By Quintin Smith on December 13th, 2010 at 6:27 pm.
Check your calendar! What are you doing in 2013? I’ll tell you what you’re doing, you’re playing Guillermo del Toro’s inSANE. Yes, the game that del Toro confirmed he was working on with THQ has been named, dated and has expelled an ominous teaser trailer. No details on the game just yet, though the cheerful Mexican director/writer says he wants “to take players to a place they have never seen before, where every single action makes them question their own senses of morality and reality.” Now, put on your spooky boots and come watch that trailer with me.
It probably bears repeating that in an interview with Wired last year, Guillermo del Toro expressed an interest in making the Citizen Kane of videogames. Yes he did. With a modus operandi like that, I’m very curious as to what he comes up with.
13/12/2010 at 18:31 Colin Marc says:
I wish I could handle scary games. Amnesia seems great, but I didn’t even bother trying because I couldn’t play more than 20 minutes of dead space without having to cry in a corner for a while.
13/12/2010 at 19:06 Doeke says:
Clearly the parts of our brains that handle scariness and fun aren’t connected well enough to enjoy Dead Space or Amnesia.
13/12/2010 at 19:16 bikkebakke says:
@Doeke
speak for yourself >_>
13/12/2010 at 19:42 PleasingFungus says:
@bikkebakke
He was!
13/12/2010 at 19:42 Oneironaut says:
I can’t play anything scary either. It took me months to get through Doom 3, and even the Ravenholme part of HL2 took me a while to get through the first time.
13/12/2010 at 20:20 Ravenholme says:
Heh, Oneironaut, that’s Ravenholm without that the E, my name predates said location, so let’s not confuse it with me :p
13/12/2010 at 21:30 fabamatic says:
While playing Doom 3 the first couple of hours were scary after that I realised that I had already killed piles of zombies, imps and demons. Just by myself. They should be the ones scared!. Also the infamous ghost hotel in Vampire the masquerade Boodline, how I am supposed to be afraid of a ghost if I am a freaking vampire!!?. Amnesia is a totally different matter, it’s really scary until you realise certain gameplay issues.
13/12/2010 at 23:10 Vodka & Cookies says:
Some people have a huge aversion to fear based games which is why they often fail in the marketplace or simply dont do as well. If there are guns in it the game then thats the best way to market it.
14/12/2010 at 00:37 Lilliput King says:
Replaying V:tM – B (good god) at the moment, but it was pretty difficult to force myself through the mansion level again. While the vampires are supernatural in a way you can understand (the ‘mechanics’ of your existence are explained quite thoroughly) the ghosts are completely beyond your ken, which is what makes it scary.
14/12/2010 at 00:50 stahlwerk says:
Hover for mechanical spoilers regarding Hollowbrook hotel
But count me in the brain-doesnt-do-scary category of game enjoyment. I can’t even watch a cheery voice over Let’s Play of Amnesia for more than ten minutes a day. Granted, head phones on, dark room and maybe the fact I’m not actually playing adds to the experience of helplessness “TURN AROUND ITS BEHIND YOU OH GOD RUN!!”.
14/12/2010 at 16:06 Eschatos says:
The ghost hotel got a lot more scary when you realized you actually could die in there. Random objects throwing themselves at you for small yet significant damage got terrifying rather quickly. Not to mention the ghost fire.
15/12/2010 at 08:54 synergy says:
Thank you
I always thought i’m the only one with all my friends loving scary games.
I even skipped the hole Resident Evil and Silent Hill Series.
But I’m GONNA try the Del Torro game. He’s awesome!
13/12/2010 at 18:31 Miker says:
Is there any evidence that this is coming out on PC besides THQ’s promise of porting all their AAA games to PC? Also, this thing comes out in frickin 2013. Hype has gotten a little out of hand, no?
13/12/2010 at 19:25 ZIGS says:
Coming out for PC, PS4 and xbox 720
13/12/2010 at 19:25 Hmm says:
The official site says “PC”.
13/12/2010 at 18:32 The Walker says:
We can be sure that it will have an excellent sense of style, at the very least.
13/12/2010 at 18:32 Navagon says:
2013? Bloody hell. I don’t think I’ll be adding this to my ‘games to keep an eye on’ list just yet.
13/12/2010 at 18:53 Quintin Smith says:
You know, the really distant date makes me more excited, not less. If he was like “I’m gonna blow your mind!” and then the game was only gonna receive 20 months of development, I’d be skeptical.
