Call of Cthulhu news?

Well, according to Game Spot it seems the game is scheduled for March of 06. Seems that this game has been pushed back a few times though, so you never know.

Looks quite interesting...I'll have to keep my eye on it.
 
They have a forum for it, but it looks kind of dead Not much news. But some nice screen art.
 
I wonder if when it finally comes out they'll get sued by Nintendo because of that "Sanity Effects" patent they have.
 
hrmmm that's interesting. I was just reading in PC Gamer that a studio called Hip Interactive or something just closed and they were making a Call of Cthulu game but this one's not made by them. Hrm... I'll have to keep my eyes out for this one.
 
the kinky link that welsh gave said:
When Hip Interactive folded in July, it left a handful of in-development games in the lurch, among them a title under development by Headfirst Productions. Headfirst announced that it is looking for an alternate publisher for the game, Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End, due in mid-2006 on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC.
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Wait, what?
I thought the upcoming game was called Dark Corners of the Earth?
 
3 Cthulhu games? :shock:

Lets hope some of them won't suck balls :P

Edit: No hope for Destiny's End, it seems.

The abomination that is IGN said:
Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End gives you two characters, Jacob and Emily. Jacob is the gun-wielder: The camera moves to just over Jacob's shoulder, allowing you to precisely aim at enemies' limbs thanks to the laser-sights strapped to the guns (kind of like a certain other survival horror game…). Emily, on the other hand, uses more incapacitating weapons (like pepper spray, for example) and can decipher tomes and cast spells. Emily is also equipped with a camera, which the player can use to gather more clues.
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It would be nice to have a Call of Cthulhu game that played like the pen and paper version, although I imagine people would get tired of starting a new character 20 minutes after their old one stupidly reads *any* book.
 
The emergence of these games must be somehow connected to that giant squid! The old ones have awaken and are beggining their reign of madness using shitty PS2 games!
 
Suicide Candidate said:
the kinky link that welsh gave said:
When Hip Interactive folded in July, it left a handful of in-development games in the lurch, among them a title under development by Headfirst Productions. Headfirst announced that it is looking for an alternate publisher for the game, Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End, due in mid-2006 on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC.
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Wait, what?
I thought the upcoming game was called Dark Corners of the Earth?
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"Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth"

One game, not two.
Subtitles are not separate games, though they may be mods/expansions.

I've been salivating over this for quite a while.

When are they going to make Nephilim: Complicated
Specialised Occult Obscurantism"?
 
There's an interesting post by a developer in the DCotE forums, for those who are desperate for more information I suggest checking it out here


This quote filled me with joy:
A person I want to have babies with said:
...also influenced by the 'Shadow out of Time' story.
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That's gonna rock. Yithians are awesome.

*UPDATE* x-box version is apparently supposed to be released by the end of this month, PC version release dates still pending.
 
News here from http://www.chaosium.com-

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth has shipped!
Coming soon to a store near you!
After many years of waiting, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is now available on the X- Box. You will soon find copies at video game stores all over North America, and a European release is just around the corner.

We should have copies available here at Chaosium.com soon.

For more information, check out callofcthulhu.com.

I’m looking forward to playing myself!

Dustin O'Chaosium
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X-Box? Bah!

Apparently there will be no PS2 version but there will be a PC version.
http://callofcthulhu.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1792
http://www.bethsoft.com/games/games_callofcthulhu.html

Reviews?

http://reviews.teamxbox.com/xbox/1031/Call-of-Cthulhu-Dark-Corners-of-the-Earth/p1/

If there were a poster game for the term “in development”, it would hands down have to be Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. Based upon the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft, an early 1900s author most known for his works of sci-fi and horror, Dark Corners of the Earth was originally announced to be in development before the Xbox was even on store shelves. To top it off, in recent years, there have been upwards of six Cthulhu titles in the works, none of which have seen the light of day until now. Not to the confused with Call of Cthulhu: Destiny’s End, which is a 3rd person action/adventure title based in this same world, coming out next year, Dark Corners of the Earth is a first-person-shooter, that blends elements of action, horror, and suspense, to bring the works it is based on to life.

