Eight years after Dontnod’s time-rewinding teen drama made its debut, the original Life is Strange has now been played by over 20 million people.
]]>Harmony: The Fall Of Reverie, Don't Nod's latest effort to make your choices really properly matter, is out now, and you can get it along with the dev's other games for a bit cheaper as they celebrate their 15th birthday. The sale is offering discounts of up to 80% on Steam until June 15th (next week). It covers all the games developed or published by Don't Nod, which naturally includes the runaway teen-girl-squad hit Life Is Strange, if you are one of the eight people who haven't played it yet, I guess.
]]>I've come to regard the four main games in the Life Is Strange franchise as kind of like the siblings in a big family. There's the eldest, who will always be heaped with praise because no matter what the others achieve, she did it all first. Her twin is always keen to remind you that even though she's the younger and perhaps not quite as accomplished half of the duo, she's more charismatic and less coy about who she is and what she wants. Then there's the youngest, who's extremely likeable, in large part because she's learned what behaviours to avoid just by watching the others make mistakes; even if she's modelled herself on the eldest a bit too closely in her quest for approval, and so hasn't really forged her own identity.
Then there's Life Is Strange 2: the awkward middle child. Still very recognisably a member of the family, but the one that stands out in all the photos because he's just a bit gawky. He's experimented a lot with his storytelling and plotline in an attempt to make himself stand out, and it's only sort-of worked. His romantic subplots are underdeveloped, his villains are one-dimensional, and his attempt at tackling a Very Serious Issue has grown in all crooked.
]]>The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is a playable teaser released to promote Life Is Strange 2, the first episode of which followed on three months after this surprise p.t. dropped during E3 2018. Not to be confused with Silent Hills P.T. (it's like… the exact opposite of that), Captain Spirit is free to play, takes two to three hours to complete, and manages to perfectly encapsulate the Life Is Strange experience without giving anything away about the main (read: paid-for) games in the series. It also features possibly my favourite LIS protagonist in adorable wannabe superhero Chris, which is quite a high bar to clear, considering how much time I spend banging on about what great characters Chloe and Sean are.
]]>How time flies, eh? We were so busy putting together The RPS 100 last month (including the first ever Reader Edition), that we clean ran out of time to do another RPS Time Capsule. But fear not! Our written repository of games we've deemed worthy of saving from the eternal hell bin of the future has returned, and this time it's a good 'un. The year is 2015, folks, and cor, has there ever been a better year for video games? Of course, with only 11 slots to fill in our RPS Time Capsule, it also means we're having to say goodbye to some real gems. Come and see what's transcended to the higher plane of Capsule existence.
]]>It’s fair to say that Deck Nine had a lot to prove with Life Is Strange: True Colors. While it wasn’t their first Life Is Strange - the Colorado studio released the spin-off game Before The Storm in 2017 - it was the first time they were tasked with creating their own world and characters, instead of inheriting Dontnod’s creations.
Fortunately Deck Nine successfully managed the tightrope walk of honouring the series’ existing DNA, while still taking the Life Is Strange world in new directions. To find out more about how it was done, I sat down with Philip Lawrence and Sarah Van Rompeay, respectively the Senior Narrative Designer and Senior Producer at Square Enix External Studios.
]]>The first ever Life Is Strange tie-in novel, subtitled Steph's Story, has been announced for next year. The novel will be a prequel to last year's Life Is Strange: True Colors, and will follow recurring character Steph Gingrich and her bandmate-slash-girlfriend Izzie on the tour that will eventually lead them to Haven Springs, the game's setting.
]]>Amazon Studios are considering making Prime shows and films based on video games, signing a first-look deal with the production company currently planning adaptations of games including Disco Elysium and Life Is Strange. This will give Amazon the first opportunity to snap up anything DJ2 Entertainment might be making, if they want to. This is not, however, an announcement that Amazon will make these specific shows. These shows still might never get made, by anyone. But maybe it's enough of a step forwards for you to start daydreaming about what such shows could be?