13/12/2010 at 19:03 Evernight says:
*cough* Duke Nukem Forever *cough*
13/12/2010 at 19:37 Ricc says:
Oh, you assholes… Why do you have to get me so excited about a 2013 game! D:
13/12/2010 at 19:38 Navagon says:
True, true. It’s nice to see a game getting the time it needs. After all we haven’t quite left behind the era where games were thrown out the door months before completion. The industry seems to be learning that a bit extra time and money = a lot better return on investment.
But as Evernight points out, it’s not a 100% cast iron guarantee of quality. I want to see a little more before I get excited about it. That’s in spite of the fact that the details so far are very interesting to me.
13/12/2010 at 18:32 Henk says:
Am I the only one who read: “A new error from Guillermo del Toro” instead of Terror?
13/12/2010 at 19:13 Earl-Grey says:
I didn’t, but thanks to you, now I do. So thank you the short and spontaneos outburst of snarky laughter I immediatly channeled in the general direction of inSANE=)
13/12/2010 at 18:33 MartinNr5 says:
Aren’t a teaser supposed to show something to get excited about?
13/12/2010 at 18:35 The Walker says:
@MartinNr5 It says that Del Toro is making a video game. What more do you need? :P
13/12/2010 at 18:37 Flameberge says:
I think the point of teaser trailers is to show nothing in the hope people get excited anyway. Generally works, too.
13/12/2010 at 21:35 sassy says:
Worked for me.
The trailer I think is quite good. Not comparable to a gameplay trailer but it puts across the mood of the game, at least appears to. Certainly better than the TES5 trailer yesterday which lacked anything of interest.
14/12/2010 at 05:32 Corrupt_Tiki says:
@ Sassy,
Are you freakin’ kidding? It had dragons! and stuff!
14/12/2010 at 10:35 sassy says:
The TES trailer gave us nothing, not even an understanding of the mood. Granted we all know but thats a different story.
They should have replaced all that dragon nonsense with just the words “TES5: Skyrim – Coming Soon” wrote on a post-it note, would have gotten people just as excited … actually it would have made my imagination flare up and made me more excited.
13/12/2010 at 18:47 Simon says:
Yes yes Volition, very impressive.
Freespace 3 please.
:(
14/12/2010 at 03:31 fearian says:
:(
13/12/2010 at 18:50 Eukatheude says:
This seems GOOD.
13/12/2010 at 18:56 noom says:
Pff. Everyone knows the Citizen Kane of videogames is Tetris…
13/12/2010 at 20:23 Andrei Sebastian says:
True… I don’t even get why they bother anymore, you can’t really re-invent tetris, do you?
13/12/2010 at 20:45 Xercies says:
Tetris doesn’t have a camera shot of doable mirrors so it can;’t be the Citizen Kane of video games. Neither can this unless they do that shot!
13/12/2010 at 22:01 elyscape says:
@Xercies:
I WOULD TOTALLY DO THAT MIRROR
13/12/2010 at 18:56 Nogo says:
Volition seems like an excellent choice for a del Toro game.
Color me excited in a two and a half years.
13/12/2010 at 18:57 Ovno says:
That trailer is horrible, really made my skin crawl…
13/12/2010 at 18:59 stahlwerk says:
That’s an IиSANE way of spelling, what will they think of next?
13/12/2010 at 19:37 Rond says:
I can tolerate that, they could come up with a lot more 1NS4N3 way.
13/12/2010 at 21:03 Lambchops says:
Damn you Stahlwerk, there I was ready to make a joke about having to buy keyboards with backwards “N” keys . . . mumble, grumble
13/12/2010 at 21:15 stahlwerk says:
СОРРИ, ЛЕМБЧОПС
13/12/2010 at 19:02 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
Guillermo del Toro’s inSANE? It certainly sounds like it ;)
13/12/2010 at 20:00 crabbytap says:
Citizen Kane is quite old. You can’t make a Citizen Kane of games because it will be new, and by the time it gets old people will think it’s pants
13/12/2010 at 19:07 Text_Fish says:
Citizen Kane’s a bit boring.
I’m generally wary of directors who think they can make great games. I’m sure it’ll be really popular with softcore gamers who want as much cutscene as they want gameplay because Del Toro does make great movies. I have a feeling proper gamers will wish he stuck to what he knows.
