By Jim Rossignol on June 18th, 2010 at 3:16 pm.
Also looking awesome this week: the next game from the Chilean team who gave us weirdo biff ‘em up Zeno Clash. It’s called Rock Of Ages and it appears to be a mixture of strategy game and, er, bowling? Two opposing castles attempt to crush each other in surrealistic rock-rolling warfare with defences constructed turn by turn to defend against the heinous stone attack. If that wasn’t enough, Ace Team explain: “your boulder will crash through different periods of classical art, introducing the player to a variety of authentic art styles and music from throughout much of human history.” Response from RPS Hivemind? “Oh Wow.” “VIDEOGAMES! VIDEOGAMES!” “Yay!” Yeah, that’s the stuff. It’s out next year via digi download outlets.
And you are going to want to watch this particular trailer…
18/06/2010 at 15:20 Nick says:
Pure, unadulterated win.
18/06/2010 at 15:20 CMaster says:
Awesome
18/06/2010 at 15:21 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:
Soilid!
Even thou the “next year” part made me sad….darn
18/06/2010 at 15:23 ulix says:
Pretty cool
Does anyone remember this gamecube game that was a mix of flipper and strategy? Where you would have to flipper armies away before they reached you (or something)?
Awesome concept.
18/06/2010 at 15:57 Sagan says:
Yep, it was called Odama. Basically you had to win a war while playing pinball on the battlefield with a giant boulder that could easily wipe out your entire army. That game didn’t do very well because it could be too much to do at a time, but once you figured it out it was pretty awesome.
18/06/2010 at 19:55 Daniel Rivas says:
You had to use the microphone too, if I remember correctly.
18/06/2010 at 15:23 Meat Circus says:
This succeeds at GAME.
18/06/2010 at 15:23 Big X says:
looks quite like the IGF student entry Igneous, but far nicer and deeper.
19/06/2010 at 18:09 Adrian says:
Igneous is just awesome! Sad i´ts so short!
18/06/2010 at 15:30 Alex Bakke says:
I won’t lie, my jaw dropped when I saw the trailer.
I even had ‘They can’t do that!’ thoughts.
18/06/2010 at 15:32 Tom-INH says:
No Boulder’s Gate headline? Hang your head in shame, Jim.
18/06/2010 at 15:33 Alec Meer says:
This is the best thing I’ve seen from E3.
18/06/2010 at 15:55 lhzr says:
better than child of eden and rayman origins? what a wonky idea.
18/06/2010 at 21:56 Seol says:
I’ll have to disagree.
19/06/2010 at 13:53 Bremze says:
So you didn’t see the Konami conference? Oh god, I almost fell out of my chair laughing.
18/06/2010 at 15:44 Kieron Gillen says:
The Chileans are coming!
KG
18/06/2010 at 15:47 Greg Wild says:
Ye gods bless us truly. Our feeble minds can only begin to imagine how awesome this is going to be.
18/06/2010 at 15:47 sfury says:
BOOM! SMASH!! YES!!!
I didn’t buy Zeno Clash, but I’m ridiculously excited by what I just saw. Looks like an insta-buy for me, even though I’ve only seen a short trailer. :]
Ohboyohboyohboy!
18/06/2010 at 15:57 Baboonanza says:
I didn’t think I’d like Zeno Clash, but when I finally played it I loved it. So imaginative.
18/06/2010 at 15:54 matte_k says:
The flat soldiers made me think of Monty Python a lot, and that’s a good thing. Looking forward to this!
18/06/2010 at 15:56 Baboonanza says:
I’m bowled over!
Roll-on Spring 2011!
18/06/2010 at 16:18 Meat Circus says:
GET OUT.
18/06/2010 at 16:21 westyfield says:
Behold, the legendary Double Pun.
18/06/2010 at 17:17 Mad Doc MacRae says:
That’s a strike for Baboonanza, but does he have a spare pun lying around?
/this game looks GLORIOUS
18/06/2010 at 15:56 Norskov says:
That looks wonderful. I truly hope they make an early pre-order beta a la World of Goo. Any news on Zeno Clash 2?
18/06/2010 at 15:58 Mr_Day says:
I look forward to a level inspired by Escher.
“Take that! Or…hmm. Wait. Is that…er…is it heading to you or me?”
19/06/2010 at 06:53 M.P. says:
This post gets an imaginary thumbs up from me! :p
18/06/2010 at 15:58 laikapants says:
Sha-mazing. If only I didn’t have to wait till 2011 to fling smiley boulders at other people.