]]>There's no two ways about it: I'm a big old card-carrying Life Is Strange nerd. Seriously, I own some geeky merch to demonstrate my love for this series; up to and including, yes, the official Life Is Strange deck of playing cards. In other words, I am exactly the sort of fan the Life Is Strange: Remastered Collection is geared towards; so you may be surprised when I say that I'm not planning on picking it up anytime soon.
I'll be honest, I've been wary of the remasters of the first Life Is Strange title and its prequel Before The Storm ever since the first stills were released. "Look how much emotion their faces show now!" was the boast, splashed across side-by-side images of Rachel frowning in the original vs Rachel smiling in the remaster, Chloe frowning in the original vs Chloe smiling in the remaster, Max smiling slightly in the original vs Max grinning widely in the remaster... perhaps you begin to see my issue.
]]>Deck Nine's next supernatural drama 'em up Life Is Strange: True Colors is just about to land in September and Square Enix have now queued up a longer look at an early part of the game while you wait. The new 13 minutes of gameplay show off protagonist Alex Chen's first meeting with two other main characters—and potential romantic interests—at the local record store. Perfect place for a bit of bants about Smash Mouth and Kings Of Leon, naturally.
]]>Life is going to be slightly less strange this September, it turns out. Real life will stay weird, I have no doubt, but Deck Nine's adventure dramas are getting a bit spread out. While Life Is Strange: True Colors will still be launching in September, the Remastered Collection planned for the end of the month is now being delayed to avoid putting too much pressure on the development team. We can now expect the remastered bits to come in early 2022. Another trailer for True Colors will land tomorrow as well.
]]>If you missed Square Enix's E3 2021 showcase this evening, worry not, as we've rounded up all the important news, trailers and PC announcements right here in handy list format. While not super heavy on big new exclusives (alas, still no news on FF16 or when Final Fantasy VII Remake might be leaving the console realm for PC sadly), but we did get to see the world premiere of Eidos Montreal's new Marvel Guardians Of The Galaxy game, as well as the first gameplay footage of Team Ninja's hotly rumoured Final Fantasy Origin game. Whether you need a recap or just plain missed it in all the E3 excitement, here's everything you need to know.
]]>Normally, when I watch shows or play games with superheroes in, I always end up thinking about how cool it'd be to have their powers, but I don't get that with Life Is Strange. In the latest trailer for Life Is Strange: True Colours, we see new character Alex Chen putting her empathy abilities to the test. She can feel other people's emotions, which must be so mentally taxing! Albeit, useful in Life Is Strange's angsty teen stories.
]]>Tencent's desire to throw cash at game development studios continues. The media conglomerate has now made an investment in Dontnod Entertainment of Life Is Strange and Tell Me Why fame. It's a minority stake, not an acquisition, but represents another developer that Tencent are linking themselves to this year.
]]>I watched a lot of Bernard's Watch as a child. This has left me with infrequent frustrations over not being able to pause time at my whim, and an unease over the prospect that anyone with such an ability would almost inevitably age, wither, and die before any of their loved ones. The greatest failing of Bernard's Watch was its cowardly decision to leave this trauma unresolved.
Life Is Strange swaps out pausing time for rewinding it, which is better, but still makes me worry about Maxine's memory banks.
]]>Stuck for things to play this weekend? After offering their exhaustive JRPG lineup at a pittance last week, Square Enix have this week gutted the price of their Eidos Anthology bundle on Steam as part of their "Stay Home & Play" campaign - offering 54 PC classics, contemporary bangers and bizarre curiosities for just under 30 quid, in aid of charities affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
]]>Glaad (formerly known as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) have brought their media awards back for the 31st year, and for the second year in a row they're recognising video games "for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community and the issues that affect their lives".
Last year, Jay Castello wrote about how these video game awards highlight difficulties in celebrating queer representation, and this year it's slighty better, but it still feels a bit like it's missing the point.