13/12/2010 at 21:40 sassy says:
Who says he doesn’t know? He may understand the underlying subtleties of gaming better than you do … or maybe not.
13/12/2010 at 22:04 mpk says:
I think Del Toro is a big fat hairy symbol of geek culture. He’s obviously well versed in comic books, he’s thrown professional wrestling moves into his movies for laughs, and I’ve no doubt he’s played a game or three. That’s still no guarantee that he’ll be able to make a fantastic game, but having his name on the marquee certainly inspires more confidence in me than Spielberg or Lucas or, god forbid, Boll.
13/12/2010 at 23:46 Resin says:
No matter how many good movies he’s made I have still not forgiven him for the steaming piles of poo he made out of the Hellboy movies. They could have been great and he blew it, completely and utterly screwed the pooch, they should get that guy who directed Sin City instead.
14/12/2010 at 00:04 sassy says:
Somehow I imagine Boll (Bole?) making a Daikatana fan game. Only that could be bad enough to be on par with his movies.
As Guillermo Del Toro, I really don’t know him very well at all. If he understands the horror genre then he could well make an excellent horror game (which inSANE looks to be). The genre can have weaker gameplay and be a bit more cinematic, as long as it can create the right mood and understands the intricacies of horror, then it will be good.
I am a big horror fan but am repeatedly disappointed by horror games, so few manage to understand horror fundamentals (F.E.A.R I’m looking at you), the few that had these basics down are some of my favorite games.
13/12/2010 at 19:15 Jakkar says:
Volition! VOLITION! VOLITION :D
Oh how I love Volition x_x
Guerilla’s technology and the details of its open world.. Nothing has been as -significant- to the evolution of gaming, or more instrumental to it escaping its rut, than RF:Guerilla. Not for a long time now.
Only other games that strike me as similarly ‘significant’ since the last golden age are Shadow of the Colossus, STALKER, and Men of War.
13/12/2010 at 19:20 Jimbot says:
I was severely disappointed with this teaser. It’ll be interesting to see how it pans out, for sure, but my gut tells me that they dropped showing off Saints Row 3 for this crappy teaser trailer.
I want to see Saints Row 3 gameplay, dammit!
13/12/2010 at 19:21 bakaohki says:
I would not call this one a trailer. Btw where IS the captcha which I must remember to enter?
13/12/2010 at 19:25 Iucounu says:
If it is anything like Del Toro’s Hollywood movies, it will look amazing and unique, have an intriguing premise, and turn to absolute shit about half way in.
13/12/2010 at 19:31 kafka7 says:
What this clip demonstrates above all is that they know how to put some sound effects together with a logo.
13/12/2010 at 20:35 Andrei Sebastian says:
Yep, probably asked some kid to play in After Effects and see what comes out, and then – EUREKA! – new game
14/12/2010 at 09:20 phlebas says:
Already ahead of a lot of developers, then?
13/12/2010 at 19:34 ron says:
rps should interview del toro. his email is abe_sapien@hotmail.com
13/12/2010 at 20:26 Flaringo says:
Aw, I was hoping this was a remake/sequel to the off-road racing game “1nsane”. Now I’m sad.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insane_(video_game)
13/12/2010 at 20:33 Andrei Sebastian says:
I think that if the trailer shows us anything, is that this will certainly not be our “Citizen Kane”.
It’s also worth mentioning that Guillermo del Toro didn’t really manage to do anything “smart” in film either (maybe El Laberinto del Fauno was the closest).
P.S.
I’m getting really tired of this Citizen Kane comparison too.
(Citizen Kane is obviously great, but it’s far from being the ultimate god damned pinnacle of film – when did that notion became so popular?)
13/12/2010 at 22:38 MrTambourineMan says:
Pan’s Labyrinth was one of the finest movies of the last decade indeed. It lost a palme d’or to another excellent movie “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” but it did, however receive a 22 minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival. It’s fuckin’ brilliant.
14/12/2010 at 07:56 clownst0pper says:
His input into The Orphanage was evident, while HellBoy 2 was visually stunning while remaining afun comic adaptation.
Pans Labyrinth was absolutely incredible.
13/12/2010 at 20:36 Somnimental says:
Guillermo Del Toro is into 4×4 Offroading? I’m happy there’s a sequel an’ all but I’d have thought he’d be more involved in a DarkSiders style game.