Developed by Headfirst Productions, Dark Corners of the Earth tells the story of Jack Walters. A private investigator, Jack has a brush with the occult in an old depleted mansion, before losing his mind and winding up in a mental hospital. Taking place in the year 1922, players will guide Jack through his journey that has brushes with the occult, evil alien creatures, and everything else that goes bump in the night. A plot heavy journey, saying much more about the actual story would ruin some key surprise moments later on in the game.

Gameplay

While a first-person-shooter at heart, Cthulhu doesn’t fit the typical mold of this genre. After booting up the game, the most noticeable feature of this experience is that there is no HUD to speak of on the screen. I refer to this game as an experience, as shortly into it; players get sucked into this dark and depressing world. With nothing displayed on the screen to distract players from what they are viewing, gamers won’t manage health or check radars via colorful displays, but focus solely on what is unfolding before them. Blood and rain also bead on the screen, other on-screen characters look right at the player when they talk, and later when Jack’s sanity comes into play, it affects the players' view as well.

As players progress through this depressing and eerie story, they must keep Jack’s sanity in check. Viewing gruesome scenes; such as people being murdered, experiencing stressful events, or seeing horrifying creatures, all affect Jack’s sanity. Adding to the immersion of the game, these affects also manipulate how the game looks and feels to the player. A heightened heart beat shakes the controller, the screen will blur when Jack is anxious or tense, and the audio is softened as Jacks’ surroundings fade due to stress. This is an excellent feature to the game, and was implemented well, so a normal controller griping situation is heightened by the adverse affect to the player.
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Gamespot gives it an 8.3
The Good
Great mix of adventure, exploration, action, and stealth mechanics; Creepy, compelling storyline; Invisible interface adds to immersion; Some outstanding audio; Intense pacing;
The Bad
Stealth and shooter sequences are relatively unimpressive on their own; Visuals look fairly dated at times; You might run into some noticeable bugs;
A thick, unsettling atmosphere fills this ambitious first-person action adventure, which makes up for some technical issues with plenty of chills, variety, and originality.
Even the Old Ones themselves would have probably lost patience waiting for Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth to finally show up. First unveiled about six years ago, this horror-themed action adventure based on the work of influential American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft is clearly ambitious, mixing first-person action, sneaking, and adventure elements with a creepy story filled with various surprises. The good news is, all the delays have resulted in a one-of-a-kind game that fans of horror and action adventure gaming, and of course, of H.P. Lovecraft, absolutely should check out. However, the presentation looks somewhat dated at times, and some other aspects of the game are also pretty rough. But if you can tolerate a few technical deficiencies and are up for a significant challenge, then you can look forward to Call of Cthulhu mightily impressing you and freaking you out equally in turn.

Hold on to your mind in this tense and memorable adventure.
You play as Jack Walters, a private investigator with a history of mental instability. But he's fine now--honest. Jack is trying to get his life and his career back on track, but just can't seem to remember a six-year period from his past. Soon after the opening of the game, a missing-persons case takes Jack's attention away from his own predicament. He finds himself in the quiet port of Innsmouth, a little-known shantytown with a rather standoffish populace. It's a dismal place on first impression, filled with rundown buildings and thuggish residents who gurgle veiled threats in response to Jack's inquiries. Before long, Jack begins to uncover a sinister secret lurking just beneath the surface. He asks one too many questions and soon finds himself fighting for his life against unspeakable horrors. The game does a great job of gradually magnifying the sense of danger and the scope of the mess that Jack has gotten himself into, and it also does pretty well at evoking the early-20th-century period in which the story takes place.

