If my time with From Dust has taught me anything, it’s that I’d make an awful God. While my tribesmen continued to scream for help, and the timer ticked down before a massive wave engulfed their village, I was far too busy just playing around. Read the rest of this entry »

NanoBITES captures those small but important morsels of gaming information that otherwise might slip between the cracks.

ITEM! Long awaited car combat reboot Twisted Metal has been delayed. Originally due in October, the action packed PS3 exclusive from developer Eat Sleep Play now has a release window of “early 2012”.

ITEM! Three weeks ago, NSW Attorney General Greg Smith abstained from a vote on an R18+ rating for video games. As reported by the ABC, Smith has since changed his tune, and the concept now enjoys the in principle support of all of the state Attorneys General.

ITEM! Bethesda Softworks has asked Minecraft developer Mojang to rename its forthcoming sophomore effort, currently entitled Scrolls. According a story published by Develop, Bethesda believes the title infringes on its popular Elder Scrolls brand.

ITEM! Beat Hazard Ultra is on its way to the PSN. The colourful twin stick shooter uses music from your own collection to generate environments and enemies. The work of developer Steve Hunt, the game is due for release in September.

ITEM! Downloadable vampire revival BloodRayne: Betrayal is set to miss its August launch. Destructoid has revealed that the latest offering from WayFoward Technologies is now expected on PSN in September and XBLA in October.

Recent instalments of nanoBITES: 04.08.11 l 27.07.11 l 21.07.11 l 14.07.11 l 07.07.11

The world is about to become a little less colourful.

THQ has pulled the plug on its Australian development interests, conceding that 200 jobs will be lost as a result of the closure of its two local studios. As reported by Tsumea, the businesses in question are Blue Tongue Entertainment and THQ Studio Australia. The publisher attributed its “strategic realignment” to a desire to move away “from licensed kids titles and movie based entertainment properties”.

Melbourne based Blue Tongue certainly did produce its share of licensed content, 2009’s Marvel Super Hero Squad being the most recent example. However, it was also responsible for de Blob, a delirious anti-establishment platformer aimed at gamers of all ages. The final project to emerge from the developer was this year’s multiplatform effort de Blob 2. Visitors to Blue Tongue’s website were today greeted with the bittersweet image reproduced above.

Located in Brisbane, THQ Studio Australia produced eight games in as many years, including titles inspired by licenses such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Avatar: The Last Airbender and, most recently, Megamind.

If you were involved with either studio and wish to express a view on these developments, please contact us.

Grasshopper Manufacture clearly isn’t inclined to rest on its laurels. It released Shadows of the Damned in June, announced Lollipop Chainsaw in July and has Codename D due later this year. Now the increasingly prolific studio has unveiled plans to develop a range of titles in collaboration with Digital Reality. The first fruit of the partnership is to be known as Sine Mora.

The developer has described Sine Mora as a horizontal shooter with “unique time manipulation mechanics.” Given that numerous titles already enable us to slow down, speed up and rewind time, it will be interesting to see if there is any new ground left to be broken in this area. If not, we can always rewind to a point in history in which the word “unique” still had some semblance of meaning.

Sine Mora will be coming to XBLA and PSN and will support 3D displays. A release date is yet to be announced.