Hot Coldman
Banned
Welcome the Information Age. We live in a world where the whims of men and women are manipulated not through force, or reason, or love; naught but cold hard fact can stem the tides of conflict. The extremes that people will go to in order to acquire the information they seek is unimaginable. Down that path you will find deceit, betrayal and masquerade. Sometimes, you may even find them all come together, thickening the air with paranoia and conspiracy...
Welcome to Balbonia. A small state in the Caribbean, its waters are currently host to a private yacht, occupied by a number of guests from all across the world. Photographers, preachers, playboys and more, these guests are all high-class, and they're all in the eye of a storm of corporate espionage. The oil company Balboil, and their competitor Explon, are locked in a deadly feud, one which puts the lives of employees on both sides should information fall into the wrong side. With employees from each side hiding in plain sight on the yacht, and both innocent and dangerous third parties also present, tensions are high and the clock is ticking...
Welcome to Velvet Sundown.
Price: Free! (with premium options for expanded scenarios)
Developer/Publisher: Tribe Studios
Platforms: PC and Mac (Steam page)
Genre: ...errrrrr
Players: 4+, online only
I assume I'm not the only one who's really looking forward to Chris Hecker's Spy Party, but if you can't wait until 2044 to play that game, you might like to check this out. Velvet Sundown is a free game released on Steam in the last week, and it sort of works as a weird mix between a MMO role-playing server, LA Noire, the aforementioned Spy Party, and Microsoft Sam. If that sounds like a hot fucking mess, then you'd be right to think that, but it's surprisingly compelling beyond that.
When you enter a game, your player character is selected at random from a selection of about 10 or so avatars. You can walk around the yacht and interact with other players; joining conversations brings up a basic IM-type chat mode, which can accommodate multiple players. As well as talking, the characters each have a fixed "interaction" they can perform with other characters - Malik the new age preacher can bless people with his aura, Linda the celebrity photographer can snap pics of people... However, these interactions are more of a mask for the real objective.
Each player is given an allegiance, usually for one of the two energy companies, Balboil and Explon. The characters working as agents have the goal of acquiring pieces of data to scupper their rivals' plans and protect their own schemes. However, you have no idea who is working for who on the surface, so you'll need to determine the allegiance of your fellow passengers through subtle interrogation and persuasion. Some players will be neutral third-parties, looking to avert potential disaster - others will be looking to make an easy buck, gathering the data and selling it off for personal gain. (These players usually carry a taser. Be careful.)
Rounds have a ~25 minute time limit, so you've got to work fast to determine who's on "your side", who is working for the enemy, who is a threat and who might be willing to co-operate. These might not be exactly what you'd expect - those you'd call enemies may be willing to work together in secret, and those you can trust may not be so committed to the cause... Oh, and the game uses voice tech similar to Tomodachi Life, so just because someone isn't in your conversation doesn't mean they can't hear you. Stay vigilant!
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It's a weirdly enticing game. For all the janky animations, some of the frankly bizarre flavour text (try toasting with someone sometime) and the current lack of variety in terms of scenarios, the basic concept of forming partnerships and trying to persuade players into giving you what you need is super compelling. What's more, people actually play it pretty much on-point. There's very little dicking about or people asking to cyber or anything you might expect - people are definitely in there giving the game a proper shot, playing their roles (without being too into it - "I put on my robe and wizard hat" this is not) and genuinely not screwing around too much. At least, that's my experience with it.
It definitely suffers from a lack of variety - the boat is the only level, at least for free users. The game has a paid subscription model which will give you access to more scenarios, but I'm unclear on what actually changes in these so far. I assume Tribe will be adding more scenarios as they go, but who knows! Graphically it's slightly bunk too, but I'm not entirely sure that matters too much. It'll definitely run on almost any machine.
It's interesting to play a game so utterly reliant on freeform human interaction that doesn't feel restricted, embraces anonymity (Steam usernames are hidden until the end of the game) and that people are actually taking seriously. It's possibly the world's first competitive talk-'em-up. It's far from perfect but it's definitely worth a go.