]]>And with that we are another year closer to the eagerly anticipated cooling of all matter. You may have read that the concept of weeks, months and years is the culmination of humanity’s collective understanding of a complicated astronomical pattern. It's an interesting take. However, the correct hypothesis was posited by your stoner housemate Jed from university. “Time is, like, a construct,” he said, with the deep wisdom and clarity only three tins of San Miguel can deliver. “The Chinese have a totally different calendar, y’know. Do you want to order takeaway?”
So let’s chronicle games about time, specifically those that prove the passing of years is nothing but a directionless tumble through the jelly-like substance of spacetime. Here are 9 games about time travel. But which of them would you undo?
]]>It's been a tough weekend for a lot of people. And there's a tough season coming up, too. Despite Saint Nick's PRs working over time to make us all cheerful, Christmas can actually be a sad and stressful time, can't it?
Listen: it’s ok to be sad. It's fine. You feel what you feel. So, I asked the RPS hivemind what their gaming happy places were, so we could all share them together. They might turn out to be places you'd like to visit too.
]]>DontNod have revealed that energetic storyteller Chris from the series’ standalone episode, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit will return in the game’s second episode of brotherly runaway simulator Life Is Strange 2.
In a teaser video, which you can see below, season 2 protagonist Daniel and Captain Spirit protagonist Chris share a brief dialogue, which promises a cute friendship between the two kids. And I’m absolutely sure that nothing tragic will come of it. Right?
]]>This article discusses death and personal bereavement
I never intended to make videogames about my brother. He died in May last year, standing in the crowded lobby of the Manchester Arena, at the hands of the radicalised young man who’d walked into the building and detonated a homemade explosive. I learned later, while numbly standing with a police officer in middle of the cavernous, shrapnel-damaged space, that he was standing approximately seven feet away from the bomber, and was killed instantly. His name was Martyn, and he was 29.
Going through something like that completely altered my trajectory as a person. But, over time, I realised that I’d quietly changed as an artist and games designer too -- everything I was working on had stopped, and games had unexpectedly become the outlet through which I began to process it all. With this came a changed perspective: that games should be depicting the honest reality of death, because it can be incredibly helpful when they do.
]]>Brendan: Hello, Alice. I’ve just been dandering along a quiet highway in Life Is Strange 2. There’s no time-travelling gal pals in this one (at least, none so far) but there is a sad psychic pre-teen and his hoody-wearing brother. I don’t know why I’m telling you all this, you just played through it too, and we’re gonna have a chat about each episode as it comes along - what we liked, what we thought was dumb, who we think is secretly a murderer - rather than wait until the whole game is out to review it. I guess I’m explaining all this for our stinking readers. Hey readers. SPOILERS AHEAD.
]]>The Life Is Strange series isn't known for telling the happiest of stories, but the Gamescom reveal trailer for Dontnod's sequel Life Is Strange 2 wastes no time in letting you know that this one is going to be a downer. The video below gives us a brief introduction to the young Diaz brothers - Sean and Daniel - and gives us some hints as to why they're on the road, living rough and apparently trying to stay ahead of the police on a long journey south. Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure that superpowers are involved.
]]>As you may well have guessed after the superhero antics in Life Is Strange 2's free playable side story, The Awesome Adventures Of Captain Spirit, it seems the sequel may well play with powers far less subtle than time travel. Ahead of the game's "reveal" later this month, a new wee teaser trailer shows a cop car (+associated cop) being flipped by something resembling a telekinetic blast (or other supershove). As demonstrations of power go, yeah, that's more obvious than telling someone the contents of their pockets. See for yourself.
]]>It’s Monday, and what better way to start the day than with a crunchy bowl of Honesty covered in ice cold, full fat Admissions of Failure: I have not played much Life Is Strange. I got about fifteen minutes into the first episode, the dialogue started to grate, and I zoned out. Controversial opinion maybe, but if you’re making a game about teenage girls, it can’t hurt to pay someone who is or has previously been an actual teenage girl to help write it for you.
Guess what though? I played through the whole of The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, got a bit sad, and then I played it again, and now I’m well up for spending more time in the Life Is Strange universe. Which is great, because it means I don’t have to talk shit about a small child. Yay!