You don't need to be familiar with Lovecraft's stories or the Cthulhu mythos in order to enjoy this game; in fact, the experience will be all the better if you go into it without any real sense of what you're in store for. H.P. Lovecraft is best known for horror stories that attempt to describe the indescribable--horrifying things that can make a man go mad just from looking at them. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth captures the essence of his work by presenting the entire game through Jack's own eyes, and by incorporating various elements that simulate how fleeting Jack's sanity can be when faced with terrible sights and realizations. It doesn't help the poor guy's case that he tends to have out-of-body experiences from time to time, which let him briefly see the world through the eyes of some rather strange beings. The game also intersperses some choice quotations from Lovecraft, as well as some well-written journal entries and other light reading that helps set the stage for what's happening. Ironically, if any aspect of the presentation doesn't really fit, it's Jack himself--his voice, in particular, since he sounds like a matter-of-fact private detective...only, his rather calm demeanor isn't consistent with how he's supposedly being driven half-mad by what's happening around him. The voice performance itself is fine, but it's too bad Jack sounds so brave.

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth looks like it's a first-person shooter, but it combines action and adventure elements in equal parts (fans of the Thief, Deus Ex, and System Shock titles will be in store for a similar kind of game). In fact, for a large portion of the game, Jack is unarmed, and will need to make progress using his detective work rather than his brawn. The game is probably at its best when no shooting is involved, since the shooting portions aren't that great. Your enemies will sometimes use cover when attacking you, but don't behave very believably in battle, and their bodies quickly vanish when killed. It's a long time before you get into any pure action in Call of Cthulhu, and when it happens, it's at once thrilling and a little disappointing--thrilling because there's been so much buildup and tension leading up to the fighting, and disappointing because the foes you're facing aren't as cunning as you'd hope. Fortunately, the game rarely attempts to create challenge just by thrusting you into first-person shooter sequences, and the shooter portions are definitely decent. The period weapons you'll get to use, such as Tommy guns and revolvers, feel like they pack a mean punch.

I am Jack's smirking revenge.
The stealth portions are pretty good, too, especially because the game never flat-out forces you to be stealthy--it's just a means to an end, useful for avoiding combat (such as when you're unarmed) or getting the drop on your enemies. But if you're spotted, you can always fight...or run. Later in the game, you'll get to perform some highly gratifying stealth kills by plunging a knife into the backs of unaware opponents--who totally deserve it, by the way. All throughout, though, you'll be able to avoid confrontation by sticking to the shadows and keeping a low profile. You may also peek (and shoot) around corners in your efforts to stay safely out of sight.

Others have tried, but Call of Cthulhu is probably the first game to date to succeed at presenting a completely clutter-free first-person viewpoint. There are no health bars or ammo counts or anything to get in the way of your suspension of disbelief, yet the game still provides sufficient visual and audio feedback to keep you informed while playing. While there will probably be times when you'll wish the game were a bit more transparent about telling you when your health is low or when you're in danger of being detected by enemies, Call of Cthulhu's invisible interface definitely is to the game's credit. There isn't even an aiming reticle for any of the guns--you just aim down the sights to line up your targets. And you know you've taken damage when you see spurts of blood along the edges of the screen, and subsequently start to hear Jack gasping in pain and losing color vision. You can even have your limbs broken--you'll cringe listening to Jack trying to walk with a busted leg. Fortunately, he's got first aid kits to bring him back into shape. First aid takes a few seconds to apply, so you can't use your kits in the middle of a fight, but you can use them in a safe spot to cure fractures, bullet wounds, and so on. Yeah, that's not realistic, but it's a good system that's in keeping with the spirit of the game--Jack can't survive much damage in the first place.
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More here-

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/adventure/callofcthuludarkcornersoftheearth/review.html
 
So far so good. Very good atmosphere. An extremely linear plot drives the story forward really well. It actually scares me, and not having any weapons doesn't really help in making me feel safe. Teh fish creatures they're back.
 
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