Lo Wang and his rude 'tude will return next year in Shadow Warrior 3, developer Flying Wild Hog and publisher Devolver Digital announced today. He's off to recapture an ancient dragon, which is probably fine. The most important detail: this time, the agile FPS has a grappling hook too. Congratulations, Shadow Warrior, on finally becoming a proper real video game. Game director Kuba Opoń says Flying Wild Hog "hope that Shadow Warrior 3 will feel like a homecoming for those fans that have been with us since the beginning." Read into that as much as you want. For now, come see the trailer.
]]>The rude, crude Shadow Warrior 2 is free to grab on GOG for the next two days. Flying Wild Hog's shooter is a big messy slab of old-school FPS'ing infused with painful jokes (which frequently made me giggle), some Borderlands-ish stat juggling, procedural encounter generation and lots of monsters and cyborgs to mulch.
Adam Smith gushed profusely in his review, calling it "anarchic, excessive, ridiculous, occasionally spectacular and almost entirely wonderful". After winning over Firewatch and Superhot in a vote today, GOG are giving it away for 48 hours, celebrating the store's 10th anniversary . Get it here and tell your friends - it's co-op too.
]]>Hey gang, if you missed Shadow Warrior the last time it was free, another chance is here for a few more hours. This is the 2013 reboot of the demon-stabbing FPS, to be clear, not 3D Realm's original (which is always free). You've got until 6pm today (10am Pacific) to grab this free so chop chop.
The giveaway celebrates the launch of new missions and weapons for Shadow Warrior 2 in a free update last night. And that game's on sale right now too. So many shadows and wars, so little time.
]]>Hie thee to Humble to grab Shadow Warrior [official site] for free. No, unlike the last time, this is the 2013 reboot of the demon-stabbing FPS - the one with less comedy racism and a whole lot more splendid ultraviolence. It's fun video games.
]]>Since every other games site is ecstatic to discover this week that the original Shadow Warrior is free, hey, we'll post it too. I'll ride that #trending content, blitz the bandwagon, disseminate to the viral limit, and zonk that zeitgeist until the SEO bursts. I know that Shadow Warrior has been free for four years now -- a fact other sites seem to have missed -- but I also know quite a few folks dig Shadow Warrior so sure, it's helpful to remind people that it is free.
]]>Shadow Warrior [official site] has never been my favourite of the Build Engine games (it's Blood all the way for me) but that entire FPS era has a special place in my heart. It's also worth nothing that Shadow Warrior is kicking Duke's ass when it comes to remakes and sequels. As of today, you can explore the history of the original 1997 release by playing the alpha and beta versions of the game, which are now available free on Steam. The 1997 original has been free for some time, but now you can choose to play either the final release or either of the pre-release versions through the launcher.
]]>Shadow Warrior 2 [official site] could have gone horribly wrong. The 2013 reboot succeeded because it took the principles of a nineties FPS and dragged them kicking and bleeding into the twenty-first century, adding superb melee combat controls, a well thought-out upgrade system, but sticking with linear levels packed with easter eggs and secrets. It was the best of the old and the best of the new.
For their sequel, Flying Wild Hog have kept the fundamentals but built an entirely different game atop them. Part Borderlands, part interactive chainsaw massacre, it throws everything at the wall and hopes there's enough blood to make most of it stick.
]]>GOG Connect is a pleasant little scheme from the DRM-free digital distributor, letting people who own certain games on Steam get GOG versions too for free. Now it's back. GOG today launched another round of GOG Connect, with another seventeen games for Steamers to redeem. Because, y'know, it's nice to have a DRM-free backup without buying a game twice. The lineup this time includes Hotline Miami, The Last Federation, the Shadow Warrior reboot, X Rebirth, and Teslagrad.
Oh, and GOG has launched another big sale too.
]]>Shoot and slice 'em up Shadow Warrior 2 [official site] is set to launch October 13. It's a bloody, over-the-top ninja adventure that doesn't take itself too seriously. There's a guy taking a selfie as he decapitates a monster, so there's stuff in there us millennials can relate to, too. It's also shaping up to be quite beautiful if you look past all of the gore spraying everywhere. In the trailer below, Flying Wild Hog has recreated the subtle fall foliage of November in Japan contrasted with the white-washed walls of austere Buddhist temples. Lovely!
]]>We're coming to the end of the Summer Steam Sale so chances are you've picked up the things you'd already got your eye on, but there are always games that sneak under the radar or come from genres you might usually ignore. That's why we've put together our final recommendation list. Here's a whole list of things we love and why we think they're worth your time! (Don't forget to check out our earlier picks and the comments, though - I picked up a bunch of games that had escaped my own notice through reader enthusiasm...)
]]>Demons, in Shadow Warrior 2 [official site], appear to be made of jelly. I’m carving one particularly big bastard open like a Christmas turkey and the segments that slide away are like the gelatinous gloop and gristle sliding from a tin of cheap dogfood. They wibble and wobble, quivering beneath the teeth of my chainsaw. They fold and flop, eventually disintegrating.