]]>The first episode of Life Is Strange 2 will arrive on September 27. Dontnod's Twitter account has announced the release date, along with a painfully brief teaser displaying only the title and the series length: five episodes. Beyond that, the developers are keeping quiet.
For more details we’ll need to wait until August.
]]>Oh look, this Life is Strange spin-off is due out next week as a freebie. The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is a two-hour pretend-em-up in which you play Chris, an imaginative kid who fancies himself a superhero on the weekends, and isn’t afraid to take on evil beings like the powerful Snowmancer (a snowman) and nasty beasts such as the dreaded Water Eater (the water heater). That sounds like fun. Until you discover the real enemies lurking in Chris’ modest bungalow. Grief, alcoholism, and neglect are the underlying villains here, if the demo I saw at E3 is anything to go by. More like the Super Concerning Adventures of Captain Sadness, am I right?
*starts sobbing*
]]>Life is Strange was always promised to be a big complicated weirdo universe. I thought Dontnod started fulfilling that promise when they setup the expansion/prequel Before The Storm and let us explore superpower-less backstories. But here's a bit of something completely different: The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit; an original story set in the Life is Strange universe and taking on a completely different style of story and genre of storytelling. You'll play as a young boy and take on adventures in his imagination. And by extension, all of the places where his imagination can take you. And by extension, a reminder of how much happier we were before we were all old and sad. Yes, trailer, I do remember that I had a childhood. Yes, I too would like to go back.
]]>"Forget everything you think you know about vampires," the noblewoman in period dress tells me, in her straight-out-of-Hammer cut-glass accent. This was during our latest night-time meeting (for we cannot walk in sunlight), shortly after I'd caught her secretly sinking her teeth into the necks of the dispossessed, and shortly before I'd been beset by agony upon trying to enter a church. I don't know what foolish notions her ladyship thought I had about my new status as a fellow vamp - maybe that they all have Welsh accents, or drink blood via their toenails - but ambitious, atmospheric fangs 'n' conversation game Vampyr doesn't often veer far from the current neck-biter hymn sheet.
It sure does veer in almost every other respect, mind you. I'm not sure that 2018 will yield many games quite as expansive as Vampyr, but what I wouldn't give for a director's cut that oiled its creakiest coffin hinges.
]]>Spoiler warning: This article includes spoilers for the entirety of both Life Is Strange and Life Is Strange: Before The Storm.
Life Is Strange: Before The Storm is, in its own right, a very good game. But it can’t avoid the fact that it’s a Life Is Strange game, specifically a prequel to the original. And in the original, one of its central characters is dead.
]]>It's time to say goodbye to Chloe and Max again, at least for a while. They've had their ups and down over the course of episodic adventure Life Is Strange and its prequel, and today they're getting a final send-off in one extra episode, out now for owners of the Deluxe edition of Before The Storm.
Expect heartstrings to be tugged on with great gusto. While the stakes may be low this time around, heartbreak seems inevitable as the two childhood friends take one last adorably dorky walk down memory lane before they have to go their separate ways, as Max's family moves away from Arcadia Bay.
]]>Tragic teen tale Life Is Strange: Before The Storm has concluded with the launch of its third episode last night. Before The Storm is the prequel to 2015's wonderful third-person coming-of-ager, doing away with the time-travel powers as it focuses on wild rebel Chloe and her gal pal Rachel Amber. It's a story whose final ending was already known, but I'm told life is about the journey not the destination. A bonus episode is still to come, reuniting Max and Chloe and their original voice actors for a prequel to this prequel, but that's separate from Before The Storm's story - and only for Deluxe Edition owners. For now, let's see what Chloe and Rachel are up to in episode 3:
]]>The voice actor behind spunky punky teen rebel Chloe in the original Life Is Strange, Ashly Burch, will reprise her role in the bonus episode of prequel series Life Is Strange: Before the Storm. While Chloe is the main character in Before the Storm, Burch couldn't play her because of the voice actor strike so publishers Square Enix replaced her with another actor, Rhianna DeVries. Oh dear oh dear. But the strike is over now and Burch will voice Chloe once more in 'Farewell'. Life is strange but business is stranger.