Videos
Launch trailer
Giant Bomb Premium Stream (Quick Look up on Monday)
There's like a million Let's Play videos on YouTube, of course
Welcome to Balbonia. A small state in the Caribbean, its waters are currently host to a private yacht, occupied by a number of guests from all across the world. Photographers, preachers, playboys and more, these guests are all high-class, and they're all in the eye of a storm of corporate espionage. The oil company Balboil, and their competitor Explon, are locked in a deadly feud, one which puts the lives of employees on both sides should information fall into the wrong side. With employees from each side hiding in plain sight on the yacht, and both innocent and dangerous third parties also present, tensions are high and the clock is ticking...
Welcome to Velvet Sundown.
Price: Free! (with premium options for expanded scenarios)
Developer/Publisher: Tribe Studios
Platforms: PC and Mac (Steam page)
Genre: ...errrrrr
Players: 4+, online only
I assume I'm not the only one who's really looking forward to Chris Hecker's Spy Party, but if you can't wait until 2044 to play that game, you might like to check this out. Velvet Sundown is a free game released on Steam in the last week, and it sort of works as a weird mix between a MMO role-playing server, LA Noire, the aforementioned Spy Party, and Microsoft Sam. If that sounds like a hot fucking mess, then you'd be right to think that, but it's surprisingly compelling beyond that.
When you enter a game, your player character is selected at random from a selection of about 10 or so avatars. You can walk around the yacht and interact with other players; joining conversations brings up a basic IM-type chat mode, which can accommodate multiple players. As well as talking, the characters each have a fixed "interaction" they can perform with other characters - Malik the new age preacher can bless people with his aura, Linda the celebrity photographer can snap pics of people... However, these interactions are more of a mask for the real objective.
Each player is given an allegiance, usually for one of the two energy companies, Balboil and Explon. The characters working as agents have the goal of acquiring pieces of data to scupper their rivals' plans and protect their own schemes. However, you have no idea who is working for who on the surface, so you'll need to determine the allegiance of your fellow passengers through subtle interrogation and persuasion. Some players will be neutral third-parties, looking to avert potential disaster - others will be looking to make an easy buck, gathering the data and selling it off for personal gain. (These players usually carry a taser. Be careful.)
Rounds have a ~25 minute time limit, so you've got to work fast to determine who's on "your side", who is working for the enemy, who is a threat and who might be willing to co-operate. These might not be exactly what you'd expect - those you'd call enemies may be willing to work together in secret, and those you can trust may not be so committed to the cause... Oh, and the game uses voice tech similar to Tomodachi Life, so just because someone isn't in your conversation doesn't mean they can't hear you. Stay vigilant!
----------------------------------------------
It's a weirdly enticing game. For all the janky animations, some of the frankly bizarre flavour text (try toasting with someone sometime) and the current lack of variety in terms of scenarios, the basic concept of forming partnerships and trying to persuade players into giving you what you need is super compelling. What's more, people actually play it pretty much on-point. There's very little dicking about or people asking to cyber or anything you might expect - people are definitely in there giving the game a proper shot, playing their roles (without being too into it - "I put on my robe and wizard hat" this is not) and genuinely not screwing around too much. At least, that's my experience with it.
It definitely suffers from a lack of variety - the boat is the only level, at least for free users. The game has a paid subscription model which will give you access to more scenarios, but I'm unclear on what actually changes in these so far. I assume Tribe will be adding more scenarios as they go, but who knows! Graphically it's slightly bunk too, but I'm not entirely sure that matters too much. It'll definitely run on almost any machine.
It's interesting to play a game so utterly reliant on freeform human interaction that doesn't feel restricted, embraces anonymity (Steam usernames are hidden until the end of the game) and that people are actually taking seriously. It's possibly the world's first competitive talk-'em-up. It's far from perfect but it's definitely worth a go.
Videos
Launch trailer
Giant Bomb Premium Stream (Quick Look up on Monday)
There's like a million Let's Play videos on YouTube, of course
Excuse the cheesy banner. Literally everything about this game's presentation feels like a bad 80s soap opera/porno so I felt it was appropriate. And yes, I know it's spelt "senator"!
