideration. Nothing additional at this time."

And so goes the strange situation of EA's commitment to a PC version of their sci-fi survival horror sequel. The publisher announced a PC port last December and earlier this week revealed that the PC version was not on their fiscal 2011 schedule. Now it appears their stance has now changed to, "Maybe."

Christmas Day means Steam users now have a new list of one day sales for PC games to check out during their annual holiday sales event. For the next 23 hours only six games have had their prices reduced by as much as 90 percent off their regular Steam rates.

Today those games include Red Faction Guerrilla and King's Bounty: Armored Princess for just $9.99 each, Resident Evil 5 for $24.99, and Battlefield 2: Complete Collection for a mere $7.49. In addition there are two indie games that can picked up for a mere pittance. Cogs is on sale for just $1.99 and if that's too much to pay the seasonal game Elf Bowling: Hawaiian Vacation can be your for just one dollar.

Electronic Arts first announced their plans for Dead Space 2 a few weeks ago but this week we finally got some officially released screenshots from the upcoming sci-fi survival horror sequel. The shots show the game's main character Isaac Clarke in his new suit going up against what look like some children who have had way too much Count Chocula to eat.

As revealed in this Computer and Video Games interview, Isaac will be fighting off creatures like this in what's called the Sprawl, a massive city in space. Oh, and besides the new weapons and abilities he will have, Isaac will actually talk in the sequel. The big question is what kind of voice will he have? We are picturing Paul Reubens.

The World War II genre is still a popular place to set games. Ubisoft has published a number of WWII themed games from action flying titles to naval simulations to tactical shooters. Today the publisher has gathered a number of these games on Steam into one game bundle, the WWII Collection.

Ubisoft has put nine games in this collection including all the games in the Brothers in Arms series as well as the two games in the Blazing Angels series and games in the Silent Hunter franchise. While the games would total $129.91 if bought separately you can get the entire bundle now for the much lower price of $39.99

Today was a fairly slow day in terms of new PC game sales:

• Direct2Drive posted up their latest one day sale today. From now until 1 pm Eastern time on Friday you can download and purchase Resident Evil 5 for just $24.95, a 50 percent price cut from its normal price. They have also discounted Borderlands for one day only; you can grab it for just $32.95.
• GameTap has put three recent EA games (Dragon Age: Origins, Need For Speed Shift and The Sims 3) on sale for $39.99 each, a 20 percent cut from their normal price. They have also added the RTS game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade to its list of games available via its paid subscription service.

Even though the live action Resident Evil films have had very few connections with the Capcom survival horror game series, the three movies that have been released have all been modest hits at the box office and on DVD (and to tell you the truth we kind of enjoy them in a MST3K way) Now comes word that the fourth entry in the series is heading to theaters on January 14, 2011.

Horror movie site Shock Till You Drop broke the story that Resident Evil: Afterlife would be delayed from a previously announced August 27, 2010 release in theaters. The movie's studio Screen Gems later confirmed the new date for the flick which once again will star Milla Jovovich (who in case you were not sure is the person on the right of the above photo. Paul W.S. Anderson, who wrote all three previous Resident Evil movies and directed the first, is back to both write and direct Resident Evil: Afterlife. He also happens to be the husband of Jovovich; they finally got married after a long relationship (and a baby) last August.

Get ready for more gross looking aliens trying to kill and dismember you. While it's not exactly a shock, Electronic Arts has now finally and officially announced it is indeed developing Dead Space 2 for the PC and other platforms. The sequel to the acclaimed 2008 sci-fi survival horror game does not yet have a release date.

Developed once again by EA's Visceral Games dev studio (previously EA Redwood Shores) the sequel follows Isaac Clarke, the hero of the first game, as he once again battles the shape-shifting Necromorphs. Besides the Plasma Cutter, Clarke will have some new unnamed weapons to use against the aliens and will also deal with more zero-G environments. The press release promises that in addition to scary monsters, there will be "plot twists that will surprise you." Now that's scary.

