Penny Arcade Adventures To Appear On PS3

Relin writes "Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One started its run on the Xbox Live Arcade, and shortly after making its way to Steam, the development team at Hothead Games announced that it had begun work on a PS3 version of the game."

PS3 and Linux

[Narpak]

I really can't get over the fact that they are creating a PS3 version of a game that is already available for Linux. But which I mean, ports usually go Console - Windows - Mac (if you are lucky); going the other way seems like bizzaroworld. But then I guess that fits with the entire Penny Arcade franchise.

Re:PS3 and Linux

[MBCook]

The game was written for the Torque engine (IIRC). Torque has ports for Windows, Linux, Mac, and 360. There is no PS3 port. They are either building a Torque port or going to a different engine.

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[Neon Spiral Injector]

I'm sure I saw the Torque logo on the Rocketmen game on the PS3.

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[MBCook]

The Wikipedia pages [wikipedia.org] don't seem to mention the PS3. They mention OS X, Windows, and Linux. They also say that Torque Game Engine Advanced was developed for the XBox and 360 (used in Marble Blast, for example). There is also Torque X which was created to be used with Microsoft's XNA development kit.

The Torque website specifically lists a Torque for Wii and a Torque for 360, but I don't see a PS3 version.

All that said, I did notice a couple of places that seem to confirm Rocketmen was Torque [frictionlessinsight.com].

Perhaps there i

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[bunbuntheminilop]

Once the linux version was done, it wouldn't have been that difficult, as it would have just been a matter of changing the opengl code to the cut down opengl version the ps3 uses. I wonder if this is more Sony giving them the green light (ie they've signed a contract with pennyarcade), or the pennyarcade guys finially getting some capital together to buy a ps3 dev kit + programmers.

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[morari]

Nope, usually games go PC -> Console -> Linux (if you're lucky) -> Mac (if you're really lucky).

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[Poltras]

I'd happily argue with you that there are more games ported to Mac than Linux. If you don't count Wine (because Wine is also on Mac, that point is moot). Blizzard's whole collection, some EA games (BF2142, Madden, etc). Not a whole lot, but more than Linux and certainly porting to Mac before ported to Linux (exception made of Id games).

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[AnonChef]

Now days it's Console -> PC -> Whatever (if you're really lucky).

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[mweather]

I wish. I'd give my left nut for a PC version of the new Civ.

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[Cain141]

I agree with you. But Penny Arcade has always enjoyed showing their independance.

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[Tetsujin]

Too bad that usually means making fools of themselves.

You say that like it's a bad thing...

I wasn't enthralled by the game

[verbalcontract]

I bought the game on Steam. I was a little underwhelmed by the gameplay. The combat system, for example, is almost exactly like Super Mario RPG -- from 1996 -- except it's kind of in real-time. A lot of waiting to click, and guessing when to hit the space-bar to block an attack. Then again, I'm not a follower of the comic, so I guess a lot of the other selling points of the game (i.e., the in-jokes) were lost on me.

JUDASES!!!

[elrous0]

Gabe and Tycho, beware the dark side. Once you go down the path to Sony, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you it will!

Re:JUDASES!!!

[Chris Mattern]

Oh, they've already been that route. [penny-arcade.com]

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[philspear]

Considering the number of times they've dumped on the system... er, rather, pointed out the ugly truths about the system... I don't think many PS3 fanatics are going to be buying it.

Re:JUDASES!!!

[iapetus]

Because they've always been entirely complimentary towards the 360 and Wii.

Wii?

[AbsoluteXyro]

Where the hell is the Wii version? I was pretty sure these Penny Arcade guys liked money. Lots and lots of money.

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[k_187]

I doubt there's enough storage space on the Wii. It'd be pushing it close to max at best (e.g. nothing else available)

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[ShawnDoc]

They stated they wanted to, but the Wii just doesn't have enough storage to fit the game.

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[IntergalacticWalrus]

WiiWare games are restricted to 43 MB. They'd have to cripple the game a lot to make it fit that.

Not to mention the Torque Engine is not available for Wii, at least it wasn't the last time I checked.

Four Gods wait on the windowsill...

[Deathdonut]

The game borrows much in the way of mechanics from old standards. You run around picking up items that light up when you mouse over them. You pick from mostly unimportant dialog choices. Combat is mostly an action-point turn-based system in the Final Fantasy style. Despite all this, the game is evolutionary in many ways: 1) The writing and concept is funny as hell. If you don't find this evolutionary, what games have you played recently? 2) Action-point turn-based combat with decent options and quite a bit of twitch. 3) It is episodic in nature. $20 buys you 6+ hours of entertainment. 4) Cross platform release with simple options for all platform owners. 5) You get to kill hundreds of hobos and mimes. Nuff said. If you haven't checked it out and have some time to spare, pick up the demo for free and you'll probably drop the $20 afterwards like I did.

Re:Four Gods wait on the windowsill...

[antifoidulus]

I played the demo, but was upset that Tycho and Gabe don't seem to have any voice parts in it. I'm a huge fan of the comic(well, this year has kind of sucked but...) and was hoping to be able to hear them in game.....do you in the full version? Or is all you get that really annoying narrator dude?

Re:Four Gods wait on the windowsill...

[_xeno_]

I was terrified that they'd give them voices. I was actually quite relieved to discover that they never did.