]]>Zack Garriss wants you to feel guilty when bad things happen to good people. The lead writer of Life is Strange prequel Before the Storm is as passionate as any writer I’ve ever met on the subject of interactive storytelling and he has some strong opinions about the future of the medium. Guilt and grief might be the main course, but there’s a side order of emotional highs and the occasional bout of expletive-laden insult swordfighting, minus the swords.
]]>As someone who loved Life if Strange and will probably play Life is Strange: Before the Storm [official site] immediately I have been avoiding pretty much all news and spoilers regarding the latter. To the point where I will a) not be watching this 9-minute video at all and b) don't actually know what the game involves other than being set before the first game.
That puts me in rather a bind when it comes to this being a news story about a 9-minute video for Life is Strange: Before the Storm so here's the thing: I'm going to embed the video after the jump in case you want to watch it and then just write a load of words I like so that there is #content BUT if Graham asks you could tell him it was a great and relevant news story full of insights and also perhaps that I deserve a payrise?
]]>There's an obvious metaphor in the subtitle of the Life is Strange [official site] prequel. Before the Storm refers to a meteorological incident in the original game, but this is a coming of age story. Growing up can be as violent, euphoric, frightening and cleansing as a storm.
What I've seen of the prequel makes youth seem like the precursor to tragedy. We're going to play through the origin story of teen rebel Chloe and we're going to see the buds of a romance that moves through awkwardness to realisation and eventually gets lost in the horrors of a missing person case. In one of the scenes shown to the press at E3, Chloe can choose to describe her relationship with Rachel as a friendship or “something more”, but however she chooses to see it, and however she can't help but feel it, we know the end is loss.
]]>The Steam summer sale is in full blaze. For a while it even blazed so hot that the servers went on fire and all the price stickers peeled off the games. Either that or the store just got swamped with cheapskates looking for the best bargains. Cheapskates like you! Well, don’t worry. We’ve rounded up some recommendations - both general tips and some newly added staff choices.
Here are the things you should consider owning in your endless consumeristic lust for a happiness which always seems beyond reach. You're welcome.
]]>Heartbreaking teen melodrama Life Is Strange will return on August 31st with a three-episode prequel starring Chloe, named Life Is Strange: Before The Storm [official site]. Set three years before the first game, it'll tell how Chloe's doomed relationship with gal pal Rachel Amber began. Life Is Strange makes clear how that all ends so sure, go on, twist the knife, you monsters.
Unexpectedly, this is in addition to the new Life Is Strange game that creators Dontnod Entertainment recently announced. Yup, a different team is making it, so two new Lives Are Strange are coming. Here, check out the announcement trailer:
]]>We loved Life Is Strange [official site] here at RPS. Even though we're so old that we had to Ask Jeeves (.com) what all of the slang its characters used actually meant, we fell in love with the autumnal world and the people sighing and struggling through their strange little lives. In a tale as old as time-manipulation, a photography student uncovers mystery and rekindles friendship in a quiet town on the brink of disaster. We've all been there.
And we've been waiting for more. Turns out development studio Dontnod have been holding out on us because they've been working on the follow-up for some time already, as they make clear in the video below.
]]>The fab time-travelling teen drama Life Is Strange [official site] is to become a live-action television series, Square Enix announced today. Or whatever it is we're supposed to call television shows made for cybernet screens. A "digital series", they say. Netflix or something, perhaps? We don't know who what where when - or why, really - but we do know Squeenix have partnered with Legendary's Digital Studios arm for it.
]]>Time-altering teenage dramathon Life Is Strange [official site] has just made its first episode free to download forever and ever, while also making the whole story playable on Mac and Linux. For those of you who don't remember, it is the story of photography student Max and her tough toque-wearing friend Chloe. It's an adventure game by Dontnod (the studio that made sci-fi action adventure Remember Me) with hints of Heavy Rain and Telltale-style decision-making. Look, they've created a new trailer to show off bits of the whole saga. Be warned, though, there are some spoilerish things involved.