18/06/2010 at 16:00 James G says:
Want! (Yeah, so the visuals sold me. What can I say, I’m an art-design whore)
Zeno Clash never fully clicked with me, purely down to not being a huge fan of the genre, but this looks interesting. First thoughts are tower defence meets marble run, but I admit that I haven’t got a strong handle on how it will play.
18/06/2010 at 16:02 Fede says:
Cool. I fear it might get boring, but it’s such an awesome idea… it cannot go wrong. :D
18/06/2010 at 16:04 Sunjumper says:
Playing pinball by shouting commands to control your hapless troops.
It was also great fun when played as an inpromptu multi-player game.
Especially as you could use the bongo controler to rally your troops, which lead to one player with the bongos and microphone and the other on the pinball controlls.
That said I am looking forward to Rock of Ages. The world needs more ACE-Team wierdness!
18/06/2010 at 16:09 Sunjumper says:
The above comment was an answer to ulix’s question. It looks that I fail again at answering correctly.
18/06/2010 at 17:47 Polysynchronicity says:
The very concept of a pinball game that you can play with bongos and microphone is amazing in so many ways
18/06/2010 at 16:13 alseT says:
Anyone else noticing an increase of prospective strategy games ever since the Xcom FPS thing? It’s like the gaming world balancing itself.
Other than that: more stuff from ACE team YAY!!!
18/06/2010 at 16:19 AndrewC says:
Game development as giant karmic seesaw with alseT as its pivot. Look into this RPS, it might provide valuable insight.
18/06/2010 at 16:24 solipsistnation says:
Ha ha ha what?
Oh man. Looking forward to it now!
18/06/2010 at 16:31 Bowlby says:
“Destroy enemy armies and castles with a giant boulder”
Sold.
18/06/2010 at 16:39 Hodge says:
This trailer puts the dance in my pants. Best of E3, indeed.
18/06/2010 at 16:46 The Hammer says:
NEED
18/06/2010 at 16:53 Urthman says:
“Destroy enemy armies and castles with a giant boulder”
This would be an instant-win idea just by itself, but then they had to go and use that super-duper-hilarious-awesome art style.
18/06/2010 at 17:04 mandrill says:
A finer homage to the Terry Gilliam Animations from Python I have never seen. Awesomeness abounds.
18/06/2010 at 18:12 Alexander Norris says:
Yeah, that medieval part shown through most of the trailer was basically Monty Python’s Holy Grail: the Game.
Still not interested, but at least I smiled.
18/06/2010 at 17:20 fishyjoes says:
I was hoping for some Dalí stuff. Escher sounds cool. Maybe in the expansion?
18/06/2010 at 17:43 Gabbo says:
What is in Chile’s water supply and how can I get a hold of some of it?
That goofy trailer sold me.
18/06/2010 at 17:44 Yargh says:
If there is any justice in the world it will sell millions
18/06/2010 at 17:48 Jimmy says:
Epic. Looks fabulous. Looking forward to hearing more in 2011 (when I’ll be too damn busy).
Love the artwork.
18/06/2010 at 17:49 Clovis says:
Wow, that looked very cool, but some kinda’ boring but pretty RTS …
And then the bolder.
18/06/2010 at 17:54 Thants says:
Bless your hearts ACE Team, you magnificent weirdos.
18/06/2010 at 18:11 Horatius says:
ACE Team is seriously one of the most exciting things in the game scene recently. There’s an energy and imagination with their work that reminds me of the best of the Amiga and DOS PC days.
LOVE LOVE LOVE
18/06/2010 at 18:20 Pandaemonius says:
Definitely DLC/expansion/sequel material for this in moving to more modern art styles (if they aren’t doing it already and just not telling). Impressionist landscapes, Cubist units, Surreal buildings. Hell, even abstract for a complete change of scenery! I think I’m even more excited by these prospects than what we’ve seen already…
18/06/2010 at 18:36 lethu says:
W00t, our own Katamari Damacy for our lovely PC’s!! err.. wait! How come nobody seemed to bring Katamari after seeing this ??
18/06/2010 at 19:12 Tei says:
Re: Katamari Damazi
The Wonderful End of the World, on Steam. It has some very interesting ideas, but is a “dirty” version of Katamari. Is not as solid or fun, but a good “Kamari-ish” game.
