November is the month of the Viking, apparently, but we're not talking about Assassin's Creed Valhalla this time. Today, Rune 2: Decapitation Edition came out. It's an open world action-RPG where you play as some Viking trying to save Midgard, but truly, I'm glossing over the interesting bit. Rune 2 has gone through nothing but drama over the last year - which most recently involved…
Posts tagged “Human Head Studios”
Bethesda and ZeniMax intentionally sabotaged Rune 2 by secretly snapping up its developers days before launch, the game's publishers have claimed in a lawsuit. The Viking fantasy action-RPG launched in November 2019 then, the very next day, developers Human Head announced they were shutting down but their employees had been hired for a new Bethesda studio. This was quite a surprise, even to the publishers…
Rune 2’s publisher has regained the game’s code after its developers suddenly shut down
Rune 2, sequel to the much older RPG Rune, has been sailing through uncertain waters since its release two months ago. The publisher Ragnarok Game may have finally reached the eye of the storm as of last week when they regained control of the viking RPG's code from the former developers whose studio suddenly shut down and quickly after accepted positions at a new Bethesda…
Rune 2’s publisher is suing the former developers for control of the game’s code
Nordic action-RPG Rune 2 released on November 12th. The next day, its developers Human Head Studios announced their closure and that all of its development team were offered new positions at a new studio with Bethesda. Apparently they failed to mention this crucial detail to Rune 2's publisher. Now Ragnarok Game are suing Human Head to regain control of the game's source code and assets.
Rune 2 publishers surprised by Human Head’s closure, vow to continue support
It's been a wild week for Human Head Studios. They finally launched Rune 2, the oft-delayed sequel to their third-person Viking murderer from way back in the year 2000, then shut down and immediately reformed under Bethesda as Roundhouse Studios. I was surprised by this, but my surprise is nothing compared to what Rune 2's publishers felt. "We found out about this news when you…
Human Head close, immediately reform under Bethesda as Roundhouse Studios
It should've been a big week for Human Head Studios. Rune 2 finally completed its rocky voyage onto store shelves, nineteen years after its predecessor. Unfortunately, Human Head's latest would turn out to be their last. Today, the developers announced they'd be "closing the book" on the studio as we know it.Fortunately, it's not quite the end of Human Head entirely. The developers will continue…
It's been a heck of a ride for Rune 2 this past year. So far the game has been renamed, moved over to the Epic Games Store, and delayed from its original summertime release date. Ah, but today is a new day, friends. Human Head Studios, the game developer I keep having to remind myself isn't a bit from Community, has announced its Hot Viking…
Feature: Drag me to Hel
With Rune 2 out very soon, what better time to ask this?I used to describe Rune as "sort of like an FPS but with swords", and that's a terrible way to describe it. But it sort of felt like that somehow. You're a Viking warrior named Ragnar whose village is blatted by an evil sorcerer, who effortlessly kills you and everyone on your boat for…
Rune: Ragnarok rebrands as Rune 2 and sets sail for a summer launch
Rune 2 - formerly known as Rune: Ragnarok - nearly ready, and now apparently signed up to launch on Epic this summer. Developed by Human Head Games, the long-standing studio probably known best for their work on Prey (the dumb fast shooter one with the portals, not the other one) are returning to their roots. Now officially a numbered sequel, it's a Viking-themed mythological hack…
Feature: It won’t be worth it
Actual deaf people have played The Quiet Man and found it very much wanting; when you play it you clip into almost every surface available and during fights may suddenly teleport from one punching animation to another with a block of frames missing in between; the main character Dane isn’t a Quiet Man at all and he actually makes a lot of noise. Yes, sure,…
The FMV revival continues today with the launch of The Quiet Man, a brawler which is supposed to switch "seamlessly" between live-action video, in-game cutscenes, and playable fisticuffs. It's not a game I'd expect Square Enix to publish, not a game I'd expect Human Head (the studio behind the 2006 Prey) to make, and not a game I'd expect Imogen Heap to sing the theme…
Live-action video and third-person beat 'em up will combine in The Quiet Man on November 1st, publishers Square Enix announced today. Neither the brawling nor the movie look particularly great but I remain delighted by games reviving ye olde FMV ways, trying to combine two mighty different mediums in ways that mostly result in actors chewing scenery. I absolutely think games can combine the two…
Hot on the heels of announcing a sequel to Rune, Human Head Studios have announced another game that's mighty surprising. Survived By [official site] is a 100-player bullet hell shoot 'em up MMORPG, which is a description I don't believe I've applied to any game before. It'll have players exploring, dodging swarms of bullets, killing, levelling, looting, and crafting. Then dying permanently. Oh, but don't…
Human Head Studios have dusted off their horned helmets and announced a sequel to Rune. The studio might be best known for their work on Prey No The Old Prey Not The New Prey and its cancelled sequel but before all that, they had a load of Vikings murder each other to bits in their third-person action-adventure from the year 2000. Now they're sharpening their…
Feature: You'll not kill again when you meet Killian
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.No, no one has. Prey 2 [official site] was cancelled long before it was finished and reborn as Arkane's more simply titled Prey.
Feature: Exclusive Prey review!
Prey 2006: A giant pile of ideas abandoned in a heap on the floor
2006's original Prey came a full eleven years after 3D Realms began its production. Eventually completed by Human Head Studios, although using some of the original concepts (primarily the portal tech), it was released to rave reviews. Which is odd, because it's a colossal pile of shit.
Though there have been murmurings (and indeed alleged leaked emails) that much-anticipated but much-troubled open world shooter Prey 2 had been snatched away from original dev Human Head and entrusted to the tattooed hands of Dishonored dev Arkane, Bethesda have now stated that the game is as dead as Zhora after three bullets in the back. But what's in a name?
Funny how games get passed around sometimes. After TimeGate Studios took over a lot of development on Alien: Colonial Marines from Gearbox, well, it was a bit of a mess for everyone involved. When TimeGate went bankrupt last year (CM wasn't their only problem, mind) they were still working on Minimum, and so publishers Atari drafted Human Head Studios to finish it up. (Human Head,…
Minimum is not the reason TimeGate dropped off the face of the earth. Not by a long shot. That would be a series of unfortunate events (and decisions) that forced the partial Aliens: Colonial Marines developer to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and close up shop. It was kind of an implosion. Among others, a jilted pizza place was involved. One would assume, then, that its…
Where once Prey 2 burned as bright as an exploding star, it's now nearly blipped out of existence. Strikes and stall-outs allegedly sidelined the promising sequel for many moons, and talk of cancellation wrapped a rapidly tightening noose around its neck. But then, a twist: rumors rushed from the Internet's every exceedingly awkward orifice door that Dishonored developer Arkane had taken the reins on the…
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