]]>The full first episode of Life Is Strange [official site] will tomorrow be set free forever. We've written a lot about one of our favourite games of 2015, about individual episodes as they each came out and giving them the Fail Forward and Cogwatch treatments and... it's weird to be thinking about Episode 1 again. Now knowing where Life Is Strange was going and what it would become, I want to add disclaimers like "Look, Episode 1 is awkward but it really does find itself, okay." I'm weirdly protective.
]]>Dark days for the world. Maybe videogames can save us? Haha yes of course they can haha.
Here are some really good videogames, though. They'll take you to a better place for a while. These are the RPS team's 13 personal favourites from the current Steam Summer Sale: we believe in these games, and we believe that you should play them too.
]]>It didn't occur to me that people might mod Life Is Strange [official site] - I guess it seemed a better fit for Tumblr cosplay and fanfiction and fan art so I didn't really think about people tweaking the original until the Max Punk mod turned up.
The idea is that it converts Max's clothing, makeup and hair to present her more in line with the teen emo aesthetic. You can now imagine her listening to a lot of Evanescence and (and I'm aware of how badly I'm showing my age here) having a Livejournal. Actually, I think Max would probably have an Instagram and a Tumblr and maybe be part of all manner of classic camera communities ALSO she would probably be a really active part of the lomography community.
]]>As much as I like Life Is Strange [official site], I'll not pick up the episodic magiteen story's new boxed Limited Edition. I will, however, gladly reap the benefits of this gussied-up new release. A new patch is out now for everyone, bringing improved subtitles in loads more languages, for starters. The promised Director's Commentary is now here too, free for folks who own the game.
]]>Oh good grief, look, I'm out of ways to tell you I really like Life Is Strange [official site]. Go read its entry in the RPS Advent calendar. Or! A demo has finally arrived on PC, yonks after it hit consoles, letting all and sundry have a wee go at the time-travelling adventure. Head on over to Steam if you're curious what I'm always banging on about.
]]>What is the best story of 2015? The RPS Advent Calendar highlights our favourite games from throughout the year, and behind today's door is...
]]>Although announced prior to the start of episodic adventure Life Is Strange earlier this year, Vampyr [official site] was thereafter resigned to the shadows cast by its Spanish flu-ridden early 20th century London cityscape setting. Developers DONTNOD Entertainment have only now revealed more about their upcoming vampire-infused action RPG.
]]>Life Is Strange [official site] is pretty great - great enough to be our current game of the month (er, whoops, we'll have more to say about it once we wrassle Fallout 4 down to the ground and hogtie it). It's great enough that even I, who no longer owns any game in hardcopy, can understand why someone might want to have on their shelf and hold it at night. Good news, gamehuggers!
Square Enix today announced a 'Limited Edition' physical release for Life Is Strange, coming in January with extra odds and ends. But not to North America, it seems.
]]>Life Is Strange [official site] Episode One came out all the way back in January of this year but with the release of the final episode a couple of weeks ago, this is a fine time to celebrate the series as a whole. Dontnod's episodic adventue is a mystery-drama set in a small Oregon town. Combining time travel, photography, tragedy, terror and scrapbooks, it's all but untouched by the typical canon of gaming inspirations and feels entirely comfortable within its episodic format. If you only have time for one game this month, catch up with this unexpected treat.
]]>Pip and Alice have been enjoying Life Is Strange [official site] and getting together for little chats about each episode of Dontnod Entertainment's coming-of-age time travel bonanza as they came out. Episode 5 wrapped everything up last week - or did it? - so they've come together one final time to chat about that, look at the series as a finished piece, and maybe even answer the big question: just how strange is life?
This chat is, of course, oozing spoilers from every teenage pore.
]]>The final episode of time-meddling drama Life is Strange [official site] has arrived. My thoughts about the game still haven't entirely settled so I might revisit the game in a few weeks when they're firmer BUT right now I'm going to do a mini Wot I Think (no spoilers) and then a separate chat with Alice who has also played (that one will have spoilers coming out the wazoo).
