Twitter user pl_evil has helpfully translated a recent letter to shareholders from Bloober Team, showing that their new game "Project C" will be revealed later this year. This will be the studio's next original game, after they wrapped up Layers Of Fear last year with, confusingly, Layers Of Fear (the natural progression for a series: Layers Of Fear, Layers Of Fear 2, and then Layers Of Fear again, although it was going to be called Layers Of Fears at one point).
Bloober Team are currently doing a lot of IP work for other people, with the Silent Hill 2 remake due out later this year, and a game codenamed "Project R" in concert with Skybound Entertainment. Skybound are The Walking Dead company, so I wouldn't give you long odds for a bet on what Project R is about. Neither would I be surprised if Project C is unveiled this summer by a man named Geoff with shiny shiny trainers. I'm interested to see what it is, and honestly I'm hoping it's a brand new standalone thing, rather than a forced sequel to Observer or 2021's The Medium (where I got the header).
]]>It may not be Halloween for a while, but there's no reason you can't celebrate horror as a genre all year round. In fact, it's one of our favourite genre of games, so we've put together our list of the 25 best horror games to play on PC right now. It really showcases the breadth of horror on PC right now, from visual novels to shooters to survival to weirdo demon games and text adventures, so it's a real joy to peruse.
]]>As a nice little Gamescom surprise, Bloober Team today announced that Observer: System Redux will also be coming to PC. The original Observer from 2017 was a lovely little cyberpunk horror game starring Rutger "crying in the shower" Hauer, and the upcoming System Redux is an expanded and prettied-up version - but was only announced for next-gen consoles. Well, Bloober today not only confirmed a PC release, they released a demo so we can see for ourselves. System Redux won't be a free upgrade, but it does have a discount if you're quick.
]]>It's Thursday again, meaning its time for Epic's ongoing cycle of free games to tick over once again. This week's offerings are grimy cyberpunk horror Observer and bizarre spin-off Alan Wake's American Nightmare. That'll be that sorted for some low-lit thrills, then. As per, you've only got seven days to grab these freebies before they slink back into the shadows from whence they came.
]]>When people talk about Observer (or >observer_ to give it its full, official styling), the first thing they usually say is: "It's that cyberpunk horror game with that chap from Bladerunner in it." It's the perfect pairing, they proclaim, and yes, if you're going to get a famous cyberpunkian to play a cyberpunk cop that can jack into suspects' neural networks to 'observe' and interrogate their memories, it doesn't get much better than Rutger Hauer.
But that's probably the least interesting thing about Observer in my books. Sure, it's a nice coup to stick on your store page, but for me, the real masterstroke is its portrait of unrelentingly grim cyberpunk future where both its people and the world at large have been unceremoniously dumped down the toilet.
]]>That big shop on the internet, Amazon, has been selling pirated copies of PC games, some do-gooders have discovered (or rather, sellers using Amazon as a storefront have been selling the pirate goods). The dodgy games include icy societal survival game Frostpunk and dusty martian city-builder Surviving Mars, which were being sold for the suspiciously cheapo prices of $3 and $4. If you bought one of these games, you got an illegitimate installer to download, which contained some files ripped from GOG store versions of the games. Oh no.
]]>In Observer [official site], AKA David Cronenberg's Bladerunner, Rutger Hauer is having a very bad day. It begins with a phone call, some family problems, and ends in blood and regret. Hauer lends his voice to the player character, who is the titular Observer, a special kind of cop who can jack into suspects' memories, hopes and fears as a means of interrogation. To do so, he inserts a cable into a chip lodged in their brain and connects it to his own gray matter.
Around a quarter of the way through this particular grim night, he dives into the mind of a person who has just died, an act of necro-hacking that is totally against protocol. That's when things get really weird.
]]>First-person cyberpunk thrill-o-horror Observer [official site] will launch on August 15th, developers Bloober Team have announced. After trapping us in a painter's kooky spookhouse with Layers of Fear, this time Bloober are blasting us off into the grim future where everything sucks. It stars a cyberdetective jacking into suspects' heads, and Bloober have now confirmed he is voiced by Rutger Hauer. You know, Rutger Hauer from Ladyhawke! And Blind Fury! And Blade Runner too I guess.
Hear Hauer's gravelly tones in this new trailer:
]]>Observer [official site] is the latest horror romp from Bloober Team, the folks behind Layers of Fear. The developers feel that players didn’t quite get their last game, so for Observer’s new trailer, they’re aiming to explain not just the game, but the ‘hidden horror’ genre that it’s part of, as well. Watch it below.
]]>"What would you do if your fears got hacked and used against you?" asks Observer, the latest first-person horror fest from Layers of Fear devs Bloober Team. I'd be suitably terrified, I imagine. Especially when this venture drops us into a cyberpunk world filled with glitch-ridden corridors, eery holograms, weird implant machinery and ominous shadow stalkers.
Aye, I'd say terrified pretty much covers it. Shall we watch its duo of trailers together after the drop? Go on, you first.
]]>This week the handsome Alec Meer, and me, John Walker, were drawn into the arms of the Observer, and asked to join a group discussion about the current state of gaming. This is prompted by an article that will be appearing in this Sunday's paper that discusses the matter: is the virtual world more beguiling than the real one? Amongst other things. The resulting video is below. If you have comments, make them here, or make them over at the Guardian's site, as the people behind it are paying close attention. And check out the Observer on Sunday to see further comments from Alec and me in the paper.
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