The original Hotline Miami is one of my favourite games of all time. Its pounding soundtrack and tense encounters spawned tons of clones, but few that ever captured the magic of the first top-down murderfest. While not a flawless sequel, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number comes close enough to its predecessor's blood-soaked beauty.
]]>While I've my issues with Amazon's global mega-monopoly, I can't deny that the monthly sack of games that Twitch gives out to Amazon Prime subscribers is an oft-impressive bunch. This month more impressive than most - it's a bundle of Devolver Digital's best, including Broforce, both Hotline Miami games, Strafe (much improved by updates), Crossing Souls, The Swords of Ditto and recently lauded ninja platformer The Messenger. You can grab a month of Prime (even the free trial) and once it lapses you get to keep the games, to be launched through the Twitch desktop app.
Update: Until December 31st, Twitch Prime also gives you the SNK Bundle, Hacknet: Complete Edition, Smoke & Sacrifice and Poi, all of which you get copies for yourself to keep and a spare to give to friends. The Devolver pack doesn't come with extra gifts, but is available until January 31st.
]]>We've already seen which games sold best on Steam last year, but a perhaps more meaningful insight into movin' and a-shakin' in PC-land is the games that people feel warmest and snuggliest about. To that end, Valve have announced the winners of the 2017 Steam Awards, a fully community-voted affair which names the most-loved games across categories including best post-launch support, most player agency, exceeding pre-release expectations and most head-messing-with. Vintage cartoon-themed reflex-tester Cuphead leads the charge with two gongs, but ol' Plunkbat and The Witcher series also do rather well - as do a host of other games from 2017's great and good.
Full winners and runners-up below, with links to our previous coverage of each game if you're so-minded. Plus: I reveal which game I'd have gone for in each category.
]]>Sundays are for writing The Sunday Papers - mostly. Another fortnight has gone by since I last did so however, for which I can only apologise. Let's me make it up to you with... links to articles about games.
Yussef Cole at Unwinnable wrote about Cuphead and the racist legacy of the animation period it references. This is great criticism.
]]>The level editor for Hotline Miami 2 [official site] is now properly launched, letting you create your own levels and campaigns for Dennaton's top-down bloodbath. Or, you know, meant to make your own but mostly end up playing levels other people have made - that's fine too. After six months in public beta, the editor is now live and the game's on sale too.
]]>It seems so familiar now, with a sequel and several imitators behind it, but at the time Hotline Miami was so exciting. What a mix of things! A superb soundtrack, lightning-speed precise controls, a built-in rythym powering the action, a palpable sense of disorientation, breathlessly nasty violence and a throughline of rare subversion.
]]>Way back in May, we were told the Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number [official site] Level Editor was "pretty close to completion" by developers Dennaton Games. It's taken its sweet time, but the subversive, hyper-violent top-down shooter's level editor has now entered its public beta phase, meaning it's now time for you to get your trigger-happy hands round blueprints of your own. So long as you're playing on Windows. For the rest, the wait continues.
]]>The chance to make your own Hotline Miami 2 [official site] murder-mazes has been a long time coming - it was "pretty close to completion" seven months ago - but now it's had a release date stuck to it. Well, a beta release date. Folk have been making their own Hotline Miami 2 maps via a half-shut back door for ages, but come December 10 it all gets official.
]]>What are the best Steam Summer Sale deals? Each day for the duration of the sale, we'll be offering our picks - based on price, what we like, and what we think more people should play. Read on for the five best deals from day 10 of the sale.
]]>What are the best Steam Summer Sale deals? Each day for the duration of the sale, we'll be offering our picks - based on price, what we like, and what we think more people should play. Read on for the five best deals from day one of the sale.
]]>The promised level editor for Hotline Miami 2 [official site] is "pretty close to completion", developers Dennaton Games have explained in a a recent blog post. The editor looks to be pretty full-featured, allowing you to create anything from a single level to a full campaign with cutscenes.
Folks have been scrappily making their own levels for a while by hacking into the game's disabled editor, a method which leaves it all a bit glitchy and crashy. Roll on, official tools!
