P.T. demo will scare you senseless

Watch out. The gap in the door…

It’s a separate reality.

The only me is me.

Are you sure the only you is you?

These cryptic words are the first things you see when you boot up the mysterious PlayStation Network demo simply titled “P.T.” The eerie, foreboding sentiment they muster is only the beginning of a strange, incredibly creepy and chill-inducing journey. Skip to the next paragraph if you only want a little more info on the demo, as I’m about to talk about what this is a demo for. It’s been noted for several days on various websites that P.T. is actually a teaser demo for the upcoming “Silent Hills” game, being made by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro and starring Norman Reedus, best known as Darryl from “The Walking Dead.”  Upon completion of the demo (which I haven’t been able to figure out yet), you get to view a short trailer, teasing the collaborators and star of the upcoming survival-horror game.

I’ve always been a fan of horror video games. The original Resident Evil series, the first few Silent Hill games (1 and 2 were great, 3 was just OK and The Room and Downpour were forgettable) and Outlast really stand out as some of the best scare-inducing titles I’ve ever played. But thanks to the advanced power of the PlayStation 4, P.T. takes the disturbing horror aesthetic to another level.

This screen of P.T. was posted on Reddit earlier by u/LukeLOL. This creepy guy isn't an enemy and you'll never interact
with him. I didn't even know he was there til I saw this...which makes it even worse.

 

The demo takes place all in first person, not allowing you to do much besides walk and zoom your view slightly with R3. It begins with you waking up in a small, bare, concrete room with a single door, slightly ajar. When you walk through, you enter a long hallway with pictures on the wall, empty bottles strewn about, a phone off the hook, a radio playing in the distance and several doors you can’t open. Walking to the end of the hallway, you find an open door which leads you…back through the doorway you first entered.

As you traverse this hallway, elements change, odd, discomforting sounds ring out in the distance and you get the feeling you aren’t alone in this strange, seemingly endless environment. Sometimes the layout changes, sometimes mysterious messages are written on the wall, sometimes a second voice comes through on the radio that seems to be speaking directly to you, making for a very creepy experience, heightened by the fact that all you can do is move and look around.

The visuals in P.T., while only of a simple, modern household, are truly stunning – almost photorealistic. The use of light and shadow will make you very uneasy as shadows cloak corners and distant hallways and strange sounds ring out on all sides.

There are allegedly different endings to P.T., though I haven’t finished it myself so I can’t say for sure. If you have the fortitude to get the true ending (or a good walkthrough), you’re rewarded with a teaser trailer for the game that P.T. is a demo of and fans of the survival-horror genre will be ecstatic when they discover this game’s true identity. Check out the video below for a walkthrough (without commentary) of the demo but don’t click to Part 2 if you don’t want the ending spoiled.

CM Punk WILL be in WWE 2K15, new details on 2K Showcase

Last week on Grizzly Gaming, I detailed a lot of the new features of the upcoming WWE 2K15 video game for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and today there is some exciting new information about the 2K Showcase, one of the single player modes in the game which will detail some of the most prominent feuds in the history of WWE.

Perhaps the biggest and most surprising news is that former WWE Superstar CM Punk WILL be featured in WWE 2K15 as part of the 2K Showcase for his 2011-2013 feud with John Cena. The 2002-2004 feud between Triple H and Shawn Michaels was also unveiled recently. In all there will be 33 matches featured in the 2K Showcase but additional feuds will be added as DLC after the game hits shelves on October 28.

It should also be noted that the CM Punk vs John Cena feud will be playable at Gamescom in Germany and at the SummerSlam event this weekend in Los Angeles. Much like the “Attitude Era” mode and “30 Years of Wrestlemania” in the past two WWE games, completing the 2K Showcase will unlock new wrestlers, attires, arenas and more.

Regardless of how you feel about CM Punk’s sudden departure from the company, it’s pretty cool we’ll get at least one next-generation wrestling game with CM Punk in it. I also suppose that this means that CM Punk will be a playable character outside of the 2K Showcase, though none of the articles I’ve read make specific reference to that. It would be odd to include Punk and not allow him to be used outside of the 2K Showcase but considering the way he left WWE, I was a little surprised to see him included at all.

Everything known about new modes and special edition of WWE 2K15

The first screen of WWE 2K15, tweeted recently by John Cena. The level of detail is astounding.
This is allegedly an in-game screenshot too and not from a pre-rendered cinematic.