18/06/2010 at 19:17 sfury says:
I think Dejobaan’s (another insane team) The Wonderful End of the World – http://www.dejobaan.com/wonderful/index.htm – is something similar, though I’ve only played a demo and watched a video or two about Katamari
edit: Tei was faster than me, but I’ve supplied a link :P
18/06/2010 at 20:02 lethu says:
Oh thanks for the info, I think I have already heard about “The Wonderful End of the World”, might have even seen it in RPS, I must have lacked time to check that… Time and motivation, I have played only a few indie games to be honest (at the risk of being boooh’ed), but that’s not because I don’t like the genre or don’t want to support it, it’s rather that I am used to heavier games, I usually don’t play to spend minutes on a game, but rather hours, and a game has to be really attracting, concept and execution wise to deserve my free time.
Anyway, seems like Rock of Ages promises to be a great experience, I will be waiting more info on this impatiently.
I am counting on you, Boulder Paper Shotgun !!
18/06/2010 at 18:38 wyrmsine says:
Yeah, this gets instant purchase.
18/06/2010 at 18:57 Adamos says:
Do want. Amazing
18/06/2010 at 19:09 Tei says:
Goya is from my region (Aragon) so this is hiting near home :-)
Goya was scary awesome and punk. Even for today standards. Is a painter that use enormeous brush to draw faces and figures. If you zoom on the faces, you hardly see anything. He was not painting on the canvas, but on the resulting image on your eye. A genius, but not my favorite painter.
Also, the themes of Goya are fun, the war against the evil frenchs (los desastres de la guerra), the people of Zaragoza and Madril. In a way, he was more a war reporter, than a kings painter.
18/06/2010 at 19:26 sfury says:
Interesting topic.
Seeing that you know so much about the guy and you’re Spanish – a question – there’s a film with Javier Bardem called “Goya’s Ghosts” – any idea if it is good? Or some good (english/subbed) documentary?
18/06/2010 at 19:33 Tei says:
Sorry. I have two rules on life: I don’t kiss people with beards bigger than mine, and I don’t watch spanish movies. So.. here. But you probably can read about it in Rottern Tomattoes or any other decent critic site. My trick to pick good (or fun) movie critics is google “subtext {title of the movie}”. If a critic is talking about the subtext of a movie, bets are the review will be a fun read. Even if the movie is Transformers 2.
Google knows it all.
18/06/2010 at 19:35 Tei says:
Postdata:
As you can see, my system as never failed.
http://www.dvdoutsider.co.uk/films/reviews/t/transformers_2.html
18/06/2010 at 19:46 Alec Meer says:
“I have two rules on life: I don’t kiss people with beards bigger than mine, and I don’t watch spanish movies” is the best thing that has ever been written anywhere on this website.
18/06/2010 at 20:09 Huggster says:
Tei, would you kiss me? I have just a bit of stubble.
18/06/2010 at 20:15 yogSo says:
I love how that Transformers 2 review Tei linked to is the yang to this ying: The most expensive art movie ever.
18/06/2010 at 20:37 sfury says:
+1
Tei always says amazing things, but that is by far the best! :)
@Tei – it’s actually a Milos Forman film and is a co-production between US and Spain so you might give it a half-chance. Also no bearded men in the screenshots I saw – you’ll be safe. ;)
That review…
“If movies have a nadir, then this is it. Bay has dug himself into the anus of cinema and found a home.”
Nice way of putting it. :) Good thing I fell asleep 2 times during the first 30 mins of Transformers 1 and decided I’ll never watch the damn thing or its sequels.
19/06/2010 at 11:22 Web Cole says:
Tei, you freakin’ rock XD
20/06/2010 at 04:58 Muzman says:
As much as I plan on adding this rule-to-live-by to my collection (right alongside “Try everything once. Except incest and folk dancing”.) I did rather enjoy Intacto, [Rec], The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labrynth, Open Your Eyes, Almodovar’s stuff etc
18/06/2010 at 19:19 pilouuuu says:
Amazing! It makes me proud to be chilean. :-D It’s great to see innovation in gaming and even better to see it coming from my very own country. Damn all those fools that say that games are not art!
18/06/2010 at 19:30 Nick says:
Art are games.
18/06/2010 at 20:17 Huggster says:
Ahhhhhhhhhh ….
Games like this are just like foreign movies.
So different and refreshing compared to “Hollywood Blockbuster” type games (eg. MW2).
And, as a rule, more memorable and they stay with you.
Always had time for weird French games and now things like this … just perfect.
And the new Rayman looks better than Mario Galaxy – I looks simply unbelievable!.
18/06/2010 at 20:44 bananarama says:
Are they still using Source? Looks sort of like the Unreal engine to me.
18/06/2010 at 20:51 Kevbo says:
So odd that its gotta be fun for at least a bit. I loved the sun/skybox in the background and the classical music.
