broken-sword posts

A good portion of the country is in a deep freeze. All the better to stay at home and play some games with friends.

• Steam has a new beta version of Monday Night Combat available for download for people who pre-ordered the game.
• GoG.com has added the original version of Broken Sword for free when people buy the new Director's Cut version of the adventure game
• Bungie has filed for a number of trademarks to various names. Not really helpful but some people like seeing this stuff.
• More Far Cry 3 speculation hits the internets.
• A Battlefield Bad Company 2/Vietnam server patch has been released that fixes, among other things, the "invisible boat bug"
• The two Penny Arcade Adventures games are selling well on the new Mac App Store but a third installment is still not coming.
• Check out this feature-length movie made inside Grand Theft Auto IV.
• And finally: by this time tomorrow, Minecraft is most likely to have gone over the 1 million units sales mark.

Wow, what timing. Just as GoG.com has posted up the graphical remake of the first Broken Sword game, developer Revolution Software has announced plans to release a similar remake for Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror. This will be a fairly straight remake of the classic adventure game with no new material added. However it will be getting improved music and graphics including fully animated facial expressions. There will also be a new hint system and diary and will feature support for Dropbox for save games that will enable players to play the game on multiple PCs.

The Broken Sword 2 revamp will also come with an new digital comic drawn by Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons. While the game will be released first for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, it should be out for the PC and Mac early in 2011.

[Via Rock Paper Shotgun]

GoG.com is adding two more games for folks to download and purchase from its DRM-free PC game library. One of them is Broken Sword: Directors Cut, the 2008 released remake of the original adventure game from developer Revolution Software. Normally the price for the game is $5.99 but from now until the end of this weekend you can get this game and Broken Sword 2 and 3 for 60 percent off if all three are purchased together or 30 percent off separately.

Also added to GoG.com today is Dream Pinball 3D, the pinball game from TopWare Interactive with six different tables, for $5.99. Finally there's a one day sale for the Red Baron Pack. You can get this collection of three games in the classic WWI flight sim series for just $2.49, a 75 percent price cut.

One of the truly classic PC adventure games is Broken Sword: Shadow Of The Templars. The title, originally developed by Revolution Software and released back in 1992, is now getting a "director's cut" version on the PC in a manner similar to LucasArts' graphical remakes of the first two Monkey Island games.

Both Steam and GamersGate have the game available for purchase and download for $9.99. (GamersGate also has a Mac version). The director's cut includes a new storyline that's been added to the original along with some new first person mini-games, improved audio, a new help system and new "facial expressions" that have been drawn by Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons

If you like adventure games, the name Charles Cecil means a lot. The head of UK-based Revolution Software helped to create the classic Broken Sword series of games along with Beneath A Steel Sky, a sci-fi adventure game with artwork by Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons. That latter game has recently been re-released on the iPhone.

Now Eurogamer reports the Cecil is ready to dip his hand back into making games again (his last original game was helping with the design of the 2K Games-published adaptation of The DaVinci Code movie in 2006). Speaking at tthe Eurogamer Expo he states, "All I can say is, I am working with Dave Gibbons and we're working on a new adventure game." That's all he would admit to although he did add, "I love writing and playing adventure games and that is what I'm going to stick to."

We've written many times in the past about how game-to-movie adaptations just don't work for the most part. However, part of the reason may be because most games don't have solid storylines to hang a movie plot on. That may prove to be an opening for Charles Cecil, the head of Revolution Software and creator of the acclaimed Broken Sword adventure game series.

In a new chat with IncGames, Cecil says he's been on getting a movie version of the Broken Sword series started. saying. "1 am in discussions with Radar Pictures, the production company behind Last Samurai and Chronicles of Riddick amongst many other films. We are still planning the project and I have been re-writing the game to work as a film treatment." Oddly enough the plots for the Broken Sword games have similarities to succesful films like The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure. Cecil says he's award of that and adds, "We are aiming this as a post-Da Vince Code story – it is 'knowing' in its approach."

Broken Sword 2.5 is a game programmed from fans for fans. It is an unofficial sequel of the other two Broken Sword games from Revolution Software. Visit the official website for more information.

Download Broken Sword 2.5 (667 MB)