With its impending release on October 28, lots of interesting information has been made known recently about WWE 2K15. In addition to new modes and technical specs, info about a special edition of WWE 2K15 was recently released.

The Hulkamania special collector’s edition of WWE 2K15 feature several exclusive in-game characters such as unique Hulk Hogan, Hollywood Hulk Hogan as well as two versions of Sting (blonde, flat-top Sting and “Crow” Sting). I believe that these characters, at least the Sting characters, will be available with a pre-order of the standard game.

However, the Hulkamania edition will net you several other cool extras. Those who purchase the $100 special edition will also receive an art card signed by Hulk Hogan, a piece of the canvas from Monday Night Raw on March 10, 2014 in Memphis TN, as well as a special edition Hollywood Hulk Hogan vinyl figure by Funko. Only 25,000 copies of this special edition will be produced so if you really want one, better pre-order early. This special edition will only be available for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles.

Randy Orton's signature pose recreated in WWE 2K15

There’s a lot of new information about the actual gameplay and modes of WWE 2K15 known now too. This is the second WWE game published by 2K, though WWE 2K14 was largely produced by THQ and only finished and distributed by 2K. WWE 2K15 on the other hand was created from the ground up by 2K, Yuke’s and Visual Concepts and promises to give the series an entirely new look and feel. Compared to the previous title, there has been over five times the amount of animation data recorded for 2K15 which will allow give the Superstars more lifelike movements than ever before. Additionally, over four times the amount of dialogue has been recorded for commentary which should hopefully alleviate hearing the same phrases too often, which has been an issue in the past.

The past two WWE games had introduced spectacular new single player modes – one following the Attitude Era and one highlighting huge matches from each of the 30 Wrestlemania shows. WWE2K15 will have its own such mode, the 2K Showcase, which will focus on popular past rivalries. No rivalries in specific have been mentioned but one could speculate all day that we could see rivalries like Hulk Hogan/Sergeant Slaughter, Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels, Triple H/Rock highlighted in the 2K Showcase. It’s said that the mode will give in-depth details about each rivalry, treating each almost like a mini-documentary.

In addition to the 2K Showcase, a mode called My Career will also be included, which will be exclusive to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game. Not much has been made known about this mode, except that it will allow you follow the career of a user created Superstar through his career in WWE. A mode like this hasn’t been included in a WWE game for several years and it will be interesting to see how the developers plan on implementing methods to keep this mode fresh and interesting to extend replayability. Several articles have compared it to the similar career mode in NBA 2K14, though I couldn’t say how accurate that is, having never played it. No word yet on if Universe mode will return.

I’m pretty excited for WWE 2K15. The series had gotten a bit stale under THQ and it seems like 2K is really trying to inject a lot of life and new ideas with this title. The few released screen shots (posted above) are very impressive and I can’t wait to actually see this game in action. I just hope this title also allows for the ability to upload/download created wrestlers so I can see all my favorite indy stars in glorious high definition competing for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

Evolve delayed to February 2015

Evolve, the hotly-anticipated 4-vs-1 competitive shooter from Turtle Rock Studios, is being delayed until February 2015. The news came earlier this week, not long after a handful of select gamers participated in an alpha testing of the innovative first-person shooter. Evolve originally had a scheduled release date of October 21, 2014 but this delay will push back its release at least another four months.

No specific reason was given for the delay but hopefully the time is being used to add more content and polish the gameplay. Turtle Rock, the studio behind the original Left 4 Dead, is well versed in creating intriguing multiplayer shooters and Evolve promises to be one of the most interesting shooters on the market.

The delay, while unfortunate, doesn’t surprise me too much. They only just did an alpha test of the game, which is meant to be a very preliminary version of the final product. With the original release date a little over two months away, a delay seemed inevitable. On top of that, only two monsters have been revealed so far (Goliath and the Kraken) as well as only 8 hunters (2 variants of the four classes), which would not have been much to justify a full-price purchase. Additionally, I’ve only seen two maps so far.

With Destiny out on September 9 and other big titles like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, The Evil Within and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare around the corner, the delay might also have been to give Evolve’s release a bit of a higher profile, as the time around the holidays is usually jam-packed with new releases while big, new releases after the holidays aren’t as common.