In case you've missed us chatting about it on here, Life Is Strange tells the story of Max Caulfield, a teen girl who discovers she has the power to rewind time after witnessing a crime. With her newfound power and the reappearance of a childhood friend she finds herself investigating the disappearance of a fellow student and fielding visions of an impending apocalypse. As the player you get to fiddle with time in order to make and remake choices, adjusting the adventure as you go.
Here's Wot I Think [At The Moment, Before I've Had A Chance To Really Let Everything Settle]:
]]>"Gripping" and "gut-wrenching" are the words used to describe the final episode of Life is Strange [official site] in this morning's press release. If the end of Max and Chloe's story manages to tug at my heart-strings as well as wrenching my guts, it might give me a full internal makeover. For those who've been following along, the trailer below is a lovely recap to get you in the mood for the ending, which arrives tomorrow. If you've been waiting for all five episodes to release before starting, avoid the trailer and its spoilers.
]]>The Life Is Strange [official site] Episode 4 thoughts have been a long time coming for one reason and another, but I wanted to get something down on digital paper about it before episode 5 turns up and [presumably] ties some kind of a bow on proceedings. There will be spoilers, pretty much as soon as you click through and then constantly until the end of the article so, y'know, bear that in mind.
]]>Pip, Adam, and I never did reconvene to talk about Episode 4 of Life Is Strange [official site] because whoa. Like, whoa. And that wasn't even the cliffhanger. I mean, whoa.
Well, in not-forever you'll hear our thoughts on the whole time-travelling mystery adventure game shebang, assuming we aren't stunned again. Developers Dontnod Entertainment today announced that they plan, hope, and want to release the concluding fifth episode on October 20th, assuming work continues smoothly.
]]>It's here! Life Is Strange [official site] Episode 4 is here and I've almost entirely avoided spoilers. This was slightly ruined by checking the Steam page in preparation for writing this story, but I'm sadly used to that in this line of work. It's rare that I don't know heaps about a game by the time it comes out. You can choose to avoid things, but muggins here the News Editor must see all.
The point is: Episode 4 of the time-travelling chat-o-adventure is out, zipping down my Steampipe as I write this. Trailer and mild spoilers and whatnot follow. Not big ones, though - those won't come until Pip, Adam, and I have all played it and reconvene for another little chat.
]]>Crumbs. The third episode of Life Is Strange [official site] was something else, wasn't it? The episodic adventures of a time-travelling teen found their stride with some solid puzzling, nice stretches of teens hanging out, and a cliffhanger ending that knocked the wind out of me. I'd enjoyed the game before, but now I am so very keen for the next episode to arrive. Thankfully the wait's almost over, as official word has come that it'll launch next Tuesday, July 28th.
A trailer's here to tease a little too, and it's obviously a bit spoiler-y - as is the rest of this post. If all you want to know is when Episode 4 will come out, stop reading here.
]]>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 8 of the sale.
]]>Fail Forward is a series of videos all about the bits of games which don’t quite work and why. In this episode, Marsh Davies discusses Life Is Strange [official site], an episodic adventure series by Dontnod Entertainment set in a US highschool. It's great - not because all of it works, but because it's so interesting when and why it doesn't.
]]>In the third episode of Dontnod Entertainment’s teen time drama Life is Strange [official site], everything changes. Now that the episode has been out in the wild for several days, Pip, Adam and Alice gathered to discuss the temporal wobbles and rocky relationships.
If you haven’t already played, avert your eyes - there are spoilers right up to the final moments.
]]>Don’t Nod’s adventure series Life Is Strange [official site] has a lot of things going for it, not least of which is the unironic use of the word "Booyah" in the launch trailer for Episode 3 - which launched this morning. Schoolyard angst, murder mystery and a hint of magic all mean that Life Is Strange is giving Telltale a run for their money in the episodic adventure game department.