13/12/2010 at 20:39 Ricc says:
So, could this be related to his new movie based on “At the Mountains of Madness”? It’s an HP Lovecraft story and the tentacles in this teaser look very Cthulhu-esque.
13/12/2010 at 22:06 DethDonald says:
Exactly what I thought.
13/12/2010 at 23:42 MadMatty says:
cool
13/12/2010 at 21:16 Lambchops says:
Hey guys, guys i’ve totally found the perfect theme tune for this game:
Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9IYILdjQjk&feature=fvst
14/12/2010 at 00:27 stahlwerk says:
What the hell, this guy signed a life time cheese pop contract or what?
Peter Andre, your washboard abs will not prevail!
13/12/2010 at 21:35 TSA says:
Oh, so they’ve started work on the title card?
Good for them.
13/12/2010 at 23:12 Jack says:
I’m cautiously pessimistic. I know the guy’s a fantastic director, but.. well… we’ve all heard about Clive barker’s Jericho, right? A great film director does not a great game make.
13/12/2010 at 23:52 DeepSleeper says:
I was about to come rushing in with “What? Barker’s a writer, not a director”, and then I stopped and did thirty seconds of research and found that yeah, he’s directed a bunch of stuff.
I just wanted to post this as a cautionary tale. Remember to think twice before posting, guys!
Don’t be like me, in a hurry to show off how much you think you know.
Meanwhile woo Del Toro I guess. There’s really no way to know anything about this yet. I guess I’ll wait and see.
13/12/2010 at 23:25 cjlr says:
Because when I think, “Citizen Kane”, I think dirty, distorted Alien remix…
‘cept by Christ it’s a bit early to be judging this thing, so I’ll promptly forget about until the next time it’s in headlines.
13/12/2010 at 23:59 FRIENDLYUNIT says:
Wow! I dont know if my feeble mind can take it first we have Call Of Duty Multiplayer providing “significantly more entertainment value per hour than ever in history” (Michael Pachter, 2010) and now it’s going to be the Citizen Kane of videogames!!11oneone!
Truly we are the blessed people, living what will be known (by the poor sods in the New Dark Age using mud and sticks to play noughts and crosses) as the Golden Age of Computer Games.
14/12/2010 at 00:02 Ted says:
“It probably bears repeating that in an interview with Wired last year, Guillermo del Toro expressed an interest in making the Citizen Kane of videogames. Yes he did. With a modus operandi like that, I’m very curious as to what he comes up with.”
A piece of shit, pretty much guaranteed.
14/12/2010 at 01:19 Renzatic says:
Yeah, bait me with a supposed game by a supposed Guillermo Del Toro, all just to get me to watch an old Nine Inch Nails video.
For shame, RPS. I was actually excited for a second.
14/12/2010 at 02:21 Miles of the Machination says:
Even if the mastermind behind Pan’s Labyrinth is behind this, seeing a game with a name like inSANE in huge, blocky RAGE like font, emblazoned with the leering names of publishers, does not exactly fill me with confidence.
14/12/2010 at 05:59 BobsLawnService says:
A game project by a famous film dirctor promising to redefine gaming? Where have we seen this before? 50 bucks says it gets shitcanned mid 2012.
14/12/2010 at 09:48 The Sombrero Kid says:
this game is so amazing they can’t even show any footage of it for fear of it exciting us all to death, presumably the 3 years of development it’s got left are just for polish, how else could they be so sure it’s going to be amazing?
14/12/2010 at 10:50 dogsolitude_uk says:
Wow.
I love scary games.
I first realised I loved scary games after playing Thief, but after the Shalebridge Cradle (I actually had to stop playing, turn every light on in the house and watch cartoons at one point), nothing I’ve played since has really come close, except perhaps STALKER:SoC.
I still haven’t played Amnesia though: the trailer looked promising but the girly ‘oh, oh, ooooh’ sounds kind of put me off a bit.
I get the impression that Del Toro has probably played a few games in his time though. I reckon it’ll be fine enough :)
14/12/2010 at 17:36 Dances to Podcasts says:
But do you have spooky boots?
15/12/2010 at 18:10 Paul says:
Anyone seen Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth? Fantastic stuff. He had free reign to be as creative as he liked. Point is, there’s a scene in the movie that has a creature which devours children. Spookiest thing I’ve ever seen. If Del Toro’s mind populates this InSane game with those kinds of nightmarish entities, it should be a sure fire cert to make we mess my pants.