18/06/2010 at 21:25 HarbourMaster says:
What impresses me is that ACE are creating something a very different game to follow on from Zeno Clash. It’s not, like off the top of my head, Trine begets Trine 2.
19/06/2010 at 11:24 Web Cole says:
Indeed! Creative types who can and do try there hand at more than one genre always impress me greatly! :)
18/06/2010 at 21:50 terry says:
Marble Madness : Medieval. This game looks splendid.
19/06/2010 at 00:09 Wedge says:
Wow, I was wondering what in the world was when I saw that title listed on Atlus’ games. Interesting it seems like they’re sticking with them as a publisher past the Zeno Clash XBLA deal too. I do like how Atlus has been branching out past Japan.
19/06/2010 at 01:19 Jahkaivah says:
@Big X
Igneous was a high speed game which actually let you jump off the flying debris produced by the precedual explosions in the terrain. This game probably wont reach that level of intensity.
19/06/2010 at 01:54 Idle Threats & Bad Poetry says:
The name of the ostensibly a pun off the name of a Christian hymn, wherein God is called the Rock of the Ages. I think the developer was just trying to name the game something memorable, but this could really offend some people. I’m a believer, and I wouldn’t buy the game even if I really liked it. They could have done better with the name.
19/06/2010 at 02:49 TychoCelchuuu says:
That sounds a bit like an… idle threat.
Also it’s probably named after the Def Leppard song, so chill out, dude.
19/06/2010 at 15:25 tomeoftom says:
Couldn’t God theoretically be called anything in a hymn? I mean, a human wrote the hymn, and gave him that title.
20/06/2010 at 13:28 Dinger says:
Dude, first rule of artistic creation: you can’t please fundamentalist nutcakes. We’re talking about a videogame in which the player has a God’s-eye-view of the scene and can spontaneously create beings, some of which, we presume, are notionally endowed with reason. If you’re irritated that the name given to the game is also the title of an eighteenth-century Anglican hymn expressing a metaphorical relation between Humans and God, then you are A) likely to be horrified by the larger blasphemies in the game design and B) missing the multilayered cultural resonance that the title bears. It’s a pun, but likely also a commentary on the convergence of game design, artistic impulses and religious drives in European (aka “Western”) culture from the late middle ages to the twenty-first century.
The only question is: will ACE Team be the next Borges or Ducasse?
20/06/2010 at 13:32 TotalBiscuit says:
This is a troll
19/06/2010 at 08:45 The Telemetrics of Robert Francis Bailey says:
Splendid.
This will be mine.
19/06/2010 at 10:52 The Sombrero Kid says:
i love those Chilean crazies!
19/06/2010 at 10:53 The Sombrero Kid says:
I love those Chilean crazies
19/06/2010 at 11:25 Web Cole says:
Yes. Yes yes. Yes yes yes yes yes!
19/06/2010 at 14:56 pilouuuu says:
!
19/06/2010 at 15:38 jeremypeel says:
This will be mine! Why do we need genres again?
19/06/2010 at 18:08 Adrian says:
If the door destruction is not scriped im sold in this! I couldn’t really tell what the strategy party of this game does looks awesome tho:)
19/06/2010 at 19:49 Rane2k says:
So this is Marble Madness meets Tower Defense? Nice! :-)
I also liked the little cardboard cut-out men.
19/06/2010 at 19:58 TeeJay says:
Luckily “Pan’s Labyrinth” can qualify as Mexican (Almodovar is more take-it-or-leave-it).
19/06/2010 at 20:36 Ozzie says:
Mozart Requiem, again? It’s like the first choice for dramatic, intense music, next to Camina Burana.
20/06/2010 at 15:13 the_fanciest_of_pants says:
These men are getting my money (again)
20/06/2010 at 17:44 Dan says:
Apparently in Japanese “Odama” means “great balls”
21/06/2010 at 00:20 noodlecake says:
This looks AMAZING! Totally my kind of game. I shall be watching this space… um… Watchilly…
25/08/2010 at 10:36 Rock Of Ages says:
Most of us who think of attending Rock Of Ages performances, we’re faced with the lack of tickets or the sky-rocked prices. Lately, I was recommended ticketsinventory.com to compare and purchase tickets and found it interesting. You may want to check.
19/11/2010 at 03:37 ugg bailey button says:
Yep, it was called Odama. Basically you had to win a war while playing pinball on the battlefield with a giant boulder that could easily wipe out your entire army. That game didn’t do very well because it could be too much to do at a time, but once you figured it out it was pretty awesome.