]]>Ah man, this one's pretty good. A while back the producers at ComplexTV flew out to London to interview the reclusive developers of Hotline Miami [official site]. You can watch the results below: A just-about 30 minute-long documentary telling the tale of how two Swedish hipsters created one of the greatest indie games of all time. One of the guys cries in it, so you know it's good.
]]>Adam's already run his review of Dennaton's sequel to neon-hued tactical murder party Hotline Miami, but while he's a big fan, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number hasn't been met with universal praise. Alec, more cautious about the game, joins Adam to discuss what may and may not be deliberate about its design choices, its bewildering story and its bugs.
]]>Live. Die. Repeat.
Live. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Die. Repeat.
Hotline Miami 2 [official site] is wonderful.
]]>I've been a fan of lovely game-related tat in oversized boxes for some time, so here's a thing that's cool to me. RPS allies Gamer Network have announced a service for helping independent developers to create AAA-tier collector's editions called Gamer's Edition [official website]. They're partnering up with Idea Planet Collectibles to allow devs and their fans to set the specifications and then crowdfund a one-off production load through pre-orders. The first games to get the GE treatment will be Papers, Please and a double pack of Hotline Miami and its sequel.
]]>Imagine if all your favourite murderers in video games got together and did murders together, like a superhero team or a supergroup. The Avengers with no thought for collateral damage, or The Plastic Ono Band with hammers. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number [official site] is more a tribute act of murderers, with schlubs inspired by Jacket's cool murders in the first game. Hotline Miami's crossover with Payday 2 is coming closer to that supergroup dream, though, bringing Jacket to the heist FPS.
Oh, and did I mention that Hotline Miami 2 now has a release date? It does: March 10th.
]]>It's difficult to accept that Hotline Miami - the sound of the future - was three long years ago. It's more difficult still to accept that there might not have been anything which put quite such a fire under me since. This foul-mouthed 'guide' is one of my favourite things I've ever published here, and I'd love to know how to commune again with the part of me which made it. I can't see Hotline Miami 2 [official site] doing it, because despite controversial content the surprise factor probably isn't going to be there. I'm sure it will be an interesting evolution of HLM's rhythmic brutality, but can it manage OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS again?
Anyway, there's a free prequel comic out on Steam. I probably should said that to start with instead of picking fluff from my navel.
]]>The publishers and developer of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number have responded to the game being refused classification in Australia saying they are "concerned and disappointed" by the Classification Board's treatment of the game.
In a blog post the publisher Devolver and developer Dennaton contest several of the elements of the board's report. First up is Midnight Animal – the movie set scene which the board described as a visual depiction of implied violence". The company isn't disputing the violence or that the scene exists but is pointing out that it's not a compulsory part of the game.
]]>Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number has been refused classification in Australia, joining the likes of Left 4 Dead 2 and Saints Row IV. The report by the Australian Classification Board cites a visual depiction of implied sexual violence as part of their decision to refuse the game classification.
Kotaku Australia obtained a copy of the report which contained this segment about the scene (warning: description of violence and sexual violence):
]]>This makes sense. Co-operative bank robbery manshoot Payday 2 is getting a new piece of DLC which is themed around the propulsive, topdown, ultra-violent manbeat Hotline Miami. It's called Payday 2: Hotline Miami, and there's a live-action trailer below which contains little detail, followed by some further sentences which contain similarly little detail.
]]>GO BIG OR GO HOME. That's the E3 motto that I just made up but I imagine it's fairly close to the instructions that studios receive from their lords and masters. A trailer is delivered and returned. "Make it louder. Make it faster. Add hyperbole. Add buzzwords. Make it bigger or go home. Also, please note that your home has been reposessed until such time as you go bigger."
Hotline Miami 2 could have spewed a hallucinogenic cocktail of violence, music and neon onto screens and into our eyes, but that would be too obvious. Instead, Miami turns up the heat by makings its E3 trailer about something entirely unexpected.