The ultraviolence is more over the top than in the game’s predecessor, but it’s nothing new. That’s just about the only place that the sequel takes the “more of the same” approach though. Almost everything has changed.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
But which Shadow Warrior do I mean? Despite my love of the magnificent Build Engine, not the 1997 original which never worked its way into my heart in the way that Blood did. Gotta have some Blood in your heart. But, no, I'm talking about the distant year of 2013, when Hard Reset developers Flying Wild Hog released a game that surprised me by being one of my favourites of the year.
]]>The Shadow Warrior reboot was one of the most pleasant surprises I've had since I started writing about games. It's a superb action game that does first-person melee combat well, has gorgeous environments, and managed not to feel like a throwback to the skeevier parts of the Build Engine days while capturing so much that I loved about the era. I can't wait for the sequel [official site], and these twelve minutes of blood, bickering and burning demons make it all the more attractive.
]]>The games that fly under publisher Devolver Digital's banner are often funny, sometimes silly, and always quirky. Frantic shooter Not A Hero revels in its messy, hedonistic chaos; Dropsy tells the tale of sad, social misfitting clown; and The Talos Principle is a wonderful game about philosophy and mind-boggling puzzles, to name but a few. The Humble Devolver Bundle has them all and more and is live right now.
]]>When I think of gaming in the mid 90s, I think of a unique kind of grunginess. It’s like my mind’s got its finger on the Shift key with its left hand, and the Up arrow with its right, gliding swiftly through the sordid corridors of crematoriums, porn cinemas, hillbilly backwaters and dojos. But despite their muted tones of muddy browns and tombstone greys, these spaces were anything but dreary, brimming with richly-animated sprites, the promise of gory violence around every corner, and a tongue-in-cheek energy that felt clandestine, fresh, and fiendishly fun.
When I think of gaming in the mid 90s, I think of Build Engine games.
]]>Four-player co-op and missions into procedurally-generated lands are the two biggest shiny new things Shadow Warrior 2 [official site] will bring, publishers Devolver Digital announced this afternoon following a teasingly short teaser campaign.
Lo Wang will return in 2016 as a mercenary murdering folks and swiping loot while trying not to be murdered by demons. This time he'll have friends to help with that. Also guns, a sword, and magic powers, same as ever. Come have a look in the first trailer.
]]>Shadow Warrior 2: Wang Harder. 2 Wang 2 Warrior. Shadow Warrior: The Secret of the Wang. Shadow Warrior And The Last Wang/Raiders of the Lost Wang/Kingdom of the Crystal Wang/Wang of Doom. Judgement Wang. Shadow Warrior VII: The Wang Awakens. Shadow Warrior: The Wang of Ultron.
Wang World.
Evidence points toward an official Shadow Warrior 2 [official site] announcement in the near future (and, hey, isn't E3 in the near future?). I have collected the evidence in a small pile, along with some lint and pistachio shells.
]]>I liked everything about the Shadow Warrior reboot, except for the wang jokes. But to prove that there are no hard feelings, I've slipped a wang in right there at the top of the post. The reason we are returning to Shadow Warrior, as the headline makes clear, is to herald the unexpected (though far from premature) discharge of a demo. This coincides with a 75% discount so you can take a test ride and then settle on the full package for £7.49. That massive discount won't last for very long - you know how it is - and the deal ends on March 28th. Important details below.
]]>I didn't see this coming. Interceptor, the Danish company that recently announced a Duke Nukem ARPG and released the Rise of the Triad remake last year, have bought Apogee Software Ltd (aka the legal name of 3D Realms). This surprises me because I didn't think I'd be writing any stories about 3D Realms in 2014, except perhaps when they licensed Shadow Warrior out for a sequel to the splendid remake. But the senescent studio has already been making headlines in this, the 27th year of its existence. They're not exactly the kind of headlines that would ordinarily lead to a buy-out though.
]]>When I first saw the news that there's now a Shadow-Warrior-themed level for Viscera Cleanup Detail, I was surprised for all of 0.2 seconds. Then, with the speed of a magical sword severing an already spurting limb, the universe made perfect sense again. It's a match made in heaven, and I don't know why I didn't realize it milliseconds sooner. Shadow Warrior leaves piping hot piles of plasma in every conceivable corner, and Viscera Cleanup Detail features the universe's most formidable mop. And now they're married! N'aaaaaaaw. See for yourself below.
]]>Do Volition receive royalties for the Shadow Warrior launch trailer? Lo Wang singing along to Proper Transformers' song, The Touch, immediately reminded me of Saints Row characters caterwauling along to their favourite tunes from the hit parade while driving through the city streets. The scene is in the game as well, acting as an introduction to the hitman with a heart (in his pocket), and it feels like a nod from one work of lunatic brilliance to another. Explosions, gore and the thoughts of VideoGame Journalist, Superlative Jeff await below.
]]>This was unexpected. I was willing to believe that bringing Lo Wang back was a good idea but far from sure of it. Two days of carnage later, I’m convinced. The biggest problem with the Shadow Warrior reboot is that it isn’t a Blood reboot because if Caleb ever does return to our screens, he’s probably not going to do it in this much style. Here’s wot I think.