Earlier this week the US got the official DVD release of Far Cry, the latest butchering . . . er, video game-to-movie adaptation from director Uwe Boll. However it looks like one of his first such adaptation attempts has gotten a sequel.

That would be Alone in the Dark 2, which was first released in other parts of the world in 2008. The good news is that for this latest shot at adapting the survival horror game series Boll served just as a producer of this flick (he directed the first movie in 2005). The odd news is that the movie's lead character Edward Carby, played by Christian Slater in the first movie, has changed into Korean American actor Rick Yune for the sequel (he can be seen in the just released Ninja Assassin). The Wikipedia page for the movie states that the US DVD release is sometime this winter. You have officially been warned.

Electronic Arts did a ton to promote their 2008 sci-fi survival horror game Dead Space. In addition to the game they released two prequel products in the form of a comic book mini-series and a direct-to-DVD animated film. In the end the game was both a critical and financial success so a sequel would seem inevitable.

Now a new Reuters story on the popularity of horror-themed games claims that EA has its sights on releasing Dead Space 2 sometime in 2010. This sounds pretty resonable to us. However G4TV reports that EA has called the Reuters article "speculative". Not a denial per se; just a way of saying, "We have made any official announcements yet."

Just in time for the release of Saw VI in movie theaters today comes the long delayed release of the Saw survival horror game for the PC. The title from developer Zombie Studios and publisher Konami, is now available for download via Steam and Direct2Drive. As Big Download reported earlier this month, the PC version of Saw will be a digital download product only and won't be sold in stores in the US, although it now looks like Steam won't be the only digital download site the game will be made available, as we were originally told.

The Saw game, which features many of the types of traps and torture devices that the movies have, was first announced a couple of years ago by the now defunct Brash Entertainment. When that publishing company went belly up, Konami picked up the rights to the game. Now you can grab the game and see if the wait was worth it . . . kind of like that Droid phone that all the kids are talking about.

Earlier this month Konami released Saw, the horror-action game based on the long running movie series, for the PS3 and Xbox 360. However Konami also announced plans for a PC port of the game. Now the Steam web site is showing that the PC version will be coming to Valve's download service sometime later this month.

The game was developed by Zombie Studios and Big Download has learned that Steam will be the only place North American PC gamers will be able to purchase the Saw port as it will not be made available in retail stores. Konami did the same thing last year when it released the PC version of Silent Hill: Homecoming as a Steam download exclusive.

In a bit of a last minute San Diego Comic Con related announcement, Variety is reporting that a director has been signed for the upcoming adaptation of Dead Space, the recent sci-fi survival horror game from Electronic Arts. That director is D.J. Caruso who previously directed the movies Disturbia and Eagle Eye.

EA is still looking for a scriptwriter for the movie adaptation but once it selects a writer and script they are happy with they will begin pitching a Dead Space movie directly to the major film studios. EA already has a number of their game properties in some kind of film production including Mass Effect. In an odd aside, the article also claims that EA is "working on the second and third installments" of the game series.

We've mentioned that next week's San Diego Comic-Con will have more game-related exhibitors and programming than ever before. This is certainly evident in Capcom's presense at the show. The publisher will hold several panels during the four day event and their booth will show a number of upcoming titles.

They include the PC port of Resident Evil 5 and Dark Void (Lost Planet 2, almost certain to have a PC port, will be there as well). Look for special signing events at the booth (including Dark Void and Battlestar Galactica music composer Bear McCready), giveaways and special Comic-Con only versions of Street Fighter IV game pads and a Dark Void statue.

Macintosh owners and folks who use the Linux OS haven't been able to check out the Penumbra series of first person horror adventure games as one large title. But that's changing on Friday. Developer Frictional Games has announced that it will release The Penumbra Collection for Mac and Linux users on that day. The collection (Penumbra: Overture, Penumbra: Black Plague and the Penumbra: Requiem expansion) will be made available as one download rather than the original's "three downloads with three serials" version.

Beginning with the release on Friday and ending on Sunday you can download the Penumbra Collection for Mac and Linux for a mere $5. The price goes back up to its normal $20 on Monday.