Showing posts with label Shadowrun Returns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shadowrun Returns. Show all posts

Tuesday, 18 August 2015

Cyberpunk in the Ascendant

Cyberpunk is so intertwined in the rise of computer gaming that, as a computer game theme it will always be in favour. It will wax and wane like a sickly moon against the smog of a futuristic city, choking on its own waste products but it will always find someone willing to connect their deck to a terminal and hack in. Many games take cyberpunk as inspiration for their story such as the Deus Ex series. Below are some of the more esoteric ones.

Shadowrun Hong Kong is to be released on 20 August 2015, on Steam.
Being the third standalone game in the series, it follows on from the success of the Shadowrun Dragonfall - Director's Cut and Shadowrun Returns, all published by Harebrained Schemes. Shadowrun Returns sits on my hard drive awaiting me to jack in give my cyberware an airing. It currently sits at the top of my play stack.



Cypher is a Cyberpunk Text Adventure from the Cabrera Brothers and has a gorgeous website and is something that should be supported; an Indie text adventure with downloadable extra content you print yourself!



Westwood's 1997 Adventure; Blade Runner is the holy grail of Cyberpunk masterpieces; moody, atmospheric, difficult to get hold of a boxed copy... GOG has a wishlist for its re-make, PC Gamer has a returning to article about it but you can download the original from Abandonware.



Syndicate was a 1993 PC DOS-based game from Bullfrog Productions. A follow up, Syndicate Wars was published in 1996 with an expansion being released for Syndicate.



Bringing Syndicate right up to date, Satellite Reign is a spiritual successor (Satellite Reign FAQ) to the Syndicate series that was; Kickstarted, is currently on Early Release and will be released in less than two weeks.



So, all this means that there is enough to keep everybody going until Cyberpunk 2077 from CD Project S.A. arrives. Cyberpunk 2077 is a roleplaying game (RPG) and is based upon the pen and paper roleplaying game, created by Mike Pondsmith.



It currently has a gorgeous video teaser trailer but little else. Its ending states > coming: when it's ready. However, with a trailer looking this good, I'm prepared to wait...



RP

Sunday, 16 August 2015

Cyberpunk - a future in the future

I still remember reading my first piece of Cyberpunk. It was Neuromancer by William Gibson and the thing that stays with me to this very day is the opening line

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

Cyberpunk has evolved from its genesis in Blade Runner (the film by Ridley Scott, 1982 which was loosely based upon Philip K. Dick's book; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 1968) and the Sprawl trilogy by Gibson and continues its evolution today, and beyond. It is alive and well in many guises but particularly in the form of Shadowrun.

Shadowrun - Cataylst Game Labs

Shadowrun began life in 1989 as a tabletop roleplaying game, developed and published by FASA Corporation and continue today in its 5th edition (published by Catalyst Game Labs), remaining a popular choice in roleplaying circles.

It made the jump into cyberspace in 1993...

Shadowrun SNES box

Shadowrun SNES start screen

In 1993, Beam Software developed Shadowrun as an action RPG video game for the SNES.
In 1994, BlueSky Software developed Shadowrun for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.
In 1996, Compile developed the game for the Sega Mega-CD.
In 1997, a Collectable Card Game was also developed that gained acclaim through the awards it won.
In 2007, FASA Interactive developed a FPS version for XBOX 360/PC (via Microsoft) as a multiplayer online game - it is outside of the official Shadowrun timeline.

Shadowrun Returns logo

Shadowrun Returned in 2013, it did exactly that! It let Shadowrun return; on Windows & OSX and then on IOS & Android. Harebrained Schemes, a company headed by Jordan Weisman, the creator of the Shadowrun tabletop roleplaying game, Kickstarter'd it into existence.

Shadowrun Returns desktop

In its new incarnation it got an 8/10 from GamesTM and a 'feel like Shadowrun Returns is only going to grow in value as time goes on' to propel it into the future.

crime scene screenshot
I have it on my hard drive, waiting - there's a future in the future - go play it...

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Great opening lines from SF - Neuromancer, William Gibson
Wikipedia - Shadowrun, a wealth of information for the tabletop game
Catalyst Game Labs - Shadowrun tabletop
Shadowrun Tabletop - blog
A Very Short History of Cyberpunk - by Marcus Janni Pivato
Shadowrun - Universe
Harebrained Schemes - Shadowrun Returns
Wikipedia - Shadowrun (disambiguation)
Moby Games - Shadowrun SNES
Moby Games - Shadowrun Sega Genesis
GamesTM - Shadowrun Returns review
Shadowrun - The Trading Card Game