]]>Normally I wouldn't even bat an eyelash at some random cross-game promotional effort - let alone dedicate precious RPS Hyper Maturity Space to it - but this time is different. The reason? Two of the dumbest, most laughably enjoyable games I've played in ages are colliding, and there is now no way that last clause wasn't a euphemism for something, authorial intent be damned. Yes, it's finally happening: Saints Row The Third's infamous dildo bat is invading another game. I know, I know. It's only a matter of time before it replaces the standard-issue pistol as every game's go-to default weapon of choice, but for now Shadow Warrior's caught its purple, pulsating disease. Continue not being able to look away below.
]]>If you have a problem with blood, I suggest you skip this explanatory trailer for Shadow Warrior. If you'll allow me to briefly slip into a cockney criminal's parlance, there's claret everywhere. It puddles, splashes, flicks, pools, drips, and plops, all to show off the differences between guns and swords for people who might need help deciding which to focus on. The results are broadly similar, with red bits on the inside ending up on the outside, but it creates a different approach to the violence. I wouldn't have asked what sort of weapon you prefer. I'd have asked if you like to see the lights to out in your enemy's eyes.
]]>My usual non-sequitur drivel has no place in this story. The Shadow Warrior trailer has defeated my attempts to recontextualise it for humourous effect, because this trailer does that to the game by showing lots of silly things that you can do. I have no no way in! Blocked by inanity. All I can do is resort to facts and hope that it's a temporary discombobulation. Fact: this is a trailer of the upcoming remake of Shadow Warrior. Fact: it is being developed by Flying Wild Hog. Fact: it will be published by Devolver Digital. Fact: I laughed 3.4 times, and smiled twice. Fact: it is available in 240p, 360p, 490p, 720p, and 1080p. Fact: I have posted it below.
]]>I enjoyed a recent demo of Shadow Warrior so much that I done maded one of them there vidya-trons about it. The first-person slasher drew me in for a lot of reasons: swords, wise-cracks, swords, swords, car-aoke versions of The Touch, swords, cutting monsters with swords, swords, s-words, and swords. And now, publisher Devolver Digital has sliced the game to ribbons and assembled a video of its own from the remains. The reason? To announce a release date, of course. And also swords.
]]>Devolver Digital was kind enough to provide us with ample preview code for Hard Reset developer Flying Wild Hog's upcoming revival of Shadow Warrior.
That may have been a mistake.
I decided to attempt some form of Let's Play/Blather All Over/Preview thing, and well, I'm new to this. Very, very new. The end result is a mixture of description and discovery that hopefully gets the job done, but with "ums" and "uhs" a-plenty. Also, when I die, just go ahead and carve the phrase "So anyway..." into my tombstone. It's become abundantly clear that it's what I wish to be remembered by. Shadow Warrior really is coming along nicely, though. It's easily the bloodest game to ever bleed blood, and the sword-fu is like fast food chili: chunky, satisfying, and made up primarily of disembodied limbs. I doubt it'll take home any Game Of The Year awards when the dust settles, but it's big, loud, and dumb enough (in a sort of smart way) that you should probably take notice. My enthusiasm doesn't come across as well in the video as I'd have liked, but I did have a fun - though certainly not perfect - time with the couple hours I played. View 30-or-so scattered minutes of it below. (P.S. If you hate my voice, well, it's actually impossible for you to hate it as much as I do. So!)
]]>Everyone, Flying Wild Hog is remaking Shadow Warrior! Upon hearing that, a decent number of you probably tilted your heads so hard that confused dogs could hear and replied, "What's a Shadow Warrior?" That's understandable. The '90s were 7,000 years ago, after all. But maybe you saw the reboot's teaser trailer and went on a needlessly gruesome excitement rampage, or perhaps Hard Reset's uniquely incoherent brand of robo-shootyblasting won you over. Either way, background is always nice, even when it's kinda littered with festering piles of racism and misogyny. That's why Devolver Digital saw fit to dust off the original Shadow Warrior and slice its price tag to confetti. Oh, and thanks to a fairly gigantic promotional slip-up, they've just decided to make it free "forever".
]]>There seems to be a lot of game design documents getting dust blown off them at the moment. What other remakes are we due? Star Wars: TIE Fighter? Subwar 2050? Emerging from a dusty cloud of nostalgia is Shadow Warrior. 3D Realms' samurai shooter from the late '90s is being made shiny and new by Hard Reset developers Flying Wild Hog. Nathan scoured his memories of it a few weeks ago, but back then all we saw of it was a website and some words. Now I have moving pictures with sound, something that didn't exist in the '90s, when eyes were useless, and ears went unused.
]]>In a post-re-Rise-of-the-Triad world, any franchise reboot is possible. Case in point: Shadow Warrior. The original was a ninja-themed first-person shooter sliced and diced from Duke Nukem 3D's cloth - Build engine, unrepentantly offensive humor, and all - but it didn't exactly have legions of lovers banging down doors for its long-overdue return. At least, not that I'm aware of. Maybe I should've looked in more shadows. Regardless, it's coming back, and Hard Reset developer Flying Wild Hog's hefting the weighty, blood-rusted katana of responsibility.
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