It's based on a comic. You shouldn't hear their voices. You've presumably already got an idea of how they sound in your mind. So, no, they never do have any voice acting in the full version, thankfully.

Another good reason not to do any voice acting is that your character is supposed to represent you. Either your character would have no voice acting or it wouldn't really be "you."

You're supposed to be playing through the comic. I was rather glad to discover that there is no voice acting in the game. I think it works better that way.

So that's a no, there is no voice acting in the full version.

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[njfuzzy]

I tend to imagine Gabe and Tycho as sounding like their real-life counterparts... who a lot of fans have heard on podcasts, videos, or in person at PAX, etc.

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[MagdJTK]

It's funny but I've read PA for ages and I've never given any consideration to what they sound like. Maybe that's just me.

I'm still not convinced by your arguments for no speech though --- what about film adaptations of books where they might not even look like how you imagined them?

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[_xeno_]

what about film adaptations of books where they might not even look like how you imagined them?

That's different. The game was supposed to be a sort of "interactive comic." The cutscenes were all 2D and involved "panels" just like a comic would. The entire look and feel of the game was designed to match Penny Arcade's style. If they'd gone for a more cinematic experience, voice acting would likely have been more appropriate. But they were trying to create an interactive comic experience, and part of a comic book is that it doesn't have a voice track.

If they were going to create a Penny Arcade animatio

They never had voices before, they shouldn't now!

[Tetsujin]

I was terrified that they'd give them voices. I was actually quite relieved to discover that they never did.

It's based on a comic. You shouldn't hear their voices. You've presumably already got an idea of how they sound in your mind. So, no, they never do have any voice acting in the full version, thankfully.

Don't you think that seems a bit closed-minded? I mean we've been down this road a million times before - characters which started out as comics suddenly having voices in animation or TV shows or whatever. Superman, Dragonball, Naruto, Ninja Turtles, X-Men, Harry Potter, Charlie Brown, Garfield, whatever, take your pick...

The point is, yes, people can find cause to complain about voices put on characters when they're used to them not having any - but that doesn't mean that putting a voice on that characte

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[Durrok]

Tycho and Gabe don't talk during it. Picking a voice actor for the parts would really be impossible as everyone has different opinions as to how they should sound. It also adds another expense to the project. I don't mind the text based dialog, there isn't an excessive amount of reading required and most of the dialog is very funny (at least the first time through).

For fun, go click on all the crabs on the dock. Yes, they all have different descriptions. :)

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[MagdJTK]

It's a real shame that there are so few genuinely funny games. I think it's all down to games like Grim Fandango selling all of about fifteen copies and demonstrating that not even that level of humour can beat gunning down thousands of identical aliens in the eyes of the majority of gamers.

Glad things are working out

[Cathoderoytube]

I think it's a fair trade. Xbox 360 gets Final Fantasy XIII, and the PS3 gets Penny Arcade.

Re:Glad things are working out

[oahazmatt]

I think it's a fair trade. Xbox 360 gets Final Fantasy XIII, and the PS3 gets Penny Arcade.

Why do I get the feeling the popularity of both will lead to "Final Arcade I: The Last Beginning"?

Trade

[Kimos]

And the Wii gets no love.

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[Wordplay]

Well, this -is- Slashdot.

And Bioshock.

[HalAtWork]

I'd argue that Bioshock is more compelling than the next installment of Final Fantasy, the way the series and its spinoffs have been going. Square is starting to Disney the hell out of Final Fantasy.

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[bigstrat2003]

Well, Bioshock certainly isn't more compelling than a lot of the FF games, so that's hardly a fair statement to make. And recent games aren't as sucky (imnsho) as made out to be: FF12 wasn't the series' best, but FFX was easily better than Bioshock. That was one of the best RPGs I've ever seen.

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[Gravatron]

FFX has two good parts: The Part in front of Lulu and the part behind Rikku.

Bioshock, on the other hand, was amazing from start to finish and showed that yes, you can have a compelling world in a FPS, somethign people seem to have forgot. The Loss of the game as an exclusive to MS was a major blow.

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[bigstrat2003]

Three points: FFX was also amazing from start to finish (definitely don't understand why people underestimate it so), Halo showed us that an FPS can have a compelling world a long time ago, and Bioshock was never a 360 exclusive.

I want episode 2!

[forgoil]

Nuff said!

the Garfield effect

[stebalo]

Penny arcade reminds me of lasagna.

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[colesw]

A wonderful and delightful meal?

Quite a Turnaround

[Benedick]

When the PS3 first came out, Tycho was so unhappy with the high cost, he refused to buy one. Now, I know the price has come down some and that he's bought one, but it's still a long way from righteous indignation to joining forces.

What's next? The Cardboard Tube Samurai switching to steel?

I'm still pissed at Greenhouse for the achievments

[samwh]

The Steam version, which was released later, got achievements. The people who bought it on release day got stuck with a game missing features, and were told by Greenhouse staff to suck it up. See this thread:

http://forum.playgreenhouse.com/jforum/posts/list/720.page [playgreenhouse.com]

I know I will only be getting the next episode on Steam, since I know that the other versions are crippled.

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[LunarCrisis]

The Steam version, which was released later, got achievements. The people who bought it on release day got stuck with a game missing features, [...]

No, the people who got it on steam got a game with added/tacked-on features, there's an important difference. The fact that they decided to give more after the fact doesn't mean you got cheated.