Release News

I discontinued my regular Loaddown posts a while back -- time constraints and a growing number of downloadable platforms made my attempts to cover the beat both incomplete and redundant, especially as the distinction between downloadable and retail-packaged games continues to fade in the Internet age.  But there were a few new games out this week that bear mentioning:

-- Scott Adams' new text adventure, The Inheritance, is out and available at his official website.  I've only played the demo version so far, but from what I've seen it's the classic Adams style with fewer technological limitations.  I'm very much looking forward to digging into it.

-- Double Fine's heavy metal tribute Brutal Legend is coming to the PC via Steam in the not-too-far-off future.  The game didn't do particularly well at retail on consoles, but it's a playable and highly entertaining fantasy, with a visual style like a 1980s Iron Maiden album cover come to life.

-- Falcom's PC version of Ys I & II Chronicles+ is now available on Steam, as a hybridized version of the 2001 and 2009 PC ports.  The brilliant Yuzo Koshiro score is available in several different mixes, the gameplay and visuals are updated and expanded but recognizably intact, and I'm thoroughly enjoying returning to the world of Ys.



Also, I've received word from Roger Wilcox, whose PC ports of his early TRS-80 text adventures I've recently been playing, that with some new tools in hand he has managed to recover most of his "lost" games from aging audio cassettes.  New Windows versions are expected in the future, as his time permits.