]]>If murder is a merry lark then why, surely it's even better with a chum! Hotline Miami is mostly a dark journey into the night alone without anyone to hold your hand but hey, shhh shhh shhh, it's all okay in the sequel Wrong Number. A new trailer shows your murderman sometimes has a little heavily-armed help, though I couldn't say for certain whether they're an AI buddy (which they appear to be), a co-op pal, or a figment of your imagination.
]]>When I first learned of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number's existence, it was set to storm into our lives armed with nothing but a pool cue and the steely resolve of someone who's died in the same room, like, 58 times in a row at the tail end of 2013. It is now the tail beginning of 2014, but still the storied hotline goes straight to the answering machine. So then, when will we finally get to feel deeply uncomfortable about gruesomely killing a whole mess of people again? Try mid-to-late 2014.
]]>Hotline Miami has played like a dream since day one, so Hotline Miami 2 is giving the blood red spotlight over to story. Between multiple characters and scenarios, a running meta-commentary on the series' fans, and ruminations on The End, Dennaton clearly wants to make a statement with this one. The blink-and-you're-mincemeat murder masterstroke has never been a thing of restraint, however, and it may well have finally crossed a line. As Cara pointed out in a recent preview for PC Gamer, the game nearly depicts violent sexual assault and then casually moves on without giving the event context or meaning. For many, it was a deeply troubling moment in an otherwise excellent demo - one that prompted more horror and revulsion than contemplation. I spoke with Dennaton's Dennis Wedin about the scene's purpose, plans to retool it, and the possibility of scrapping it altogether.
]]>Hotline Miami 2 is a real thing with real dreams and real hopes and real (read: thankfully fictional) depictions of some really fucked up shit. But honestly, why should you believe me? So far, I've only been able to produce a burbling gore fountain of words and a psychedelic, extra-scrambly teaser. Where's the meat? Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I'm just making the whole thing up. But hah, joke's on you because Eurogamer's produced nearly five minutes of gameplay footage, with commentary provided by an endlessly clucking man in a chicken mask. See? I can't be crazy if everyone around me is even crazier. Watch the full thing after the break.
]]>Sorry, sorry - one last announcement for our PC gaming show this weekend: Hotline Miami 2 - which we revealed earlier today - will be playable on the show floor.
]]>BOOM. Stop. BOOM. Stop. BOOM. Stop. That was the entirety of my Hotline Miami fan fiction. Do you like it? Personally, I think it falls apart a bit in the third act, but I suppose I am my own harshest critic. The reason I mention it, though, is that I imagine there'd be quite a few more BOOMs in the mix if multiplayer were part of the equation. And since some kind of divine sequel mandate writ large upon the holiest of Dorito bags demands that it show up in all games with numbers higher than two in their titles, I had to ask Dennaton's Dennis Wedin if he and Cactus were feeling the pressure with Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number. His response? Not even a little.
]]>Yes, it's happening.
Hotline Miami 2 is indeed very real, and the neon-slathered sequel made quite the appearance at E3 last week. Or rather, um, outside it. In a parking lot. Inside a trailer. It was an oddball setup even by E3 standards, but it got the job done. A brand new sparse, acoustic theme song drifted through the wheeled bullet's chrome-y confines, mirroring the first's but with a hint of somber resignation. Dennaton's Dennis Wedin quickly explained why: Wrong Number is the second Hotline Miami, but also the last. It's been a wild, psychadelic, gore-and-teeth-spattered ride for Cactus and himself, but all things must come to an end.
]]>I dove back down Hotline Miami's blood-slick Slip 'n' Slide of utterly blissful brutality this weekend, and now it's all I can think about. It's a testament to the sheer refinement of its systems, I think, that it can so thoroughly hook me time and time again. But nothing is perfect - not even when it's really, really close. So Cactus and co are charging forward with a full-blown sequel. Will there be more breeds of dog? More types of dudes with cat-like shotgunning-your-face-off reflexes? Cats? Um, well, no one's really sure yet. Oh, but it will have music! This has been - as we say in nigh-impenetrable videogame parlance - confirmed.
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