]]>Life Is Strange [official site] is the first episodic game I've played actually episodically, getting in at the start and following along as new episodes come rather than in one lump at the end. (Half-Life 2 doesn't count.) It's quite fun this, isn't it? I think the idea could catch on, you know. Like waiting for the next episode of a TV show, yeah?
Time-travelling teenager Max and her ragamuffin gal pal Chloe will return in Episode 3 of Dontnod's adventure game next Tuesday, May 19th, publishers Square Enix have announced. Mild spoilers/teasers follow - like a TV listing, right?
]]>Hey! It's a new episode of COGWATCH, a weekly video series in which Quintin Smith examines one mechanic in one game. This week, the ability to rewind time and re-play decisions in episodic adventure game Life is Strange [official site].
]]>The problem with trying to review the second episode of Life is Strange [official site], Dontnod's five-part teen drama, is that it would be largely the same as the first episode review except steeped in spoilers. That's why our episode 2 coverage is going to be a conversation between Adam and me. Full of spoilers. Like, SWIMMING in spoilers. Hella spoilers. From the start.
]]>The second episode of Life is Strange [official site] is expected to finally get out of bed next week, on March 24th, probably long after noon. To that end, here's a launch trailer (which I suppose should be strictly described as a "pre-launch trailer")!
(Psst! Worried about spoilers? You may not need to be: I've not played Episode 1 yet, and having watched this I don't feel that anything that wasn't already fairly common knowledge has been revealed. I.e. the game stars a teenage girl with a special power, and is about her navigating her particularly dramatic high school life.)
]]>Square Enix have issued a statement to reassure players of episodic mystery Life Is Strange that development of the second installment is on track. The statement (as well as a piece of concept art) followed reports that episode 2 would be delayed.
]]>Life Is Strange [official site] is Dontnod's interactive story game told over five episodes. The first – Chrysalis – is out now so Pip took a look. Here's wot she thought:
There was a fanfiction website I used to read as a teenager. I wasn't there for the fanfiction though, I was there for the original fiction subsite. It bristled with stories about misunderstood teens, about girls with a gift for one of the creative fields, who had awkward love lives and friend drama. They tended to fall for boys or girls whose eyes changed colour to match their innermost turmoil like some kind of facial mood ring.
These stories often traipsed deep into Mary Sue territory or wish-fulfilment territory. They were authored by people flexing their fledgling writing muscles within a framework of tropes. Taking them as a bundle they shared an oversaturated earnestness, like emotion could be achieved or amplified through a cocktail of adjectives and pathetic fallacy.
Life Is Strange treads that same path – and this is not an insult.
]]>Square Enix have released the first of three developer diaries for upcoming episodic adventure Life Is Strange. As well as containing some background info about developers DONTNOD, creators of Remember Me, the video contains new footage from the game and discussion about the plot and themes. It's a pleasantly tranquil video, in which the team are seen playing ping pong in slow motion while discussing independent film and the creation of their teen girl protagonist. The discussion takes place in a voiceover rather than during the slow motion table tennis, which is a shame.
]]>Inevitably, the quotes from critics that punctuate the first trailer for Life is Strange contain references to Gone Home. Telltale comparisons might seem more valid given that Life is Strange is an episodic adventure about drama and decision-making rather than puzzling, pointing and clicking, and the floating quotes dutifully invoke The Walking Dead. But there's some teen angst on display as well in this tale of a photography student returning to her hometown. It's a hometown packed with melancholy and mystery, naturally, and the plot suggests there might be a touch of Veronica Mars to throw in with other apparent influences. Oh - and the main character can rewind time, obviously.
]]>Between all the running and jumping and kicking and punching and The Man and some kind of cyber-zombies or something I don't know, Remember Me had a novel little puzzle game. 'Memory remixing' had you jacking into people's brainboxes to prod and poke and change how they recall events. Sounds like developers Dontnod are focusing on a similar idea with their next game, only with actual time travel and history-changing and fewer guns (relax: not no guns).
Yesterday they announced Life Is Strange, an episodic adventure game about rewriting history.
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